Taido
躰道A modern Japanese art from 1965 that moves combat into three dimensions — attacks from inverted positions, somersaults and handstands.
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Training
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About Taido
Taido is a modern Japanese art founded in 1965 by Seiken Shukumine (1925–2001). Shukumine came from the Okinawan karate tradition and had earlier created the style genseiryu, but concluded that karate moves too flatly — along straight lines forward and back, with the body held upright. Taido is his answer: it treats combat as movement in space, including changes of height, tilts of the body axis and rotations. From this comes its most striking feature, attacks launched from inverted and tilted positions, with somersaults and hands on the floor. The system rests on a few concepts: unsoku is footwork along marked paths, unshin is movement of the body through space, and sen-i is the change of the body axis. Techniques fall into five groups — sen, un, hen, nen and ten — according to how the body relocates in space. Both set forms, called hokei, and free fighting with limited contact are practised. Taido is organised for competition and has its own international federation; it is spread mainly in Japan and Scandinavia, with a strong base in Finland and Sweden. It is physically demanding and assumes decent gymnastic preparation.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.