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Taido is a Japanese martial art or budo created in 1965 by Seiken Shukumine. Taido has its roots in traditional Okinawan Karate. Seiken Shukukmine first developed a style of Karate called Gensei ryu in 1950, which he then modified over the years until it became Taido.
There are five types of body movements in Taido:
- Sen - Vertical spinning movement
- Un - Ascending and descending wave-like movement
- Hen - Falling movement
- Nen - Horizontal spinning movement
- Ten - Rolling movements
These movements are combined with e.g. punches or kicks. The last category includes several acrobatic movements, like for instance back-flips, which makes Taido very spectacular to watch. Taido has a special kind of foot-work, which is called unsoku.
Competitions in Taido include Jissen (sparring) and Hokei (which is similar to kata), as well as Tenkai, which is a made up fight, where one "hero" defeats five opponents during the last part of a 30 second bout. In Tenkai the judges give points to the competing teams in a similar manner as is done in e.g. figure skating.
Taido is practiced in Japan, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Holland, Australia and the USA.
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