Tag Archives: shaolin training

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

The Secret of Teaching Martial Arts

Newsletter 944

The Higher Martial Art

I had an interesting class the other day,
one of the students is always late,
always lazy,
and wastes his and other student’s time.
So I sat him down,
along with the whole class,
and I chewed him up a little bit.
I said,

five years from now
you’re going to have a job,
a wife,
a kid on the way,
are you going to give people a hard time then?

Blank look back at me.

Then:
Martial Arts are about control.
Fighting is part of it,
but you have to get past fighting
and learn how to control.
Life is nothing but people
and how you control them,
or how you are controlled by them.

He cocks his head quizzically.

I’m the boss here,
can you control me?

He shakes his head no.

So you won’t be able to control your boss
when you get a job.
You won’t be able to move ahead,
you won’t be able to choose what to do,
you won’t be able to work your own hours,
you won’t be able to make the money you want to make.

Now he’s blinking.
I’m starting to make sense to him.

Martial arts is about control.
If you don’t learn control here,
you may not have a chance later.
The boss in five years
doesn’t care about you learning control,
he just wants to get the job done,
and he is going to go with the people
who can best control what they do.

My voice is raised now,
and the class is staring.
There are times when I want them to think,
now is not one of those times.
Now I want them to get it.
Shut up and get it:
the world belongs to those who can control it.

I finished with:
If you’re an idiot now,
if you’re going to waste your time
by being lazy and foolish,
then you’re going to be an idiot in five years.
So I suggest you practice these forms
so you can learn to control your body.
And practice those applications,
so you can learn to control your opponent.
And practice freestyle drills and methods,
so you can control the chaos that life can be.

Now,
the student in question improved slightly.
So I will have to repeat it tomorrow,
maybe in altered form,
maybe in connection with some other dojo lesson.
And I will repeat it again and again.
Because that’s what teaching really is.

Here’s a link on how to translate chaos to control,
force to flow,
the world to your pleasure.

http://monstermartialarts.com/how-to-translate-karate-into-tai-chi-chuan/\

Have a great work out!
Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/how-to-translate-karate-into-tai-chi-chuan/

Following is a great win that shows one thing…you aren’t going to get the answers, you are going to get the questions, the questions that lead you to understanding your own martial art. Do you have the kind of mind that can do this?

A WIN!

Al, the reason I finely decided to order these DVD’s (Five Army Tai Chi Chuan) was that after one of my classes, which I am continuing to teach at the park, I was invited by a fellow name John to learn Tai Chi with him and some of his students. I found the art to be fun, but when the class ended I inquired about the martial application and to my surprise John told me that there where none, that it was only to be used for relaxation.
Bull, I then showed him how I could turn just the few moves that I had just learned into a usable defense (only because I read the Master Instructor manual.) This got me thinking about this art and I know the best place for me to learn it was from you.
Have a great week
Stephen

A Fantastic Ving Tsun Wooden Dummy Training Partner

Better Martial Arts through Ving Tsun Wooden Dummy Training!

The Ving Tsun wooden dummy is a great piece of martial arts equipment. It strengthens the arms and the fists, and even the legs, and it is an opponent that never quits but always loses. The cost of a wooden playmate is sometimes high, so here are a couple of alternatives to help the wooden dummy aficionado meet his opponent.

wing chun wooden dummy

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

 


The Ving Tsun Wooden Dummy is popular in many martial arts, but the main art is Ving Tsun Gung Fu. This art has practiced with the wooden man for the longest, and even has a complete form for dominating it. Other arts, however, use the dummy, also.

This writer recalls seeing the Ving Tsun wooden dummy in Jackie Chan’s wonderful kung fu flick Rumble in the Bronx. Seeing the air fill with dust when Jackie lays into it is a great moment. Possibly the best flick to demonstrate the wooden figure is Ip Man, with Donny Yen.

In the beginning the martial artist will become adept at beating on kicking bags and speed bags, and perhaps strengthening the hands on the makiwara. It won’t be long, however, until the karateka or kung fu student puts a couple of rug samples on a pine tree and moves into tougher hand conditioning. The trick, however, is to get the wooden limb to fly out at you so you can block it.

This writer made a simple striking tool by wrapping a towel around a pole, and then having people jab at him with it. This rapidly turned into an advanced form of freestyle, where the block had to be done, and the distance to the pole holder closed. It is quite challenging to dash three or four feet in a moment to negate the distance the pole offers.

From there one might consider mounting a pole on some sort of swivel device. Bury a four by four in the ground, then place a moveable pole atop it. On can block the arm, and block it again when it swings around, and even get into ducking and blocking against the thing.

Eventually, one will want to get a piece of a log, drill holes through it, and set up some arms and even legs. One can then move around, palm the wooden limbs, and pretend that one is fighting a real attacker. What is really nifty is to put some large springs on the limbs so that they become more lifelike.

The cost of wood being high, or perhaps the difficulty of procuring a log when you live in in a city, one might consider different materials. There is PVC, if one can find thick enough material that won’t break, or perhaps even some sort of metal. This type of dummy and limbs would require towels or other material being wrapped around it to protect the hands and feet.

In closing, there are many ways to set up a fake opponent, and the martial artist is limited only by his imagination. Watch movies, read books, and start inspecting the materials available to you. Guaranteed, a Ving Tsun wooden dummy will go a long way in your martial arts training.

Learn more about <a href=”http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Art-Dearming_the_Arm.html”>Kung Fu Wooden Dummy</a> kinds of training. Head to <a href=”http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Master_Instructor_Course.html”>Monster Martial Arts</a>.