hokei guidelines

Taido’s hokei is more than a com­plex series of tech­niques. It’s the reflec­tion of Taido’s prin­ci­ples and phi­los­o­phy in a phys­i­cal for­mat. The hokei is a chance for us to express our own inter­pre­ta­tions of Taido’s the­ory. The art of hokei lies well beyond the abil­ity to sim­ply per­form the des­ig­nated tech­niques in sequence and with­out errors. It’s the cul­mi­na­tion of phys­i­cal train­ing and con­tem­pla­tion of Taido’s meth­ods in out­ward expres­sion of each of our per­sonal approaches to Taido.

Rules for Hokei

yooi to hosshin - preparation and starting spirit

Hokei requires the high­est focus. Before even begin­ning, it is impor­tant to take a few moments to clear your mind of any­thing that is not essen­tial to the per­for­mance of your hokei. Prepare your­self for bat­tle against the imag­i­nary oppo­nents you will be fac­ing. At this point, real­ity exists only within the hokei. Foreign stim­uli cease to be until after the hokei is over.

in to yo - positive and negative

There must exist a har­mony between the pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive energy flow in the hokei. When you attack, you exert force on your tar­get; when you defend, you absorb energy from your oppo­nent and envi­ron­ment. Make sure to be aware of the energy pass­ing through your body as you per­form the dif­fer­ent aspects of the hokei.

kyo to jyaku - amount of power

Power is applied when nec­es­sary in strik­ing tech­niques. You should con­serve your power while mov­ing and prepar­ing to exe­cute tech­niques so that you can deliver strikes with max­i­mum effec­tive­ness to your opponents.

kankyu no doai - amount of speed

There must be har­mony and con­trast between the speeds at which dif­fer­ent parts of the hokei are exe­cuted. When mov­ing toward a tar­get or set­ting up to deliver a strike, you must move very quickly. However, in between tech­niques, you should move slowly in order to con­serve your energy and plan your next step.

shinshuku no doai - amount of stretching

You must stretch to reach your oppo­nent when strik­ing. Push your hips toward the tar­get while main­tain­ing con­trol of your bal­ance. Be care­ful not to over-stretch. You should be in con­trol of your foot­work and distance.

kokyu ho - correct breathing

Each hokei has a des­ig­nated set of breath­ing tech­niques. These tech­niques are impor­tant to the cor­rect exe­cu­tion of each strike and motion in the hokei. Learn to con­trol your breath precisely.

chakugan to mokuhyo - eye contact and target

Always move toward an imag­i­nary oppo­nent. Before each move, make sure to set up your tar­get and turn your head to face the direc­tion you will be pur­su­ing. Any tech­nique deliv­ered with­out a goal will be obvi­ously inef­fec­tive. Be sure to exe­cute each tech­nique with its intended tar­get in mind.

kiai - proper use of kiai

Kiai is nec­es­sary in order to focus your energy for tech­niques in cer­tain parts of the hokei. Be aware of the energy from your cen­ter being pushed through your strike in coor­di­na­tion with the air expelled in your kiai. Correct tim­ing of your kiai is impor­tant to your technique.

keitai no hoji - correct posture

Posture is the spe­cific rela­tion­ship between your body and grav­ity. If your pos­ture (either in kamae or mid-technique) is incor­rect, your deliv­ery will be less than effec­tive. You must remain bal­anced and in con­trol of your pos­ture through­out the hokei in order to main­tain con­trol over your motions.

zanshin to kaitai - finishing spirit and reflection

When you have stopped mov­ing, you have still not yet com­pleted your hokei. After you have per­formed all of the nec­es­sary phys­i­cal tech­niques, it is time to reflect on your per­for­mance. Think about how you can improve your hokei and whether or not you feel you effec­tively com­mu­ni­cated your inter­pre­ta­tion of the hokei. Remember these obser­va­tions for the next time you practice.

Tournament Scoring

Of course, there is more to hokei than just these ten, but all other fac­tors being equal, these rules con­sti­tute the for­mula for judg­ing hokei per­for­mance. In com­pe­ti­tion, points can be added or sub­tracted for vari­a­tions in the tech­nique such as sub­sti­tut­ing more-difficult tengi.

The guidelines for point bonuses and penalties are as follows:

• twist­ing flip: +0.8
• no-hand cart­wheel: +0.4
• front or back flip: +0.4
• one-hand cart­wheel: +0.2
• re-do or stop: –3
• sequence error: –2
• out of bounds: –1
• incor­rect hand or foot: –0.5
• loss of bal­ance (touch­ing the ground): –0.5
• miss­ing the line or start­ing point: –0.5