Good gun for a beginner, right?
I haven’t done much gun training, know only a little about gun control, so when my wife asked me about it I had to rely on what I’d heard and basic martial arts training. This all boiled down to five basic points. Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged aikido, gun control, gun training, karate, keno, kung fu, taekwondo
I’m always fascinated by martial art weapons.
It’s so nice to think that you can stand back and defend yourself
without ever getting your hands dirty.
The problem is that I don’t like many of the martial art weapons out there.
I like the Chinese sword.
It is delicate and quick,
like a knitting needle.
Great martial art weapons
I like blow guns,
they are silent,
foldable,
you can make poison darts.
I like two sticks,
they are fantastic for training.
And I like a few others,
but most martial art weapons are too heavy,
or confined in their motion.
Now,
that said,
I probably never told anybody this,
but my father was an engineer.
Actually,
he made prototypes.
At first he worked for a small company named Ampex.
He was responsible for materials and machining
for the original tape recorders
back in the fifties.
In the sixties he went to Memorex,
became the prototype engineer,
again,
responsible for machining exotic materials.
Now,
let me bridge this to the martial arts.
In his spare time
he used to play golf,
and he started putting together weird golf clubs.
By weird,
I mean that he had access to space age materials.
And he started making golf clubs
with titanium shafts,
fibre glass shafts,
heads made out of…whatever,
and so on.
He probably invented a couple of things,
but he never bothered with patenting,
the companies he worked for
were pretty obsessive about patents,
so he didn’t bother.
He knew if he patented a golf club
one of those companies
would claim it was theirs.
Seriously.
Anyway,
the reason I bring this all up
is that I don’t see any martial art weapons
using space age materials.
There’s a couple of things out there,
especially knives,
and there’s some other oddities,
but when is the last time
you saw a sword made out of some exotic material,
kept a better edge,
even if you used it to pound in spikes?
I know there have a been a few things made,
but not a lot.
Wouldn’t it be cool to have a staff
as light as fiberglass,
but virtually unbreakable?
A sword that actually bends?
Now,
I can see problems with some of these things,
for instance,
something might not have the weight,
and you do often need weight in a weapon,
but if you put an exotic metal blade on the end,
it would be as quick as a knitting needle,
but longer than a Chinese sword,
and it might put a whole new slant
on fighting with weapons.
Man,
I can think of all sorts of problems,
but it would be fun to make something like that,
see what the probs are,
then reinvent it again,
and eventually focus
on something better.
The whole thrust of war
has been for better machines.
The machine gun revolutionized warfare.
Then along came the tank.
The submarine,
the blimp…and the plane.
So why not the martial arts weapons?
Think about it,
a heat seeking nine section chain dart.
Or,
a laser guided samurai sword…
Well,
perhaps I’m going a little too far,
but if necessity if the mother of invention,
imagination is the father of invention.
All right,
let me share a win…
Al,
I just wanted to say that I think that your Blinding Steel program is a great addition to my students escrima training. I have been teaching them the Heaven Six patterns and found that your concept of the Circle of Blocks is a great way to enter into these patterns. The ability to flow from the circle to the heaven patterns is a great way for the students to learn movement, striking and blocking with ease. The nine square concept made it very easy for them to see the angle of attacks that can be delivered at any given time. It also is a great way to remove the fear of being struck during the disarm section of Blinding Steel. Excellent info once again. Well done Al, well done. I just want to say thank you and keep up the great work.
Michael G
Thanks Michael!
And for everybody,
my programs,
and especially the Blinding Steel,
are martial arts by themselves,
but their real purpose
is to clarify all martial arts,
and you can use them
with your martial art
no matter what martial art it is.
Anybody who teaches martial art weapons,
should consider implementing blinding steel.
Anybody who teaches Karate,
should start of with Matrix Karate.
And the Shaolin Butterfly
should be taught before traditional Shaolin.
Don’t you understand?
These are unique and whole martial arts by themselves,
but they expose and clarify
and give a big, whomping, huge,
kick in the butt
to all the traditional martial arts.
I haven’t re-invented the martial arts,
I have just figured out better ways to teach them,
how to make them work together,
how to figure out the lost (concealed) pieces,
and so on.
It’s like putting space age material,
on ancient weapons,
and getting something better.
Oinkey Donkey,
here’s the URL…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/3a-blinding-steel-matrixing-weapons/
have a great martial art weapons work out!
Speaking of Martial Art weapons…have you read The Bomber’s Story by Al Case?
Posted in aikido, karate, kung fu, mixed martial arts, shaolin, tai chi chuan
Tagged aikido, karate, martial art weapon, pole, staff, sword
I’m always fascinated by martial art weapons.
It’s so nice to think that you can stand back and defend yourself
without ever getting your hands dirty.
The problem is that I don’t like many of the martial art weapons out there.
I like the Chinese sword.
It is delicate and quick,
like a knitting needle.
Great martial art weapons
I like blow guns,
they are silent,
foldable,
you can make poison darts.
I like two sticks,
they are fantastic for training.
And I like a few others,
but most martial art weapons are too heavy,
or confined in their motion.
Now,
that said,
I probably never told anybody this,
but my father was an engineer.
Actually,
he made prototypes.
At first he worked for a small company named Ampex.
He was responsible for materials and machining
for the original tape recorders
back in the fifties.
In the sixties he went to Memorex,
became the prototype engineer,
again,
responsible for machining exotic materials.
Now,
let me bridge this to the martial arts.
In his spare time
he used to play golf,
and he started putting together weird golf clubs.
By weird,
I mean that he had access to space age materials.
And he started making golf clubs
with titanium shafts,
fibre glass shafts,
heads made out of…whatever,
and so on.
He probably invented a couple of things,
but he never bothered with patenting,
the companies he worked for
were pretty obsessive about patents,
so he didn’t bother.
He knew if he patented a golf club
one of those companies
would claim it was theirs.
Seriously.
Anyway,
the reason I bring this all up
is that I don’t see any martial art weapons
using space age materials.
There’s a couple of things out there,
especially knives,
and there’s some other oddities,
but when is the last time
you saw a sword made out of some exotic material,
kept a better edge,
even if you used it to pound in spikes?
I know there have a been a few things made,
but not a lot.
Wouldn’t it be cool to have a staff
as light as fiberglass,
but virtually unbreakable?
A sword that actually bends?
Now,
I can see problems with some of these things,
for instance,
something might not have the weight,
and you do often need weight in a weapon,
but if you put an exotic metal blade on the end,
it would be as quick as a knitting needle,
but longer than a Chinese sword,
and it might put a whole new slant
on fighting with weapons.
Man,
I can think of all sorts of problems,
but it would be fun to make something like that,
see what the probs are,
then reinvent it again,
and eventually focus
on something better.
The whole thrust of war
has been for better machines.
The machine gun revolutionized warfare.
Then along came the tank.
The submarine,
the blimp…and the plane.
So why not the martial arts weapons?
Think about it,
a heat seeking nine section chain dart.
Or,
a laser guided samurai sword…
Well,
perhaps I’m going a little too far,
but if necessity if the mother of invention,
imagination is the father of invention.
All right,
let me share a win…
Al,
I just wanted to say that I think that your Blinding Steel program is a great addition to my students escrima training. I have been teaching them the Heaven Six patterns and found that your concept of the Circle of Blocks is a great way to enter into these patterns. The ability to flow from the circle to the heaven patterns is a great way for the students to learn movement, striking and blocking with ease. The nine square concept made it very easy for them to see the angle of attacks that can be delivered at any given time. It also is a great way to remove the fear of being struck during the disarm section of Blinding Steel. Excellent info once again. Well done Al, well done. I just want to say thank you and keep up the great work.
Michael G
Thanks Michael!
And for everybody,
my programs,
and especially the Blinding Steel,
are martial arts by themselves,
but their real purpose
is to clarify all martial arts,
and you can use them
with your martial art
no matter what martial art it is.
Anybody who teaches martial art weapons,
should consider implementing blinding steel.
Anybody who teaches Karate,
should start of with Matrix Karate.
And the Shaolin Butterfly
should be taught before traditional Shaolin.
Don’t you understand?
These are unique and whole martial arts by themselves,
but they expose and clarify
and give a big, whomping, huge,
kick in the butt
to all the traditional martial arts.
I haven’t re-invented the martial arts,
I have just figured out better ways to teach them,
how to make them work together,
how to figure out the lost (concealed) pieces,
and so on.
It’s like putting space age material,
on ancient weapons,
and getting something better.
Oinkey Donkey,
here’s the URL…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/3a-blinding-steel-matrixing-weapons/
have a great martial art weapons work out!
Speaking of Martial Art weapons…have you read The Bomber’s Story by Al Case?
Posted in aikido, karate, kung fu, mixed martial arts, shaolin, tai chi chuan
Tagged aikido, karate, martial art weapon, pole, staff, sword
Beyond Black means in any martial art, as you will see in this article.
When a person is beyond black belt it means he is ready for advanced training.
In Karate, and similar martial arts, the training is more advanced forms.
What lies beyond Black Belt?
But these more advanced forms don’t always mean much. The movements are sometimes so esoteric that they aren’t workable, and they don’t seem to make only marginal advanced energy capability in the body of the student.
This holds true for just about every Martial Art, from Karate to Aikido to Taekwondo to…whatever.
So the real reason for these advanced but same old same old forms are that they afford the practitioner the means to ‘polish’ his art. To get better at…the basics.
To get better at the basics means that they become smoother, more intuitive, more usable.
And, there are other qualities to be appreciated here: calmness of mind, a certain type of wisdom, some sixth sense abilities (if you lucked out and got in a good system, very rare) and so on.
When I found myself in the position of teaching people beyond black belt I decided to do things differently. I began teaching whole arts for each level after black belt.
I might teach a Shaolin style to second black black belt, a pa kua style to 3rd black, and so on.
This gave me tremendous leeway in what I teach. I was actually able to shift programs around like shuffling cards, and fit the programs and specific martial arts much better to individual students, and yet still maintain a distinct discipline and structure in my classes.
Furthermore, the polishing consideration was not neglected, but rather enhanced. Basics are basics, from art to art, and there is little difference. Thus, not only was the student working on basics, but he was getting different viewpoints of basics, which helped him understand them in depth.
The truth of the matter is that this method allows me to teach more than art, but a viewpoint of art, a perspective that is not able to be taught in normal classes.
It is a matter of how much knowledge you can impart, not art, but quality of knowledge, and the ability to import more knowledge…at a glance.
What was really pleasant for me is that I often run into these old students, and they’ll say they learned some new art, and I’ll ask them about it, and they’ll say something like, ‘Oh, I got together with so and so and we traded systems.’
Traded systems. Just like people did before everything went commercial. As in trading Pa Kua for Tai Chi. Or Shaolin for Karate. As it says in various accounts of martial artists, especially those who created their own systems.
Able to trade a whole system because they have been trained not to do a million punches, but to do a million punches while absorbing several martial arts systems.
And it gets really interesting for me when I get around these old students, they’ll be talking about things like shifting the tan tien while making a kung fu kick work in a karate style, or retaining power without dropping their weight, or some other oddity that it took me decades to figure out, but they are doing in a couple of years…and they have a whole lifetime to go places I dream about.
Lucky guys.
But, that’s okay. When I give up this body I’ll get a new one and find one of these guys to teach me.
Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t let you know that the reason I am able to teach lots of martial arts beyond black belt is because of this Matrixing Technology I developed…it’s at Monster Martial Arts.
Posted in aikido, karate, kenpo, kung fu, pa kua chang, shaolin, taekwondo, tai chi chuan
Tagged aikido, beyond black belt, black belt, karate, kung fu, martial arts, shaoin, taekwondo
Karate pain might be good, and it might be bad. It depends on the circumstances.
I know, we’ve all heard the saying, ‘No pain, no gain,’ but that isn’t what this is all about.
In Karate Pain can be an instruction
You see, there are two types of Karate Pains.
One type of Karate Pain is the real injury. The broken bone, the accidental punch in the nose or poke in the eyes. These injuries, these types of Karate pain are real and should be attended to.
If you’re bleeding, stop the durned bleeding. If you’re nose is broken, see a doctor. A poke in the eye could result in all manner of eye problems.
So you take care of it.
The thing here is to be able to tell the difference between karate pain that is real, and karate pain that is in the mind.
A bruise isn’t usually serious. So just inspect it, take care of it if you have to, and move on.
A dislocated joint, better get that sucker looked at.
A bone bruise…hmmm.
Bone bruises, especially when they are the result of some fast and intense sparring, can be quite painful.
I remember a blocking exercise which kept me in bone bruises for years.
I remember overextending punches, and suffering bone bruises inside the elbow joint where the bones slapped together. That was painful for a long time.
But, bruises, even bone bruises, are just something you go through.
The karate blocking exercise I spoke of, it was called the eight step blocking exercise, and we did it every class, and we all had constant bruising of the forearms.
BUT, after a couple of years of this we would be doing freestyle, do a block, and our opponents would yelp in pain. Simply, we got used to the pain, started ignoring it, and got the abilities that we wouldn’t have gotten if we hadn’t persisted in our karate classes.
And there were other exercises, some quite painful, that gave us abilities that people who don’t take karate, or other martial arts like kung fu or taekwondo, would never get.
The ability to grip somebody with a hand and bring them to their knees simply by squeezing.
The ability to get calm and focused when terrible things are happening and everybody else is going into a state of panic.
There is a saying, you don’t make an omelet without breaking eggs. Man, is this true.
For seven years I broke eggs. I still have bumps on the bones in my forearms from the durned eight step blocking exercise.
But when it comes to getting things done, I’m the go to guy.
Simply, I have faced pain, and now no the difference between real pain, and fake pain, the kind of pain one should just ignore and go ahead with his work.
This is something that is not taught in school.
And, truth, this is something that makes people great.
Pioneers of America had this quality. There was nobody there when they broke a wagon or got shot with an arrow or whatever, and so they had to fix everything themselves.
In recent times this ability, to forge ahead when the going gets tough, has been weaned out of people. But the martial arts, especially exercises that result in the karate pain i describe here, bring this ability out again.
Here’s a great article on the toughest Martial Arts class I ever taught. And if you are seriously interested in finding out more about this Karate pain type of thing, and how it can help you, check out the Evolution of an Art course at Monster Martial Arts.
Bagua Zhang Technique is an easy thing to learn and simple to apply. The problem is that they might actually be to simple.
Too simple to learn because most people don’t have the discipline of mind, the mental ability, to make Bagua Zhang Martial Arts work. They get lost in the endless possibilities of intricacy, and lose sight of the simplicity.
Come on! All of you! At once! I know the best martial art!
When you walk the circle you must do so with an eye to developing Martial Arts Bagua Zhang Technique. These martial arts gems rely on one simple principle: the opponent must extend his arm, and the person doing the circle walking self defense must use the extended limb like a captain’s wheel. That is, he must turn the spoke, that the hub of the body would revolve.
If the punch is fast and hard, this is difficult to do, and what punch is not going to be fast?
The solution is to practice until you see the energy forming, until you see the punch generating, and then be willing and able to use whatever part of the arm you get.
For instance, the attacker launches a strike, and it is a short, circular type of jab. To make a bagua zhang technique work the student must go with the punch, let it pass, and push on the elbow, or even the shoulder.
This means you have to not only walk sideways, but you have to fine tune your distance, so that the opponent misses, passes, and is the right range for your push.
When you push you must not do so faster than the strike, nor slower. The best bagua zhang techniques are going to be the ones in which you harmonize with the motion, and therefore with the attacker.
Think: if he feels you touch him, he will resist, so if you use too much force he will change. But you don’t want him to change…you just want him to be slightly out of kilter, unable to follow up, at a slight disadvantage.
Now, what do you want to do? Continue your circle walking and tie him in knots? Spin him to the earth, circle the arm and reverse direction into a lock or takedown? These are all potential bagua fighting techniques, but the one you choose will depend on one thing: what is the most simple.
What is simple, that is what is difficult. You see, most people train to do something, but when you reach the point where you do nothing, then you can let the attacker guide you to his self destruction.
There is a phrase in The Tao: ‘Do nothing until nothing is left undone.’
Do you understand how this works with a bagua zhang techniques?
The point is that you must practice not the technique, but the concept behind the technique, then your kung fu will work, and then you will have the effortless Bagua Zhang technique that is easy and simple to do.
There is a great piece of writing on how to learn kung fu fast at Monster Martial Arts. Or you could just go to the ultimate bible on Bagua Zhang techniques.
Posted in aikido, kung fu, pa kua chang, tai chi chuan
Tagged aikido, ba gua zhang, karate, kenpo, kung fu, shaolin, tai chi chuan
Shaolin Kung Fu is one of the oldest of the Martial Arts. It was started over two thousand years ago, endured through many changes, and is still important and powerful. The question we ask here is: can anything new be added to Shaolin Kung Fu?
The original Shaolin Kung Fu was started during the time of Buddha. Buddha came to the Shaolin Temple and began to instruct the Shaolin Monks in sacred texts. Unfortunately, the monks were of weak constitution. They fell asleep, they were easy targets for bandits, they just couldn’t cut it.
Emblem of the Shaolin Butterfly
Buddha began instructing the monks in traditional exercises to help strengthen them. These were chi building exercises, and the things he was teaching them bears strong resemblance to martial arts drills. Thus, the exercises slowly transformed into forms and techniques that has come to be known as Shaolin Kung Fu. The bad guys in the area around the Shaolin Temple began to finding that the monks were no longer easy targets,and began to depart the area.
Years passed, and Shaolin endured through many changes. Emperors came and emperors went, but Shaolin lasted, and people who learned the traditional Shaolin Kung Fu lessons came to be in great demand. They would leave the temple and teach the peasants how to protect themselves, train bodyguards how to fend off bandits, and even became involved in training warriors for war.
At last, the emperor had had enough, these Shaolin monks were causing too much trouble, and he ordered the temple destroyed.
Five monks managed to escape the destruction of the temple, and they began to teach martial arts on a broader level. Some of the styles that came about as a result of these monks were Northern Shaolin, Hung Gar, Wing Chun, and so on.
That brings us to the modern era, and the condition of modern Shaolin Kung Fu. While the art is alive and well in some areas, under the hands of dedicated instructors, all too often it has been transformed into tournament arts, flowery systems that mean little, and, of course, the Wu shu of the PRC, which is not true to the original Shaolin Kung Fu. This kung fu was made up by physical education coaches after the Great Revolution, and spread for the glory of the state; not because of a desire for understanding the spiritual teachings originally taught at the Shaolin Temple.
One of the modern systems of Shaolin, a trim and tight system that yet embraces the majority of the original teachings, is the Shaolin Butterfly. This martial art holds to the original principles, such as animal modes of fighting like the tiger, the dragon, the crane, and so on.
It is started with a study of six basic steps, which steps take on a twining, mixing personality, and which are then done upon standing bricks. Thus, the student has to keep balance, all while learning how to kick and strike, how to cling to an attacker, how to entrap and take down with a variety of locks and throws.
There is a science to this approach, a blessing of western culture, that augments the eastern origins, yet enables the student to learn much faster.
That is the history of Shaolin Kung Fu to present times, and while it is a rich history, it manages to sidestep the corruption of art due to influences such as tournaments, commercial interests, and so on.
Here’s a good bit of writing on Shaolin Kung Fu. If you would like to actually take lessons in this incredible art, check out the course at Monster Martial Arts.
Posted in aikido, karate, kenpo, taekwondo, tai chi chuan
Tagged aikido, karate, kenpo, pa kua chang, shaolin kung fu, taekwondo, tai chi chuan
The question, of whether to mix the martial arts is a rather nifty one, but it doesn’t make sense, sort of reveals that the asker doesn’t really know what the martial arts are.
The fact is, whether you study kung fu or kenpo, aikido or escrima, every martial art that is in existence is a put together, a mix of jujitsu or shaolin or whatever.
Can you mix martial arts like these? Monster Martial Arts did!
Every one of those ‘ancient’ disciplines is a mix. I quoted ‘ancient’ becuase most martial arts are not ancient at all.
Kenpo was invented (put together from other arts) by Ed Parker some fifty years ago. That’s not long.
Karate is a mix of kung fu styles.
Escrima is a trade off between tribes in the Filipines, and so on.
Simple, every art is a conglomeration and collaboration of other arts.
The latest mixes are quite interesting. They are the ones that pop up on the net. You know the ones I mean, ‘I beat Eight Ninjas Using a Secret Technique Taught to Me by Himalayan Nuns!’
And the guy who is selling this mess puts together a sampling of techniques, ties them together with a loose vrsion of a scientific theory, and calls it by a pseudo scientific name. Something like, Minderg Fighting concepts. Or, Psychop Blitzes.’ Something that sounds scientific, but is just rehashed theory, ancient languages translated into gobbledegook designed to befuddle any who ask.
And those who don’t ask are impressed (they paid money, they have to be impressed, right?) and they tell their friends, and somewhere in there somebody gets a bright idea, starts teaching, and says he has founded a new system.
Truth, sometimes there is a good system. Heck, if somebody puts in the hard work, distills the crapola, he’s going to find the grain of knowledge that started the crapola on its journey.
Well, that’s about all I’ve got to say.
In spite of all the bushwah out there, one should study the various systems, and he should mix martial arts until they make sense, and the best system I have seen is the Matrix Karate system by Al Case…that’s one that works, and actually is scientific!
When it comes to building that thing called chi energy, tai chi kung fu is one of the best. What’s interesting is that the principles used in that martial art can be used in Karate, taekwondo, aikido, or whatever. The central principles being utilized, you see, are pretty universal.
One of the first practices one might find, if one finds a good tai chi chuan style, is ‘holding the bowl.’ This is an easy practice, at least for the first few minutes…smile. One simply goes into an hourglass position, back very slightly rounded, and holds the arms as if embracing a large pot.
Try this Jedi Mind Trick!
The first challenge in this stance is that of the mental aspect. One’s mind starts to have thoughts, and these thoughts are a distraction. Once one has dedicated himself to getting past this phenomena, the mind thoughts start to disappear.
The second challenge in doing this drill is physical in nature. After sixty minutes or so, the body tends to get riled. It doesn’t want to run energy through it, it doesn’t want the discipline, and it will shake and shimmy and and even try to get sick.
Just ignore the mental yak yak, and forget the body protest, and focus yourself on the stillness of the mind (listening to the universe), and move chi power through the body. After a short while of holding the pot one will start to feel chi energy vibration, and there are many things you can do with this energy. You can move the power around the ‘pot’ of the upper limbs, you can circle it around the meridian running through the center of the front and back of the body, and you can do all sorts of other things.
What is of importance is that this posture has heavy martial arts function. After becoming competent at this posture, doing the karate kata called Sanchin will reveal amazing amounts of subtle chi power. One’s martial arts abilities will truly start to glow.
This exercise, incidentally, is based on one of the ten arm positions, as discussed in ‘The Perfect Technique,’ (Quality Press). Thus, it becomes an important technique for martial arts studies. The central principle behind this book is that there are only ten positions the arms can take that will ‘run’ chi power, and that the position of the limbs in the ‘holding the bowl’ exercise, as done in tai chi martial arts, is the first and probably the most critical of these arm positions.
Study the logical way of growing <a href=”http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Matrixing_Chi.html”>Chi Power</a> through arts like Shaolin and <a href=”http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Five_Army_Tai_Chi_Chuan.html”>Tai Chi Chuan</a>. Go to Monster Martial Arts, and make sure you pick up a free martial arts book.
Posted in aikido, hsing i, hung gar, karate books, kenpo, kung fu books, martial arts books, shaolin, tai chi chuan
Tagged aikido, bagua zhang, chi, hsing i, sanchin kata, tai chi chuan, zen martial arts
I was reading a martial arts journal several years ago, I think it was Black Belt, and I stumbled upon this anecdote involving Morihei Ueshiba. O Sensei would go to different towns and put on Aikido exhibitions. I have no doubt the exhibitions were spectacular, however the thing that inspired the heck out of me was the tale his uchideshi (inside student) provided regarding O Sensei’s crowd walking procedure.
Build Unlimited Chi!
When traveling across a train station (for example) O Sensei would just walk straight forward, emanating his chi, and the masses would part. Individuals might turn and stare at this imperious titan, then the masses would close up. The Uchi deshi, packed with trunks and bags, would struggle through the closing people.
The thing that inspired me about this relating of event was not that a man could easily emanate effective chi and sweep back a masses, but that it reminded me of my very own crowd walking experiences.
When I was in eleventh grade I used to love to run through groups. I might be late for class, or merely playing tag with someone, and all of a sudden something would come over me and I would be in complete sprint. The halls would certainly be jammed, and I would be turning on the penny, scrambling full tilt, not able to be tripped (and a few of the teenagers would certainly make an effort). Young women might gasp and also offer little shrieks as I ran full tilt towards them, then turned and spun around them. The ground resembled a magnet to my feet, I never ever slipped, it was like I was flash, yet with magic glue on my soles.
O Sensei’s crowd walking blew me away, however it was so different from mine.
Emanating chi like he was a walking heater. It was the start of my martial arts calling, and control of chi in such outstanding way was yet a dream. Still, I had my very own strategy.
As time went on I acquired the capacity to exhibit chi, though not to the degree of O Sensei, yet, remarkably, I started to hold my very own approach up as perhaps not so scruffy.
The key, of course, was in engaging in Pa Kua Chang, in walking the circle. Particularly, I would focus on walking INCREDIBLY slowly. I would feel the chi go up and down the legs, and I started to comprehend a few things.
One, there was even more finesse in my procedure than merely turning it on and blasting individuals back.
Two, Pa Kua Chang in fact didn’t instruct individuals to crowd walk like I was doing it. Classic Pa Kua Chang was more into tricky hands, and not into fine tuning the walk itself. Walking slowly, concentrating the mindset on the generation and control of chi in the legs, made lightening in the legs. And this lead to the next understanding.
Three, I could show individuals ways to walk through crowds ten times more effortlessly and successfully, and there was a WHOLE LOT more contentment in the teaching.
Chi blasting a group is enjoyable, however it is pretty much a bully method.
Understanding ways to worm through the people at high speeds inspires the resourcefulness, it is subtle, it needs more entire body strategy. And this last is fascinating, and actually crucial to the expanding martial artist.
Contrast it to a musical instrument. Chi blasting such as O Sensei did is comparable to the opening chords of’ 2001: A Space Odyssey.’ (Thus Spoke Zarathustra). Crowd walking such as I explain and instruct with my unique Pa Kua Chang resembles playing Flight of the bumblebee.
One is spectacular, the other is elaborate. One is remarkable, the other is subtle. One is overpowering, the other is shading subtleties of colour unto infinity.
And, of course, when it pertains to crowd walking martial arts procedures, one shoujld understand both. Have the ability to be subtle, and blast at a second’s notice.
You can easily check into my specific Pa Kua Chang at Monster Martial Arts.
