Tag Archives: martial arts training

A Great Sticky Hands Kung Fu Drill!

One of my favorite Martial Arts drills
came from Sticky Hands,
out of Kung Fu.
Or so I was told.
Some thirty years later
I came across the drill
in an entirely different setting.
But I learned it
while learning Sticky Hands,
so I stick with that as the source.
Though I have never seen this drill
done by any Sticky Hands practitioner.

You place your hands in front of you,
palm out and about two inches from your partner’s.
Then you move your hands and he has to move his hands with them.
No contact.
Just looking and growing awareness.
After a while he moves his hands and you have to move with him.
It is fascinating because there is no contact,
and the mind,
because there is no fear of contact,
starts working differently.

You lose your reaction time.

It happens rather fast.
Prior experience really helps,
but the idea that you’re not going to be hit
if you make a mistake
and the mind relaxes and functions.

Once you’re pretty smooth at that you’ll find
that your sticky hands becomes much more efficient.
The trick to sticky hands,
of course,
is to have as little contact
between you and your opponent as possible.
I’m always telling people,
when they twine arms,
‘hair to hair.’
I remember reading of one fellow who
admonished his students
‘Don’t rest your dead meat on my arms.’
Interesting way of putting it.

I consider this whole thing
of touching your opponent so lightly
that you can hardly be felt,
as an expression of the phrase I use:
the least amount of force
for maximum efficiency.

After you do this exercise for a while
you start to view freestyle differently.
I mean,
it really is a zen sort of exercise
that causes you to be aware,
and not reactive.

And, obligatory ad…

Have you checked out my book

The Book of Five Arts

It’s got five star ratings,
it shows five different arts
in a way that shows the whole overview
of the martial arts.
Lots of charts and images.

If you want to see how your art fits into
the whole scheme of things
this is the book that will show you.

It’s summertime, so…
Have a GREAT work out!
And think about picking up a new art this summer!

Al

And thanks to everybody who picked up my book,

Advanced Tai Chi Chuan for Real Self Defense!

Don’t forget to give me five stars.
Those ratings help my sales.

Don’t forget to check out the interview
https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.
(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)
My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them for 5 stars.
‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.
‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.
‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.
My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings
so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:
A Karate Training and Workout Book
(Two Volumes)

Identifying the Bad Guys…

Who are the Bad Guys?

Got a couple of things to cover this issue.

First…
pick up the free book,
RAT SYNTHESIS: SOUL RANGE: THE ART OF VICTORY: BECOME A DHARMIC WARRIOR

It is by Matt Russo.
and it is free for a week,
so check it out.

Second…
I was thinking the other day,
how do you tell the good guys from the bad guys?
It’s easy to say stay away from bad guys,
but how do you tell who is a bad guy,
and who is not?

When I was in high school
I was studying world history,
the teacher said that Hitler attacked every country.
He went to Poland, then continued attacking countries
in a circle, until he got to Russia.
He just attacked everybody.
And,
when he started losing,
he attacked his own people,
blaming the German people for being too weak.

So my criteria for identifying bad guys is
looking for the guys who attack people.

Obviously, you can have differences of opinion,
even big, old arguments,
but when an actual attack occurs,
there’s the fellow you should look at,
he might have just made a bad decision,
but he might also just be a Bad Guy.

And,
you can further identify a bad guy
by the magnitude of his attack…
does he bring a gun to a fist fight?

And,
you can further identify a bad guy
by how many people he attacks.
Does he pick fights with lots of other people?

And,
a very important element,
does he attack people who are smaller than him?

What gets interesting is something like
the weigh in at UFC.
There is trash talk,
good to generate audiences.
Then one of the guys slaps the other guy,
or some other action.
Oops. Bad guy.

There are also all sorts of key phrases that identify bad guys.
For instance:

‘That guy studies at a McDojo.’

‘If it doesn’t work in the ring it isn’t a real art.’

I know I’ve stepped on some toes here,
and there is a lot of room for opposing opinions,
shadings of some of the things I’ve said,
and so on.

Just because a guy says one thing,
or does one thing,
doesn’t paint him forever.
Guy might have just had a brain fart.

But you can generally identify bad guy remarks because
they have one common factor:
opinion over facts.

Okay.
Think about it,
argue,
find fault,
think about your politicians…
andleave comments at MonsterMartialArts.com
and don’t forget to check out Matt’s book.

Have a great work out!

Al

And thanks to everybody who picked up my book,

Advanced Tai Chi Chuan for Real Self Defense!

Don’t forget to give me five stars.
Those ratings help my sales.

Don’t forget to check out the interview
https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.
(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)
My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them for 5 stars.
‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.
‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.
‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.
My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings
so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:
A Karate Training and Workout Book
(Two Volumes)

Karate as a Filter for Life!

Everything in Life Seen Through Karate!

I think it was Gichin Funakoshi
who said that
‘all life is karate.’
So what does that really mean?

It means that you put a filter over your eyes
and view everything through karate.

As a professional writer I came to learn that
you can compare language to forms.

The motion of the body is a verb
that ends with a punctuation punch.

Basics are letters.
Techniques are words.
Forms are sentences.
I believe Kenpo has also stated this.

Music is particularly well suited to the karate analogy.
Timing is an exquisite sense of how to fool the listener/opponent.
The shape of your hand as you play notes and chords…

Dance…the comparison is obvious.
They are both body motion.

If you ride a bike,
the bike is the form,
the ride is the freestyle.

Running a business
is strict adherence to form,
implementing techniques
with the occasional freestyle
as individuals have their own bright ideas
that aren’t so bright
or somehow go against the master form.

Driving a car,
sailing a drone,
marching, running, climbing trees,
dealing with people so that all win,

Everything in life can be reduced to form,
to technical deviations,
to freestyle applications.

Now,
the cruel trick is this:
all Karate is done wrong.
All karate is based on blocks, kicks and strikes.
Which are good foundations,
but the real secret of karate
is in the ‘slap/grab technique.
That is a technique which precedes all motion.
Yet nobody teaches it.
A few arts come close,
but nobody has ever actually broken down body motion
and understood the subtle implications
in the motions leading up to blocks.

Try it.
Try making slap/grabs in every technique.
You’ll find that the techniques suddenly work.
and they actually work in freestyle.
It wasn’t that the founders hid things,
though they did
in a secret meeting back about 1900.
It was that they didn’t understand this subtle implication
of the motion of the body
before and leading into virtually every technique
in karate,
and virtually all other martial arts.

Go ahead,
try it.
Find the slap/grab.
Find the slap,
or the grab,
or the slap/grab.
Once you see it,
you’ll be amazed.

And for those who wish to see how
I extrapolated this little motion,
check out the

How to Fix Karate Books

(two volumes, you have to order them separately)
on Amazon.
They’ve got about five hours of video links,
and they show how I use the slap and the grab
and the slap/grab,
all the way through.

Okay,
that said, it’s time to say…

Have a great work out,
and HanaKwanMass to all!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview
https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.
(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)
My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them for 5 stars.
‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.
‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.
‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.
My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings
so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:
A Karate Training and Workout Book
(Two Volumes)

Martial Arts Spear Hand Revealed!

The Secret of the Karate Spear Hand Technique!

Did you know…
the spear hand is not a spear hand.

When I was at the Kang Duk Won
there were all sorts of people studying.
Glass blowers,
grave diggers,
college students,
and lots of outlaw motorcyclists.
1 per centers.
Mostly Hells Angels.

One day I went to class
and there were about twenty Harleys parked outside.
The Hells Angels were doing a documentary on themselves,
and one segment had to do with martial arts.
So Ted,
a big second black who had joined the HA,
places three boards on a couple of cinder blocks.
He psyches up,
thrusts a right spear hand down,
and the boards don’t break.

Well, they broke,
but not all the way.
Ted lifts up the first board.
Clean break.
He lifts up the second board.
Clean break.
He lifts up the third board…
it’s got a knothole in it.
It was broken, but the knothole
had stopped it from separating.

So Ted replaces the third board,
puts the first two boards on the stack,
and breaks it with a spear hand with his left hand.
Bang.
Clean break,
Cut,
Print,
call it a wrap.

I don’t recall whether he broke his hand,
but he might have.
Or at least a couple of fingers.

Now people used to be able to break boards
pretty easily with their fingers.
Not any more.

I don’t see buckets of sand for conditioning in the dojos,
I don’t see people doing fingertip push ups.
So,
for the time being,
except for a few hardy souls
who believe in ancient training methods,
breaking with fingers is a lost art.

The original finger tip break was probably
for breaking through armor on samurai.
I’m just guessing,
but it sounds logical.

Or,
perhaps it was for inserting the fingers
into the neck,
through the armpit joint of the armor,
or whatever.
Not having seen old Japanese armor
I don’t really know.

BUT…
I do know that while I used to train in the old methods,
and I was able to do a few tricks,
like break a one inch board with fingertips,
I am no longer going to spear anybody.
Just too old.

Which led me to an interesting discovery.

What if the spear hand was not a thrust
to break a body?
What if it was intended to be a grab?

If you look at every spear thrust
in the Pinan (Heian) forms,
and change it to a grab,
It not only makes sense,
and protects the hands…
it leads to some interesting locks and throws.

I detail a few of these in the
How to Fix Karate books.
But you can figure a lot of these out yourself.

Instead of striking,
move the hand deeper and grab.
Look for a way to manipulate the opponent.

What if the move on the way up the center,
in Pinan three,
was not a spear hand to the sternum,
as usually taught?
What if it goes past the neck
and you simply stand up and grab his neck in a headlock?

Think about it.
Try it and see if it works.
See if you need to alter the movement
to make it work.

And,
by the way,
if you want to see the things I came up with,
check out the

How to Fix Karate Books

(two volumes, you have to order them separately)
on Amazon.
They’ve got about five hours of video links.

Okay,
last thing.
It’s almost time for…
(drum roll)

HanaKwanMass!

That’s right!
A combination of Hanukkah, Kwanza and Christmas!
HanaKwanMass!
That way you can offend everybody at once!

Have a great work out,
and HanaKwanMass to all!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview
https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.
(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)
My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them for 5 stars.
‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.
‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.
‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.
My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings
so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:
A Karate Training and Workout Book
(Two Volumes)

Eight Fighting Techniques to Base Your Martial Art On!

Only Eight Martial Arts Techniques!

Yep,

there are only about eight martial arts techniques,

everything else is fluff and stuff.

Of course there are a thousand deviations,

and they are valuable for your overall education,

but,

when you get to the down and dirty,

there are only eight techniques.

Now,

this is not boxing.

This not padded gloves to dissipate force,

and eliminate grabs.

This is somebody strikes

or is going to strike,

and you either slab and grab his arm,

or you shoot straight in

going for the one punch knock out.

One strike one kill,

you know?

Of course,

as everybody knows,

a plan only works until the fight starts.

SO,

once you have tried to stick your fingers in his eyes,

and MAYBE tried a follow up body shot…

you will find yourself on the inside of his arm

or on the outside of his arm.

You don’t have time for a poser,

he’s not going to wait while you do all your tricks.

You only have one chance.

And,

derivation here,

what I am going to tell you works best,

and perhaps at all

if you ‘shock and lock’ him.

Which is to say,

you simply distract him with a slap or an elbow or something

so that you have an opportunity to  apply one of the eight techniques.

If you have twenty years experience

you can consider not doing the ‘shock and lock,’

but that’s at your own risk.

If you are on the inside of his arm

elbow the head and push his arm up into a ‘chicken wing’ elbow lock.

Or, elbow the area under the armpit and snake your arms around

to a ‘figure four’ armlock.

Either of these can deviate out to arm bars or splitting techniques

(lower body goes in the opposite direction of the upper body)

or spinning him around and angling him up to what I call

a ‘vertical arm pin.’

that’s two techniques with a few deviations.

third, foot sweep,

can be deviated into knee to groin

or various kicks,

but you want to pull his leg viciously

and make him face plant

so you can walk on his neck.

Four,

if you haven’t locked in that body shot,

do it now.

Reverse punch,

and I often teach the ‘pubic punch,’

which is angling the punch down towards the hip joint.

He collapses on the ground and it takes no special force or effort.

Now,

if he strikes,

and you end up on the outside of his arm,

cool.

Inside means you have targets,

but you have also presented targets.

Outside means you have less targets,

but have presented almost no targets for him.

Slap and grab,

or perhaps just let him punch between your arms.

First technique is simply an arm bar,

or an elbow roll deviation.

Second technique,

elbow to the head and extend your arm in front of his face,

and slide your leg behind him to split him.

(top goes one way, bottom goes the other)

Third technique,

elbow under the arm,

split him by going under the arm.

Whether you split him by going under or over his arm

is often dependent on the relative height 

of your opponent.

You can add sweeping to this,

because there is an inherent sweep in the split.

fourth technique, punch.

Hard.

Break things in his body.

So that is the list of eight techniques,

which eight lead to a variety of deviations,

if you enter one of the eight,

the deviations become apparent with practice.

He punches and you are inside.

1) elbow head and elbow lock over his arm

2) elbow armpit and elbow lock under his arm

3) Punch (pubic preferred)

4) Sweep w leg options

He punches and you are on the outside

5) break and/or arm bar/elbow roll

6) split above the arm

7) split under the arm

8) punch

Now,

I know there are going to be all sorts of objections here.

Some of the objections will be that you simply don’t understand my terms,

but if you examine the description of the techniques,

you will find them in your art,

or your art is severely lacking.

Some of the objections will be that you have a thousand techniques in your art

and you simply can’t give them up.

But I am not asking you to give up your data base.

I am merely asking you to focus on that first punch in a fight

and do some real karate.

Some of the objections will be because there are no pictures

and it is difficult to mock up these techniques in your mind.

Why don’t you kick?

Kicking is for when you are far away

and kicks take time to become ‘one strike one kill,’

and you want to close and break or disable

as much as you can in a direct and short period of time.

Karate is not a far away polite business.

It is mean and nasty and as brutal as you can make it.

Why are you not making the split one of the techniques on the inside?

Because you have to go through the closure of distance,

and that is the progression of closing distance after the fight starts

What the heck is ‘shock and lock,’ and do I have time for it?

It is hitting on the way in,

and the way I have set it up there is extreme fluidity of motion

that will make the progression from slap and grab to shock and lock

 and to the final technique incredibly fast and virtually unavoidable.

What about wrist locks?

They are there,

but it is difficult to grab a fist in the middle of a fight.

It is easier when he is there,

and maybe trying to back out of his predicament.

And there are other objections.

But if you study what I said here,

and just drill the eight techniques for a short time,

and just explore your position…

everything will become apparent.

Incidentally,

what I say here is in all my courses,

but I never really talk about it

except as the technique progresses.

But it really is the essence of my Monkey Boxing.

I really should write a book on this little thing I have said here.

But…time. Sigh.

Okay,

guys and gals,

hope you got something out of all this,

and feel free to look at…

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

https://www.amazon.com/How-Fix-Karate-One-Training/dp/B0B6L5DSD1/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1RWF2LRFTSRZO&keywords=how+to+fix+karate&qid=1699188789&s=books&sprefix=how+to+fix+karate%2Cstripbooks%2C136&sr=1-2

(There is a version with five hours of video

but you have to hunt for it on Amazon)

And don’t forget to give me five stars!

Have a great work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find that useful

find the book/course that is right for you,

and matrix your own martial arts.

Matrixing the Hurricane Punch!

Matrixing the Hurricane Punch!

Happy Hurricane!
That’s right,
I live in Florida and I just lived through
terror and despair and fear.
That’s right,
I watched the news and survived.

So let me tell you what really happened
with the hurricane where I lived,
it makes for a delightful bit of matrixing
and may give you ideas for how to apply matrixing
to the world.

It is easy to matrix a hurricane,
a hurricane is like a big old punch to the gut.
So I’m watching all these complex charts,
and the news people are talking statistics
and,
of course
HEAD FOR THE HIGH GROUND!
YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!
THE HURRICANE IS COMING TO GET YOU!

Except I looked at the maps
the simple ones showing the path of the hurricane
and I immediately saw what was wrong.
The hurricane passed over Cuba,
then veered right
and headed for Tampa on a straight line.
Do you see what is wrong?
Nature abhors a straight line.
Nature,
except for a few stupid trees shooting for the sun
does not happen in straight lines.
Only men, with their buildings and jabs,
create straight lines.
And here this hurricane was on a straight line for me.

Heck,
Something was wrong with this picture
and I began to apply matrixing.

Matrixing is all about the analysis of force and direction.
That’s all it is.
So here is a straight punch hurricane
and what are the forces that will act on it?
Only two.
There is the surface the hurricane travels over,
and there are the ‘masses of air’ to the sides of the hurricanes.

The surface over which a hurricane travels over
is either flat (the ocean)
or rough (trees and houses and things)
Just by surface alone,
because it has to be a circle,
I could see that the hurricane was going to loop.
As big as the hurricane was,
and considering the surfaces over which it traveled,
I figured it would hit land above clearwater (where I live)
I blew it.
The hurricane skated over the water
and hit land over a hundred miles south of me.

Why did it hit 100 miles below me?
Because there was a HUGE mass of air to the north.
The hurricane simply ran into a wall and turned.

I saw a bigger map later,
and saw the HUGE mass of air to the north,
and that was why it had missed me.

The news media had this information,
So why were they all shouting

HEAD FOR THE HIGH GROUND!
YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!
THE HURRICANE IS COMING TO GET YOU!

Because that’s how they ‘sell newspapers.’
They create fear
and it’s like a roller coaster.
Everybody wants to get on for the scary ride.
So everybody watches the news.

Once I saw the media was wrong
I decided not to evacuate.
Police drove through my park every few hours
telling me I had to leave.
In essence,
they were yelling…

HEAD FOR THE HIGH GROUND!
YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!
THE HURRICANE IS COMING TO GET YOU!

Why would the police do this?
One, because they believed the news people.
Two,
more important,
because if people are scared they need the police,
it justifies the police
and gives the police more money.
Period.

So the real irritation
of the big hurricane punch
was that I had to turn off all the lights in my house
and let the police pass by.
Chances are they would do nothing,
but they might do something,
and they could give me a ticket.

Can you dig it?
A thousand dollar fine
for defending myself against
the big hurricane punch?
So the police are now put in the position
of potentially becoming the enemy,
interfering with my right to defend myself.

The winds howled,
the rain splattered,
I heard things go bump in the night,
things like pieces of branches hitting the ground.
Midnight my carport started flapping.
Horrendous racket.
I had no rope,
so I wrapped a piece of electrical cord
around one of the supports,
and ran my car over the cord.
Saved my carport.
And it was fun to be out there in shorts and a tee
fighting the elements.

And for all you people who scream
‘what if the wind blew you away?’
‘What if your house collapsed?’
‘What if the police tried to save you and died!’
‘What if…what if…what if…’

I say:
STOP LIVING A LIFE OF FEAR!

I was working off matrixing.
I knew the dynamics of a punch.
I KNEW the hurricane punch was going to miss.

And if I had known that it was going to hit
I would have headed for my son’s house,
a couple of miles away
and hunkered down.
He lives on the high ground.

That’s right.
I was so sure of my matrixing
that instead of heading a couple of miles to a ‘safe’ house,
I stayed home
drank an adult beverage
played on the computer,
and was so very happy.

And,
for those people who got slammed by the punch,
my sincere thoughts and prayers.
But,
did you know what happened
when the news and the police and the politicians all yelled.

HEAD FOR THE HIGH GROUND!
YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!
THE HURRICANE IS COMING TO GET YOU!

All the people in my area drove a 100 miles to get away.
They drove to (drum roll) Fort Meyers
and Orange county.
That’s right,
they drove right onto Ground Zero.
Because they listened to FEAR,
because they listened to the news,
because they followed the directions of the police,
they took the Great Hurricane Punch
right in the flippin’ gut!

Too bad they didn’t know matrixing.
Too bad they didn’t know the martial arts.
They could have stayed home.
They could have had popcorn and chocolate,
maybe an adult beverage,
been safe with their kids
playing board games
and making up scary stories.

Now,
I suggest you study the martial arts
and study matrixing,
and do it quick
before Twitter and Facebutt and all those guys
convict me of ‘spreading disinformation.’
After all,
they don’t want me to interfere
with their money making business.

And the next time somebody starts yelling FEAR!
Look at the situation,
analyze the potential forces and flows,
and put them out of your mind.
A person who works off of fear
is not able to analyze
and ALL his opinions are worthless.

Don’t bob and weave,
don’t side step and block
if the punch is going to miss.

Okay,
enough about the dreaded and terrible Hurricane Punch,
let’s talk about fun!

Thanks for buying
How to Fix Karate.
Do you know why How to Fix Karate is so different?
Every book out there
talks about the way the old masters did it.
They make photos of their system
and THEY NEVER consider whether their system is right.
How to Fix Karate takes each step
of each form
analyzes each step
for workability,
asks whether it is right or wrong,
and offers reasons
as to how and why something might be wrong,
and offers alternative solutions.
No other book does that.
All other books
treat Karate like a sacred cow,
never touching it.
How to Fix Karate dissects the sacred cow,
takes it apart like a 50s car
and shows you how to put it back together…
SO IT WILL WORK!

Anyway,
here’s a little clip for your entertainment,

MB 149 Two Man Punch Drill.mp4

and don’t forget to check out

HOW TO FIX KARATE

Remember,
it’s not a little book.
Two volumes for over 400 pages,
a thousand images,
and it is not designed to be read,
it is designed to be scrutinized,
to be poured over,
to make you THINK!
This is not simple Hurricane Punch,
it is the real thing.

Have a great work out!
Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview
https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

BTW
I’ve got nothing but five star reviews on

The Science of Government.
It’s really nothing more than applying matrixing to politics.

Matrixing + Politics = Sanity

I told you matrixing works with anything.

Here’s the link…

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

The Secret of Doing the Martial Arts Backwards

Newsletter 956

Going Backwards in the Martial Arts

Have you ever thought about
the actual process involved in fighting?
Most people think it is hit the other guy quicker,
but that is so inadequate
so far from the truth.

You stand and face Bozo Bob.
Bozo Bob has a thought:
hit you.
First:
you have to pick up the thought,
see the technique he is going to use
Then:
you have to reverse the thought
understand the technique from your viewpoint
because you saw it from his viewpoint.
It is reversed from your viewpoint.
You need to reverse it in your mind.

You need to reverse it
so you don’t create a defense that is backwards.
Then:
you have to create the defense…and do it.

Now,
that is the simplicity.
More to it
of course
but that is the simple truth.
So how do you reverse
the thought of his attack
so you don’t make a backwards defense?

In classical karate,
and other arts with forms,
we do the forms.
We practice controlling the bodies,
we practice the defenses for the moves
until everything is intuitive.

Think back to when you first began,
chances are,
most people go through this,
you went through what I call
‘backwarditis’

Backwarditis is when you do things backwards.
The teacher says right,
the students does left.
The teacher says step backward,
the student steps forward.
The teacher says do the technique on the right side
the student does it on the left side.
This is backwarditis.
Teachers everywhere experience it
They blink,
and keep going,
and the student eventually gets over it.

But nobody knows why the student does everything backwards.
Now you know.
The student looks at the attack
and it is backward in his mind
because he is observing somebody else do it,
so he makes a backward defense.
Eventually,
he gets over it,
without understanding
he finally absorbs the data
and begins moving correctly.
Knowing this should help you
when you construct self defenses,
it will help you get over trace backwarditis
and learn new things quicker.
It will help you make the bridge to intuitivity.

Now,
here’s a couple of interesting things.
Arts where the student doesn’t experience backwarditis
are lacking something.
Arts which don’t have forms
are missing the step for getting rid of backwarditis.

For instance,
MMA doesn’t have forms,
any experiences of backwarditis
are quick and fleeting.
The bodies are intertwined,
they are positioned
so that backwarditis doesn’t happen.
BUT…
to be an art there should be backwarditis.
It is a step of evolution that is necessary
lest the student doesn’t experience proper growth,
he doesn’t go through the stages of learning
that are in the martial arts.

Don’t get me wrong,
I am not bashing MMA,
I am just describing the effects of theory
and the teaching method
and what to look for in a student.
Heck,
there are things in MMA
that other arts don’t have.
But we are just looking at the teaching/learning method here.

Anyway,
there are several ‘cures’
things to help the student make the shift
to thinking backwards in his head intuitively

First,
when doing basics at the beginning of class
do them facing the same way as the class.
Then,
doing them facing the class.
Watch carefully,
see who has got the wrong foot forward,
correct him gently.
And keep going back and forth
every few exercises,
facing the students
then facing away from the students.
This is pretty easy and good to do.

Second,
make sure they practice their techniques on both sides,
have them perform their forms on both sides,
and even have them do the forms backward.
And backwards on both sides.
The students will get over backwarditis
their minds will be quick and agile,
will duplicate what an attack is correctly,
and build a defense that is not backwards.

If you want to know something fascinating things about forms
how they are constructed,
and even construct some yourselves,
I recommend the
‘Create Your Own Art’ course

2d Create Your Own Art

Do be warned,
the videos are poor quality.
You can still see them,
but the quality of video recorders
when I filmed this course
was REALLY caveman.
BUT
the material is spectacular,
and the Buddha Crane book
is even bundled in,
as an example of how to create an art.
There is also a progression of art through Pa Kua Chang
that is simply fascinating.
Really good stuff!

Have a great work out!
Al

2d Create Your Own Art

A WIN!
Hello Mr. Case. I recently purchased the Create Your Own Art course from you. As I have told you in the past I studied Hsing-i quan. Lately I have been having lots of trouble in my practice. At one time I had what I called the Hsing -i “kernal of power” but as of recently I have been unable to do it correctly. The power was bleeding off somewhere in the transitions between stances. I looked at your book Buddha Crane Karate book and I noticed that you have the foot in an elevated position much like the Seven Star stance of Northern Mantis before the step and strike. Well on a hunch I jumped up and ran in the other room and tried it in the Pi quan form and presto! All the power was back.

Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.
Bruce Lee

The Truth About Martial Arts Work Outs!

Newsletter 935

Why Do a Martial Arts Work Out?

Good and HOT day to you!
It’s over a 100 here in so cal,
And PERFECT for working out!

Hey,
Can I get in your face for a moment?
How much do you work out?
The whole purpose of this newsletter
is to encourage the work out.
So how much do you work out?

To me,
A work out is like a prayer.
I work out EVERY day.
Rain or shine,
Hot or cold,
In good health or poor.
Heck,
Because of working out I’m 70,
and feel like a 25 year old.
I think that makes it all pretty important.

When I work out I get in touch with me.
My thoughts are clearer all day,
Bushwah that bugs me
Suddenly recedes,
Becomes unimportant.
Problems become easy.
People who are difficult suddenly become…easy.
So how much do you work out?

Let me tell you something…
When I was working for my black belt
All those years ago,
I didn’t work out as much as I should.
I just worked out at the school,
Thought that was the only place to work out.
Boy,
Was I dumb.
Then,
Over the years,
I became aware of how much martial arts was doing for me.
I began obsessing.
Reading everything,
Studying everything,
Working out until the wee hours.
But,
You know,
I always have this little niggle inside.
I had wasted time.
I had not worked out obsessively back in the beginning.
I had only worked out at the school.
What wasted opportunities.
When I was fresh and full of vim and vigor,
I relaxed.
I wasted.
What a dope.

So that’s the message of this newsletter,
Now and always…

WORK OUT!
Agree with me or not,
Disagree or not,
The fact is that this is a reminder.
Nothing more,
Nothing less.

Here’s a recent win to encourage you.

Al,

I have gone through many of your courses and am currently going through blinding steel and eventually on my way to forty monkeys. I recently went through your book Matrixing Tong Bei. Several things clicked and the martial arts universe opened up after finishing that book.
Respectfully,
Tyler K

Come on,
Guys and gals,
Work out and make the universe open up for you!

Have a great work out!

Al

Here;S the Blinding Steel course, in it you learn how to matrix ALL weapons!

4a Blinding Steel (Matrixing Weapons)

Great Martial Arts Knock Outs

Newsletter 911

(In)Famous Knocks Outs in the Martial Arts

You’ve all seen clips of great knock outs.
Whether its Muhammad Ali,
Connor Gregor
Holly Hombs…
you can see great knock outs all over the net.
But here are some knock outs you haven’t seen,
and,
hopefully,
never will.
They are from my own personal trove of experience.

The first one isn’t a knock out per se,
but it sure qualifies for this newsletter.

Back in the late sixties kicks were just coming in to their own.
You see,
we mostly practiced front kicks, side kicks, wheel kicks.
Then Chuck Norris came along and showed us the spinning kick.
Man,
this drove us crazy.
Students at dojos everywhere were trying to spin and kick.
Spin and hook heel.
Spin and wheel.
Spin and whatever.
Out imagination FAR outran our abilities.
So one day this fellow shows me the latest and greatest…
it was a jump spinning rear kick.
And the kick was done with the leg straight,
really snazzy,
Man,
I watched this dude jump up and spin and knock coke cans off a fence…
and I was hooked.
So I practiced,
and practiced,
and in my mind I was a kung fu movie,
knocking down legions of bad guys.
In reality…
I wasn’t so good.
But I was trying…darn it!
I was trying!

One day I was playing baseball with some fellows.
There was a dozen of us,
it was a beautiful day,
and I was playing second base.
The field was a little dusty,
the sun was shining down,
and I waited for some situation to resolve.
A couple of guys arguing about plays,
or rules,
or some such.
And standing there,
my mind wandering,
I began to do spinning kicks.
The guys all knew I did Karate,
I was always doing something like this,
so everybody just stood around
and watched me,
and waited for the game to resume.
I spun and I spun,
and in my mind
I felt I had it.
I could see myself jumping,
soaring,
perfect arc of foot,
perfect balance.
And,
possessed by my fantasy,
I leaped into the air,
spun,
and collided with the ground.
I mean,
on a scale of 1 to 10,
ten being the worst,
I was a ten.
To the guys standing around,
it looked like I had dove into the sky,
jerked into contortions,
and threw myself on the dirt,
as awkwardly as possible.
For a moment nobody said anything.
They just gawked,
then they laughed.
And everybody was laughing.
What i had done was so stupid looking…
even I laughed.
I mean,
I had gone beyond the bounds of embarrassment,
even I could appreciate the heights of my stupidity.
That’s one.

The second knock out was real,
and,
interestingly,
it involved jump spinning kicks.
My instructor was not immune from the desire
to soar through the heavens,
and kick over a regiment of bad guys.
So one day he was practicing,
jumping and spinning,
and he was pretty good.
Except…
for that low hanging tree.
That’s right,
he leaped into the air,
spun beautifully,
and knocked his noggin on a branch,
and knocked himself out.
And he was really out.
He was unconscious for a half hour
before one of the guys found him.
Sprawled peacefully,
visions of spinning back kicks in his head.
That’s two.

And,
first place in this menagerie of misadventures,
goes to me.
You know,
it seems almost sad,
that such strivings for perfection
result in such…imperfections.

One of the tricks my instructor could do
was push ups on two single fingers.
We are not talking about a bend of the fingers,
we are talking about totally stiff index fingers.
A complete push up.
Now,
there were things that were beyond me,
there were things that people could do
that I would never be able.
But…
I knew I could do push ups on single index fingers.
So,
I began practicing.
I practiced regular push ups,
I practiced push ups on fists,
on the backs of my hands.
I imagined a rod of iron going along my backbone.
My visualizations were perfect.
I began doing push ups on half fists.
And,
I began reducing the number of digits.
I got to the point where I could do push ups on single index knuckles.
I began doing push ups on fingers.
Totally straight fingers.
Three fingers.
Two fingers.
It’s interesting,
it’s not strength,
it’s balance,
and it’s a frame of mind that pushes the world out,
and focuses awareness in the fingers.
Perfect balance.
I remember the night I got up on the single fingers.
Man,
what a charge.
I had made it.
Amazing.
I felt like I could do anything in the world.
And,
feeling so good,
I decided to do a couple of more push ups.
But…I hadn’t reckoned on the amazing amount of fatigue.
Focusing the mind like that
really drains it.
If I had waited for the next day,
I would have been okay.
But I was just charged up and ready to go.
I got up on the fingers,
and…
everything collapsed.
All that focus gave way…
as did all of the energy it required to do those push ups.
I felt right smack on my face.
And I actually knocked myself out.
I wasn’t out for long,
probably a couple of minutes.
No more than five.
But I was out.
Like a light.
Sleeping peacefully.
And that’s three.

So,
three knock outs
(two knock outs and a knock down)
that you will never hear about.
But,
you know,
that’s life.
That’s what happens when you go for something.
And the trick,
as we all know,
is not to accept it,
but to get back up,
keep going,
and really learn the martial arts.
That’s a life goal worth having.

Have a great work out!
Al

Get your black belt this year…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/black-belt-course/
It’s the ultimate video course,
over 100 lessons,
at a price you won’t believe.

http://monstermartialarts.com

Martial Arts Drilling

Newsletter 826 ~ Subscribe now!

The Secret of Two Directions in the Martial Arts

Thank you to everyone
who has purchased the
Tiger and Butterfly Martial Arts System.

martial arts system

A complete Martial Arts System! ~ Click on the cover!

If you want videos of the forms,
if you want to expand your understanding of the two systems
from which this system came,
check out the Matrix Karate
and Shaolin Butterfly courses.

Don’t forget to leave a good review on Amazon.

Okay,
here’s some stuff about martial arts drills.

When somebody is training a person,
maybe to close distance,
they might set them up a few feet from a bag/wall/whatever,
and have them practice shuffling forward.

You shuffle and shuffle,
people get tired
and go do some boxing.

Hey,
it’s true.
People don’t understand the classical,
get tired of the grind,
they want to fight,
so they go somewhere where people do more fighting
and less drilling.

But the drilling is crucial.
The martial arts are like a wall,
the bottom bricks need to be firmly in place
before a student can build the wall higher.
So you have to practice these basic drills,
and build the basic building blocks.

So,
you are drilling,
practicing closing with the wall,
trying to get the time from launch to impact
to disappear.
And you are making a crucial error.

There are two directions to a line,
and no matter which direction you are going,
both directions are important.

Watch a person start to walk from a standing still position.
chances are
they lean backward
so they can push a foot out.
It’s true,
they unbalance themselves,
so they can fall forward.
They go in two directions to go in one.
A most inefficient method for starting the motion of walking.
But,
if you watch the martial arts,
you will see the most amazing examples
of similar inefficiency.
People just don’t know how to get started.

The correct method is to bend the legs slightly,
and cause yourself to lean forward,
into the motion,
by thinking about it.

And,
if you are going to close distance
in the martial arts,
you need to set your stance
so the ‘wave’ of your legs
can be properly unleashed,
and every part of the body
can contribute to the forward motion.

CBM,
Coordinated Body Motion,
put to work in the simple act of walking.

Now,
if you are not guilty of unbalancing yourself to walk,
if you are already engaged in CBMing to walk,
then let me give you a further example.

Do both the hard and the soft!

I had a group of students attempt to close distance.
They would shuffle and punch,
and they were abysmally slow.
And they didn’t even like it.

So after a few minutes of springing forward,
I had them play a game.
I had them move forward,
extend a forearm for the grabbing,
and spring back when their opponent grabbed.

This put a whole new excitement into the drilling.
This made the student think backwards,
even as he was going forwards.

Then I had them do the original exercise,
and they were shocked
at how they had improved at closing distance.

Try it for yourself.
Drill one way,
then set up the opposite direction,
then go back to the original direction,
it won’t be long before you are faster.

And,
the drill can be used quite gloriously
when it comes to freestyle.
You can set up different targets,
move them into range,
retreat with verve,
and,
here’s a kicker,
set up a counter to attack.
And you will be most excellent at the counter,
because you are adept at moving in both directions.
You haven’t gotten bored with going only in one direction,
which breaks the concept of yin and yang,
of opposites in the universe,
and have become adept at the whole motion.

This drilling,
incidentally,
is the product of neutronics.

Matrixing provides logic.
Gives understanding to the whole picture.
But who is doing the martial art?
You.
That is what neutronics is about.
And in this case,
you are taking advantage of the two directions of a line,
and training in both directions,
to fully understand one direction.

Most people only train in one direction.

Here’s a neutronic datum for you:

The purpose of the martial arts
is to deliver a force or flow
while avoiding a force or flow.

How are you going to accomplish that purpose
if you don’t understand the martial arts in,
at least,
two directions?
How are you going to master the hard,
if you don’t understand the context of soft
from which it comes?
And how are you going to master the soft,
if you don’t understand the contact of hard
from which it comes?

So,
I say it again,
if you know Karate,
or TKD or Kenpo,
or some other hard art,
then you need to learn Aikido,
or TCC,
or some other soft art.
Only if you understand two directions,
will you master one.

If you know Karate,
go here…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/tai-chi-chuan-package/

If you know Tai Chi,
go here…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/

have a great work out!

Al

http://www.amazon.com/Binary-Matrixing-Martial-Arts-Case/dp/1515149501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437625109&sr=8-1&keywords=binary+matrixing

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http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/

http://www.amazon.com/Matrixing-Tong-Bei-Internal-Gung/dp/1507869290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423678613&sr=8-1&keywords=tong+bei