Category Archives: isshin ryu

Teaching the True Art of Karate

Spreading the True Martial Arts

I want to talk about something,
not everybody might like it,
but it has to do with growing the martial arts,
and growing your income.

Look,
here is the straight skinny,
the country is having probs,
incomes are down,
and wouldn’t you like to have a few extra bucks?
And,
wouldn’t it be nice if those few extra bucks
came from teaching Karate?

teaching martial arts

Learning Karate Changes Even Bullies

It’s one of my pet projects,
encouraging people to teach.
The thing is
there are a lot of teachers out there,
many aren’t really qualified.
They might have credentials
from big name organizations,
but that doesn’t mean they have the knowledge.
It takes a precise knowledge
of how to teach Karate.
I discovered this with one of my first black belts.
He went out and started teaching,
and when I got over to look at his karate class,
he was teaching calisthenics.
There were a few martial arts thrown in,
and he was good,
but he opted for teaching…calisthenics.
Push ups, sit ups,
a few kicks,
running around the room.
And,
finally,
as an after thought,
he might teach a karate self defense move.

Now,
why he did this,
I don’t know.
But I do know that I checked on his school a couple of decades later,?when it was under one of his students,
and it had gone to full contact karate.
Basically,
fighting and…calisthenics.

So,
I understand that martial arts change,
especially when people don’t understand the underlying reasons.
I can only conclude
that the degradation of his karate school
was my fault.
I taught him,
I was young,
I hadn’t figured it out,
I taught him well,
he was good,
but…he didn’t understand the underlying reasons,
so his school degraded,
didn’t die,
just degraded to the point
where it was teaching people how to fight.

So,
I offer underlying reasons,
and I try to fix schools that have degraded.
And…
I encourage people to teach karate, and other martial arts.
I know that the people who have done my martial arts courses
are going to understand why a technique is,
how it works,
and,
more important,
how to get the student to understand.

Want to know something interesting?
I’ve got a book
‘How to Start Your Own School,’
and when somebody write me and asks me about teaching,
I usually give them that book for free.
It’s part of the Master books,
I could sell it Kindle for a few books
(and I probably will)
but I give it away to people who say they want to teach.

Look,
the difference between man and beast is the fact that man understands.
Animals don’t.
They just fight,
and make up a reason for fighting.
Silly animals.

Anyway,
the point of this rant is that if you are hurting economically,
a victim of the money crunch happening in this country,
you can do something about it.
You could order the Master Instructor Course,
do it,
know that you know more than ANY martial arts instructor on the planet,
and then you could head down to the YMCA,
see if they need a karate instructor.
You can put up cards at a local gym.
You could gather a bunch of neighborhood kids.

You can start out low,
$10 a month for kids,
you can go high,
charge good bucks at the gym.

YOU CAN START YOUR OWN CLASS.
Be it Karate or kung fu,
aikido or pa kua,
or whatever,
and using the data that is inside
The Master Instructor Course,
you could teach that art better than it has been taught
since whoever founded it was teaching.

Spare time.
Saturday afternoon.
Evenings.

You could build it into something large!

Do you understand?
The martial arts are a blessing.
They make people better.
They make strong bodies,
increase awareness,
and they are a fist in the face of the bad guys.
But we need people who understand what they really are.

Oinky Donkey.
I hope my rant has helped.
I don’t want you poor,
and I want everybody healthy and happy,
So…think about it.

Let make a couple of other announcements
before I close off.

I’ve got a new site up.
It’s about Bruce Lee.
Can you find it through google?
It’ll be tough,
but it’s out there.
Next week or two
it’ll be easy to find,
but right now…
can you find it?

And,
we’re waiting on word of escrow
for Monkeyland.
Escrow,
120 acres on a hilltop,
and start building a temple.
And I will let you know as soon as this thing comes true.
Pics and everything.
you’ll be blown away.
incredible site.

Okay,
that’s…ooop!
I almost forgot.

If you have a website,
or a functioning blog,
let’s trade links.
I’ve got three different sites
that are chunking pretty traffic,
a link might bring you a little traffic,
and google likes links,
so they might send you traffic.
Just email me at aganzul@gmail.com
and ask about linking up.

Okay,
now that is it.
You guys and gals
enjoy the heck out of this week.
Have lots of work outs,
do what you want to do,
and live life like you were meant to!

Al

And don’t forget to go to…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4-master-instructor-course/

This has been a page about teaching karate…and other martial arts.

He Was Slow and He Didn’t Want to Be A Karate Instructor!

Karate Instructors and Slow People

Way back in 1967 I wanted to be a Karate Instructor. I had started at Chinese Kenpo, and we wore white uniforms and the Instructors wore black. I wanted to be a Karate instructor. I wanted to teach Karate. I wanted…badly.

karate instructor

Martial Arts Knowledge is the Key!



A year passes, a year filled with immensely hard work, where I NEVER missed a class, where I studied EVERYTHING I could, and I was  a Karate instructor. Then, one day this fellow comes in and signs up for some lessons, and I was given him to teach.

He was physically slow. He wasn’t stupid, he just had a body that moved slowly. There was nothing I could do to make him faster. I tried everything I knew, from stop watches to contests to whatever. He had a slow body.

The problem was that he didn’t understand how to move the body. I could tell he was sitting way back inside his head, firmly ensconced, knew that there was nothing but meat to him. He wasn’t even up to the point where he cold isolate muscles in the arms…he was just meat.

I thought of him many times over the years, and I tried to figure out ways to make people faster.

Speed is an interesting thing. In the beginning, speed is bound by your belief in the necessity of muscles to move. In the end…it is an illusion. Something you control by thinking at people and making them accept your viewpoint of reality.

The best and most efficient method for increasing martial arts speed is to be in one place, relax, and be in another place.

Don’t try to be fast, just visualize your body where it is, forget about it, then visualize the next position.

Don’t bother with the inbetween.

I am here…….I am there.

And that’s all there is to it.

And, you can use feedback of your body if you have a rough time doing this.

Listen to the sound of your uniform popping. Listen to the sound of the fist closing. These, and others, are good ways to travel through that inbetween land from slow to fast.

Eventually, with practice, you will be fast. It is just a matter of dedicating yourself, and cultivating proper thought.

This has been a page concerning one of my experiences as a karate instructor.

Keep Your Pants On…It’s the Deadliest Martial Arts Weapon

Deadliest Martial Arts Weapon my…!

I discovered this Martial Arts weapon many, many years ago. I had studied Chinese Kenpo Karate, and eventually earned my black belt in the Kang Duk Won, and I had hefted all manner of weapons.

kung fu master

I had used the sai and the sword and and the nunchucks and the staff and on and on…I even had my own samurai sword!

Then, one day I was over at a friend’s house, he was my Karate work out partner and we were talking weapons, and he suddenly grinned. You’re wearing the deadliest martial arts weapon in existence, and you don’t even know it.

“Wha…?”

So he took me outside, we walked across the street into a big orchard, and he asked me for my belt.

It was a thick belt, had a big, old, heavy buckle on it. Just the kind of thing a young man needs when he wants the world to know he has to keep his pants on.

He dangled that belt from the fist, holding both ends. The buckle tight, and the other end in one loose finger. He picked up a rock, put it in the fold of the belt, and told me to watch a tree some fifty feet away.

WHIIII! He let go the end, and the rock flew like a guided missile. It was a big rock, and he actually broke a small limb off the tree.

Holy %%%%!

I knew I could use the buckle for a flail, but I had never thought of the David and Goliath thing.

To this day I wear a heavy belt, one I can whip out and use to bash or beat, whip or snap…or use as a sling.

And, I keep a supply of steel balls. You can get them off amazon pretty cheap. I’m not pin point in my accuracy, mind you, and my friend admitted that he got in a lucky shot. But, still, I am fairly accurate, I can hit a three foot target from fifty feet, and what I hit stays hit. I tell you, a steel ball will go right through plywood, easy as a .22,  when you do it just right.

If you want to learn more about weapons, I suggest popping over to my Blinding Steel course at Monster Martial Arts.

deadliest martial arts weapon

Using the Karate Kiai to Discover the True Power of Kotodama

Can Karate Kiai Actually Cause Death?

Karate Kiai is a Japanese idea meaning ‘spirit shout,’ and it is the deadly yell that karate practitioners scream when chopping an opponent’s head off. Well, maybe I went overboard with that description a bit, grin, but there is a truth to the karate yell that is unarguable and leads to some rather mysterious knowledge. I am referring to subject of Kotodama, or ‘Word spirit.’

martial arts yellThe notion behind a Karate kiai is to commit all  of ones energies into one moment, one karate technique, and thus to enhance the power of the strike. The idea of scaring a somebody is somewhat secondary, but not to be discounted. Both of these concepts lead to rather interesting belief systems and mysterious realities.

Kotodama is the practice of creating soothing sounds, which sounds can engender a more spiritual feeling in a person. There is, of course, the flip side, the bad word phenomena, in which a sound is used to hurt another person. Either way, kotodama results in the practice of kotomuke (soothing speech to bring peace), and kotoage, which is producing magic.

My first experience with kotodama came from a decades long study of karate, kung fu, and various internal martial arts. This gave direct experience with the power of screaming at an attacker and rendering him impotent. In one case I drew upon the karate kiai to vanguish a would be mugger…he turned around shambled down the street, his body shaking and shivering.

Experiences like this, which were brought about by the faithful repetition of karate patterns with correct attention to Karate kiai, brought me to a profound appreciation of the subject. Of interest in this is the way of speaking of salesmen and mentalists, and other individuals of that type. Watching how such people conducted themselves, the tones they employed, the pitch of sound they utilized, brought me to the notion that we are talking about vibration.

Vibration is generally understood to be the source of the universe. Between the notion of an Eternal Spirit and the solid life of objects (of which the universe is made), is vibration. This concept holds true on the atomic level of protons and electrons, and on the gigantic scale of spinning galaxies and whole universes.

What we are more interested in, however, are the vibrations we can make in our day to day lives. Is it possible to cause a vibration which can move the universe? The answer to this is as simple as the phenomena of an opera singer projecting a tone that cracks a glass.

The way of achieving this ability is just as simple. First, one has to realize, through the projection of virtue into their lives, that they are spiritual in nature, and that they can create vibrations which not only break glass, but which can shiver other objects, and, more easily, cause comfort or discomfort to their fellow humans. Second, one has to discover and follow exactly the disciplines which bring one to this ability…then the result is that a simple Karate kiai can translate into Kotodama can morph into a mystical spell or chant which has the power to harm or heal as one sees fit.

 

Karate Kumite…Mad Dog Survival Isn’t Always Emotional!

Karate Kumite is the Fastest Way to Learn How to Fight!

Karate Kumite and Clint Eastwood, I never thought I’d be talking about those two things together. In ‘The Outlaw Josie Wales,’ Clint lectures some sissy pioneers about how to get mad dog mean if you want to survive. There is truth in his lecture, but if you are involved in classical martial arts training, there is also a lie.

monster martial artsThe truth of the matter is that you have to grow your desire to survive. You have to try harder than you have ever tried before. You have to be willing to fight and not stop fighting.

The falsehood in his lecture is that emotion increases desire to win. To understand why this is important in the martial arts we have to define what emotion is. The bizarre fact is that if you look in a dictionary there is not a good definition.

Emotion is not going to be ‘mood,’ or an ‘instinctive state of mind,’ and a definition of that sort tells us very little. So think on this: when somebody is unable to accept reality they create a mental turmoil that is emotion. That’s a heck of a good definition, and I know because I wrote it myself, but we have to look deeper if we are really going to understand emotion and how it works.

The Neutronic definition is: ‘Motion inside the mind.’ You feel a little rage, and in your mind you want to make motion towards the person causing it (hit them in the head with a hammer). But it is all in your mind, and it tends to be a little less than real.

If you were going to strike somebody, would you focus energy into your knee? Sort of a waste, eh? As a martial artist you want to focus energy only into the fist.

When you direct energy into body parts other than the one(s) being used this is wasting energy. This same holds true concerning emotion. Energy in emotion is not energy dedicated to the desire to win; to win it is best if we get mad dog cool, not extra angry.

Emotion is not a bad thing, for emotion is something we can use to communicate others, show our real feelings, experience love, and that sort of thing. However, emotion when you are trying to survive a dire situation can stultify a person’s desire to fight. When it comes to Karate Kumite, or any other type of classical martial arts fighting method, you must increase your desire to win without falling into emotion, or trying to use emotion in any way.

Got a bully bugging you? Want to be able to to fight back? Karate Kumite is the surest way to defend yourself on the planet. Click to Monster Martial Arts.

Free Martial Arts Book Merry Christmas!

Got a great Martial Arts Book Offer for you.

It’s my way of wishing Merry Christmas to every Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist, Scientologist, or whatever religion you happen to be. This is a special day for somebody somewhere, so we should all party, we should all be glad that somebody has found an excuse to be kind on this war torn, economically deprived, stupid planet.

It’s not your particular special day? Tough. Party anyway, and pray, chant, light a candle for world peace.

Screw the politicians…let’s have fun!

Click here for my Xmas gift…

Martial Science of Neutronics Handles the Mugger!

Martial Science or Martial Art?
Martial Science is what it is,
but everybody thinks it is a Martial Art.
So what is the science behind the science?
What is the Neutronics behind Matrixing?
Matrixing is the analysis and handling of force and direction.
Actually
it is the analysis of the direction of force
so that you can handle it.
Neutronics is the study of motion.
martial artsOr,
to be precise,
it is the study of motion
from a fixed position.
Neutronics is based on three things
Protonic (going towards),
Electronic (going away),
Neutronic (nothing happens).
There is nothing else.
Now,
a guy is walking down the street
and nothing is really happening.
There’s nobody around,
he’s alone,
nothing is happening.
Then
a mugger appears,
does our hero go protonic or electronic?
Fight or flight,
our hero decides to be smart
and starts running.
But the mugger runs faster.
So our hero must zig and zag
and do everything in his power
to make sure
that distance doesn’t close.
He can’t run away,
he doesn’t want to run towards,
so he must maintain distance,
he must make sure that…
‘nothing happens.’
But it is a different level of ‘nothing happening.’
Our hero must control the universe
through his protonic or electronic maneuverings
to create ‘nothing happening.’
Can you do this?
Can you study enough martial arts
so that you have enough knowledge
so that you are creating ‘nothing happening’
and enjoying it?
The mugger is swinging a club and screaming,
and you are laughing and playing.
Eh?
Okay,
so you don’t have a mugger coming at you.
But,
the boss wants to cut your pay
the wife is so irritated she is burning the potatoes,
and the kids are playing with junkies in school…
can you move towards or away
from each of these people
in such a  manner that
not only do you laugh and play,
but they start to laugh and play?
That is neutronic.
That is maintaining a distance
so that everybody wins.
That is real Martial Arts,
that is knowing the martial arts so well
that they take over your life,
and that is going Neutronic.
And a correct study of the Martial Arts
is the only way to do this.
Now,
the sequence is this.
One,
you must learn enough martial arts
so that you have a discipline to hold yourself firm,
that you become a fixed position in space.
Two,
you must matrix those martial arts
so they make sense
and become intuitive.
Three,
you must understand how to use Neutronics.
Simply,
you must understand one and two
so well
that you no longer need the physical,
that you can just use the mental
to do your analysis and handling
of force and direction
and control the universe.
This is how you play with the mugger
get the boss to laugh while he gives you a raise
manipulate the wife’s irritation into joy
and go to the principle’s office because your son just beat up a drug dealer in school.
Okay, okay,
so maybe we missed it a bit on the kid,
but,
hey,
it’s not a bad miss,
right?
Grin.
Anyway,
that’s Neutronics.
It is an actual science
based on the motions of the universe,
and it is the science
behind the science of matrixing.
You can check out Matrixing at
ChurchofMartrialArts(dot)com.
But,
make sure you have enough martial arts discipline
to hold yourself firm,
and enough Matrixing to make it all logical.
Here’s the Matrix Karate course,
it has the basic Matrixing tables,
and the core theory to matrixing,
and will fix any other martial art.
All you have to do is take the matrixing tables
and plug your art into them.
And if you want to start your matrixing
in another art,
that’s okay, too.
Study what interests you.
That’s about it,
not much more to  say,
and it’s time to go work out.
Next newsletter is the infamous,
Monster Night Before Christmas,
so i’ll talk to you then.
HanaKwanMass!
Al
(Don’t miss the Monster Night Before Christmas! Sign up for the Monster Martial Arts Newsletter at…where else…Monster Martial Arts!)
This has been a blog about Martial Science.
martial art

Your Martial Art Doesn’t Work, And Then The Hells Angel Showed Me

A Martial Art and a Hells Angel

outlaw martial art

I had studied Chinese Kenpo Karate for two years. I was an instructor, and I had written the training manual for my school.Then I ran into a Hells Angel.

The story actually started when the restaurant I was working at hired a geeky looking kid. I didn’t like him much, but then one day I saw him kick a wall. The wall shook like the 1906 earthquake, and I knew that he knew something I didn’t.

So I got to know him, and he said he studied Kang Duk Won Korean Karate. He said he didn’t know it well, which I found hard to believe because I had seen him kick a wall harder than a donkey kicks a pervert. He said, however, that his brother knew a lot more than him, and let’s go talk to him.

So that night we drove to Sunnyvale to meet his brother. As we pulled up Alex turned to me and said, “I should tell you that my brother is a Hells Angel.” I blinked, but, heck…I knew Chinese Kenpo Karate, right?

His brother was just under six feet tall, a little shorter than me, but he had the outlaw look in his piercing eyes. We talked about Karate for a while, and then he stated, “Your Martial Art doesn’t work.” He twisted two of the gnarliest fists I had ever seen into my shirt and told me to work my best technique on him.

I went into action. I locked his fists with one hand and brought my other hand up to break his elbows, I struck his wrists with my radial paralyzing downward chop, and when I went to chop him in the throat he threw me through a wall. Yep, all the way through a wall.

He laughed and gave me a hand up, and then he told me to grab his shirt front. I did, and he showed me the self defense technique that he learned at the Kang Duk Won. He reached over and popped a fist into my chest so hard that…that’s right, I went through the wall.

This is a true story, and being tossed through a wall twice changed my life, definitely changed the way I was learning martial arts, and prompted me down the road to other martial arts and how to really make them work. I spent over a half dozen years at the Kang Duk Won Korean Karate school, worked alongside all manner of people, including hells angels and other outlaw bikers. Included in my education was why a martial art doesn’t work.

The things that martial arts instructors add to their martial art, the slant towards tournaments and making money, there’s no end to the gimmicks that have messed up the art. That’s why I came up with Matrixing, so martial arts instructors could fix all that kind of stuff. Click to Monster Martial Arts and see what I came up with.

Old Man Knocked Out…Is It Time To Study Kung Fu?

Everybody is going to realize it is time to Study Kung Fu when they see this video. It takes place on a Chicago subway platform, some old dude is walking along begging for change, and he runs into the wrong crowd. Google ‘Elderly Man Attacked on CTA Platform (Chicago).’

Now, time for some serious thought about what just happened. You see somebody old and helpless, almost dazed, definitely doesn’t have a clue, get the sense knocked out of him. So what is it about him that drives a bunch of young criminals to violence?

He isn’t a threat, not any way you look at him. He’s not threatening people, doesn’t really look like he knows what he is doing. So there is no reason for his mugging, and let’s consider the young punk who did the deed to him.

The guy is young and arrogant, probably doesn’t work, and doesn’t look like he wants to. He’s got his crowd of homies, all as full of themselves and as criminal as him, and they are cheering him on. So here’s the question: is this what is happening to the United States?

Or, maybe the question we should frame should be, are you going to do anything about it? There aren’t any police around, and no one comes to protect the old dude. People just run get out of the way and act like doped up people at a rock concert.

And, here’s the point I want to make: nobody knows Kung Fu. Nobody knows Shaolin or Wing Chun or even Tai Chi Chuan. Nobody, even after the fact, goes after the kid and takes him down and holds him for the police.

Now, with America going the way it is going, people out of work, or, like this kid, not even wanting to work, there is obviously going to be violence on the streets. We see the protestors and the mobs, and we hear the rumors of food riots on their way, and do you know any kind of personal self defense? Have you ever had a martial arts class, learned a karate kata, done a few taekwondo kicks?

Maybe it’s time to do something like that, you know? If the future is filled with what you just saw on that Chicago subway, maybe it’s time to learn how to take somebody out with a good swift kick, a poke to the eyes, some, old fashioned Kung fu self defense moves. Well, while you think about whether you are going to survive the coming years, I’m going to find a training hall where I can study Kung Fu.

It’s really to study Kung Fu. Head to Monster Martial Arts for the most efficient Kung Fu you have ever seen.
get black belt now

What is a Karate Sensei Trying to Teach?

Not many people understand what a real Karate sensei is trying to teach. Too often people sign up for a karate lesson, learn to bow and call the teacher Sensei, and don’t even know what the word means. This is true not just of karate, but of other martial arts, such as Kenpo or Kung Fu. To understand what the word sensei means, however, is to change the student’s mind about what the martial arts are all about.

In Japan there is a three year ‘task’ for monks during their training. During this time they must live by the kindness of their fellow man. They sit in places where people pass by and hold their cups out and beg without speaking.

One of the places for these monks is at crossroads. People travel by, flip a coin in the cup, and walk on. And, occasionally, people ask where a destination is.

The monk, who after a time of living in such a manner looks rather shabby, merely extends his finger and points down the road. Thus, the word sensei means: ‘He who points the way.’ And this term has been taken and used by people who are guiding others to a specific destination.

Now, the unfortunate fact is that many martial arts instructors don’t understand this. Martial Arts have exploded across civilization so fast that proper teachings have been all but forgotten. Thus, many karate sensei are in it solely for the ‘domination factor.’

Thus, real teachings are put aside, and the teaching method has been geared for the person who wishes to control people. But a real martial arts teacher doesn’t control people; he teaches martial arts. And there is a huge and vast difference between these two things.

The fellow who teaches people is looking for money, to dominate, to make sure he is the leader of the pack. The fellow who teaches martial arts doesn’t care about being leader of the pack, he just wants to give information that will lead the student down the correct path. The question is…what is the correct path?

A martial art teacher who lacks understanding will point to trophies, to being in charge, to winning no matter what the cost is. A martial art instructor who has not journeyed upon the way himself will push people, call for discipline, and make people monkey see monkey do what he is showing them, no matter that he doesn’t understand it himself. A true Karate sensei gives the teachings, then removes himself from the path of the student.

Fortunately, there is a course that is not monkey see monkey do, but actually works the way old time martial arts instruction. Karate sensei everywhere, if they want to be true to the art, should look to the Martial Arts Instructor Course at Free Martial Arts Online.