03/12/2007 In Miscellany by andy
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Last year, I composed a sort of Christmas list for Taido. It’s been an eventful year, and some of the things on that list became reality. One of the really awesome things about Taido is that it’s always changing, and I’m pretty excited that most of these changes appear to be happening for the better.
I have a lot of dreams for the next year in Taido. Before I start listing off every conceivable wish I could have for Taido over the next year, I’ll review the items I posted in last year’s list. Here they are:
2006 List Recap
- American-flag print, satin karate uniform - Nope! But I did get an awesome Gameness grappling gi this summer. I guess that’ll have to do for now.
01/10/2007 In Event Log by andy
Update: Second video added.
For the past two years, US Taido has performed at the annual JapanFest in Atlanta. It’s always a fun event for those interested in Japanese culture and a good venue to showcase Taido.
I’ve been hearing over the past month or so how much effort everyone had been putting into preparing to put on this demo, and I really think it paid off. I was only able to attend for one of the two days, but the Taido team’s performance was by far the best martial arts demo of the day. It was solid action from beginning to end and showed off the US Honbu Dojo’s best selling points: family atmosphere and unique integration of techniques not usually taught in Taido dojo.
11/09/2007 In Experiments / Ideas by andy
One of the really cool things about Taido is Shukumine’s understanding that the measure of a martial art is in the behavior of its practitioners. Outsiders will judge Taido by the things they see Taido black belts do. Shukumine always taught that Taido should serve us in society as well as in combat.
As a young man, I remember hearing him speak about the necessity of equaling our Taido achievements in society. He told us once that a Taido black belt should be a black belt in his career as well. He said a school-age student should study his courses and practice Taido with the same degree of commitment and attention. A business person should apply Taido’s philosophy in negotiations (some business schools require students to read Musashi’s Book of Five Rings). In short, we should be applying the lessons we learn in Taido to our daily lives in society as well. What I’ve been thinking over the past few years is that, maybe we should also start applying the lessons we learn in society to Taido.
