Andy Fossett - Taido History

I didn’t include this infor­ma­tion here for a long time, because I didn’t feel it was rel­e­vant. However, we each make Taido our own, and some peo­ple have asked me for more details about my back­ground and expe­ri­ence. Perhaps this will clar­ify some things.

Below, I’ve listed a year-by-year account of some note­wor­thy events in my Taido career and some other major life events. In some cases, I’ve stuck to the facts, and in oth­ers, I’ve added addi­tional commentary.

The Timeline

1977

• I was born on 24 June in Atlanta. Every patient in the hos­pi­tal was mirac­u­lously cured.

 

1984

• My father and I began prac­tic­ing Taido on 4 October.

1986

• I com­peted in the US Taido inter­na­tional cham­pi­onships.

1987

• I was cho­sen as a found­ing mem­ber of the first Top Gun class and was elected as an offi­cer in that class.
  • Top Gun was orig­i­nally included not only advanced appli­ca­tion prac­tice, but Taido the­ory as well.

1990

• I became the first stu­dent under 18 years of age to be admit­ted to the Kishi Kai.
  • Kishi Kai, at that time, was a class for adult brown and black belt stu­dents. Training included the­ory, appli­ca­tion, and detailed prac­tice of hokei.

1992

• Along with Carlos Martinez Jr. and Eddie Perez, I became the third per­son under 18 years to be awarded a Taido black belt in America.

1993

• I com­peted in the first Taido world cham­pi­onships and inter­na­tional friend­ship tour­na­ment in Japan.
  • This was my first trip abroad.
  • Training for the tour­na­ment was admin­is­tered by John Okochi who had become my men­tor in Taido.
  • All of us who went to Japan on this trip (about 25 peo­ple, includ­ing chil­dren and par­ents) got a clear pic­ture of how dif­fer­ent Taido was in the rest of the world com­pared to what we had been taught.

1994

• I was voted to be the inter­me­di­ate (teen) class president.
  • Along with Negishi Sensei, I was also respon­si­ble for run­ning the train­ings for these classes.

1995

• I accepted a schol­ar­ship to study physics at Georgia Tech.

1996

• I assisted in oper­a­tions of the inter­na­tional Taido friend­ship games.
• Mitsuaki Uchida and I became the first peo­ple under 20 to be awarded 2dan in America.
• Bryan Sparks and I founded the Georgia Tech Taido club.

1998

• I trav­eled solo to Japan, vis­it­ing dojo in Yokohama, Fuji, and Hirosaki over a period of two months.
• I began study­ing Literature and Sociology at Georgia State University.

1999

• I trav­eled again to Japan, this time for three months.

2000

• I judged the US Taido 25^th anniver­sary cham­pi­onships.
• I was awarded 3dan.
• I began prac­tic­ing basic T’ai Chi.

2002

• I began study­ing yoga.
• I helped orga­nize and was a main judge at the US national cham­pi­onships.
• I was awarded 4dan.

2003

• I grad­u­ated from col­lege and relo­cated to Japan to teach English.
• I joined Negishi Sensei at the Yokohama Taido dojo.

2005

• I com­peted in sev­eral tour­na­ments around the Tokyo area.
• I vis­ited Atlanta to assist oper­a­tions of the US Taido 30^th anniver­sary tour­na­ment.
  • 100% of my stu­dents from Georgia Tech won medals in at  least one tour­na­ment event.
• Taido/Blog was born.
• I began prac­tic­ing CST (Circular Strength Training) train­ing methods.

2006

• I trav­eled to Australia for the sec­ond Asia Pacific Games.
  • I placed sec­ond in “Taido no Hokei” (cre­ative hokei) and third in team jissen.
• I vis­ited US Taido sum­mer camp to see my first stu­dents test for black belt (Shelley Matthews, Bolot Kerimbaev, and Laura Sparks).
• I com­peted in sev­eral tour­na­ments in Tokyo and Kanagawa.
  • I placed in a cou­ple of team jis­sen events and won a nengi award.
• I returned to the US.

2007

• I began train­ing in Kaikudo Karate and Gracie Barra Jiu Jutsu.
• I trav­eled to Holland for the European Taido cham­pi­onships and inter­na­tional friend­ship games.
• I began writ­ing occa­sional arti­cles for the Finnish Taido Kamae magazine.

 

2008

• I moved back to Japan and joined both Taido dojo in Osaka.
• I began train­ing in Judo.
• I attended var­i­ous train­ing camps and seminars.
• I com­peted in the 18^th all-Japan work­ers’ cham­pi­onships.
  • Placed third in –mei hokei divi­sion — the youngest per­son to do so.
• I com­peted in the 42^nd all-Japan cham­pi­onships.

2009

• I got mar­ried and started a new busi­ness, doing free­lance web design.
• I was awarded 5dan Renshi.
• I lead the train­ing at a sem­i­nar for stu­dents at Kobe Gakuin University, who went on to give their best per­for­mance in sev­eral years at the all-Japan uni­ver­sity championships.
• I assisted with a train­ing camp for the Finnish National Team in Tottori.
• I assisted with prepa­ra­tions and exe­cu­tion of the World Taido Championships.
• I broke my arm in the International Friendship Games.
• I received cer­ti­fi­ca­tion as a Circular Strength Training (CST) Instructor.

2010

• I began offer online CST coach­ing courses.
• Two other CST coaches and I cre­ated the Prasara Yoga Primer.
• I judged the first Australian Taido national cham­pi­onships in Sydney.
  • Kaneko and I taught a series of Taido sem­i­nars over the two days.
• The suc­cess of our yoga course led me to form Gold Medal Bodies and cre­ate addi­tional health and fit­ness products.
• I returned to the US again, spend­ing about a month Atlanta before relo­cat­ing to Honolulu, Hawaii.

2011

• I began to prac­tice Capoeira.
• Gold Medal Bodies raised over $15,000 for the relief efforts after a 9.0 mag­ni­tude earth­quake a tsunami dev­as­tated north­ern Japan, affect­ing hun­dreds of Taido students.
• I began train­ing in Parkour.