Read JOURNEY - on Mastering Ukemi for Free Online

you could take that fall. Now I know that it was all merely a bit of tumbling, like a circus acrobat, just for show and also damn hard on the body. What a waste.
    When a sensei throws an uke and he takes a big, high fall; when he smacks the mat and makes all that noise; it’s really just for the sensei’s ego. Most competent ukes can roll out of nearly any throw that they are moved into. Not all, of course, but about ninety-nine percent more than are generally rolled out of. Then why do they choose to fall hard? It’s because the teacher likes all that noise. He likes the way it looks and feels to have someone crash loudly to the floor when he is thrown. And the uke that does it loudest and best gets called for the demonstration. What utter crap.
    Is this a conscious thing? I don’t know. But over time a person who can roll out of every throw is used less and less for demonstrations and a person who takes bigger and higher break falls gets used more and more. Is it a conscious decision on the teacher’s part? Who knows? I am aware of it and that is all that is important to me. I ask my students to take big break falls only when I want to impress a visitor for some damn reason. Otherwise I insist that they take them only when necessary. Years ago when this art first began the students prided themselves on being able to roll away out of any fall. It wasn’t until the young, 30 year-old rokudans started to teach, guys like Chiba and Yamada and Saotome that their egos required all that noise.
     
    So when I walked into class about a half hour late one evening and saw and heard everyone in the dojo doing high falls from kote-gaishi , a technique that only fools take a high fall from, I might have over-reacted.
    “ What is going on?” I asked. My body language was probably a lot less ambiguous than my tone. I stood in the open doorway with my hands on my hips, feet splayed apart and head cocked forward and to the right just enough so that I could raise one eyebrow up and still keep them level. Not that I’ve ever practiced that look in front of a mirror, or anything. “What are you doing? Erik?”
    “ Tsuki kote-gaishi, Sensei.” Erik said.
    “ Not that. I can see that. What’s with the break falls? You know I hate break falls.”
    “ Well,” he began, “Christian said he needed some hard training to work some tension out. Finals are over and he got his M.B.A. from Rollins College. He’s finished.”
    “ Really!”
    “ I haven’t had anyone doing anything from a hard fall in months so I figured why not do it for one class. Is that a problem?” Erik is really a good teacher who could easily handle having his own dojo.
    “ No, of course not. I was just surprised,” I said.
    “ Are you taking over, Sensei?” he asked.
    “ Yeah, I am. Attention on Deck,” I shouted.
    They rushed to the side of the mat to line up and I then bowed the class in. We trained for an hour and I then bowed the class out. As I was leaving the mat Christian came over and said that he would like to talk to me after we changed back into normal clothes. I said I would be back out in a bit and went into my house to shower and dress.
     
    I heard Christian talking to my wife as I came out of the bedroom. She sounded excited and he was rambling on about something that was causing her to laugh out loud.
    “ Hey,” I said, “want a beer? Honey, did Christian tell you he graduated from Rollins?” I headed into the dining room and the bar. After drawing two tall ones I went back into my wife’s office and handed one to Christian. “To your M.B.A.!” I said.
    Laurie said, “Christian has a surprise for you.”
    “ I don’t like surprises,” I said.
    “ Yes, you do,” she said.
    “ No, I don’t. Whatever, what is it?”
    “ And I want you to know I’m jealous and envious and no matter, I want you to do it,” she said.
    “ Do what?” I asked, getting more concerned.
    “ Sensei, I got a present from my family for graduation.