Tag Archives: karate training

The Last Martial Art Book Released

Newsletter 1001
THE LAST MARTIAL ARTS BOOK

Wow!
Two Things this week.
First, a new Master Instructor
Second, a new book.
Great times, eh!?

Congrats to Master Instructor Akram Mashni
I am a little late in announcing Akram,
my apologies.
Akram is from South America,
makes it even juicier for me,
I love it when Matrixing goes world wide.
Well done Master Instructor Akram,
and thank you.
You have made the world a better Martial Arts place.

And, second,
I just published…

The Last Martial Arts Book.

This book is really a tour de force.
It really brings everything together.
And, just to let you know,
I began this book, actually,
around 50 years ago.
If you have the
Crate Your Own Art course,
the book on that course is the inspiration.
After 50 years this is what I came up with.
And, just to let you know,
before I wrote it I filmed over 200 segments
on Matrix Tai Chi Chuan
The fellows who subscribed
to the Monkey Boxing video newsletter
have seen the whole sequence,
and their reaction was quite good.
I simply matrixed Tai Chi and went through
every possible form,
did all the applications.
Took me over 200 segments,
a couple of years.
It was massive.

So,
read the full write up,
it uses matrixing to create a complete art.
The art is done Tai Chi style,
or Kung Fu style or Karate style.
It is sweet and simple.
It is taught modular fashion,
so the 9 forms/techniques fit together
and make the most logical
and scientific martial art
that has ever been created.

I really did a good thing here.

If you want it paperback the link is…

If you want the digital download…

Nine Square Diagram Boxing

I have to tell you,
I make more money on the digital,
but I recommend the paperback.
Every martial artist should have a complete library,
and that library should not be prone to computer crashes,
electromagnetic pulses,
or any other such inconvenience.

Again,
congrats to you,
Akram,
and everybody…GO GET THAT BOOK!
One of the best things I have ever done.
And don’t forget to give me five stars…it helps.

Have a great work out!

Al

Why Everybody in the World is Crazy!

Newsletter 964

Why Everybody in the World is Insane

I became aware of this in the martial arts; I studied martial arts freestyle and realized this interesting phenomena:

When people launched a fist at a partner, they always punched to where the head was, and didn’t take into account the fact that the head moves, and they should be punching to where the head would be.

If trained martial artists were caught in this trap, where did that leave the bulk of untrained ‘humanity?’

The conclusion here is that everybody in the universe, except for a few anomalous individuals, is reacting, being at effect of, or…not aware.

Not aware is a branch of crazy.

Think about it. Your mother tells you to pick up your brother at the bus stop…when he got on the bus eight hours ago. Shouldn’t you be picking him up where the bus arrives eight hours later?

Think about it: somebody is crying about an accident; Billy scraped his elbow in a fall. But the fall already happened. You should have been crying when it happened. After it happened it is too late. All you are doing now is venting emotions wastefully.

Actually, you should have been doing something about the fall when it happened, not wailing about it after the fact.

In the martial arts, if you try to handle a strike after it happens it is too late.

So everybody in the world is a split second behind. Or as good as crazy. Reacting instead of acting.

How do you avoid this conundrum?

My particular path was the martial arts. And, the specific path, ten times faster than the classical martial arts, is a matrixed martial art; a martial art made logical.

You practice a move endlessly, until you begin to see the person attacking actually thinking about what he is going to do. You move as the thought gestates, not afterwards, when the universe is, belatedly, put into motion.

In a matrixed martial art everything is arranged logically, so you don’t practice wasteful moves, unworkable moves, moves where the attacker waits for the defender to catch up to the universe.

The funny thing is that most people will refuse this path. They will take a pill, drink a lot, huddle in their crowd of friends and lie to each other about what reality is.

But you need to jump up and grab ahold of the universe. Grab a fist as it comes at you, step to the side when the sword descends, learn to exist in the ‘now.’

The alternative is to stay, happily and blissfully, insane. A moment behind, trying to catch up without even knowing you are behind.

I just wrote an article further considering the points here. It is at: The World is Crazy! You might have to be patient, it sometimes takes a couple of hours for the posting procedure to take effect.

Have a great work out!
Al

A WIN!
Hello master founder… How are you? I hope that all is well.

I’m so thankful for your knowledge and passion for the martial arts. I’ve been on this path for many years and was never able to unlock the simplicity of the arts. I’ll never look at them the same.
Again, thank you.

The create your own art course is wonderful. I’m exploring so many things its crazy. I’m now working on a crane (or some type of bird) set. So far it’s pretty nice and has the flow working. I’ve also come to love those nine square diagram. Things are taking shape lovely.

Timothy G

“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question
than a fool can learn from a wise answer.”
– Bruce Lee

The Secret of the Universe…Martial Arts Style

Newsletter 944

The Higher Martial Art

I had an interesting class the other day,
one of the students is always late,
always lazy,
and wastes his and other student’s time.
So I sat him down,
along with the whole class,
and I chewed him up a little bit.
I said,

five years from now
you’re going to have a job,
a wife,
a kid on the way,
are you going to give people a hard time then?

Blank look back at me.

Then:
Martial Arts are about control.
Fighting is part of it,
but you have to get past fighting
and learn how to control.
Life is nothing but people
and how you control them,
or how you are controlled by them.

He cocks his head quizzically.

I’m the boss here,
can you control me?

He shakes his head no.

So you won’t be able to control your boss
when you get a job.
You won’t be able to move ahead,
you won’t be able to choose what to do,
you won’t be able to work your own hours,
you won’t be able to make the money you want to make.

Now he’s blinking.
I’m starting to make sense to him.

Martial arts is about control.
If you don’t learn control here,
you may not have a chance later.
The boss in five years
doesn’t care about you learning control,
he just wants to get the job done,
and he is going to go with the people
who can best control what they do.

My voice is raised now,
and the class is staring.
There are times when I want them to think,
now is not one of those times.
Now I want them to get it.
Shut up and get it:
the world belongs to those who can control it.

I finished with:
If you’re an idiot now,
if you’re going to waste your time
by being lazy and foolish,
then you’re going to be an idiot in five years.
So I suggest you practice these forms
so you can learn to control your body.
And practice those applications,
so you can learn to control your opponent.
And practice freestyle drills and methods,
so you can control the chaos that life can be.

Now,
the student in question improved slightly.
So I will have to repeat it tomorrow,
maybe in altered form,
maybe in connection with some other dojo lesson.
And I will repeat it again and again.
Because that’s what teaching really is.

Here’s a link on how to translate chaos to control,
force to flow,
the world to your pleasure.

http://monstermartialarts.com/how-to-translate-karate-into-tai-chi-chuan/\

Have a great work out!
Al

Chiang Nan

Following is a great win that shows one thing…you aren’t going to get the answers, you are going to get the questions, the questions that lead you to understanding your own martial art. Do you have the kind of mind that can do this?

A WIN!

Al, the reason I finely decided to order these DVD’s (Five Army Tai Chi Chuan) was that after one of my classes, which I am continuing to teach at the park, I was invited by a fellow name John to learn Tai Chi with him and some of his students. I found the art to be fun, but when the class ended I inquired about the martial application and to my surprise John told me that there where none, that it was only to be used for relaxation.
Bull, I then showed him how I could turn just the few moves that I had just learned into a usable defense (only because I read the Master Instructor manual.) This got me thinking about this art and I know the best place for me to learn it was from you.
Have a great week
Stephen

Making Beginning Karate into Advanced Karate

Newsletter 943

Defeating the Linearity of Karate

I was watching videos
of people doing karate on the internet.
This included demo teams,
old masters,
and whoever,
and I was struck
by wrong they are doing karate,
by how they didn’t really know karate.

The funny thing is
karate is one of the most powerful arts I know,
yet everybody is doing it wrong.
Let me give you one example.

Watch a video on youtube,
watch a demo team for karate.
They are fast, powerful, explosive.
It is not good karate.
Why?
Because their arms and legs move back and forth
in a linear manner,
stopping and starting.
Real karate is liquid,
it does not stop and start.
At the end of every movement there is a circle,
often too small to be easily seen.
this circle avoids the stopping and starting of the muscles.
It takes effort and muscular exertion
to stop and start muscle motion.
When you have a small circle
somewhere in the end of the motion,
which leads into the beginning of the next motion,
you are doing real karate.

Now,
those who don’t understand will argue,
that is okay,
they will remember
and eventually come around.
For those of you who are frowning,
standing up and checking to see
if you have a little loop on the end of a punch or block
(both ends)
the truth is dawning.
Karate is not linear.
It is not a rigid piston effect,
it is a looping,
neverending effect.
And,
what do you get out of it?

The loop helps change one move into the next
the loop saves energy and is more efficient
it is faster
your body becomes more liquid,
more fluid,
you start to develop ‘pulsing power.’
Pulsing power is when you…
push with the legs
turn the hips
throw the punch.
Not exactly together,
but one…two…three,
so fast that the punch becomes one motion,
each action lending power and energy to the next action,
and yet becoming more and more fluid.

Now,
I read of this concept originally
while reading books on Chinese martial arts.
And,
I observed my instructor,
who was quick and whippy,
fluid like a striking snake.
And I read about a more fluid karate in Shotokai
(not shotokan)
which is supposed to be the style
funakoshi handed down his lineage to.

And I thought about it,
and developed it,
and came to realize the truth of it.
So take your time,
practice your forms,
and search for places where you can
add a loop at the end of a technique.
Maybe it is in the motion of the hand,
maybe it’s a turn of the hip,
a sink of the hip,
and flip of the shoulder.
Whatever it is,
you’re now on the path to true karate.

And,
all these guys doing wrong karate?
They are phenomenal,
not to be disrespected,
but it is a simple matter of physics
that reveal them to be expert beginners,
even master beginners,
who haven’t made the transition past beginner,
into the real thing.

When I teach karate to newbies
I usually let them work on the piston effect.
But when they are starting to remember everything,
I shift them to the looping effect.

Now,
I don’t talk about the whiplike effect much,
I instead recommend people do Matrix Karate,
but if you have matrix karate under your belt,
you could look at Temple Karate.
I do more advanced forms there,
and you can probably,
if you have a quick eye,
see how I add the teensiest of loops
to make my karate fluid.

But your eye has to be quick,
because the longer you train,
the smaller your loops become
until no one can see your loops.

Have a great work out!
Al

Matrix Karate

1a Matrix Karate

Temple Karate

3c Temple Karate

Following is a great win that shows one thing…you aren’t going to get the answers, you are going to get the questions, the questions that lead you to understanding your own martial art. Do you have the kind of mind that can do this?

A WIN!

I picked up Matrix Karate from you; and I definitely get it.  My area of study is Kajukenbo; and based on watching the Matrix Karate DVD last night, I am reasonably sure that matrixing Kajukenbo would be very straight forward.  Time consuming, yes, difficult no.  I think it would be best to break Kajukenbo into its 7 arts (Karate, Judo, Jiujitsu, Kenpo, Boxing, Kung Fu, and Escrima), and matrix each of those.  My questions are: do you think that is the right approach? Is there a particular order you think these should be taught in? Do you teach each matrix’d art to completion, then move to the next? And, how does sport karate fit in?  And finally; for the traditional forms, would those be one entire section? Or would you recommend splitting them into each sub-section of the art?

MakingYourself Over in the Martial Arts

Newsletter 910

What Does the New Year Hold for the Real Martial Artist?

Happy New Year!
And…what ya gonna do about it?
Gonna get that next belt?
Gonna study a new art?
What?

The truth is this:
we create ourselves anew each day.
So you have 365 chances to create a new you
in the coming year.

So,
here’s the plan.

First,
print out goals and tape them somewhere
you will see them every day.

Put them on the bath mirror,
the door you have to go through
to get to the world,
put them on the frig.
Put them somewhere…
AND KEEP THEM IN MIND!
Don’t let your goals fade.

Second,
back up your goals with actual action.
Set up a time and place,
set up a schedule for classes…AND MAKE ALL WORK OUTS
the most important thing
is to NOT get lazy.
Don’t let the action fade.
Wake up ten minutes early for the forms routine,
meet with the guys Tuesday and Thursday and Sat for working out.
Go to the gym,
especially your personal martial arts gym
WITHOUT FAIL!

Third,
realize that life doesn’t work unless you work.
In some ways this is the most important thing,
this simple realization.

Here’s what I did…and still do.

I set up my garage
or some area in the backyard,
as my dojo.
I set up a kicking bag,
I have a place where I can stretch.
I have enough room for forms.

Then I make a schedule and keep it.
For instance,
I would do martial arts Tuesday and Thursday,
Monday and Wednesday I would bike or run.
Friday I ate pizza.
I am not kidding.
Hard work needs a reward,
but if I missed one of my work outs…
I didn’t get pizza,
or whatever thing I had set up for my reward.
No ice cream,
no soda pop and popcorn and a movie.
I would use my wasted time,
instead,
for an extra work out.
That’d teach me!

Now,
the fun thing was setting up which martial art i wanted to study.
I liked to start with tai chi,
especially if I was feeling lazy.
Just standing in my dojo,
watching my body move,
and suddenly I started to feel more energy.

Another thing I do is change the art I study every month or two.
I liked doing karate one month,
kung fu (shaolin butterfly) the next month
Tai Chi the third month,
and then I would do it all again.
This type of rotational cross training
really helps me keep a fresh mind on it all.
It tends to get rid of plateaus
and keeps me on a steady rise
of mental acuity and physical ability.

Okay,
So…what is this year going to hold for you?

Check out the courses here
http://monstermartialarts.com
and select the arts you wish to learn this year.

Don’t stop,
don’t drop,
just come out on top!

Have a great work out and…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com

Speed Drilling in Karate

Newsletter 703
The Secret of Speed in the Martial Arts

Let’s talk about speed in the martial arts.

We used to have this exercise
back at the Kang Duk Won
it was called ‘Speed of speed.’
And,
it was brutal.
You faced your partner,
and there was only one attack:
a chop to the neck,
you turn the hand
so the flat of the hand strikes the shoulder.
What made it brutal was the times
when you collided with your partner.
Neither of you was faster,
and you both ended up hurting.

making faster karate techniques

speed kick in karate


 
Believe me,
as stupid as it sounds,
you won’t see this exercise
anywhere in the martial arts.
It just hurts too much.

Yet,
here’s the thing,
after a few months of doing this,
of suffering bone bruises to the forearms
you found that you were faster.
Some lower belt would come in
and he’d just start to twitch
and…WHAM!
you were hitting his shoulder so hard
his head near fell off!

Now,
I tried teaching that,
and people didn’t want to learn it.
Man,the groans and moans.
So I persisted,
and had small classes
of REALLY tough martial artists,
but I kept thinking about speed.

I thought about the kenpo
circularity of motion theories and drills,
but hitting somebody ten times in a second
didn’t allow one to get the body behind any of the strikes.
Hmmm.
So you have to be fast in the intuitive sense,
in the sense that Speed of Speed built up,
of seeing when somebody was starting to move,
and moving before him.
THAT was when you could get the whole body behind the strike.

So,
have you ever watched the Magnificent Seven?
The scene where Yul Brynner claps his hands?

I started out with the hands apart,
standing in a back stance,
and the partner has to close the distance
and punch the chest before the hands clap.
Worked like a charm.
Easy to do,
not so brutal,
and directly applied to increasing power through weight.

And,
there were variations I tried,
one of them,
of unusual interest,
is standing to the side with a stop watch.
Tell somebody to punch when they hear the stop watch click,
and click the stop watch a second time when the punch touches the target.
Interestingly,
times were being measured in a full second.
Yes.
That long.
No chance at all
of the punch being fast enough to work.
But what turned the trick
was to stand behind the person being punched,
and let the person watch you click the stop watch.
Man,
then they sped up,
and that was because you got rid of all reaction time,
and the puncher could see and anticipate.

But isn’t that what it is all about?
When somebody is about to punch
you don’t wait for the punch,
you look,
you examine,
you analyze,
you predict when it is coming.

Usually it starts with some kind of emotional set up,
but with the stop watch there was no emotion
and guys could get past the idea of emotion,
get past fooling each other with twitches and tells,
and directly view the factors of the strike.
People got fast real fast,
and we could tailor the strikes,
increase speed in everything
from blocks to kicks to whatever.

Now,
you can use this data,
do the exercises,
make your own exercises,
have some real fun,
and get past a lot of stuff,
and increase speed in the one area
that really matters,
putting weight behind a real strike.

And,
if you have a little extra hair on your chest,
you can always try speed of speed.
To this day
I know that that exercise,
as crude and brutal as it was,
was the one that made the real difference in me.

Okay,
if you want to increase speed
because you have perfect alignment in your body,
and perfect alignment WILL increase your speed,
then check out the Master Instructor Course.

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4-master-instructor-course/

AND,
BTW,
I’ve been fooling around
making a few sites just for grins and giggles,
so try this one…

http://combatselfdefence.wordpress.com

It’s aimed at explaining things about matrixing and neutronics,
and how they apply to the martial arts.
It’s not for everybody,
and I’m not done with it,
I’ll be working on it as time goes by,
but it’s at a point where
I thought people would appreciate it,
maybe even have some insight as to what they would like on it.
Feel free to leave comments on the site,
what you think,
any advice,
whatever.
It actually gets to me
faster than an email.

Okay,
it’s the middle of summer
so act like it!
Work out till you sweat COPIOUSLY,
and enjoy an occasional beverage.

Have a great and work out filled weekend!
I
Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4-master-instructor-course/

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog…top of the sidebar.

Was Old Time Karate Really Better?

Was It Really Better in the Old Days?

You always hear the term about ‘the good, old days.’ And, in the martial arts, this is really true. I always hear people thinking back to when men were men, and sheep were…you know.

But it is a legitimate question.

modern martial arts
On one hand, you have the great arts coming out of the orient. I was studying back in the sixties and seventies, so the main arts were judo and karate, with a smattering of Kung Fu. We studied in in dirty dojos and did manic drills. We brooked no nonsense, and we were patient with beginners.

On the other hand, you have designer water, contracts and classes in the Y, at the gym, down on the corner, and in every friend’s garage.

So, my personal opinion is that the martial arts were better. I started at a McDojo, then went to a classical korean Karate school (Kang Duk Won).

The McDojo was the state of art to come, with thick mats and air conditioning and tournament freestyle and contracts and good looking chickies.

The Kang Duk Won had a mat that had been ripped and stitched so many times it was like walking across Frankenstein’s face. The bag went to the cobbler’s every week. We packed out own bags for better texture and weight and resistance to our endless kicks. Warn’t no chickies allowed.

The McDojo had shiny trophies, high fives for points, and you pressed your gi before class.

The Kang Duk Won you did hundreds of kicks, you didn’t wash your gi, and you couldn’t press the clutch down because your shins were so badly bruised.

In modern times we have scientific achievements that enable one to get more strength in the muscle.

Of course, modern times has a lot of junk science and internet gimmicks, so…?

Now, it’s pretty obvious which way I am biased. I was there, I don’t think alzheimer’s has obscured my memories of those old work outs, and I have seen modern schools that teach 18 arts on their front sign, but are a jumble of bags and exercise equipment inside.

But, nobody made me God, and if you think otherwise, then go ahead and tear me a new one. Heck, I might even learn something!

And, if you are old school like me, then feel free to leave your memory. Heck, it might just become legend!

If you want to read more about old time martial arts and the Kang Duk Won, try KangDukWon.com!

Differences BetweenTraditional Karate and the Kang Duk Won

Traditional Karate vs Kang Duk Won

traditional karateNow, there are quite a few differences between traditional Karate and the Kang Duk Won, and I could go through the various stances and point to various things having to do with structural alignment and the correct way to achieve it. But that is included in ‘The Master Instructor Course,’ and I would rather point to a single instance that may be more significant. Continue reading

In the Best Karate Training Drills the Eyes Have It

Best Karate Training Focuses the Eyes

In the best Karate Training drills one should look their opponent in the eyes. This is a very interesting and powerful aspect to Karate training, so let me give you some data about it.

First, I have had a lot of people, during karate drills, ask me where they should look. The common answer that I have found over the years, and this is from Karate school to Taekwondo school to whatever Martial Arts school (style) you are studying, is that you should ‘unfocus’ your eyes on the chest. Look at the center of the body and become aware of all the stuff on the outside.

best karate training

You can’t fight what you can’t face!

 


This actually isn’t bad instruction, you want to see everything, but it stops forward progress for the martial artist at a certain point.

The real advice, if you want to experience the best karate training drills, is to look at the eyes.

The eyes are the windows to a man’s soul; look at the eyes long enough…and you can actually see what a man is thinking.

Look at the body, and you stop looking at the mind, and the martial art becomes a thing of reaction, or, at the very least, slow progress.

So you look at the eyes, train hard, do your forms for discipline, and eventually you will actually pick up on the very thought of the opponent.

Tell me this doesn’t give an incredible edge in combat…to know what an opponent is thinking!

Anyway, the point is this: you can’t fight what you can’t face.

And, as you progress, if you don’t look to the eyes, attempt to see the thought behind the action, then you wo’t make the jump from fighting to handling.

You see, in the real martial arts you learn to fight so you can give up fighting.

You don’t look at an opponent and fight him, you predict what he is going to do by reading his thoughts, and then making moves that undo him rather than harm him.

Can anybody spell the word ‘harmony?’

Only idiots fight all their lives. Smart martial arts students, people who want to experience the best karate training drills, watch the eyes and learn to read the mind.

And, eventually, they experience harmony, and greater control.

Opponents become as children, and as easily handled.

And that is why, when it comes to the best karate training drills, the eyes have it.

Check out this great article on Aikido style throws. Or, you could take a look at this course presenting a more combat Aikido style.