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?
What's the Point of Genkaku?
I'm actually not bad at genkaku. I can do the exciting flips, and I can do continuous rengi too. The two times I've had to do genkaku in competition, I've been awarded yuko for out-genkaku-ing the other guy. In one case, that yuko was the deciding factor in me winning the match.
In discussing Taido with some friends online, I mentioned that I was a little embarrassed about winning by genkaku. Here's where the discussion went from there:
You were embarrassed? Great comment. I´m still laughing.
I´m not sure on my opinion about genkaku, especially in the middle of jissen. Maybe if it was something apart, a complement... but during jissen I´m not sure.
I think that's a very common attitude. I responded with:
Well, it's good to force some action when both opponents are stalling or failing to take an offensive. In some cases, two players will be very closely matched, so genkaku gives the judges a chance to see what they do in a non-standard situation. In theory, the superior player will be able to perform with aplomb even when forced to do strange things (and genkaku is certainly strange).
Maybe I should clarify - I wasn't embarrassed to win, but that I couldn't get a better score besides my yuko advantage from genkaku.
Then we got
What can you get out of Genkaku? That is a good question, and I don't really think you can get much out of it, because you just apply already known techniques on Genkaku. But you must do them faster !! (ok, maybe there's something to get out of it ) You can try to misguide your opponent and getting a point out of it. But it's hard, at least for me it is :) And usually I only get myself trapped again in a corner. Maybe that's the thing...trying to make the opponent think you're going one direction, and then changing it, so you can reach the other corner in safety. Then Genkaku is all about speed and/or misguidance! :)
And that's certainly one way to look at it. Personally, I think genkaku is about encouraging people to use unshin and rengi:
Well, the purpose of genkaku is to encourage high-level technqiue in jissen. The corner guy tries to use nice tengi and the inside dude can use tengi or try a rengi combination of three or four techniques in series. The practice is to perform them while being aware of where you and the other guy are so you can transition back into combat mode effectively.
As for what you can get out of it, it really depends on how you practice. If your usual Taido practice is complete, practicing genkaku only helps make you better at genkaku in case you have to do it in a tournament. I don't think it was designed for training. Just a chance to break up the game and being in higher-level movement.
So what do you think?
I'm curious for others' opinions about genkaku. At the WTC in 2009, I remember hearing that a lot of Europeans think genkaku is pretty stupid - though I'm sure there are others who enjoy the practice.
When I come across something I don't like or understand in Taido, the first thing I try to do is think about why Shukumine would have included it. That also entails trying to understand what his goals were for Taido. Then I look again at my own goals and vision of Taido and figure out how I can make genkaku, or whatever, work for me in that context.
Any ideas?