18/09/2008 In Event Log by andy
Every year, the Japan Taido Association hosts four national tournaments, one each for children, students, and adults, and the all-Japan championship. The Shakaijin Taikai is a tournament for “members of society,” which can be taken to mean adults. Basically, it excludes children and undergrads, but anyone else is free to compete. This year’s event included men and women from their early twenties to late sixties.
The Other National Tournament
If the national championship is the most objectively important tournament, the shakaijin has taken on a subjective importance as an unofficial warmup for the all-Japan. Until a few years ago, the Shakaijin was a pretty relaxed affair, with a relatively small number of participants. Recently, it has grown in popularity, and this year, over 150 people joined the competition. Black belt Men’s jissen was especially competitive, with almost seventy entrants.
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15/09/2008 In Event Log by andy
This past weekend, my dojo joined Taido students form several other prefectures in Tottori for some training and play.
Tottori is a small costal city. It’s known for fishing, hot springs, and the sakyu (about which, more later). The local Taido scene is a small, loose-knit group held together by a guy named Uchiyama. Uchiyama is a neurologist and moved to Tottori about five years ago. Before that, he studied and taught Taido at Chiba University. He’s a senpai to a few of my friends.
This year’s attendees included six of us from Osaka, a few from Tokyo (including one student who is originally from Denmark), Hiroshima, Ryuku University on Okinawa, and the group in Tottori. All together, there were almost thirty participants.
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15/09/2008 In Knowledge Base by andy
Where to begin? To a large degree, unsoku is Taido.
Unsoku is the primary technique of Taido. We have a lot of flashy kicks that are quite ingenious, but unsoku tops them all. Most martial arts have stances and techniques. Taido introduces unsoku as a linking principle to allow the interjection of strategy on a higher level.
The footwork that makes up Taido’s unsoku is what allows the techniques to be effective - it facilitates the movements. However, we have to be careful not to create a false separation between unsoku and technique. In application, they are functionally linked, and this is one of the things that makes Taido unique.
The Articles
I have broken up what used to be one massive article into a few smaller chunks. Each of the links below covers unsoku from a different angle.
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