The "ukemis" and judo practitioner: meaning, importance, enjoyment and discomfort

Resumen

The objective this study was to investigate the opinion of Judo athletes on the meaning, importance, enjoyment and discomfort (physical and psychological) of “ukemis”, and also about the materials used for different types of practice. Eighty-six Judo athletes were interviewed at competitions during 2001 in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil,. The mean age of subjects was 21.59 ± 6.49 years. The results demonstrated that the sample: is heterogeneous in terms of how long they practice Judo for and homogeneous in judo grade (belt color, etc.). The performance of these subjects was very good during the last two years. They didn’t have a clear idea of the meaning and important of “ukemis” in Judo. The Judo athletes preferred synthetic tatamis to train “nage-waza” and competition and traditional tatamis to train “katame-waza”. Discomfort when practicing “ukemis” was independent of the enjoyment and of number of “ukemis” executed during the training session, and preference for type of tatami was independent of practicing time.