Category Archives: qigong

Pa Kua Chang and the American Indian

Newsletter 833 ~ subscribe now!

Pa Kua Chang and Indian Stealth Skills!
part one

Good evening!
I just finished teaching,
2 1/2 hours of bliss,
and I am in heaven.
Let me share a little of that heaven with you.
Here’s one of the things I was thinking about,
which relates to the martial arts.
Specifically,
how Pa Kua Chang relates to the stealth skills
of the native American Indians.

The most important Martial Arts book ever written.

The most important Martial Arts book ever written.

Incidentally,
I am going to write five articles on this subject,
so if you want all five,
subscribe to the newsletter.
The other four articles will be coming out over the next month.

The American Indians were arguably
the greatest light infantry in the world.
They could outrun horses,
they had thoroughly mastered such weapons as
bows and arrows, knives, hand to hand, and so on.
And, they were masters of stealth.

Think about this:
to put food on their table
they had to be able to sneak up on wild animals.
This meant they walked with no noise,
don’t rustle a leaf,
or step on a twig.
Do it so well that a deer won’t hear you.
Have you ever seen how big a deer’s ears are?

The way they walked was very specific.
They did not walk heel to toe,
they did not place their heel down first,
the placed the front of their foot down first,
so they could feel a twig,
or any other surface that was going to cause noise
sufficient to alert an animal.
So they placed the front of the foot down first,
then rolled to the heel,
and they were aware,
feeling with their feet,
sensitive to whatever they were walking on.
And they walked fast enough to close on an animal
before the animal went elsewhere to feed,
and without alarming the animal.
That takes incredible skill.

Interestingly,
this method of walking is very similar to the way
students of Pa Kua Chang walk.
The precise way of walking in Pa Kua Chang
is to place the whole foot down,
gently,
sensing the ground through the feet.
This eliminates slippage on icy, grassy, wet whatever surfaces.
Further,
it breeds silence.
Further,
it enables the student to grip the ground.

This method of walking
is commonly called ‘Mud Walking.’
Walk so you won’t slip in mud.
Walk silently,
with no wasted (as in audible) energy.

There are differences here,
but here is the point:
both methods are used to build awareness.

It is awareness that makes a better martial artist,
not muscles,
not speed,
not anything else.
It is awareness,
of environment,
of the opponent,
of whatever is going on around you.

It’s funny,
when I hear people refer to Indians as savages
I have to suppress laughter.
They adapted to their environment,
they built a technology
that made them possibly the finest warriors in the world.

If you just study them,
if you consider how you might use their methods,
how you might improve your awareness,
you will find that they were geniuses of combat.

Now,
let’s be honest,
I haven’t studied Indian combat methods in depth,
but I have studied methods that closely align.
Here’s the link to Pa Kua Chang.

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/butterfly-pa-kua-chang/

Think about what I’ve said here,
and then bury yourself in some Pa Kua,
it will be well worth the journey.

Stay tuned for four more articles
concerning the martial arts
and the stealth abilities of the American Indian.

and have a great work out!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/butterfly-pa-kua-chang/

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

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

The Eyes in the Martial Arts

Newsletter 828

Where Do You Look During Combat

Happy Tuesday!
It’s great for a work out!

martial arts system

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Hey,
one of the biggest,
most frequent questions I get,
when I’m teaching,
is where do you look
when you are free styling.

OR,
and this is really bad,
I get kids who freestyle
while unconscious.

Would you like to fight while unconscious?

Let me explain.
If you were in the middle of a street
and a car came barreling towards you,
would you look at the car?
Or would you look at the driver?

Kids and beginners always say,
‘I’d look at the car.’
I make the noise of somebody being smunched,
run over by a car.
Crunched.

Here’s the thing,
the car has no mind.
It is a piece of metal and machinery.
The car has no direction,
except that which is fed into it by the driver.
So you look at the driver.
You look at the person behind the wheel,
you read his intentions.

Read his intentions.
A car has no intention.
Only a human being has intention.

So you must look at the driver of the car.

AND,
that means,
when you are fighting,
you must look at the eyes.

The eyes are the windows to a man’s soul.

Look at the eyes,
and you can see the intention.
You can see the thoughts.
You can see the intention.

Not at first.
At first you see eyes.
You see flesh and tissue.
But,
with practice,
with dedicated dedication,
you will,
at last,
see the thought behind the body.
The spirit behind the flesh.
The ‘I am’ directing the action.

I know,
I’ve heard all the theories,
even been told to do them,
and even believed them for a while.
Look at the chest.
Use peripheral vision.
See the whole body by unfocusing.
But you’re still looking at the vehicle,
and not seeing who’s driving.

Oh,
eventually,
even without eyes,
you’ll start to perceive
things happening,
but it will be slow and faulty.

Who do you think is looking through those eyes?

Here’s the funny thing,
I was teaching a kid the other day,
and I made him look at me,
really look at me,
the ‘I am,’
and not the body,
and he broke down.
Went into the giggling hysterics.
Couldn’t look at me.

When I was a child and in trouble,
parents lecturing me,
I’d look down,
and immediately got the:
‘Look at me when I’m talking to you!’
They didn’t want me going unconscious.
I had to stay there and take my punishment.
Funny thing,
after a little of that,
I didn’t want to get in trouble.
It was just too hard looking them in the eyes.

This video clip is how you use the blinding steel material…

So that’s the key,
it will help your martial arts tremendously,
it will help your matrixing fantastically.
Because,
here’s something simple,
if you can’t look at it,
you can’t fight it.
And that means you can’t fight.

Why?
Because if you’re not looking,
then you’re unconscious.

Okey dokey.
Thanks to all who have purchased
Tiger and Butterfly Martial Arts,
it’s on Amazon.

the system I do,
right after Tiger and Butterfly
is the Blinding Steel course.

In otherwords,
I teach the hard stuff with the Tiger/Butterfly,
then I do the weapons,
which is Monkey Boxing,
then I finally go through the Matrix Kung Fu.

Funny when you look at it that way,
goes to show how advanced some of those
four original matrixing courses are.

Here’s the link…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/3a-blinding-steel-matrixing-weapons/

Now,

have a great work out!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/3a-blinding-steel-matrixing-weapons/

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

go to and subscribe to this newsletter:
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Remember,
Google doesn’t like newsletters,
so this is the best way to ensure you get them.

You can find all my books here!
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/

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

Evolving a Thousand Years Through the Martial Arts…

Newsletter 824

The Martial Arts, and Evolution…

Speaking of matrixing, the martial arts, and evolution…
I came across an interesting thought
the other day
I was reading some old yogic scrolls,
and the claim was made
that an hour of yoga
caused a thousand years of evolution
in the person doing the yoga.

Interesting claim.

The most important Martial Arts book ever written.

The most important Martial Arts book ever written.

And,
it’s not right,
though it does act like it is right.

After all,
when you evolve,
you are not growing,
you are reclaiming yourself.
So it’s true,
but…not really.
Which brings us to Matrixing.

When you study a martial art
that has been matrixed,
the art is logical,
and therefore the you accept it.
you like things to make sense,
to be logical.

when you matrix a martial art
you accept this logical method
of looking at and handling the world
at a much faster rate.

The difference between studying a martial art,
and matrixing it
(making it logical through your own efforts)
is the difference between driving a car
and building a car.
The fellow who builds the car
will understand that car far better
than the fellow who simply drives it.

Mind you,
in the end,
you get to where you are going.
But the fellow who makes his own vehicle
will,
in the end,
get there faster.

Now,
that said,
there are several things that will happen,
as you matrix,
that will occur.
I don’t think I have ever laid out these results,
described this path,
so here goes…

First,
you will tend to look at the world in a logical manner.
You will become better at solving problems.
You will become a better worker and boss.
You will become an artist.

how to study martial art

Click here to get the whole story on Matrixing the Martial Arts

Everybody sort of knows this,
most martial artists experience this,
so let me take you where most people don’t know.

Second,
you must put aside emotion.
This is an interesting thing.
People will put emotion on you,
and you will feel the need to respond with emotion.
But the Neutronic definition of emotion:

emotion is motion inside the head.

Thus,
you must still the emotion,
stop the motion inside your head,
and not respond with emotion,

BTW,
there is good emotion,
love, happiness, etc.
And there is bad emotion,
hate, fear, sadness, etc.

So the specific emotion you must not respond to
is the bad emotion.
Good emotion okay.
Bad emotion you must uncreate from even beginning.

Think about it,
emotion is merely the automatic response
of one who is overwhelmed.
You must not become overwhelmed,
you must view the world in logical terms,
so that nothing can surprise you,
nothing can overwhelm you.

Third,
you must defeat the distraction of memories.
You must not respond because any conditioning
you may have received.
This includes any familial conditioning,
any educational conditioning,
any conditioning of any kind.
Instead,
you must create yourself in the moment.

For instance,
your father laughed at certain types of jokes before you,
do you laugh at the same kind of jokes?
Don’t you realize that he laughed at jokes in his moment?
And that you have an entirely different moment?
That will change the type of jokes you might laugh at.

For instance,
school might train you to think like a physicist,
and you will analyze the world as a physicist,
when you should analyze it as a unique being,
not trapped by an education.

(Mind, I am not saying you can’t be a physicist
and be in the moment, too)

For instance,
do you view the world through a religious viewpoint?
It would be much better
to study all religions,
to understand all religions,
than to choose one religion over all others.

Don’t become the only thing in the universe
willing to kill over a belief system.

This is simple after you have evolved a few hours…

Fourth,
you must separate yourself from other people,
without losing your humanity.
Simply,
you must be immune to the attitudes
of your fellow man,
but you must love your fellow man
all the same.
This one is incredibly tough.
No matter how far you evolve,
there will always be some idiot
telling you what to do,
thinking he is smarter than you,
and so on.
Can you accept and even use this fellow?
And put aside your certainty
that he is an idiot?
Interesting problem, eh?

Fifth,
and this one is a toughie,
don’t view the world as a fantasy.
This is probably the toughest,
for you become enlightened through the things
I have previously mentioned,
then you might think that,
because you are so smart,
the world should be as you say.

For instance,
you make a battery powered car,
to save the world from pollutants,
and don’t ever consider
that someday the battery will have to be disposed of,
and that the battery might be worse
than all the oil pollutants of a gas car.

Oddly,
this is one of the most dangerous things
you will ever to confront
on your way to self-sufficiency
as a spiritual being…
on your way to your ultimate evolution…
on the way to the ultimate truth of yourself.

Though people haven’t discovered
the earlier truths,
they don’t know how to look at the world logically,
or control their emotion,
or control their responses to people,
they will still try to rule the world through their fantasy.

Have you ever met a fellow without an opinion?
And yet I am asking you to be one.
Toughest problem you will ever encounter.

Anyway,
this is the truth of matrixing
and where it leads to.

First,
you learn to look at the world logically
through the matrixing method.
You put aside the distraction of memories,
then you put aside emotion,
other people’s thoughts,
and even fantasy.

Then you find the truth of yourself,
and you start manipulating the universe
the way it should be manipulated.

The truly odd thing is that this path
often starts with a simple motivation:
the desire to defend yourself.
The wish to become physically safe
through simple exercises and drills.

Where this path leads,
though,
is sublime.

Now,
the one caution:
People think they can do this through any martial art.
Yet nobody has ever succeeded.

Indeed,
the people who think they have
are merely manifesting their fantasy of the world.
They are still mired in the muck,
and don’t understand that they have no logic.
They have only the fantasy of logic.
They have only an opinion and no facts.

So it has to be a matrixed martial art.
It can’t be a Chinese fire drill of a martial art,
it has to be a logical (matrixed) martial art.
Then it will work,
and then you can experience something like…
a thousand years of evolution
through a simple hour of exercise.

Okay,
Matrix Karate starts the matrixing process.
Study the courses as you need to,
until logic outweighs fantasy in your mind.
Then you will be off and running.

But whatever you do…
don’t settle for an opinion.

Here’s a link…

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

And if you’re not ready for Matrix Karate,
then at least check out the ‘Binary Matrixing in the Martial Arts’ book,
or the ‘How to Matrix the Martial Arts’ book.
They are available on Amazon.
(leave a good review!)

Now…
have a great work out!

Al

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

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

go to and subscribe to this newsletter:
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Remember,
Google doesn’t like newsletters,
so this is the best way to ensure you get them.

You can find all my books here!
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/

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

Having Proper Martial Arts Manners

Newsletter 821 ~ sign up now!

What’s with All the Bowing Stuff in the Martial Arts?

“Politeness is the greatest strategy.”
Al Case

The most polite man i have ever met
was my instructor in the Kang Duk Won.
He was also the best martial artist I ever saw,
which leads to an interesting possibility:

Politeness goes hand in hand with competence.

Think about it,
if you are polite,
honestly polite,
then you won’t be scared,
you won’t have hidden demons driving you,
the martial arts will have expunged you of all that.
You will be honestly competent.

So practice politeness
as well as seek competence.

Now,
with that in mind,
what is the purpose of bowing in the martial arts?
Aside from my little diatribe on politeness,
why should people keep bowing and bowing all the time?

On one level,
it is a sign of respect.
I respect the work you’ve done,
the level you’ve reached.
And under that is the implied question:
will you teach me.
And the teacher bows to show respect
to those who have come seeking his instruction.

On another level,
it is merely saying hi.
hi to everybody in the school.
Hi to everybody who contributed to the school,
even if they are passed on,
a simple greeting to your friends.

With those two viewpoints in mind,
here are the times you would bow.

Bow when entering the school.
Bow to senior classmates.
Bow to junior classmates.
Bow when stepping onto the mat.
Bow to the instructor,
especially when asking a question.
Bow after receiving instruction.
Bow at the beginning of class.
Bow at the end of class.
Bow before you engage in any drill,
be it sparring, form, etc.
Immediately disengage and bow
if an injury has occurred
as a result of something you’ve done.

AND,
bow to a classmate outside of school,
or,
if not considered appropriate,
give him/her some sign of greeting.

AND,
whenever entering another school,
always bow,
show that you have studied the martial arts,
and that you are aware of martial etiquette.

Sounds like a lot of bowing,
yes?
Well, it is,
but let me offer an insight.
I can’t imagine not bowing,
I strive to bow the most,
to set the best example of being polite.
I am constantly running into students
who are surprised when I bow to them.
But,
it encourages them to bow.
And,
it makes you feel good.

Imagine walking into a school gymnasium,
or an auditorium,
with 500 people present.
Imagine yelling out…
HI EVERYBODY!
And having them all yell to you…
HI, AL!

After near 50 years in the arts,
that’s what it feels like to me
when I bow.

And I like to think
that maybe I’m as competent as I am polite.
One can hope.

Here’s a link to the martial arts
I have been studying for near 50 years.
Take a look,
and see if I’ve made any inroads,
if the changes i have made from the classical
have value.

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

have a great work out!

Al

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

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Remember,
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so this is the best way to ensure you get them.

You can find all my books here!
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/

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

The Arthritic Martial Arts Punch

Newsletter 820

Arthritis and a Martial Arts Punch!

“It’s not how hard you can hit,
it’s how much weight you can deliver.”
Al Case

I just received a great letter,
a fellow name of Damian,
said Yogata helped his arthritis,
and he talked about how
he sometimes had trouble with a fist because of arthritis.

yoga martial arts style

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I recommend Yogata,
or any form of yoga,
but I really want to talk about punches,
which may impact on concepts about arthritis.

Arthritis is an interesting condition,
doctors sometimes lump everything
under the term arthritis,
and there are a lot of causes
behind arthritis.
It’s all sort of generic,
but generic with a bite.

So here’s the thing:
injury leads to inflammation.
The body is swelling.
Sometimes the swelling is obvious,
sometimes not,
but the pain,
or lack of usability,
is real.

Many, many years ago
I realized I wasn’t a breaking kind of guy.
My instructor was,
many people are,
there is something seductive
about Power,
and power is often associated with breaking things.

But I figured out that it’s not how hard you hit,
it’s how much weight you can transfer into the opponent.
So I thought about it,
and I realized something:

“you don’t have to tighten the fist.”

This is weird,
we all tighten the fist,
and it is important…for beginners.

Tightening the fist upon impact
teaches focus,
introduces one to concepts of power,
but,
at a certain point,
you don’t need to tighten the fist.
Here’s something to think about”

take a stick and poke it into a watermelon.

Did the stick get ‘tight?’
No.
It just had to be aligned,
and it required a certain amount of ‘quick’ weight.
Although,
when you think about it,
you could puncture a watermelon with a stick
using ‘slow’ weight.

So I started working on the idea
of poking the bones of my arm/fist
through an opponent’s body
without tightening the fist.

Having the idea of puncturing the body
in my mind.

It worked.
No fanfare,
no big deal,
just relax,
align the bones,
feed a little energy into the structure
to keep everything in line,
relax and throw the body.

Worked like a charm.

And…
I started holding thumbtacks in my fist
and breaking things.

And…
here is the kicker,
the more I relaxed,
the better I was able to thrust my
thumbtack holding bones
through an object.

There’s all sorts of things to think about here.
My favorite is this:

if you threw 20 pounds at somebody it would hurt.
(especially if that 20 pounds
had 200 pounds of body behind it)

So when you tighten the arm,
when you focus the fist,
the tightening of the muscles actually holds the strike back.

That’s very zen,
very tai chi,
very true.

BUT,
don’t stop practicing with a tight fist,
you need a certain degree of focus to develop internal power.
And hitting with just the bones,
as I describe here,
is not the only strike,
and focusing the energy is VERY important.

In fact,
I would say that it would be VERY difficult
to learn how to strike with a relaxed fist
if one doesn’t first gain an understanding
of how to focus the energy with a tight fist.

Anyway,
those are my thoughts,
and I want to thank Damian for making me think,
and sharing his win with me.

If you have arthritis,
or ANY condition,
there are ways to keep training.
You just have to relax your thinking,
look around,
and find what works.

And you can find what works
in Yogata,
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/yogata-the-yoga-kata/

in The Punch
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/hard-punch/

and if you think I’m just talking,
check out the video on this page…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4c-matrixing-chi-power/

Take care…and
have a great work out!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4c-matrixing-chi-power/

go to and subscribe to this newsletter:
https://alcase.wordpress.com

Remember,
Google doesn’t like newsletters,
so this is the best way to ensure you get them.

You can find all my books here!
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/

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

Making the Promise of a Fight in Karate

Newsletter 805
The Promise of a Fight

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Gorgeous day.
Absolutely gorgeous.
And that means it is an absolutely gorgeous day for a work out.
So get going!

Was teaching this morning.
We were doing Promised Fights,
and my partner was grimacing,
and finally backed off.
“Ow,” he said.
And we got into a long discussion.
Heck,
he was hurting,
I had to let him recover,
give him some data,
and then hurt him some more.
Right?

First,
I started out with the old
‘Do it a form a thousand times and you know it.
Do it ten thousand times and you’ve mastered it.’
My student did exactly the right thing,
he said,
‘So if I do it 20 times a day,
then in fifty days…’
“Yep,” I said.
“You could know it.
You could be expert in 2 months.
But you have to do it right.
You have to understand the alignment,
how the feet work and why,
and you have to know the Promised Fights…
otherwise you could do it forever and not know it.”

Second,
we went into proper body alignment,
which is covered on the Master Instructor Course,
and how the feet must align properly,
and how the particular form we were doing had to be done
to make this all work.
I ended up saying,
“align your body,
make it a single unit,
then he won’t hit your body parts,
he will hit a single, integrated unit,
and it won’t hurt you.
Energy flows through a body that is a single unit,
it doesn’t flow through body parts used in individual fashion.
This is especially important in a Promised Fight.”

And,
came the look I had been waiting for.
I had been using the term Promised Fight,
and I knew he would eventually ask about it.

“What is a Promised Fight?”

A Promised Fight,
or a Promise Fight,
is a piece of the form applied.
A form Application.
It is a self defense movement.
It is bunkai.
It is the working part of the form.
But,
it is more.
In fact,
if a person doesn’t understand what I am about to tell you,
he/she is not doing karate.
They are just fighting themselves.

I asked my instructor what a Promised Fight was,
and he said,
‘The Promise of a Fight.’
And,
while the study of PFs gave great abilities,
and the answer he gave me was correct,
it was terribly incomplete.

To understand what a Promised Fight is
I need you to look up the word ‘Postulate.’

Look it up for yourself,
get all the nuances,
where it came from,
and all that,
but for this newsletter,
the short and inadequate version is this:

suggest or assume the existence, fact, or truth of (something) as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or belief

Assume existence,
put forth the truth,
as a basis for belief.

If you understand the hint here,
you should be diving for a big old Oxford Dictionary,
wanting to know why a simple karate move
becomes the basis for truth in this universe.

So let me break it down a bit,
from the viewpoint of 50 years of training.

A postulate is a thought,
which if worked on,
becomes true.

Worked on,
as continually done in a work out.

As in a piece of the form,
practiced again and again and again.

Now,
let me back up a bit,
a form is a circuit,
a pattern of moves that you practice and practice
until you just do it without thinking about it.
You strengthen the body,
you remember the applications,
you get light and quick,
and all those sorts of things.

When you do a piece of the form,
over and over and over,
you condense the circuit,
and you get rid of thought,
and suddenly there is nothing but the move.
Somebody punches,
and you don’t exist,
you just track the incoming,
and the Promise Fight,
the postulate of moves,
pops out of you.
And it works.
You punch him,
and he falls down.
And he doesn’t understand what hit him.
But here is the truth of it all…
a thought hit him.
A Postulate of thought hit him.
A Promise Fight,
clean and simple,
without distractive thoughts,
hit him.
And there is nothing purer in this universe.

Now,
I am always so busy trying to get people to understand,
offering all sorts of methods,
that i sometimes forget to go into this factor.
BUT,
in Matrix Karate there is the Matrix of blocks.
These are like mini-Promise Fights.
Very important to get these,
to understand them,
it is important to learn the small PFs
before you get to the big ones.
The big ones are on Temple Karate.
There isn’t talk of a matrix there,
because it is assumed you have done the groundwork of Matrixing first.
And the form applications are VERY pure Promised Fights.
They REALLY result in a zen frame of mind,
and the ability to hit somebody with a thought.

If you get Temple Karate
and you haven’t done Matrix Karate,
then you are taking the long route.
It will take you years,
and as distractions mount,
you can be knocked off the path
and never get there.

So you should do Matrix Karate,
work on the Matrix of Blocks,
make inroads and discover what a PF is.
And,
you can always take the pieces of the form,
they are pretty obvious,
and work on them to make real Promised Fights.

Then you do Temple Karate,
get into the classical forms,
and really go to town on the Promised Fights.

Matrix Karate is pretty simple,
it presents the movements that are pure karate,
no distractions from other arts.
It aligns you,
and sets you up for the broader moves of Temple Karate.
It is a real Closed Combat System.
You can do it by itself,
or you can do it,
then move into the classical,
and see what kinds of things
the old guys who came before us were into.
Temple Karate is a larger assortment of tricks,
it broadens the education,
and digs you to new depths.

Anyway,
that is the story on Promised Fights.
Dig ‘em…they are the real zen of Martial Arts.

Here’s the link for Temple,
if you have already done Matrix Karate.
You can just go to MonsterMartialArts and find Matrix Karate,
it is one of the first arts presented on the home page.

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

Now,
have a great work out,
and schedule yourself for twenty times a day,
and send me your wins in two months.

Have a great work out!

Al

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

Don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter at
https://alcase.wordpress.com

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

The Monster Martial Arts Newsletters

Newsletter 802
What’s Happening in the Martial Arts!

Good afternoon!
Think I’ll do a Tai Chi workout,
those always make me feel so large.
It’s funny…
large on a peaceful scale.

Got an email today,
asking where the newsletters have been.
Here, read for yourself…

Hey Al,
Haven’t heard from you in a while. Are you okay? I miss your newsletters. I’m sorry you’re catching flak from a bunch of little cowards spouting their worthless and unqualified opinions from the safety of their mother’s basement. I’ve been playing this game for a long time (since 1978), and I see you as nothing less than an innovator (if for no other reason than your unique ability to systemize that which has always been chaotic). We live in a unique time where the sharing of information is easier than ever. It’s easy to put people on a pedestal and idolized those who went before us as more than men. But the truth is, they only had a narrow perspective and worldview, and while they did the best they could with their extremely limited access to information, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are deserving of worship. Just like grade school, only about 5 people out of a hundred actually studied hard and put in the work. The rest either ostracized them, or agreed with them and parroted their phrases to appear more intelligent. I think this phenomenon is seen in the Bible, with William Shakespeare, & in the martial arts. Five percent actually understand what the hell they’re reading (or have read it at all). Most of us do not understand or have not read it, so we agree with those who have and praise the brilliance of the work. The rest think it’s just a bunch of bullshit. My friend, you are among the 5%… No, you are one of those that the 5% study. The difference, is that we have access to more tools than any of our predecessors have had. There will always be  the few that create change, and the lazy masses  that first  violently oppose, and then  blindly  parrot. You can’t be extraordinary  by being ordinary. Keep on pressing on. I value and appreciate your perspective.
-Sean

I thank you, Sean,
from the bottom of my heart.
So let me explain what,
exactly,
has been happening,
and why I am so slow these days.

When I came down from Monkeyland
I was pretty broke.
No place to live,
no job…
no prospects.

Well,
it’s against the law to whine,
so I took on a bunch of jobs.

I drive Uber in the morning,
tutor kids in the afternoon,
do the martial arts in the evening,
and have a janitorial business on the weekend.

And I make sure I work out every day,
and multiple times a day,
if I can.

So that’s what’s been happening.
Survival on the stupid level.
the need for petty, crass cash.

A couple of things happened because of this,
a person gets tired if he isn’t doing what he loves.
So I’m tired all the time.
Poor me.
Whine…whine.
But,
there will come a time when I can shift everything back around,
focus on the martial arts,
and keep going.

After all,
at the end of the road is Monkeyland.
A place where people can go to study martial arts.

Anyway,
it’s not the small people who whine about what I am doing.
There is one common factor in these people:
they have never read what I am doing,
never seen a tape.
They offer opinion without facts.
They think they know everything
based on their own experience,
and they don’t need no durn facts.

So how can I get upset about a bunch of fellows
who offer ignorance as their stock in trade?

It’s sort of like listening to fourth graders
whine about how tough math is,
when the truth is
they just just don’t want to do the work.

And,
the root of the matter,
I’m just stuck in a boring spot,
should be out of it one of these days,
and doing more martial arts.

Then my chi kicks in,
my energy swells,
and life is great.

So that is what is happening.
That is why I am slow in coming out with the newsletters.
It’s my own durn fault,
for putting myself in this situation,
and it continues to be my fault
until I figure out how to right the situation.

So I thank you Sean,
and all the others,
the fifty,
and even the passersby.
Thanks for writing me the email,
encouraging me,
and even chastising me.

I apologize for being a lazy…fellow,
and I guarantee it won’t last forever,
nor probably even long.

In the meantime,
it is up to you.

Work out every day.
Don’t make ignorance your comfort zone,
but delve in,
buy books and videos,
enlarge your cranium with the swell of martial arts.

Put them to work with your friends.
Understand that their is perfection of the spirit
in the study of martial arts,
and that it makes the world a better place.

It calms the spirit,
it undoes undue excitement,
it gives lazerlike insight into the problems of the world.

I’ve been around for a while,
and I will go away,
but the martial arts are your true teacher,
they are the liberator,
the educator,
the enlightenment.

They last forever.

Enjoy.

Now,
I’ll try to work a bit harder,
and stop being a lazy…fellow.

And you go have a great work out!

Al

hHeere’s a course that undoes ignorance…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4-master-instructor-course/

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

The Importance of Earning a Black Belt

Newsletter 798
The Importance of a Black Belt in the Martial Arts

Good afternoon!
Absolutely stunning day.
Absolutely perfect for a work out.

Hey,
I had somebody ask me,
the other day,
what belt I was.
It’s a legitimate question.

I received my black belt in 1974.
It was in a classical karate system,
the Kang Duk Won.

And,
a few years ago,
a bunch of my black belts decided
I should be an 8th black belt.
I had some forty years training at the time.
But it was sort of interesting.
we had a wall,
and everybody who made black belt
got a plaque on the wall.
We had a dozen or so plaques,
and somebody noticed there wasn’t one for me.
So they got together and got an 8th black plaque for me.

The funny thing is I didn’t notice it
for quite some time.

Here’s the deal.
I’m proud of my black belt.
But,
shortly after I received my belt,
I lost all interest in belts
and promotions
and such.
(Though I did appreciate
what my black belts did)

Simply,
I became addicted to the information,
the the art,
to the development of myself in a spiritual sense.
But that’s me.
For those who have just begun,
you should be very concerned
with earning a legitimate black belt.

A legitimate black belt carries with it
the realization,
the knowledge,
that you have just begun to learn.
If you earned a black belt,
and you didn’t get that thought,
then there is a good chance that you aren’t legitimate.
You haven’t CBMed,
made the art into yourself,
inverted your viewpoint of the world,
haven’t understood that reality is the illusion,
and yourself is the projector.

Now,
the real point of the martial arts is this:
Does it work.

First,
does it work as self defense.
Can you defend yourself?

Second,
does it make you grow spiritually?
Do you understand your worth as an ‘I am,’
do you see yourself as a point of awareness,
do you understand how your thoughts control the universe?

I suppose,
analyzing my own preferences,
that is why I prefer Karate first,
and Tai Chi second.

Karate works.
It makes my bones hard,
puts snap in my muscles,
and gives me long life.

Tai Chi works also.
It makes me sensitive,
removes me from illusion,
and gives me long life.

And,
interestingly,
Tai Chi,
learned effectively,
is one of the most incredible
self defense styled martial arts
I have ever experienced.

And,
they provide me with a ‘hard and soft’ progression of art.
After you do a bit of matrixing,
you can see how karate can become tai chi.
And how tai chi enhances Karate.

All very interesting.

If you are experienced with the hard,
I recommend the soft.
If you are experienced with the soft,
I recommend the hard.

It’s the only way to be sure
that you really understand
all aspects of the martial arts.

The trick,
of course,
is to make sure you matrix BOTH martial arts.

Here are the Matrix links.

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

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/2ba-matrix-tai-chi-chuan/

Have a great work out!
Al

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

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/2ba-matrix-tai-chi-chuan/

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

Congrats to a New Master Instructor!

 

Martial Arts Master Instructor Course

Okay,
my apologies,
I should have announced Jim a few weeks ago,
but this durned Al’sheimers really gets me.

So,
Congrats to Master Instructor Jim McElroy!

Dear Mr. Case
Something I want to say:
I’ve studied martial arts for many years (1977-) and never had them explained as clearly as your courses do. I cannot thank you enough for these courses. Sincerely Jim Elroy
Now with that said here I go:
Some Wins and realizations that i have gotten from your (Master Instructor) course:

And,
sorry to say,
I can’t tell you the rest of Jim’s wins.
The reason is that he goes through the material,
point by point,
explaining exactly how it works,
and how he understands it.

This tells me that he really understood the material,
which means that he will be able to use it,
but…
if I tell you the win then I will be giving you
the contents of the course.

Shucks,
we don’t want to do that!
Grin.

But here’s the thing,
this is the only course in the world
that people read,
and understand the material
well enough to transform their martial art.
Just by reading!

Oddly,
it is simple stuff,
but it is not talked about commonly in the martial arts,
or,
if it is spoken of,
then only in mystical terms
that reveal a fascination for what is being said,
but no understanding.

This is important,
this thing of mysticism vs understanding.

Three blind men came across an elephant.
One said, ‘it is like a wall!’
The second said, ‘it is like a little snake,’
the third said, ‘it like a fire hose with two big teeth!’

Each has a different viewpoint,
and they pass these viewpoints down
until everybody argues what the elephant is like.

Then you come across one yourself,
and you are not blind,
and you see how each blind man misunderstood,
and you are the only one that truly understands.

This is what matrixing does.
And it does it not by passing down my viewpoint,
but by giving you the actual physics of the martial arts.
Not the western world version of physics,
but the physics that takes into account
things like chi energy,
how the body is constructed for the martial arts,
and so on.

Things that people have rarely heard,
and then only in mystical terms.

So,
again,
my thanks to Master Instructor Jim Elroy.
Well done for that great win.
And my apologies for being so late in announcing you.

And,
now the news,
the next book,
‘How to Matrix the Martial Arts
(and the universe and life and everything else),’
is almost ready to go.
I am actually working on the physical version,
just a couple of things to do,
and then it will be here.

And,
for everybody…
it is fall.
Fall has fallen,
so have you picked an art to dedicate yourself to this winter?
Are you going to know a new art by Summer?

Think about it,
do it,
and let me know how it goes.

Have a great work out!
Al

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

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

The Correct Way to Do Yoga

Yoga (The Yoga Kata)

Yoga has been around for thousands of years. Yoga asanas, or postures, were being done by people for this period of time for one simple reason: they work. The interesting thing is that they work, in spite of the fact that they are, for the most part, being done wrong.

I stumbled across this fact as a result of my studies in the martial arts. I studied martial arts for years and years, for decades, and finally realized that I was trying too hard. I was using all my muscles, all my energy, and it was a waste.

do yoga

Click on the Cover

yoga for karateIt was a waste because how tense your muscles are doesn’t have much to do with how hard you hit. What matters is how relaxed you are. For when you are relaxed you can deliver the punch more efficiently.

If you are tense you are actually working against yourself, against your own body and mind. You are locking up muscles and actually stopping the flow of energy that results in efficient motion.

The problem was that nobody understood this. Instead, karate instructors would train people and wait for them to get tired of using so much effort, would wait for them, after some years, to start relaxing when they executed the moves.

Waiting for a student to get tired is not very efficient. Especially when compared to instructing them on when and how to relax.

In Yoga people are put in postures, and they stay that way, and the instructors, often sadistic animals, chuckle as the student undergoes the effort and the strain and the pain. Heck, we’ve all heard them chuckling and expounding on how easy it is.

But they don’t tell people how to make easy. Even if they do understand, they are often so filled with their own cleverness that they don’t take the time to make the simple explanations.

It’s one of those things of: ‘We’ve always done it this way!’ And no real understanding.

The truth is that effort, strain and pain can actually result in injuries.

The correct procedure should be to encourage the student to relax. Not to put him in difficult poses and wait for a year or two until he finally relaxes, but to educate him as to how to relax individual muscles.

When an instructor does this the student suddenly gets better. He enters more and more difficult poses not by trying harder, but by relaxing his body, by learning that his muscles are fighting, and he must give them commands to relax.

The interesting phenomena is that the student’s mind will not clear out until he has relaxed.

Well, of course. A straining mind is not empty, is not clear of distractions, it is filled with one, huge distraction.

The author will tell you more at Yogata.