Repairing Uke

Yesterday, I got fed up and expressed that frustration here. Today, I want to think about some of those complaints and try to find more practical responses.

One of my most common frustrations and one of the greatest detriments to productive training is an uke who doesn't understand their role. An uke is not a punching bag or piece of exercise equipment. Uke is practicing aikido as much as tori. In fact, if uke fails to grasp their role and to behave in an aiki way, then they are hindering their own progress as well as tori's.

Here are some of the most common and easily repaired uke deficiencies:

1. Strikes that miss the target.
2. Strikes that try to predict where tori will go and then beat him there.
3. Grabs that make no effort to take control of tori.
4. Unresponsive uke who attack half-heartedly then fade into a dull lump, waiting for tori to drag them around like a sack of potatoes.
5. Uke who attack then go stiff, fiercely resisting like a piece of statuary.

Now I want to take these one by one and look at how these behaviors damage practice.

Strikes that miss the target. A huge piece of aikido is learning to calmly read uke's intent, energy and direction. When uke throws a strike that misses and tori responds, tori is practicing to react to non-threats. Tori needs to be learning how to distinguish between legitimate and ineffectual attacks. Likewise, if tori has to reach or otherwise distort his technique to capture the wayward punch or kick, then tori is practicing bad form.

Strikes that try to predict where tori will go and then beat him there. Sometimes uke will predict (consciously or unconsciously) where tori will move to and then aims his strike there. This is a cheat. Of course uke can predict this. Both uke and tori know what uke's attack and tori's response will be. It's a cooperative practice. This sort of behavior serves no purpose. And the same goes for tori. Tori should not try to get a head start on uke, executing technique before the attack is fully committed.

Grabs that make no effort to take control of tori. This behavior is of the same kind as strikes that miss or fall short. There is no real reason to respond to them. Also, uke is offering no commitment of energy and therefore performing technique will be that much harder. It is more likely that tori will have to supply the energy to get things moving and in doing so will wind up practicing something other than aikido.

It's like a game of catch. If you throw, I catch. If you don't throw, I can't catch. I come over to you and take the ball from you, but that is not catch anymore.

Unresponsive uke who attack half-heartedly then fade into a dull lump, waiting for tori to drag them around like a sack of potatoes. This is really just another version of the last issue, except that here uke strikes and then stops, standing in one place and waiting passively for tori to 'do' the technique. This is a mistake. In aikido we train to constantly follow the flow of the other person - it doesn't matter whether you are currently uke or tori. Also, it is not tori's job to 'do' the technique. Uke picks the attack and therefore uke picks the technique by his response to tori's initial body movement. If uke has no response then there really isn't any technique or least no need for one.

Uke who attack then go stiff, fiercely resisting like a piece of statuary. This is just the flip side of the last problem. When uke goes stiff and locks down it is true that tori will struggle to move him. It is also true that uke will not be able to move himself. If uke can't move, there is no conflict of energy to resolve and no point standing around on the mat.

In order for uke to attack, uke has to move. To move, he must flow. He can't stiffen up. When uke moves with committed intention toward tori, tori has the chance to blend with that intention and follow the path of least resistance, redirecting uke's energy, upsetting uke's balance and finally allowing uke a place to fall.