Molaskes: Paving and Leading the Way

‌ The History of TaiGei‌ I have been training martial arts since early childhood, including Judo, Kung-Fu, Karate, Ninpo/Ninjutsu, Nihon Ju-Jutsu, Escrima/Arnis/Kali, Aikido, Krav Maga, and beyond, with my main focus on traditional Nihon Ju-Jutsu for many years, even acting as a (civilian) close-combat instructor at a police academy while our regular sensei was abroad for some months. Besides that, I've also practiced semi-professional ballroom dancing, many styles of disco dancing, hiking, canoeing, ice-skating, Parkour, Yoga, and more. Of all these physical activities, Nihon Ju-Jutsu had the most comprehensive positive effects on my health, build, posture, endurance, overall fitness, and body perception (just feeling great and healthy). However, the training was not very efficient at achieving these results: As the main focus was on learning and practicing martial arts techniques and skills, the training consisted of a lot of single-technique monotonous repetitions, interspersed with times of just standing or sitting there, watching the sensei demonstrate techniques, or overseeing other students in their training. And this for several hours in a session, with several sessions per week. When I increasingly wanted to focus more on other things in life, besides being forced to work for a living, I searched for ways to very efficiently reproduce the main positive effects of my prior training. As I am always eager to learn, at this time I also happened to read a lot about general anatomy (how the body is build in every detail) and physiology (how the body works in every detail) anyways, and then purposefully also studied sports anatomy and sports physiology in particular, followed by Shiatsu and more common forms of massages. Over the decades, I developed and refined a series of extremely efficient types of exercise programs that are intended for frequent practice, with each set of exercises requiring only a minimum amount of time each day (just a few minutes), so that it is ideal as a daily routine. I personally practice it every night right before going to bed. Katas Overview‌ TaiGei currently has three katas, which is a Japanese term for fixed exercising sequences. However, they are not as "set in stone" as most martial arts katas are, and I will point out the many possible ways to experiment with varying or even extending them below. TaiGei-S‌ is the Stretching kata, where we move every muscle and joint that we can control consciously, moving each movable part systematically and safely in every direction and every possible rotation, which by way of regular practice will balance all muscle pairs for perfect posture and build, and increases our strength, flexibility, body control, and body perception. TaiGei-M‌ is the Massage kata, where we systematically hit, knead, press, grip, rub, and stroke all of our body zones where this is health-conducive and safe, improving our body tissues and blood circulation, further releasing tensions and improving our body perception, adding to our overall well-being. (In Nihon Ju-Jutsu this is achieved, to some degree, by the close-contact training and the many falls and rolls one has to perform in a training session.) TaiGei-A‌ is the Atemi kata, with "atemi" being the Japanese term for martial arts techniques of hitting, striking, boxing, kicking, and so on, which not only trains self-defence essentials but also "shakes" the body in more or less explosive moves, training also speed, precise movement control, spatial awareness and mastery, coordination, and balance. All three katas also help in hardening our body, and each has also some minor endurance-training effect, although I'd advice to practice forms of real endurance training (such as hiking, cycling, or jogging for example) in addition to TaiGei. The Breathing Tree‌ The Breathing Tree is a short breathing exercise that is done after each of the three TaiGei katas. I developed it on the basis of different breathing exercises from Nihon Ju-Jutsu and Aikido. Stand in a shoulders-wide stance, knees only slightly bent, the arms hanging down naturally. Movement 1 (ca. 1 second): The Seedling‌ In a quick motion, while energetically breathing in, move your hands together, palms up, as if scooping up air, until your left fingers' backsides rest on your right fingers, then lift your hands in this position above your head, which will tilt your palms to face you, at the same time straightening your legs. Then make but a brief pause, or continue right away in one smooth movement. Movement 2 (ca. 3 seconds): Strong Roots Breathing out powerfully "into your stomach", mimick pushing the air down with force, palms down, slightly bending your knees again, until your arms are extended all the way down. Movement 3 (ca. 2 seconds): The Fountain Gently breathing in, almost passively, quickly let your arms move upwards again before you, but like passively blown by the wind, very relaxed, straightening your legs again, and then swing your arms outwards from each other, opening up in a wide arch to either side of you, palms facing up as if holding a huge soft cushion, and when you reach a position below the horizontal where you notice sinew tension, let your arms spring back the same way, now as if scooping up all the air around you, until your hands touch again, forming a roof above and slightly before your head, the left palm's fingers again resting against the right palm's fingers. Movement 4 (ca. 5 seconds): The Energy of Life Slowly and consciously breathing out, move your hands slowly down again before you, as if feeding all the caught air into your body, gently like a light summer rain though, or like a magic glittering waterfall, while you slightly bend your knees again. TaiGei-S (Stretching) Instructions‌ ## coming soon End the TaiGei-S kata with the Breathing Tree (see above). TaiGei-M (Massage) Instructions‌ ## coming soon End the TaiGei-M kata with the Breathing Tree (see above). TaiGei-A (Atemi) Instructions‌ ## coming soon End the TaiGei-A kata with the Breathing Tree (see above).

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