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,…
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 from…
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 used for workouts and games in sports training…
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 this article on…
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 Spend Time Stretching?
