Uke Skills Playbook: Receiving Progressions by Throw Family, the Defense-to-Fall Switch, Feeding Standards, and the Return Protocol

Mat Manual companion guide to "The Other Half of the Throw: Being Uke." Print it. The article teaches receiving as a skill: the throw decides the direction, you decide the shape. This book trains it: entry-cue cards for the common throws, receiving progressions from announced falls to unannounced nage-komi, drills for the moment you stop defending and start falling, honest-feeding standards for combination and counter practice, height progressions for the big throws, and the refusal and return protocol that keeps players on the mat for decades.

Player: ______________________________ Club: ______________________________ Coach: ______________________________ Falls I am cleared to receive at full speed: ______________________________

SAFETY — THIS WHOLE BOOK IS THE SAFETY PART. READ IT TWICE. ☐ Ukemi (falling technique) before throws is this book's entry ticket: solo breakfalls checked at speed, both sides, before any receiving progression begins (Part 1). ☐ Never post a straight arm to the mat — front, side, or behind. It is the injury mechanism this book exists to retire. Any drill partner calls it out on sight. ☐ Never hold on to your partner's gi, arm, or neck through a fall. Your hands slap and tuck. That is all they do. ☐ Never receive a throw you cannot fall from today. Injury, fatigue, fear, and a new throw family are all valid reasons, and Part 11 turns the refusal into a procedure instead of a moment. ☐ Control runs both ways: tori controls your fall (sleeve held, landing guided), and you control your shape. A throw where neither happens is stopped and rebuilt, not repeated. ☐ Mat awareness: receiving drills travel. Your landing zone is checked by both players before every set. ☐ Children and beginners receive no throw at a speed or height their falls have not been progressed to in Part 7's stages. No exceptions for enthusiasm, theirs or yours.

Part 1: The Entry Ticket — Solo Falling Check

Solo breakfall mechanics are covered in depth by this library's ukemi rebuild guide. This check is the gate that guide's work passes through into partner receiving. All items both sides, at speed, on the tatami, coach watching.

Any failed line is rebuilt with the ukemi guide before this book's progressions start. This is not a delay tactic: every later part assumes these shapes exist under pressure.