Category Archives: shito ryu

Bruce Lee Workouts And the Real Way to Build Strength-Part Two

Bruce Lee Workouts were incredible, and they resulted in incredible strength!

When people do Bruce Lee workouts of some sort they have no idea what they are getting into. They see the movies, they read the books, but they don’t know what Bruce Lee was really capable of. They don’t know just how powerful he really was.

jun fan gung fuYou see, it wasn’t just that he was a martial arts fanatic, a physical cultist, but that he could actually do superhuman feats of strength. I’ve listed a few of the things he could do here, and you should consider them seriously when you do your Bruce Lee workouts routine. It’s more than just push ups and sit ups, you see, it is going beyond the limits of the body.

First, the sheer speed one builds doing Bruce Lee training routines is more than just faster than the eye could see, it is faster than the mind can comprehend! He could punch an opponent in five one hundredths of second…that’s 0.05 seconds. Try moving your thumb that fast on your digital stopwatch!

Second, Bruce Lee could extend a seventy-five pound barbell straight from his body-arm for several seconds. That is a incredibly difficult. Go ahead, pick up a cinder block and hold it straight out, and that is only a few pounds.

Here is your sleight of hand, magician’s trick-The Little Dragon could snatch a dime out of your open palm and leave a penny. Man, that is faster than a banker forecloses! It’s hard enough to just snatch a coin, let alone leave some change!

Fourth, think your push ups are pretty nifty? Try doing a push up on the thumb and forefinger! His fingers were more powerful than your whole arm!

Or, and I love this one, Mr. Lee could do 50 one arm chin up repetitions! Let me repeat that…that’s FIFTY one hand chin ups. How would you like to have a python as strong as his arms choking you out?

Sixth, and this is for all those tough guys out there that think they can take a kick, Bruce Lee could kick a 300 pound kicking bag and make it hit the ceiling! Now that is launch power! Interestingly, there aren’t a lot of 300 pound martial arts kicking bags around, and Bruce had his made special.

Finally, Bruce could hold an elevated V-sit up position for thirty minutes. I would think that that would actually qualify him as a yoga master, in addition to all his strength and martial arts accomplishments. Think about some of these things when you decide to do some Bruce Lee workouts.

The best way to make a perfect and strong body is Yogata. Head to Monster Martial Arts to find out more.

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…

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.

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.

DISCOUNT MARTIAL ARTS SUPPLIES!

DISCOUNT MARTIAL ARTS SUPPLIES!
I made a deal with Denny over at Karate Supply. He gave me a code to pass on. Order anything you want, put this code in when you check out, and you get a percent off! I’m not sure how much, but it is worth looking into. So if you need a new uniform, weapons, anything at all…go to KarateSupply.com and type in the code AC789, and get your discount. On anything…on everything…NO LIMIT!

Martial Arts or Martial Science, the Choice Whose time Has Come

 They call it Martial Arts, but is it?

matrix martial artsArt is self expression, and I suppose that once one gets past the fighting stage they do express themselves.

The problem is that in this mess of self expression there is no science.

Isn’t that interesting? A massive body of knowledge dealing with striking, throwing, energy, even spirituality, and there is no science.

I know, some people say there is science in the martial arts, but look at one simple fact: a science has to have rules and principles which apply to everything. To the degree that things aren’t encompassed by the principles–to that degree something isn’t a science.

You don’t believe me? Let’s consider a few examples.

Bruce Lee said, “Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own.”

But that is not a scientific principle! That is just an advice to look everywhere.

Looking closer at Bruce’s work one realizes that it is a collection of things he learned from other arts. An arrangement of drills.

And it is all incredibly beautiful, and quite genius…but it is not a science.

Math is a science. You can include all numbers in math, and they all do what they are supposed and they all make sense.

martial science

Logic...Karate Style...Resolves All Body Motion!

Ed Parker built Kenpo with dozens of forms and hundreds of techniques, but can you give me a scientific rule that he stated? He said “principles of motion take precedence over sequence of motion.” But where are the ‘principles of motion’ that he is referring to?

And, again, look closer, his series of books, ‘Infinite Insights,’ is supposed to be based on things written by students for their black belt essay! Not scientific rules.

Physics is a science. Physics is the fact of measuring the universe, and as long as all measurements are accurate, everything in the universe makes sense.

Morihei Ueshiba based his art on one principle: blend with the attack. Everything grows from that, and there is a huge wealth of information, even spiritual growth, but there is no scientific principle stated.

His arts came from a variety of Japanese arts, but predominately sword strikes and Daito Ryu Aiki Jujitsu, which is a collection of some 3200 techniques from a 1000 years previous.

A collection, not a science. Boiled down to the select techniques which ‘blend with the attack.’

martial arts diagram

All Arts Are Part of the Same Puzzle--If You Can solve Them!

Go on, name an art, you will find a principle or two, usually a strategy, but no science. And, what happens when one learns a martial art with no science is that they learn slower. They take longer. They are not as efficient.

Let me explain it as simply as I can.

If somebody gave you a couple of baskets of parts that contained a motorcycle, how long would it take you to put that motorbike together? And, when it was together, if you didn’t understand such things as what the correct tolerances and timing should be…what it ever really run?

That is what the martial arts look like.

Now, suppose somebody gave you a couple of baskets of parts…and a manual telling you the exact sequence for putting the motorcycle together, and the correct tolerances and timing and such, how long would it take you to get that puppy running? And, it would run good, too!

That is what matrixing does.

The unfortunate fact is that most people, holding the baskets of parts, think they have the whole thing, but they are only holding a few of the parts, and there is no manual offering scientific instruction.

The truth is this: people who do the martial arts are quite brilliant…they have just been sold a bill of goods.

matrixing martial artThey have been convinced that the method for learning the martial arts is sacred, no form should ever be changed, it is part of what makes the martial arts so fantastic!

And, in truth, they have been sold on the most inefficient teaching method in the history of man.

They have been sold on ‘monkey see monkey do,’ which is designed for children.

They have been convinced to memorize large sequences of random motions, and told that there are mysteries to be found.

Well, yeah, there are mysteries all right, but the mysteries are because of the method, and the method does nothing to reveal the mysteries. In truth, the mysteries just perpetuate more mysteries. And I say this because the people who have the biggest wins from doing Matrixing are the people who have the most arts under their belts.

The more they study, you see, the deeper they immerse themselves in the mystery, and without solving it.

Heck, when they finally see the science, and everything, absolutely everything, slides into the right slot, they are blown out!

real karateMatrixing solves the mystery, and the student who studies matrixing invariably experiences a huge sigh of relief. He has, finally, been rescued form the mystery.

A mystery, you see, is merely a word for something that you don’t know. Study matrixing, get the real reasons, and the mystery disappears.

Voila…enlightenment.

Enlightenment, which may people think is a lightening bolt from the sky, is really just getting all the information. It is competence. And it doesn’t have to take years and decades and lifetimes…it can happen just as soon as one gets all the information–and if the information is in order, as in Matrixing, then one can get it that much sooner.

At this point I want to go over some of the Matrixing courses. This will give you an overview of the science.

I began my studies of the Martial Arts in 1967 at a Chinese Kenpo school. I quickly became an instructor, and then wrote the instructional manual for the school.

I gave up Kenpo when I was introduced to the Kang Duk Won.

The Kang Duk Won was a form of Karate which predated Funakoshi, and thereby avoided all the teaching methods developed for children, for training masses of people who spoke different languages (monkey see monkey do), and other such traps.

Kang Duk Won was one of the more important of the Martial Arts ‘houses’ that gave birth to Taekwondo. It was also the art of choice for the Imperial Bodyguards of three different countries: Okinawa, Japan, and Korea.

I studied the Kang Duk Won under Bob Babich.

After several years of studying I went off on my own to teach. In taking people to Black Belt I found an item of particular interest…there were two arts in the Kang Duk Won; there was the official art of the Kang Duk Won, and then there was the art created by Bob Babich and lumped in with the Kang Duk Won.

I separated the two arts, naming the one created by Bob as Kwon Bup, or ‘Fist Method.’

Having done this I began considering the martial arts in new lights; I began to see that the arts were ‘put togethers’ of other arts.

Kenpo turned out to be a combination of hard karate (see Parker’s first book) and the Kung Fu developed by a fellow named Woo. The result of these two arts was so unmanageable that Kenpo is taught as an art separate from freestyle.

grand terminus tai chi

The Grand Terminus

Think about it: a martial art that has nothing to do with fighting.

But don’t think about it too long, for too many arts are built that way.

So I had, at that time, several different arts. I had versions of Funakoshi’s Karate, the Kang Duk Won, Kwon Bup, Kung Fu Kenpo style, and a bit of training in Wing Chun and Aikido and Tai Chi Chuan.

And they didn’t fit together.

Yet, I had a sense that they did, or that they were supposed to.

And, before I go on, let me say that I wrote books on Kang Duk Won and Kwon Bup, and I put them, along with another book I had written on Pan Gai Noon, in the course I called ‘Evolution of an Art.’ you can find more info on that course on my website.

I wrote my first matrix, it was just a list of techniques probably about 1980. I called it the 16 Step Self Defense. It was a logical put together of Karate, Kung Fu, Tai Chi Chuan, and Aikido.

And, it didn’t work.

Interestingly, the 16 Step Self Defense worked like a charm, worked faster than anything I had ever done, but it didn’t make martial artists. It wasn’t a big enough piece of art, you see, and the result was that it was more like a gimmick.

martial arts teacher

You can learn hundreds of techniques within an hour!

Sort of like Sticky Hands…teach it without an art, and it doesn’t work as well. It works okay, but a person needs more training in how to control the body before they start learning how to fight.

I moved to Los Angeles, became a writer for the martial arts magazines, studied more arts, and kept thinking about Matrixing. This was decades before the movie, and I was using Matrixing for the name of my concepts and arts.

And, I taught. When I learned something I always turned around and taught it, for that was how I found what was right and wrong with an art.

One day I decided to put together a video series based on the matrxing concepts. There were three segments in the series, and they were called:

The Infinite Fist

Pa Kua Chang

Pa Kua Chang and The Infinite Fist

There was actually a fourth course, and I’ll put that out some day, but the real essence of Matrixing was contained in those three courses.

In the Infinite Fist I created an art from the ground up.

bagwa zhangIn Pa Kua Chang I applied Matrixing Principles, and made the world’s first perfect Pa Kua.

In Pa Kua Chang and The Infinite Fist I combined the two arts, revealing two man exercises that nobody had ever thought of.

In truth, nobody had ever thought of any of this stuff.

While certain arts had influenced me, in the end, I tossed them all out and concentrate on just the true and exact science of body and motion.

Interestingly, years later, while filming segments for the various matrixing courses, my partner (Mike) was asking me about the ‘old matrixing arts.’ I answered some questions, got bored, and tossed out the remark: ‘Well, if you’re so interested, you should just look at the videos.’

Man, there was a moment of profound shock. He went blank. His mouth actually dropped open.

Matrix symbol

...to the simplicity of Matrixing.

“You have…videos?”

I was made curious by his reaction. “Yeah.”

“You have films? You actually shot videos? And you still have them?”

I said, “I have boxes of stuff. I used to sell the videos in the mags. They’re in a box in my closet.”

For a long second my partner (Mike) didn’t say anything, then he turns to my work out partner and says, “He’s got stuff that would give Bruce Lee an orgasm, and he just puts it in boxes and forgets about it.” (Yeah, he actually said that.)

I was honestly a little confused. I didn’t think about the stuff I was doing, you see. I just kept working out, teaching, figuring things out and having a good time.

Anyway, those three videos are on the ‘Create Your Own Art’ course. They are grainy, the video technology of the day was real caveman, but they are understandable.

And, perhaps of interest is the win from the first student who ever ordered the ‘Create Your Own Art’ course. It is at the bottom of this report.

One day my son came to me, wanted to learn Martial Arts, and I decided to teach him Outlaw Karate.

Outlaw Karate was what I had developed and begun teaching when my first teaching method had failed. And, brother, it worked.

Well, of course it worked, it was a put together of the best techniques and moves from Kang Duk Won and Kwan Bup, and it was influenced by Matrixing. It was also the toughest class I ever taught. Poke around my websites and you will find things I wrote about that adventure. You will also find the actual Outlaw Karate course itself.

Bagua ZhangInterestingly, it was my first real success on combining arts. I didn’t use the 16 step self defense, but I did use things that were the direct result of the 16 step self defense and the matrxing concepts that I was working with. So the course, like Evolution of an Art, is not Matrixing, but it is the result of Matrixing.

Time went on, I opened a few schools, closed a few schools, wrote more, wrote a lot, and one day one of my students (Mike) asked me if I wanted to sell martial arts videos on this new fangled thing called the internet.

So we built a studio, he bought a camera, and we filmed the bulk of the matrixing courses. Matrix Karate, Matrix Kung Fu, we had Matrix Aikido from a seminar, Five Army Tai Chi Chuan, and so on.

And, we went into business…and flopped.

Simply, we didn’t know anything about marketing. It was frustrating, because the few people who did buy courses were sending us unbelievable wins, but we couldn’t sell enough courses to make a profit.

In the end, Mike turned everything over to me and told me to go into business for myself. And that was the birth of Monster Martial Arts.

Monster turned out to be a Monster. I was suddenly besieged by people asking questions and wanting to know about this Matrixing thing. I have students in near every country of the world.

martial arts illustrations

Martial Arts Book technology back in the 1960s

Eventually I wrote some more books and filmed some more videos. Chief amongst the books was ‘The Punch,’ and ‘Matrixing Chi.’

The Punch is a doctoral dissertation on what exactly has to go into a punch. It is loaded with drills and the exact information necessary to one punch anybody. Nobody has ever written a more comprehensive book on the punch than this one.

Matrixing Chi details the workings of the body and how to generate Chi. It is rather unwieldy to read, as I left my normal style to better flow the information as teacher to student. But it is very, very good. It is the only time in history that somebody has written about chi as a science, using scientific principles.

And, amongst the videos was the Three Month Black Belt Course.

The thing I was precisely trying to do, when I taught the Three Month Black Belt course, was get rid of reaction time, to make a person intuitive. No more think about, think, think and do…just do.

This getting rid of reaction time is called ‘Mushin no shin,’ or mind of no mind,’ in the Japanese. The Japanese say it takes decades of intense, dedicated practice to achieve Mushin No Shin. Using Matrixing I got a fellow to an intuitive state of mind within three months.

snake martial artsAnd that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to matrixing.

Now, that is the history of Matrixing. It is a quick history, and there is a lot more written on my website, in my blogs and articles and so on. If you haven’t subscribed to the Monster Martial Arts Newsletter you probably should, because that is where I get into this stuff.

The important thing is that Matrixing is a science. This is something people realize as soon as they pop one of my courses into the video player. This is the thing that elevates the martial arts and blows people away: the actual and scientific reasons for how the body works. It is a level of knowledge that nobody has ever written about in the entire history of the Martial Arts. Not Bruce, not Parker, not Morihei Ueshiba…nobody.

 

The thing I want to say at this point has to do with the order of courses one should study.

One could take it from the ground up, and follow the exact course I took. But it would be better to start with Matrix Karate. That is the art which has the most matrixing on it; that is the course which establishes the science.

Then I would recommend one study the courses in the order I present them on the Monster website.

Though, to be honest, one should select the course which interests them the most. People are more prone to studying what interests them, and I would hate to see Matrix Karate gathering dust on a shelf just because somebody should have gotten a different course for their initial studies. Further, people have an intuitive feel for these things, and they will know what art they should study, when they should study The Punch, or go into Blinding Steel (weapons), or whatever else.

martial arts knowledgeIn closing I want to say something:

Matrixing is a science.

It is not a sampling of principles, it is not a strategy of some sort; it is a science.

It contains all the scientific rules which make a science out of the martial arts.

Done properly it will enable a person to fix any martial art. They will be able to separate arts that have been combined, create the best order for learning, and understand all the parts that have gone missing over the millennia.

In short, Matrixing will create better martial arts, and it will create better martial artists. The person who knows everything about his art, and even knows how it fits into the greater scheme of all martial arts, is going to be a better martial artist. Period.

And, icing on the cake, the person who learns  Matrixing is going to be learning faster, much faster.

So the question is this: are you going to be learning Matrixing?

Are you going to learn the most important developments in the martial arts in the history of this planet?

To do otherwise would be to flog the horse while jets are flying over head. For Matrixing is taking off. In a hundred years there won’t be any martial art that isn’t matrixed. In a hundred years…but you don’t have to wait that long.

WIN FROM FIRST STUDENT TO EVER BUY A MATRIXING COURSE

Dear Al,

I actually came upon your work in 1986…In the very beginning I knew you had the True Art and that is exactly why I have followed you all these years. I have had the benefit of having studied from at least a dozen masters and I can tell you that no one contributed more to my martial arts education than you. So when I am asked who is my Grandmaster, without hesitation you are first and foremost.

In the eighties when I was young I was invited to leave most of the schools I tried to train at. When it came time to spar I humbly put on my white belt and proceeded to practice what I knew, and to everyones amazement the black belts in these schools just couldn’t handle what I was doing.

I will be the first to admit I am not a superior martial artist, but what I did do was study everything I could get from you and practice till I could apply it. I am a living testimony to your work as I have effectively survived 100 street fights, and I spent over 4 years working the County Jail as a  Deputy and fighting there on a daily basis with hardened criminals (I only worked maximum security.)

Now I am not blowing my own horn here, I am just telling you the facts, and further trying to make the point that I am still alive because of what I have learned from you. So just know that through your teachings you bring us the skills to live and survive. I am sure you already knew that, so just know that this student appreciates all you do and again want to say thanks for all you contributed to my life and my art. Sincerely, Charles Cashmere MD,Phd. Founder Chung Moo Kwan System.

Matrixing Military Martial Arts…Is It a Concept Whose time Has Come?

Orig published as a newsletter, response has been so good I thought I’d put it up as a post in my blogs.

learn karate onlineOkey dokey!
Time for a work out!
Drop everything you’re doing and punch somebody!
Well,
maybe you shouldn’t get that carried away.
Or,
uh,
maybe you should?

I remember when I was young and first learning martial arts,
I lived in apartments
with guys filled with testosterone
and we punched each other all the time.
Cooking the eggs and throwing out blocks.
Kicking somebody so he had to drop the towel
when he came out of the shower,
nothing but fun.
But that’s how you know
you’re doing the real martial arts.
It’s fun.

Speaking of which,
let’s talk about the what the martial arts really are.

The universe is just a bunch of things
flying through space.
Sometimes something flies in your direction
and you have to handle it
before collision occurs.
Isn’t that what the martial arts are?
Fists and feet,
whole bodies flying,
coming at you,
and you have to handle them
before collision occurs.
So when you are doing the martial arts
you are just practicing
how to handle the whole universe.

That’s why martial artists are superior,
you know.

While Joe Blow sits on the comfy couch
and watches reruns of Happy Days
Jim the Martial Artist
is practicing handling
the whole durned universe
one fist at a time.

Eventually,
Jim the martial artist gets so good,
that he can handle anything in the universe,
he is calm,
competent,
and in charge of his life.
No wonder the martial arts are fun.

Anyway,
I didn’t mean to go philosophical on you.
It’s just that
a fist to the face
is so beautiful
(choke)
that it brings a tear to my eye.

Now,
I received the greatest win.
I love wins
that come out of the blue,
they blind side me.
I’ll be running full tilt,
trying to get the job done
and…
Wham!
Big old win
knocks me over,

win deleted…sorry.

You can see why I love this win.

It’s not just a compliment to me,
it’s a compliment to the matrixing method.

Thank you, Dan,
for those kind words.
Much appreciation to you and the guys and gals
for being America’s muscle.

Now,
one of the things I look for
is people who have studied different systems.
You see,
I am always saying
that Matrixing works
for every system.
While I have presented it as a martial art,
and shown it working in a variety of different martial styles,
it is really a method for organizing data.
Doesn’t matter where the data comes from,
all that matters is that it is put in order.

And,
here’s something for you to consider.
What if you took a soldier
matrixed his training,
matrixed his way of operating on the battlefield.
This would be a quite an undertaking,
because the modern warrior
is more than a march and shoot boy,
he is a technical wizard
with a variety of disciplines to use
before he gets to march and shoot.
but,
the question remains,
what if you matrixed him?

Well,
he goes into combat
and he will know what his teammate is doing,
will have an intuition about what is going on,
even if he can’t directly see or communicate.
He will be working off the same data base of knowledge,
a streamlined and simplified data base,
and he will know what his team mate is doing,
how he is responding,
just from the sounds,
just from the knowledge of where the bombs are dropping,
and the lines of fire.
He will know
and he will know how his team mate will respond,
and he can adjust his actions
so that he
and everybody in his squad,
platoon
and even company
are working totally together.

Man,
that would sure make a sergeant’s job easy.
You know?

Okey dokey,
just thought I’d toss that in.
A lot of orders have gone to men and women
in the military,
and I sometimes think about
what would happen
in a matrixed world.

Perfection,
you know?

Now,
next week is Thanksgiving,
so I need you to
break out the chopper,
throw a rope over one of those tubby buzzards
and get ready for
the yearly turkey slaughter.
Never thought of it that way, eh?
But it’s true.
It’s us against them!
Who will win…
read blooded ‘muricans,
or them thar turkey busturds!

I think we know the answer.
So,
toss another log on the barbie
make sure you have lots of adult beverages
and someplace to stash the keys
until you sober up.

Hey!
I just thought I’d put out a public service announcement, all right?

And,
while you are thinking and drinking,
and hopefully not getting the two all mixed up,
think about this:
if you ordered Matrix Karate,
or any matrix course from Monster,
right now,
you could have it in time
so you could practice it over the holidays!

Think about it,
lock yourself in a room
with a DVD player
and a change of underwear,
and you could learn n entire martial art!

You think you can’t?
Ha!
That was one of the things I did with a fellow
when I was first discovering matrixing.
We locked ourselves in the training hall for a week,
and we worked out,
and a week later…
he knew Karate.
And he eventually became a third dan
in a Japanese system.
Just walked in their door,
freestyled their boys,
and received his belt.

True story.

So,
put your order in now,
change your life,
handle the universe,
learn a complete martial art over the holidays.

I mean,
what’s the alternative?
Watching reruns of Happy Days?

You guys and gals have a great weekend,
and I’ll talk to you next Monday.

Here’s the Matrix Karate URL…

http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Matrix_Karate.html

Al

You can sign up for the Monster Newsletter by emailing me at aganzul@gmail.com

http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Matrix_Karate.html

“So the important thing in a military operation is victory, not persistence.”
~ Sun Tzu

A List Of Jackie Chan Stunts In Which He Nearly Lost His Life

In the list of Jackie Chan stunts the star has come close to death more times than you can count. Still, he keeps going, making some of the best martial arts movies in the history of cinema. Here are seven Jackie Chan Films in which he nearly died, or at least suffered serious injuries.

One of his early starring efforts was a movie called Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow. During the filming of this movie he failed to evade a sword which should have had a blunt edge. The result was a thick spray of his blood, and the screams you hear in the scene are of his real and actual pain.

In the filming of Police Story he was almost paralyzed for life. He slid down a pole in one action packed stunt, exploding all the hanging lights and ripping electrical wires and falling through a glass cover. In this scene he broke the seventh and eighth vertebra in his backbone, and managed to dislocate his hip.

During Crime Story Jackie had a scene in which he was between two cars which were slamming together. Either his timing, or the drivers’ of the cars timing was off. The result was one Jackie Chan Stunt with two crushed legs.

He has injured his knees numerous times, and doubts that he has much cartilage left. One of the worst knee injuries happened during, of all things, a skateboard scene. The movie was City Hunter.

One of his most famous injuries was while filming a scene while filming Rumble in the Bronx. He leaped and broke his ankle when attempting to land on a moving hovercraft. You can see, if you look carefully, the cast they put on his leg so he could keep filming.

He nearly broke his neck on the set of Project A. In this instance he fell from a very tall clock tower, bounced from awning to awning, before landing on his head on the ground. You can see this scene, and other out takes of him being injured, at the end of the movie.

The worst injury he ever received, however, was during the filming of Armour of God. He leaped to a tree, missed, and bashed his head on the ground. The star is a trooper however, for within two days of nearly dying from a broken skull and hemorrhaging brain, he was back filming and making more of his incredible Jackie Chan Stunts.

Martial Arts Training Tips and How to Run the Kumite Gauntlet

matrix martial artsWhen it comes to Martial Arts Training Tips there are a couple of freestyle drills I have to recommend. Freestyle, of course, is where you get to get down and dirty. You learn good control through kumite, but you still get to let it all hang out.

There are two particular Martial Arts freestyle Drills that should be practiced. The first one deals with kumite specifically, the second deals with a more street style, or self defense, type of fight. Both should be practiced so as to become a well rounded street fighter.

The first is the old standard you will see in most dojos, you take your place at the head of a line, and the people in line take turns attacking you. This is a fun exercise, as you don’t have time to think, you just learn to accept the situations as they develop, and do what you have to. A few times through the line and you learn how to survive without all the foofaraw.

The second drill is to set up a gauntlet. This is not going to be a set and gunfight type of Karate kumite. It is going to be a much more natural situation which is more like what you might encounter in a real street fight.

I learned this one many years ago, in a Chinese Kenpo school, and we used to love doing it. The teacher would set up a gauntlet, ten students in two lines standing across from each other. The fellow who was to run the gauntlet would face away, and the teacher would pick out three people.

The karateka would be given the word, and he would turn and make his way slowly between the lines. When he passed one of the fellows who had been pointed at, they would suddenly attack him. He would never know when the attack would come, or from who.

Attacks would be a taken until a point was decided. Thus, the fellow who walked the gauntlet could get three points max, but, if he lost three times, he might not get any. First person to reach seven points was the official winner.
the hardest punch

The Hard Punch That Will Knock Over an Elephant

You know, I talk about the hard punch a fair amount, wrote the book on it, but there is one thing that I don’t say, but that I should. Now in the book I talk about the methods, and one should practice these methods, and it should get them started, and within a couple of months one should have a hard strike that will kick just about anybody on their keister.

hard punchThis knowledge is invaluable, never been written down before. But the reason I wrote it is not to give the comic book reader a way to steal lunch money, but to get people to dedicate themselves for a few months. If they do that, then they can see the benefit in devoting a lifetime to the martial arts, and here comes the one thing I should have told people.

You don’t need to do the punch a thousand times a day, but you do need to do it a thousand days. Sure, you’ll get the power in a couple of months, but that is just a shadow of the real power you can get. That’s just a teaser.

One of the fellows who first taught me didn’t have any method, he just heard that you could break bricks with your hands, so he set up a brick and hit it fifty times a day. He had to be careful not to bruise his hands, but he practiced, and he just kept practicing. When he couldn’t practice on the brick anymore, he would just practice in the air, and visualize the brick breaking.

He used to take a brick and place it on a fence post, upright, no brace of any sort, and snap a half fist into it. It didn’t just break…it shattered. I mean, the sucker almost exploded! And that was with four years of playing with it.

Can you imagine what that punch would have done to a person?

I had another instructor, and he would place a brick on a step and shear it off. He said the trick was in the timing, that you lift and lower ever so slightly so the brick was actually hitting the cement step at the moment of shear. Some trick, it still takes an immense amount of focus and concentration.

Concentration, that is the key, and that is why you do these tricks. No, Bruce was right, bricks (boards) don’t fight back. But the mental focus you gain in being able to shatter them stays with you your entire life.

Anyway, I recommend you get my book, The Punch, and get all the data. That way you won’t be flying blind. And then think about what I’ve said here. Put it together, then practice, slowly and surely, and within a couple of years you will be doing more than knuckling over elephants. You will feb shattering bricks with your hard punch.