Taido/Blog

15 Comments:

1. G 16/07/2006 at 8:25 am

   I don’t know about the others, but John Edgar Boyes, Jim Mongomery, and Brandan Lueder all started taking Taido in 2000. Also, there are 5 on this list that have been officially invited to seek recommendations to test for Shodan, and one (Abinav) who will test in this fall. Abinav also started in 2000 and would have tested with the others this summer except that he suffered a very bad break to his wrist playing soccer this spring. By the way, it was great to see you at Summer Camp.

2. Gabriel 17/07/2006 at 10:33 am

   I started around Feb. in 1995. (about a month before my dad)
   My sis started early in 1997, I believe at the first “official” workout of the year.
   Anyway hope that helps. I look forward to your next post.

3. andy 17/07/2006 at 10:51 pm

   thanks, guys. i’ll get to those corrections real soon. i added the new names directly from a test form from summer camp, so i’m not surprised it ended up being a little off. it’s hard to keep this updated now that the list is going to include people whom i’ve never met… i’ll try to get a semi-official idea of how to deal with “junior” black belts.

   in the meantime, i have separated the junior black belts form the shodan group and removed abinav’s name.

4. G 20/07/2006 at 10:27 pm

   Jared Isenstein, Nick Miller, Rahul Ghosh, and Veenal Mulji are the other four who were invited to seek recommendations. I’m glad there is a place where this information is being kept. It would be great is someone would take on the task of revamping the US Taido site, hint hint.

5. andy 21/07/2006 at 10:58 pm

   actually, several people have volunteered their time and effort to revamp the honbu website. i know for a fact that one perosn created an absolutely stunning site that got rejected. the problem is that all of these people understand web design much better than they understand mits uchida. nonetheless, plans are being made (again), and something is in the works.

   also, since you know much more about these guys than i do, could you tell me if the names i have pulled out as juniors are correct? i mean, did i get the right guys? - i am really bad at ages… thanks for all your help.

6. G 22/07/2006 at 12:09 am

   I’m not sure about Hod, but the others are right. I’m glad to hear something is in the works for the honbu site.

7. Shelley 26/07/2006 at 12:44 am

   Hi, Andrea Gertz started in 2002. If I remember I’ll ask other people on the list you don’t have.

8. Shelley 26/07/2006 at 12:48 am

   Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure Mary started in 2000.

9. brian k dixon 20/11/2006 at 12:52 am

   attempting to reach sensei John Roberts; founder of the Georgia College Taido Club 1984-1987. If it is possible to forward my email to him please do. Brian K Dixon

   email address hidden

10. andy 20/11/2006 at 2:06 am

    brian:
    i will give john your info. were you a student of his?

11. John 27/04/2007 at 1:01 am

    I think its wrong that you have labeled several people like Musashi, Sue and James as “inactive” on this list. If I’m correct, Musashi has won the 2 most recent Jissen tournaments in the U.S. If that doesn’t get you “active” on Andy’s list, I don’t know what will. I’ve seen them at class several times this year and at Kangeiko (don’t think I saw you there).

    What exactly is your criteria of inactive? “I haven’t seen him/her lately, so they must be Taido inactive?” You should air more on the side of caution with such statements, then be so quick to label someone inactive.

12. andy 27/04/2007 at 2:25 am

    the “inactive” designation has always been a sticky issue to me. i’ve never been quite satisfied with exactly where to draw the line on it. as a result, the criteria have changed several times over the ten years that i’ve maintained this list. you can rest well assured that i am by no means “quick to label someone inactive.”

    the truth is that i haven’t updated this list in several months - not since the last giant batch of promotions at summer camp 2006. at that time, my major criteria for determining “activity” was a regular commitment to show up for practice.

    things that don’t meet the requirements for “active” status in my list are winning tournaments years ago and showing up for periodic big events like kangeiko and summer camp. by such standards, a lot of people who don’t contribute in meaningful ways to taido would be considered active. that’s not how i define things.

    w/r/t kangeiko: you are correct that i was not in attendance. i spoke to mr. uchida several times during the preceding week and was excused since saturdays are a busy day of work for me. however, i heard that a lot of black belts were there, including one person who currently teaches another martial art. that’s cool. it’s still not the same as actively working to promote and develop taido and its students.

    as written above, the list “is included as a part of this site for informational/archival purposes only,” and is only accurate to the best of my knowledge. should you, or anyone whose name appears in this list, care to provide me with attendance records revealing that i’ve made any mistake, i will quickly revise this page.

    in the meantime, i will err on the side of trusting the data i have to go on.

13. John Hinckley 13/07/2007 at 10:53 pm

    I started in early 2000 and Brian started in late 1999

    hope that helps

14. andy 14/07/2007 at 8:04 am

    Thanks, John. I’ve updated those listings.

15. Shelley 18/12/2007 at 12:30 pm

    Hi, I believe that Clinton Hammond and Tom Lapenna tested for 3rd degree at summer camp 2007.

    Mike Goodroe, Mahendra & Romik Srivastava tesed for 2nd degree at summer camp 2007.

Leave a Reply