The term uke is used in Japanese martial arts for a training partner who receives techniques while the tori is defined as the training partner who applies techniques. Generally ukes are available at any practitioner's disposal regardless of rank. There tends to be a deficit of good ukes for advanced students, who often need to fine tune their abilities and update their skills. This is seldom an easy task and it is exceptionally hard when a practitioner gets to a certain point after blue belt, where there are so many techniques to learn and practice. It's one thing for low rank students to be subjected to mediocre attacks on the mat but it's hardly an option for high-ranking students to be subjected to anything less than the resemblance of an actual street attack, where offense is projected from chaotic energy. Without this resemblance, a jiu-jitsu student's training has much distortion and questions are often raised regarding the significance of their rank. Since the mechanics of an attack have many variables, good ukes are imperative for quality training.
Six Most Important Types of Ukes
The variations that exist in working with training partners don't always appear simultaneously on the mat. It is the responsibility of students to simulate any possibilities and work out the variables on any given week of training. Japanese Jiu-Jitsu is known as an art that has no reliance on a person's size, strength or flexibility. This leaves training horizons for students to gain familiarity in adjusting their defense skills to potential attackers of different body types, mechanics and degrees of harm. Since the physicality of a jiu-jitsu practitioner only works at his/her ability, students must work with ukes that are either bigger or smaller, taller or shorter, faster or slower, stronger or weaker and passive or aggressive in order to develop a sound ability to improvise during a fight.
Chaotic Energy of the Tori
On the mat in most cases, students are expected to train realistically but safely. The fine line between safety and reality can be thick or thin depending on the experience levels of the two students who work together. The more realistically a student unleashes an attack, the more chaotic energy becomes evident and the more it resembles a real-world street offense. After all, an attack given on the street will be done with sheer intent, force and little or no remorse to inflict great harm on another person. The comfort level of students in dealing with chaotic energy on the mat will vary depending on their confidence and level of experience. A core aspect of martial arts training is developing conditioned responses. Technically how a person trains dictates how that person will fight in matters of self-defense. A strike or grab that is executed by a group of ukes drawn from all of the aforementioned six variables, provides the necessary differentiated training to sharpen the defense mechanisms of the tori.
Concern Levels for Uke Safety
Japanese Jiu-Jitsu happens to be an art that relies heavily on establishing close contact with another person and without training partners, learning sensibilities become obsolete. There often comes the question regarding how far would someone actually go to defend themselves. It is a question that has no easy answer; especially if training experiences have never been extended to environments beyond the dojo grounds. The training of minds, bodies and spirits in environments where there is no sensei, no gi, no colored belt and no familiar faces, is the most important yet most unrealized aspect for many martial artists. As a person's training goes on for even just a few years, that person gets accustomed to dealing with the line where realistic defensive energy is exerted while the uke remains relatively safe from any serious injury. Typically, high-ranking students develop varied conditioned responses and movements which may or may not seek a balance between soft and hard techniques. As ukes, low rank students get a feel for attacking and receiving someone's network of defense just as all other students but to a much lesser degree of aggression for their protection.
Uke Selections for Belt Promotions
Naturally students will push to promote to their next rank when they have reached proficiency in the techniques delegated to their current rank. When it comes to picking a particular uke for a belt promotion, the process is at its easiest for low rank students, who often have a selection of more experienced students to choose from. High rank students on the other hand, have more of a challenge in finding a suitable uke since the population of students ranking above them are much smaller and they ideally need someone who will attack realistically and receive techniques done in a manner that reflects reactions in real-world street defense as much as possible. An uke may be considered not just by rank alone but someone of similar body mechanics or someone within the six variables of attackers.
In time as students gain more experience, they will notice either an occasional or permanent deficit of good ukes. Good ukes who truly understand the fine line between aesthetics and reality are hard to come to by and students who really want to make progress, will encounter frustrations and uncertainties with their training; especially when Japanese Jiu-Jitsu requires constant practice with people whose appearances and degrees of attack come in different forms, shapes and sizes. Poor training ethics and attendance frequencies of fellow students will distract the potential of quality training for any student who really wants to confirm and augment their progress under each rank they achieve. As long as students keep the extensive variables of attack in mind, the consideration will set the standards for how they help each other out with their individual journeys as jiu-jitsu practitioners.
JP Alvarez - JP Alvarez, writer of poetry, drama, and non-fiction, resides in Bronx, New York. He currently works in the field of education as a ...
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