I get this question every once in a while.
Some fellow writes in, makes a comment,
and the question is:
Has matrixing ever been done before?
Valid question.
So,
let me give you a couple of instances
so you can totally understand whether Matrixing is new.
In the original hard bound ‘Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere,’
(not the soft bound or kindle)
by Westbrook and Ratti,
there is a fold out which sort of matrixes Aikido techniques.
It is actually quite brilliant,
but it is not a true matrix for several reasons.
One, it pertains solely to Aikido,
therefore, it lacks the viewpoint necessary to the whole art.
Two, it doesn’t provide for a gradient list of techniques,
advanced or basic, you figure it out.
This makes it VERY difficult to learn.
Three,
it doesn’t demonstrate the ‘basic-basics’ of Aikido
(those body motions which construct the basics themselves)
rather it espouses a singular concept (giving way)
this results in a student going down a singular path,
and not being able to develop certain attributes and tendencies necessary to quicker understanding,
if not more thorough understanding.
Another example of ‘almost matrixing,’
is in the book ‘Wing Chun Kung Fu’
by James Yimm Lee.
This book was supposedly authored by Bruce Lee,
but I’ve read nothing to substantiate this,
other than the fact that Bruce was teaching out of Jame’s house in Oakland.
So, who knows on this point?
The specific matrixing would be the ‘four doors and eight gates’ theory
with the resulting drills.
This is quite genius,
explains the blending of hard and soft admirably,
and in a mostly mechanical manner.
BUT…
One, it is, same as Aikido, specific to an art.
It is readily applicable to other arts,
but most people don’t understand the basics of their arts
well enough to understand the how and the why.
Two, it is specific to the Wing Chun method of controlling the contest through the arms.
Thus, several other theories are ignored, or at least not mentioned.
There are other things which influenced me,
but these two were key.
Important to note,
when you consider them,
is that I was studying several other arts at the same time,
writing extensive records (to be books) concerning them,
and really examining them from a ‘whole art’ point of view.
So,
is matrixing new and unique?
It is totally new and unique.
It is not just a new model of car,
it is a new and incredibly faster type of vehicle.
It’s like comparing a Mustang to a Tesla.
Really different.
Of course,
you won’t believe it till you’ve tried it,
and the best place to start is the basics,
as in Matrix Karate.
Not just the basics of karate,
but the basic theories of matrixing,
and a completely different way of looking at the arts,
of being able to combine all arts so that they make sense,
don’t fight one another,
and join into one whole art.
Good afternoon!
Let’s talk about the old martial arts technology,
and what it may be doing to you.
Old technology is drilling until your feet fall off.
Until your bones shake with fatigue
and your bone bruises are turning into calcium deposits.
Grrr.
Now,
to be truthful,
I like this method.
Heck,
I love this method.
I love to start a work out
and drive myself until I am ready to drop.
Like a tired dog my head droops,
and I know my teeth work just fine…
BUT,
what is new martial art technology?
Well,
let’s consider a few things.
A couple of hundred years ago,
there was no public education in China.
People learned how to talk by duplicating their parents,
and that was it.
No math,
except what you needed to barter.
And,
if you did get an official education,
in China it was the five excellences.
calligraphy, painting, poetry, t’ai chi, and medicine
No math to speak of,
nothing like physiology, grammar, science, physics,
etcetera, etcetera…
And the really rich people sent their children to western schools to get educated.
Sure,
I’ve probably overstated it,
but not by much.
So,
martial arts were learned by monkey see monkey do,
and nobody ever thought to examine other sciences
to see where they overlapped
and how those other sciences could be used
to understand martial arts.
When I matrixed I began using a form of logic,
a form based in Boolean algebra.
I compared body motion to angles and stresses in physics,
such things as building bridges,
flying airplanes,
and so on.
Of course,
at the core,
I still push the hard work out,
the do it till you drop dead approach.
But I propose that people understand what they are doing
BEFORE
they work out.
Understanding is the prime ingredient.
Would you become a world class musician if you copy catted
your favorite rock stars?
No.
You would just become good imitations,
at best.
If you want to become a good musician
you have to study such things as harmonics,
scales, and understand how vibrations work,
and so on.
Would you become the next Einstein
if you hand copied all his books and notes?
Nope.
Nothing new there,
just a repeat of what has been done.
To be a real artist you must be able to create.
So why don’t people do this in the martial arts?
And they really don’t.
They argue that their style is best,
without experiencing other styles.
They see a guy work out,
so they assume they know what he is doing.
Heck,
I even get people get upset with me.
They get angry when I show them a different way of doing things.
They are so regimented in old styles,
so ingrained with monkey see monkey do
that they cannot learn.
They can’t actually compare and contrast data.
They can’t see how the body can be made to support energy like a bridge,
using the same principles.
They believe in chi as a mystical thing
that people get when they get old,
if they are faithful copycats,
and they never see that chi
is a subject with scientific rules.
They can’t apply science to chi.
But they hold on to their last promotion
because it makes them an authority,
without having to really understand anything.
Now,
here’s the thing,
you doubt me.
Words like ‘snake oil’ come to mind.
Internet scamster,
another get rich quick scheme.
And so on.
I began selling martial arts by mail order
in magazines back in the 80s.
I went internet in 2002,
check the ‘wayback machine’
if you doubt.
I have a solid rep,
and offer a complete money back guarantee.
If a course is not as I describe it,
you get your money back.
Period.
Since the 80s I have refunded money maybe five or six times.
That’s all.
Not once or twice a year…
BUT ONCE OR TWICE A DECADE!
Now that is a statistic!
So,
check out the Matrix Karate page.
Read it carefully,
then order the course.
You will get more than you paid for.
You will get more than you expect.
You will get something you NEVER expected:
a scientific approach
that makes the martial arts ten times easier to learn.
You will get a way of looking at the martial arts,
that makes sense of ALL martial arts.
The alternative,
what you get if you don’t check out Matrix Karate,
and all my other courses,
is the same old same old,
that people have been grinding at for hundreds of years.
Sure,
you will get better.
Slowly and surely.
And you might even achieve mastery
before you get too old.
Maybe.
Congratulations to Master Instructor Pat Cluse!
Here’s his win…
Dear Al.
I thank you for developing the Instructor’s Course. As an instructor, I invested in your course because you had said a few things that were of help to me, and I never miss an opportunity to learn. I figured the price was worth any ‘risk.’
It did not take me long to accept that I had more than my monies’ worth. Yes, many points you covered are not ‘new’ but were very refreshing and presented at a different angle.
I have modified how I teach, and consider your course notes as a prime reference.
The “SSD” drill has had the greatest impact on myself and students. Of course I have done 1 on 1 many many times but the pull of other students in the class has impacted on the quality (of my teaching).
In the recent 2 months I have had a senior student run some combinations while I spent time with individuals. With no ‘external’ pulls I found the process invaluable. Not only showing the technique in mind, but able to get the student totally attentive, to be able to find/understand the words used, and also to incorporate more fruitful body alignment, body movement coordination with the techniques, and points of power stress with immediate relaxation. In this short time, none of the students have reverted to pre-“SSD” drill. The big thing is they now understand what I am teaching. So I have improved as an instructor…
Thanks, Pat
Thank you, Pat,
and well done.
The drill Pat is referring to,
the “SSD” drill
is an incredibly simple drill,
yet no one ever does it.
It was used a little bit in Kenpo,
then it was dropped by the wayside.
In the Kang Duk Won
the whole system was set up around that drill,
without ever showing what that drill was.
Yet,
it you use that drill in your teachings,
the results are incredible.
Students get what you are saying instantly.
Nobody yawns,
everybody gets how the martial arts work and why.
Students become instantly better,
it speeds up your teachings,
stops people from dropping out (due to confusion, etc.)
and helps create a true art,
that is,
an art with proper alignment,
an art that is usable,
an art that works.
And it is only one drill,
in a course packed with info, data and usable gems.
And it is all scientifically based.
Well enough.
Again,
well done Pat,
and well done to your students…
The course is here…
Happy hot day to you!
Hot days are the best days,
the work outs sweat you hard
and you detox the body.
Do it!
One thing people should remember,
when it comes to the martial arts,
is that they are not all hard,
nor all soft.
Take a look at Morihei Ueshiba.
Guy studied some serious hard arts
before he came up with peace and love.
How about Tai Chi?
Those soft moves
are backed up by some brutal moves.
So what does this mean?
It means you have study both the hard and the soft.
You can’t study one without the other.
Now,
eventually,
if only by age and injuries,
your hard art will soften up.
Then comes enlightenment
and a profound appreciation for both sides of the yin yang.
But why wait forty years?
Why risk not making it to forty years
and not even discovering the other side of the art,
of yourself?
I’ll tell you the truth here:
when people ask me why my karate punches are so effective,
I tell them Tai Chi.
When people ask me why my Tai Chi is so effective
I tell them Karate.
That’s the truth.
Because I know what a hard punch is,
I have been able to develop tai chi to handle them.
Because I know what sensitivity and balance are
I have been able to develop Karate beyond simple muscles.
Okay,
I know I’m preaching to a a few of the choir here,
but there are others out there
who need to know this.
Who need to do some Tai Chi or Aikido
to go along with their punchology.
And there are others
who need to beef up their punches
with some good old karate or kung fu,
if they are going to evolve
their sweet and sensitive side.
If you order the DOWNLOAD ONLY…
(Not the physical disks!)
I will give you two for the price of one.
Simply order one of the above courses,
Temple Karate or Five Army Tai Chi,
DOWNLOAD ONLY,
and write to me,
say you want the two for one deal,
and I will send you the passcode for
the DOWNLOAD ONLY.
Let’s see,
it’s wednesday,
so let’s make this offer good through Sunday, July 16.
Come Monday don’t bother to whine and grovel,
it’s gone.
So do it,
take advantage,
I don’t make offers like these often.
In fact,
can you even remember the last time?
So do it,
and make this the summer of super martial arts,
study and master BOTH sides!
Happy Santa Anas!
The Santa Ana’s are the big winds here in LA,
it’s fun to work out with them whistling through you.
Ok-a-ley dok-a-ley,
it’s time to find out what perfection in the martial arts is.
Had a great talk with a bunch of students the other day,
and I mentioned finding perfection in the martial arts.
So what is perfection in the martial arts?
It’s an interesting question,
one that nobody ever really asks,
they just talk about it,
and assume they know what they‘re talking about.
It’s when you can ‘one punch/one kill’ somebody.
It’s when your form is perfect.
It’s when you understand the secret of the universe.
But nobody knows what perfection really is.
I do.
I defined it in The Master Instructor Course,
and tell you how to get it.
But here,
let’s talk about the short version.
Let’s talk about one of the things that I learned
way back when
that put me on the path to,
or at least understanding
what perfection is.
I was in an aikido class,
and the instructor said,
‘The perfect art cannot be felt.’
Man,
that was zen.
you know?
And it started me thinking.
He was talking about blending your defense
with the attack.
He was talking about moving your body
totally in synch with the incoming attack,
so that the opponent didn’t actually feel you
even when you took control of his body.
And he was talking about a high level of energy,
profound spiritual awareness,
etc.
But,
there’s more to it.
I took what he said
and applied it too ground rolling.
A perfect circle has no corners.
Because if you have a corner,
something will thump on the mat,
and then there is no perfection.
I spent a lot of time
figuring out how to roll without making any noise.
And it translated as:
the perfect art has no sound.
And I took that and applied it to karate.
I learned to move
without being heard.
My feet didn’t slap the mat,
not even my gi rustled,
and the only sound
was the smack of my fist hitting flesh.
Interesting.
The other night I came across the 1935 video of Morihei Ueshiba.
There was no sound.
He threw people,
and the only sound was them hitting the mat.
But of him,
there was no sound,
no foot fall,
no grunt,
no whisper of motion.
The perfect art can’t be heard,
or felt,
or,
for that matter,
even seen.
And that is the sort of thing I endured
to figure out the seven principles of the body,
and the six secrets of how to make ANY technique work,
which are all on The Master Instructor Course,
along with a lot of other nifty stuff.
Newsletter 863 ~ Don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter and get some FREE BOOKS!
The Secret of Strong Muscles in the Martial Arts
And there is a secret.
Before get to it,
let me go over the basic understanding
of how muscles work in the martial arts.
First off,
the forms are calisthenics.
The horse stance is a squat,
the front stance is an almost lunge,
and so on.
And,
every time you snap the muscles,
close them violently to a focus,
you are using plyometrics,
plyometrics is contraction and expansion of muscle
designed to increase strength.
And everybody knows
how studying the leverage of muscles,
and using those muscles,
when throwing people around
is fantastic exercise for the body.
After a lifetime of doing forms,
tossing people around,
striking and kicking,
I am in top shape.
I shake my head in dismay
when I see people younger than me,
tottering around on canes,
clutching walkers,
hauling oxygen bottles.
All that stuff could be avoided.
A little fun in the martial arts every day.
Just playing tag with your fists,
gotcha with kicks,
and a little grab and toss with bodies…
And, it’s not too late!
You can eat right,
exercise right,
and turn your age back.
Anyway,
I promised you a secret.
and it’s good one.
One that I’ve never heard anybody talk about.
At first,
you work out hard.
You build your strength,
you push yourself until you can do those techniques
without any problem.
And,
when it isn’t any problem
you stop working so hard.
In fact,
you start to go backwards.
you use less and less muscles.
The work outs you do won’t be as hard,
but the mental focus is greater,
until you don’t use muscles at all.
Effortless martial arts,
putting somebody down with a finger.
Isn’t that a great ‘death strike?’
Or tossing somebody with a shrug,
everybody stares at you and says,
‘What’d he do?’
And what you do is simple,
you use muscles
until you don’t need muscles.
The fact of the matter is
there are three aspects to the martial arts,
Speed…Power…Technique.
Speed and power diminish with age,
but technique done right,
will never fade.
Good technique uses the muscles less and less,
until you don’t need them.
A weak guy can throw a strong guy.
If a guy was actually to stay weak,
after doing some intense martial arts.
Grin.
But that’s the secret,
do your techniques,
put awareness into your techniques,
until you don’t need muscle,
you just know the angle,
and your correct body alignment
lets the energy flow.
Well,
there’s a lot more to it,
I’ll talk more about this stuff on this blog
at MonsterMartialArts.com
In the meantime,
if you’re interested in some very streetwise stuff
that really works the muscles,
fast changes
lots of good, clean fun,
and exercises that will build muscles
until you reach the stage
where you don’t use muscles,
try this:
It’s a weapons course,
very logical and quick to do,
and, heck,
the guy who comes after you on the street
will likely have a weapon.
Might just as well learn how to swing a little quick weight at his head,
eh?
Grin.
May you have Perfect Art
in your Perfect Work Out!
Perfection.
Interesting concept.
After you read this newsletter
it will be easy to attain.
If you can count every blade of grass in the field.
Perfection means
free from flaw or defect.
Most people don’t even know what a flaw or defect is in the martial arts.
They hit and focus on how hard they hit.
Or they box and exult when they make a good punch.
These things are not even close.
When I was doing Aikido
way back when
the instructor said an interesting thing.
The perfect circle has no corners.
Hmmm.
The context he was talking about,
the technique we were involved in,
was a simple shoulder roll.
We would roll,
following instructions as best we could
and we would hit a hip,
or flop a foot at the end,
or find any of a thousand other ‘corners.’
So we worked and we worked until our rolls were silent.
A silent roll is a perfect roll.
Interesting concept.
But how do you apply that to the rest of the martial arts?
In aikido it is easy,
if you have impact with your partner
while doing a technique,
you knock him out of harmony,
you knock him out of the perfect arc of the technique,
instead of merging with his lunch,
you nudge it out of true
and the technique fails.
The technique has corners.
And,
you can apply the concept of silence to this,
a silent technique has no flesh slapping,
no bones knocking,
no collisions,
either with each other or the floor.
But that’s aikido.
How do you apply this technique to other arts?
You look for silence.
Don’t slap the feet on the floor.
Don’t ‘collide with an arm when blocking,
rather cut it effortlessly.
You are silent…he goes ow!
Now,
obviously,
there are times when you will make sound.
Say you hit the floor with your foot to supercharge a technique.
There is sound there.
But is the sound of the foot hitting the floor the only sound?
Is the sound of the kiai,
when you deliver a punch,
the only sound?
Does your fist hit and create sound?
But sound is excess energy
thrown out from a technique that isn’t truly pure.
Can you see where I’m going with this?
The interesting thing is trying to move with no sound.
I sometimes work out late at night,
everybody asleep,
and I try to work out with no sound
except those that are part of the technique.
When you can punch somebody with no sound
the impact is pure,
the transference of weight from one body to another
is pure.
So think about it.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it in class,
it’s one of those work on it…in silence.
By yourself,
exploring how little you can do
to do a lot.
Anyway,
probably the best art
for learning to create silence in your technique is Tai Chi Chuan.
Now,
what do you do
if you don’t fee like working out.
First,
get up,
go stand in your work out space,
and wait.
That’s all,
wait.
Eventually,
you’ll make a half hearted block,
maybe you’ll snort a little,
and the block sort of slips out.
Then,
you’ll find yourself doing it again,
but with a little more vim and vigor.
The longer you just stand there,
allowing yourself to be in your workout place,
the work out will hurry towards you.
It’s true.
ST work outs
I EVER had in my life,
I didn’t feel like going to class.
BUT,
I made myself get up,
forced my body out the door,
dragged it to the car,
and drove to class.
I made myself.
But the fact of conquering myself,
overcoming my sloth,
made me better,
and I found myself suddenly bursting with energy.
True.
It’s funny,
just being in a class
borrows energy from the class,
you always end up with more than you contributed.
It’s true.
And,
here is where we get into the muse.
What is the muse?
It is a spirit,
it’s what inspires and drives you.
Sometimes you drive yourself,
and you are your own muse.
Sometimes,
you can actually feel a greater power.
You can feel it like it is a huge hand,
moving you,
shoving you,
making you aware,
giving you more energy than you knew you had.
But you have to work for it.
You have to…
DO THE ART UNTIL THE ART DOES YOU!
One time I was teaching a fellow.
We were in a large and noisy and dark warehouse.
I was showing him how to swing a sword.
Suddenly,
I felt a huge hand grab the bit of metal I was using for a sword.
It moved the sword,
and it was all I could do to push the sword a couple of inches
out of the path.
A fellow was trying to sneak up on,
he actually had the thought,
‘I’m going to get him!’
And then the giant hand,
the muse,
grabbed my sword.
I would have taken out his face,
but I did manage to push against the muse
and change the path of the metal strip,
and I only cut open his chest.
A nasty gash about 3 inches long,
bled like the dickens.
But that is what the muse is!
It is a power.
You get it from yourself,
you get it from class,
you even get it from…
all the people who have put energy into the martial arts
over the course of the ages.
Energy doesn’t disappear,
it builds,
and it can be cultivated and tapped into.
Anyway,
you will find yourself better able to tap into the muse
if your art is scientific and aligned.
Matrixed.
Go here,
the book on sword fighting is one of these ten books.
Do you remember when you were in the fifth grade? You were smarter than the fourth graders, you could, let’s be honest, kick their little butts. But those sixth graders… man, they were big and mean!
And, you realize that I have honestly depicted the martial arts. This is the way the belt structure works, just like grades in school.
Those purple belts, they’ll never toughen up. Little dweebs. But those brown belts, man! They are mean!
But they aren’t bigger. The sixth graders are bigger, but the brown belts…they’re about the same size.
If you take a black belt and a green belt, and you give them a bunch of tests, push ups, sit ups, that sort of thing, there usually isn’t a great difference.
So what is the difference between belts?
The simple answer is: the upper belts have better kicks and punches and stuff.
But there is a more important answer that most people miss out on.
Knowledge.
The upper belt has more knowledge.
But what is knowledge?
There’s car mechanic knowledge, and farmer knowledge, and mathematical knowledge. All sorts of fields of knowledge, but martial arts knowledge is different.
What I am talking about is the experiential knowledge.
For upper, upper belts, it is simply referred to as ‘polishing.’ A guy doesn’t learn something new, he ‘polishes’ his technique.
In other words, he does something with more and more attention to detail, and in that minutiae, in that painstaking examination of motion, is more knowledge.
Sometimes, the differences of knowledge, on that level, seem inconsequential. But, let me tell you, the differences, the smaller they are, are ginormous.
How do you know when somebody is going to do something before they do it?
Today’s modern black belts often can’t do this. Yet this ability, to tell what somebody was going to do before they did it, was considered normal for a good black belt a few decades ago.
But today’s modern black belts are usually interested in running a school, or somehow translating their activity into money.
Today’s black belts don’t actually work out much.
They teach, and there is knowledge there, but it is not the same thing as creating silence around a technique until you can see the technique before it comes.
This is the knowledge of which I speak.
You do a technique looking at it harder and harder until you see some difference, some odd thing you never saw before, and then you have a bit more knowledge.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you teaching is wrong, just that there is a field of knowledge which teaching doesn’t plumb into, and which isolating yourself into endless repetitions of a technique does.
Teaching provides a database of knowledge, but you still have to build a high mountain on that database.
Okay, so what does it feel like? What does this higher knowledge look like?
I’m 68, I teach a couple of hours a day, but I work out intensely. Sometimes not as much as I want, but I still try to work out EVERY DAY! To look at an inch, and slice it into finer lengths. To look at a kick and find some awareness of body in it of which I was not aware.
Let’s say I am doing a replacement kick. Specifically, stand in a front stance facing a bag or wall. Now…
replace your front foot with your rear foot and strike the wall with your front foot.
Both feet move at the same time, fear to front at the same as front to wall. The rear foot plants on the floor at the same time as the front foot impacts upon the wall.
And you reverse the motion to the beginning and original posture.
Okay, you do this, and you do this, you begin to appreciate how the angles of the feet, the muscles of the leg, and all the minutiae must come together in an instant. And, if you keep doing this and doing this, maybe for years, one day you will be watching your feet from above, just watching, sort of marveling, and thinking, ‘Huh, that’s good, that’s working.’
No joy or pride, just deeper appreciation, a satisfaction for the days work that nobody, unless they do the martial arts for decades will ever understand.
But here’s what I didn’t mention. You watch your feet, without taking your eyes off your target.
HUH? HOW CAN THAT BE? HOW CAN YOU WATCH BOTH THE FEET AND THE WALL YOU ARE HITTING? DON’T YOU HAVE TO TAKE YOUR EYES OFF THE WALL TO SEE THE LEGS?
Here’s where it gets tricky, but pay attention to what I’m about to say.
The eyes are a bio-mechanical device through which you look. They eyes don’t look. They are the ‘binoculars,’ the ‘glasses,’ the ‘microscope’ and you have to ask this one important question… who is looking through the microscope?
Who?
Who is doing the technique?
Who is operating your body?
If you are watching it from above, without eyes, then who are you? What are you?
This is the knowledge of which I speak, this is the higher levels of the martial arts, lost in calisthenics and tournament training, never seen by people obsessed with bullying groups of students.
So I kick, and, outside my body, outside my eyes, I watch the kick, and in the watching comes a power unlike anything an earthling has ever imagined.
It makes me want to do martial arts every single waking moment of every single day for the length of my life.
And, when you finally get that removed viewpoint, I call it a ‘Neutronic Viewpoint,’ all sorts of things can happen. Things that have nothing to do with the body.
You can fill a room with energy, you can put it in a student to help him understand, you can shoot it at an opponent to overwhelm him.
And yet this energy, too, can be sliced into infinity, made to create a whole new and different body of knowledge.
As getting a black belt opens the door to new experiences and knowledge, so does this achieving of a new viewpoint.
Now, how do you get this knowledge and ability?
First, you study, and you DON’T STOP!
And, you teach. And you gather bits of knowledge, whole arts if you wish and you put them together as a whole.
Think, what kind of a car would we have, if the makers of tires believed that steering wheels weren’t important because they weren’t tires?
You can’t toss out any part of the art for any other part of the art, you have to make everything come together in one picture.
So you study, and you put the arts together through matrixing, and you search for that unique outer viewpoint.
Seek, as in… ‘he who seeks will find.’ You have to be that religious about it.
Okay,
Here’s a little birthday gift to you. I don’t care if it’s not your birthday, you were born sometime, and if I missed your birthday, then I’m making up for it, here’s the gift.
I don’t think the PayPal buttons work on it, but maybe the links do, have no idea. If a button or link doesn’t work, sorry, nothing I can do about it. But if you find something that works, on this old website, good for you. I’ll honor it.
AND… take a look at the last graphic in the mag. It is an image of how the arts develop, and it actually shows how people can be distracted and fall off, even with the best of intentions.
So enjoy, and remember what I said about… ‘work out, teach, and never hold yourself back.’
Have a great work out! Al
PS, any trouble with courses, any questions about anything, drop me an email at:
Hey! An EXCELLENT morning to you! And a great work out!
Gonna talk about Closed Combat Systems, or…CCS. But first…
You may have noticed that the site was down for a couple of days. My host server moved me to a newer computer, and lost my site. Couldn’t believe it. I kept calling them, even getting nasty, which is something I don’t do. They finally got it back up, but, man, I was actually irritated.
I don’t usually get angry, or even irritated because when things happen, that’s life. You solve it. You don’t let emotions get in the way. Anyway, it’s back up, so let’s talk about CCS, or ‘Closed Combat Systems.’
There used to be nothing but CCS in the martial arts. That’s because martial artists tended to be paranoid. Didn’t want to talk to the competition. So the growth of the arts was slow, and things tended to…here comes the word… ‘circuitize.’
To understand this word consider: a move in the martial arts is a series of small steps. A simple punch, for instance, consists of:
sink the foot, push with the leg turn the hip rotate the shoulder extend the arm
And, aside from these five basic points, there are ALL sorts of minor points, minor points that are ABSOLUTELY crucial to a good punch, to a REAL martial arts punch.
breathing to the tan tien, breathing as if into the strike, turning the wrist or not, focusing the eyes, focusing the energy, turning the limbs so that proper alignment is achieved, coursing energy the right way, and on and on for everybody part every motion every notion.
A good martial artist will be aware of ALL these things, and conduct them, just like an orchestra conductor conducts a 100 piece orchestra, and all in a split second.
To make this all happen the martial artist visualizes, and causes to come into being, a ‘circuit.’ That is, a sequence of awareness impulses that drive the nerves, muscles and bones of the body machine. And there is a lot more to it than that.
Now, some people think it is all ‘muscle memory.’ Muscle memory is a small part of it, and the term isn’t even accurate. For it is not the muscles that remember, it is the spirit setting up a circuit of awareness.
Setting up a ‘robot action,’ as it were.
The point behind all this silliness and significance is that one practices a move until it becomes intuitive. Until he doesn’t have to be aware of all the little pieces.
And one practices these moves until the individual aware pieces disappear and one is left with… intuition.
So one establishes a circuit just to make it disappear. One piece at a time, through endless practice, the circuit becomes an intuitive move. The circuit disappears. The student is left with himself, and is now n expert, on the way to becoming a master.
Now, the point of this is that… old arts, because they didn’t change, became heavily circuited. Changes occurred in small increments, and the whole art could absorb them.
Fast forward to the twentieth century. Books, magazines, internet. Tournaments every week, Dojos on every corner. The appearance of LARGE corporations! Heck, these corporations would even enlist people from OTHER schools to fill the demand as they expanded.
And… systems changed. Ed Parker went through multiple organizations, five different systems, hundreds and hundreds of schools, and he was just one of the thousands of people causing havoc to the CCS.
The CCS method broke down. The art changed. The age old method that caused intuition ceased functioning. And… the quality of black belt went down.
I know because I was there. I started martial arts in 1967, studied MANY different arts, wrote for the mags and saw TREMENDOUS evolution.
Now, let’s be honest, there were a few problems with the CCS. It wasn’t efficient, but it did work. But it was replaced by something less efficient.
People who put aside forms entirely and taught fighting. People who put tournaments above individual awareness. Vested interest aimed at slanting the art for making money. A nationalistic bent that caused SEVERE tweaking of styles. And, of course, the utterly despicable rise of politics. And so on.
So the CCS died. And that brings us to me.
Interestingly, I had a fellow who wrote me the other day, asked me what my purpose was. Purpose is an interesting thing. I am speaking, of course, of the purpose of one’s life. Why a person exists. Why one would choose to have boringness in this universe on this planet in this geography at this time.
We all have purpose.
I laughed when I was asked the question, and I responded.
‘To make a science of the martial arts.’ And, I further said, ‘I accomplished my purpose, now I’m just playing.’
And it’s true.
Look, let me give you a little perspective on me.
My father was an engineer. I grew up reading such mags as popular mechanics, popular science, all sorts of ‘how to do’ mags, and, a little bonus, my father was a golfer. So I read all these mags with the most fascinating pics. Pics of men with planes placed over the body to show how the hips moved to swing the club to drive the energy the analysis of the blade of the club on the dimple of the ball.
I applied this to the martial arts.
In fact, when I picked up my first martial arts book, (Super Karate Made Easy!) I was stunned at the lack of clarity. hundreds of drawings, showing moves and techniques, self defense situations, AND NOT ONE PIC SHOWED HOW IT WAS DONE! No planes through the body, no analysis of how the hips joined to the legs to the feet to sink the weight to provide torque to the shoulders, so the wrist could snap at the right time, and… the moment of impact.
THERE WAS NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL, WRITTEN ABOUT HOW THE ART WORKED.
So there came my purpose, to put the ‘how to,’ the REAL, PHYSICS INSPIRED how to.
And, as my life passed I realized that I was obsessed with putting science into the martial arts. Something NOBODY had ever done.
Now, I succeeded. Got over 600 pages of testimonials letting me know that I succeeded. And I didn’t pursue these testimonials, they came out of the blue.
So I succeeded. I’m not famous, not rich, don’t care. Because money and fame is not the purpose of life. The purpose of life is to become competent in something, and to share that competence.
So I succeeded when I sold my first matrixing course. I succeeded because that fellow, whether he bought into my scheme of arts or not, was putting science into HIS OWN art.
And he was going to pass that science down for one simple reason: it was true. It worked, and you can’t argue with the universe. Only a fool would want to.
And, heck, people can disagree with me all they want about art. Art is subjective, it is the expression of the person, and every person is different, but… NOBODY has ever disagreed with matrixing. Matrixing is the logic, and it is an analysis of, and is based upon, cold, hard science.
Not the limited science of the colleges and western influence.
A science that includes such things as chi power, and all manner of ‘sixth sense’ phenomena.
So, now you know what CCS is, and, for what it’s worth, you understand what drove me, what inspired this obsession of mine, and how it all worked out.
But, of course, there are a few loose ends here.
The main being… what do you do to reinstate CCS. And that, interestingly enough, is where we come to matrixing.
With matrixing you go through certain evolutions.
First, you realize how to make your system work. You apply the principles, start to streamline your art, and therefore create your own CCS.
Be sure, you will learn 10Xs faster and more efficiently, heck, 1000Xs faster and more efficiently, if you create your art.
When you take apart the art you learned, be it Taekwondo, Aikido, or whatever form of Kung Fu… and put it back together, you are involved in a form of creation. You are the artist. You are no longer ‘monkey see monkey do.’ You are the one making something that is unique to you. Even though it is based upon other arts, it is unique to you.
Second, you start to create your own art. You finish aligning the systems you learned, and you start expressing yourself, creating an entirely different martial art than anything you’ve ever learned.
This is the ultimate stage of CCS.
Yet… you never close your mind to others. Matrixing won’t allow you to. You learn a system, you IMMEDIATELY start figuring out how to make that system mesh with everything else you know.
Matrixing IS a CCS. Matrixing allows you to put ALL arts, all the pieces, into one ‘picture.’
But, of course, it requires you to obsess. Just as it required me to obsess. But, just as I said the purpose of my life was to put science to art, and as I said the purpose of life itself is to become competent, the purpose underneath it all is… to put order to everything.
You put order to the tools in your garage. You tune your car so it is in order and can run. You talk to people at work to make sure you are on the same page, thus putting order to your work. Everything… EVERYTHING… requires order, and it is the obsession of every right thinking human being to make that order happen. On that scale it becomes almost religious.
And, let me say one…last…thing.
As I said, I have achieved the purpose of my life. I achieved it when I sold my first matrixing course. And I achieve it when you buy my course. And, at the end, when you have achieved your purpose… you play.
That’s what is at the end of Matrixing.
Not fame and riches, not dominance and subjugation, not corporate ownership and king for a day, but the single and sole ability…
TO PLAY.
So get a course, start the journey, and come play with me.
Have a great work out! Al
PS, any trouble with courses, any questions about anything, drop me an email at:
Al Case began MA in 1967. Started writing for the mags 1981. Had his own column in Inside Karate 1991. Originated Matrixing 1984. Established Monster Martial Arts 2002.
In Business since 1984. On the net since 2002.
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Go to the Testimonials in the menu and do a search for your martial art!
Hi Sensei Al!
(On the Black Belt Course) Everything is working great! Thank you for the quick responses. I am enjoying the one on one videos. It may be cliche, but I do feel like I'm there. I also like the conversational style and the way you explain how you're teaching and why. You've got a new student for life. Thank you. ~ Daniel
What's interesting about Al Case's writings and teachings is there isn't any emphasis on 'the unknown' or 'mystery' behind martial arts. Al will slam this information in your face! Quite frankly the data isn't hidden, you'll find you're blind. ~ WG
Al Case is a powerful presence to be around, but if you can confront it, then you will not be sorry, for there is no one like him, and it is an extreme privilege and honor.
I used to read your articles in Inside Karate and was excited when I found your web site. ~ RV
As an old timer with thirty-five years of experience I was really bored, but your works have peaked my interest and shown me that there is much more to learn. I Thank You Again, Sincerely ~ CC
Where was this information 24 years ago? This course is one of the best things to ever happen to me. Thank you Al Case for the gift of knowledge!
Be blessed my teacher, ~ Rev. Ernest R
I bought the Infinite Fist tape YEARS ago and you know? I Keep going back to it! ~ KS
You are a master. You have opened me up to things that I have never thought of before. ~ KFM
I purchased your course on "Create Your Own Martial Art" and absolutely love it. I believe that your matrixing system is very unique. ~ DW
In my entire experience twenty years as a student and an instructor since, no one has contributed more to my martial arts education than you have. I started following your works twenty years ago and although I was young then I knew you had the True Art it was obvious to me even then. ~ Charles C
Students will know longer be slaves of poor instructors and practitioners. ~ Lonnie M
Win from Master Instructor Course
Let me start out by saying thank you. Thanks from all the martial artists who asked why. Al, I'm in the Security and Law enforcement field and carry Instructor credentials, so effective methods in combat and teaching them is what I constantly look for.
Win from Matrix Aikido
I just had to write to you to say WOW. Your INSTANT AIKIDO is great!!! ~ SD
My students have started coming up to me after class telling me how much more they are enjoying it, and that the classes have stopped being so ridged and now flow in a kind of give and take between me and them. I have stopped being a task master and started having fun and letting them teach me as well.
I did the Master Instructor Course and it hit me. The Basics that are so concisely communicated in this course including the Matrix principle IS the solution. It doesn’t matter what “style” I call my art, because all styles follow these same principles. It doesn’t matter how hard I train or how many repetitions I do if I don’t train the right way. And I would never become a master if I didn’t know how it all fits together. Now I do! I can honestly say that I am now on the path that I have always sought as a martial artist. Thank you Al!
I conducted a Matrix Aikido training class for a Security Team at a local manufacturing plant. I tailored the training according to their Use Of Force policy. As you know they need control and takedown skills. I knew Matrix Aikido would be the answer. The training plan you shared was boss. The class went so smoothly. The participants learned very quickly. By the end of the class you could see techniques of Monkey Boxing coming through. They were also able to create their own techniques. There was one female officer in the class who asked to become my private student. She was throwing, locking and taking down guys twice her size. The Security Supervisor wants me to come back and with more participants! I'll keep you posted. ~ L M
Have found your books and dvds excellent. My background is mainly in medical qigong but I practice Sun Style Tai CHi, BaGua and HsingI as well as Eagle Claw, Snake Style Kung Fu and several Wudang weapon styles. This is the first time I have had the underlying principles so clearly explained and in a way that they are immediately workable and demonstratable. I have worked through the Master Instructors Course, Aikido and Butterfly Bagua and have started to breakdown the Sun Hsing I using your matrix method. I was even able to teach a 70 year old friend of mine with no martial arts background your instant aikido where she was able to do some very accomplished locks and throws after the first lesson
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