Aikido Taiso

Could someone supply some examples, please. I never heard the term before today , nor is Google any help.

Sure thing dude!

Check out text descriptions (the order is a little off though and it's missing a few wrist taiso's - for my style at least, can't speak for all styles) on this page. http://www.d.umn.edu/~fguldbra/pe1620/aikitaiso.html

When you decide that text descriptions suck, there are a few animated gifs over here to make the text make a bit more sense. http://www.aikido-world.com/highlights/technical%20_tips/stretching-training-exercises.htm

It can be thought of as - well, I think of it as - aikido kata. It actually pretty interesting to notice how each style calls the taiso's something slightly different, even though they share the same basic movements. One of the Undo's on the text description is called Shomenuchi Ikkyo, on the gif it's called Shomenuchi, and in my class we call it Ikkyo. Ehhh, maybe I'm weird that I notice small differences like that.

Thanks, SBudda. Never in fourteen years of Aikido have I ever heard warm-up exercises called "Taiso" until this morning.

Hey no problem. As I understand it, the Taiso's were developed by Koichi Tohei, and are usually not taught in Aikikai schools or others that don't trace (at least part of) their lineage through Tohei. I find them pretty darn useful - but they weren't taught by O Sensei. Of course when Tohei was the Hombu chief instructor it was taught then...

I imagine the Aikikai / Ki Society split has a lot to do with it.

I don't really think it has anything to do with the separation of Tohei from the Aikikai, for we do Aikikai Aikido and use the Taisos all the time. I think sometimes it's whose influence in the Aikido sphere your teachers have had, and whether or not they used the taisos as "warm-ups".

I've trained under Toyoda Sensei and my training partner's teacher was Sogunuma Sensei, and I've seen them used in both camps. We don't do them all the time, just as we don't do randori all the time... so it might just be that some teachers stop using them all together, and others emphasize them because their teachers did.

I'm not sure there are any "hard and fast" rules that apply here... just differing emphasis on the exercise techniques. FWIW, Yoshinkan uses kata to teach movements, but there's nothing to preclude any other style from doing likewise.

I kind of like it all...

I had heard otherwise, but I definitely trust someone who trains in Aikikai to know if they do the Taiso's or not. Always nice to learn something new. Thanks!

I don't often confirm my suspicions with my partner, but since he's the one that's studied in Japan, I defer to him on such matters. His opinion was exactly what I said... that although they didn't practice them all the time, the Aikikai schools did practice the taisos, just not to the degree that the Shin Shin Toitsu schools do.

You have to remember that Tohei was the chief instructor at the Aikikai, so it's only natural that some of his "stuff" stuck with the organization. Like me doing "old style Aikido" with Toyoda, the hundreds and thousands of teachers out there will teach what they know. If they learn the taisos, they'll use them. They're easy to do, and they work. They're essentially used to teach movement, just like the wrist exercises are used to teach "grips".

... not real complicated.