The UKE Thread

[Hardball]

Do you trust your Tori? Are there certain people at your dojo that you just don't Uke for? At my old school we had this one Black belt who had a bad hip--he never Uke'd but when time for a throw he would slam the hell out of me. LOL. What gives? There is an unwritten rule for uke. How hard you slam me; that's how hard I'm gonna slam you. What's your best UKE story?

[DickHardman]

one time i choked out a brown belt in judo in newaza, so he picked me to be his uke right after and when he hip tossed me he made sure to land right on top of my chest

[Hardball]

You can do better than that. Give us something hardcore.

[ciscodog]

Sparring with a 2nd Dan, and took a spinning back kick to my right side ribs. We square of again he throws the same kick, i check, and catch his nose as his head is turning to look at his target. It was like slow motion watching his nose flatten out. I found out later my ribs were cracked. Every time i laughed, coughed, or breathed for 6 weeks i thought of him.

[aseepish]

Tom also sent one of my former classmates to the ER for some stitches from an over-enthusiastic elbow. "I'm not known for my control" is what he said at the time.

[Thai Bri]

Personally I see that as a fookin liberty. You offer yourself up to help someone demo something, and then they hurt you.

There's a whole macho sub culture too, where the hurt guy is required to pretend that he doesn't mind, and that he is tough enough to take it.

Someone does that to me? I'll ask him to show me the move again, and then I'll cave his fookin face in.

I'm a friendly guy!

As an aside, I used to hate some of the guys in my Shukokai days. We used to hold these tough foam pads against our chests for each other to hit. It fookin hurt!

So you'd hold them for your partner whilst he batted the crap out of you. But, when it was his turn to hold? Why, he'd need to "go to the toilet" or something. Next session, I'd always insist on going first.

I remember inviting a guy I knew from another forum round to my home to train. I let him get me into some complicated neck lock, a move that he would have never got on if I was resisiting. He then said "Are you ready?" and cranked my fookin neck. I kicked his fat arse out.

In my sparring days there was this guy who always wanted to go in slow motion. He reckoned it was good to develop "control." But, of course, he'd then whip these fast kicks into your head. How he complained when I punched him in the gob.

[Piston]

I was at a training session for a charity fight night and the fella I'm sparring with tried to rush in and blitz so I front kicked him in the head flooring him. About 2 weeks later I see him at a grading and he tells me I cracked his eye socket. To this fellas credit he didn't pursue me me about it legally, or even seemed pissed off.

[Hardball]

Sparring with a 2nd Dan, and took a spinning back kick to my right side ribs. We square of again he throws the same kick, i check, and catch his nose as his head is turning to look at his target. It was like slow motion watching his nose flatten out. I found out later my ribs were cracked. Every time i laughed, coughed, or breathed for 6 weeks i thought of him.

What's your rank? Sounds like you could use a chest protector.

[Hardball]

Paul Vunak's "Attributes III" (or maybe it was IV) video shoot. I was demonstrating "Vu Scale" sparring with Tom Cruse when he raked his dirty-ass thumbnails right across my corneas. Stuck his thumbs right under my closed eyelids and ripped me across the eyeballs on camera. I wanted to stay tough and finish the scene, and the end result actually made the final cut. The tough part, however, was questionable. I froze, trying for all I was worth not to show the blinding pain (and fear of permanent eyeball damage) I was in. I ended up tucking my head instead of keeping my head back, and Tom stroked me across the top of the skull with an elbow before tossing me to the ground and I think arm barring me. It's not the worst I've been hurt as an uke, but it's the only one that ended up on mass produced video for the whole damned world to see.

I normally wear googles when doing anything around my eyes.

[Hardball]

Personally I see that as a fookin liberty. You offer yourself up to help someone demo something, and then they hurt you.

There's a whole macho sub culture too, where the hurt guy is required to pretend that he doesn't mind, and that he is tough enough to take it.

Someone does that to me? I'll ask him to show me the move again, and then I'll cave his fookin face in.

I'm a friendly guy!

As an aside, I used to hate some of the guys in my Shukokai days. We used to hold these tough foam pads against our chests for each other to hit. It fookin hurt!

So you'd hold them for your partner whilst he batted the crap out of you. But, when it was his turn to hold? Why, he'd need to "go to the toilet" or something. Next session, I'd always insist on going first.

I remember inviting a guy I knew from another forum round to my home to train. I let him get me into some complicated neck lock, a move that he would have never got on if I was resisiting. He then said "Are you ready?" and cranked my fookin neck. I kicked his fat arse out.

In my sparring days there was this guy who always wanted to go in slow motion. He reckoned it was good to develop "control." But, of course, he'd then whip these fast kicks into your head. How he complained when I punched him in the gob.

Too Funny dude!!!

[Hardball]

Just last night, I was uke for what was supposed to be a De Ashi Foot Sweep. Don't ask me how, but I ended up getting hit in the Jaw with a blunt body part (ridge hand or back hand). Now they call me IronJaw. LOL

[gregimotis]

Lately I've taken up a Judo/Ju-Jitsu class. Most of the students are new-ish and one of them is going to have to learn about taking care of Uke.

I guess I'm going to explain it to him nicely first, so he knows why he's getting slammed later. He's one the those guys, though - doesn't understand the relationship between 'I hit you' and 'you hit me'.

[dogzilla]

what the hell means uke? tell me so i can understand the topic

[Thai Bri]

In Japanese arts they refer to Tori as the attacker and Uke as the defender in set pieces.

You know, like if we have a class were I attack you with a high punch, and you defend with some silly block and counter..... then you are the Uke.

Mind you, I never met a Tori in real life who told me what he was going to do and waited until I was ready. But that's another story!

[Hardball]

In Judo/Jujitsu tori needs someone to practice his throw or takedown on. Uke is the one being thrown or taken down. Sometimes it can result in a brutal takedown or throw if you are not on good terms with Tori. Like Thai Bri implied, you need to trust your tori because uke normally does not resist.