Bruce Caughran is on the offensive. In a seeming mismatch, he points a sword at Diane Costanzo, shouts and lunges at her. Quickly, and with a loud thwack!, Caughran hits the ground, his sword gone. The breakfall is known as an ukemi.
In another exercise at a teen class at One Point Center Aikido, 911 S. Lombard Ave., each of three progressively smaller boys deflects Caughran’s attack, flipping him to the mat with the familiar thwack!. This is a roll move that sends the attacker-or “uke”-to the ground with somewhat less force than a breakfall.
In February, each breakfall will earn the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) anything from a penny to a sawbuck as part of a creative fundraising effort Caughran dreamed up. He’s asking for donations for each breakfall he takes, much like a walk-a-thon. In fact, he’s calling it an Ukemi-A-Thon.
Caughran and his wife, Octavia, learned their daughter, Ailsa, 3, had Type I (juvenile onset) diabetes when she was just 11 months old. Now, when everything is OK, Ailsa needs her blood sugar checked 10-12 times a day-including at midnight, 3:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.
“It’s one of the most trying aspects of her care,” Caughran said. “It never goes away, and it never will.”
Because blood-sugar levels can affect mood, diabetes becomes a “lens” through which Ailsa’s parents view her behavior. If she’s grumpy, they wonder, “Is it because she’s 3, or is it because her blood sugar is low?”
Caughran plans to match each of Ailsa’s finger pricks-which don’t hurt, we’re told-in February with a breakfall, which also don’t hurt if performed correctly. But he attends class four times a week, meaning he’ll crash to the mat about 20 times per class to keep up.
“I thought it was a nice symbol to take as many falls as she takes finger pricks,” he said. However, in a pamphlet promoting his fundraiser he wonders, “How much ibuprofen will I take?”
Is 20 breakfalls per class, four times a week, too much to take?
“It’s a lot, but it’s manageable,” said Costanzo, the sensei (i.e. teacher) at One Point Center. Caughran says his wife, who’s a doctor, is more skeptical.
But Caughran, 40, said the breakfalls don’t hurt when done correctly. A main tenent of aikido is to unify the mind and body, returning to a natural state, he said.
“It’s a lot of fun. Taking a breakfall is like flying,” he said. “Rolling is fun. Spinning is fun. Flying through the air and landing safely is fun.”
The Caughrans typically raise money for JDRF during the organization’s annual Ron Santo Walk to Cure Diabetes in October, but the family was in California that weekend for a wedding.
The idea for the Ukemi-A-Thon fell into place in part because of Caughran’s dedication to aikido, also known as the “Art of Peace.” The idea is to deflect the aggressor’s energy without hurting the person.
“To injure an opponent is to injure yourself. To control aggression without inflicting is the Art of Peace,” reads the One Point Center’s website, in part.
Caughran started practicing the martial art in February 2001 and earned his black belt last February. But there are more practical reasons for holding the fundraiser in February.
“We have the winter training seminar for our aikido organization then, where I’ll have the opportunity to be thrown by a wide variety of folks,” he writes in the pamphlet. “Over 28 days, I’ll be thrown by 6-year-old white belts and 60-year-old black belts. Our new bathtub should be installed by the end of January, so I’ll be able to soak after class.”
Caughran backs JDRF because less than 10 percent of its budget goes to fundraising costs, less than 10 percent to administrative costs, and its focus is on funding research.
“What I really want is a cure,” he said.
CONTACT: dcarter@wjinc.com