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Genkaku: What’s the Point?

This entry is part 1 of 7 in the series Q&A

Genkaku is probably the most-reviled rule in tournament Taido. Players hate it. Judges hate it. In fact, most judges never force genkaku in jissen. Many tournaments explicitly forbid it.

I don’t think genkaku is all bad, but it’s definitely not my favorite part of jissen. I’m more into the meat – the part that involves hitting people. However, I can see some value to training genkaku and even in occasionally using it in jissen. After all, it was good enough for Shukumine…

Could it be that genkaku has some meaning besides giving people a chance to flip out like ninjas during jissen?

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How to Learn Japanese

This entry is part 2 of 7 in the series Q&A

Note: Lest I come off as if i were trying to sound like an expert, I should mention here that my Japanese is not great. I am not fluent in Japanese, but I am fluid in using Japanese to the degree I understand it. My Japanese language skills are exactly as good as they need…

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How Do I Learn Taido Theory?

This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series Q&A

Gabriel wrote this: I feel that in recent years there has been a move away from (in US Taido) teaching the theory and underlying principles (i.e. why moving a certain way is effective). I’m not saying that this reflects poorly on the instructors, who I happen to look up to, but i definitely feel that…

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Are You Good Enough to Teach?

This entry is part 4 of 7 in the series Q&A

Andrew posted about one of the classic sticky issues in the “martial arts industry”: Random question: how important do you think it is for a teacher to be as good or better than his/her students when teaching them something? I don’t have any students per se, but I do try to help people out when…

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Is Taido Too Difficult To Be Popular?

This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series Q&A

In America, there are basically just two types of martial arts schools: big ones that make money and small ones that don’t. There are a lot of stereotypes regarding which extreme is better, but as with all flat generalizations, the reality is not so simple. In converse to the prevailing trend, there exist very large…

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Ebigeri: Where to Look

This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series Q&A

A few days ago, I got an email from one of the students in my email coaching program, and I thought it was worth sharing. I’ve got a question about this week’s Taido tip, you mentioned that the back should be straight during ebi geri. Why is this, what is the advantage (other than bringing…

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More Questions About American Taido

This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Q&A

Since I’m one of the few American Taidoka who has any contact with Taido in the rest of the world, the students in the rest of the world ask me a lot of questions about Taido in the US. Though I have NOT been affiliated with Uchida Sensei’s US Taido Association since early 2007, I…

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