Last updated by at .
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…
After mastering the basic forms of a few kobo routines, you are ready to work with some advanced alternatives. The variations below build off of the basic kobo drills, but offer choices to one or both partners in how to respond to the other. Essentially, we are gradually removing the training wheels that separate kobo…
I sometimes play a game with dice – I call it “the random new technique game”, and I’m going to outline it here so you can experiment with similar ideas. Using a random modifier such as a die or a deck of cards is nothing new, and I’ve heard lots of stories about different versions…
i recently spent five days talking and training with two of members of the hanshikai, and let me tell you this much – they are crazy excited about unshin. everything we practiced came back to a very select number of themes, and the possibilities of moving in full 3-space was one of them. i’ve had…
In my last article (You’re Probably Stretching Wrong), I wrote that the standard 5 minute warm-up stretch is inadequate for building flexibility. That’s no big deal – we can just stretch for longer. How much stretching are we talking about here anyway? I’ll suggest 15 to 20 minutes, at least three times a week. Why…
“I’m a professional educator.” That’s what teachers say when they want to sound like experts. I don’t know if I’m really an expert – there are a lot of variables involved depending on how you define the roles of teacher, instructor, and coach. I’ve played each role in a variety of academic and sports environments,…
Most martial arts (of which I am aware) are essentially technique-based. By this, I mean that they were synthesized from groups of existing movements. Demonstration: Many martial arts use the exact same mechanics for deploying a front kick. It would be ridiculous to assume that each art’s creator independently designed a kick that looks exactly…
