Newsletter 1127
Single Finger Karate!
I was talking to one of my martial arts classmates and he kept chuckling.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
He said, “I was up at Bob’s house,” Bob was Bob Babich, our instructor, “And he was walking around all dazed. Couldn’t figure out what was going on. He had been knocked out.”
My instructor? Knocked out? Impossible! Who had done it?
So I asked, “Somebody knocked Bob out?”
“Yeah. A tree.”
A tree? WTF?
Apparently Bob had been practicing jumping spin kicks. He had jumped under a low hanging tree, hit his head on a branch, and woke up a half hour later.
I had to laugh at that. Even the Gods are human, you know?
I wasn’t laughing a couple of years later.
Bob could do push ups on single digits. Just a single forefinger on each hand. Down and up, down and up.
I wanted to be able to do that. So I began to practice. Push ups on hands, on fists, on knuckles. I was getting good, and I was able to do push ups on two digits on each hand, the index finger and the middle finger. My index finger being shorter than my middle finger, I would fold a cloth so there was more equality between fingers.
Down and up, down and up, I was getting there.
Came the day when I felt I was ready for the single fingers push up.
I straightened out my index finger and assumed a push up position. I was up! I was in a push up on single fingers! All I had to do was go down and up, and…and…oh my God! I was going to do it.
A quick break, with me actually holding that position, for me to explain something.
Single finger push ups aren’t about power. They are about balance. Your fingers can’t bend in the slightest. Too much weight, they’ll collapse. I had the balance, but I was using way too much power. Are you ready for what happened next?
I tried to go down, and my wiggly, shaking fingers gave way. All that power, and I did a face plant, and…I knocked myself out.
I was probably only out for five minutes, but I was definitely gone. I woke up and checked my teeth. All there, but, damn! That had hurt! All that karate power right in my face.
So I’m probably the only guy in the world who’s knocked himself out doing a push up.
I would have preferred a tree. There’s a certain glory to flying through the air, even if you don’t make it. But to face plant on a push up? Sheesh!
Time for that (sigh) obligatory advertisement!
You know, I put the Black Belt Course together to showcase the Matrix Method. On that course I start with the basics, go into the basic forms, the two man forms, and reveal the actual matrix that is used for blocking. It is a comprehensive course, but here’s the thing…once you see it, do it, you can apply what I’ve done to any system.
You can make extremely efficient two man forms.
You can find out if your system has any gaps or mistakes.
And it’ll change the way you think.
We’re talking instant intuition.
Because the human mind does not like what is random. It doesn’t want to remember hundreds of techniques, especially if they don’t have much to do with reality, if they don’t have anything to do with fighting.
Probably the greatest gift you can give yourself is the Black Belt course. You don’t have to spend three or four years and maybe, if your system is actually good, develop real martial arts intuition. You can take advantage of my nearly 60 years experience and get it within months!
Of course, I can’t guarantee you will knock yourself out with a push up…but click on the link below and read about…
The Black Belt Course
Thanks for being martial artists, and may the Matrix be with you.
Have a great work out!
Al
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BTW ~ I only do video testing if you have prior experience and have a partner to demonstrate techniques on.
