Category Archives: chi power

Karate Kung Fu System in New Book

Posted on August 19, 2016 | 4 comments

Newsletter 825 ~ Subscribe now!

Tiger and Butterfly Martial Arts Book

The new Martial Arts book is called
‘Tiger and Butterfly,’
and it’s pretty darned good.

new martial arts book

click on the cover!

If you look at the title,
and you have done any matrixing,
then you can see that I have used
portions of the Matrix Karate course,
and portions of the Shaolin Butterfly.

This was interesting,
because I didn’t want to fall into the trap
of having systems disagree.
I wanted the concepts to build on each other,
not work against each other.

In a way,
there is a certain similarity
between Tiger and Butterfly
and the MCMAP books I wrote.

The similarity is in the arrangement of material.
This had to be,
because when you make a system,
certain things have to be done,
certain rules have to be followed,
certain principles have to be included,
and all the way up the belt levels.

One of the reasons I wrote this book
is because I visited a few schools,
and I saw how the modern schools
have let forms and techniques fall by the way.
They work on freestyle,
on fighting.
The students get better,
but they can’t do certain things.
For instance,
they don’t understand how to take a punch.
And,
they have limited knowledge
concerning what happens
when you complete the circle (cycle) of a technique.

The system has eight belts,
white
yellow
orange
purple
blue
green
brown
black

There are no degrees.
Each belt is designed to be done
in about three months.
Brown belt might take longer,
but the material on the brown level
is pretty advanced.

When done,
the student will have those liquid kicks,
those floating kicks that look so light,
but knock down a elephant.
They should be able to take any kind of a punch.
They will be able to freestyle with authority,
and make a grab art out of any technique.
They will have knowledge.
Real knowledge.
Not just the fast reflexes of freestyle,
but a complete body knowledge,
how the body is constructed,
how to tweak it for more energy,
how to construct it for total effectiveness.

I want you to think about something.
When you study matrixing,
there are several courses,
and I recommend that you do them all,
that you get the complete picture,
from striking to locking
to guiding to manipulating
to predicting to taking down…
and more.

But,
I can’t reach everybody,
and some people don’t understand
just how big the martial arts are,
and that you have to understand them as a science.
They are locked in ‘hit and punch,’
‘ground and pound,’
and don’t see or understand the bigger picture.

This book is for those people.
Hopefully it will get them excited for the big picture.
But even if it doesn’t,
it will afford a massive education,
and do a lot towards bringing these people
who are studying arts that have degraded over time
into the real art.
They will appreciate it as science.

And,
even if they don’t,
if they do the book,
not just read it and say…
‘oh, I knew that,’
or…
‘we have that in our system,’
but actually do the book,
all the drills and techniques,
all the forms and fighting drills,
then they will be doing the true art.
Whether they were stupid and didn’t even understand
what I am talking about,
if they do the drills and exercises,
they will end up doing the true art.

For instance,
at a certain point,
a certain belt,
I teach a type of kick.
It’s a floating kick,
then you turn the hips over and slam the energy
down into the ground
as you strike.
The point is…
you can’t do that kick
unless you use the tan tien
in a certain way.
You simply can’t.
So they will practice it,
get it,
and stumble over the concept,
whether they understand what is happening or not,
and they will end up with classical power
in a certain mode.
And the whole system is constructed
so that one mode leads to the next.

Okay,
spoken enough.
Simply go to Amazon and enter
‘Tiger and Butterfly,’
or
‘Tiger and Butterfly martial arts’
or
‘Tiger and Butterfly Al Case,’
or something like that,
and watch it pop up.

Remember
it is unique,
matrixing brought one more step forward,
and it is REALLY potent!
It is a COMPLETE martial arts system.

have a great work out!

Al

http://www.amazon.com/Binary-Matrixing-Martial-Arts-Case/dp/1515149501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437625109&sr=8-1&keywords=binary+matrixing

go to and subscribe to this newsletter:
https://alcase.wordpress.com

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Google doesn’t like newsletters,
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You can find all my books here!
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/

http://www.amazon.com/Matrixing-Tong-Bei-Internal-Gung/dp/1507869290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423678613&sr=8-1&keywords=tong+bei

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Posted in chi power, external martial art, internal martial art, karate, kenpo, kung fu, self defense, taekwondo

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Evolving a Thousand Years Through the Martial Arts…

Posted on August 15, 2016 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 824

The Martial Arts, and Evolution…

Speaking of matrixing, the martial arts, and evolution…
I came across an interesting thought
the other day
I was reading some old yogic scrolls,
and the claim was made
that an hour of yoga
caused a thousand years of evolution
in the person doing the yoga.

Interesting claim.

The most important Martial Arts book ever written.

The most important Martial Arts book ever written.

And,
it’s not right,
though it does act like it is right.

After all,
when you evolve,
you are not growing,
you are reclaiming yourself.
So it’s true,
but…not really.
Which brings us to Matrixing.

When you study a martial art
that has been matrixed,
the art is logical,
and therefore the you accept it.
you like things to make sense,
to be logical.

when you matrix a martial art
you accept this logical method
of looking at and handling the world
at a much faster rate.

The difference between studying a martial art,
and matrixing it
(making it logical through your own efforts)
is the difference between driving a car
and building a car.
The fellow who builds the car
will understand that car far better
than the fellow who simply drives it.

Mind you,
in the end,
you get to where you are going.
But the fellow who makes his own vehicle
will,
in the end,
get there faster.

Now,
that said,
there are several things that will happen,
as you matrix,
that will occur.
I don’t think I have ever laid out these results,
described this path,
so here goes…

First,
you will tend to look at the world in a logical manner.
You will become better at solving problems.
You will become a better worker and boss.
You will become an artist.

how to study martial art

Click here to get the whole story on Matrixing the Martial Arts

Everybody sort of knows this,
most martial artists experience this,
so let me take you where most people don’t know.

Second,
you must put aside emotion.
This is an interesting thing.
People will put emotion on you,
and you will feel the need to respond with emotion.
But the Neutronic definition of emotion:

emotion is motion inside the head.

Thus,
you must still the emotion,
stop the motion inside your head,
and not respond with emotion,

BTW,
there is good emotion,
love, happiness, etc.
And there is bad emotion,
hate, fear, sadness, etc.

So the specific emotion you must not respond to
is the bad emotion.
Good emotion okay.
Bad emotion you must uncreate from even beginning.

Think about it,
emotion is merely the automatic response
of one who is overwhelmed.
You must not become overwhelmed,
you must view the world in logical terms,
so that nothing can surprise you,
nothing can overwhelm you.

Third,
you must defeat the distraction of memories.
You must not respond because any conditioning
you may have received.
This includes any familial conditioning,
any educational conditioning,
any conditioning of any kind.
Instead,
you must create yourself in the moment.

For instance,
your father laughed at certain types of jokes before you,
do you laugh at the same kind of jokes?
Don’t you realize that he laughed at jokes in his moment?
And that you have an entirely different moment?
That will change the type of jokes you might laugh at.

For instance,
school might train you to think like a physicist,
and you will analyze the world as a physicist,
when you should analyze it as a unique being,
not trapped by an education.

(Mind, I am not saying you can’t be a physicist
and be in the moment, too)

For instance,
do you view the world through a religious viewpoint?
It would be much better
to study all religions,
to understand all religions,
than to choose one religion over all others.

Don’t become the only thing in the universe
willing to kill over a belief system.

This is simple after you have evolved a few hours…

Fourth,
you must separate yourself from other people,
without losing your humanity.
Simply,
you must be immune to the attitudes
of your fellow man,
but you must love your fellow man
all the same.
This one is incredibly tough.
No matter how far you evolve,
there will always be some idiot
telling you what to do,
thinking he is smarter than you,
and so on.
Can you accept and even use this fellow?
And put aside your certainty
that he is an idiot?
Interesting problem, eh?

Fifth,
and this one is a toughie,
don’t view the world as a fantasy.
This is probably the toughest,
for you become enlightened through the things
I have previously mentioned,
then you might think that,
because you are so smart,
the world should be as you say.

For instance,
you make a battery powered car,
to save the world from pollutants,
and don’t ever consider
that someday the battery will have to be disposed of,
and that the battery might be worse
than all the oil pollutants of a gas car.

Oddly,
this is one of the most dangerous things
you will ever to confront
on your way to self-sufficiency
as a spiritual being…
on your way to your ultimate evolution…
on the way to the ultimate truth of yourself.

Though people haven’t discovered
the earlier truths,
they don’t know how to look at the world logically,
or control their emotion,
or control their responses to people,
they will still try to rule the world through their fantasy.

Have you ever met a fellow without an opinion?
And yet I am asking you to be one.
Toughest problem you will ever encounter.

Anyway,
this is the truth of matrixing
and where it leads to.

First,
you learn to look at the world logically
through the matrixing method.
You put aside the distraction of memories,
then you put aside emotion,
other people’s thoughts,
and even fantasy.

Then you find the truth of yourself,
and you start manipulating the universe
the way it should be manipulated.

The truly odd thing is that this path
often starts with a simple motivation:
the desire to defend yourself.
The wish to become physically safe
through simple exercises and drills.

Where this path leads,
though,
is sublime.

Now,
the one caution:
People think they can do this through any martial art.
Yet nobody has ever succeeded.

Indeed,
the people who think they have
are merely manifesting their fantasy of the world.
They are still mired in the muck,
and don’t understand that they have no logic.
They have only the fantasy of logic.
They have only an opinion and no facts.

So it has to be a matrixed martial art.
It can’t be a Chinese fire drill of a martial art,
it has to be a logical (matrixed) martial art.
Then it will work,
and then you can experience something like…
a thousand years of evolution
through a simple hour of exercise.

Okay,
Matrix Karate starts the matrixing process.
Study the courses as you need to,
until logic outweighs fantasy in your mind.
Then you will be off and running.

But whatever you do…
don’t settle for an opinion.

Here’s a link…

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

And if you’re not ready for Matrix Karate,
then at least check out the ‘Binary Matrixing in the Martial Arts’ book,
or the ‘How to Matrix the Martial Arts’ book.
They are available on Amazon.
(leave a good review!)

Now…
have a great work out!

Al

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

http://www.amazon.com/Binary-Matrixing-Martial-Arts-Case/dp/1515149501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437625109&sr=8-1&keywords=binary+matrixing

go to and subscribe to this newsletter:
https://alcase.wordpress.com

Remember,
Google doesn’t like newsletters,
so this is the best way to ensure you get them.

You can find all my books here!
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/

http://www.amazon.com/Matrixing-Tong-Bei-Internal-Gung/dp/1507869290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423678613&sr=8-1&keywords=tong+bei

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Posted in aikido, chi power, karate, pan gai noon, qigong, self defense

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How to Hit Somebody!

Posted on August 3, 2016 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 822

Hit Them Really, Really Hard!

The first time I ever actually hit someone I was shocked.
I had trained for 20 years, and I actually had no idea
what it was like to hit somebody for real.
Then I had to,
and it totally changed me.

The most important Martial Arts book ever written.

The most important Martial Arts book ever written.

Here’s the deal:
to understand what I am about to say
you have to understand one thing:
what is a punch?

People say it is how hard you hit somebody,
they say all sorts of things,
but I haven’t heard anybody tell me the one thing
that I experienced on the day
I actually had to hit somebody.

Go on,
google it,
see if you can find out the truth
of what it is like to hit somebody.
I’ll wait…
.
.
.
.
.
Okay,
you’re back,
here’s the truth of a punch.
A punch depends on the transference of weight
from one body to the next.
It’s not how hard you hit.
It’s not how fast,
or anything else like that.
It’s how much weight you deliver.
Now,
those other things can enter the equation.
But,
the truth is…
how much weight can you put on the sucker’s body?
Can you put so much weight the other guy’s body breaks?
Can you control the weight so it is a push and not a punch?
Are you stuck in push,
instead of punch?
Does air punching really work?

Interesting questions,
especially once you have tried to do a real punch.

When I struck this fellow
I felt weight go through my wrists.
Because I was grounded he flew back,
went over a bed and hit the wall.
Thank God for grounding.
Thank God I had practiced aligning my bones,
because if I hadn’t I might have broken my wrist,
I might have flown away from that guy from my own punch!
I just didn’t understand.

BUT,
that one punch,
and I understood.
So,
try this special exercise.
We used to do it back in the sixties,
had no clue what it meant,
and it wasn’t until I actually had to hit somebody
that I understood what the drill was for.

Assume the push up position.
Go from the hands to the fists.
Just a little push,
like you’re going to clap your hands,
but then land on your fists.
Palms,
fists,
palms,
fists.

Don’t do too many at first.
Build up a little.
Do it from a knees down push up at first,
if you have to.

What happens here is that you get
the sudden shock of weight
going through your fists and wrists,
and that is what it is like to hit somebody.
A sudden shock of weight in the wrists…
and through the rest of the body.
You ground,
you root your stances,
so that you are braced upon the earth,
and he will fly away,
and not you.
You have a straight bone line in your wrists
so you can absorb the weight.

The actual weight here is going to depend on who weighs the most.
If he weighs more,
you will fly back.
But,
even if you weigh less,
if you ground,
if you are braced upon planet earth,
then he will fly away.
Or,
if you punch with speed and snap,
the impact will ripple through his body
(imagine slapping a pond of water with your hand)
and cause great damage.

Here’s a matrix Karate Kick

Try that,
adapt it to other parts of your practice,
and let me know what happens.

And,
got something else to talk about here…
new book coming out.
This one,
the working title is
‘Tiger and Butterfly’
is a condensation,
a blend,
of Matrix Karate and the Shaolin Butterfly.
The story behind it is interesting.

I walked into a martial arts school,
asked the guy if I could help,
and he said yes.
The school is pretty good.
Probably real good,
but they were teaching martial arts without forms,
specializing in freestyle.
The freestyle was,
depending on which class was taught,
points, MMA, or Jujitsu.
Quite interesting.

So I started helping,
and eventually came up with an interesting idea:
how to teach with fewer, smaller forms.
I used the shorter Butterfly forms,
and the Houses from Matrix Karate.

So far,
it is REALLY working.

Mind you,
I always advise the complete art,
in this case the complete Matrix Karate,
or the complete Shaolin Butterfly,
but considering that the school was established,
considering that I didn’t want to change things,
just enhance them,
you can understand what I was doing.

Anyway,
the book should be out in the next week or so.
Tiger and Butterfly.

Keep your eye out for it,
and,
in the meantime,
check out this book…

http://www.amazon.com/Binary-Matrixing-Martial-Arts-Case/dp/1515149501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437625109&sr=8-1&keywords=binary+matrixing

It’s one of the most important books ever written.
It describes what the martial actually are,
how they are grown,
and ties together all sorts of loose ends.
It should definitely change the way
people think about the martial arts.

Now
have a great work out!

Al

http://www.amazon.com/Binary-Matrixing-Martial-Arts-Case/dp/1515149501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437625109&sr=8-1&keywords=binary+matrixing

go to and subscribe to this newsletter:
https://alcase.wordpress.com

Remember,
Google doesn’t like newsletters,
so this is the best way to ensure you get them.

You can find all my books here!
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/

http://www.amazon.com/Matrixing-Tong-Bei-Internal-Gung/dp/1507869290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423678613&sr=8-1&keywords=tong+bei

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Posted in chi power, internal martial art, jeet kune do, karate, self defense

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The Arthritic Martial Arts Punch

Posted on July 22, 2016 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 820

Arthritis and a Martial Arts Punch!

“It’s not how hard you can hit,
it’s how much weight you can deliver.”
Al Case

I just received a great letter,
a fellow name of Damian,
said Yogata helped his arthritis,
and he talked about how
he sometimes had trouble with a fist because of arthritis.

yoga martial arts style

Click on the cover!

I recommend Yogata,
or any form of yoga,
but I really want to talk about punches,
which may impact on concepts about arthritis.

Arthritis is an interesting condition,
doctors sometimes lump everything
under the term arthritis,
and there are a lot of causes
behind arthritis.
It’s all sort of generic,
but generic with a bite.

So here’s the thing:
injury leads to inflammation.
The body is swelling.
Sometimes the swelling is obvious,
sometimes not,
but the pain,
or lack of usability,
is real.

Many, many years ago
I realized I wasn’t a breaking kind of guy.
My instructor was,
many people are,
there is something seductive
about Power,
and power is often associated with breaking things.

But I figured out that it’s not how hard you hit,
it’s how much weight you can transfer into the opponent.
So I thought about it,
and I realized something:

“you don’t have to tighten the fist.”

This is weird,
we all tighten the fist,
and it is important…for beginners.

Tightening the fist upon impact
teaches focus,
introduces one to concepts of power,
but,
at a certain point,
you don’t need to tighten the fist.
Here’s something to think about”

take a stick and poke it into a watermelon.

Did the stick get ‘tight?’
No.
It just had to be aligned,
and it required a certain amount of ‘quick’ weight.
Although,
when you think about it,
you could puncture a watermelon with a stick
using ‘slow’ weight.

So I started working on the idea
of poking the bones of my arm/fist
through an opponent’s body
without tightening the fist.

Having the idea of puncturing the body
in my mind.

It worked.
No fanfare,
no big deal,
just relax,
align the bones,
feed a little energy into the structure
to keep everything in line,
relax and throw the body.

Worked like a charm.

And…
I started holding thumbtacks in my fist
and breaking things.

And…
here is the kicker,
the more I relaxed,
the better I was able to thrust my
thumbtack holding bones
through an object.

There’s all sorts of things to think about here.
My favorite is this:

if you threw 20 pounds at somebody it would hurt.
(especially if that 20 pounds
had 200 pounds of body behind it)

So when you tighten the arm,
when you focus the fist,
the tightening of the muscles actually holds the strike back.

That’s very zen,
very tai chi,
very true.

BUT,
don’t stop practicing with a tight fist,
you need a certain degree of focus to develop internal power.
And hitting with just the bones,
as I describe here,
is not the only strike,
and focusing the energy is VERY important.

In fact,
I would say that it would be VERY difficult
to learn how to strike with a relaxed fist
if one doesn’t first gain an understanding
of how to focus the energy with a tight fist.

Anyway,
those are my thoughts,
and I want to thank Damian for making me think,
and sharing his win with me.

If you have arthritis,
or ANY condition,
there are ways to keep training.
You just have to relax your thinking,
look around,
and find what works.

And you can find what works
in Yogata,
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/yogata-the-yoga-kata/

in The Punch
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/hard-punch/

and if you think I’m just talking,
check out the video on this page…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4c-matrixing-chi-power/

Take care…and
have a great work out!

Al

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

go to and subscribe to this newsletter:
https://alcase.wordpress.com

Remember,
Google doesn’t like newsletters,
so this is the best way to ensure you get them.

You can find all my books here!
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/

http://www.amazon.com/Matrixing-Tong-Bei-Internal-Gung/dp/1507869290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423678613&sr=8-1&keywords=tong+bei

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Posted in aikido, chi power, internal martial art, karate, kung fu, qigong, tai chi chuan, zen

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Behind the Need for Martial Arts Video Training!

Posted on July 20, 2016 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 819

Martial Arts Video Training!

“A human being is marked by his ability to change.”
Al Case

martial arts law

Click on Cover for The Secret of the One Year Black Belt!

Nice quote, eh?
Let me explain it,
in humanistic terms,
and martial arts terms.
I’m going to go far afield on this one,
so stay with me.

We have a severe homeless problem in my town.
The police have described the homeless as in three categories.
The categories are:
can, can’t, won’t

This is probably not a very good categorization,
but is adequate for the needs of police work.
Simply:
the ‘cans’ would like to work,
but they don’t have the opportunity.
Society has left them behind,
they don’t have the skills,
they don’t understand what has happened to them.

the ‘can’ts’ are merely unable to work.
Handicapped, mentally handicapped, etc.

the ‘won’ts’ are able to work,
but they won’t.
It is easier to live like parasites,
stealing and begging.

Okay,
so how do we fit this categorization into the martial arts?

The cans are able to learn,
but they don’t know where to go,
who to trust,
and they are beset upon by the naysayers,
the people with opinions and no facts
who badmouth everything.

The can’ts are unable to learn.
They have locked themselves into systems
and can’t see beyond those systems.
The ‘My art is best’ sort of thing.

The wont’s are the naysayers.
They are the ones who have opinions but no facts,
and their opinions are invariably:
‘that art is screwed up,’
‘that guy doesn’t know anything,’
and,
of course,
‘Al Case sucks.’

So how do you learn
in a culture filled with those types of personalities?

It requires strength of character
to ignore the naysayers,
separate yourself from a few paltry bucks,
and go get a martial arts book,
a martial arts video,
a martial arts course.

That’s all.
It’s that easy.
But how many people actually have the requisite strength of character?

So if you do have the strength of character,
let me describe what happens
when you do video training with me.

1) You need the course you want to test on.
2) You need the Master Instructor Course.
3) You need to send me a legible video.

At the current time,
I’m not even charging!
FREE!

The fact of the matter is that once people do my courses,
see how logical and common sense matrixing has made the martial arts,
once they do the Master Instructor course,
and understand the actual physics behind the martial arts,
it usually only takes a couple of videos to pass.

Of course,
therein lies my error.
I should be charging hundreds of dollars.
I really should.
Compare the price of three or four years training,
to three or four months of actual accumulation of knowledge.
And,
to be honest,
when I do have sufficient people testing by video
my prices will go up.
When my time starts getting used,
I charge for it.

This clip is from the 5 Army Tai Chi Chuan course.

Here’s something to think about.
In the beginning there was no such thing as black belt.
In the beginning
you picked up techniques where you could,
practiced with whoever,
and only your passion drove you on.

So what I am selling is knowledge.
Knowledge for those who have the passion to be ‘cans.’
Who can say:
I CAN DO THAT!

All others need not apply.

The point here is this:
do you want to learn?
Do you want the real knowledge,
the actual physics,
the logic that makes it all work,
the art?

Do you?
Then you have to be more than:
a ‘can,’ a ‘can’t,’ or a ‘won’t.’
You have to be a:

I CAN DO THAT!

Then you just do it.
You don’t listen to people who say I suck,
you find out for yourself.

You order the two courses,
you find a partner.
(Partners required unless you have enough experience.)
and you indulge your passion,
and you finally,
for the first time in your life,
learn the truth of the martial arts.

‘What kind of a person you are is up to you.’

Here is more data on video testing in the martial arts.

https://alcase.wordpress.com/martial-arts-video-testing/

have a great work out!

Al

https://alcase.wordpress.com/martial-arts-video-testing/

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Training to Relax in the Martial Arts

Posted on June 24, 2016 | 1 comment

Newsletter 816

Relaxing is the only way to find the True Martial Arts

I remember reading of Koichi Tohei,
many years ago,
and some scientists asked if they could test his ki.
Like, on machines.

do yoga

Click on the Cover

Now this isn’t a smart idea.
Ki is an energy motivated by thought,
sometimes the energy can be registered,
but the thought never can,
so science often proves there is no such thing as ki.
Can’t be measured…doesn’t exist.
Which is the same reasoning
that kept the world flat for so many centuries.
They just don’t what to measure,
and there isn’t a machine in existence
that can measure thought.

That said,
the test went round and round,
they couldn’t explain what Koichi was doing,
and they couldn’t figure out the readings they were getting,
and he,
probably with a diabolical sense of humor,
told them he could slow his heart down.

They said nonsense,
a human being couldn’t control the nervous system in that way.
So he did it.
He dropped it some 30 beats,
then sped it up again,
then slowed it down.
And the scientists were really confused.

So let’s talk about what you are supposed to do
with your mind in the martial arts.

First,
forget it.
It’s just a bunch of memories.
Get rid of the past,
at least ignore it,
and you are more in the present,
and then you can better control your body.
Logical, right?
But too simple.
People have a hard time buying into this simplicity.

So,
in Karate,
we trained so that the mind
didn’t become excited,
and so that we kept looking,
and ignored emotion.
Ignored the emotion of fighting.
Didn’t feel the anxiety,
or panic,
or sudden beating of the heart
as the world devolved to chaos.

Note that I am moving at the same time.

When somebody throws a punch at me
I actually slow down.
My mind looks right past any memories,
and I focus on the moment.
I stop reacting,
even to my own training,
and start moving with the person.
In real time.

Now,
there are MANY examples of this in the world.
The baseball player,
for instance,
the guy way out in the field,
takes off…AT THE CRACK OF THE BAT!
Not before it,
not after it,
but at the same time.
AND,
he moves intuitively to where the ball is going.
He attempts to ‘meet’ the ball,
at some specified time and place.

But how did he know where the ball was going…
at THE CRACK OF THE BAT!

There are other examples,
but this is my favorite,
probably because everybody knows what I am talking about.
Especially if they have played baseball.

If you have ever had a sixth sense,
known when something was going to happen before it happened,
felt somebody walk behind you (hairs on end),
that is you,
putting aside memories,
and perceiving directly.

In Karate,
it happened about the time I got to Black Belt.
When I got there I began to focus,
without excitement or distraction,
on what was happening.
And it really screwed people up,
when I displayed no reaction time.

Reaction comes from ‘react’
which means you are so immersed in memories (or training)
that you can’t perceive directly.

Signals have to travel through the body to create motion,
instead of you,
apart from your body,
just creating motion.

Okay,
I’ve talked long enough,
probably left as much confusion as enlightenment.
But here’s the trick…
You have to train with people
in a system which understands this.
In which the techniques support this,
the forms are aligned and orderly.
The freestyle is not a fight,
but a procedure of learning how to look.
Not getting excited,
not getting distracted by emotions,
but calming yourself
so that you don’t get excited.

I’ve done the best I could
to give you a good system.
In fact…systemS.

Here are the systems…
http://monstermartialarts.com/courses/

But you have to work,
and work hard.
You have to get the idea that I’m talking about in your mind.
You have to force yourself to calm,
to put aside excitement,
and become cool and machinelike in your actions.

Good luck with this,
in spite of all the simplicity of my systems,
it is still hard.

It’s hard to restrain emotion,
put aside memories,
memories that you sometimes don’t even recognize as existing,
and function on a high level.

But it is possible.
Good work out to you.

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/courses/

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How to Teach the Martial Arts After an Injury!

Posted on June 9, 2016 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 813 ~ (subscribe now!)

Teaching Karate Again!

This is turning out to be the best summer ever!
The reason is simple…I’m teaching again.

kenpo karate training manual

150 Kenpo Techniques matrixed ~ Click on the cover!

It feels so good,
after the shoulder injury and surgery,
to get back out on the mat.
If you don’t recall,
I fell off a skateboard
and killed a ligament,
and the whole shoulder went south.

BUT,
doc said surgery would get me back to 99%,
and he was right.
He was really right, because he had no idea
of the rigors of the martial arts.

What I did,
when I decided the time was right,
was go to a place in town,
walk in,
and ask if the guy needed help.

He said yes,
and after a few classes of helping,
I am sometimes being handed the class
and told to have fun.

And,
as all you guys know,
there is NOTHING as fun as the martial arts.

Here’s the interesting stuff,
the martial arts have totally changed
since I learned them.
I don’t consider all changes bad,
but there are things I have to accept
if I want to teach.
And,
there are things that have stayed the same,
which leaves a huge door for me
to introduce stuff that is so old it has been forgotten.

It is fascinating
to pull out an old drill,
hand it to the students,
and watch their eyes bulge.

But,
I have to present the drill differently
than how it was handed to me.

When I was learning,
the teacher gave you something
and you were expected to do it.
Didn’t matter if it hurt.
I mean,
so what if it hurt?
You’re here to learn karate,
so don’t waste time sniveling,
just do the drill.

And we would do the drill
with manic intention.

Now,
when I teach those drills,
I have to make them soft,
and very, very gently
lead the student to harder versions
and real workability.

Currently,
I am working on a series of drills
to bring fighters in freestyle closer together,
to cut down reaction time,
and make sure that blocks work,
and punches have the desired effect.

All without giving nary a bruise.

But,
I can’t tell you,
it is more fun than I have had since…since I don’t know.
After being sidelined for a couple of years,
limited to nothing but forms,
the feel of working techniques on real bodies
is absolutely and totally and utterly exhilarating.

So,
I get letters sometimes,
from people who can’t find workout partners.

I tell them:
teach your wife,
work with your brother,
or cousin or nephew or whoever.
Put up a flier at the local gym,
or the Y,
or just be seen working out in the park.

There are 7 billion people on this globe of dirt,
all will turn their head to a car crash,
many will become instantly fascinated by martial arts,
and you are telling me you are alone.
That nobody cares.

Don’t make me sigh.

Just get out there and do it.

And,
as this newsletter indicates,
you can always just walk into a school,
ask if you can help out.
You won’t make money,
but you can do the martial arts,
you can play with other people,
and the information will trade back and forth like magic!
That is a supreme blessing,
on this planet or any other.

Here’s the obligatory page
that you DEFINITELY need to go to…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-kung-fu/

It’s where I go to get lots of drills
for teaching martial arts.

HAPPY WORK OUT!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-kung-fu/

go to and subscribe to this newsletter:
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How to Study the Martial Arts

Posted on May 22, 2016 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 809

The What and How of Matrixing Martial Arts

Good Lard…it’s summer!
And absolutely perfect for learning another art.
So which art do you want to learn this summer?
A hard art to go with the soft?
Soft to go with the hard?
Weapons?
Tai Chi?
I mean,
why not?
what else do you have to do?
And there is nothing else that is better for you.

how to study martial art

Click here to get the whole story on Matrixing the Martial Arts

Okay,
every once in a while I like to go over what Matrixing is,
and suggested methods of study.

Matrixing is a system of logic.
It is based upon analyzing potential motion.
It is applicable to any art,
and to any system.

But here’s the thing…
the martial arts are put togethers.
As such they are conglomerations
of what worked for individuals.
But these are all based on what an individual prefers,
or works for his body,
or the culture he has grown up in,
and so on.

The result has been a lot of mystery,
which is hidden by calling it mysticism.

So if you apply matrixing to your martial art,
it becomes logical,
and thus easier to learn,
and there won’t be hidden spots.
No more mysticism.
Just hard core science.

That is matrixing in a nutshell.
You can find out a lot more about it
by subscribing to the newsletter,
(alcase.wordpress.com),
and just thinking about how
it can be applied to your art.

Okay,
recommended ways of studying matrixing.

Each course looks at the martial arts from a specific viewpoint,
from a specific art or concept.
If you have a specific weakness in your system,
say…no weapons,
or too hard,
or something like that,
you can just study the art that will take care of that weakness.
Guaranteed,
the logic on the art you study
will start to seep into the rest of your arts.

BUT,
the best way to study is probably to just follow
the arts as they are listed on the site
(MonsterMartialArts).

For instance:
Matrix Karate analyzes the hard arts and classical blocks.
Matrix Kung Fu analyzes locks and throws
Matrix Aikido analyzes learning by concept.
The Master Instructor Course analyzes the body
Shaolin Butterfly analyzes footwork
Butterfly Pa Kua Chang analyzes the transition from soft to hard
Five Army Tai Chi Chuan analyzes soft takedowns
And so on.

But each art can be taken apart by a sequence of matrixing courses.

If somebody wanted to learn karate,
for instance,
and from the ground up,
I would recommend the following courses:
Outlaw Karate (inspiration)
Buddha Crane Karate (modular studies)
Matrix Karate Making the art pure)
Temple Karate (what old forms actually mean)
and so on.

So there are many ways to study matrixing.
But the fun of it all is this:
you learn multiple arts…fast.
Which is why I said,
at the beginning of this newsletter,
what do you want to learn this summer?
Heck,
you could learn three or four whole martial arts
all within a year.
That would be a high state of mastery.

Anyway,
Here’s the Matrix Karate page,
because that is the one that started it all,
that is the one with some pretty crucial matrixing data on it.

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

Now,
Have a great summer,
with 100 work outs in a row,
and let me know how it goes with learning the art of your choice.

Have a great work out!

Al

go to:
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Remember,
Google doesn’t like newsletters,
so this is the best way to ensure you get them.

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Karate Blocks Make the Man!

Posted on April 30, 2016 | 1 comment

Newsletter 807

How Karate Blocks Make You Better

May you have the best work out of your life.
Really.

earn black belt karate

First Volume of Matrix Karate ~ Kindle version

Speaking of blocks…
When I was in my teens I was studying Kenpo.
I learned all these neat tricks,
was excited about fighting,
and I kept having these weird ideas about strategy
and how the martial arts were shaped.
Oddly,
I couldn’t make these strategies work.
I could fight well,
but these things I was thinking about,
they just eluded me in combat.
And it was because there wasn’t much
in the way of blocking,
in Kenpo.

In my twenties I joined the Kang Duk Won,
I bashed my arms for years,
and I learned about pain.
I learned that pain is a warning device.
And it was all because of blocks.

Funny.
Most people won’t use a real block in freestyle.
I can,
and do if I am teaching somebody
and there is a lesson in it.
But it’s easier to just hit the other fellow
than it is to block.

But I never would have learned
how to slide in and hit somebody
if I hadn’t learned how to block.

I always remember the specific technique
where it all came home.
It was the technique
from the first move of Batsai.
Batsai is spelled a few different ways,
but it means
‘defending a fortress.’

In that technique I had to do three blocks.
And I had to do these three blocks with hips twists,
I had to twist the hips
to align the body
so it could support the impact
without collapsing.
And I had to do it faster
than somebody could throw three punches at me.

For months I tried to get that technique.
I would practice it and practice it,
get guys to give me that attack,
but I just couldn’t move my body fast enough.

One day,
I did.
Just like that.
One second I couldn’t,
and the next second I could.
Like a switch had been thrown.
But here’s the interesting thing:
I felt like I was behind my head.
I felt like I was out of my body,
just a little bit,
and watching my body move without me.

Well,
it was moving because I had mastered
the thought pattern behind the blocks.
I had practiced that mental circuit
until it broke,
and what was left was me.

From there I moved into other things,
hitting without blocks because,
darn it,
I had gotten so good at them I didn’t need them.
And I moved into concepts
of how to move the energy in my body
just by thinking about it.
Which is understandable if you realize
that learning how to block
had taught me how to influence my body
with just thought.

I began to be able to accomplish
all those odd ideas I had had
way back in Kenpo.
Which led to Matrixing.

Nowadays people don’t practice the blocks.
And if they do,
they don’t practice them with the proper hip movement,
the proper alignment,
the proper breathing and thought.

I know this because when people
come to me for lessons,
they show a complete lack of understanding,
no knowledge of the drills,
of how blocking works.

The thing is
there is a whole realm of thought
that goes with learning how to block.
You learn all sorts of things,
and it builds a springboard
for moving into other concepts.

Think about it,
you can box,
and learn how to take a punch,
but that doesn’t teach you
how to run energy through your body.

Nothing wrong with boxing,
it’s actually pretty good stuff,
fills in a few gaps
that are in the martial arts,
but it just doesn’t have the energy theory
that goes along with the martial arts.

Anyway,
I’m working on the Matrix Karate
for a Kindle version.
Kindle is very unfriendly to photos,
so I have to take some out,
and rewrite the thing.
It’s be good,
but not as good as a book,
or a video.
Heck,
even the other electronic readers are better,
because they take PDFs easily.

But one of the things I focus on
to make up for that lack,
is the specific blocking in the forms.
Not the matrix of blocking,
which provides a logic
which blasts one to intuition,
but the old way,
learning the blocks,
making them work,
until the art does you,
and you become the art.

You guys are lucky.
You understand something the Kindle readers
may never understand.
You get everything on these courses.
On the other hand,
the kindle readers may understand something you don’t
because they will be seeing the art
in a more bare bones viewpoint,
that will let their mind fill in the blanks,
which is very healthy for a student.
Well,
who’s to say.
The real lesson is in the work out.
Getting the material and doing it,
thousands and thousands and thousands of times,
until it becomes you,
and you become it.
That will teach you the art,
no matter which of my books or courses you get.

Here’s the full Matrix Karate course.

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

Have a great work out!

Al

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

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Making the Promise of a Fight in Karate

Posted on April 17, 2016 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 805
The Promise of a Fight

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Gorgeous day.
Absolutely gorgeous.
And that means it is an absolutely gorgeous day for a work out.
So get going!

Was teaching this morning.
We were doing Promised Fights,
and my partner was grimacing,
and finally backed off.
“Ow,” he said.
And we got into a long discussion.
Heck,
he was hurting,
I had to let him recover,
give him some data,
and then hurt him some more.
Right?

First,
I started out with the old
‘Do it a form a thousand times and you know it.
Do it ten thousand times and you’ve mastered it.’
My student did exactly the right thing,
he said,
‘So if I do it 20 times a day,
then in fifty days…’
“Yep,” I said.
“You could know it.
You could be expert in 2 months.
But you have to do it right.
You have to understand the alignment,
how the feet work and why,
and you have to know the Promised Fights…
otherwise you could do it forever and not know it.”

Second,
we went into proper body alignment,
which is covered on the Master Instructor Course,
and how the feet must align properly,
and how the particular form we were doing had to be done
to make this all work.
I ended up saying,
“align your body,
make it a single unit,
then he won’t hit your body parts,
he will hit a single, integrated unit,
and it won’t hurt you.
Energy flows through a body that is a single unit,
it doesn’t flow through body parts used in individual fashion.
This is especially important in a Promised Fight.”

And,
came the look I had been waiting for.
I had been using the term Promised Fight,
and I knew he would eventually ask about it.

“What is a Promised Fight?”

A Promised Fight,
or a Promise Fight,
is a piece of the form applied.
A form Application.
It is a self defense movement.
It is bunkai.
It is the working part of the form.
But,
it is more.
In fact,
if a person doesn’t understand what I am about to tell you,
he/she is not doing karate.
They are just fighting themselves.

I asked my instructor what a Promised Fight was,
and he said,
‘The Promise of a Fight.’
And,
while the study of PFs gave great abilities,
and the answer he gave me was correct,
it was terribly incomplete.

To understand what a Promised Fight is
I need you to look up the word ‘Postulate.’

Look it up for yourself,
get all the nuances,
where it came from,
and all that,
but for this newsletter,
the short and inadequate version is this:

suggest or assume the existence, fact, or truth of (something) as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or belief

Assume existence,
put forth the truth,
as a basis for belief.

If you understand the hint here,
you should be diving for a big old Oxford Dictionary,
wanting to know why a simple karate move
becomes the basis for truth in this universe.

So let me break it down a bit,
from the viewpoint of 50 years of training.

A postulate is a thought,
which if worked on,
becomes true.

Worked on,
as continually done in a work out.

As in a piece of the form,
practiced again and again and again.

Now,
let me back up a bit,
a form is a circuit,
a pattern of moves that you practice and practice
until you just do it without thinking about it.
You strengthen the body,
you remember the applications,
you get light and quick,
and all those sorts of things.

When you do a piece of the form,
over and over and over,
you condense the circuit,
and you get rid of thought,
and suddenly there is nothing but the move.
Somebody punches,
and you don’t exist,
you just track the incoming,
and the Promise Fight,
the postulate of moves,
pops out of you.
And it works.
You punch him,
and he falls down.
And he doesn’t understand what hit him.
But here is the truth of it all…
a thought hit him.
A Postulate of thought hit him.
A Promise Fight,
clean and simple,
without distractive thoughts,
hit him.
And there is nothing purer in this universe.

Now,
I am always so busy trying to get people to understand,
offering all sorts of methods,
that i sometimes forget to go into this factor.
BUT,
in Matrix Karate there is the Matrix of blocks.
These are like mini-Promise Fights.
Very important to get these,
to understand them,
it is important to learn the small PFs
before you get to the big ones.
The big ones are on Temple Karate.
There isn’t talk of a matrix there,
because it is assumed you have done the groundwork of Matrixing first.
And the form applications are VERY pure Promised Fights.
They REALLY result in a zen frame of mind,
and the ability to hit somebody with a thought.

If you get Temple Karate
and you haven’t done Matrix Karate,
then you are taking the long route.
It will take you years,
and as distractions mount,
you can be knocked off the path
and never get there.

So you should do Matrix Karate,
work on the Matrix of Blocks,
make inroads and discover what a PF is.
And,
you can always take the pieces of the form,
they are pretty obvious,
and work on them to make real Promised Fights.

Then you do Temple Karate,
get into the classical forms,
and really go to town on the Promised Fights.

Matrix Karate is pretty simple,
it presents the movements that are pure karate,
no distractions from other arts.
It aligns you,
and sets you up for the broader moves of Temple Karate.
It is a real Closed Combat System.
You can do it by itself,
or you can do it,
then move into the classical,
and see what kinds of things
the old guys who came before us were into.
Temple Karate is a larger assortment of tricks,
it broadens the education,
and digs you to new depths.

Anyway,
that is the story on Promised Fights.
Dig ‘em…they are the real zen of Martial Arts.

Here’s the link for Temple,
if you have already done Matrix Karate.
You can just go to MonsterMartialArts and find Matrix Karate,
it is one of the first arts presented on the home page.

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

Now,
have a great work out,
and schedule yourself for twenty times a day,
and send me your wins in two months.

Have a great work out!

Al

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

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