Falling

"In Aikido, falling does not mean losing," the late Cottier Sensei taught me very early on.  "If you need to, just sit down, take a roll and get back up."

"Falls" are often translated as "ukemi" in Japanese.  Yet, "Ukemi" (literally "receiving body") is a lot more than just falling.  The late Henry Kono Sensei used to say ukemi is the essence and the most difficult part of Aikido. 

"It is an active act of self preservation,' Takeguchi Sensei says.  Ukemi may involves multiple different moves, including falling.  And within falling, there are so many ways to go down to the mat, depending on the situation and application.  Falls can be complicated, and ukemi is definitely an art.

Cottier Sensei liked to tell a story of how rolling saved him in South Africa.  He was in a hurry and did what everybody should know not to do: run beside the hotel pool.  Like a movie stunt, he slipped, flipped and became airborne.  Luckily, Sensei was a good Aikido student.  He rolled himself into a ball shape, stayed relaxed and let gravity bring him back to planet Earth.  He landed with a giant bang that shook the crowd.  He got a few bruises from hitting the concrete pool deck.  Yet, he did not hurt his head, broke no bones and did not injury any vital organs.  

I did a similar flip when I stepped out of my office in the midst of one deep winter.  Unbeknownst to me, underneath the door mat on the front stoop was a thin layer of ice.  As I stepped outside to fetch the mail, I slid and did a major flip mid air and landed on my back.  

Like some kind of miracle, the Aikido inside of me managed to fit my body inside this tiny landing with the back of my neck just touching the edge of the door step, one leg between the two rails of the fence facing the door, and the other leg straight up, pointing up at the sky.  

It all happened so fast.  It could not have been more than a second.  Feeling the cold front step on my neck, I lied there panting in disbelief.  "Had I landed just half an inch lower, I could have seriously injured my neck.  I could have been paralyzed . . . " 😰  I thought to myself while staring at the glaringly blue cloudless sky.  

The mailman happened to have witnessed the whole thing.  "Wow!  That was a cool move!  How did you do that?" he asked. 😮

I did not answer his question because I was at a loss myself.  "There is not even enough room for me to get up from this position.  How did I fit into this space within a flash?"  I was scrambling to find a way to retrieve myself from this odd spatial puzzle before I got froze bite.

Another time, I was removing bamboo plants that were trying to invade our garden by creeping up a slope.  I must have stepped on a bamboo stump when I felt a sharp pain in my ankle.  Instead of insisting on standing back up on my hurting foot, I lowered my body in order to regain my balance.  As a matter of unfortunate coincidence, I shifted my weight to a spot where a piece of bamboo was sticking out from the ground.  Its sharp tip was right under my butt!  Without seeing it, though, as soon as my skin felt the poke, my body sought to move away to avoid the sharp point.  It was a few awkward, uncomfortable steps, but I managed to escape the bamboo skewer.  By the time I could examine myself, I found that not only had the bamboo snatched and tore my denim overalls, but it had also gouged my skin.  If not for Aikido, I would not have had the same sensitivity.  I would not know how to shift my weight.  I could have been pierced by a sharp piece of bamboo through my groin at a location where nobody could see me.  I could have bled out and died there.

Most Aikido beginners instinctively resist the idea of falling.  They stumble.  They push against the ground with their hands.  They have no idea they are risking falling on their face/ the back of their head, and that they may break their wrists/ elbows/ shoulders because they are beginners.  They are not alone.  Many experienced students still resist going down on the mat -- both as nage and uke.  One of my current project is to coach a student out of the habit of bringing his fall to a screeching halt by tightening his body, as soon as his back touches the mat.  Why would he rather endure the repeated whiplash on his neck than to dissipate the energy by simply allowing his body to rock on the mat?  What is that insistence about???  What is so repugnant about being down on the mat?  What is so repulsive about rocking on your back?

While it is fun and nice to be able to throw, knowing how to fall and take ukemi teaches you even more about Aikido.  Plus, those skills can be your best friends in a dangerous situation.

In nature, everything falls because nobody can fight gravity.  Gravity is a big, essential part of nature.  Rather than resisting gravity and risk getting hurt, embrace nature and learn its way.  Sit down, rock, tumble and get back up.