Category Archives: shaolin

Mas Oyama and the Kang Duk Won

Behind the Scenes at the Kang Duk Won

This post concerning Mas Oyama, Don Buck, and other early pioneers in American Karate, was actually written by Master Instructor BJ. I didn’t know some of this, and there is no way I can compete with the original words presented here. I suggest you do a little googling of the names involved to pad out what you’re about to read. It is well worth it. The original post appeared on KangDukWon.com.

The Story of the Kang Duk Won in America

Sifu Al, you probably know this already but when teenage Don Buck started training with Duke Moore in 1946 fresh out of the US Navy where Don was the US Navy Pacific Fleet 137lb Champion and also wrestled and studied Combat Judo & Defendu.

From the Hawaiian Karate Museum, John D. Pell collection. John Pell, Don Buck, Mas Oyama, Gosei Yamaguchi.

From the Hawaiian Karate Museum, John D. Pell collection. John Pell, Don Buck, Mas Oyama, Gosei Yamaguchi.

By the Mid-50s Don Buck was a Body Building champion and San Francisco Cop in addition to being a black belt in Moore’s Judo & JJ.   Buck & Moore started studying Shorinji Ryu Karate with one of Duke’s teachers, Richard Kim.  One of Kim’s Korean student’s came to the US to work as a Pro Wrestler.  Of course I’m talking about Mas Oyama.

BTW, Mas Oyama’s Karate and Masahiko- Gracie JJ Defeater- Kimura Judo workout partners in the Early 1950’s were Tak Kubota and Taiji Kase!  In fact the gnarled hand on one of Mas Oyama’s early books- ghost written by Don Draeger- was actually Kubota’s.

After WWII Kimura worked as a Pro Wrestler in Europe and N&S America.  He hooked Mas Oyama up with some wrestling promoters here in the US and Mexico so Oyama could make some money.

Mas Oyama set his US base up in San Francisco where he could continue his training with his Sensei Richard Kim.  While not wrestling Oyama lived with Kim’s JJ student Duke Moore and taught/worked out with Duke Moore and Don Buck everyday he was in San Francisco for 4-6 hour workouts.

After a little over a year Mas went back to Japan and promoted both Duke Moore and Don Buck to their Shodan ranks.  Buck opened his own Dojo in 1957 where he only taught Kyokushin Karate making his Dojo the first Oyama Style Karate Dojo to open in the US.  ***Please note that Bobby Lowe has the distinction of opening the first Kyokushin dojo OUTSIDE of Japan.***

kang duk won break

Mas Oyama breaking bricks.

When Don Buck opened his Dojo doors in 1957 one of his first students, and Black Belts, was one Robert Babich. A year of two later Richard Kim had a skinny Korean Black belt fresh off the boat from Korea show up at his San Francisco Dojo.  As Kim was about to leave for Japan so he sent the young Korean to his student’s, Duke Moore, Budokan dojo where Moore promptly sent the Korean to Don Buck.

The young Korean didn’t speak much English but Don Buck told him to go change into his Dogi.  When the Korean returned Buck noticed a patch with a fist on the Korean’s uniform.  Don Buck asked what the patch said and young Korean replied something like, “Kang Duk Won Kwon Bup Kong Soo Do.”

After sparring and defeating Buck’s students he squared off with Buck himself.  Buck knocked the Korean down a few times but the Korean kept getting up and he finally knocked the much bigger and stronger Buck across the dojo floor and down.  Buck got back up smiling and told the Korean, “Your hired! What is your name?”  The young Kang Duk Won fighter said, “Norman Rha” and bowed slightly to Buck!

Buck was opening a couple of new Dojo locations and he hired Rha (Rha Jong-nam) and assigned Robert Babich to assist Rha with running the new Dojo.

However, the soft whip-like Tong Bei style punching and much deeper Chaun Fa stances of Rha’s Kang Duk Won Kong Soo Do were so much different than Oyama’s power punching that sometime after Babich earned his Shodan from Don Buck it was decided that Babich should open just his own dojo with Rha so as not to create differences of style with the Kyokushin students.  So they left Don Buck’s American Kyokushin Dojo’s to open their own KDW school.

As Rha was a poor Medical School student he and Babich shared an apartment with the agreement that Rha would teach Babich KDW in return for help learning English.  It should be noted that anytime in the 60’s and early 70’s Babich promoted students to Black Belt the Tracy Brother’s would try to hire the new KDW black belts to run one of their Tracy Brother’s Chinese Kenpo Schools.

The Tracy’s only hired the BEST fighters, both as teachers and Association School Coaches (Joe Lewis & Al Dacascos for example),  as school challenges were common and they didn’t want to loose their schools students, $$$, to another challenging school.  Babich’s KDW academy in San Jose, CA had a reputation of turning out some of the toughest fighters on the West Coast.

It is interesting to note, at least for me,  that Babich didn’t include Sanchin or Tensho in his Kwon Bop Karate that he taught in the 1970’s and 80’s until he closed down his San Jose Dojo.  Why I don’t know???

Note:

Thanks, BJ, for this wonderful bit of writing.

The reason Bob didn’t include Sanchin and Tensho, in my opinion, is that there are two styles of Karate, one fixed and one fluid, or Shorin and Shorei. Bob was not a large man, he was thin and whiplike, and the heavier sanchin style stances didn’t suit him, perhaps even worked against the fluid motions he was developing through the Kang Duk Won.

If you want to find out what the truth behind the Kang Duk Won, check out the first Karate form and applications, and the bonus material on historical uses of Karate.

This has been a page about Don Buck, Mas Oyama, and the early beginnings of the Kang Duk Won Karate.

The Best Martial Arts Workout!

The Most Important Thing in a Martial Art Workout

Good morning!
And…good work out.

Do you know what makes a work out good?
When it is focused on making you more aware.
True.

The body is important,
the muscles, the reflexes,
speed and strength,
adaptability and creativity…
it is all important,
but that is only a ‘biofeedback system’ to your awareness.

The most important thing in the martial arts
is building awareness.

The way you build awareness is to look at your technique,
practice your technique,
until you know how it works so well
that you can make it work no matter what.
And it is your awareness that will make this happen.

Now,
the problem is when people start thinking
that their body is what is important.
That is when the martial art becomes a martial sport.
Or,
when people start thinking that beating up people is what is important.
That is when they stop improving themselves
and start ‘de-proving’ themselves.

Here’s the thing…
when you beat somebody up
you are trying to decrease their awareness.
It’s true.
So you are trying to make them stupid.
So do you like living in a world where everybody is stupid?
If you like living in a world where people beat each other up,
then you do.
And you are then caught in a trap,
a monkey cage,
a vicious cycle,
even life after life.

But,
if you do martial arts
so that you look at your body in such a way,
that you learn,
that you get smarter,
then you like to live in a world that is getting smarter.

It’s a pretty strict dividing line,
you know?
You either want to get smarter…
or stupider.
You either want to help the world…
or hurt it.
You either want to do martial sports,
or you want to do martial arts.

Mind you,
I don’t look down on martial sports,
for that is where the people who want to get smarter come from.
That is where the people will suddenly get wiser,
realize that beating people up is a dead end,
and become martial artists.

But the actual fact of the matter is this…
there are three distinct levels of humanity here.

There are the animals in the jungle.
These are people who are like monkeys,
who chatter a lot,
act smart,
but are basically asleep.
They live in a cruel world,
and bounce around between people who tell them what to do,
manipulate them,
and so on.
These are the people who have no discipline,
no route to self awareness,
and who are your basic mankind.
They live,
they walk and talk,
they do clever tricks like work,
but they are not aware of who they are.

Then there are the humans,
the people who know martial techniques,
but not the compassion.
They fight for nationalism,
or become bouncers,
and they beat people up
while constantly telling themselves that they are right,
but it is only for a belief,
or a paycheck,
or some other temporary thing.
These people have a discipline,
a route to self awareness,
but they abuse it.
They know there is a logic and a compassion,
but they refuse it.
But at least they are on the doorstep to self awareness.

Then there are martial artists,
who strive to improve themselves and others.
Who,
instead of becoming bouncers and beaters,
become teachers.
These people are human beings of the highest caliber.
They help instead of hurt.
They share knowledge and discipline,
they build the road to self awareness.
They have logic,
but more…
they have intuition.
They live in a different world,
a world of impulse that is correct,
they listen to the voice in their head,
until they become that voice in their head.
They build a world that is evolving
towards a higher humanity.

I am not being cruel here,
I am not just assigning labels to separate or make elitists,
I am trying to help you understand
exactly where you are.

A monkey.
A human being.
Or a martial artist.
Which are you?

Are you asleep?
Are you awake but stunted in your growth?
Are you awake and trying to help everybody else wake up?

Here’s the thing…
you can kill a body,
but you can’t kill awareness.
Awareness is what travels from body to body,
looking through the eyes and ears,
having fun on planet earth.
Or having misery…and calling it fun.

But to the degree that you support a planet asleep,
where awareness thinks it is asleep,
to that degree are you unaware.
No man is an island,
we are all in the same boat.

But,
one method for waking up is the martial arts.
It is a discipline that trains you to look,
to be aware,
to wake up.

Haven’t you noticed that people who do the martial arts are more aware?
Understand things better?
Easier to get along with?

And haven’t you noticed that the longer you do martial arts
the easier life becomes?

So why not go all the way?
Why not become an awareness that is intuitive,
understanding,
compassionate,
who helps others become better,
who wakes people up…
instead of putting them to sleep.

Why not see if there really is a superior way of learning with Matrixing?
Why not see if there is a discipline that is more logical
than anything you have ever seen?
Why not find out if you can learn martial arts,
a LOT of martial arts,
faster than man has ever learned it before?
Why not?

Well,
I can only talk,
I can only explain,
whether you take the next step is up to you.
But the first four courses of Matrixing are:
Matrix Karate
Matrix Kung Fu
Matrix Aikido
The Master Instructor Course.

These four courses provide the basic graphs of matrixing.

On Matrix Karate you learn the basic geometry of the body,
not random tricks,
but a logical method for assigning function to the body
and its parts.
Never been done before.

On Matrix Kung Fu you learn the basic physics
of how to take down a body.
Oh, you’ll have seen some of these techniques,
but probably not all,
and certainly not in the correct and logical order.

On Matrix Aikido you learn how to think conceptually,
how to make a grab art out of anything,
and,
surprise,
you do Matrix Aikido
and you will suddenly be finding the techniques of Monkey Boxing.
For the first time…
a system where everything fits together in the right way,
even though there are different martial arts being used.

And,
the Master Instructor Course,
the pure logic of how to use the human body.
And here is the funny thing,
or perhaps I should say the tragic thing.
I have sold maybe a thousand of these courses,
and most of the people who purchased
had decades of experience
in a variety of arts,
yet they had never seen this material.
Or,
if they had,
they hadn’t seen all of it,
and certainly not as it is presented here…as a strict and orderly science.
Not as a logic that pushes one to the complete understanding of the human body,
and increases awareness.

There you go,
four courses that will change you,
will change your martial arts.
I suggest starting on Matrix Karate,
but whichever you do is fine with me.
Because whatever you do,
it is a first step into the true martial arts.

Oinkey donkey!
I will be returning home next week,
hopefully will be sitting behind my own computer by the end of the weekend.
I will then go through the mail again,
and take care of those problems that I haven’t been able to handle while on the road.
Thanks for being patient.

Now,
remember this URL

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/5-core-package/

and I will talk to you later!
Have a great work out!
Al

Learning Martial Arts Straight from the Animals in New Mexico

Greetings!

And…work out!
There is no greater gift one can give oneself,
than just working out.
Becoming pure through sweat,
divesting oneself of distraction
and finding the purity of the self.

Beyond what the world expects.

We were driving up this long, long road
to a place to pitch a tent for the night.
As we drove I noticed that the road was littered with rocks.
Little chunks that looked like sparkly granite,
maybe half the size of baseballs.
I veered this way and that
attempting to miss the rocks,
but knew I wasn’t successful.
Yet there was no sensation of tire over rock.
There should have been a hundred, little bumps,
things rolling under the car,
bouncing up against the undercarriage,
yet…
there was nothing.

How curious!

So I slowed down,
rolled down the window
and peered down at the rocks on the road.
Grasshoppers!
BIG…and beautiful grasshoppers!
Their acutely folded legs moved,
and they leaped,
but,
like as not,
I squashed them with my Firestones.

So I slowed,
drove more slowly,
and navigated the road filled with giant grasshoppers.

At the tent site there were only the occassional insect,
and I found one and squatted down to watch it,
to matrix it.
Colors to match the sparkle of dew,
perhaps to draw in smaller insects for a meal.
And there weren’t any larger insects,
so no fear there.
And if a bird,
or other beast came to feast upon it,
it jumped.
The quickness of the jump was savage,
an attack in flight.
And,
the sagacity of the insect,
it landed in twist,
so that it literally bounced off its rump
and faced the way it had come.

Well,
of course.
To flee again…in attack.

Is that good martial arts…or what?
I mean,
positively brilliant!

And what was the alternative?
To land facing away,
and to become a target in flight?

No,
better to flee as if in fight.
Surprise the foe with savage thrust,
yet always end up facing,
towards not away
ready to flight again.

Fight or flight,
flight and fight,
a marvelous yin yang of martial arts survival
and something that most people just roll over,
or swat away,
or laugh at.

Yet,
in mass,
grasshoppers are one of nature’s most ferocious armies.

Interestingly,
I was brought to think of the book by McMurtry,
‘Lonesome Dove.’
During a cattledrive the cowboys are overwhelmed by grasshoppers,
so they catch bagfuls of the critters,
dip them in molasses
and fry them.

Ummm!

Cowboy treat!

And even the hardiest,
most savage warrior
become naught but food
for those who can overcome their fear.

So,
in the midst of scorpions and tarantulas,
giant grasshoppers and other denizens of the enchanted land,
I pitched tent and had dinner.

And,
no.
It wasn’t a mess of fried grasshoppers.

Every place I go I see contest and battle,
creatures struggling for survival.
Interestingly,
it is only man that has a chance.
Only man has the ability to overcome himself.
To fight or flight and land so that he faces the true enemy…himself.
His cruelties and tortures,
his naked desires and covetness.
His desire to worship warped gods and think that
it is God that made him right.

And it is only by divesting ourselves of these cruelties and nightmares
that we can ascend to the truth of ourselves.

And it is only through landing in the correct manner so that we don’t fight ourselves,
but face ourselves,
that we will succeed.

Martial Arts creates this path.
Martial arts is where we learn to fight
so that we never have to fight.
This is a truth that we must take to ourselves,
and faster than we have ever done before.

And that is the message from the enchanted land of New Mexico,
the message I received just because I drove down a road
and didn’t want to kill
some of the most beautiful grasshoppers you have ever seen.

My apologies to those who wait an email,
or a fix on an order.
Everything is working,
but there are are a couple of things I just can’t do
until I get back to my computer.

I am able to connect to the net every day,
so if anybody wants to tell me off,
or wish me well
I can handle that.

BTW,
take advantage of the KangDukWon.com
I haven’t been able to raise prices
because of being on the road,
so,
temporary reprieve,
but prices are going up.

So,
if you want to learn how to fight like an animal,
if you want to learn the wisdom of nature,
you can start with the Shaolin Butterfly.
The animals covered in that include
the snake,
the dragon,
the crane,
the tiger,
the mantis,
and more…
here’s the URL…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/6-shaolin-butterfly/

Have a great work out!
Al

Don’t forget to subscribe to this newsletter at MonsterMartialArts.com.

The Arizona Spiritual Martial Art Workout!

Have a great work out from Texas!

Got here last night,

and immediately did a workout!

The only way to survive the insanity of traveling!

 

So,

I was in Arizona the other night,

and a couple of interesting things to note.

Upper Arizona is beautiful,

trees all over the place,

lots of wildlife.

 

Really gives a lie to anybody who says

we are running out of things.

Man,

there is so much space,

so much lumber,

so much wildlife…

there is no shortage in this world,

just crooked politicos who try to frighten you

by saying there is!

 

But enough ranting,

let’s move on to the good stuff,

let’s move on to that unique universe

of doing the martial arts in Arizona.

 

Lower Arizona is dry and dusty.

Wind blowing everywhere.

At first,

I was discouraged.

Then,

sitting up late at night,

listening to the desert,

I felt it…

 

Listen,

do you know how it feels

when you cram a bunch of people in a room?

100 people in a 20 by 20 room?

People knocking elbows,

bumping into each other,

sooner or late…

there’s going to be a fight.

 

And,

multiply that by ten thousand,

and you have a city.

People packed together like sardines,

not enough room,

everybody getting cranky!

 

So I’m sitting in the middle of the Arizona deseert

and there’s no people,

and I could feel the deep, deep spirituality.

The space.

The vastness.

 

The clouds overhead were surging with life.

I could feel elemental forces moving across the deseert floor.

And then there was me,

a mote,

a speck,

audience to this vast moving play,

this magnificent display of earth and element.

 

It was spiritual.

 

And,

moved,

I began doing my forms,

and I couldn’t stop!

Elements were moving me,

forces were shoving my punches,

nibbling at my stances,

making me feel ENERGY!

 

It was massive.

 

And,

of course,

I had a realization.

In truth,

I have realized this before,

but from different perspective,

which made it all the newer and more potent to me.

 

When you are starting out

it is good to be in a dojo,

to feel the bodies,

to interact with other martial artists.

But,

as time goes on,

you need space.

You are the center of the universe,

you need to look out,

to feel the massive space within which you sit.

 

Look,

your physical body is part of you,

but the real you is as far as you can see,

as far as you can imagine!

And that is space.

That is the true empty in empty hands.

That is the truth of you that is just waiting for you to…wake up to it!

 

Sitting in Arizona,

unable to stop doing forms,

I was in the middle of that realization.

Absolutely spectacular.

 

And,

it goes without saying,

I could see myself,

I could imagine myself,

doing my forms on top of Mt. Nipomo.

Monkeyland.

120 acres,

nearest neighbor four miles away.

Exuding the essence of me through the discipline of the martial arts.

 

Heaven.

 

All the best of modern society,

but isolated,

alone,

with sufficient space

to truly delve into the martial arts.

 

Now,

that in mind,

when you do Tai Chi

the image is often of doing it on top of a mountain.

Alone.

Horzons beyond horizons.

Able to see everything.

 

 

One of the most impressive images I have ever encountereed

was a cheap wookd block carving.

It was a viewpoint of a mountain range…

from above.

 

But how could the guy get above to see that?

How could he see a yin yang in a mountain range as if from hundreds of miles up?

 

By being alone,

by doing the martial arts,

and getting so much discipline

that he was a pooint of awareness

outside of his body

high in the stratosphere.

 

So,

that was the train of my thought,

and how it related to martial arts

and to monkeyland,

and all sorts of things,

as I stood in the desert

and did forms…

and couldn’t stop.

 

So,

here’s the Tai Chi URL,

 

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/five-army-tai-chi-chuan/

 

in case you want to get started on being alone,

creating space,

finding the purest,

highest,

most elemental level of martial arts you can.

 

Mind you,

don’t give up that hard stuff,

or partners,

or the blessings of living in community of city,

and don’t give up your karate forms…

but,

do your martial arts at night,

alone,

slowly,

creating massive space.

 

Becoming aware of yor true body,

of the true extent of your awareness…

your imagination.

 

Take a hike,

find a mountain top,

exude yourself,

see if you can discipline yourself to greater and greater awareness.

 

Have a great workout,

and I’ll tell you about New Mexico Martial Arts Soirituality next time!

 

Al

 

 

 

The Problem with Martial Arts Teachers

Martial Arts Teachers Problems…

martial arts teacher

Yikes!

This article, the problem with Martial Arts Teachers, is not meant to be an attack, rather an enlightenment. Consider the points I make, then consider yourself as an instructor, see if you are a True Martial Arts Teachers, or…something else. Continue reading

Cheesy Internet Ads and the Martial Arts!

Unlock the Inner you through…Martial Arts?

martial arts style

Find the Real You!

Speaking of Martial Arts, I just read an ad, one of those cheesy internet ads, about unlocking the inner you.

You’re only using 10% of your brain, and wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could unlock the other 90%? Continue reading

New Master Instructor!

A New Master Instructor, Plus…

Why We Study So Many Martial Arts…

Happy first day of the week!
Happy first workout of the week!
Make it a good one,
lose yourself in it,
and your whole week will glow.
True.

Okey doke,
thanks to all who are on the Kang Duk Won course,
don’t forget to set aside time each day,
whittle away at the art,
make it your own.

And,
congrats to Master Instructor Wilhem Stockinger!
Here’s his win…

I had a breakthru in the master instructor course yesterday, man the pieces finally came together…I was…screaming in ecstasy and joy…you are a genius master Al! I am so much more grounded and aligned in movement, it’s fantastic.
I finally got the missing pieces to what was once 6 years of Iu ryu jujutsu, 2 years of Gracie jujutsu,a few years of Muay thai kickboxing, and some Krav Maga and so on…I know I never mentioned my background since it fades away against yours and I was not enrolling into your course to talk about my past but to learn. And I did learn a tremendous amount, which not only corrected my faulty basics in form and execution, but also gave me understanding of form. Sensei, the 6 secrets, man, this is all Jujutsu theory I’ve been trained in for years, but nobody ever explained the principles, unless by practical example, but never the principles behind it. The why and how, not just the what. It was so enlightening. I am starting all over, but now the proper way. Thank you so much. I finally got the crack of technique over strength, of body mechanics over brute force. I am excited to be in the martial arts again. You are the real deal Shihan Alton Case. God bless you!

No,
thanks to you, Will.
Breaking through,
sharing your win,
somebody else is going to be
encouraged to make it, too.

And,
for everybody,
it’s easy,
it’s just how to fix your thinking.
Which makes it the hardest thing you’ll ever do.

Like Will says,
everybody talks about it,
without ever talking about it.
They talk about the surface
and never go into the depths.
They never go into why things work.
Endless drills,
endless techniques,
without ever telling you why.

So,
thanks again Will.
Persistence and tenacity in the martial arts,
that’s what you represent,
which are characteristics of good martial arts.

Okay!
I’m going to write an article on this,
it follows along with what WIll says above,
but I thought I’d mention it here, first.
I like to talk to the intelligent first,
then the masses.
Grin.

Do you know why I teach so many Martial Arts?
Why I am always open to new arts?
Why I listen avidly
when my fellow martial artists talk,
instead of opening my own yap?

It’s true,
like as not,
when the talk starts
I find it much more educational
to listen.

Well,
the reason is this.
If you were drilling a well,
you would need a stable base,
so you could build a high drill,
so you could drill deeper.
When you learn more martial arts,
when you toss the techniques around in your head,
compare and contrast,
fit them into the matrix of all techniques,
then you are building a wide database,
and you can then build a high drill,
and drill deep into your soul.

Data holds you together.
The more data you have,
the more held together you are.

Or,
think about it this way.
If you were going to build a telescope
to see to the furthest star,
then you would need a solid base,
so the telescope wouldn’t be shaken by wind or rain,
or any other force.
Then your sight would be solid and true,
and you could see to those far stars,
without them shimmying and shaking
and being a blur to your sight.

Do you understand?
The more you know,
the deeper you can dig into yourself,
the more of yourself
you can understand.

Simple,
eh?

Yet,
the work to make a wide database
especially in the martial arts,
with all the technique and styles and opinions and…
it can get pretty tough.

And,
it can get tough to keep it all in order,
which is one of the blessings of Matrixing.

Look,
people study,
they get a thousand techniques,
and it can take twenty years to sort it all out,
to learn to think about things in a way
that it all makes sense,
so that all of the data is at your fingertips,
instead of buried in the mass of
thousands of techniques.

So,
instead of lumping everything together,
and training like crazy.
You just put your techniques into a matrix,
fit that matrix to a larger matrix of all martial arts,
and the procedure gets REAL fast.

Oh,
like Will said above,
it can take time,
but not as much,
but,
the rewards once it all clicks,
there’s nothing like it.

It’s not just studying hard forever,
that is taken for granted…
it is making sense out of it quickly,
as fast as you input data and techniques,
that’s how fast you have to make sense out of it all.

Oinky Doinkey!
That‘s about it,
got nothing left to say,
and,
besides,
I’d rather work out than talk.
I’d rather dig deep
than open my yap.

My time of day…
workout time of day!

Don’t forget to straighten out your art…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4-master-instructor-course/

Believe me,
it’s nothing but fun
when everything works
the way it is supposed to work.

Have a Great Work Out!

Al

The Best Kicking Bag for a Heavy Bag Workout

Heavy Bag Workouts are the Way to Go!

One of the most fun things you can do, be it martial arts, kickboxing, or just plain on your own conditioning, is a heavy bag workout.

There is nothing like setting, and whomping that sucker with all your might! Whether you do a heavy bag workout for beginners, women, for weight loss or whatever, there is a satisfaction that comes with watching that bad boy fly to the ceiling!

heavy bag workout

Heavy Bag workouts build real power!


Now, the trick is to have the best bag you can. You have to select a weight that is right for you, and a texture, and so on.

Hard core martial artists will claim that you have to kick something as heavy as an attacker, maybe a couple hundred pounds. The problem is that the bag doesn’t have enough give for you, especially in the beginning. Simply, you kick it, and it doesn’t move that much, and you don’t get satisfaction, and the muscles don’t get that feeling of having pushed something.

Now, we don’t want a speed bag, like boxers use. That’s too light, and the muscles don’t get the feel of resistance necessary for weightlifting.

And it is weightlifting, be it fast and violent, and you need to find the exact weight that will work for you.

A 70 pound bag is perfect. It has give, and it weighs enough that it will fly away, but still last you for a while as your muscles get stronger and stronger.

The next step would be a hundred pound kicking bag. After that, you play it by ear, but a 20 to 25 pound increase is about all you want at one time.

No, it doesn’t weigh as much as an opponent, but you need to raise the level of resistance in accordance with how your body grows, not form an unworkable ideal right off the bat.

Now, a couple of interesting facts, and then I will tell you where I get my kicking bags.

Before he died, Bruce Lee ordered a bag that was 300 or 400 pounds. He weighed 135 pounds, and I have no idea how much fly he was expecting to get out of that bag, but…man! If anybody could do it, it was Bruce.

And, did you know that kicking bags are stuffed with clothes? True. I think a lot of them have furniture filling, but it was clothes for years for many.

And, the way they fill heavy bags is with baseball bats. They just have a couple of guys pile drive the end of the bat into the top of the bag until everything is squooshed down, weighs the right amount, and doesn’t have any…edges.

Anyway, think about what I said here, before you buy anything for your heavy bag workout.

And, if you want to know how I pack my personal bags – yes, I do it all myself – then go to cheap punching bag. The story of how I discovered my method, and the things I went through…it’s quite interesting, and it will help you on your journey to the best heavy bag workout you can have. Pick up some free martial arts books while you’re there.

How to Make a Better Martial Art Weapon

What is the Best Martial Art Weapon

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.

martial art weapons

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?

What Training Beyond Black Belt Should Really Be

Beyond Black Belt…

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.

beyond black belt martial arts

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.