NGAExperience® Nihon Goshin Aikido

Using Ukemi as a Warm Up Exercise

One of the nice things about learning soft ukemi is the ability to control our training to fit every pace of play.


We can certainly have the crash and burn version of the Spin Around, but we can also do it softly, allowing uke to take an easy fall or just stretch his back out ~ as part of a warm-up or dare I say, “connection” exercise.


See the video below (which should be on auto play), and notice how uke is softly guided by a technique driven nage.

You are much more likely to injure yourself in the dojo (trying to train without proper ukemi skills)  than you are ever likely to be be involved in a self-defense situation.

For this reason alone, good ukemi skills are of vital importance, and need to be encouraged.

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One Final Observation:  Keep in mind that good ukemi skills involve more than simply falling down smoothly!  In fact, it might be safe to say that the last thing uke does is fall down ~ after he has provided the proper attack, followed nage’s lead appropriately, maintained connection with nage, and then attempted to reverse and/or recover.  Only then, after all those tasks, does uke fall down, and then he tries to get back up.

As the uke nage connection tightens, and as uke becomes better at this slow application of his forward and backward rolls, the pace of training and the intensity of the technique can be accelerated ~ and seems to accelerate naturally.


Important Point:  Even though they are working slowly, look how many repetitions they get in such a short period of time.


I really like this training modality.

Tim McNeal and Will Robinson working on Ukemi Nage (co-operative and technique driven warm up exercises)

Spice up your ukemi warm ups!  Variety is a good thing.  Here are 50 ukemi drills ~ all of them demonstrated in a single 7 minute video.  


This is a great video to use as a reference in order to spice up your ukemi training.


The variety presented in this training video is very intriguing.

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