How Many Fights Will You Get In?

A Martial Art Statistic…

A man gets in three fights during his life. This is a statistical fact. Of course some get in none, and others get in dozens. But regardless, when a fight happens several things are sure.

An attack will come from the blind side. This includes from the rear, a sneak attack, in the dark.

There is a 90% chance the attacker will be larger and stronger than you.
There is an 85% chance the attack will come from the attacker’s right hand.
A lesser statistic is that the attack will come with a weapon.

Looking grim, eh? EXCEPT, there is an almost 100% chance that if you face the attack with awareness, it will not happen.
Unfortunately, 98% of the people who are attacked lack the ability to muster the degree and type of Awareness necessary to forestall an attack.

So how do you develop the degree of Awareness necessary? You learn to fight. This could mean boxing, fencing, martial arts, and so on.
Mere physical conditioning will NOT develop Awareness.

The problem with boxing is that it is a sport. It may develop a bit of Awareness, but the mindset developed will tend to push one into fights, not into avoiding fights.

Fencing is fine, but there is a monstrous difference between thrusting a weapon and punching somebody. You might have spatial awareness, but the feel of encountering weight when the strike connects can crumple a person in itself.

So, martial arts. A study of force and direction, the development of physical fitness, and the emphasis on politeness as the true cure for encounters.
Of course, you might be one of the few who will never endure a physical altercation. Though…I wouldn’t bet on it.

But even if you never have to fight…if you have no martial arts you will lack in physical condition, you won’t understand the physics of impact, and, most important, you won’t experience Awareness.

Without Awareness you won’t appreciate life, and you will walk through life as though you have a target on your head. Hit me, I’m not as smart, or aware, as you. You won’t be responsible in your fields of endeavor, and you won’t enjoy interactions with Aware people.
.
I wrote a couple of books. They are based on the video courses I offer at MonsterMartialArts.com. and they have LOTS of links to the original videos showing how to do the Shaolin Butterfly.

The first one is called ‘Shaolin Butterfly Gung Fu.’ It is based on Fut Ga Gung Fu, which is one of the original five family arts from the Shaolin Temple. It has been rearranged so it is ten times easier to learn, and that much more efficient. A true fighting art.

Check it out on Amazon. And don’t forget to read the course description for the Shaolin Butterfly course at MonsterMartialArts.com.

Have a great work out, and don’t forget to subscribe to me on substack (MonsterMartialArts.substack.com). You can subscribe for free, but paid subscribers get my Monkey Boxing Video Course for cheap ($8 a month)
Many of you have started school, so make it your purpose to learn this art by next summer.
Have a great work out!

Al Case
MonsterMartialArts.com

How to Matrix Feet in Martial Arts

Logic applied to operating the body in the martial arts

Newsletter 1143

People often want an example of matrixing in the martial arts. They want to see this so called ‘logic’ in action. So let’s start with the foot.

Number one: always walk softly. To slap your foot down causes impact, and that impact can result in foot problems.

Number two: align the feet when walking. Point the bones of the foot so that they are pointing in the same direction of the legs. If you don’t, you will twist your knee, and cause a ‘grind’ in the joints. This may result in such things as knee replacements and hip replacements.

Number three: roll the foot when walking. Figure out how to get the best use of the arch (a spring). Doing this increases awareness in and of the foot, and causes the foot to move with efficiency. (Awareness also tends to cure injuries).

Number four: when doing a front kick bring the knee up, and synchronize the drop of the knee with the raise of the lower leg and the unfolding of the knee. Make sure you use the hips.

Number five: when doing a side kick never kick with the knife edge. If you doubt this, then simply take off your shoes and walk a few feet on the sides of your foot. No padding, bones misaligned, and it hurts.

That’s a brief matrix of the foot. There’s a lot more, but understanding those basic principles will open the door to further and deeper understanding of the foot.

But that is JUST the foot! What about the knee, the hip, every other joint in the body? How do they align? What about thrusting, hip rotation and sinking the weight? Those are the three factors involved in putting weight into a strike, and increasing energy! And why does increasing weight increase energy?

You can see there is a LOT of things to consider if you are going to move your body with maximum efficiency. The problem is that most martial arts these days are poorly taught, with absolutely no attention to the physics and dynamics of the human body. In fact, I have met many martial artists who have ended up getting knee replacement, shoulders rebuilt, and so on, and I always suspect that the reason behind their infirmity is a simple lack of understanding of how to use the body correctly.

And, last word, lack of understanding of how to use the body is only half the problem. The other half is a lack of understanding, and TRUCKLOADS of bad information, on striking, kicking, forms, techniques, and even the philosophies of the martial arts.

Hope I’ve shed a little light, or at least lessened the darkness.

Have a great work out, and don’t forget to subscribe to me on substack. You can subscribe for free, but paid subscribers get my Monkey Boxing Video Course for cheap ($8 a month)

Al Case
MonsterMartialArts.com

Why Bother Studying the Martial Arts?

The Real Reason to Study the Martial Arts…

Because the world is going to the end!
The Demos say it’s because of the Repubs, the Repubs say it is because of the Demos.
Social Security is going out of business!
AI is going to kill us all!
Russia, China/NK, and now Iraq is going to drop an A bomb on us.
The justice system is a lie, the corporations are in collusion, prices are going up, our water is contaminated…and on and on and on!

EXCEPT…life goes on. And what can you do about it? Heck, if it’s all that bad maybe we should let it end, and start everything anew!

WHICH MEANS…because the world is going to end we should live our remaining days with the highest quality possible. Learn a new language, frequent museums, avoid Google and improve your health.
What’s the best way to improve your health?
Martial Arts. The exercise builds muscles. Putting your body through exotic motions increases flexibility, energy flow, and increases awareness.
And if that isn’t enough…you learn to defend yourself, so that if the world does explode, if cities riot and dogs all have rabies…you can come out on top!
And, if THAT isn’t enough, there is one reason above all others that one should study the Martial Arts. It’s a secret, known only to the sacred few masters living on mountain tops in Tibet, or the basements of Hackensack…IT’S FUN!

HERE IS A SAMPLE OF FUN!

Just think, you, too, can find pressure points, explore joint locks, rag doll opponents, and be the. last man standing when the world ends and there are no more Demos, REpubs, Social Security, AI, Russia/China/NK/Iraq, corporations, bad justice, bad water, and the A bombs have all fizzled out!

Have a great work out!
Al

PS ~ Here’s the link for the Tai Chi I show you above…

2ba Matrix Tai Chi Chuan

 

Learn about my martial arts at MonsterMartialArts.com

Have you read Insanica?

A Pa Kua Lesson!

She Said She Could Outlast Me!

Newsletter 1141

One night I went to a party. Music playing, people dancing, everybody having a good time.

A fellow, who I thought was a friend, came up to me. He pointed at a good looking girl across the room and said, “That’s Sue. She takes Karate at your old Kenpo school. She said she could take you in a fight; she could outlast you.”

I stared at the guy who I thought was my friend, but was really just trying to get me in a fight.

I had trained for a couple of years at her Kenpo school. I had been an instructor, written the training manual, and I knew the system well.

I was studying at a different school now, and for the simple reason that it was better. It was hard core, and I was working out with Hell’s Angels and other one per centers. I was learning about REAL fighting. I wasn’t worried about some girl half my size with half my experience ‘outlasting’ me in a fight. What I was really worried about was the a$$h0le who I thought was a friend.

Normally, I would have met this girl, asked after people I had known, maybe discussed techniques, and we both would have come away happy.

Instead…I was being set up for a fight.

People. Hunh!

And I found this type of idiocy a lot in the old days. People wanting to pound their chest, prove their system was better, prove they were better.

A real martial art teaches one how to fight. It is not a fantasy.

But a real martial art also cultivates politeness in the individual, and self-reliance and competence and all manner of other virtues.

Only fools fight. Only fools risk their bodies and souls for a little self-gratification. 

And this is why, when I teach people my arts, I focus on relaxing and controlling the body so that they can…CONTROL THEIR EMOTIONS!

Not to change arts in the middle of the stream, but one of the most significant arts I studied, in learning to control my emotions, was Pa Kua Chang. Imagine spending a couple of hours a day doing things like walking in a circle, your attention focused on your upright index finger, which is the center of the circle. The world slides past you, you become apart from the world. You become your own world. Emotions and distractive thoughts turn into mist and evaporate. There is only you…and only you are responsible for you. That’s a Pa Kua lesson.

Speaking of Pa Kua Chang (how did you know I was going to say this), I just republished a video/book on Pa Kua. It is an original, derived from the video course I offer at MonsterMartialArts.com. To find it on Amazon you have to search for ‘Butterfly Pa Kua Chang Al Case.’ The book has links to over an hour of the original videos from the video course. A mountain of real knowledge for a pittance of pennies.

Have a great work out!

Al

PS ~ Here’s the link I used to find my Pa Kua book:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=butterfly+pa+kua+chang+al+case&i=stripbooks&crid=35R88JA7TGCQY&sprefix=butterfly+pa+kua+chang+al+case%2Cstripbooks%2C151&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Learn about my martial arts at MonsterMartialArts.com

How Fast Can You Get to Black Belt?

Truth in Martial Arts!

Pretty fast, if it wasn’t for progress.

What progress?

Well, Chuck Norris got his black belt in a year and a half.

Mike Stone, who many considered the best karate fighter in the world, got his in about seven months.

Of course this was back in the sixties, before…progress.

The progress I am speaking of was the Tracey Brothers.

The Tracey Brothers are responsible for the spread of karate (Kenpo) throughout the United States. I believe they had over a thousand schools.

But with that expansion came certain business decisions that weren’t always the best.

For instance, people came in, signed up for Kenpo karate, then left. It was a struggle to keep students. Their solution was to hire a fellow from the Arthur Murray Dance Studios to write up contracts for them. The contracts tended to keep students from leaving, and they were designed for four years. The length of a car contract at the time, which led to many referring to these contracts as ‘car contracts.’

The system was expanded to eight belt levels to black belt, and the number of techniques was expanded to 40 techniques per belt. Teaching the student a technique or two a week took about four years. Thus, it now took four years to get to black belt, instead of a year. So the reason it takes so long is rooted in the greed need for money, not for any reasons having to do with quality or how long it takes a person to ‘mature’ as a martial artist.

To be honest, there were some truly good martial artist back then. For the instructors were not far removed from the original Asian teachings. But, as time went on, and instructors no longer spent their lives learning, but could absorb a system in four years, and then go start their own school, the quality of instruction, and the the quality of the resulting students, tended to fall badly.

I was very fortunate. My instructor was taught by the original Asian instructors, fellows who spent their lives in the martial arts, fellows like Mas Oyama, who could kill bulls with a single chop.

And, as time went on and I saw the quality of the martial arts falling, I focused on the arts and techniques from before the four year contracts. That’s how I came up with the concept of Matrixing, the idea of organizing the martial arts with logic. The idea that a fellow could earn a black belt in a year, or less.

My idea was successful, so successful that I have over 700 pages of wins, of testimonials to the efficiency of my matrixing methods. You can read a few of them on the lower right hand column of the home page of MonsterMartialArts.com. Or you can read a bunch of them here…http://monstermartialarts.com/testimonials/.

Of course I got attacked a lot for my ideas, people had invested a lot in four years and didn’t want me to speak ill of the ‘method’ that got them there.  And, a lot of people think that they are right and I am wrong, simply because people have an aversion to learning anything new.

But, the proof is in the pudding. You should go to the testimonial page and do a search for your art. There’s a chance somebody who studied your art got enlightened by my matrixing methods.

Well, that’s about it for this newsletter, you guys and gals have a great work out, and may the Matrix be with you.

Al

PS ~ A little treat, here’s the real way to do the second technique from Pinan/Heian one.

https://youtu.be/ORI5NNLXm70

Learn the right way, the matrixed way, to do your martial arts, and you will end up chuckling at some of the so called ‘masters.’

A Caution: When you order one of my courses, all my videos are on Youtube. They should stay up there forever. EXCEPT, sometimes Youtube says ‘This video is no longer there!’ But it is.

If a link doesn’t work, try copy and paste.

If C and P doesn’t work, try a different browser.

If a different browser doesn’t work, try a different computer.

If a different computer doesn’t work, just try loading it a few times. (This is the method that worked best for me.)

If all else fails, write me at aganzul@gmail.com.

Have you read Insanica?

Making Tai Chi Chuan Work

If your Tai Chi doesn’t work in combat it’s not real Tai Chi…

People do Tai Chi and they think: I just have to move slow. But they don’t understand that there’s more to it, or the purpose of it.

You move slowly so as to focus on your movement, the circle of your hands, the shift of weight, making the body into a harmonious whole. And what THAT does…is calm the mind so that it can be eliminated from the movement.

If you focus on, for instance, the arc of the hands, as if they were slow moving sparklers having a trace path in the air, you are looking instead of thinking.

You don’t want to think, for thinking, using the mind, separates you from reality. You want to look, leave the mind behind, and, eventually, you will see reality as it is.

The really cruel trick is that people say, ‘Oh, I understand that, but it doesn’t apply to me, because I see reality.’ They don’t realize they are the butterfly dreaming they are human.

You are born, you bring a certain mind with you. You grow up and are instilled with patterns, filters, and all sorts of mind debris. That is what SEEMS real, but that is not real.

The ONLY way to free yourself from the mind traps that every person on earth has is to follow a discipline, one that is designed for undoing the traps. Not just ballet, but something that has a partner. Not football, because it is not fighting.

It, the discipline of the martial arts, analyzes motion until you see through the universe for what it is.

Any time you space out, any time somebody says something and you can’t follow it, any time you read something and don’t understand it…that’s your mind.

Here’s a piece of my ‘Five Army Tai Chi Chuan’ course for you to ‘think’ about. But don’t think too long, life is passing you by. You can get it at MonsterMartialArts.com.

TCC 1 sample

Here’s the link to the Tai Chi course…

2c Five Army Tai Chi Chuan

White Crane Gung Fu Becomes Karate!

What Happened to White Crane Kung Fu?

Newsletter 1138

Another day in paradise! Paradise, of course, being the chance to work out!

One of the big points of understanding matrixing is understanding how the martial arts came to be a mess. While there have been brilliant advances in this mess, there have also been some disastrous developments. Let’s talk about White Crane Kung Fu.

Legend has it that White Crane was invented by Fang Qiniang, a young lady whose father taught her Shaolin kung fu. Fang was supposedly in a field one day when she saw a crane battling a snake, and was inspired.

Maybe, maybe not, makes a great story, and…why not? Even today that image has power.

BUT!

White Crane developed, over the decades, into Karate. So let me ask the question? How did something developed by a soft, fragile girl become a hard core, impact oriented type of martial art?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying ladies aren’t capable of becoming hard core brutes (they are the more vicious of the species, after all), or that they can’t embrace brutal training methods.

I’m asking how an art that relied on guiding the attack, misdirecting the opponent, undoing balance and finding workable striking spots became an art that relies on power, power, and then more power?

How did an art developed by a gurl, with a ‘lesser’ frame and all her delicate, inner sensibilities, became a ‘You bash me, I bash you, Grrr!’ type of martial art?

And while there are styles of Karate that are softer, more liquid, and not so brutal, consider arts like Kyokushin, or Uechi Ryu.

Somebody had a bright idea. And that bright idea was tempered by young turks who were inordinately proud of their muscles and swagger.

When I developed Matrixing, which is the application of logic to the martial arts, I was struck by how, with slight adjustment, the need for power could be subverted into unbalancing an opponent, re-angling an attack so no impact was needed.

Was I approaching Karate’s roots? Was I onto some of the concepts discovered by some (choke) sissy girl? Oh, my suffering manhood!

I’ve included a snippet from the Monkey Boxing course offered on my substack channel/newsletter (monstermartialarts.substack.com). In it I want you to see how instead of relying on a hard block, a block practiced by millions and yet is rarely seen in a real fight, has been replaced by a simple slap, and a substitute for a block.

Heck, this slap/grab concept is in every art, yet almost nobody practices it, let alone understands how a hard art could be grown from the soft.

Check it out, consider if your art has gone over to the ‘hard side,’ and then consider whether 8 bucks a month (less than a meal at MickeyD’s) is too much to pay for a whole new different look at the martial arts.

All right kiddies, It’s the end of summer, winter is around the corner, and it’s time to make yourself strong enough to last through those cold, winter months!

Work out! Darn it! And make yourself a new person! One who is kind, considerate, and able to beat up bullies with a smirk and a laugh.

May the Matrix be with you.

Have a great work out!

Al

A Caution: All my videos are on Youtube. Should stay up there forever. EXCEPT, sometimes Youtube says ‘This video is no longer there!’ But it is.

If a link doesn’t work, try copy and paste.

If C and P doesn’t work, try a different browser.

If a different browser doesn’t work, try a different computer.

If a different computer doesn’t work, just try loading it a few times. (This is the method that worked best for me.)

If all else fails, write me at aganzul@gmail.com.

Have you read Insanica?

Monkey Self Defense Applications

Newsletter 1134

Substack and the Butterfly Kung Fu Course

Good morning!

I’ve migrated the newsletter to Substack, so let me know if you experience any problems. (aganzul@gmail.com)

I’m offering the Monkey Boxing course (225 videos) to anybody who signs up to be a paid subscriber. Everybody should be a free subscriber already, so let me know if there is any confusion about becoming a paid subscriber. 

I’m preparing the Shaolin Butterfly course for release as a video course book.

A video book will have have all the links to the course videos in the book.

The course has a half a dozen short two man forms. Work hard on these, because if you don’t get those basics you won’t be able to do the advanced techniques.

Here’s a sample of the advanced techniques. There are four 12 minutes self defense segments, and this is one.

9 Square Monkey Form Applications ~ 15:52

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBl3YbH1VD0

A warning: All my videos are on Youtube. Should stay up there forever. EXCEPT, sometimes Youtube says ‘This video is no longer there!’ But it is.

If a link doesn’t work, try copy and paste.

If C and P doesn’t work, try a different browser.

If a different browser doesn’t work, try a different computer.

If a diff computer doesn’t work, just try loading it a few times. (This is the method that worked best for me.)

If all else fails, write me at aganzul@gmail.com.

Thanks for being martial artists, and may the Matrix be with you.

Have a great work out!

Al

Have you read Insanica?

What is Your Martial Arts Body?

Newsletter 1132

Large Body v Small Body in the Martial Arts!

I didn’t think about this when I started kenpo way back when, but what martial arts is my body actually suited for.

Karate has two main styles, one is for large people, and the other is for small people.

Kenpo, though it was designed by Parker (a large man) is more designed for smaller bodies. I watched large and small men practice Kenpo, and the large men always seemed a bit clumsy.

Kung Fu was designed by a people who seemed shorter in stature,

Aikido takes a certain speed of whole body motion, better for a small body, but…Seagal is a large body.

Uechi Ryu plants the body solidly and generates power. A large body seems more capable of generating power.

Kyokushin is based on power, which seems better designed for large people.

And so on.

I think the argument is solved, or at least better addressed, when one considers whether an art is more efficient if it based on speed, or power.
Speed would seem to benefit the smaller man, power the larger man.

And, I suppose the argument is moot considering a couple of other things: what arts are available for you to study? And, what do you prefer.

Ultimately, however, it is up to the human to learn to use his/her body in the most efficient way, and this is a matter of practice, of discipline, of learning to think, of learning not to focus on the motion of the body, but on being in one place (posture), then, with no effort, being in another place (posture).

One must ‘monkey see monkey do’ his first martial art to learn it, but eventually one must create his own martial art, one that matches his body. Click on this…

How to Create Your Own Art

Neutronic Thoughts: There are three great mysteries, to fish it is water, to birds it is air, to man it is himself.

Thanks for being martial artists, and may the Matrix be with you.

Have a great work out!

Al

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Have you read ‘Science of Government?’

Real Martial Arts Power!

Newsletter 1131

Making the Body Glow with Power!

Let me give you a win, then tell you something that will change your life…

Shihan Al, my wife doesn’t allow me to even do Katas in my garage Dojo 100%, when she is home, because it shakes the house….Katas…no contact with anything but air and a cement floor. That is from 15 years of applying your concepts.

Now, that’s a win!
And when you understand it’s not mysterious. It does take time, even with Matrixing, but shaking a house like this is doable, and even easy. You just have to understand one thing.

Your body is a machine. A machine functions because of just a few basic-basics. These basic-basics, in the martial arts, are described in the beginning of most of my books.

Your body has two grounds, legs which lead to the ground and up and down which energy flows.

The energy goes to the Tan Tien (the one point), a point about two inches below the navel.

From the tan tien energy goes out to the rest of the body.

Assuming corrected poses the structure of the body transmits energy. The key is in ‘corrected.’ For correct stances you need such things as matrixing, body testing, and fanatical adheerence to the Basic-Basics.

And that’s it. Every time you do your form energy goes through your body, builds, and eventually shakes the world. Every stance connects your body to the ground, and the energy flows between the earth and the body. Every strike enables you to strike better, with more energy.

When doing Pa Kua Chang, to give you a real example of this procedure, I would walk slowly, slower than the videos on youtube show, and I would imagine a tennis ball going up my leg as I moved my weight onto the leg. When I lifted the leg I would imagine the ball going down my leg. When my legs were next to each other, midway through the step, i would imagine the ball in the tan tien. Within a few months my legs were totally changed, and my body was literally glowing with energy. People actually noticed this and asked what I had done to my skin.

I hadn’t done anything to my skin, I had just energized my body.

But it takes matrixed knowledge, and fanatical discipline to make this work. You can’t just do it a couple of weeks and wonder why things aren’t happening. Take a few months, do walking the circle and the postures as I recommend on the PKC video, then you’ll start to feel the massive changes within.

Here’s the obligatory ad…

Pa Kua Chang

https://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/butterfly-pa-kua-chang/

Neutronic Thoughts: When you fight somebody you have to overcome two shields, his emotions, and your emotions.

Thanks for being martial artists, and may the Matrix be with you.

Have a great work out!

Al

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Have you read ‘Science of Government?’