Tag Archives: tai chi chuan

The Sorta Mixed Up History of Kenpo Karate

Posted on October 3, 2024 | Leave a comment

A Book on Five Martial Arts!

Three things today!

First, more books republished.
There’s a list of them at the bottom of this newsletter.

Second, I’m back on linkedin.
Somebody stole my site
and I had to jump through hoops,
but it looks like it is under my authorship once again.

Third,
here’s an article I wrote a while ago,
which has not been available
except through buying
The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson of All!
which is a ten volume collection of my articles.
Lord,
I’m going to have to republish the whole ten volumes!
But,
enjoy this one,
and I’ll be putting them in the newsletter.

Here go…

Hey Mate! What’s Yer Kenpo System?

Maybe you remember that great scene in Enter the Dragon where the bad guy asks ‘What’s yer style’ of Bruce Lee? As over the top as that statement appears, it points up the differences of arts, and how confusing such a thing as lineage can be. In no art is this as true as in the art of Kenpo.
Many people think Ed Parker created the style of Kenpo, but he actually only popularized it. And, to be honest, he more than likely added to the confusion of the art. He created something like five different versions, and he drew from Karate and Kung Fu and whatever happened to be on his mind that day.

Kenpo got its start in Japan. There is some confusion as to the correct spelling, some people saying Kenpo, and some saying Kempo. Kenpo usually refers to martial arts stemming from China, and Kempo refers to the more Japanese oriented arts.

There is confusion on this point as there is not agreement. Further, there is not always common lineage. That said, Kenpo, although believed to mean ‘Fist Law,’ is actually ‘Quanfa,’ which means Kung Fu.

The main types of the Kenpo in the USA come from James Mitose. Master Mitose is sometimes a controversial teacher, for he was tried and convicted of murder and extortion. He served his time in Folsom Prison.

Mr. Mitose taught William Chow, who taught Ed Parker. Mr. Parker, as has been described, popularized the art of Kenpo. Students of Mr. Chow include Adriano Emperado, Ralph Castro, Sam Kuaho, and others.

Names of the arts taught by these people include Shaolin Kenpo, Kajukenpo, American Kenpo, Kara-Ho Kempo, and many other arts. There is an abundance of secondary students who were taught by these people. Kenpo has also continued to grow conceptually, drawing from many other arts for kata, self defense applications, and so on.

Though Kenpo grew at a tremendous pace, and though the lineage is sometimes difficult to follow, as is the art itself, there is much value in it. Many people ‘wet their feet’ in the convenient ‘Strip Mall Dojos,’ and then continue their studies elsewhere. Still, to define the true system of kenpo, and to list the roots and influences that resulted in that art can be a daunting task.

Matrix Kung Fu…Monkey Boxing, simplifies and condenses Chinese Kenpo Karate. Head on over over to Monster Martial Arts and make sure you pick up a free book while you’re there.

HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!

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

You can find the following books on such places as Thriftbooks, Barnes and Noble. If you can’t find them there they will be on Amazon.

The Last Martial Arts Book
A book on Nine Square Diagram Boxing. You won’t need another martial art after this one! Five hours of video!

Advanced Tai Chi Chuan for Real Self Defense!
Another book on Nine Square Diagram Boxing.

How to Fix Karate! (1)
Analyzes and presents the original self defense techniques of Karate! Five hours of video between book one and two.

How to Fix Karate! (2)
Analyzes and presents the original self defense techniques of Karate! Five hours of video between book one and two.

Five Martial Arts
The forms, two man forms for five different arts, shows how the arts progress from one to another.

Black Belt Yoga
Arranges the asanas in the correct order. Makes the art quickeer and easiere to learn.

The Book of Matrixing
Includes three books describing exactly what Matrixing is and how to use it. This is the science behind the martial arts.

The Book of Neutronics
Includes five books which describe exactly how Neutronics works. This is the science behind the science of matrixing.

MORE COMING!

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Back in the Beginning of Kenpo…

Posted on September 30, 2024 | Leave a comment

A Bit of Kenpo History

I began studying Kenpo in 1967. 

It was so unknown that it was called Kenpo Karate so it could be identified with the art of Karate. Not that that many people knew what karate was.

Kenpo was born in Japan. There are many lineages, but the specific Kenpo that is so widely known these days came from James Mitose, Thunderbolt Chow, Ed Parker, and finally, an instructor near you.

Martial Arts were not studied widely at the time, and usually it was fellows who were tough, who looked forward to the street fight, who studied them.

Kenpo came from Okinawan Karate and Japanese Jujitsu. There were other sourcss, many and varied, but the American style Kenpo you might study was likely based, at least in the beginning, on these arts.

Right from the outset Americans realized that Kenpo could be marketed more easily through tournaments, so we studied our freestyle rabidly, and we looked forward to the weekend trips.

For such a violent art, the participants at these tournaments proved to be a polite bunch. Schools were located a distance apart and there wasn’t much competition. Instructors actually looked forward to seeing each other, to comparing notes, and even learning a ‘secret’ technique or two.

And, outside of school, fights did happen. Proud warriors, Kenpo stylists, all martial artists, were happy to step up to a challenge, take umbrage at a veiled insult, trade fists with a goon.

We were more rabid back then. We didn’t do ten or twenty kicks and think we were done, we would do a couple of hundred and chide ourselves for being lazy. We would do forms by the hour. See if we could do 60 forms in an hour.

In short, we would exhaust ourselves. We would go for a run, do some weightlifting, and then freestyle for a couple of hours in class, and know that we were doing it right.

Mistakes? We made a ton of them. But over time we fixed them; the martial arts tend to be self fixing; the turn of the foot, the line of the wrist, the physics of the universe corrected us and were our teachers.

And now, near fifty years later, all we wish is one thing: to do it all again. To do Karate and Kenpo, to throw and kick and punch to our hearts content.

And we feel sorry for all those people who quit early, or who were born too late, or who were just too lax in their training to really find the truth: You are what you do, that is your measure, and that is your worth.

If you want a REALLY good book on Kenpo, consider ‘How to Create Kenpo’ by Al Case. It has the real history, the one you don’t hear much about, plus a section on how to do forms, plus 150 kenpo techniques, thoroughly analyzed so that you can be the best Kenpoka you can be. That’s How to Create Kenpo. The hard work is up to you.

SPECIAL NOTE: How to Create Kenpo went out of print, but it is due to be republished in the very short future.

EXTRA SPECIAL NOTE: Here is a website with the nasty history behind Kenpo. The Man Who Killed Kenpo. The comments are truly amazing!

Don’t forget to join the blog.

 

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Second Monster Martial Arts Book Republished!

Posted on September 18, 2024 | Leave a comment

New Monster Martial Arts Books!

You ever have people ask you what you do?
It’s a funny question.
It’s designed to give them a handle on you.
But that doesn’t mean anything.
It doesn’t tell people who you are.

You know what I say to people
who ask what I do for a living?
I smile politely and say,
‘I teach people to hurt people.’

Bang!
I just broke their pre-conceived ideas,
I destroyed their trust in labels,
I woke them up.
They blink and grin
and suddenly look at me,
search for the real me.

An enlightened person
won’t let people label them
and categorize them.

I don’t do this for all people,
there are some people I don’t want to see me.
They aren’t nice,
or they are stupid,
or they are time wasters.
Or some other such thing.

But when I find some guy
who is pretty bright
and might be interesting to talk to,
or even to teach…
this wakes them up
avoids preconceptions,
and then we talk
have a real conversation,
and they find out who I really am.

I have thousands of tricks like this
to break through the robotic attitudes
of enslaved people.
But try this one,
and watch how interest perks,
eyes sparkle
as they step outside of their carefully contrived box.

Got another book published.
The going is tough as I figure out different publishing companies.
Oddly,
I found one of my books on Amazon.
But I wouldn’t trust it to stay there.
Here are the two books I’ve published…

The Last Martial Arts Book
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-last-martial-arts-book-al-case/1146217369?ean=9798227617200

Advanced Tai Chi Chuan for Real Self Defense!
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/advanced-tai-chi-chuan-for-real-self-defense/53758888/?srsltid=AfmBOoqJyWkLdO18y0RFUxGoTb3CDXCgAXTk-VB_hvu2NHQwKZOqPBmK#edition=71844464&idiq=72002772

Okay, that’s about it for now…
As the books get republished I’ll let you know.
In the meantime…

HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!

Al

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

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Monster Books Unpublished!

Posted on August 19, 2024 | Leave a comment

Hi guys!

Amazon has decided not to carry my books anymore.
When you look for my books
you won’t find them on Amazon,
and you’ll likely get a blank page of some sort.

This is bad news for me, of course,
but I’ll be looking for other publishers,
so stay tuned,
I’ll let you know as titles get republished.

In the meantime,
all my video courses,
are still available through

MonsterMartialArts.com

Some of the books are still available in instant download,
but usually in conjunction with the courses.

As this problem has severely impacted my income,
I would certainly be grateful for any orders.

If you want two for one on the courses
order a course
then email me at

aganzul@gmail.com

and tell me what second course you would like.

Any questions or concerns,
juste let me know…

Have a great day and…
A GREAT WORK OUT!

Al

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

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How Matrixing Works in the Martial Arts!

Posted on May 2, 2024 | Leave a comment

Actually Understanding the Martial Arts!

I haven’t written about Matrixing for a while,
so let me explain for people who have never heard of it.

Make a list of numbers to ten.
1, 2, 3, 4…10
It’s easy to count to ten.
You can count anything.
After a while you even forget to count on your fingers.
That’s what effective martial arts looks like.
A small number of techniques easily and intuitively remembered.

But,
as people teach the martial arts they have favorite techniques
and they leave out number 4.
You can still count to ten, sort of.
Not a real ten,
but, hey, that blank space isn’t important,
I’ve got nine things that work.

Then some guy teaches it, and his favorite technique is 13.
1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13.
Okay. Cool. He’s got nine techniques that work,
and a thirteen technique that,
if he’s lucky, he can get away with.

A guy teaches techniques, but the enemy wears armor.
Some more techniques are left out,
and more ‘specialized techniques’ are added.

Time passes and students don’t have the weapons threat any more,
but they keep practicing the ‘specialized techniques,’
and they are adapted, changed, altered,
for different circumstances.

After a few years,
not even hundreds or thousands,
but just a handful of years,
three or four generations,
a few cultural changes,
and the art looks like this:

1, 2c, 5, 5f, 5g, 8, 3h, 16, 89, 1b,
b3, 43, 23k, 2k, yellow, 63fg, 7, 4little, 19, 9…
and eighty more techniques.
All to count to ten.

Everybody has added, changed, adapted, included
techniques from other arts, other countries,
been influenced by religion, politics
and their mothers aversion to violence.

And this what the martial arts look like today.
ALL of the martial arts.

People take years to memorize a sequence of ‘numbers’
that make no sense, are out of order,
and often don’t work at all.

Do you know what matrixing looks like?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Simple. Easy to learn and…
EASY TO REMEMBER!
It becomes intuitive right from the get go.
And it can be applied to ANY art!
You can figure out which techniques
belong in the sequence,
should be kicked out,
should be changed to work,
and so on.

And,
the hidden blessing…
once you matrix your art
your mind has experienced intuitive thinking.
It begins to function differently.
It is quicker and more logical.

Now,
is matrixing for everybody?
Nope.

People who are stuck in their art as a belief system
should not learn matrixing.
they don’t have the ability to learn,
and especially to be intuitive.
They will end up frustrated and critical.
Anybody who is critical is usually stuck.

People of low intelligence.
And this situation is truly terrible,
for it includes most people educated in the modern systems.
Go to school and you are likely more stupid
and even unable to learn.

But if you aren’t stupid,
and you aren’t locked into the arts as a belief system,
and you can learn…
matrixing can have a profound effect.

So,
the proof.
I’ve got 0ver 700 pages of wins from people.
I’ve been pushing matrixing,
in some form,
since the eighties,
and I’ve only had two returns in that time.
But the real proof is this…
Money back guarantee.
Looks, it’s subjective,
the only person that can prove it is your experience.
Not somebody else’s words,
but your own dig in and find out the truth self.

So,
here’s the link…

1a Matrix Karate

You can study it in other arts on the site,
but this was the first and most effective course.

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)

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Finding and Maintaining Health through Martial Arts!

Posted on December 16, 2023 | Leave a comment

Duc Tape and WD40 in the Martial Arts

A fellow once told me that the two most important things in life
are duc tape and WD40.
This is because everything is either falling apart,
or getting smunched together.
Makes sense, eh?

So I’ve been working on a Neutronics book
and I realized a couple of things.

There are three problems in life.
For a body it is inflammation.
For a mind it is tension.
For a spirit it is lies.

On the body level it is inflammation.
Well, actually it is inflammation or compression.
Inflammation is when your body has an illness of some sort.
Inflammation is generally a germ,
but it could be food, DNA, or whatever.
Compression is when you get in an accident.
Compression is you took a wrong turn,
were in the wrong place at the wrong time,
and that fellow in a Ford smacked you.

On the mental level,
all problems come from two terminals opposing.
Two terminals opposing could be a push or a pull.
There are A LOT of potentials
when applying this to the mind.
You disagree with others,
you disagree with ideas,
you disagree.
The basic problem here,
when you break it down enough,
is that since the mind is nothing but a bunch of memories,
there is a conflict between memories and reality.

On the spiritual level
all problems come from a lie.
Lying creates tension in the mind,
and can cause the body to get sick.
this distracts one from the truth of the spirit.

This makes life hard to live.

These three things are interconnected.
And the results of dealing with these things
on a neutronic level can be interesting.

You can handle inflammation with certain herbs and such,
and sometimes drugs.
You can handle compression with surgery.

Handling the body in this way will usually work,
unless you go off and die,
but it ignores the tension in the mind
and the distraction of the spirit.

You can handle your mental turmoil
by getting rid of problems.
This can be done on the surface,
but the real handling is going to take place deep in your mind.

Handling the mind in this way usually works,
unless your mind is really messed up.
but it ignores the fact
that the spirit is still messed up.

If you didn’t allow the spirit to become distracted,
which includes concepts such as:
tension, splintering, shattering, etc.,
and usually means a lack of integrity or wholeness,
you would rarely become ill
or even confused in your life.

To handle the spirit is the easiest of all,
yet almost no one does it.
To stop lying you must be ruthlessly honest with yourself.
You must tell the truth at all times,
and develop virtues such as
compassion, kindness, patience, and so on.
You should find a list of virtues and start practicing them today.
That’s it.

If you handle the spirit,
if you stop lying,
then the mind is no longer stressed
and the inflammation is cured,
and you have a harmonious person.

This is actually pretty important stuff.
And I figured it out simply from observing the world,
talking to people,
and Matrixing.

When you do the martial arts
it tends to handle the body.
A handled body handles the mind,
a handled mind can handle the spirit.

If the martial art is messy
it takes a while,
and can even fail.

If the martial art is matrixed,
which is to say logical and aligned,
the body is aligned and won’t suffer inflammation so easily.
the mind refuses the tension of opposing terminals
and ceases being distracted,
and the spirit becomes harmonious.

If this doesn’t make sense you should read
this newsletter over a few times.

Doing a Matrixed Martial Art
aligns the data of motion.
This aligns the mind so it stops distracting,
and the spirit becomes harmonious.

Obligatory ad for this wonderful bit of wisdom…

The Last Martial Arts Book: Nine Square Diagram Boxing

GET THE EDITION WITH THE 5 HOURS OF VIDEO LINKS!

This is a complete and matrixed art,
Applicable on the street,
as meditative as Tai Chi Chuan,
and modular in construction like Pa Kua Chang.

Give yourself a present for Christmas,
and don’t forget to give me five stars!

Another Neutronics book will be here in a couple of months!

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)

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Little Tai Chi Gimmicks to Build Chi!

Posted on November 25, 2023 | Leave a comment

Adding Chi to Tai Chi Chuan!

I remember when I first heard about Tai Chi.
Quite fascinating stuff.
Over the decades it became more fascinating,
and I learned how to differentiate
the myth from the reality.
In this newsletter
I want to list a few of the things I do
that helped me figure out Tai Chi.

Do remember that these things take time,
even with matrixing.
They also demand a certain amount of belief
that you are going to get to where you’re going.

Move the hands like the hands of a clock.
They move evenly,
at the same rate of speed.
It helps if you watch them
and get a little removed from your body.

Breath as if to the tan tien,
and keep the tan tien taut.
Don’t flex the muscles of the abdomen,
especially over the tan tien
(Tan tien ~ ‘The one point’ ~
the center of the body)
Like you’ve got an unbendable arm,
just running energy through it,
keep the tan tien taut, not tight.

move the arms into the posture
and keep them unbendable
while you turn the waist
and shift the weight.

Push with the legs,
you can feel the weight,
and alternate with weightlessness in the legs.
Synchronize the parts of the body
so they begin motion at the same time
and end motion at the same time.
this is CBM
(Coordinated Body Motion)

The energy in the tan tien
will duplicate the motion of the hands
if you have a taut belly and unbendable arms
and synchronize all motion.

Feel the air when you move the palms through it

Imagine yourself above your head
as if looking down from above
imagine yourself as if pulling the strings
attached to the parts of the body
like a puppet.

Now,
here’s the thing,
this will cause energy to flow
help you enter a meditative state
and even understand the physics involved.
BUT
it is worthless if you don’t practice applications.
This means you should understand the hard style first,
and you should train yourself to handle attacks
without using force.

Make your body as if a glove
into which the opponent puts his fist,
then adjust the glove to unbalance him.

No contact
except the brush of skin on skin
and unbalance the opponent.

Practice push hands,
and especially the Lop Sau
that I have created.
Not the traditional,
which is merely a piecemeal drill,
but the whole drill I developed.

There’s lots of other things you can do,
the classics are full of stuff,
but you need to understand the hard arts,
then practice A LOT!

But these things should help you.
Check out the tai chi courses on Monster Martial Arts

And,
if you want to learn the Tai Chi concepts about ten times faster,
check out

The Last Martial Arts Book:
Nine Square Diagram Boxing.

Make sure you look for the version with five hours of video included.

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 the book that works for you.

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

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The Proper Use of Muscles in the Martial Arts!

Posted on November 21, 2023 | Leave a comment

The Two Muscles in the Martial Arts!

There are two ways of using the muscles in the martial arts
One is to use the muscles,
the other is to not use the muscles.
I know, sounds like zen double talk.

The first method is to tighten the muscles,
specifically upon impact.

The second method is to ‘empty’ the muscles,
to just flow energy through them.

When I first began training in 1967
I was taught to use muscles,
to ‘focus’ the muscles by tightening
everything at the point of impact.
When I went to the Kang Duk Won
(not American KDW)
I was taught,
and mostly through experience and not words,
to tighten only the fist.
Eventually I stopped tightening the fist entirely,
merely sticking the bones of my arm
into the opponent’s body.
This required almost no muscle.

There are several things to be understood here.

If you tighten the muscle energy doesn’t flow through the body.
This leads to inefficiency,
energy loss,
and so on.

It is important to go through the tightening of the muscle phase,
lest you don’t understand what a punch really is.
This is why TCC sometimes doesn’t work,
the student doesn’t understand the reality of combat.
If the student does understand the reality of combat,
TCC is one of the better and more effective arts out there.

The ‘unbendable arm’ (Aikido)
is the best example of an ‘empty arm.’
Or an arm through which energy flows.
Aikido doesn’t develop this for combat,
but rather uses it almost as meditation
and for show.

I use the ‘unbendable arm’ in all movements.
I move my slightly bent arm with only a bit of
expansion and contraction.
The less I move,
the more ‘flow’ I create,
the more subtle are my movements,
my power,
my effectiveness.

When adapting the ‘unbendable arm’
to arts such as Karate,
One MUST understand how to sink the weight,
how to push with the legs,
how to turn the hips,
and how to move all body parts in harmony
so as to strike with the entire body weight.

I still have snap,
but it is subtle,
and designed around the delivering
of the whole weight of the body
into the target.

By developing the ‘complete energy’ of a strike
into the ‘no energy’ of a strike
one loses his tendency to be jumpy,
to respond with violence,
and attains a very calm mind,
one that doesn’t set up fights through mental attitudes.

The odd thing is that this sounds like mysticism,
but it is really hard core science.
It just goes beyond the ‘Newtonian’ science
we have been raised on.

Hey,
Happy Thanksgiving!
Take advantage of the time off
to do extra work outs,
and don’t forget to check out
my books on

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

(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 the book that works for you.

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Pushing Hands Applied to Combat!

Posted on November 12, 2023 | 1 comment

The Five Armies of Tai Chi Chuan!

I say Tai Chi Chuan,
but these five armies. are usable
in every martial art.

The five armies are:
the wrists
the elbows
the shoulders
the waist
the feet

It’s pretty simple,
actually.
If you understand a little push hands
it will really make sense,
but even if you don’t,
there is a logic here that can’t be denied.

If somebody grabs your wrist simply roll it.
This escapes all wrist grips,
and provides wrist twist counters,
and opens up a LOT of other doors.

If somebody pushes on your forearm,
simply fold it back.
The idea is to let the person fall past
and circle your arm to strike him.

If the person is closer
and pushes on your shoulder, or your upper arm
so that it affects the shoulder,
circle the shoulder.

If somebody is pushing on your body,
turn the waist.

If somebody has penetrated past the waist,
simply shift back,
let him pass.

Okay,
this is designed for push hands,
but push hands is designed for martial combat.
So you don’t have to be in push hands mode,
if somebody is pressing an attack
on one of the five areas,
or zones,
or whatever you want to call it,
just use one of the five armies.
Shift back and:
roll
fold
circle
turn
shift.

If you can do all of them that is great.
That is applying CBM
(Coordinated Body Motion-using the body as one unit)
to the technique.

Now,
if you stop thinking about him coming in,
and start thinking about you moving forward,
you end up with the total strike.

You push with the feet
as you turn the waist
and circle the shoulder
and unfold the elbows
and snap the wrist.

So you can apply the Five Armies concept
to defense or offense.
Or any combination of attack and defense.

This concept is demonstrated for Tai Chi
in my

Five Army Tai Chi Chuan course

I would also recommend,
if you are more into Karate or the striking arts,
my book on

Chiang Nan

The point isn’t that this stuff hasn’t been done,
it’s just never been explained in a clear and concise manner
the way I do it.

Check them out,
and have a fantastic work out!
Al

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

(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.

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Muscle Memory in the Martial Arts!

Posted on September 8, 2023 | Leave a comment

Muscle Memory in the Fighting Arts!

Good morning!
Every kata is a prayer.
It is a moment in time
in which I summon up energies
built by the repetition of moves
over over 55 years.

Let’s talk about muscle memory.
One trains to make the muscles move in a certain way.
This is a path, a circuit of nerve impulses.
A to B to C to…to Z.
As one gets better and better
he stops using this ‘muscle memory’ path
and goes from A to Z.

You see,
if you subscribe to the muscle memory theory
then you are saying that your body is doing the fighting.
But it is you that is doing the fighting.
The muscle moves
because the impulses travel through the nervous system
and who gives the nervous system the command to move?

I ask people this sometimes
and they give me some amazing answers.
‘My brain.’
That’s a common answer,
and it shows that people don’t understand the brain.
The brain is, at best, a switchboard.
And if the brain moves the nerves moves the muscles,
who commands the brain.
‘My mind!’
That’s a great one.
Except the mind is just a bunch of memories.
It doesn’t do anything except react.
And if one is going to get to the heart of the martial arts
one must do more than react.
They must act.
And,
to get to the heart of the matter,
who gives the mind the command
to make the switchboard brain
tell the nerves to work,
to make the muscles move?

Okay.
The answer.
‘You.’

And here is the secret of the martial arts.
If you do your ‘prayers’
(your martial arts moves)
long enough…you will go back through
these body and mind systems
and find…you.

You are the creator of your life.
You make the choices.
You are not meat muscle,
you are not nervous twitches,
you are not the switchboard brain,
or the memory mind.
You are you.

And,
obligatory advertisement…
you’re going to find you a lot faster if you matrix.

Try
‘The Last Martial Arts Book’

It has the meditation of Tai Chi,
the power of karate,
the easy and simple modular method
of pa kua chang.

(And, by the way,
get the one with the five hours of video included!
The one without the videos has all the five star ratings,
but $5 more gets you five hours of video instruction.)

End of advertisement,
so get back to your ‘prayers.’

And have a great work out!
Al

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

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 11 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 7 ratings for 5 stars.
‘The Science of Government’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.
‘Chiang Nan’ has 5 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.

Leave a comment

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