One Thing Wrong with Karate…
Good morning!
One of the main things wrong
with karate today
is bunkai.
It’s funny,
I have heard people who believe in
the more combative methods,
talk about how worthless Bunkai are.
And,
I have seen a LOT of schools that don’t even practice bunkai.
so people don’t practice making karate work,
and,
as a result,
they don’t know how to make it work.
when I was training we didn’t call the form applications ‘bunkai.’
We called them ‘Promise Fights.’
It was the ‘promise’ of a fight.
But,
as time went on,
it was more.
It was the postulate of a fight.
A postulate is an idea.
If you practice promising enough,
the idea works.
It is that simple,
and that complex.
First,
many of the applications are worthless,
they are either dancers or posers.
Second,
they don’t fit the form.
But the forms have been really screwed up,
so that is understandable.
Third,
when we did the form applications,
or ‘Promise fights,’
as we called them,
we had 1/3 to 1/2 of the class time to do them.
We would face each and get ready,
we stepped forward with an attack,
and the defender did his promise fight.
Class after class,
year after year,
and a strange thing happened.
Because it was the same every time
we began to see where a body would move
before it would move.
We weren’t fighting,
we were looking,
and we would suddenly see the dip of the shoulder,
the turn of the foot,
the glaze of the idea,
and we knew what was coming,
before it was even launched.
So damned simple and workable,
yet it has,
in many schools,
been put aside.
And even if bunkai are practiced,
they don’t make sense,
they don’t fit the form,
they dance and they pose.
Our applications were VERY workable.
No posers,
no dancers.
They looked like the forms,
but they were VERY functional in combat.
I’ve talked about how the upper students
could actually make them work in freestyle.
And people have given up doing applications
across the arts.
It is easier to have a fellow punch a bag,
than think about the turn of the hip,
or the wrist,
year after year.
The sad truth is that most people
think that karate,
and other martial arts,
are all about fighting.
May I coin a phrase?
If people think that,
they are not doing karate,
they are doing…
‘fake karate.’
And here’s an interesting little item,
the people who say,
‘my art is better than yours,’
are manifesting a fight,
and they are guilty of…
‘fake karate.’
And,
believe me,
Fake Karate is every bit as bad as fake news.
Okay,
just to let you know,
I’m working on a book,
and it’s a big one.
Might even come in two parts.
But it is proving…difficult.
Usually,
when I write a book
I sit down and write it,
takes maybe a week or two.
But this one is just beating me up.
I have rewritten it,
broken it into pieces,
recombined it,
and it is just being stubborn.
So,
my apologies for making you wait,
but,
you might want to make sure
your matrix karate is ready for when this is released.
You are really going to need
to have your art down,
because this is going to expand it.
Severely.
The book is about what happened to karate,
and i am specifically speaking of the applications.
The bunkai, if you will.
Full of history,
full of applications,
full of matrixing.
So,
I’ll keep working on it,
but you should look into either
Matrix Karate
or
The Master Instructor Course
In fact,
I really shouldn’t do this.
there’s no reason to,
except that I’m a nice guy…
Buy one and I’ll give you the other.
Just buy one,
then email me at: aganzul@gmail.com
and I’ll send you both courses.
This is good until October 31st.
Happy Halloween!
Now, 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’m always pushing my novels,
did you know I write other stuff?
If you want to know the truth about government,
why we have riots and why idiots keep getting into office,
why the government seems to do the exact wrong thing
almost ALL the time…
then check out:
THE SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT!
