06/17/2026
Teaching is a skill, too.
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I recently got more attention than I expected after posting a short video showing myself pausing in the middle of a few front rolls. As this has been my most over-interpreted video to date, I thought it would be fun to address some of the comments.
First, the backstory.
While teaching a seminar in Tucson, AZ, in 2012, I was explaining that ukemi is not a loss of control, but a continuation of kamae. To illustrate the point, I did an extremely slow forward roll and, somewhat accidentally, discovered that I could balance upside down in something resembling Ichimonji and stay there while I talked.
Since then, I've used this many times as a teaching tool.
While this balancing method is certainly a skill, it is not ukemi. It's closer to a yoga shoulder stand than a roll. In order to pause, I have to move slowly enough to balance. This is not a slowed-down version of something that can be done at full speed. There is no such thing as pausing at full speed.
A few compromises are made to achieve the pause, and those compromises seem to be the source of most of the comments. I'll address the main ones below. I've also included some clips of myself rolling normally for anyone who wishes to critique my actual ukemi.
The first concern was about the hands.
Some commenters seemed alarmed that I was placing my hands on the ground while entering the roll. I was even told that children would be harmed by seeing someone gently place their hands on the ground while leaning onto a shoulder. This is, of course, a bit silly.
No, I do not try to support my full body weight with my hands. The purpose of the hands is to guide the body safely into the correct trajectory so that the upper back—not the head, neck, or shoulder—becomes the first weight-bearing point of contact.
We learn this first with two hands, then one, then the other, and finally without the hands at all. Avoiding the hands entirely is, in my view, an incomplete understanding of the skill.
The second concern was about my head touching the ground.
This one is simple. What I practice, and what I teach, is that the head should never touch the ground during ukemi. Ideally, there should be at least a few centimeters of clearance to account for errors and the increased forces involved at speed, and this should be achieved with a neutral neck position whenever possible.
My rule of thumb is that if your head touches the ground while moving slowly, it will hit the ground when moving quickly.
The reason my head rests on the ground during the pause roll is that it helps me balance while I talk. The point is not the pause itself. The point is simply that, even while upside down, we pass through a kind of kamae. That's all I'm demonstrating. I don't ask students to practice the pause; it exists purely as a teaching aid.
The third concern was about how my feet land.
If I understood correctly, the criticism was that I should always come onto the ball of the foot rather than the instep. When rolling normally, I generally do. When moving extremely slowly, however, I often use the instep because there is insufficient momentum to carry smoothly through the transition, and trying to come onto the ball of the foot can turn the foot into a lever against the knee, creating unnecessary torque in the joint.
At normal speed or faster, I prefer the ball of the foot. When moving slowly, when a knee is irritated, or when dealing with a different surface, I may choose differently.
Neither method is universally correct. Control is correct.
Just as we receive techniques, we should receive the ground we are actually meeting. Being unable to adapt your ukemi to different conditions is no different from being unable to moderate it and avoid flipping yourself through the air every time someone touches you.
Taijutsu is the art of being appropriate, and the number of situations is unbounded. Train in a variety of circumstances and discover what is natural in each.
What fascinated me most about the feedback was not the technical criticism itself, but the process that produced it. In every case, the criticism depended on a mistaken assumption about what was being demonstrated. People saw something, decided immediately what it was, and then judged it accordingly.
That strikes me as a far more important lesson than anything about rolling.
We should be careful not to mistake our first interpretation for reality, especially when we have very little information. We should strive to avoid becoming people who act quickly on assumptions formed quickly and based on almost nothing. That is the truly dangerous habit.
So allow me to make one final point:
Teaching is a skill, too.
Many of the videos I post are clips of me teaching or experimenting with movement in my own training. None of them are demonstrations of "real" combat. And if you are unable to tell the difference, that should concern you far more than any shortcomings you believe you've found in my technique.
Enjoy your training, and keep going!
