Taido/Martial Art Links
You may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
This is not the Ultimate Taido Links page. I don’t have the patience to link to every Taido website I can find - especially since very few of them have any useful information whatsoever. Though most of these are not explicitly about Taido, all of the links on this page will point you to information that has the potential to change the way you think about and practice Taido.
Taido-Related Links
Taido TV If you want to see some videos of high-level Taido, look no further than Yasuyuki Kato’s new Taido.tv. Though the selection is currently limited, the available content is very good. Every finals match from the 40th (2006) All-Japan Championships DVD is represented alongside two large demonstrations in France including several current and former world champions. Check this link to see some great performances of Taido technique.
US Taido official homepage Finally, American Taido has a new homepage. Better still, this one looks nice and includes a lot of information about the headquarters school in Atlanta. Although it’s still under development, this site holds great promise for being able to answer many of the questions most people will have regarding Taido in the States. Check it out.
Alvar’s Taido web page Alvar is one hell of a stand-up guy. When I first met him, he was “the Swedish team” but has since relocated permanently to Hirosaki, Japan where he teaches where he lives with his lovely wife and son and teaches Taido. His site doesn’t see frequent updates, but as it is, there is plenty of information to keep most folks busy for another few years. This one is important. You must especially remember to download this and this.
Australian Taido Association My friends Down Under have put together this network of sites to keep the world posted on their growth. There is quality Taido being practiced in Australia, and everyone needs to go check it out.
World Taido Forum This forum is hosted by Australian Taido and should interest most students. It’s a very friendly and open forum, so I encourage everyone to participate in the exchange of experiences. I hope (and I know the Aussie Taido team does too) that participation in discussion of Taido ideas and events can lead to improved relations and a stronger international Taido community. These things can be significantly beneficial to you (yes, you!), but they won’t happen unless you (yes, you!) contribute.
Yokohama Taido This is Negishi’s dojo where I practiced and taught Taido from 2003 to 2006. There isn’t any English content, but there are lots of photo updates on the blog. I linked to this page primarily because I can never remember the url.
Manjigeri’s page I practice with this guy. There’s no English content, but random clicking will avail you of tons of videos of various techniques and hokei. They are low quality, but they are sometimes helpful. With some lucky surfing, you can treat yourself to the soothing sounds of Mr. Manji’s kiai as well as the infamous Taido song. This is one of the oldest Taido pages on the ‘net.
English Taido Association So there’s people doing Taido in England. Unfortunately, ETA doesn’t have any ranking instructors, but they’re a bunch of really good people with a passion for Taido, so I’ve got high hopes that Brittish Taido will flourish in the future. At any rate, there are some pretty interesting articles on their site that you should probably read.
YouTube There’re a fair number of Taido videos on YouTube, so make sure you check them out.
General Martial Art Links
24 Fighting Chickens Rob Redmond has resurrected his URL, this time in blog format. Though he has told us that the new 24fc won’t become another million-word free karate encyclopedia, he is posting plenty of interesting content relating to practicing the martial arts. Rob has mellowed since going on hiatus, but his insights will likely still prove both controversial and beneficial to all who take the time to consider their implications.
Karate Underground Forum Mark Groenewold hosts this site, which is home to a loose affiliation of international karate heretics. Though Shotokan-centric, these forums (and Mark’s web site) contain thousands of articles full of interesting concepts and ideas. If you can’t find something here that changes the way you think about your training, you haven’t been thinking very hard. If you’re ever in Edmonton and want to sing some karaoke, give Mark a call.
judoinfo.com Great site with loads of information about judo. Articles range from historical to academic to entertainment. Every judo technique is described, and animations are provided for most. Most Taidoka are seriously lacking in their knowledge of newaza and nagewaza. Though these techniques are not used in Taido competition, Shukumine told us that they were very much intended to be a part of Taido practice.
JKA Silicon Valley John Keeling has been teaching Shotokan for a very long time. A graduate of the Japan Karate Association’s legendary instructors’ course, Keeling is also a prolific writer of articles relating to all aspects of martial arts practice (an article each month since 1998). You should read everything in his archive - really. I also heard a rumor that he can sell you a real nice karategi.
Training and Health Links
CST / RMAX This site is dedicated to Scott Sonnon’s Circular Strength Training methodologies and associated products. Sonnon’s art is a model of evolution through practice and collaboration. In fact, many of the stated ideals of RMAX closely resemble fundamental goals of Taido. Check the discussion forum and magazine for a different perspective on the work for which Taido was designed. I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the excellent training tools and videos available from RMAX. Whatever you do, RMAX methods will help you do it better. I highly recommend just about everything they produce.
“The Stretching FAQ” Brad Appleton has done all the digging and research for you. Here is the information you should digest regarding improving your flexibility. Any instructor without a base level of education with regards to training methods is negligent at the very least. If you do not understand the information that Appleton has compiled here, you have no business giving anyone instruction in sports conditioning.
Body Weight Culture Body Weight Culture is a community of people fanatical about improving their physical performance using only body-weight exercises. These guys can get in a workout anytime, anywhere. If you’ve been slacking off because you don’t have the time/space/whatever to stay active, you need to click this link. Check out the videos for loads of inspiration and new methods of self-torture.
Testosterone Nation This is a site about bodybuilding. While I personally don’t agree with bodybuilding as a sport or lifestyle, this site has plenty to offer anyone interested in improving their physical condition or performance in their chosen sport (Taido, of course). The workout principles and diet advice presented here comes straight from some of the best sports coaches and trainers in the world. Naturally, you don’t have to shave off your body hair or get a fake tan to benefit from this info if you use a little common sense.
John Berardi Dr. Berardi is a sports performance nutrition specialist. While many people online give diet advice, most are not athletes. Even most sports trainers have very little clue of how diet can be manipulated to achieve the desired performance results. Berardi has advanced degrees in exactly what aspects of nutrition interest us the most, and he’s giving it away for free. Most of the articles on his site are also available on T-Nation, but it’s nice having them all in one place without having to sift through the stuff about romanian deadlifts and fasted-cardio in the process. I personally follow his recommendations, and have seen excellent results. Remember that everything you put in your mouth either enhances or impedes your performance. Which will it be?
Life Extension Foundation Without getting too philosophical, the expectation of a 75-year life-span is a culturally-constructed dark cloud over our intellectual and spiritual freedom. The Life Extension Foundation is dedicated to funding research on technologies and practices that may help us extend the quantity and quality of our physical embodiment on Earth. They generate their research money by producing and selling pharmaceutical-grade nutritional supplements to members. Even if you aren’t interested in purchasing their products or living longer and healthier, you should check out their articles, which very often are on the cutting edge of aging research.
Mercola This site is great. Joe Mercola is no-bullshit. He’s a doctor, and he wants you to have a healthier life. He isn’t concerned with anything that research and observation don’t bare out. He especially isn’t concerned with blindly following the lead of the FDA, AMA, or other industry-funded governmental health “authorities”. His health advice is a reassuring mix of traditional, alternative, high-tech, and simply practical. Most importantly, he makes sense.
“Other” Links
General Semantics General Semantics is the discipline of thought based on Count Alfred Korzybsi’s “Science and Sanity,” and is modeled after the thought process of Albert Einstein and other crazy smart folks. This website has copious articles and links relating to linguistics, perception, and E-Prime (a sub-version of the English language absent of “be”-verbs). So why is this important? In theory, all arguments are caused by the confusion of abstraction levels in speech. The solution is to recognize the assumptions we make in communication so that we can clarify. The exercises on this site will teach you how to do this.
Online Education You may not have noticed this, but I am a huge proponent of self-education (or as this link terms it, auto-didacticism). Many universities are now offering free public access to their courses via the internet, and iTunes makes available a huge array of new educational podcasts each day. This site has links to a more resources than any human can hope to digest. Go learn something.
MidPhase Getting this blog up and running was much, much easier than I had expected it to be. This is due partly to the well-designed services of midphase. Midphase is my web host, and they want to be your web host too. Even better than that - they’ll pay me if you sign up for their services through this link. If you are even thinking about starting a blog or setting up a website, give midphase a look.
Wordpress I hate writing code, but I love tweaking options. Wordpress is my blogging software. It’s free, easy to use, and hosting companies like MidPhase make it simple to set up. There are other blogging packages available, but the Wordpress community offers a lot of support and options to users that I haven’t seen with other softwares. Check it out.
Content of this page created by Andy Fossett exclusively for Taido/Blog.No tags for this post.
Leave a Reply