To summarize, we learn how to fall effectively by taking real falls. Real falls happen when we lose balance and when we don't see it coming which instills a sense of fear. The issue with taking real falls from real throws is that it can be dangerous, thus we remove the most dangerous factor which is adding mass onto the throw. The easiest way to do that is to remove the possibility for Tori to drive their weight down or landing on top of Uke (e.g. BJJ sweeps). From there we slowly scale up the intensity of the throws which should be correlated with scaling up the fear of falling that the student is exhibiting via how stiff they are, whether they are holding their breath and whether they reach for the ground. I also attempt to explain the physics of a fall and why ukemi works, and why some falls suck more than others.
I’ve demonstrated that there is no need to do the traditional ukemi drills of slapping the mat, or rolling backwards and slapping the floor repetitively. There is also no need to learn how to do zenpo kaiten ukemi before taking Judo throws (Though I still think its a good idea to get them to learn it eventually).
The goal of the series is to show that this is all possible and safe, and it vastly increases the retention rate of students compared to making them do this for the first month. Other than that, the ukemi skills are acquired and retained at a much faster pace.
The class video portions also gives an introduction to the Constraints Led Approach (CLA) to skill acquisition and how important it is to adjust constraints on the fly depending on what behaviors you see emerge in your room. A lot of the talking portions can be truncated and replaced with just more game time, but I’ve found that adults tends to want to know why they are doing something and how it works which leads to increase in retention rates.
This is the last part of the Ukemi series, if there are any questions or comments, you can leave a comment here or send me a DM on instagram. Also if you’re interested in a new series on how I use Ecological Approach to teach Judo throws leave a comment below.