Tag Archives: self defense techniques

Solving the Puzzle of the Martial Arts

Posted on October 7, 2026 | Leave a comment

martial arts instructor course

To my knowledge, no one in the history of the martial arts has asked this question. No one has ever considered the Martial arts as one big puzzle. No one has ever taken the time to assemble the puzzle and see what the martial arts really are.

When I asked the question and, eventually, solved the puzzle, I was left with a rather astounding concept. I discovered that fabulous True Art that people talk about but never realize. I also found out why people never discover the True Art.

Interestingly, the True Art depends on hard core physics. Physics is at the heart of understanding all motion in this universe. Physics is the single thing that one must understand if they are to realize the True Art.

The first thing I did, when solving the puzzle of the martial arts, was to study as many arts as I could. I grew up in the Golden Age of the martial arts, and I saw movies, read books, studied video tapes, visited every school I could and talked to everybody I could. Eventually, I entered the digital age, and this brought a whole new wealth of information to my fingertips. With a simple computer I could access martial arts across the planet.

The second thing I did was write down every single technique I knew. I wrote these on the backs of business cards and spread them out across my living room. There were thousands of cards with the techniques of hundreds of styles.

The last thing I did was sort through them and put them in groups. I tried sorting them by specific attacks, by kick or fist or weapon or whatever. I tried sorting them by art, soft or hard, which country they came from, and whatever other grouping I could figure out.

Slowly, I began to filter out the duplicate techniques. I threw away all the poser techniques; those techniques in which the attacker has to wait for the defender to do the technique. Eventually, the number of cards grew smaller and became more manageable. In the end I was left with 40 techniques.

That’s all the martial arts are, you know, forty techniques. Every other technique in every other art is, in some manner or other, nothing more than a copycat of one of the forty techniques. But the real blessing wasn’t just that I came up with the source forty techniques of the Martial Arts, the real blessing was that I began to see threads of commonality that no one else had ever seen.

Yes, I have solved the martial arts, and they are a big puzzle. But that puzzle, once viewed in complete is so astoundingly magnificent that it takes the breath away. With the forty techniques the future of the martial arts is golden, and it is starting now.

About the Author: Al Case has been practicing the martial arts for 60 years. The original course on matrixing, Matrix Karate, can be found at:

Matrix Karate

This is a complete system, two videos and and a book. Click on the link and find out about it.

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Martial Arts and a Hurricane!

Posted on October 13, 2024 | Leave a comment

Republished More Martial Arts Books!

You guys ever been in a hurricane?
I live in Clearwater,
and we had our second hurricane in two weeks
and, man, it was a HOOT!

First,
is there a hurricane martial arts out there?
I’ve read theories of swinging the arms in circular motions,
and how you have to mentally be the eye of the storm,
and, of course, lots of techniques named things like
‘hurricane fists!’

If you know of one,
let me know.
I’ll look into it for an article.

Second,
to be in a hurricane is incredible experience.

Here’s the set up…
the news media goes crazy trying to scare you.
You’re all going to die!
You have to leave your home!
There will be no emergency services
when you almost die
and there won’t be any food!
And on and on and on.

So,
I ignore the naysayers.
They are all idiots.
I get gas for my car,
stock up on water and food,
have a way to cook when the electricity goes out.
Then I sit back and watch the roads jam up.
And the shelves empty.
And, of course,
the people on TV are going crazy trying to scare you.

Here’s the actual fact…
The wind goes up to 30 or 40 MPH
spatters of rain.
The lights flicker.
The people on 
TV tell you you are going to die
and they won’t even find your body!

Then the wind raise up to 50 or 60, with 75 to 80 gusts.
The carport starts banging,
so I go out and tie it down with a garden hose
and run my car over the hose.
End of emergency.

Things start slamming into the house,
it’s time to go to the shookie.
A shookie (sp?) is a little brick shithouse.
It is designed for hurricanes and laughs at them.
I have a bed set up in there,
water,
lights and books.
I call my family on my cell phone
in the middle of the hurricane.
They are all crying and whining and
wailing and sobbing.
AL, YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!
I ask them if they’ve been watching the news.
Yep.
Poor fools.

A few hours the wind dies down
and I go back in the house and watch TV,
and the news people talk about bridges out
and pets abandoned and…
they can’t scare you anymore
so they try to make you sad.
Idiots.

Now,
in all honesty,
if I thought the hurricane was a big one
and it really was going to hit me square on
I’d have left,
or at least gone into the shookie earlier.
I’ve lived through four or five hurricanes now,
and they are scary,
but unless they hit you dead on,
or you live in a cardboard box,
nothing to worry about.

I advise that you do your homework,
however,
before you do what I do,
before you live through one.

But,
you want to know the truth?
I’ve lived through some incredible martial arts training.
I know when to be scared,
and when to laugh.
I even know when to laugh when scared!

So that’s my adventure,
and the real news is that I’ve got about 9 or 10 books republished.
I have included a big section below with links.
Note that Amazon is publishing me again,
but through third parties.
Also note that other book stores are picking me up.
If enough people order through Barnes and Noble
they’ll probably put it in their brick and mortar stores.

Okay,
guys and gals,
get ready for the next hurricane and…
PRACTICE THOSE MARTIAL ARTS!

and try this link…
HIDDEN TECHNIQUES OF KARATE
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hidden-techniques-of-karate-al-case/1146377079

It’s a heck of a book that goes into a LOT of stuff.

Al

PS ~ you should sign up for the blog at
https://alcase.wordpress.com

It’s expensive to pay Mailchimp and I want to cancel it.

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

THE LAST MARTIAL ARTS BOOK
Amazon

Barnes and Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-last-martial-arts-book-al-case/1146217369?ean=9798227617200

ADVANCED TAI CHI CHUAN FOR REAL SELF DEFENSE!
Amazon

ADVANCED TAI CHI CHUAN FOR REAL SELF DEFENSE!
Thriftbooks
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/advanced-tai-chi-chuan-for-real-self-defense/53758888/?srsltid=AfmBOoqJyWkLdO18y0RFUxGoTb3CDXCgAXTk-VB_hvu2NHQwKZOqPBmK#edition=71844464&idiq=72002772

FIVE MARTIAL ARTS!
https://www.amazon.com/Five-Martial-Arts-Al-Case/dp/B0DJ6CP76N/ref=sr_1_1?crid=39EUDWPKMGDB8&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.1IlRD2MYSHqxhu5v5oHz3Z2mm1dSyHGQyZNwlGTgrsENsoldwDm-QIFog0CETyDm1AI51DdDH01uGBRejDNS1ziPmFlY11io2z7GLZ24Vxp7XyhEHEicDnCucHQKPxvltr0pP66Un1dPyCFi0LR2Xopa7ZPe5JuGF0T8lsoNZ7dmRVJ-K4Atjyabj0Cs_Mx_38yi8QwfFU4gKWyO9F_x73QlApTjwbxsigqwfymsg9I.VwJS6C0QKJQZ462AwvEmpJrUfbMcXLlLqfdEqxXjQ_U&dib_tag=se&keywords=Five+Martial+Arts&qid=1727703056&s=books&sprefix=five+martial+arts%2Cstripbooks%2C114&sr=1-1

HOW TO FIX KARATE! (1)
Amazon

HOW TO FIX KARATE! (1)
Thriftbooks
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/how-to-fix-karate-book-one/53863237/?srsltid=AfmBOooDYRdXJmWmsSkzxxtHX9PDU2c6L1kFl2cSe0tH0MWpwhjvqBk5#edition=71905055&idiq=72156439

HOW TO FIX KARATE! (2)
amazon
https://www.amazon.com/How-Fix-Karate-Book-Two/dp/B0DJ1VTMLR/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3TMV74ID9025F&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.BGa_SfjoeNe3r0C4Z1iSFdM80XH7bBvQkclxSpSFP95-aMvJQJ9nWs849PaU3ff2DfT-3pYGnEGsd_vz5VG_XsMzPmpfqUz6ryhqMjMxkPQ.XEigui-1ZK_IWTxkvr6vFHZGwXK5gJEEwVg3f417nOo&dib_tag=se&keywords=how+to+fix+karate+2&qid=1727460848&sprefix=how+to+fix+karate+2%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-1

HOW TO FIX KARATE! (2)
bookshop
https://bookshop.org/p/books/how-to-fix-karate-book-two-al-case/21839401

BLACK BELT YOGA
amazon

BLACK BELT YOGA
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-belt-yoga-al-case/1121852191

THE BOOK OF MATRIXING
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=THE+BOOK+OF+MATRIXING&crid=306WX8EKZIXJE&sprefix=the+book+of+matrixing%2Caps%2C167&ref=nb_sb_noss

THE BOOK OF NEUTRONICS

THE BOOK OF NEUTRONICS
BooksaMillion
https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Book-Neutronics/Al-Case/9798227766922?id=9287395896456

HIDDEN TECHNIQUES OF KARATE
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hidden-techniques-of-karate-al-case/1146377079

HIDDEN TECHNIQUES OF KARATE
Amazon

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The Secret of Karate Self Defense Techniques

Posted on August 6, 2021 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 1031
The Secret of Karate Bunkai

We actually didn’t all them bunkai,
we call them ‘Promise Fights,’
or ‘form applications,’
or simply techniques.
But the real description was…

‘Promise Fights.’

It was explained to me that
they were the ‘promise of a fight.’
It was decade before I figured out
what the phrase actually meant.

Before there is action there must be thought.
Action does not occur before thought,
action cannot occur at all without thought.
Period.
The actual word would be…

‘postulate’

A postulate is the thought before the action.
So without a postulate
there is no action.

And,
to drill those techniques until you are sweating blood
is to make the postulate work.
It is to make the idea work,
is to make the concept work.
It is the postulate…
or it is
the promise that your technique will work.
The more you drill
the more your promise will come true.

Now,
a couple of things.
If the technique is flawed the promise won’t come true.
If the technique is a poser the promise won’t come true.
If the technique is inappropriate,
poorly put together,
or mechanically or dynamically unsound…
the promise won’t come true.

But,
if the technique is correct and appropriate,
if the technique matrixed…it will come true.

But,
all conditions being met,
this where the magic starts.
Endless drilling = martial magic,
and in the most extreme sense of the word.

I remember one time I struck a fellow in the face,
pulled my punch,
didn’t touch him,
and he staggered away holding his chin.
My promise,
my postulate was so strong,
he thought he had been hit.
I had actually changed his reality with a thought.

That takes a LOT of drilling
with the correct techniques.

We took our techniques form the forms.
Basic techniques from pinan one through pinan five.
Up to green belt we had about 20 techniques,
real basic things,
block and counter.
We drilled those until we
NEVER HESITATED!
And never missed our target,
never flubbed a block.
We would do the technique twice on each side.
If we made a mistake we would do the technique
more than twice.
Sometimes a lot more.

Come the green belt test
we would run through the promise fights
in about five minutes.
And that was considered slow.
And we were judged for perfect form.
We had to have perfect form in the middle of a fight,
and every technique was considered a fight…
with ourselves,
could we meet the demands of discipline.

Think about it,
ten seconds for two attacks,
ten seconds for us to attack our partner twice,
20 seconds and we had done one promise fight.
20 promise fights times 20 seconds,
400 seconds
6 1/2 minutes
No hesitations.
You can’t hesitate in a fight.

Okay, brown belt we had maybe 50 techniques,
fifty promise fights or ‘bunkai.’
20 seconds for both partners to get through each technique
times 50 = 1000 seconds.
Or…17 minutes.

Sometimes the instructor
would have us do just the techniques
from a specific form or two
and we would really focus on getting things perfect and fast.

Black belt we had about 70 techniques.
1400 seconds,
or…23 minutes.

About the time we were ready for black belt testing
you would see fellows sweating blood after class for hours
trying to get the promise fights into the required time frame.
Once the black belt test started
the instructor would just sit there and watch,
and you NEVER wanted him to make a check on his clipboard.

A green belt test you could make a few errors,
same with the brown belt test.
There were NO errors allowed on the black belt test.

Do you know what kind of mental focus is required to achieve this?
Superhuman is the only word that comes to mind.

And we did it in about three years.
And we ended up being totally intuitive.
Simply, we were not allowed to think about what we were doing,
so we didn’t,
and the only choice we had,
the only result
was intuition.
We had to know what we were doing
with no hesitation.
You can’t hesitate in a fight.

Now,
if this seems brutal,
it actually wasn’t.
It was just demanding,
and done on a gradient,
first you only have to do 20 techniques,
then you only have to do 50 techniques,
then 70 is reachable.

So that is the secret of the bunkai,
of the form application,
of the…promise fight.

Here’s the obligatory ad…

Matrix Karate

Matrix Karate will help you understand the martial arts
so that a black belt test will be easy.

Have a funtastic work out!
have yourself 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
Have you read ‘The Bomber’s Story?’
It is the ultimate conspiracy novel,
tells you who owns the US and the world,
and there’s even a little martial arts in it!

THE BOMBER’S STORY

1a Matrix Karate

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