Judo Taiso

    Judo-taiso ("Judo Exercise") is a series of exercises developed by Kenji Tomiki that incorporates the fundamental principles of Judo developed by Jigoro Kano with the Aiki developed by Morihei Ueshiba. These pages are an effort to document and describe these exercises.

    Judo-taiso is a series of exercises designed to teach the fundamentals of the Tomiki school of Aikido efficiently and effectively. judo-taiso consists of these components:

1. Unsoku (foot movements)
2. Tendo-Undo (hand and foot movements)
3. Static drills (from a grab by a stationary opponent)
4. Dynamic drills (from an attack by a moving opponent)

    There are a number of general principles that apply to all of these exercises:

• Maintain an upright posture. Do not bend or lean at the waist.
• Lower your stance in order to lower your center of balance.
• As a rough rule of thumb, the balls of your feet should carry 60% of your weight. Imaging standing with a piece of paper beneath your heels - someone should be able to remove the paper with a small amount of resistance. If the paper comes out too easily, you have too much weight forward on your feet. If it requires a hard pull to remove it, there is too little weight on the balls of your feet.
• Do not lift your feet when moving - slide them instead. The balls of your feet should maintain contact with the ground most of the time. The heels of your feet may or may not remain in contact with the ground, depending on the movement you are making. In no cases should your heel be raised significantly higher than the ball of your foot.
• When you step, your weight should come down first on the ball of your foot, not your heel.
• Your head should not bobble up and down when moving. Lowering your stance is essential to achieve this.
• Relax without being loose - your body should have the correct amount of tension to allow you to move quickly.
• If you are too tense, you will have to relax your muscles before you can move them.
• If you are too relaxed, you will need to tense them before you can move.