It Really Shouldn’t Take So Long to Learn Martial Arts
The bully charges out of the alley and tosses a whole, darned trash can at you! Do you ask him to take that garbage can back because you’re only on your ninth Karate lesson and haven’t reached the deflecting the garbage can lesson? Or do you ask him go away because, here it comes, you forgot to pay your dues at the local dojo?
There is a point to all this silliness, why do the martial arts take so long to learn? You can teach a guy to fly a jet, get in a dogfight and get shot down, spend time in a concentration camp, get released and run for political office, and become a senator, and retire, in the time it takes to learn some systems of the martial arts. I heard of one system that it takes seventeen years to get to Black Belt in!
Some people will make the excuse that you’re learning more than self defense. You’re solving martial mysteries and its all about the lifestyle and you need to invest in your old age, you know? But you’re still lying under that trash can and the guy is pulling out a knife, and no matter how many lessons you’ve taken, you have to do something!
One of the old sayings that I heard, long time ago, is garbage in, garbage out. The sad fact of the matter is that if something is hard to put into your head, then it might not be easily accessed and used. Maybe it would be appropriate to find an art that is as easily absorbed as track, or boxing.
It is true that the Martial Arts are not a sport, they are an art, but they can still be learned easily and quickly. They just have to be taught not by one mystical technique after another, but rather by understanding concepts behind them. Those endless techniques that you memorize, to be truthful, are random data, and, often as not, they don’t really relate to one another.
That is a problem, to be sure, even if you learn a thousand techniques, you might not have enough data to be able to make sense out of the whole thing until you reach one thousand and one. And, let’s face it, a hundred years is to long to become competent. And then go to heaven.
The solution is that the martial arts must be taught on a conceptual basis. Instead of having a fellow memorize endless strings of tricks, have him learn the rather simple principles behind those tricks. Have him learn conceptually and he’s suddenly going to be able to figure out those thousand techniques without any need for endless memorization.
Give him an acorn and throw in the watering pot, that’s what I believe, and then watch the oak shoot upwards. Most martial artists, and I don’t mean to be mean in this observation, are lost in the limbs of the trees. The real way to teach, however, is to show the guy the principles, then have use those principles, and, faster than a rabbit on steroids, you’ve got yourself a fast and competent martial artist.
Good Morning USA, and world, and, uh, guess I’ll throw in the universe.
Never can tell, some gloopy alien with three eyes might be keeping track of those strange critters on earth. Might be reading this article right now making sure we’re not being contentious and guilty of sedition to the alien galactic empire.
Hello, Gloopy Alien.
I wonder if he knows what this here finger of mine is for? Hah.
Speaking of weird and Gloopy Aliens, the founder of modern Karate, Gichin Funakoshi, was about 80 years old, and was out for his nightly walk. The night was ominous, Japan was in an unsettled state, and he saw a mugger waiting on a street corner.
Gichin knew, deep in his heart, that that mugger was going to try to mug him. Hey, you think a mugger’s going to risk picking on somebody who is big? Nope, muggers want to get on with their work with the least amount of personal risk, you know? Smart guys, these muggers are.
Anyway, Gichin keeps on walking makes sure he looks feeble, and as he passes the mugger and the mugger leaps at him he whirls and grabs the mugger.
Now, you might be wondering where he grabbed the mugger. A death lock on the carotid–a specialized nerve center that immobilizes totally?
Well, uh, he didn’t do any of those things.
He grabbed him by the, um, cajones. The apples, you know..the coconuts. He grabbed him by the children he might sire some day, by the future, by his only source of fun on those long, lonely nights that frustrate a mugger when he is all by himself and can’t find anybody who even remotely likes him.
Now the founder of modern Karate has a mugger by the embarrassment, and what is he going to do next?
Does he flick a set of knuckles to the throat and crunch the Adam’s apple…cause it to swell up and stop the mugger from breathing? Does he launch a spear hand thrust to the chest and yank the mugger’s very heart out and take a big bite while the terrified mugger watches in terror? Or does he just start to close his hand. Close his hand slowly, and watch the life blood drain out of the mugger’s face, and the very life right out of his quaking and pain infested body, and the happiness out of his future? Squeeze, until the nutty pulp runs out from between his gnarly, old fingers. Squeeze, until a loud popping sound fills the night air. Squeeze, until the mugger screams like a little girl and falls to the pavement, never to enjoy the feel of loving again.
Gichin called for the cops. Yep, he stood on that corner and held that man and called for help.
And the mugger was totted away to think about his crimes, and the terror of having his manhood held by another man.
An interesting lesson for a mugger, eh?
Another interesting lesson would be if you looked up the real meaning of the word testament and where it comes from and all that.
Anyway, the point of all this is this don’t walk down that dark alley. Yep. My students have heard me say this, and they know what I mean. When you have a choice of a long walk down a lit street, or a short trip through a dark alley, take the long way.
Hey, a sunny street in the heart of town might be a dark alley if there’s some idiot waiting for you. And you should have developed the extra perception, through those endless hours of practice, to know the difference between a dark alley and a well lit street.
I’m addicted to the martial arts. I’ve studied Southern Shaolin and Northern Shaolin and Wing Chun and Tai Chi and Pa Kua and…I can’t stop.
This is not bad, of course, for the health benefits and the clarity of mind are absolutely phenomenal. There is one problem, however, that I wish to address here, concerning the martial arts.
Float like a butterfly, and sting like an …elephant!
It can take several years to become expert in a system of Gung Fu. It can take more than a dozen years to master a system of Gung Fu. This is much, much too long.
My solution to this problem was to concentrate on isolating the main concept–and motion–behind a system of kung fu, and concentrate upon just that concept. I didn’t want to learn by memorizing series of tricks, you see, I wanted to go for the gold. I wanted to find out the real secrets behind any system I studied. Every system I studied, however, was based on a different concept. Wing Chun slipped and angled , and the Mantis pulled with a hook. Pa kua made circles and deflected, and Tai Chi guided by absorbing. None of the systems seemed related!
But, I reasoned, fighting is, at heart, fighting!There had to be a simple concept that tied them all together. There had to be some simple thing that was common to each fighting system, no matter how different the fighting system seemed to be! There had to be an underlying principle that I was missing. And, in the end, I found it.
No matter what type of Kung Fu you are studying, the body is the common denominator. Kung fu, flower arranging, dance, taking a walk…they all need a body.
And the body is constructed the same, for the most part, from person to person. Thus, I dissected and analyzed all the arts, and found that there is a principle of body motion, relating to and coming from the body, that is the same for virtually all arts.
And the arts I was studying suddenly made sense, and I could see the connections. I had found the source of it all! Eventually, I formed my own system, and it is based on this common principle of body structure, and the only potentials of motion that a body is capable of. I call this system the Shaolin Butterfly, and the true glory of it is that is includes virtually all potentials of motion from all other systems of Kung Fu.
Oh, and one other thing about this system that is great–it can be learned in a couple of months.
Okay, heres a shocker for you to think about–you are learning the martial arts using the slowest method of education in existence in the world. Its true. And it is propagated through the mysticism and awe of attaining something that, should you use an updated method of learning, would speed up your learning up by a factor of ten.
The martial arts work on a method that has worked for the history of the world, for monkeys. This is the monkey see monkey do method of education. Using the monkey see monkey do method of education, you are trained to memorize random strings of data.
Thats absolutely right, random strings of data. In fact, to be perfectly accurate, it is random strings strings of random data, and everything is tied together through mystical concept. Not logical concepts, but mystical concepts.
That system of kung fu you’re practicing, the one based on an animal–I have never heard of an animal being logical. Oh, you fight like an animal would fight, in concept. What youre saying is that the movements that resemble how an animal would move have been gathered together so you could copycat them.
Copycatting is not a concept, and it is not being logical in any sense.
Copycatting is doing what youve been shown…or, in the martial arts world, sold. Lots of money in selling copycat methodology, because you can just keep rearranging the strings of data and fooling people into thinking they are getting something scientific.
Now, you might think that I am down on martial arts because of what I have said. The opposite is the real truth, however–I am so in love with the martial arts it is unbelievable. I dont, however, believe in learning through antiquated methods.
What I do is take the mysticism of the martial arts, utilize logic to line it all up, and learn ten times faster than the next guy. This method, a vastly different than any method you have ever seen, is called Matrixing. Matrixing is an actual scientific method–it is not the latest fake-scientific-wordage (cyber cranial digitation, neural brain synapses, and that sort of made up so on) that internet marketers use to sell their gimmicks.
The inquiry I often get is how does it work. Consider: if you had 4, 5, 3, 8 and a shaved donkey, you wouldnt know how to count. If you had 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on through all of your digits…you would know how to count.
What I do is align the martial concepts in the correct sequence, so there are no missing numbers, no out of order numbers, and no ridiculous concepts tossed in. When people learn the martial arts in this fashion it is possible to learn, as I said, as much as 10 times faster. Of course it all depends on the person learning, and whether they have a basic education, and etc.
The above all being said, it was not an easy thing to figure Matrixing out. In fact, it took me over 30 years, as there was no precedent for what I was doing. The job is completed, however, and martial artists the world over need no longer be trapped by–the slowest method of learning in existence.
Here’s a great article on a more brutal form of martial arts training using…a Tiger!
Been into time lately, realized it ran backwards three decades ago, figured out what it meant the other day.
Martial Arts Timing means seeing what he is going to do before he does it…
People who study history are reading what is written by the conqueror. They are getting what the historians feel like blabbin’ about. They are contributing to history by going forward.
When you study the martial arts, however, you are trying to go backwards to the original concepts, find out where the art came from, what part of your soul it tweaks.
Lose your reaction time. Stop thinking. Be.
Easy, eh? Well, it is so easy it is hard. Haven’t seen any schools of martial arts that address this, or try to do it, except in the most by the way method, or through passed down stuff they don’t understand and so can’t really apply.
I, however, obsess on it. To lose your reaction time, to lose your mind, to exist in the now, that is what it is all about.
Well, come visit me at Monster Martial Arts. That’s where my stuff is, and I have a truck load of articles on the Martial Arts. Heck, maybe you’ll lose your reaction time.
Happy work out!
That’s not dangerous,
that’s probably the best blessing in the world.
An actual time when you can dedicate yourself
to making the body strong, the mind quick and sharp,
and the pure enhancement of you,
and NOBODY can get in your way
All of which leads us to the most dangerous words in the universe.,
and what you can do to defeat them.
A man guilty of these two words is in an eternal box of limited potential.
Before I tell you what these dangerous words are,
and what you can do to undo them,
let me ask you a question.
Would you like to do one thing for the rest of your life?
Maybe build outhouses.
Let’s say you discovered that you’re a fair carpenter,
and that you build outhouses that are far better
than the outhouses built by anyone in the world.
You become famous for building outhouses,
and the government discovers that you are a natural treasure,
so they pass a law dictating that you will be
the sole and only national outhouse builder.
And they even give you lots of money for doing this.
So you go to work,
and,
at first you are happy.
Such luxurious outhouses.
Brass rails and furry seats,
endless supplies of the softest paper.
Believe me,
you are making a world happy.
And it’s good…for the first few years.
Then,
you wish you could do something else.
I mean,
as good as your outhouses are,
it’s all you do,
and it’s getting boring.
Polish the handrails,
glue the velvet on the seat,
put the paper on the roll.
Man,
maybe you’re the best,
but it feels like you could train a chimp to do it.
But,
there’s that darned law,
people expect you to make outhouses,
and the money is so good…
so you keep going.
A few more years pass,
and you are going out of your mind!
Same old same old
dat after day,
the goldurn railing,
the Frigging velvet glued down,
you even hate gluing the half moon to the door!
So you try to quit,
but nobody will give you a job because,
darn it,
you’re the supplier of America’s bottoms!
People wouldn’t be able to,
uh,
do their business…
without you!
You are more important than a national treasure!
You are the sole industry and you are the only one who is allowed to do it it and…
and you start buying drugs to escape the pain of the same old same old.
but you can’t escape,
you are doomed to building outhouses until the day you die,
which can happen none too soon,
if it was up to you.
but it can’t happen because of Obamacare,
you are taken care of,
not allowed to die,
doomed to polish handrails and glue velvet,
and,
hate to say it,
but congress is considering another bill,
they are considering making you the sole outhouse builder of the nation
next lifetime.
That’s right,
reincarnation.
Karma…
ain’t it a be-yotch?
Now,
pay attention here,
because I will tell you how to undo the effects
of the most dangerous words in the universe
in just a few sentences…
don’t just break the mouse and smash the computer because of these words,
but the two most dangerous words in the whole, entire universe are…
normalcy bias.
Normalcy bias is when you are happy that everything is normal.
The reason these words are so dangerous is because,
in the extreme,
you will be doomed to be the world’s best outhouse builder.
in the un-extreme,
these words are dangerous because
they make you content to just wallow your way through life.
Imagine being happy with minimum wage…
that’s normalcy bias.
Imagine being happy with a wife that cheats…
that’s normalcy bias.
Imagine being happy with a child that is a bone brain
who burns cats for fun…
that’s normalcy bias.
Now,
I know it all seems sort of…funny,
maybe quaint,
and maybe you’re not all that alarmed,
that’s normalcy bias.
But I’m not going to tell you the really scary thing about it
until I tell you what to do about it.
I want you to finish this page
before you go cry and hide in a corner.
It is very neutronic to say…
there are only three directions in this universe.
There is towards, away from, or with.
That’s it.
Every other direction in this universe
is just a shade of those three things.
A car is careening towards you,
you can run away from it,
you can run towards it,
or you can figure out how to hop on and take a ride.
If you choose any angle that is going away,
that is still away.
If you choose any angle that goes towards,
that is still towards.
If you can get the driver to slow down
so you can get in the door,
or hop on the hood,
or whatever,
that is with.
And this applies to a fist.
Let’s say somebody tries to hit you.
You can run away from him,
you could tackle him,
or you could guide his fist harmlessly past.
An aikido master has mastered this concept of going with.
But the master of ANY martial art (but not sport like MMA)
has mastered this.
Simply,
he has mastered the motions of the universe
so that he can do what he wants with them.
He is not the victim of a fist that smashes into his face,
he is the receiver of a blessing
that he can manipulate to his own enjoyment and satisfaction.
Joe Blow,
not knowing any martial arts,
is an accident waiting to happen.
When the fist flies,
he is going to eat knuckles.
Simply,
he is going to wallow around,
and has no knowledge
of how make the fist work for him.
How to slip it like in Pa Kua
or guide it in wing chun,
or absorb it in Tai Chi,
or harmonize with it in aikido.
Joe’s older brother,
Rollo,
has been studying karate for ten years,
so he can block and strike.
Their father,
Louis,
is matrixing,
so when the mugger flies out of the alley
with a knife in one hand and a club in the other,
screaming dirty words and exposing himself,
which of these three people is going to die because of normalcy bias?
Joe is dead meat.
He was so lame that he didn’t study anything.
He was happy to be a doofus,
going through life without working at anything.
This is the worst case of Normalcy Bias.
Rollo has a chance,
but not much of one.
After all,
the mugger is high on drugs and can’t feel anything,
and he is insane,
and even if Rollo manages to block,
his decisions are limited,
he only has a couple of choices,
and they are based on going towards.
You see,
he had normalcy bias, too.
He was happy to study one art for ten years,
not speeding up,
not looking into other potentials of motion.
Pap Louis will survive because he didn’t have normalcy bias.
He wasn’t satisfied with not knowing the martial arts,
and he didn’t limit himself to one martial art,
but he dedicated his life to learning ALL martial arts.
So the moral is this:
people who don’t accept normal as the rule
will live to fight another day.
Think about it like this:
you are the first person in America,
and you need to walk across the country.
You reach the first river,
and you are stopped.
But the guy who spent his life not just walking,
but learning to swim and climb and jump and…
he’s the one who’s going to make it across the country.
And if you are satisfied with one little corner of the country,
of living in one neighborhood,
and knowing only fifty or sixty people during your lifetime,
than…you go it…NB.
Normalcy Bias.
So go to Monster,
pick the course you don’t know anything about,
and get out of Normalcy Bias.
See to your survival
for ALL potentials of motion.
Not just the one dictated to
by one martial art,
or two.
Here’s the URL…
http://monstermartialarts.com
Al
Decided to make a separate newsletter for Monkeyland.
To sign up simply go to the ChurchofMartialArts.com
and subscribe at the top of the right sidebar.
Is it better to feel up or down?
up, right?
And a work out causes you to go up,
to feel better,
so,
I repeat…
a GREAT workout to you!
Now,
the big news is Monkeyland.
I’ll talk about it in a minute,
but first,
I wanted to share a thought
on what happens to your mind when you matrix.
First,
there is relief.
All the jumbled up techniques suddenly fit together.
You can see the blank spaces, where techniques were missing,
you stop hesitating and intuition starts to kick in.
Simply,
the techniques you have been memorizing suddenly make sense,
and become accessible without thought.
This thing of doing without thinking is incredibly interesting.
A baseball player takes off at the crack of the bat.
He’s all the way out in centerfield,
how did he know how to run at the crack of the bat?
He hasn’t had time to study the trajectory of the ball,
yet…he knows where the ball is going.
That is a zen moment.
That is a moment of intuition.
And the question here,
really,
is how do we make our entire lives into a zen moment?
Why do we have to leave the zen moment and return
to the old knock on wood world?
Why do we have to go back to thinking?
This is the purpose of the martial arts,
this is what they are all about,
to take us out of the reaction time, apple falls on head world,
and to put us in a zen universe,
a world where our every action is instant and intuitive.
Now,
as I said,
when you matrix the martial arts you feel relief,
the more martial arts you know,
the greater the feeling of relief,
but the real cool stuff starts happening when your mind starts getting silent.
After you matrix your mind will relax and you will start to experience mental silence.
When you walk down the street
your mind is usually filled with junk.
Thoughts about what you’re going to do,
does he or she like me,
contemplations on work,
and all sorts of other things.
Simply,
you are thinking ALL the time.
The mind just won’t stop…
it just won’t shut up.
After you matrix you feel relief,
but something else has started,
your mind has started to calm down.
It is talking because it is confused,
is one way to look at it.
But,
any way you look at it,
calmed down,
the mind starts to go neutronic.
It starts to shut up,
and you start to look at the world
without having all this thinking crap going on in your mind.
It is a blessed silence.
So here are some things to think about
to help you come to grips with this silence,
and to make it happen quicker.
Mind you,
the things I say will work for martial arts that are not matrixed,
but they will take twenty or thirty years to happen.
With matrixed minds,
everything happens faster.
Logic always works faster.
First,
have you ever engrossed yourself in a good book?
You put it down and suddenly wonder where the time went.
Your mind wasn’t thinking,
because it was busy generating a world
out of the words you read.
when you do a form,
you want to get that feeling,
of investing yourself in the form,
of creating emotion and movement so intently,
that you stop thinking.
Simply,
you are so busy concentrating on one thing,
that you forget about the world.
Try standing and holding your arm out
with the index finger raised.
Stare at that finger.
Every time your thoughts start to wander,
every time you lose focus and start to think,
examine the finger.
Look at the sworls, the curves, the nail…
examine it,
lose yourself in examining your finger.
The point here is simply to learn how to focus your attention
so that your mind doesn’t generate a bunch of crap.
This is a simple exercise in how to remain focused and attentive,
but on what you want…
not on what your mind wants.
Guaranteed,
after a while you will experience the blessed silence.
You will be face to face with the world,
with no bushwah thoughts getting between you and the world.
It is a very special place,
it is a very zen place.
And it will happen faster if you matrix.
Here’s the first course…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/
You do Matrix Karate,
you learn Karate if you don’t know it,
or you finally understand Karate if you have already been studying it.
Now,
take whatever art you wish,
plug it into the matrix.
Take the high block in your rare and esoteric system of Golden Fu,
put it where the Matrix high block is.
Do the same for all the blocks.
Put your blocks into the Matrix forms, high for high, low for low, and so on.
Do the Matrix of blocks,
plugging your blocks into the thing.
Zingo bingo,
your art is matrixed.
You still have a complete classic art of your own,
but it suddenly becomes understandable.
Techniques that were hidden pop out at you.
Gaps in training routines become visible,
and you can fix them!
And your mind will start to become silence,
and you will finally see the world
that the chattering of your mind
has stopped you from seeing.
Oinkey donkey,
Monkeyland.
I’ve got a complete list of things to research…
garden boxes,
how to keep animals out of the garden boxes,
morphing them into green houses,
green houses into meditation rooms.
Interesting stuff,
with an overall aesthetic to it all.
A plan.
And, the thing I’m working on this week…how much is chicken feed?
How do I generate food for chickens without paying out money?
Because everything has to eventually be self sufficient.
Everything has to go natural as soon as possible.
And,
I’ll be honest,
I’ve never done anything like this before,
so I am confused and dazed and…quite enthralled.
But,
the real plans are in the martial arts programs.
I’m figuring out plans for seekers (postulants), novices (novitiates), monks, and so on.
How much art do I give for each level,
how do I tie it in with neutronics, and so on.
And,
Monster has to stay afloat,
because there are going to be people who are more interested in martial arts
and don’t want any religious bushwah infringing upon them.
I understand and empathize.
They are the recruits from which I will draw
after they have had some matrixing,
and have realized that they can make the world into a zen universe.
So in addition to terracing the hilltops,
making work out places for every art,
I think about things like libraries,
and living quarters,
and everything.
And I am really concerned about making a curriculum
that really works.
Now,
that said,
as you might expect,
price of courses will be rising.
Heck,
you all know I’ve been too low for too long,
and I’ve got a temple to build,
unless,
of course,
some happy millionaire out there
wants to donate a million bucks.
That would certainly help out.
Anyway,
you’ve got about a week,
then I’ve got to raise the prices,
so take advantage while you can.
And you might consider starting with Matrix Karate.
It’ll be the first course for Postulants (seekers),
and people will be expected to know it before they even get invited to Monkeyland.
Here’s that URL again…
Now,
I’ve spoken enough,
got to get to work,
got to make this thing happen.
And I thank everyone who sent in their well wishings and congrats to me.
I appreciate all of your thoughts
and will try to live up to them.
Thanks,
and have a great work out!
I came across these statistics about being in a real fight the other day, and they are pretty interesting.
First, 80% of all real fights had a clear winner. This is interesting because it means that four out of five real fights were taken to the point where one person was incapacitated. This means that people should be studying martial arts which are effective. Tournaments are fine, and one has to learn how to do kumite, but one also has to understand how real a confrontation can get.
Karate may be the correct answer to this type of attack!
10% were broken up and 5% were outright draws. This means that once a real fight starts, it’s not likely that somebody is going to come and save you.
Second, 10% ended up on the ground. Well, there goes the big hype for MMA and Jujitsu and the argument that combatants are likely to end up on the ground. This means that one would be better served by learning a stand up martial art like Karate or Kung Fu.
10% of real fighting started with a punch. But that means that 90% started with…a push? A weapon? something else? But not a kick, as we will see below. Again, the need for combat oriented karate or something that is specific to punching distance, yet adaptable to other types of attacks.
80% of first punches were with the right hand. And, follow this statistic up with the fact that 95% of the right hand punches were to the head. So you have to prepare for a right punch to the face.
And, finally, only 10% of the fights had a kick in them. This statistic deals out Taekwondo.
Now, I have made a few remarks about the statistics here, and I should probably offer some sort of explanation so that there is no misunderstanding. So here’s the conclusion:
A fight can start with anything, but they don’t usually go to the ground, and they don’t contain much in the way of kicks. Thus, you need some knowledge of grappling and kicking, but not a lot. There is grappling and kicking in Karate, but not to the exclusion of other distances or ranges.
These are the statistics of a real fight, not the rare atmosphere of the cage, or a tournament, or any other organized sort of match, and since the average person will get in three fights in his life, it behooves Joe Average to start a study of Karate. I say Karate because it deals with kicks, does have some ground work, but is heavy on fists and blocking punches. Makes it perfect for a street altercation.
Probably the fastest and most efficient way to become competent enough to survive real fighting, be it on the street or anywhere, is at Learn Karate Online. You can get some Free Karate Lessons starting here.
Great Day in Paradise!
Monkeyland may be as little as two weeks away.
Man,
that’s worth a dozen work outs!
So here is the URL so you can take a look at this gem in the wilderness.
http://churchofmartialarts.com/the-church/
Give the page time to load,
there’s a couple of large pictures.
And make sure you hit the FB LIKE button at the top of the page!
The Church of Martial Arts!
Now,
let’s talk about Monkeyland.
Let’s talk about how it got started,
how it developed,
and how it is going to progress.
First, I wrote a book,
and it is called Monkeyland,
and the tagline is…
‘Another word for Freedom!’
It is a story of war and corruption and disaster and man’s inhumanity to man.
Yet,
after five books,
there is a sublime message,
one that forgives the thought of war
if we can only understand ourselves,
transform ourselves…
mankind has hope.
And,
I kept working out,
developing matrixing,
nibbling into Neutronics,
and I started thinking about a real Monkeyland.
A place where people were free to be themselves,
without the regulations and intrusions of government,
without the interference and distractions of evil people.
A place where the martial arts could flourish,
and people could experience what the true martial art was like.
A place where people could be free.
And I used to sit and wonder,
How the heck was I supposed to pull this off?
How could I make this happen?
And I mentioned Monkeyland in the newsletter.
Frank was one of the first people I ever taught matrixing to.
Back about 1984 we locked ourselves in the dojo
and worked out until he was a black belt.
Frank read the newsletter,
and he had his own bad case of good dreams.
He wanted a place where, among other things,
he could escape the grind of a society going bad,
where GMO could be defeated,
where solid stock, animal and human both,
could be raised.
And our dreams were going in the same direction.
It took a couple of years, some very intense negotiating,
a bunch of hoops to jump through,
but within a couple of weeks we will be on the land.
Monkeyland.
A ranch free from the contaminations of society.
A Church where people can be encouraged to plumb their depths,
find the true art that is within themselves,
is their inherent nature,
just waiting to come to the surface.
Of course,
there is going to be an immense amount of work,
but,
we are in the right time,
and the right place.
Did you know that people actually love to work?
The country only gets depressed when people aren’t working.
Did you know that people love to solve problems?
With a government telling them no,
with a society of political correctness,
where you have to ask permission to pee in ocean,
people are miserable.
But set them free,
tell them to build something,
tell them that nobody is going to stop them,
and you have paradise each and every single day.
Did you know that some people love the martial arts?
Yes, it’s true,
the brighter and more industrious members of mankind all LOVE the martial arts.
What better gift to the best on earth
than to give them a place where they can let loose their talents,
change the path of mankind,
elevate ALL martial arts!
So,
more to come,
I’ll probably have to set aside a separate section of the newsletter
just to deal with the happenings at Monkeyland.
But,
remember this…
if you are a true martial artist,
if you want to find the truth of yourself,
and if you are willing to work your fingers to the bone,
then you have a bed up here.
Within the month I should have some sort of plans started
to enable visits and instruction and even some possible live in arrangements.
But,
let me say this right now,
study your matrixing.
When you come to visit,
the first thing we’ll do is check out your matrixing.
If you can do your Matrix Karate,
right out of the box,
then we won’t have to spend time teaching you things you should already know,
and we can get right into the deeper teachings.
So here’s the URL for Matrix Karate…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/
And in a future newsletter
I’ll lay out the complete sequence of study.
But for now,
remember,
it all starts with Matrixing.
Matrixing led me to Monkeyland,
and it’s going to bring you here, too.
Now,
thanks to all,
and special thanks to Frank,
and I’ll be talking to you later.
Have a great work out!
I recently came across the most interesting discussion concerning Martial Arts testing for belts. It was interesting because it was well thought out, concerned, and because I disagreed with most of what was said.
Sometimes I will make a comment, but in this case I am prompted to tell the truth about Martial Arts testing. What makes this particularly juicy is that the people involved in this discussion were nibbling at the edges of what I did a lo-o-ong time ago, and which is more in keeping with the true spirit of the martial arts.
Is Karate the answer to this type of attack?
Originally there were no belts, which doesn’t mean there were no ranks.
Gichin Funakoshi introduced belts which, I believe, came from the a method used by swimming teams.
The first two belt ranks were white and black. This expanded to white, green, brown and black.
Some fifty years ago ranks and belts exploded. Ed Parker and Kenpo Karate led the way with a rainbow of colors. Taekwondo expanded the colors even further.
Now, this is the way it happened, but, there is an incredibly valuable piece of data missing.
I began studies with Kenpo, and was introduced to the belt system, and found it valuable in encouraging people to study.
Isn’t it interesting that people have to be encouraged to study?
But, when I went to the Kang Duk Won, I wasn’t encouraged to study. We had four basic belts, white, green, brown and black, further delineated by stripes, and nobody much cared.
Simply, people who cared about flashy belts left the school, and only the faithful, the ones who didn’t need to be encouraged to study, were left.
Nowadays people treat the martial arts like a business, structure everything around sales and promotion, and the belt is held up as the goal.
Fact: the belt means nothing.
Fact: knowledge means everything.
But these two facts seem to have become twisted, and the belt means everything, and knowledge means nothing.
I didn’t understand my Kang Duk Won instructors thoughts concerning belts, and I didn’t care. I was one of the faithful. I worked out till I bled, and there was no middle ground. There was no entertainment, and freestyle while recognized as a game, was treated like life or death.
Not to beat somebody else up, but to hone your own skills.
Interestingly, this type of freestyle brought one to mushin no shin (mind of no mind), which is an intuitive method, and it was a science, and it was TOTALLY combat effective. When people say their art is not combative effective, or not useful on the street, I know they didn’t study the real art, but rather an art that entertains children.
When I became an instructor I awarded rank according to forms and techniques learned.
As I progressed I realized the inadequacy of that, and I stopped giving out belts. For years I gave no martial arts tests, simply gave a person a black belt when he had the knowledge.
This thing of knowledge is quite interesting.
The number of forms learned, of techniques done, has no relationship to martial arts knowledge.
And I could ascertain the depth of knowledge a person had by simply looking at him.
Just to mention a couple of the actual criteria:
how deeply does a person ‘screw’ himself into the ground when doing his forms and techniques.
Or, what level of intuition has the student progressed to.
And there are other criteria, all coming from the removal of the student from his body.
I know, sounds crazy, but the awareness that is a human being becomes removed from his body through the method of doing the martial arts forms and techniques correctly.
Emphasis on ‘correctly,’ as it requires an experience of physics beyond the normal ‘fist in the face’ ‘apple falls on the head’ physics. This is an entirely different set of physics which I have seen only a few dozen people demonstrate, and none of whom actually understood.
Now, fees. I charge little, if at all. The rationale here is: how can I charge somebody for what he already knows? What he already paid for, and not just in money, but in sweat and blood?
Yet I had one fellow come to me and said he was required to pay $800, plus plane fare to Japan, plus lodgings and meals and all, to take a martial arts test.
For what?
Three old guys would sit behind a table and watch him demonstrate for an hour, then pass or fail with NO comment on why he was passing or failing!
Obviously, these guys loved themselves…and wanted his money. And they called themselves masters.
Anyway, as time went on I got back into giving not belts, but checklists, and then I would just work people to the bone, making sure they screwed themselves into the ground during form and technique, that they reached intuitive levels of freestyle, and other things.
And, eventually, I made these checklists public, selling them as courses, and here an interesting thing happened. Knowledge became able to be transcribed on paper.
Yes, the student still has to work, and those students in it for the entertainment or the belt and so on will have problems.
But a student who actually reads the courses, does the courses, gets the knowledge.
And they usually stop needing to be entertained and become the faithful.
This became an immense and tremendous boon to ANYBODY who possesses these courses.
It eliminated guesswork. It gave workable knowledge.
It enabled the true art to be passed on even if the instructor didn’t have all the knowledge, as it passed on the knowledge to all involved.
Then I come across discussions on how to test.
Man, there are hundreds of theories out there, but all passed on being able to monkey see monkey do a form, and none having to do with the perception of knowledge, of how to actually increase the students awareness.
So I say this: stop entertaining. Get brutal. Search for knowledge and not belts. Award rank for knowledge and not memorized skits.
This is the only way to the true art, and it is the way martial arts testing should be.
Here is a page that will tell you how to find out your true rank without Martial Arts testing.
Go to the Testimonials in the menu and do a search for your martial art!
Hi Sensei Al!
(On the Black Belt Course) Everything is working great! Thank you for the quick responses. I am enjoying the one on one videos. It may be cliche, but I do feel like I'm there. I also like the conversational style and the way you explain how you're teaching and why. You've got a new student for life. Thank you. ~ Daniel
What's interesting about Al Case's writings and teachings is there isn't any emphasis on 'the unknown' or 'mystery' behind martial arts. Al will slam this information in your face! Quite frankly the data isn't hidden, you'll find you're blind. ~ WG
Al Case is a powerful presence to be around, but if you can confront it, then you will not be sorry, for there is no one like him, and it is an extreme privilege and honor.
I used to read your articles in Inside Karate and was excited when I found your web site. ~ RV
As an old timer with thirty-five years of experience I was really bored, but your works have peaked my interest and shown me that there is much more to learn. I Thank You Again, Sincerely ~ CC
Where was this information 24 years ago? This course is one of the best things to ever happen to me. Thank you Al Case for the gift of knowledge!
Be blessed my teacher, ~ Rev. Ernest R
I bought the Infinite Fist tape YEARS ago and you know? I Keep going back to it! ~ KS
You are a master. You have opened me up to things that I have never thought of before. ~ KFM
I purchased your course on "Create Your Own Martial Art" and absolutely love it. I believe that your matrixing system is very unique. ~ DW
In my entire experience twenty years as a student and an instructor since, no one has contributed more to my martial arts education than you have. I started following your works twenty years ago and although I was young then I knew you had the True Art it was obvious to me even then. ~ Charles C
Students will know longer be slaves of poor instructors and practitioners. ~ Lonnie M
Win from Master Instructor Course
Let me start out by saying thank you. Thanks from all the martial artists who asked why. Al, I'm in the Security and Law enforcement field and carry Instructor credentials, so effective methods in combat and teaching them is what I constantly look for.
Win from Matrix Aikido
I just had to write to you to say WOW. Your INSTANT AIKIDO is great!!! ~ SD
My students have started coming up to me after class telling me how much more they are enjoying it, and that the classes have stopped being so ridged and now flow in a kind of give and take between me and them. I have stopped being a task master and started having fun and letting them teach me as well.
I did the Master Instructor Course and it hit me. The Basics that are so concisely communicated in this course including the Matrix principle IS the solution. It doesn’t matter what “style” I call my art, because all styles follow these same principles. It doesn’t matter how hard I train or how many repetitions I do if I don’t train the right way. And I would never become a master if I didn’t know how it all fits together. Now I do! I can honestly say that I am now on the path that I have always sought as a martial artist. Thank you Al!
I conducted a Matrix Aikido training class for a Security Team at a local manufacturing plant. I tailored the training according to their Use Of Force policy. As you know they need control and takedown skills. I knew Matrix Aikido would be the answer. The training plan you shared was boss. The class went so smoothly. The participants learned very quickly. By the end of the class you could see techniques of Monkey Boxing coming through. They were also able to create their own techniques. There was one female officer in the class who asked to become my private student. She was throwing, locking and taking down guys twice her size. The Security Supervisor wants me to come back and with more participants! I'll keep you posted. ~ L M
Have found your books and dvds excellent. My background is mainly in medical qigong but I practice Sun Style Tai CHi, BaGua and HsingI as well as Eagle Claw, Snake Style Kung Fu and several Wudang weapon styles. This is the first time I have had the underlying principles so clearly explained and in a way that they are immediately workable and demonstratable. I have worked through the Master Instructors Course, Aikido and Butterfly Bagua and have started to breakdown the Sun Hsing I using your matrix method. I was even able to teach a 70 year old friend of mine with no martial arts background your instant aikido where she was able to do some very accomplished locks and throws after the first lesson
Search the testimonials for your martial art!
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Free Martial Arts Books
HERE'S SOME FREE MARTIAL ARTS BOOKS, MY THANKS FOR DROPPING BY.
Includes books on Bruce Lee, the Truth About Matrixing, the first Martial Arts book sold in America (It's a real hoot!), and much more!
