Yeah, baby.
Set your work out up,
do it every day,
see if you can learn a whole art in one summer.
That’s the game!
And,
I came across a VERY interesting fact the other day.
And I could kick myself for not having the link for you.
But the essence of the article was this:
If you turn your wrist when punching you break bones in your hand.
If you keep the punch stable,
for instance use a vertical punch,
the bones don’t break in the hands.
Now this guy had done a job of research,
went back through boxing and martial arts
and really backed the idea up.
About twenty or thirty years ago
I made the point with my students,
practice the twisting punch to learn to snap,
then forget it,
don’t do it again,
go to a vertical punch
and use the snapping closure of the hand for your snap.
The reason i said this wasn’t because I noticed broken hands,
it was because logically speaking
if you twist the hand on impact it is unstable
and weight can’t be properly transmitted it.
There are a few twisting punches,
but they are really rare and mystical.
And I hold that mysticism can be cured by understanding the basics.
Just saying.
So,
that’s my two cents for the week.
And,
the book is getting closer,
It’s getting edited,
about 3/4s done,
and I’m really glad I decided to get edited.
I’m learning a lot,
and the book is going to be a LOT cleaner when it is done.
I’m not much into hitting pressure points.
Oh,
they work,
but the skill required,
and the time required to master,
better spent perfecting your punch,
the angles of your form,
etc.
But,
there are certain angles which I pursue.
Passing a punch can I put a finger
on a fellow’s shoulder and take him down?
Can I body bump somebody so they fly away?
And,
one of my favorites,
the pubic punch.
You block,
then you place your fist on his waist
POINTING DOWNWARD…
and you push down.
His legs collapse,
just like they have no muscle at all,
and he falls all the way to the ground.
If you examine this move,
it’s almost like a low block,
which tells people that a block
can be a hell of a lot more than a block.
Now
A BIG AND HUGE WARNING.
Be careful.
Don’t punch,
don’t cause impact.
The top of the leg is a small bone
that fits into the hip ‘socket.’
If you break this,
we are talking BIG surgery
and 6 months before any walking.
So you don’t punch down,
you gently push down.
Unless,
of course,
you really want the guy’s lunch money.
I can actually use this in freestyle.
I’ve have used it.
Very difficult,
requires exact positioning,
and you have to know what the guy is going to do
before you do it.
And,
I call this
‘THE PUBIC PUNCH.’
But,
the good thing,
once you have this technique down
the skill required offers itself to other techniques.
Anyway,
try it,
let me know if it works for you.
And let me toss the obligatory ad in here.
There are a lot of cool things like this
in Tai Chi Chuan.
Tell the truth,
I ransacked TCC for techniques
to use in Karate.
Quite interesting,
very beneficial.
So,
here’s the course that shows
all sorts of subtle moves
that will really work in freestyle.
Five Army Tai Chi Chuan
Now…
have yourself a great work out!
Al
And don’t forget to check out the interview
BTW
I’m always pushing my novels,
did you know I write other stuff?
If you want to know the truth about government,
you will find some startling matrixing going on in
Most people don’t understand how easy the martial arts are.
Take, for instance, a good karate punch.
It will generate more power than any other punch in the world.
And takes less energy.
Don’t believe me?
I was watching a fellow punch the bag the other day.
The guy was maybe 25,
much experience in boxing and other arts.
The bag jumped and bent a little,
and that was it.
I stepped up to the bag.
I’m old…71.
I put my fingers to the bag,
then,
without retracting the arm,
I closed my fingers and thrust my arm out.
Freakin’ bag went to the roof.
You could feel it say ‘OW!’
So why was my ‘old’ punch stronger than some young turks?
Because I used less energy.
What is energy?
Go ahead,
give it your best shot.
Nope,
it’s not that.
Energy is the capacity for work.
Go on,
look in the dictionary.
That is the physics definition.
Physics,
if you don’t know it,
is the stuff we made up
to measure the universe.
So how do you measure work?
Here’s where it gets tricky.
You can measure work with…
watts, ohms, pounds, gallons per minute,
and so on and so on.
How you measure work depends
on what you are measuring.
So how do you measure work in the martial arts?
Here’s what nobody knows,
and why punches are so spectacularly lacking in horsepower.
You measure work by weight.
When that young Turk was punching the bag he was punching with his arm.
Twenty pounds of weight.
When I punched the bag
I moved my 71 year old body into it…
200 pounds of weight.
20 pounds versus 200 pounds.
I was literally punching ten times as hard as he was.
And,
I’ll tell you this,
it was easier for me to move my 200 pounds an inch or two
than it was for him to try to punch as hard as me
using his 20 pound arm.
Now,
I’ve given you all the clues,
how you going to put them together?
How are you going to make your body work ten times easier
than some guy nearly 50 years younger than you?
Well,
I’ll tell you,
it took me a while.
Fortunately,
I wrote it all down.
The totally scientific martial art
that opens eyes everywhere
and makes all martial arts quick and simple to learn.
But I’d be careful before I go there.
Sometimes it hurts to learn something,
you have to give up what you thought you knew.
Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The first time I ever actually hit someone I was shocked.
I had trained for 20 years, and I actually had no idea
what it was like to hit somebody for real.
Then I had to,
and it totally changed me.
The most important Martial Arts book ever written.
Here’s the deal:
to understand what I am about to say
you have to understand one thing:
what is a punch?
People say it is how hard you hit somebody,
they say all sorts of things,
but I haven’t heard anybody tell me the one thing
that I experienced on the day
I actually had to hit somebody.
Go on,
google it,
see if you can find out the truth
of what it is like to hit somebody.
I’ll wait…
.
.
.
.
.
Okay,
you’re back,
here’s the truth of a punch.
A punch depends on the transference of weight
from one body to the next.
It’s not how hard you hit.
It’s not how fast,
or anything else like that.
It’s how much weight you deliver.
Now,
those other things can enter the equation.
But,
the truth is…
how much weight can you put on the sucker’s body?
Can you put so much weight the other guy’s body breaks?
Can you control the weight so it is a push and not a punch?
Are you stuck in push,
instead of punch?
Does air punching really work?
Interesting questions,
especially once you have tried to do a real punch.
When I struck this fellow
I felt weight go through my wrists.
Because I was grounded he flew back,
went over a bed and hit the wall.
Thank God for grounding.
Thank God I had practiced aligning my bones,
because if I hadn’t I might have broken my wrist,
I might have flown away from that guy from my own punch!
I just didn’t understand.
BUT,
that one punch,
and I understood.
So,
try this special exercise.
We used to do it back in the sixties,
had no clue what it meant,
and it wasn’t until I actually had to hit somebody
that I understood what the drill was for.
Assume the push up position.
Go from the hands to the fists.
Just a little push,
like you’re going to clap your hands,
but then land on your fists.
Palms,
fists,
palms,
fists.
Don’t do too many at first.
Build up a little.
Do it from a knees down push up at first,
if you have to.
What happens here is that you get
the sudden shock of weight
going through your fists and wrists,
and that is what it is like to hit somebody.
A sudden shock of weight in the wrists…
and through the rest of the body.
You ground,
you root your stances,
so that you are braced upon the earth,
and he will fly away,
and not you.
You have a straight bone line in your wrists
so you can absorb the weight.
The actual weight here is going to depend on who weighs the most.
If he weighs more,
you will fly back.
But,
even if you weigh less,
if you ground,
if you are braced upon planet earth,
then he will fly away.
Or,
if you punch with speed and snap,
the impact will ripple through his body
(imagine slapping a pond of water with your hand)
and cause great damage.
Here’s a matrix Karate Kick
Try that,
adapt it to other parts of your practice,
and let me know what happens.
And,
got something else to talk about here…
new book coming out.
This one,
the working title is
‘Tiger and Butterfly’
is a condensation,
a blend,
of Matrix Karate and the Shaolin Butterfly.
The story behind it is interesting.
I walked into a martial arts school,
asked the guy if I could help,
and he said yes.
The school is pretty good.
Probably real good,
but they were teaching martial arts without forms,
specializing in freestyle.
The freestyle was,
depending on which class was taught,
points, MMA, or Jujitsu.
Quite interesting.
So I started helping,
and eventually came up with an interesting idea:
how to teach with fewer, smaller forms.
I used the shorter Butterfly forms,
and the Houses from Matrix Karate.
So far,
it is REALLY working.
Mind you,
I always advise the complete art,
in this case the complete Matrix Karate,
or the complete Shaolin Butterfly,
but considering that the school was established,
considering that I didn’t want to change things,
just enhance them,
you can understand what I was doing.
Anyway,
the book should be out in the next week or so.
Tiger and Butterfly.
Keep your eye out for it,
and,
in the meantime,
check out this book…
It’s one of the most important books ever written.
It describes what the martial actually are,
how they are grown,
and ties together all sorts of loose ends.
It should definitely change the way
people think about the martial arts.
Newsletter 789 The Martial Arts Night Before Christmas
Man o man!
What a perfect HanaKwanMass eve!
Perfect for a work out
for all mankind.
And,
a bit of poetry
from yours truly.
But,
before I offend you with my poetry,
let me give you a thought.
Please forgive.
I ask this every year,
twice a year,
in fact.
My birthday,
and HanaKwanMass.
Specifically,
please forgive me.
If I have said your name wrong,
messed up your order,
neglected to mention you,
said something,
anything,
that offended,
please forgive.
Forgiving cleans me out,
and it cleans you out.
You lose an element of wrong thinking
by forgiving.
So forgive.
Forgive me,
or forgive somebody else.
Remember,
positive energy creates positive energy,
and negative energy creates negative energy.
So be positive,
forgive,
and make the world a better place.
Thanks.
Now,
I hope you don’t have to forgive me this,
but here’s the official Monster Martial Arts
rendition of
The Night Before Christmas.
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS!
Twas the night before Christmas
I was in my shack
primed and ready
for the red fat attack.
my weapons were loaded
the windows were barred
all would be safe
while I was on guard
The chimney was decked
with concertina wire
I crouched by the couch
ready to fire.
I had an M60
with ammo to feed
I didn’t care
if the red fat did bleed.
A loaded shotgun
and grenades to spare
when red fat came down
I’d blow him out of there.
Throwing stars and knives
and a really long sword
and if that didn’t work
I knew a bad word.
Sitting there late
my eyes started to close
when suddenly I heard
a bunch of ho hos.
Off with the lights
safety off, too
I watched the fire close
and heard a sound from the flu.
‘Ouch and gosh darn it
who put the wire here
those are my undies
starting to tear!’
Then a shower of soot
and a grunt and a groan
he landed in the fire
and gave out a moan.
He was rubbing the place
where the wire did tear
so I held down the trigger
and lead filled the air.
belt after belt
did I deal the red fat
he danced and he jumped
I knew he felt that!
then quicker than spit
I ran out of lead
but enough was enough
he had to be dead.
Boy was I shocked
to see him stand tall
stepping out of the fireplace
not bothered at all.
So I grabbed up the 16
to mow him down
he had to be hurting
cause I saw his big frown.
Then I was empty
and he came straight for me
I pulled out my knives
and sliced him with glee
He jumped to the side
moving real quick
disarmed my knives
with a well placed kick
then he dropped the big bag
he had on his shoulder
reached forth his arms
and his anger did smolder
He grabbed hard my neck
and held me up high
I tried kicks and punches
but I was like a fly
Not karate nor judo
no art did work
and he grinned a mean grin
and called me a jerk
‘Don’t you know
you stupid little man
Christmas is forever
in spite of your plan.’
Then he threw me aside
and proceeded to work
giving presents to all
and to me a great smirk
And when he left
the great big red fat
he left me a lump of coal
the big red fat rat!
HANAKWANMASS TO ALL
and to all
have a great work out.
Al
Here’s a good place to go…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/temple-karate/
Old Muscle Building Method Makes for a Super Hard Punch!
I mean that literally, you can have a hard punch in days. The old body building method is called Dynamic Tension, and it was used by the old comic book guys like Charles Atlas and Joe Weider. It is actually still sold today.
Start developing your kung fu super powers! Click on the cover!
Interestingly, Chuck Atlas made his millions in the pages of comic books. He had ads that ran for years, and he even beat the Great Depression. His most famous ad, a bully kicking sand in a lads face at the beach, actually happened to him when he was a youth, and inspired him to create his world famous method for building muscles.
I was acutely aware of the comic book ads, liking comics and being a skinny weakling when I was young. I suppose, in some way, I answered the comic book ad when I took up the study of the martial arts. And, serendipity, amongst the forms I learned was one which dealt with Mr. Atlas’ form of shaping the body.
The pattern was supposedly a variation of a Wing Chun form. I don’t recall what we called it, but I do recall the hours spent on one specific movement in the form. That one movement made my punch get stronger and stronger and stronger.
When you do the move, take a back stance and cross the wrists in front of you. Press wrist against wrist, and slowly slide the wrists past each other. Let the power build, then let the hands snap off each other and execute a punch.
It’s best to punch with the rear hand, and let the front hand come back across the chest. It is also good to simultaneously press your feet against one another in the back stance. Then, when you release the hands, you can release the stance and really cover ground.
The muscles tend to build fast, and you’ll notice an increase in strength I would say within seven days. Over time you will notice the working parts of your arms and legs are getting denser and better shaped. And, in conjunction with the thrusting forward of the whole body, you are going to have some kind of powerful strike.
Obviously, you can tailor this exercise for other body parts, other types of strikes and blocks, and your body should get in fantastic shape. I’ll tell you this, one look at your chiseled physique and nobody is going to try to kick sand in your face. And that is how an old body building method can give you a hard punch in literally days.
About the Author: Al Case began martial arts in 1967. He studied such arts as Kenpo, Karate, Wing Chun, Aikido, Norther Shaolin Kung Fu, Southern Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Ku Chang and various weapons. He became a writer for the martial arts magazines in 1981, and had his own column in Inside Karate. Check out his course on increasing Chi Power.
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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
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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
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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
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HERE'S SOME FREE MARTIAL ARTS BOOKS, MY THANKS FOR DROPPING BY.
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