On Registering Your Martial Arts Trained Hands and Feet

Newsletter 979

Register Your Hands and Feet if You Know Martial Arts!

This is one of those great myths
that have followed the martial arts
ever since they began.
Seriously.

When I was starting out as a white belt,
a newbie in 1967,
I heard you had to register
your hands and feet with the police
as deadly weapons.
Zowie!
Did that sell me on how deadly I was going to be!
I would walk the streets,
impervious to harm,
beating up anybody who looked at me.
I mean,
if i had to register with the police,
I was going to be one deadly mofo!

Then,
I believe it was the pages of Black Belt magazine,
there was an ad
for registering your hands and feet!
Double Zowie!
I was going to be SUPER deadly!

And,
fifty years later,
I just heard this statement again.
So here’s the truth.

You don’t have to register your hands and feet,
BUT,
if you study the martial arts
and get arrested for fighting,
you could be charged with
assault with a deadly weapon.

It’s true.
But don’t think this is bad,
think,
instead…
ZOWIE
You are going to be such a deadly mofo!

And,
BTW,
if I was ever in a fight
and had to use martial arts,
and hurt somebody,
I would probably leave the scene of the crime
(fearing for my safety)
then consider carefully
whether I should notify the police,
or tell anybody,
and endure all the trouble that might cause.
Just talking…

Here’s my favorite course,
the one I would be thinking about in a fight,
and is incredibly fun to do…

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

Have a great (and deadly) work out!
Al

A WIN!

I was able to matrix now everything I do in martial arts, even managed to start to matrix a complete escrima system out of the basics of blinding steel. You were right, it is a totally different understanding of matrixing, once you master/understand matrix karate. The matrix blocks gave me a lot better insight into wing chun as well, mainly from the mini matrix. That was one heck of a revelation. I hit 3 flies in one go. I understand karate, wing chun and escrima now a lot better and was able to extract that out of the material. thank you very much. I really enjoy the way to the goal now.

“What you habitually think largely determines what you will ultimately become.”
– Bruce Lee

Belief in the Martial Arts

Newsletter 978

Why Martial Arts Changed

That the martial arts have changed is obvious.
They have changed in many ways.
Arts have intermixed,
forms are looked down upon,
people want more reality in their sparring,
and so on.

For me the change is drastic,
and I always focus on a single aspect
or characteristic of the martial arts.
I think it is the real reason
for the decline of martial arts.

When I began training we didn’t know anything.
Nobody knew karate,
or any of the other martial arts,
it was all new,
and nobody knew anything.

We were told stories.
The fellow who could hold onto a horse’s tail
and run as fast as the horse.
The fellow who could catch a samurai sword
and snap it with his palms.
Catching arrows with the bare hand.
Breaking rocks with a single chop.
And so on.

Now,
we didn’t know if these stories were true,
we simply believed
because we knew no better.
And,
as time went on,
some of the stories were bogus,
and some…were true.

What I noticed
as time went on
was that less and less
had people heard these stories.
Less and less
they tried to do the tricks in these stories.
More and more they fell to fighting,
and stopped being able to catch an opponent mid technique
and do what they wanted.

In short,
people stopped believing.
And stopped striving for those mystical feats,
stopped developing mystical abilities.

Why?

Because of the people who trained before,
who had no success in achieving mystical ability
and so denounced it.

I’ve heard people say karate punches are inferior.
And they tout the endless boxing drills
as superior to karate.
Yet I have never seen a boxer
thrust a finger through a board and leave a hole.
I have seen a karate man do that.

I’ve heard people say karate blocks don’t work in a real fight.
Yet I have seen a fellow
break a leg bone,
break it in two places,
with a simple low block.

I’ve had people say chi doesn’t exist,
it is a trick.
Check out the video here…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4c-matrixing-chi-power/
Or simply google such things as ’chi power.’

Here is the point.
In the beginning we didn’t know better,
so we believed that tales
just like a bunch of goofy kids.
Most couldn’t figure out how to do those cool sounding tricks.
But a few could.

But the kids of today listen to the trash talk
and they never hear of the ‘chi tricks,’
they never hear about people dehorning and killing bulls
with a single chop.

They listen to the fellows who failed,
and don’t seek out the ones who succeeded.

It seems that the fellows who couldn’t succeed,
are happy to shout their failure to the world,
and denounce the arts they failed in,
instead of figuring out the tricks
and practicing until they could succeed.

And the fellows who succeed,
they are self satisfied
and they have no reason to shout to the world.
Humility, you know.

I tell you this:
the most important element
in your success or failure
is going to be your ability to believe.
To believe that you can do.
To believe some of those old fables.
And to train in a manner
so that your belief is made stronger.

Believe.

Have a great and believable work out!
Al

Here’s that link again…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4c-matrixing-chi-power/

A WIN!

…you’ve changed the way I approach the arts that I love. 2018 marks my 40th year as a martial artist, and I believe that what you do is so important to us true believers. Please remember that innovation is always going to be violently resisted initially. What you do is absolutely logical, and it’s impossible for any sane man to argue with logic. Press on with pride brother. You ARE making history and a legacy. Best wishes and thanks ~ Sean

“The doubters said, ‘Man can not fly,’
The doers said, ‘Maybe, but we’ll try,’
And finally soared In the morning glow
While non-believers Watched from below.”
– Bruce Lee

Meeting the Martial Arts ‘Gods’ for the First Time

Newsletter 965 ~ sign up now!

The Martial Arts Gods are Pissed!

1967, November.
My very first class.
The instructor said:

you bow when you enter the building
to show respect for all within the building,
and the art taught within the building.

you bow to any instructors you meet
to show respect for their hard work

you bow when you step onto the mat
to show respect for everybody
who has ever studied the martial arts.

‘WAIT!’ I protested.
“Everybody?”
“yes.”
“Who is everybody?”

“The people who taught your instructors,
the people who taught the people who taught your instructors,
the people who taught the people who…and so on.”

“So I’m bowing to everybody who ever studied the martial arts?”

“Yup.”

Silence.

The instructor:
“Do you know how much blood it took
to figure the martial arts out?
Do you know how much sweat it took
to put the techniques into teachable routines?”

“Oh,” I said,
dimly understanding what I was getting into.

The instructor continued.
“When you bow to me it is not because
I wear funny pajamas and have a black belt,
it is because I represent a sacred trust,
handed down through hard work and dedication.
Got it?”

I did.

You know,
in the past I have gotten away from that explanation,
and I shouldn’t have.
I tell people that bowing is saying ‘hello,’ and ‘goodby.’
And it is,
but who you are saying hello and goodby to is pretty important.

When you walk into a church you know it is a church,
there is just a feel to it,
a spirit,
and you can feel that here is a place where people pray,
and the walls and floors and everything
have soaked up that energy.
A martial arts studio is the same.
There is a feel to the mats and mirrors and bags,
a feel different from a gym,
or a school for boxing,
it is a deeply spiritual feeling,
put there by endless ritual,
by respect,
a sense of ‘art’ that is exuded by spirit,
and deeply perceived by people who are in love with that spirit.

The martial arts spirit,
the sweat and blood and spirit
exuded by the trillions of men who ever stepped on to a mat,
who defend self and families with honor,
who believe in a better world.

Bow to it.

Have a great work out!
Al

A WIN!
I see the progressive curve in matrix martial arts, the logic, the feeling, the system (order) and the change from hard to soft, from physical to spiritual, from external to internal and how the both come together. In essence the notion of styles and belts vanishes, as does the delusional importance placed on the external, materialistic side of the martial arts…rank, fame, winning/losing, belt number and color, titles…vanity and ego. For something to be true, its opposite must also be true,… where the external is superficial and limited, the internal, the essential qualities, are deep, bound and limitless, hence the truth, coming from the source, not the human mind. Can’t take the belt with us, but the essence, the wisdom, the teachings, remain, perpetually. At least this is what I have found. On my matrixing journey from basic basics to matrix Karate, to Pangai Noon, to monkey boxing, to blinding steel, to Pakua to Tai Chi.
Now all I care about is to master the material and be the best teacher i can be. So others find their way home as well…
Thank you for all you have given me over the last 3 years.
It is a debt I can never repay in full, but it definitely brought me to the point where I am now and beyond. I humbly bow to you in sincere gratitude and respect, sensei Al.  I always considered you a Grandmaster, my teacher and a good man who cares.
Will S

“If there is a God, he is within.
You don’t ask God to give you things,
you depend on God for your inner theme.”
– Bruce Lee

The Exact Reason Everybody is Nuts…

Newsletter 964

Why Everybody in the World is Insane

I became aware of this in the martial arts; I studied martial arts freestyle and realized this interesting phenomena:

When people launched a fist at a partner, they always punched to where the head was, and didn’t take into account the fact that the head moves, and they should be punching to where the head would be.

If trained martial artists were caught in this trap, where did that leave the bulk of untrained ‘humanity?’

The conclusion here is that everybody in the universe, except for a few anomalous individuals, is reacting, being at effect of, or…not aware.

Not aware is a branch of crazy.

Think about it. Your mother tells you to pick up your brother at the bus stop…when he got on the bus eight hours ago. Shouldn’t you be picking him up where the bus arrives eight hours later?

Think about it: somebody is crying about an accident; Billy scraped his elbow in a fall. But the fall already happened. You should have been crying when it happened. After it happened it is too late. All you are doing now is venting emotions wastefully.

Actually, you should have been doing something about the fall when it happened, not wailing about it after the fact.

In the martial arts, if you try to handle a strike after it happens it is too late.

So everybody in the world is a split second behind. Or as good as crazy. Reacting instead of acting.

How do you avoid this conundrum?

My particular path was the martial arts. And, the specific path, ten times faster than the classical martial arts, is a matrixed martial art; a martial art made logical.

You practice a move endlessly, until you begin to see the person attacking actually thinking about what he is going to do. You move as the thought gestates, not afterwards, when the universe is, belatedly, put into motion.

In a matrixed martial art everything is arranged logically, so you don’t practice wasteful moves, unworkable moves, moves where the attacker waits for the defender to catch up to the universe.

The funny thing is that most people will refuse this path. They will take a pill, drink a lot, huddle in their crowd of friends and lie to each other about what reality is.

But you need to jump up and grab ahold of the universe. Grab a fist as it comes at you, step to the side when the sword descends, learn to exist in the ‘now.’

The alternative is to stay, happily and blissfully, insane. A moment behind, trying to catch up without even knowing you are behind.

I just wrote an article further considering the points here. It is at: The World is Crazy! You might have to be patient, it sometimes takes a couple of hours for the posting procedure to take effect.

Have a great work out!
Al

A WIN!
Hello master founder… How are you? I hope that all is well.

I’m so thankful for your knowledge and passion for the martial arts. I’ve been on this path for many years and was never able to unlock the simplicity of the arts. I’ll never look at them the same.
Again, thank you.

The create your own art course is wonderful. I’m exploring so many things its crazy. I’m now working on a crane (or some type of bird) set. So far it’s pretty nice and has the flow working. I’ve also come to love those nine square diagram. Things are taking shape lovely.

Timothy G

“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question
than a fool can learn from a wise answer.”
– Bruce Lee

Martial Arts at the End of the World!

Newsletter 963

Here’s How To Do Caveman Martial Arts!

I’m binge watching a TV series.
‘Into the Badlands.’
Great fun,
the premise being that there are no more guns,
so we live on a few old cars,
relics like turntables,
and practice the sword.
Yowza!

And the martial arts are really cool!
Flying superkicks,
punches that knock people through brick walls,
did I say it was…COOL!

Now,
the thing that gets me is this…
the ladies,
in spite of living in relative caveman times,
all look like they stepped out of a beauty salon,
wearing the gorgeous gowns,
and,
of course,
wearing high heels that can spike an oaf’s face
with elan.

Well,
if you think about it,
that is the least of the problems.
The whole thing suspends reality for…COOL!
So what do you think a post apocalyptic martial art
would really look like?

No swords…
people would just pick up stray and heavy objects
and grind an edge on it.
Found a big, old paper cutter?
Loosen the blade and swing that!

Lots of knives.
Easy to make,
easy to hide,
easy to use.

Lots of guns,
but ammo might run out pretty quick.
So,
maybe no guns after a while.

And,
would you have a lot of people
who knew long and elaborate forms,
and knew how to use them in a fight?
Nah.

In a world reduced to caveman,
the guy who studies the short form,
and most diligently,
is going to be the one to survive.
I’ll take House One any day.

My House One,
on the Matrix Karate course,
has only seven moves.
But those seven moves have over 16 applications.
It replaces dozens of long forms
with simple logic.

House Two has 10 moves,
but put together with House One
there are over 64 applications.

So you just drill these simple moves
over and over,
and the truth will emerge:
a fellow who knows the basics well,
can beat a fellow who knows advanced techniques.
You see,
advanced techniques depend on the basics.
Got to know the basics.
And the fellow with the best basics,
no matter what kind of ‘advanced technique’ he knows,
is going to win.

Anyway,
that’s my answer to Hollywood,
gals on six inch spikes,
and those glorious
wire suspended trampoline kicks.

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/

Do Matrix Karate for a year,
you’ll know how to fight better than anybody.
It’s pure, man.
It’s pure.
Pure logic and pure joy.

Have a pure work out!
Al

A WIN!
Hey Al!

I just read today’s news letter.  You are always so encouraging, and always raising such excellent signposts for those of us who follow you!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I’m taking it easy, really trying to ‘get’ coordinated body movement, working my Matrix Karate forms, looking for more and more relaxation… or less and less effort?

Each time I add a side, I find something new and wonderful.  When I started doing Form 2 backwards, I found a whole new ‘direction’ in my mind, like I was learning something completely new.

Ryan

‘I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once,
but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.’
– Bruce Lee

Why Martial Arts Books Hold the Real Knowledge…

Newsletter 961

The Value of Martial Arts Books

One of the first Martial Arts books to hit the US…
Super Karate made Easy by Moja Rone.
It is pretty outlandish,
the descriptions are worth the book alone.
‘Give him a Sunday punch and he’ll wake up on Tuesday.’
Ha!
It’s part of my free books package
when you sign up for the Monster Martial Arts newsletter.

One of the first martial arts authors was Bruce Tegner.
He wrote a score of books.
Bad form, simple ideas,
a public that didn’t know better.
Yet his ideas are worthwhile;
they make you think.

Then there are the classics:
Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere,
an amazingly artful work,
that actually passes on the spirit of Aikido.
Karate Do Kyohan,
a thorough look at Karate by Gichin Funakoshi.
Tai Chi Touchstones…
Shotokan’s Secret…
and so on.

And,
of course,
‘The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson of All’
10 volumes of smarts and anecdotes and histories and so on.

Why is ‘The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson of All’ important?
Think back to the beginning of the internet.
The web was new,
all sorts of stuff was out there,
floating up and smacking you in the face.
Great times,
the wild west of martial arts information.
Amazing.
Then it changed.
Google was the big villain.
Google has almost single handedly brought the age of information to a close.
Go on,
do a search on martial arts,
you will find:
wikipedia, ads for schools in the area, and that’s about it.
Google is a ‘telephone book.
That’s all it is.
How does a telephone book make money?
It shows ads.
So Google isn’t even a good telephone book.
It is a paid telephone book.
Sort of like paid politics.
You only get what advertisers want to give you.
You only get the same old politician.
No real and useful information.

Yes,
you can find information,
but only if you know exactly what you are looking for.
But why would you look for what you already know?

I miss the wild west of the internet.
I miss finding out wild things,
meeting bizarre people,
searching my way through the maze of mystery
that was the martial arts nobody had ever known about.
Think about it,
the martial arts magazines are mostly gone.
TV only has MMA,
Books are…BOOKS!
And that’s why I wrote
‘The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson of All.’
I replaced the internet.
I give back what we’ve lost.
Obscure bits of history,
odd items of humor,
profound examples of martial arts,
styles of karate,
brands of kung fu,
arts you’ve never heard of and won’t ever again
because Google destroyed the window into
what you really want to know…
the things that you didn’t know.

I’ve written over 50 books on the martial arts,
I’ve written more books,
more words,
on the martial arts than anyone in history.
If you count my novels,
well over two million words.
And why?

Because books stick around.
People still discuss Bruce Tegner,
they pore over Bruce Lee’s books,
and books about Bruce Lee.
They are still fascinated by Moja Rone,
even though nobody knows who he is.
A fake name with a following!

So when you go to the dojo
and you hear some fellow expound on
why this art developed into that art,
the secret of Chi,
mysterious arts that nobody ever heard of,
you’ll grin.
And you’ll know the truth because you’ve taken…
‘The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson of All.’

You see,
my art will fade with time,
I’ll die.
But the books will be there.
In a thousand years people will be discussing (and doing) Matrixing quite avidly,
and they will still be enthralled
by the ten book collection of wit and wisdom,
the discussion of what Chi is,
the incredible abilities of those who truly dedicated themselves to the martial arts,
the histories and anecdotes,
the priceless gift of learning things
that they didn’t know.

My advice,
don’t bother with the Kindle versions.
They’ll be gone the next time your computer crashes.
Get the ten books themselves in real form.
Be able to thumb through real pages,
and not know what gem you will come across.
Look up at your bookshelves,
see the block of ten spines
that represent a real look at the real martial arts,
and have some real fun.

Use Google,
get back at the biggest villain,
and find the complete ten volumes of…
‘The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson of All’

HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!
Al

(And don’t forget to drop me a letter if you like a book or course, and to give me good ratings on Amazon. It helps, believe me, it helps.

A WIN!
Master AL
Just a email to let you know I’m really enjoying the two new books of The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson. I got both from amazon and I look forward to getting the whole set. I’ve gotten all your books and they have changed my Martial Arts Practice and Study for the better …Your books and courses have given me the ideal way to teach and practice martial arts … I would like to give you all the thanks for showing me the True Way. Looking forward to the remaining books of The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson of All.
Sincerely
Sensei Danny M

‘Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.’
Bruce Lee

The 3 Reasons Why Aikido Doesn’t Work

Why Aikido is not always functional

This guest article was written by Cris Eyza. Cris is the author of ‘Aikido Solution, Eyza Aikijutsu Revolution,’ which can be found on Amazon.

Aikido is a beautiful martial art.

I truly believe that. However, many of its practitioners have asked themselves why it doesn’t work in a fight. Perhaps you are one of them.
Keep on reading: I’m about to present to you the three main reasons for Aikido’s ineffectiveness – which I have discovered during the decade that I practiced the martial art myself internationally.

1. Defensiveness
Aikido only has defensive techniques. The initiative is given up to the enemy, who is in control of the situation – never the aikidoist.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Every martial art needs defensive techniques. Offense doesn’t solve everything. Things happen.
But … it’s only half the story.
Because the purpose of defense is . to get back to offense again!

Here’s a Japanese saying for all the traditional Budo afficionados out there, which illustrates the right attitude to have:
“shinbu ni sente nomi” (Friday, 1997, p. 90)
(In real Budo, there is only the first strike)

Also, it’s really close to impossible to catch a punch with your hand. Same thing when the attacker is armed with a knife, only worse.

2. Over-complication
Over-complication is a big problem in Aikido. There are two sides to this technical over-complication. They are both problematic. I will start with the aspect which is most counter-productive in a fighting situation.
A. Tyranny of choice.
In Aikido, with every attack, the aikidoist has so many techniques to choose from, it’s crazy. The sheer number of basic techniques makes effective decision-making impossible.
These are some of the basic techniques the aikidoist can choose from:
ikkyo
nikyo
sankyo
yonkyo
gokyo
hiji-kime
iriminage
kotegaeshi
shihonage
jujinage
kiriotoshi
kaitennage
gansekiotoshi
aikiotoshi
kokyunage
etc.

B. Endless variations
Now, let’s talk about the other aspect of over-complication. When the attacker strikes at me from a certain angle – let’s say, from above (shomenuchi) – in Aikido, I have a gazillion ways to respond to that strike.
I could go to the inside and the outside. Now, when I go to the inside, I can do a cross-block and grab his wrist for shihonage, cross-block and cut over his hand for kote gaeshi or iriminage, I can grab his hand from above for nikyo, I can block his arm for ikkyo and so on. And also, in which of the two available ways will I circle my body in the second phase of the technique?
And we haven’t even talked about what happens when I step to the outside at the beginning of the technique … But I think you got the picture. There are just as many options. This “tyranny of choice” makes it impossible to choose one of dozens of technical variations, when all the aikidoist needs is . just that one technique . and he needs it fast.

The attack is underway. He has a split-second to react …. But instead of reacting, the aikidoist is paralyzed. “Which one of the plus 20 variations am I going to do?” he thinks to himself. And then … it’s too late. The attacker has already made contact with the aikidoist’s face.

Now, I am not going to give the solutions here. That’s for later. First, we have to finish our discussion of the problems of Aikido. The “diagnosis”, if you will.

3. The mentality
Most Aikidoists have good intentions. They want to learn a martial art with which they can defeat and control an attacker without killing or hurting him. This attitude is not wrong, however, it is very incomplete.
The priority of self-defense is what’s in the name: to defend yourself. Regardless of the cost. It was the attacker’s decision to come at you. His health cannot be the main thought on your mind while he tries to harm or kill you.

That said, I think that needless damage to your opponent is unnecessary. If you already control him or her and it’s not dangerous for you to continue the hold? Sure, keep doing just that until the police arrives. But only then. Don’t be naive.
Another thing. Saying “violence isn’t right” doesn’t work in a fight. When fighting, violence is good. The more violent you are (until you have attained your goal, which is self-preservation) the better.

Dear Aikidoist: I care about you. You are compassionate and benevolent – a trait which is not always common among warriors… But you need to explore the effectiveness of your fighting style. Don’t assume you will just be ready when the moment is there. Learn to defend yourself against those with less noble intentions than you.

A martial art should work. I mean, that’s the deal you make, right? You trade your time, your effort and your hard-earned money for the ability to hold your own when it goes down, not if. But right now, in traditional martial arts like Aikido, nothing less is true.

Osu!

Source used:
Friday, K.F. (1997) Legacies of the Sword. The Kashima-Shinryu and the Samurai Martial Culture. Honolulu, Hawai’i. University of Hawai’i Press.

Check out Cris’s book Self Defense Aikido

Just released a new publication on Five Different Martial Arts

Newsletter 959

New Book Release!
The Book of Five Arts

Just released a new book:
‘The Book of Five Arts’
The title idea comes from Myamoto Musashi’s ‘Book of Five Rings.’
In this book I detail the exact sequence of five martial arts.
Now some of you have seen some of the material.
There is matrix karate, shaolin butterfly, butterfly pa kua chang,
matrix tai chi chuan and Monkey Boxing.

The glory of this book, even if you have seen parts,
is that it includes graphics and charts
showing exactly how the progression of matrices work.
So you look at the karate matrix,
you understand what the blank spots are,
then you look at the shaolin butterfly,
different blank spots,
and so on through each of the five arts.
By the time you’re done you won’t have any blank spots.
At all.
A blank spot in one art will be filled by a technique from another art.
BUT…
you have to do it.
Fortunately,
it is simple.
If you have picked up the books on Perfect Karate,
or the small book I wrote on the butterfly,
you will know exactly what I am doing.
But you likely haven’t seen the work on Matrix Tai Chi.
Not at all.
Even if you’ve done the video course,
this is quite a bit more linear,
easier,
simpler.
And Monkey Boxing.
Ahhh.
That is my art,
and here is how you get started in it.
You’ll see how the basics come together for a perfect matrix.

The book is 160 pages,
over 300 illustrations.
And it doesn’t just show the matrix of five individual arts,
it shows how they come together to make one art,
the real art,
the real path of the martial arts.

So here’s the Amazon link.
The Book of Five Arts
Make sure you give it five stars.

Have a GREAT work out!

Al
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Five-Arts-Martial-Training/dp/1796218332/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+book+of+five+arts+al+case&qid=1550014606&s=gateway&sr=8-2-spell

A WIN!
Al,
I’ve sped through the Shaolin Butterfly, am learning the Five Army Tai Chi Chuan and the Butterfly Baguazhang. It seems to me that now I can look at classical forms and simply understand how to do them correctly. It’s absolutely amazing. The practice and learning process basically infuses a student with the basics to make anything work. To correct the whole of an art simply by looking at the forms and playing around with them. I’ve applied this to many classical forms I learned years ago. Thanks so much for the master key to all the martial arts right in my hand.

Justin H

Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.
Bruce Lee

Congrats to new Martial Arts Master Instructor

Newsletter 953

A New Martial Arts Master Instructor!

Super congrats to new Master Instructor
Maj (ret) Paul von Hacker

Here is Paul’s win…

Master Case,
Let me begin by saying I had high expectations and your course exceeded them. You are the most articulate and scientific instructor I’ve ever had and I find that to be exceptionally effective when learning. I’ve studied a number of systems in 25 years and found differing aspects of each that I’ve incorporated into my personal skill set. From a striking perspective I tend to enjoy karate and boxing. Footwork tends to be boxing and pa qua oriented. My ground experience has been almost exclusively Jiu jitsu. The only weapon I’ve ever really studied was dear horned knives and then knives.

From my perspective your master instructor course is a must have. I’ve taught numerous classes in non-martial arts settings. As an Air Force officer it was just part of the job. I am very analytical with regards to instruction so your method truly broke each area down into very concise sub areas that I felt were masterfully pieced together.

(Paul has described the course in detail here, so we move to his conclusion…)

Conclusion: Sir, I have met many skilled practitioners in martial arts. I have worked with men and women whose skill and technique were inspiring but I have never met anyone who put it all together. I was speaking to a 3rd Dan Judo BB in the local area. He runs a school and I have gone over from time to time on sparring night. He has an open mat sparring session to enable his students to spar with other students from various disciplines. I began explaining your matrixed concepts to him and he was a bit cautious. So I explained it this way. If one wanted a degree in computer science one would have to accumulate 120 credits towards the degree, roughly 70% of that is not related to the degree. If one could instead take the 50 credits toward the degree it would take roughly 3 semesters. It is a simplified way to explain it but one I explained it that way he understood. Then we sparred and had a good time and the entire time I was watching, in-between bouts, I found myself using the corrections and the tools and the amazing things is I am not very educated in Judo. The fact that I could ID areas of poor grounding, misalignment, and bad CBM speaks to the simplicity and complexity of the material covered.
On your website you mentioned pricing being low so numerous people could benefit, that is laudable but I recommend you increase your pricing. The work you’ve accumulated it the totality of your life endeavor. Imagine it this may, during WW II the greatest minds on the planet struggled to unlock the atom. In 2019, any student can crack open a book and read the equations used, theories proved, and any semi-educated person could go back in time and explain the concepts easily and concisely to Einstein and his team. You’ve unlocked the atom! You’ve taken this light years from where it was, steam engine and propeller air plane to atom splitting attack sub and to top it all off you’ve articulate enough to explain it in the most concise manner I’ve ever seen.
Maj Paul von Hacker III, USAF, Ret

congrats and well done Master Instructor Hacker,
and thank you.

And,
to everybody,
this is a world which has been educated out of common sense.
it has become bound by myths and lies.
People make up reasons when they don’t understand the real reasons.
For these reasons the martial arts suffer,
and people circle on the rim
and never experience the real martial arts.
The real martial arts are simple,
and the Master Instructor course is the key that unlocks them.

Again,
congrats to Paul,
and…
Have a great work out!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/

Here’s a Christmas win…

A WIN!

Merry Christmas my friend. I love what you do, and you’ve changed the way I approach the arts that I love. 2018 marks my 40th year as a martial artist, and I believe that what you do is so important to us true believers. Please remember that innovation is always going to be violently resisted initially. What you do is absolutely logical, and it’s impossible for any sane man to argue with logic. Press on with pride brother. You ARE making history and a legacy. Best wishes and thanks.
– Sean

“There is no comfort in the growth zone and no growth in the comfort zone”?Unknown

How to Understand Mastery in the Martial Arts

Newsletter 947

Becoming a Master in the Martial Arts!

You give a guy a hammer,
show him how to build a wall,
let him build walls for a couple of months
and zingo bingo,
the guy is a framer.
He knows how to set down the two by fours,
nail them into a wall,
uses a square like a champ,
pounds those nails in a wack or two,
and he is quick.
He is expert.
One could even say he is a black belt in framing.
Or,
depending on his job,
he might be a black belt in roofing,
or building chimneys,
or whatever.
Expert.
Zowie.

But,
he can’t build a house all by himself.
Not quick and fast
with no mistakes.
But,
he’s got a leg up on everybody else.
A guy who could build a house would be a master.
He is expert in a number of fields.
He’s an expert in framing and flooring and installing sinks
and putting in light switches and…
and everything you might expect to find in a house.

Simply,
he has become expert in a number of fields.
And if he was a good master
he would even know how to get the money
to build the house.
That’s right,
he would contract it out to various experts,
let them do the work,
while he checks up on them every few days.
Isn’t that odd?
To think of a contractor as a master?

And,
yes,
there are a few contractors who build shoddy houses,
they aren’t as expert as they think they are,
but they fool people and get away with it.

So,
that all said,
a fellow who knows one art can be said to be an expert.
He knows Aikido,
he is a black belt in Aikido.
He knows Taekwondo,
he is a black belt in Taekwondo.
And so on.

Here’s the hard part,
he doesn’t know enough different arts,
and so it takes a lifetime to become a master.

Oh, yes,
he’ll make it,
but it’s hit or miss,
he picks up things by listening to what others say,
by reading books,
by stumbling across concepts he might have seen in his own art,
but in which he doesn’t have the art,
or drills and discipline,
to make work.

And here’s something a. lot of guys are going to hate…
MMA, being a bunch of arts put together,
doesn’t make a master.

A master is made by the accumulation
of the various knowledges of the various arts,
MMA is good fighting.
It is not broad knowledge,
but specialized knowledge,
and limited to the rules of the ring.

I’m not knocking MMA,
just saying something that most MMA fighters,
if they are honest,
will readily admit.

But the real point here is not how many fights you have been in,
the real point is how much knowledge you have.
And knowledge is in the various martial disciplines.
If you study karate,
you need to study tai chi and aikido and krav maga and TKD and…
and if you study MMA you need to peruse the various disciplines
from which MMA came,
to find the knowledge behind why you are a good fighter.
Wing Chun, Shaolin, Silat,
all the arts,
they each have parts of the whole,
and they must be studied in order to put
the parts of the whole together
and make one art.

One art out of all the pieces of arts that you know.
All the concepts of all the arts
arranged in order
that they may be understood purely.

That is what a Master knows.
So there are few masters,
for few people take the time to go into all the various disciplines.
Mostly it takes forty or fifty years,
and then the guy dies.
But a few people understand what I am saying,
and a few people understand that matrixing
teaches one not just the various concepts,
but how the concepts fit together.

Here’s a link about some of the people I have taught,
and who have taught me…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts-instructors/

Have a great work out!
Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts-instructors/

Here’s a win I received a few years ago…

A WIN!

Master Case,
I purchased your Matrix Core Course last October and it’s truly amazing and revolutionary material, it’s taken me months to complete, and it covers a lot of martial arts ground.
Then I purchased the Matrix Master Text and it blew my mind even further out.  It helped me understand the core material even better.
I have never paid so much for a PDF download file in my life, but after opening that eBook, and reading it, I realized how much time and energy you really put into your Matrixing work. Your core course and the master text are worth a lot more than what I paid, you have by far over delivered by redeeming my time spent in the martial arts and saving me all that scratching on my head for the coming years ahead.
I will never see the martial arts the same way again.  After over 20 years in the martial arts studying Judo, Jujitsu, Hapkido, Kenpo, Tang So Do, and Taekwondo, I have learned more in these past 11 months, than I have in my entire martial arts career.

Thanks!
Elmer G