Age uke

Age-uke (上げ受け:あげうけ?), which translates to "rising block", or "upward block" is the Japanese term for a technique used in martial arts. There numerous variations in how the technique might be executed, and nothing implicit in the term itself restricts its use to unarmed techniques.

Age-uke may be used to stiffly block or deflect an incoming high attack. Alternately, it may be used to receive an incoming attack, sweeping it overhead while maintaining contact with the attacking instrument (limb or weapon).

The term age-uke is frequently used interchangeably with "jōdan-uke" (high-level block). Whether these terms refer to two distinct techniques, or the same technique, depends entirely upon how each is used within any given martial arts school. However, the terms are distinct in that age comes from the verb ageru, meaning upward, and implying direction and/or motion. In the martial arts, the noun jōdan refers specifically to a target area of the body, including the shoulders and above.

[edit]Technique

Age-ude-uke (Rising-forearm-block): is one of the first blocks you learn in karate. The nature of age-ude-uke is that it travels in an upward direction, and is the perfect block against punches to the face, or downward attacks to the head and face (for example like is someone was going to hit you on the head).

Stage 1: Make your prepare. Stage 2: The preparing hand begins to pull back to the hip (hikite), while the other arm begins to travel across to the centre of the body, ready to travel upward. Stage 3: The returning arm draws closer to the hip; the blocking arm travels further upward. Stage 4: Upon finishing the block the blocking forearm rotates 180 degrees (or thereabout).