The Secret of Timing in the Martial Arts

Posted on June 12, 2021 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 1018

The Secrets of Martial Arts Grab Arts

A couple of things this issue.
First, I sat down for an interview.
The interview is with Dal Gilliland,
a long time practitioner of the MA,
and a hell of a wisdom.
The link is

The essence of the podcast
is that Dale is researching and presenting
viable paths to mastery of the martial arts
through interviews with accomplished people.
We had a lot of fun,
and hopefully our excitement comes through.
Check it out.

Now,
you wanted to talk about the grab arts.

Grab Arts is the term my instructor used for locks,
throws, takedowns, joint manipulations, and so on.
By that definition it covers all martial arts.

When I did the Matrix Aikido course,
I originally called it ‘Instant Aikido,’
I was showing how to teach, and learn,
through defining your concepts.
The video succeeds well,
but…it stops.

Well, everything stops.
But the Matrix Kung Fu course went further.
After all, I had given the concept,
so where did the concepts go?
That is what the Matrix Kung Fu (Monkey Boxing) is all about.
But this led to an extreme realization.
When I looked at what I had done,
i actually slapped my head.
The truth was right in front of me all the time,
and I had had no clue.
Now bear with me through this next part,
it might seem a little confusing,
but stick with me,
there is something very brilliant on the other side…

So,
let me ask you a question…
what is time?

Let me stall for a second
while you actually think about that.
Tick tock.
Tap the foot.
Hmmm.
Yeah, yeah.

Okay, did you come up with an answer?
Do you know what time is?
Okay, here goes…
drum roll…

TIME IS DISTANCE!

What?
huh?
Al, maybe you’d better get back on that horse quick.
You must have landed on your head and—

No, no.
I’m serious.
Time is a measurement of distance.
How fast can you run 50 yards?
10 seconds.
Good.
Then 50 yards is ten seconds long.
Do you see it?
That’s what time is for!
To measure the distance,
either of the universe,
or of the distance between one event and another in the universe.

Okay,
read it again if you have to,
figure it out,
and then let me tell you
what this has to do with the martial arts.

There is the time it takes for a punch to reach the jaw.
We take a stop watch and click click.
Very useful,
this attribute of time.
This is the ‘regular’ time of the universe.
This is the time standard that we all agree upon,
that we set our watches to.

Then there is ‘timing,’
Where one starts messing with
the distance between techniques
in order to confuse somebody.
Yes,
this is cool.

then there is the time
—God, I’m almost afraid to explain this—
that is agreed upon.

We agree a foot is a foot.
We agree that a second is a second.
That is the ‘regular’ time of the universe.

But have you ever had somebody punch you,
and time actually changes?
I used to see this all the time.
My original instructor,
Bob Babich,
could change his agreement of time
and suddenly he was faster than us…
EVEN THOUGH HE WAS SLOWER!

Okay,
for those of you who are still around,
let me explain.
Bob would go out of agreement with our sense of time.
We were stuck in ‘regular’ time,
the time of the universe,
but he had his own sense of time.
and he could impinge his sense of time over our sense of time.
But our sense of time was the ‘robot’ time of the universe.
His sense of time was magnetic,
and magic,
and much more alive than the grind of tick tock.

Every individual has his own sense of time,
and that individual time can be changed,
and override the time of the universe.

Okay,
I know you’re going to be chewing on that for a while,
so let me slip something in
while you’re starting your few years of cogitation.

I realized that the martial arts has six general distances.
Weapons, kick, punch, knee, elbow and takedown

I didn’t bother with weapons because
time is best appreciated by a sense of the body.
Go outside the body and time loses some impact.
You’re in the universe of ‘regular’ time now.

I didn’t bother with grappling
because that is a stuck distance.
Once you’re in grapple distance
distance can no longer collapse effectively,
and therefore time can’t ‘change.’
But if you go from
kick to punch to knee to elbow…
you are collapsing distance,
therefore you are collapsing time.

God,
this broke the universe open for me.
Suddenly I could see the problems with training methods,
how different arts could be stuck in certain times,
and so on.

Really blew my mind.

So,
what do I do when my mind is blown?
Well,
the mind is blown for one real reason,
it has been overwhelmed by data.
So,
to put the data to logic,
I drew a matrix.
A matrix of distances,
which was a matrix of time.
And that put an order to the massive data
that was overwhelming me.

And I mention all this because
when I wrote the Matrix Kung Fu course
there was one big problem.
I was putting technique to the Matrix Aikido concept,
and there were no entry techniques.
I would apply the concept to the jointlock,
come up with the technique,
and there was no way into the technique.
Talk about pure data.
It was data so pure that I ended up with a static,
and a static is the quickest way to die in the universe.

So I ended up matrixing distance,
which gave the entry techniques to the Matrix Kung Fu,
and wound up somewhere in the stars,
wondering about time,
and trying to cork my head back together.
Quite fun, really.

You know,
on the interview I did with Dale,
which I mentioned earlier,
I said a smart thing.

I said,
‘Martial Arts are for smart people.’
They are.
They aren’t for dummies.
Dummies get trapped by the human cockfight,
or the desire for violence,
or the lust for trophies,
or domination,
or whatever.

But the real martial artists,
the ones that last for a lifetime,
and longer,
they think.
They figure things out.

Sure,
it’s a kick to feel the adrenaline
and to live for freestyle,
but,
when you are old,
will you have any wisdom for all that?

It’s a fair question,
and I hope this newsletter puts you down the path.

So take what I said about time here,
wiggle it,
drop it in the acid,
figure it out.
Understanding this universe,
and time is what makes this universe last,
is what life is all about.

Now,
obligatory advertisement.
Feel free to examine
Matrix Aikido
and Matrix Kung fu.
Examine my concepts from the inside out,
from the viewpoint of one who does,
not one who just talks.
I think you’ll have a lot of fun.

Here are the links…

1c Matrix Aikido

1b Matrix Kung Fu

And,
let me glance around,
I want to make sure nobody hears this,
but…
If you order one course right now,
I’ll give you the second one free.

Hey,
easy,
don’t fall over.
I know I never do this,
but I just passed my 73rd birthday
and I’m officially senile now.
So,
until July 1,
two for one,
the Matrix Aikido and Matrix Kung Fu only.
Past July 1…and you missed out.

So that’s it, kids,
don’t forget to check out
Dale Gilliland’s great interview with me….

and have the best F-ing work out in the world!
Al

BTW
Have you checked out my novel?
Monkeyland?
It’s on Amazon,
but you’ll probably have to look for it.
Amazon tends to hide the good stuff.

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Instant Zen through the Martial Arts

Posted on June 4, 2021 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 1017

How to Achieve Instant Zen Through the Martial Arts!

It is absolutely stark raving mad
that people don’t delve into this zen thing
especially in the martial arts,
because the martial arts can make it so simple.

Let me note a couple of things,
and then give you the EXACT exercise
that will transform you as a martial artist…
and as a human being.

First, a precise definition of the term.
Zen is Japanese for ‘meditation,’ from…
Chan, which is Chinese for ‘quietude,’ from…
Dhyana, which is ‘Sanskrit’ for meditation.

And,
I have been told that it is an ancient word for…
‘knowing.’

Zen has been with us for over 5,000 years.
Longer.
Why would it still be here if it didn’t work?

Now,
the reality of Zen is…
a moment of clarity.
A moment in which there is no before and no after.
A moment in which you understand yourself,
what you are and where you came from.

In this moment you become able to move
without earthly restriction.

To understand this think of a movie.
You enter a theater and sit down,
and they have so many Fing commercials
you forget to watch the movie.
You are stuck in the flashy moments
of sating yourself with popcorn
and never really see what is happening.
You wander through the snack bar,
buying things for your belly,
things that do not nourish
and only serve to distract.
Meanwhile,
the movie plays,
life goes on,
and you miss it.

Later,
you protest…
‘BUT I WENT TO THE MOVIE!’
No, you didn’t.
You only thought you did.
You really just went to the snack bar.
That is what your life is
until you experience zen,
and hopeful a real zen moment.

So,
how do you break out of this trap?
How do you ignore the distractions
and perceive what is really happening?
How do you get out of thinking you are alive
and really become alive?

Here is the method.
Sure fire,
designed EXACTLY for martial artists,
that will change the way you freestyle,
the way you do forms,
everything.
But,
you can’t just read about it,
you have to do it.
And, before you do it
I should tell you that this method
is actually in a book
in the Matrix Karate course.
The book is called
‘The Master’s Handbook,’
and it is one of the first
martial arts books I ever wrote.
Here are the exact instructions from that book

THE ZEN STICK DROP

Sit facing your partner, each of you with your legs folded in the zen kneeling position. One of you holds a small stick about the length of a pen and the thickness of a broom handle. The stick is held slightly below eye level by a horizontal and gently curving arm. No attempt at concealment is made, and the stick is just barely held by the tips of your fingers.
Sit silently for a period of time. The stick is dropped by the one holding it, and is caught by the one opposite.
Don’t try to build a rhythm for dropping or try to fool each other. Just sit. Let the static in your mind subside as you concentrate upon watching your opponent. Create silence and observe one another. Realize that no amount of tensing will make the stick easier to catch, but that relaxing will.
As you do the exercise you will have ample opportunity to still the jerks and twitchs of your muscles and mind. You will get to go through the pain in your legs. You will get to still the jerks and twitchings of your partner. You will get to still yours and his tendency to guess at when the stick will be dropped.
You will get to still the ridges of readying muscles and energies and you will get to still the focus of the catch. You must reach out and hold the falling stick in one position in space. There should be no slapping or grabbing or sudden tightening of the muscles. There should be the same naturalness and amount of insignificance as when you lift a glass ot turn on a light switch.
The application of the can be very interesting. This would be the practice of not ‘telegraphing your motion.’ This means that you stay perfectly still before a movement, no leaning or drifting in any direction before moving. You must stay in one place and let the stillness build and explode without forethought. Have fun.

Here is the illustration…

Now,
here is the question…
how long will it take?
Totally depends.
If you have a lot of discipline,
which comes from a lot of martial arts practice,
real martial arts
and not the watered down crap sold today,
then it probably won’t take long.
A few hours
a few hours should be enough
to cook your brain
and enable you to break through.
Let’s say you are a newbie,
not much discipline.
Might take a year or two.
But the more you practice the martial arts,
the more discipline you cultivate,
the sooner you break through.

Now,
another thing…
what does it feel like.
people may feel different things,
but here’s what I perceived.

I did not reach,
I was unaware of muscles,
my hand just nonchalantly
spurted forward and held the stick.

I didn’t grab,
it was more like I picked the stick out of space.

Prior to doing it right
I sort of forgot about the exercise,
it just sort of happened.

I was profoundly happy.

I was aware that I,
the being that was Al Case,
was what was true,
and that the envelope that was my body,
was temporary.
Al Case is a temporary vehicle,
a label,
for an eternal spirit.

And,
I advise you right now…
when you achieve the zen moment I speak of
there is absolutely NO mistaking it.
It happens,
and you blink,
and you slap your head
and blurt something like…
“Oh…FUCK!”

The moment is so stark it can’t be mistaken for anything else.

It is the difference between snoring peacefully
and suddenly being the sun.
Awake,
alive,
understanding life as you never have before.
And yet anything I tell you
will be a severe understatement
of the real thing.

And, a few things to provide context.
Old texts on zen were correct,
but I lacked the cultural background to understand the words.
New texts on zen were absolute garbage.
They were papers on what people
‘interpreted’ zen to be,
they were not by people who had experienced zen.

So,
can you do it?
Can you have the permanent thought
that you can transcend your body
and understand what you actually are?
Can you forge the discipline
to sit and do this simple exercise?
Can you travel through the boredom?
Can you take charge of your life?
They is right here.
So…can you?

And, obligatory advertisement,
if you don’t have it already
you might consider
the Matrix Karate course.
That course,
and the other early courses,
have a lot of stunning bonuses on them.
Here’s the link…

1a Matrix Karate

Okay, guys and gals,
have a great zen!
Al

BTW
My novel, Monkeyland,
is on Amazon.

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The Real Martial Arts Secret of the Universe!

Posted on May 26, 2021 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 1016

A Bit of Effective eMartial Arts Philosophy

What a day!
I just saw a duck walk past
with seven ducklings behind her.
Cool.

Okay, a real secret of the universe today.
Not one of those shabby, second rate secrets,
but the real goods.
Let’s set the stage…

What is the universe?
A bunch of objects floating through space.

Not much of a secret, eh?
Until you consider what this means to the martial arts.

A fist floats through space
it is aiming for your jaw.
Now,
two things may happen,
and only two.

The fist connects,
or it misses.
And there is the secret.
What?
You don’t see it?
Okay,
sigh.
Here we go.

If the fist connects it is force.
If the fist misses it is flow.

And that’s ALL there is.
A guy connects with you,
or misses.

Force bad if his fist hits you.
Force good if your fist hits him.
Sort of.

Flow good if fist misses.
Flow bad if it wasn’t a fist,
but a beautiful girl
that was trying to ‘connect’ with you.

I know
thats too simple to be a real secret.
Let’s go further.

Without force the universe stagnates and dies.
Hey,
no punching,
but also no sex.
No resultant familes.
No civilization.
We’re all alone,
man IS an island,
and that’s all she wrote, brother.

So the universe needs force to survive.
Except,
here is the problem,
and this is starting to become secretive,
or at least,
you’ve probably never heard this…

The universe teaches force.

It’s got to to survive.
And the real problem here
is not that the universe teaches force,
it is that man buys it.

And,
man never buys flow.
He has been trained not to.
The universe won’t reproduce
and give him all those nifty things
like cars and buildings and TVs and so on,
if he doesn’t buy force.

Which means,
anybody who buys into force too much
is only living half a life.
He is only living the force part.
The force part gives him
MMA,
wars,
cars,
diseases,
and so on.

The flow part gives him something else.
But to understand this
we must understand the benefit of flow.

Here’s some stuff to think about.
If you go away from something…it’s gone.
If you go towards something there will be impact,
with good and bad potentials,
and resulting vectors and new shapes and forms
and so on.

But if you go WITH something…
if you flow with them,
not colliding,
but encouraging harmony…there’s the other half of the universe.

there is art
and beauty
and love
and children playing in the fields.

Okay,
I hope this train of thought has encouraged
a realization or two,
and thus qualifies as a good secret.

Let’s go one step further.

The incredibly sad truth
is that a person can’t really understand truth and beauty
until he understands rot and ugliness.

And,
in the martial arts,
if you don’t learn how to maim and kill,
dismember and rip body parts off…
you won’t understand this thing called ‘Flow,’
and truth and beauty and all that sort of thing.

So,
God,
this is going to sound like a fortune cookie,
or a bumper sticker…

“You can’t learn the soft arts
unless you have learned the hard arts.”

This is a tremendous statement
with incredible ramifications,
and I know I have said it before.

Simply,
you must have yang to learn yin.

Funny,
the actual place I learned the concept,
to help me describe what I was understanding
through the discipline of arts
was in The Tao.

Something about…
‘there is no high without low.
There is no forward without backward.’

Okay,
this is sort of basic Neutronics,
for anybody who is interested,
but let me give you
the obligatory advertisement.

Check out the video
halfway down the page here…

2c Five Army Tai Chi Chuan

I wouldn’t have understood all these things
about jointlocks and pressure points
and balance and how the body works
if i hadn’t dabbled in the softer arts.

And,
let me tell you, brother,
these things are incredibly functional
if you have the hard to understand them.

Anyway,
the conclusion…

The universe teaches force.
Humanity teaches flow.
You have a wonderful choice and opportunity here.
Have a GREAT work out!

Al

2c Five Army Tai Chi Chuan

BTW
My novel, Monkeyland, is worth the read.
Check out the five star reviews on Amazon.

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The Muscle that Isn’t!

Posted on May 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 1015

Here’s a good question for you…

Happy afternoon!
I hope you guys are all eating ribs off the barbie, eh?
Mmm.
Oh, wait,
this isn’t the cooking channel…
this is MARTIAL ARTS!

So,
what is the one moving body part?
That’s an easy one.
The muscles.
They are the only body part that actually moves.
The kidney doesn’t move,
it just goes on for the ride.
The brain doesn’t move,
it just sits in the skull and imitates a rock.
Heh.
So the muscles move.
So here’s some stuff to think about.

A muscle is a motor.
The matrix definitiion of a motor…
‘A motor is two poles between which there is tension.’
Push or pull, doesn’t matter.

Now,
all muscles should work together,
so when you move a lot of motors (muscles) make motion.

the individual muscle is a motor in that it has two ends (poles)
and there is pull between those two points.

Muscles can make a motor against other muscles.

But,
here’s the weird one,
there is in your body something I have decided to call…
‘tacking muscles.’
Now,
honestly,
I don’t know exactly how to define this term.
It comes from the process of ‘tacking,’
which is when you shift the sails of a boat
so the boat can sail against the wind.
Have you ever thought about how weird that is?
But it’s ingenious.

So,
when you stretch,
when you reach up for the sky
what muscles are contracting
to make you longer?
Those are the tacking muscles.

And,
I’ll be honest,
after much thought,
I don’t think I can define what muscles actually cause
this ‘tacking’ of the body.

this is one of those weird questions
I can’t really wrap my head around.
I have stood and stretched,
especially in yoga,
and asked myself what muscle is doing what.
I have the weird idea
that if I can figure this out
it will make me a better martial artist.

Maybe one of you guys out there
can enlighten me,
or at least be as confused as me.

Anyway,
the muscles are important,
I see people get old,
and they are always ‘out of muscle.’
They have ignored the one moving body part.
They talk about the right food,
but they never look at the one moving body part
that makes EVERY other part of the body healthy.

Motion massages the innards,
there are trigger points
that are activated by muscle motion,
and so on.

The martial arts are one of the few activities
that enhance every muscle in the body.
Yoga is good,
gymnastics are good,
but martial arts are…FUN!

Now if i could only figure out where the tracking muscles are.

Hey,
obligatory advertisement coming up…

Check out
‘Evolution of an Art.’
It is three arts,
that’s three different viewpoints
of all the muscles in the body.
Here’s the link…

3a Evolution of a Martial Art

Now,
have a great work out,
and build up your appetite for that old barbie.
Mmmm.

Al

BTW
Thanks to those guys who volunteered to read and review my novel…
Monkeyland

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Turning up the Heat in a Martial Arts Class

Posted on May 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 1014

Heat Makes for a Pure Art!

bagua zhang style martial arts are the best!

Good morning!
It’s a perfect Wednesday!

You know,
I have a special deal for any of you guys
who like intense novels.
It’s at the end,
but let’s talk about heat first.

The body is a machine.
And it is a motor.
What is the difference between a machine and a motor?
A machine is a series of motors to accomplish a purpose.
A motor…wait for it…drum roll…
CREATES A HEAT!

The heat can be used for various things.
More action being prime.

When you work out,
when you use the motor that is your body,
what happens?
Your body gets hot.
Sometimes you have to cool it down.
Generally speaking,
what I have told you is totally accurate.

So,
what does this have to do with the price of pickles in Italy?

One of the clever little tricks the body does,
when you pump it up,
is cleanse.
Motion creating heat will purify the body.

Understanding this,
and remembering my days
sweating in the dojo…
(130 degrees in San Jose)
And remembering how much fun it was,
every once in a while I would turn up the heat in a class.

I mean,
REALLY
turn up the heat.

Half hour before class I would close the doors and windows
and turn the heat as high as it would go.
Man,
these guys would come in
and sweat just from standing there,
and then the fun would start.
That would be a day
when I ran them through basics half the class,
then ran them through forms the next half,
and then the third half we would freestyle.

Oh, it was fun.
They would be dragging.
Exhausted.
I would let them drink as much water as they wanted,
This was sort of unusual.
I don’t usually let students take breaks for any reason.
What?
You’re going to take a break in the middle of a fight?

Now,
I was careful in pairing students,
and I watched them closely.
Exhaustion leads to mistakes,
and I didn’t want anybody to get hurt.

But they would sweat,
and if their uniform wasn’t TOTALLY soaked
by the time class was ended,
I knew I had failed.

And,
a short aside,
when I first moved to Los Angeles,
taught my first class,
we met in an attic.
Heat rises,
and one fellow told me
he actually lost 15 pounds in 2 weeks.
Yowza!

Now,
the point here is this:
Karate is a pure art.
And it must be made pure.
And to have a pure art,
you must have a pure body,
so I would turn up the heat,
they would sweat,
and the machines that were their bodies
sweated out toxins,
and what was left was the pure body,
and it made it easier to guide them to the pure art.

Now,
the original inspiration for this method
came from reading about summer classes in Japanese dojos,
reading about how students
would go to the front door and wring out their gis.

Later inspiration came from reading about Yoga classes.

Now,
the obligatory advertisement…

I recommend
Butterfly Pa Kua Chang.
The reason is that when I did that
the purification process
really seemed to kick into high gear.
And the sweat was different,
it was ‘silver.’
Really amazed me,
I mean,
sweat can have different colors?
But that’s what I perceived,
and I recommend you find out for yourself.
Here’s the link.

2b Butterfly Pa Kua Chang

Now,
have yourself a great and sweaty work out!

Al

2b Butterfly Pa Kua Chang

And, the special deal for people who like to read novels.
I recently republished ‘Monkeyland,’
and I am looking for reviews.
If any of you guys want to read,
then give me a review on Amazon,
I’ll send you a free copy of Monkeyland (Digital).

Email me at:
aganzul@gmail.com

Subject line: Monkeyland review.

I will send you a copy of the book.
And,
before you send the email,
check out the book,
see if it fits your reading preferences,
and make sure you glance at the reviews.
Here’s the link…

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Increasing Power in the Martial Arts with Formulas

Posted on May 9, 2021 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 1012
The Formula for Power in the Martial Arts!

Good morning!
Happy Mother’s Day!

I thought you might like to look at
formulas in the martial arts today.
This is actually pretty hefty stuff,
and you might want to have a dictionary at hand,
especially when I talk about things like
mass, energy, and other physics terms.

First,
energy is the capacity for work.
Work is the amount of weight lifted.
So the deeper the stance,
the more weight your muscles feel.
The more weight you feel,
the harder you work.
The harder you work,
the stronger you get.
This strength is channeled to the tan tien
and then to the rest of the body.

Second,
when practicing,
I move slow.
Moving slowly increases the amount of time
I am lifting the weight of my body.
Thus, I am lifting more,
thus, I am getting stronger.

Third,
when doing forms,
I use dynamic tension.
Dynamic tension is when you use
muscles against muscles,
and even
muscles against themselves.

Fourth,
when doing applications
I increase speed,
because
speed times mass increases the mass.
100 pounds of punch at one second
becomes 200 pounds of punch at 2 seconds.
And so on.

Fifth,
I try to make sure my body is properly aligned.
This creates a connection from the fist to the planet,
or the technique to the planet,
so when I hit somebody,
it actually feels like I am hitting them with the planet.
And when I get hit,
it feels like they are hitting the planet.

Sixth,
I try to use CBM
‘Coordinated Body Motion,’
all body parts move at the same time
starting at the same time
ending at the same time,
contributing appropriate to their
size, mass, angle, and so on.

Seventh,
I try to CBM all the formulas.
Putting them together when appropriate,
focusing on specific formulas when appropriate,
and so on.

And,
of course,
I practice all the time.
The more I practice
the more these formulas and concepts work.

So that’s it.

Oh,
there are lots of other formulas in Matrixing.
But these are pretty specific to action and movement.
And they should help you
when you analyze what you are doing and why.
They should really make your art POP!

Now,
here’s the thing…

I learned the first formula from doing Karate
I learned the second formula from doing Tai Chi Chuan.
I learned the third formula from doing Pan Gai Noon.
I learned the fourth formula from Karate.
And so on.

So you have to study a lot of different arts
to get all this.

You know what?
Evolution of an Art has three arts on it.

Pan Gai Noon
Kang Duk Won
Kwon Bup

It’s a good place to start.
The price of a night on the town
and it will feed your mind and spirit for years.
It will certainly help you make serious inroads
into the formulas I listed here.

Here’s the link…

Evolution of an Art!

Now,
go get your mommy some flowers!
And have a great work out!
Al

Evolution of an Art!

BTW ~ have you read my novel…Monkeyland?

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Martial Arts Power from Stances!

Posted on May 4, 2021 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 1010

Proper Martial Arts Stances!

Hey guys and gals!
Good Florida morning!
I hope the rest of the US is as happy as we are down here.

Now,
last issue I talked about footwork.
But footwork doesn’t mean diddly,
if you aren’t connected to the ground.

The body is a motor,
and a motor won’t work
if it isn’t connected to something.
Tied down.
So it doesn’t just flop around.

So…
I remember the big myth about stances.
Everybody was talking about…
all the books were writing about…
distribution of weight in stances.

In the front stance
you have 70% of your weight on the front foot
In the back stance…you have 30%
Or some other percentage,
like 60/40,
and the percentages were worked out for other stances.
Then some guy put out two bathroom scales
and all stances were 50/50.

So this is what I want you to do,
sink into your stance
and don’t overly weight one foot or the other.
Have both feet gripping the ground.

Like your two fingers might grip an apple,
use your two feet to grip the earth.

So your front stance is now sort of a horse stance
with the body more on the front leg than the rear.

Your back stance is now a horse stance
with the body more on the rear leg than the front.

Your feet might be turned a little differently,
but it is still a horse stance,
and…
most important…
YOU ARE GRIPPING THE GROUND!

Instead of taking a big step with the front foot
when shifting from the front stance to the rear stance,
just do a little shift.

You get the same amount of weight transferred into the punch,
but you don’t waste motion.
It will be faster and more concise.
It will be more…usable.

As for cat stances?
I don’t do them.
People say they free up the front leg for kicking.
I say that tells your opponent what you are going to do.
So I take a narrow hourglass stance
and turn one foot,
and shift the weight back slightly.

Twisted or Dragon stances?
Good for exercise,
I recommend them for exercise,
but not for fighting.
Never seen a dragon stance used in a fight.
But I do see the conditioning they impart
as useful in a fight.

Stances where you are just standing with your feet together?
Why?
You would NEVER,
in your wildest dreams,
use that in a fight.
That is just ritual.
Stupid.

Okay,
do you get the idea?

I know,
it flies in the face of traditional stances,
but traditional stances are tainted.
They have been adjusted to teaching groups,
and have lost their workability.
traditional stances don’t work well
except as they promote the singular concept
of dropping the weight.

So play with this concept,
do your forms out of slightly off center horse stances,
play with the direction of the feet,
find out what intention they support
before they become less than useful.

And let me know how it goes.

Now,
there is a big PS below,
do me a favor and glance at it,

but for now,
that’s it and…

Have a great work out

Al

BIG PS

I write other books.
And they help support me
and this website.

I have two releases this month.

MONKEYLAND
Is a re-release.
Fully edited,
new cover,
and a whomper stomper of a story.
If you like tight action,
intense plotting and dialogue,
this will fill the bill.
Check it out at…
MONKEYLAND

three 5-star rating so far!

And,
my other book this month…

THE SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT

Again, only three reviews,
but all 5-star.

Just read the reviews.
see what people are saying…
it’s like matrixing for politics

So,
if you look my traffic is better,
if you buy you directly support matrixing
and a better world.
Thanks.

Al

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Controlling Your Mind in the Martial Arts

Posted on April 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 1009

Making Your Mind Behave…

Good morning! Good morning!
I made it to Clearwater, Florida,
and am advertising for students.
Yippee!
Back in the saddle again.

So how are you guys doing?
Do you work out every single day?
I do.
Can’t stop.
Even if I’m beat and battered,
then I simply work out slowly,
tai chi style.
Tai Chi is a wonderful art,
and outside of matrixed martial arts,
it is one of the two most powerful classical arts I know.
(the other is karate)

Unfortunately,
most people think it is for health,
and old people,
and not much use for self defense.

I’ll tell you something interesting,
I don’t think I really began to truly understand
martial arts and self defense
until I began to delve into Tai Chi.

Oh,
I could beat people up.
But not if they were better and faster than me.
But once I learned Tai Chi
I began to relax in combat,
to see what people were going to do
before they did it.

The trick,
of course,
is to develop the patience.
When you are first doing that slow ‘ward off’ move,
you ask,
how can this work?
Aside form being slow,
it doesn’t have much application.
But the secret of learning
is to keep looking at something
until you understand it.

So I looked and looked
and went slower,
and…here it comes…
FORCED MY MIND TO SLOW DOWN!

Yes,
your mind is an errant child,
throwing distractions at you.
But if you MAKE yourself move slowly,
and MAKE your mind accept a different mode of thinking,
then everything becomes understandable,
and even those weird moves suddenly make sense.
And you find the applications.
And you find out that there is a vast world
of balance and sensitivity
of perception and appreciation.

Unfortunately,
if you don’t do this,
if you don’t MAKE your mind behave,
you miss out on all this wonder.
And you actually miss out
on a lot of the true meaning of the Martial Arts.

Just saying…

So here’s the Tai Chi Package.
Will help you look,
will help you MAKE your mind behave,
will show you some of the incredible self defenses,
that other arts miss out on.

2ca Tai Chi Chuan Package

If you’re here in Clearwater I hope to see you some day,
And…
Everybody have a great work out!!

Al

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A Martial Arts Home Run!

Posted on January 31, 2021 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 1007

Release of New and MASSIVE Martial Arts Course

Okay,
7th game of the world series,
top of the 9th
full count
the bases are loaded
the pitcher winds up
he pitches…
CRACK!
Al Case hits a martial arts home run.
Don’t believe me?
Go here…

Research & Development Course

Incidentally,
another release,
just as magnificent,
I compiled the books I have written on matrixing in…
‘The Book of Matrixing.’
You’ll see the ad on the right side of the Nine Square site.

Everybody have a great work out!!

Al

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Nine Square Diagram Bonus material

Posted on January 25, 2021 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 1006

Extra Bonus on Nine Square Diagram!

Hi guys and gals,
I just put up a couple of extra bonuses
on the Nine Square Diagram courses.

So if you have bought these courses

go check out the new bonuses.

The hard side gets a video
with more data on lop sau.

The soft side gets a video
and more data on push hands.

I included a video
on how the three freestyles fit together.
It’s a freestyle sequence,
and it will help everybody understand
how matrixing works with freestyle.

If you are getting this email
and don’t know what I’m talking about
check out this site…

https://9squarediagramboxing.wordpress.com

It’s got everything you need to know.
and a great work out, too!

Al

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