Category Archives: karate

Why We Wear Martial Arts Uniforms…

To Gi or not to Gi, that is the Martial Arts Question…

I put on my first gi back in 1967. It was pretty cool, my school had actually found a company that could supply us regularly. Very difficult to find sometimes, back then. We didn’t mind the $15 we had to pay.

It was yellowish, too short, looked ridiculous, but I found something interesting: it taught you how to focus. When you punched right it ‘popped!’

So I made everything I did pop, every kind of kick and punch and even block that I could…I popped.

I bought my first Tokaido, and it was a day in heaven. I’m not a clothes hound, but when I stepped on to the mat in that Tokaido, I felt…BIG!

And, my techniques were better. It took more power to pop, the material was thicker.

Of course, I had to buy the Tokaido, I had been made into an instructor, and I was told to look the part, or else!

I wore that uniform til it literally disintegrated. I went through the ‘don’t wash’ period, for a couple of weeks. Then the smell made me realize that I wanted to wash it, and I used to wash it and press it and fold it with absolute devotion and respect.

Yet I knew, always, that it was always in my mind. It was my uniform, my way of ‘preparing’ for my mock combat, my lessons in mortality and immortality.

Don’t want to wear one? That’s cool. Choice.

But look inside the uniform first, look under the skin. Check out to see whether you have the requisite pride, and in the proper degree and form, before you hold them in disregard.

As for me, they’ll have to pry my gi from my cold, dead…body.

Have a great work out! Al from monstermartialarts.

Check out the new Kenpo Karate book!

Five Steps to a Perfect Martial Arts Kiai!

Making your Kiai a real ‘Spirit Shout!’

All too often people describe it as a “spirit yell”, but this only scratches the surface, and it is a horrible translation. If we look at the word in kanji, you will see that it is made up 2 characters.  The first is Ki ( ? ), this is the character for energy, whether you call it chi, qi, or prana.  The second is Ai ( ? ) meaning harmony. Some of you may notice something here, those are the same 2 character as Aikido ( ??? ) but in a different order.  Thus “fighting yell” doesn’t enter into a proper translation.

So, a kiai, isn’t a fighting scream, but rather any sound that brings your energy into harmony with the situation.  Nobody ever talks about it anymore but this could be a sob, a laugh, a sigh, or scream to bring all your force to bear in a fight.

Kang-Duk-Won-side-ad
Since nobody ever has to explain how to laugh or cry, let us turn our attention to the application of “bringing the force to bear in a fight” or spirit yell.

If you visit enough other places you will no doubt see people, saying the word “kiai” or “kiup” (the Korean pronunciation) with no more enthusiasm than a yawn.  This is useless, utterly useless.

Kenpo says there are 5 reasons to do a Kiai

1. make sure you are breathing when you are executing a technique
2. distract your opponent
3. attract attention
4. tighten your muscles, thus protecting your body.
5. bring power to your technique.

Numbers 2, 3, and 5 will not work AT ALL if you are wimpy and quiet.

When you watch the old martial arts movies, you don’t see people giving a kiai, like a child who is in trouble being asked to confess.  It is loud, bold and proud.

More than once  people tell me “it is embarrassing to scream”, to which my response is “SO WHAT!  If I have to defend myself, I will give a kiai, and if the bad guy laughs at me, I don’t care.  Regardless how they respond, whether it is shock, laughter, or they turn to run, that is going to give me my opening”.

Did Bruce Lee care about what people thought? No!  He said (paraphrasing here) “every technique should have a life of its own, part of that is giving it a unique sound.”  This is why he was making sounds, that even other martial artists thought, were weird.

A good kiai comes from the Dan Tien (Tanden), if it helps, think of it as coming from the diaphragm. In theater, they call this “projecting” so the people in the nosebleed seats can hear you.  To go along with what Bruce said, it can be any sound, but “kiai” is not an Onomatopoeia, so please don’t use that as your sound.  Even the 1970s corny movie “hi-ya” is less annoying than “kiai”.

My Sensei says “if a Kiai is done correctly, you don’t go horse”.  This is true, but if you aren’t doing a proper kiai now, it will likely take a bit of practice to figure out how to be all “heavy metal concert” on it, without hurting your voice.

Here is a REALLY good article about what it means to bow in the martial arts.

Karate Kata…How Good Are They?

Martial Arts Kata, Good or Bad?

in the Martial Arts Kata are often translated as martial arts forms, so I use the terms interchangeably.

Bruce Lee said in “The Tao of Jeet Kune Do” the following about forms:

“Too much horsing around with unrealistic stances and classic forms and rituals is just too artificial and mechanical, and doesn’t really prepare the student for actual combat.”

martial arts karate kataIs this true? Or is it meaningful, do forms actually teach you combat? Certainly looking at Pinan/Heian 1, or Kenpo Long 1, you have to wonder, is this meaningful? Are they honestly expecting me to drop the opposite hand when I block and punch?  And why are they having me drop my hands when in sparring they tell me to keep my hands up?

Even with something so entrenched as Sanchin, or the Sil Lum Tao those that lack correct teaching have to wonder, “how is this teaching me to fight?”.

In stark contrast are kata such as sanseirui, where it is very apparent that the kata is truly a combat scenario that captured and formalized into a form. This is evidenced by the lack of symmetry in the form, you don’t have “do the exact same thing on the other side” or “first do it on the right, then on the left”.

But do any of them provide you with anything useful? Or do they lock you into a routine.

Bruce was an incredible man, certainly what he said must have some value.  Besides, if not for forms, how do we transmit the style, untarnished, to the next generation?

The problem with Bruce, is that he was amazing. He was so amazing that somewhere along the line he seems to have forgotten that you have to explain to a new student how to make a fist, not to punch with the flat part of your fist, to line up the bones, to add CBM.  We can see that he knew this, for he said (paraphrasing here) “before I learned to punch, a punch was just a punch, while I was learning, a punch was much more than a punch.  Now, a punch is just a punch”.  However, he repeatedly wanted to throw away all the tools that are used to learn basics.

To quote my sensei, “you have to have a set of basics before you start learning to break free of the forms”.

I feel that all forms are intended to serve a purpose, but what is that purpose?

Let us start with the so simple that they are obnoxious forms, like the early Kenpo forms and the Pinans.  They are not meant to be combat forms, they are meant to be a way to train symmetry, and to familiarize you with the “alphabet of movement” that your system trains.  Think of the movements in these forms as “this is my footwork, these are my blocks, these are my strikes,  there are many like them, but these are mine”.  Symmetry is important, you need to be able to block, thrust, flick, parry and strike on both sides, these forms teach you exactly that, and they force you to practice equally on both sides.  Bruce may have been so good that he only needed five techniques and only those on his lead side, but that doesn’t account for most people, nor does it address what you are supposed to do if you get injured during combat.

So basic, boring forms have a purpose, even if it is only training.  However, when we go back to the question of dropping the hand, you do have to stop and wonder why practice something that we would never want to do in combat.   This is where I personally feel that some of these forms are less valuable than they could be.

Sanchin appears to be one of these boring beginner forms; however, it is an exceptional kata, Please see the earlier article I wrote on Sanchin (add a link to the other blog post).  My sensei was fond of saying that he could tell your belt level by watching your performance of Sanchin.

The Sil lum tao, is also a form that appears to be on the boring scale, however, it is a very internal form. It is meant to isolate the hand movements used in Wing Chun so they can be practiced separately from any foot movement, and to build Chi power.  These 2 aspects mean that it can be practiced and improved on for the rest of your life, just like Sanchin.

None of the seemingly boring kata teach you to fight, not even sanchin.  They may teach you many critical elements of fighting, blocks and strikes that you can combine, a clear calm mind, the ability to take a hit and continue. These things and more can be learned from kata.

Learning to fight from a kata though?  That is tough, there are people that have been reputed to have done so, I have a very hard time believing that.

In my mind the only way to improve reflexes, and learn to handle unexpected things is to get into sparring (at all contact levels) with as many different people as possible.  Try to get with people of different levels, different arts, and no arts.

In my personal opinion, I feel kata are very important, both for handing down the style, uncompromised. They are critical for training your body to use all the different tools in the styles toolbox.

I do not feel that they are a prison, rather an encyclopedia of motion and much more.  In my mind all kata should give you as many tools as Sanchin, Sil lum tao and Sanseirui.   However, if the form teaches you to do dangerous things, like drop your hands, you might want to re-evaluate the validity of that particular form.

If you want to align and make logical your Martial Arts Kata, check out the Master Instructor Course at MonsterMartialArts.com.

How to Defend Against Dogs with Martial Arts

Martial Arts Defense Against Killer Dogs

Is this going to be a GREAT week or what?
Eh?
I mean,
the stars are in alignment,
the tea leaves are propitious,
and,
if that isn’t enough…
you get to work out!

best karate kung fu chi training manual

Click on the cover!

Of all them prophetic devices…
only the work out is the sure thing,
so I think I’ll work out twice!

Oinkly doggie.
Let’s leap right into the good stuff,
let’s talking about taking out attack trained,
killer vicious curs called…
guard dogs.

I was ten years old,
was cutting across a neighbors estate on my bicycle
and a big, old weimaraner
who I had known and played with,
attacked me.
Dragged me off the bicycle
and I managed to steer the falling bike
towards the property line,
and I fell into the street.
Off the property.
The guard dog,
who I had known and played with,
petted and wrestled with,
growled and snapped at me,
but was stopped by the property line.

Okay.
Guards dogs gone wild.
you know?

So I was afraid of dogs after that.
Then,
when I was eleven,
my older brother gave me his paper route.
And,
on one of the streets,
you guessed it,
a dog.
Not a guard dog,
but he would run into the street
and chase me.
I would peddle and cry.
And I asked my brother what he did about the dog.
“I kick it.”
It’s got to reach you,
so when it jumps,
I kick it.

I envisioned kicking,
even practiced it a bit,
and,
the next day,
I was delivering papers,
and,
you guessed it,
the dog comes chasing after me!

Man,
I stomped that sucker right in the face.
He yipped and ran.
And,
a half hour later,
I rode past that house again.
I was feeling a bit proud,
maybe even a bit blood thirsty,
hoping that dog would attack me again
so I could nail his face with my
Sunday go to meeting shoes.
(They were the only hard soles I had)

There were teeth on the ground!
I had actually knocked his teeth out!
HAHAHAHA!

And,
over the years,
I think about the A$$whole
who owned that dog.
Cause it’s the owner that should be kicked,
not the dog.
I’ll bet the owner thought it was funny,
his lights were on,
he let the dog out,
laughed when the paper boy ran.

Well,
he was feeding that dog mush with a spoon now!

Okay.
That sets us up.
Let’s talk about Monkeyland.

We have dogs up here.
Truth,
I LOVE dogs.
I hike all over with them.
I throw sticks.
I even swim with them!

Nothing is better than a big, old mutt
with a wet, sloppy tongue.
Nothing.

So we’ve got three dogs.
One is a hundred pound lab.
Big frigging tongue on that boy!
The other two are Mallenois.
Mother and pup.
Mallenois are like under sized german shepherds.
And,
they are highly prized as guard dogs.
My partner brought them up,
introduced the mother,
who was highly trained,
as a killer.

Well,
that’s not really what we’re about at Monkeyland,
but he’s my partner’s,
so now we have a highly trained attack dog.

Here’s the bad news.
The mother is loving,
one of the most loving dogs I have ever seen.
It is…
over loving.
Frantic.
Desparate.
You can’t go outside without the dog leaping on you,
hugging you,
trying to curl around your feet,
prostating itself and
…just wanting love.

The trainer,
you see,
has done a number on her.
Probably a good trainer.
My opinion,
however,
is that the dog will protect instinctively.
Doesn’t need to be trained to harm a human being.
In fact,
I think the training,
to harm another human being,
is a crime.
And what it has done to that poor dog…
Lord.
That poor dog is just out of its mind.

It’s always the owner,
in this case the trainer,
you know?

Anyway,
before I rant on a$$wholes who train dogs,
let’s talk about taking out a dog
that has been trained to harm human beings.

I went out on the front porch to do a work out.
Beautiful out there.
A mile of green valley and blue skies.
High, puffy clouds wafting across the sky.
A hint of breeze to cool off the work out
and let it go even longer.

Paradise,
you know?

BUT,
the dog wants love.
Is desperate for love.
And it crawls under my feet,
tries to jump on me.
So I practice my footwork,
anticipating directions,
and the dog is falling into space,
can’t keep up,
even falling down.

Hey!
This is fun!
BUT,
somewhere in there,
the attack responses are triggered.
The dog leaps at me.

Remember that dog I played with?
And who dragged me off my bike?
Man,
here it as,
all over again.

Not quite vicious,
but the line between love and hate,
usually large,
has been slipped over.
The dog leaps at me,
snapping at my wrists.
I realize that this is one of the devices
that the trainer must have used.
Play,
slap around,
get it to go lightly vicious.
A game,
you know?

But the A$$whole trainer
obviously didn’t know martial arts.

I was doing Tai Chi at the time,
the first move,
ward off.
The dog leaped,
I shuffled back slightly,
bowed my belly in,
and held my arms out,
the dog was in my space,
and I lowered my arm so that the forearm was at the neck,
turned my hips,
and threw the dog.

Man,
you have never seen such a quick and efficient throw.
That dog just flipped on its side.

It leaped at me.
I did golden rooster,
a simple knee,
and the dog bounced off the point of the knee and fell back.
Yipping!

I smiled,
cocked my head,
and held my hand out and motioned to the dog like Bruce Lee.
Come on.

The dog went for the feet.
I was wearing soft shoes,
so I merely stepped in front of my left foot with my right,
then,
when the dog was fooled,
slapped it in the head with a left sole behind the right leg.
Came right out of nowhere,
rocked that momma like there was no tomorrow.

Now,
I was being incredibly soft.
I LOVE dogs.
Even attack trained vicious guard dogs.
It’s the owner,
you know?

But I moved across that porch,
befuddling,
confounding,
confusing,
and threw that dog this way and that.
Didn’t use any force.
Just slipped and turned,
gave the dog the target,
then withdrew it.

And,
after a while,
the dog wasn’t sure what to do.
In the game it had been trained in,
it won,
got a cookie for savaging a wrist or ankle.
Got loving for biting the padded mid section.
Here,
there was no midsection.
And the ankles bit back and were gone.
And the wrists,
oh Lord,
going for the wrists
was a fool’s errand.
That always resulted in a disappearing target,
and a dog body flipped on it’s side,
and a series of Karate punches to the belly.
Soft punches.
And,
grin,
I avoided any of the Tai Chi strikes.
I didn’t want to kill the dog.

So,
that’s how you handle an attack trained
vicious,
killer guard dog.

Karate will work fine,
or any other art,
but remember that it is play here,
and that you are,
in essence,
undoing what the dog has been trained to do.
And,
remember,
it is always the owner.

The guard dog,
any dog,
is just one of God’s critters,
and we are charged with taking care of them.
Not using them against our fellow man,
beyond their natural protectiveness.

And,
it makes me think,
there are a few people I’d like to ‘de-train’
a few politicians.
Hmmm.
Maybe that’s a story for another time,
eh?

Have a great and glorious work out!
And don’t forget to pet your dog,
and play with him every day.
especially if he’s been attack trained.
Grin.

Al

Here’s the link for Matrix Tai Chi Chuan.
That’s the stuff I use,
and I recommend it HIGHLY!

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/2ba-matrix-tai-chi-chuan/

Is it Possible to have Perfect Martial Arts?

Chess and the First Move in the Martial Arts

I recently wrote on article on ‘Beyond Western Muscles and the Martial Arts,’ and in that article I mentioned an idea I had come across many years ago: that in a perfect chess game white will win for the simple reason that it moved first.

This has obvious implications in the martial arts. Two combatants edging towards each other, the perfect gunfight, searching for that threshold of distance wherein they can strike first and without getting struck.

Some people didn’t agree with this. I thought it a simple matter of extrapolating Einstein’s theory of relativity, and the resulting corollaries in subatomic physics, but, alas, I guess I was not…the first to move.

Then I had an interesting email wherein the fellow said that if two tai chi masters fight, the one who moves first will always lose.

Lord! Now I didn’t know what to think!

Except (aha!), if one understands that the perfect state of consciousness (awareness) is to consider oneself the center of the universe, and that everything revolves around oneself, and that there is no proof that anything (or entity) exists, except as is created by the being at the center of the universe.

This theory holds up to the concept that at the center of all motion is motionlessness. This theory finally achieves the concept of perfection in the martial arts, and in the whole universe!

In this realm thought ceases to be motion, and becomes the ultimate no motion.

Which brings us to the grand conclusion.

If one doesn’t move first, then one will win. This fulfills the highest goals of the the martial arts, defines the highest attributes of an individual, and results in the cessation of all wars for an everlasting reign of peace on earth.

After, of course, one puts a big juicy, raw steak on his eyeball.

If you want perfection in your fighting abilities you have to matrix your martial arts. Go to Monster Martial Arts and find out what Matrixing is.

If you like martial arts humor you should check out the Case Histories column at Monster Martial Arts.

Spirit Shouting as a Martial Arts Weapon

The Secret of the Kiai (Spirit Shout)

A work out at sunrise!
What a way to go, eh?
Perfect weather,
perfect environment…
perfect work out.
Really charges me up.
And I trust you had one, too?
And, if you didn’t,
get your butt out there
and start working out!

karate kiai spirit shout

Yell when you strike!

 
I was cruising the net the other day,
and came across a most interesting discussion
on the value of Kiai.
You know,
when you yell so loud
the other fellow loses control of his functions.
Heh.

Interestingly enough,
many people said they didn’t kiai,
and they indicated
by their remarks
that they didn’t even know what it was.

Kiai means ‘spirit shout.’
And let me tell you an interesting story.

I practiced for years and years
and part of every class
was a kiai,
or a ‘ki-yup’
as the instructor said
when counting off the forms.

And I loved it.
I could feel the explosion come together,
I loved how it made the body peak,
brought out more energy.

One day I was walking down the street,
this was in Santa Rosa,
and this bum comes shuffling towards me
and he says,
‘Got some change, man?’
Interestingly,
it was not the usual whine,
but a more forceful request.

‘No,’ I said,
no nonsense.
This guy was young,
could go out and get himself a job,
no need to beg.
Some people are helpless,
this guy wasn’t.

So I get about ten feet past him,
and all of the sudden I hear him say,
‘No? What are you, some kind of pussy?’

Seriously,
a new kind of begging.
If people don’t give you money,
you threaten them.
Maybe it worked for him,
but then he hadn’t run into anybody
who had practicing his kiai
for near twenty years.

‘No?’ I kiai-ed, turning back towards him.
Then I walked towards him,
shouting in full kiai,
filling the street with my voice,
and telling him all sorts of things,
about his character and personality.

Well,
you could see him leaning backward,
it was almost like watching that commercial
where the guy sits in front of a massive speaker
and his hair blows back.
And he finally manages to turn,
and stumble away.
Honestly,
he had lost control of his feet.
Didn’t know what to do.

Then the truly interesting thing happened,
I looked around the street,
there were maybe twenty or thirty people around,
walking along the street,
looking in windows,
and none of them were looking at me.
They were all shaking,
afraid to even look around.

My kiai inspired shouting,
my ‘spirit shout,’
had done that.

Now,
sounds a little too good to be true,
doesn’t it?
So how about if I tell you the secret
of what I did?

First,
I spent some seven years or so
training in the Kang Duk Won.
And we did Kiai’s there.

But any system of Karate will work,
if you remember a couple of things.
Go on,
use
the search box
on Matrix Martial Art
(alcase.wordpress.com)
Search for CBM,
or Coordinated Body Motion.
I learned that in my seven years.
Of course,
when you apply this data to your own karate system
you have to make sure you have
the three elements of power in alignment.
That’s on the Master Instructor Course.

Easy secret, eh?
Just understand what I am saying,
and do it.
Your kiai will grow like nobody’s business.

But,
let me explain,
exactly,
what happens,
so you will really understand
what we are doing here.

But,
before I explain this,
please get yourself a dictionary or something,
cause what I am going to tell you is out there.

You don’t look with your eyes.
You look through your eyes.

You don’t listen with your ears,
you listen through your ears.

Your eyes and ears are meat.
You are the awareness looking through the meat perceptions of your body.

Okay,
if you can handle that,
then we just reverse engineer that concept
to understand the kiai.

You don’t yell with your voice,
you yell through your voice.
If you can yell not as a meat body,
but as an awareness,
then you will have it.
You will have a kiai,
and a personal presence,
that can shatter crowds.

You,
as an awareness,
fill up the lungs and the voice box and…
the entire world.
You fill the world with your presence.
It’s easy to do if you have seven years of GOOD karate,
or…
here we go,
if you practice forms with matrixing,
if you matrix your body with the master instructor course,
if you just understand what you are doing
by understanding the simple things I say here.

And it is simple,
isn’t it?

It’s hard to take…
(I’m not [choke] meat?
I’m not a body?
I’m an…awareness?
I am an ‘I am,’
and that is a the spiritual nature of things?))

But if you can understand that you are awareness,
then you can shift your understanding
away from the mystical martial arts approach
and start to understand the science I am proposing.??Then you won’t need seven years to get there?(if you are lucky,?and actually have a good system)?You can get there in a few months.

Oinkly doggie.
Here’s the URL for
The Master Instructor Course…

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

Remember,
you are an awareness,
an ‘I am,’
the center of the universe,
and the martial arts are a way to know that.
And the Kiai,
the spirit shout,
is a great way to start knowing that.

Now,
have a GREAT work out,
and HanaKwanMass!

Al

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

The Difference Between a Martial Artist

Defining the Difference between low level and high level Martial Artists

Speaking of Martial Arts, my brother had possibly the lamest joke of all time. He would ask, ‘What’s the difference between a duck?’ And, the answer: ‘One leg is both the same.’

And, having contributed possibly the lamest entry in the history of martial arts writing, and maybe of writing of all time, let me explain the difference between a martial artist.

difference martial artists

Are you good or bad as a martial artist?

 
On the bottom you have sleeping dreams, which are usually just a confusion of memories.
Simply, people without martial arts go to sleep and they have weird dreams as the things they have experienced in life try to fit in with the jumble of their memories.

On the top you have the ethereal universe, or ethereal plane. This has been spoken of, and you can do some research, but you’re in for a real egghead time. So let me just clarify it as simply as I can.

It is a universe not based on memory; it is a universe of thought; it is a universe where human beings have their real existence…before manifesting the thoughts of that real existence on this shabby, little ball of dirt called earth.

It’s where you decide to win the fight with one punch…before the punch is thrown.

Since the idea of deciding to win or lose before the action even takes place is important in the martial arts, let’s explore this concept of dreams and ethereal existence from the viewpoint of emotion.

A person at the bottom has emotion. Anger, fear, rage, and so on. Simply, he is manifesting emotion hopelessly. He can’t deal with it, so he expresses it. He externalizes it in a vain attempt to give it away.

A person who has found the ethereal universe will have no emotion. Having no emotion, however, does not immune a person from such things as joy and love and so on. Joy and love and such things, you see, are an expression of spirit, of the actual soul.
People experiencing emotion think they are experiencing emotion when they encounter joy, for instance. But the actuality is that they have done without emotion and are now experiencing themselves. Brief, but true, and then emotion snags them down again, and they don’t understand the lie that has been perpetuated upon them by their misunderstanding of what actual emotion is…and what the attributes of the human soul are.

By doing the martial arts one learns how to do without emotions and experience life as a joyful experience.
And here is something a lot of people who think they are martial artists, but who aren’t, will not like: if you experience anger, or rage, or similar emotion during fighting, then you aren’t doing the martial arts.
You may be doing martial arts tricks, but you haven’t found the true art which will reveal the soul.

If you experience emotion, and would like to find the true martial art that trains you to control your emotions, and thus reveals the true martial art, then pop on over to MonsterMartialArts.com.
If you would like to explore such concepts as the Ethereal Plane, then head on over to ChurchofMartialArts.com. Be careful, though, because without the discipline of the martial arts you won’t really understand what is being said there. You just think you will.

Things To Know About the Samurai Sword

When Is a Curved Sword a Straight Line?

I’m working on a new book.
How to Matrix the Samurai Sword.
Should be ready in a week or so.
It requires odd graphics on my poser program,
so it might take a wee bit longer,
but,
a couple of weeks is still my guess.

karate movie star

Real men use swords!


 

In my software program,
the hard thing is making a samurai sword.
I could go buy a jpeg,
but I hate getting things that way.
I’m on a budget,
you know?
And then I would still have a rough time turning it in 3d.

So what I do is take a line,
and make it into a pole,
and use the pole for the sword.
The hard thing is moving the pole around
and not having it shape shift on me.
Graphics are not my strong point.
But,
that said,
let me tell you something about graphics.

First,
I have delved into every software program in the last 25 years,
looking for ways to represent the martial arts.
One of the funnest,
but most tiresome,
was just drawing stick figures
with an appleworks program.
I wrote a whole book,
drawing hundreds of stick figures,
all the forms and self defenses,
and it was bizarre,
and it was cool.
And that was only one of the weird things I did,
in the weird world of graphics.

Second,
working on all these programs,
writing all these books,
enlightened me as to one simple fact.
Fortunately,
I figured this out early,
and it made my researching and searching all the easier.
Here is that one simple fact:

Every weapon is a straight line.
Now,
the first thought,
when considering this,
is that it isn’t true.
A samurai sword is curved,
and what about a chain?
Or a sickle?
Or a bullet that drops to the ground because of gravity?

But,
a samurai sword is a straight line that is bent.
A nunchuk is a straight line with a hinge in it.
A bullet falling to earth is a straight line being bent by gravity.
And so on.

I know,
sounds like a quibbling point,
doesn’t it?
But consider what is behind the weapon.
A human being.
Consider how a human being thinks when trying to destroy.
A straight line through the object to be destroyed.
So every weapon follows the thought of the human being wielding it,
every weapon then becomes a straight line at heart.

A sword slashed in a circle.
I am at the center of the circle,
extending a straight line,
and turning.

A bomb.
There must be a trajectory,
a straight line
(often acted upon to create this illusion called a curve),
and when the bomb explodes…
it is straight lines in all directions.

Now,
I don’t discredit other geometries.
But I consider them secondary, and made of straight lines.
A circle can always be cut into smaller and smaller segments,
until it is nothing but straight lines betweens points on the circle.

Weird, eh?

Now,
if you disagree with me,
that’s okay.
You see,
that’s what works for me.
And if you decide to believe that the universe is nothing but circles,
and you can make that work to make your martial art work,
how can I argue?

But let me tell you the real thing behind me telling you all this:

to make people think.

Most people have never considered the structure of a weapon,
let alone the geometry of the weapon,
except in the most cursory
monkey see monkey do manner.

But now you are thinking.

Straight line?
Circle?

And that difference will lead you into deeper considerations
of how to use a weapon.

Okay,
that said,
let me explain something about this new book
that is a coming.

Back in 1976
my father died,
and the house went into legal entanglements,
and I had to live there for a year
while the thing got settled.
And,
I was out of work.
The company I was at was under investigation
for using certain cancer causing chemicals.

I tell you,
it is weird to be working next to somebody
who is apparently in great health,
young and full of it,
and have them fall off a ladder,
and be dead the next week
because of some kind of cancer that works in a week.

So,
I was out of work,
living rent free,
got a little social security,
and…
what was I to do?

I decided to learn the sword.
I had haunted the movie houses around the area,
from San Francisco to San Jose,
seen all the one armed swordsman movies,
all the baby carriage movies,
all the things that that people
who only saw Bruce Lee
missed.

So I went to Chinatown and bought a sword.
It was a cheap piece of stuff,
but it did for me.
I began drawing the sword,
and cutting,
and thrusting,
and had friggin’ clue at all
as to what I was doing.
I tell you,
you would have laughed.

But,
I had a solid base in Karate,
and I understood the value of basics,
and the foundation of matrixing was in my mind,
so,
after a couple of months,
things weren’t looking so bad.
Then I came across the suburitos,
and things changed.
The suburitos (spelling?) are a series of basic exercises,
and I started matrixing them,
making long lists of potential techniques,
considering them against other weapons and methods
(straight line v circle?)
and just looking for the logic of it all.
And then I started coming up with foot patterns,
and principles that guided me into complex moves,
and,
by the end of a year,
I knew the sword.

Oddly,
it wasn’t that tough.
Matrixing, you know,
but the main thing was you had to forget a lot of other martial arts,
and let the shape of the sword guide you.

To state it Neutronically:

The secret of the sword
is in understanding the exact notion
that constructed the weapon.

Yes.

Okay,
this has all been interesting stuff,
unless,
of course,
you have no interest in weapons.
But if you do,
I would suggest checking out Blinding Steel.
Get the knowledge of ALL weapons,
and get ready for the extreme specialization
of the samurai sword.

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/3a-blinding-steel-matrixing-weapons/

I don’t care if it is a pencil in your hand,
or a ten foot long can opener,
when you learn blinding steel,
you learn the truth about extensions of yourself.

Now,
have a great week,
and a great bunch of work outs,
and get ready for Hanakwanmass.

Oh,
you don’t know what hanakwanmass?
Well,
stay tuned,
I’ll tell you next newsletter.

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/3a-blinding-steel-matrixing-weapons/

Breathless Martial Arts…Empty Karate…Silent Aikido

The Value of Silence in the Martial Arts

Karate, Gung Fu, Taekwondo…no matter what martial art…they need silence to grow.

My first hint of this was the ‘empty’ in Empty Hands, which is the literal translation of Karate.

Empty hands, and empty mind. A zen thing.

kung fu karate

Be silent, my friend, and hear yourself think…

 
Not how many tournaments you can win, not how ‘bad’ you are, but how silent you can be.

A light bulb depends on space to create the spark that lightens society. Is not space emptiness? Silence?

The human being is a light bulb, a machine through which sparks energy. But he blathers so much that there is no silence, thus, he never turns on those extra sensory perception tools like telepathy.

He is left with the sound of his body, a noisy thing that obscures his real thoughts.

A human being must create silence, and then the light bulb can go on.

When there is no sound he can create silence.

When there is no sound he can listen…and hear.

Hear what?

Hear his own thoughts.

Hear the thoughts of others.

When I was in the city I found it difficult to work out. I had done martial arts in such a way, and for so long, that I wasn’t interested in speaking, and the speaking of others disturbed the silence.

Humans are a loud variety.

Their heads actually make enormous noises, but the noises are beneath the human band of hearing. Thus, he is guilty of noise pollution, a machine trundling through life making squeaking gurgling sounds that are deafening to animals, but nothing to himself. He has made sure he can’t hear his own noise.

A polluter.

When you create enough silence the world speaks to you.

You can hear the animals look at you.

Animals are silent. They know how to listen. They never bothered to learn how to speak. Their ‘speech’ is more in action, pose, posture, grin.

Humans are so miserable.

They talk and they talk and they talk, and the world never listens.

Try the martial arts.

Try them blindfolded in a room without lights late at night.

Move by using your imagination.

Do your karate or kenpo or aikido in silence, lessening even the slither of bare foot over carpet, doing without noise.

Until not even your breath can be heard.

Breathless Martial Arts.

When you finally succeed in making perfect silence, then will you hear the true martial arts.

Then will you hear the world.

Then will you hear yourself.

Al Case has been studying the Martial Arts since 1967. Tai Chi Chuan is perfect for creating silence in the Martial Arts.

How to Kill a Leopard with Your Bare Karate Hands!

You Can Kill with your Bare Karate Hands, Too!

Okay, I say bare Karate Hands, but it could be bare Kung Fu hands, or Kenpo hands, or whatever.

But the point is this is a true story of a man who killed a leopard with his bare hands. Complete with the technique he used, and the sense of personal self belief that is necessary to kill a wild animal that attacks you.

Picture from the Field Museum

Picture from the Field Museum

 
Carl Akeley was born in 1864. He stuffed animals for PT Barnum, went to Africa on many safaris, and one day he had an encounter with a leopard.

I believe he had just shot a wild pig, but when he went to claim it, he found a bloody trail leading into the underbrush.

He stepped up to the underbrush, heard a growl, and a leopard jumped out at him!

He couldn’t get his gun up, the leopard latched on, and Carl was in a fight for his life!

Now, what would you do?

Scream for help? Probably.

Hit the leopard with your fist? Probably, though it wouldn’t do much good.

Maybe you should do what Carl Akeley did, and punch the leopard down the throat.

That’s right, he punched his fist right down the leopard’s throat.

That hurt, and the leopard let go, but Carl didn’t.

He body slammed the beast, then leaped into the air and came down on the leopard with both knees, killing the animal.

Now, how much presence of mind does one have to have to do this kind fo thing?

Most people would try to pull their arm out of the Leopard’s grip, but that would go against the curve of fang. So the right way to go is right down the throat, hit him in the gag reflex, and then prepare a double knee counter attack!

Now, did Carl Akeley ever study Kung Fu? Probably not. But he was strong and had presence of mind, which are things that a stufdy of kung fu and the martial arts readily gives.

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