the ukemi sushi roll

The delicious ukemi sushi roll? Well, not quite. Although the ukemi is a roll brought to us from Japan, it's not a sushi roll. Ukemi is the Japanese word to mean a controlled falling of the body, which encompasses rolling.

The ukemi style of rolling is safer than a gymnastics roll and is taught in Aikido and Parkour. Unlike a gymnastic roll, you don't roll on the spine from head to tailbone. This is dangerous on hard surfaces. In an ukemi, you roll diagonally on a soft tissue pathway from the back of your shoulder to the opposite hip, and there is a rebounding from the ground.

To easily roll, curl your body like a ball (or a sushi roll). Tuck in your chin and tilt your head so that you're looking under the armpit of the opposite side of the shoulder you're rolling on.

The video below demonstrates an Aikido mae ukemi (forward roll) and a ushiro ukemi (back roll). When learning a movement, research it thoroughly. Helpful for me were also these videos found in youtube: Ryan Doyle's Parkour Tutorial Roll, LaFlair Parkour's Parkour Roll Tutorial, and Amos Rendao's series on the Roll Tutorial -- Parkour Ukemi.

We document and share a catalog of movements. This blog and the videos are for entertainment purposes only. Please seek guidance from a certified instructor to be sure you move with proper biomechanics and safety.

Aikido Ukemi: Meeting the Mat

photo of sushi by Stacey Spensley, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons