Dojo Newsletter

BEING UKE, BEING THERE.......................by Jerry Zimmerman

One of the most important and difficult roles to understand in training in aikido is the role of “attacker”, or uke.

 When I began studying aikido at New York Aikikai, I spent many years asking my sempai how I should attack, how strong should I attack and how “real” should I attack. There never seemed to be a simple answer, but after many years of being uke and teaching others how to be uke, I think I can offer some guidelines.

The art of aikido is a study of the relationship of energies. In the beginning, however, it is simply learning how to attack someone and how to defend myself from someone. As a new student, I first have to learn what each attack is and how to bring it to nage; as nage, I have to learn the steps and rhythyms of movement to get out of the way and to redirect the attack. Not so simple, and soon after beginning to get the hang of these basic moves, one discovers that there are many factors involved in moving from the basics to more developed training.

At this point in training, one begins to see that there are many complications that arise in the nage-uke relationship: one partner is much bigger than the other partner, one partner is much stronger than the other, one partner has skills from a different martial art, one partner doesn’t want to attack with enough energy, one partner wants to attack with too much energy, one partner is very macho, one partner is worried about getting hurt or hurting someone, etc., etc.

What to do? This was my question in my early years of study. In trying to be a good uke or attacker, I often had complaints from my nages that I was hitting too hard or going too fast or not going fast enough or not striking or grabbing with enough strength!

It became apparent to me that the problem was not in how to attack correctly but in how to attack each particular nage correctly. The point of partners practice is to develop your skills by practicing what you have learned and moving slightly ahead of your skills by training against your uke’s ever more energetic attacks. Uke needs to atttack at nage’s skill level and then gently ratchet it up a notch or two when nage is ready to move along.

OK, great, but how do you know what nage’s skill is and when he or she needs a stronger attack? This is the crux of the question, and, not surprisingly, since aikido is an amazingly omniscient training, the answer is basically what aikido is all about. Getting back to my first point about the relationship of energies, the more developed your training, the more developed your awareness of the relationship between you and the person in front of you. You must try to carefully gauge your role as uke according to the energy of the nage before you. Your mental, emotional and physical energy should be geared to engaging in a lively and active encounter that will instruct and challenge your partner, not overwhelm nor underwhelm him or her.

I know.....easier said then done. But the very act of being attentive to the problem will help you become a terrific uke, and this in turn will be an example for your partners, who will soon be better ukes for you.

Hal Lehrman Sensei, in one of his trademark off-hand nuggets of wisdom, once said in my dojo, “When you train with someone, they should go home feeling that they had the best training experience ever!”

This is what we want for everyone, everyday.

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