Category Archives: self defense

How the Ignorant Defend Themselves in Martial Arts

How Ignorant People act in Kenpo and Karate and Other Martial Arts

March,
what a wonderful month.
I’m going to work out every single day,
right into April.
You do, too!

I was checking my stats on Amazon,
and reading the reviews people write about me.
Interesting reading.
But crazy.
Let me explain.

I’ll get two reviews for a book,
one is a five star review,

VERY Interesting.. and I like the “creation” theories and methods… JUST what I was looking for.
and one is a one star review.

Waste of time if you are a serious martial artist…poor illustrations…bad

The five star talks about interesting ideas.
The one star just says ‘stupid.’
Hmmm.

How could one book provoke two such dissimilar reviews?

Well,
let me tell you.

I received an email a while ago,
the fellow said:
I don’t understand all the writing,
but when I see the pictures (videos),
then I get it.

Well,
of course,
a picture is worth a thousand words.
BUT
the real key here
is that he didn’t understand the writing.

Here are some frightening statistics.

50% of adults can’t read at 8th grade level.
45 million people are functionally illiterate.
and,
one that is very important,
6 out of 10 households don’t buy a single book in a year.

Let’s consider the implications of these statistics
as they relate to my books.

Out of the 50% adults that can’t read at 8th grade level,
there are going to be a substantial number
who are passionate about the martial arts.
They are going to read what some people see as five star material,
but because they don’t understand it,
because there aren’t enough pictures,
they are going to perceive it as worthless.
At best,
they are going to sense that something just passed them by,
and they are going to be pissed.
Pissed enough to give one star.

Out of the 45 million that are functionally illiterate,
some are passionate,
they live in blogs with small words,
and they are,
again,
angry.
A rich life is passing them by,
and though they feel that something is happening,
they can’t see it.

But here’s the kicker,
6 out of 10 don’t buy a book in a year.
But they do read on the computer,
and they are vocally upset,
when they don’t understand what somebody has said.

This is the defense mechanism of the ignorant:
get upset when you don’t understand something.

Now,
why do I bring this up.
Because I get a few low reviews,
that discourages others from buying,
and the vey valuable knowledge
that is in my books,
is then removed from the hands of the consumer.
The intelligent consumer who needs to know,
but is being waylaid by the ignorant.

Feel free to give a review.
I prefer nice,
but honest will do.

When you see a bad review,
especially if you have read the book,
and disagree,
answer them.
I can’t,
but you can.
Set the record straight.

And,
make sure you are literate,
that your children are literate,
and that knowledge can be passed down.

This world is not Rep v Dem,
it is not haves v have nots,
it is ignorant v intelligent,
and if the intelligent don’t set the ignorant straight,
then the intelligent lose.
So do you want the world to get more intelligent?
Or more ignorant?

Here’s the book which received the reviews I listed above.

http://www.amazon.com/HowCreateKenpo-Creating-Kenpo-Create-Karate/dp/1500930245/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457201795&sr=1-7&refinements=p_27%3AAl+Case#customerReviews

Have a great work out!
Al

 

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 Night Before Christmas…Martial Arts Style

Newsletter 789
The Martial Arts Night Before Christmas

Man o man!
What a perfect HanaKwanMass eve!
Perfect for a work out
for all mankind.
And,
a bit of poetry
from yours truly.

But,
before I offend you with my poetry,
let me give you a thought.

Please forgive.
I ask this every year,
twice a year,
in fact.
My birthday,
and HanaKwanMass.

Specifically,
please forgive me.
If I have said your name wrong,
messed up your order,
neglected to mention you,
said something,
anything,
that offended,
please forgive.

Forgiving cleans me out,
and it cleans you out.
You lose an element of wrong thinking
by forgiving.

So forgive.
Forgive me,
or forgive somebody else.
Remember,
positive energy creates positive energy,
and negative energy creates negative energy.
So be positive,
forgive,
and make the world a better place.
Thanks.

Now,
I hope you don’t have to forgive me this,
but here’s the official Monster Martial Arts
rendition of
The Night Before Christmas.

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS!

Twas the night before Christmas
I was in my shack
primed and ready
for the red fat attack.

my weapons were loaded
the windows were barred
all would be safe
while I was on guard

The chimney was decked
with concertina wire
I crouched by the couch
ready to fire.

I had an M60
with ammo to feed
I didn’t care
if the red fat did bleed.

A loaded shotgun
and grenades to spare
when red fat came down
I’d blow him out of there.

Throwing stars and knives
and a really long sword
and if that didn’t work
I knew a bad word.

Sitting there late
my eyes started to close
when suddenly I heard
a bunch of ho hos.

Off with the lights
safety off, too
I  watched the fire close
and heard a sound from the flu.

‘Ouch and gosh darn it
who put the wire here
those are my undies
starting to tear!’

Then a shower of soot
and a grunt and a groan
he landed in the fire
and gave out a moan.

He was rubbing the place
where the wire did tear
so I held down the trigger
and lead filled the air.

belt after belt
did I deal the red fat
he danced and he jumped
I knew he felt that!

then quicker than spit
I ran out of lead
but enough was enough
he had to be dead.

Boy was I shocked
to see him stand tall
stepping out of the fireplace
not bothered at all.

So I grabbed up the 16
to mow him down
he had to be hurting
cause I saw his big frown.

Then I was empty
and he came straight for me
I pulled out my knives
and sliced him with glee

He jumped to the side
moving real quick
disarmed my knives
with a well placed kick

then he dropped the big bag
he had on his shoulder
reached forth his arms
and his anger did smolder

He grabbed hard my neck
and held me up high
I tried kicks and punches
but I was like a fly

Not karate nor judo
no art did work
and he grinned a mean grin
and called me a jerk

‘Don’t you know
you stupid little man
Christmas is forever
in spite of your plan.’

Then he threw me aside
and proceeded to work
giving presents to all
and to me a great smirk

And when he left
the great big red fat
he left me a lump of coal
the big red fat rat!

HANAKWANMASS TO ALL

and to all
have a great work out.

Al

Here’s a good place to go…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/temple-karate/

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

How to Kill People by Just Touching Them!

…but you’ll be protected by the invisible force field around your body!

The one thing that gets me concerning the Martial Arts, and it shouldn’t, but it does, are ads like the one right below.

I Couldn’t Believe I Froze Up … What’s Really Ridiculous Is That I’ve Been Trained In 13 Martial Arts Since I Was Only Four Years Old, So I, Of All People Should Have Been Able To Do Something, But I Couldn’t – I Didn’t Know What To Do In This Exact Situation, Even Though I Practiced Many Similar Situations. This Was A False Sense Of Security.

kung fu training manualdynamic tension hard punch martial artsThis ad is off the internet, it’s part of a big pitch designed to empower people with ‘invisible force fields’ that enable them to handle multiple attackers with their bare hands, to tear apart whole mobs, and without any martial arts training.

Or, as in the case above, the guy had studied lots of fighting disciplines, but they didn’t work.

Okay, so let’s look at the real facts here.

Fact Number One: I doubt if the guy studied Karate, or Kenpo, or Aikido, or even a smidgeon of Shaolin. But if he did, he better ask for his money back because…They weren’t the real thing, they weren’t real fighting disciplines.

Fact Number Two: In spite of the hype of ads like this, ads which actually degrade the real martial arts in favor of making money for some bum who studied no martial arts, or martial arts that weren’t real, there is no substitute for learning a real martial art.

A fake, comic book, internet scam martial art is a handful of tricks that look neat, but have little relation to each other.

A real self defense method is a LOT of tricks, tied together with effective theory so that everything relates, and which then can work on you to change your mindset and make you a better human being.

Consider this: a real art, like Karate or Gung Fu or Krav Maga develops intuition. It develops a sixth sense. Let me tell you this: if I was that guy I wouldn’t have awakened when the bad guys so much as stepped on my property. The hairs would have stood on my neck, I would have been wired, I would have been more alert than Defcon Five! Because THAT is what a real fighting discipline does to you. It wakes you up, it makes you intuitive, it gives you that sixth sense. 

Consider this: when you study a real discipline, like Jujitsu or Wing Chun or good, old Karate, when somebody holds a gun on you…you instantly wake up! You are more alert than you have ever been, and you can’t stop the scenarios from enfolding in your mind. I can do this, I can do that, and you sort through them and wait, because you know, when the time comes, that you won’t be thinking, you will be doing.

Concerning the above two considerations, the above two chapters, I speak from personal experience. This is not a hype, or a war story, or some whimsical comic book supposition.

So the conclusion is this: if you don’t know a real form of self defense, a classical method that’s been formed through the centuries, then you are a sitting duck. You have no discipline for emergencies, you have no plan, and you likely don’t even have the conditioning.

Yes, sometimes a form of self defense like Karate or Kung Fu might have some mistakes in it, maybe defenses against weapons that are no more, maybe a poser technique, but even these problems tend to make you think, condition your body, give you alternatives in the extreme. Everything is an education, and it really all depends on what you do with it, whether you make it real enough to save your life.

And, here is the truth: don’t bother with the hype, don’t bother with comic book ads. Only seek out real martial arts, real forms of self defense. Learn them fast, and learn more than one, because what one doesn’t teach another one will.

To do less is to stand on the street in the middle of the mob holding hundred dollar bills and scream ‘Don’t take my money!’

You’ll end up in the gutter faster than fast, and it’s your own fault for not being prepared, for not getting in shape, for not giving yourself a real Martial Arts education when you could have.

About the Author: Al Case has studied Martial Arts since 1967. He is the originator of Matrixing Technology, which is the only science of the martial arts in the world. People who learn Matrixing can absorb classical martial arts three times faster, and make them work three times better.

If you want to learn a real method of Self Defense, the best place to start is Matrix Karate

New Bruce Lee Book Released!

Bruce Lee versus Classical Martial Arts!

The name of the book is ‘Bruce Lee, Jeet Kune Do, and Neutronics.’

Written by Al Case, a martial artist with near fifty years experience in the martial arts, this book takes an outside viewpoint of Bruce Lee, and his martial art (Jeet Kune Do).

bruce lee training manual

Book on Bruce Lee’s Martial Art of Jeet Kune Do.

Bruce Lee is often considered, specifically as to what drove him to his martial arts theories. The main focus of the book, however, is to compare and contrast Jeet Kune Do to the more classical martial arts, specifically, the author’s art of Karate.

This is a hard core book. While it is respectful, it is obvious that the author holds Mr. Lee in high esteem, there are some very hard questions asked concerning the formation of JKD, and the real purpose of the art.

It is also an intelligent book, going into Matrixing Technology, which is the first and only science of the martial arts, and Neutronic philosophy. The author claims that because JKD is an advanced martial art only advanced methods of thought can be used to analyze it.

Which is to say that if you are Beeavis or Butthead, you may want to avoid this tome. It won’t teach you Jeet Kune Do, and it may hurt your head to actually start thinking about it.

Mr. Case has, as said, near 50 years martial arts experience. He began Kenpo Karate in 1967, quickly became an instructor, and went on to study virtually every martial art that came down the pike during the Golden Age of Martial Arts. He became a writer for the magazines in 1981, and had his own column in Inside Karate. Thus, Mr. Case doesn’t enter the picture as a newbie, but an experienced fighter and writer. His compare and contrast with JKD should provide the most enlightened student with much thought.

Bruce Lee, Jeet Kune Do, and Neutronics, will be released and on Amazon within the week, and students interested in the paperback version should do a search on Amazon probably by the last week of April 2015.

Students who would like to save $5 and purchase the instant download of the book should go to FreeBruceLee.com.

http://freebrucelee.com/martial-arts/new-book-on-bruce-lee/

Hard Punches Break Bones

How to Break a Bone with a Punch

Do you know what clunking is?
Of course you don’t,
I made up the term.
It describes the feeling of a real hit,
a strike that goes through the body,
a punch or kick that shakes the very bones,
sets up a wave of destruction,
shivers the heart of the person being struck.

You think I am being a little too exuberant in my description?
Nah.

 

how to get a belt in karate

kang duk won break

You wanna break things?

Listen, there are three depths of strike.
One to the skin,
one to the muscle,
and one to the bone.

Punch skin deep and you are playing,
no bruises,
nothing but gotcha, with no impact.

Punch muscle deep and you create bruises.
Little welts to purple blots.
There is room to descend here,
into the muscle to varying depth,
and it is a very educational time
when you are playing with this strike.
Got to be careful,
too,
because it hurts.

Now,
to strike bone deep is something else.
You actually have the perception of hitting the bone,
not even bothering with the skin or muscle.
Oddly,
there are very few bruises.
but,
you can actually feel the bone shake,
and the guy who is struck has a queasy feeling,
and he rubs his arm
as if there was pain.
It hurts,
but none of that sissy ouchie stuff
that the kids cry about.
This is the deep touch,
the hello to one more bit of depth
and that bone is going to break
and if I did this to your kidneys you’d piss blood and die.
Not pain,
but knowing that the body is going to break.

Now,
how do you practice this depth of punch?
Well,
I’ll give you a couple of good clues.

One,
you relax.
You don’t put your perception in your arm,
in the sensation of muscle tightening,
except by the way.
Instead,
you put your perception in his arm,
you feel him with your fist,
and this leads to the second hint.

When you hit somebody,
plant your fist on his body
and gently push.

Now, you are working the exact muscles
of the punch
at the point of impact.
Can’t get more specific with any type of muscular training.
The exact and perfect range and motion of muscles
at the point of impact.
But,
remember,
don’t concentrate on the sensation within,
concentrate on the sensation of his body.
Feel the muscle and tissue retreat before your fist,
feel the touch of bone with your knuckles.

After a while
you can actually feel the wave,
the vibration
of the bone.

Bone doesn’t like to be touched in this manner.

Muscles and flesh, you see
hide the bone,
protect the bone,
and you have just passed all the safeguards and
touched the bone.

Now,
there is more to it than this,
but if you just practice this kind of punch,
gently,
then you will get it.
And,
when students get this kind of ability,
to punch a guy right to the bone,
I call it Clunking.
Clunking
is just sort of the appropriate word
for the sensation.

Think of it like this–
clunking is like
dropping a rock into a pond,
and having the rock strike the rocks
just below the surface.
You hear a splash
and a…clunk.

Well,
that clunk,
that sickening, splitting sound
of rock breaking
(or almost breaking,
other rock,
is what you want.

Clunk.
Deep,
dull,
thud.

You feel his bone,
he feels his bone worry and revulse,
and
clunk.

Okey doke.
Holy sweet heysoos,
I like talking about
breaking bones.
I’d think there was something wrong,
but such fun…such fun.

So,
dig into your wallet,
get out twenty,
hit the monster
and find the page on the punch.
It’s right here…

The Punch!

cause what I have been telling you here
is just a sweet taste
of how to break bones
with a simple punch.

And have a downright immortal work out!

Al

=o)

Life must be understood backwards; but… it must be lived forward.
Soren Kierkegaard

How Bad is Outlaw Karate?

Is Outlaw Karate Really a Kick Ass Martial Art?

I get the question, every once in a while, as to how tough Outlaw Karate really is. Let me answer that question once and for all.

4 outlaw karate cover orig

Here is the cover of the Outlaw Karate book which is for sale on Amazon.

First, I did study with the Hell’s Angels, which is to say that there were quite a few Hell’s Angels in my Karate class. They were tough, they were not the reason for the naming of this art, but they did tend to focus in on what worked on the street, and backed up their observations with real experience.

Second, I did name it Outlaw because it was going outside the realm of normal, or classical, Karate. I was combining two very hard styles of Karate, and this was looked down on back in the day.

Third, I’m not going to tell you it was a tough class, I am going to give you a  list of things that happened during that class that made it very tough. Then you can make up your mind as to whether it is a tough style or not.

I taught the class over a year long period. I chose the forms and techniques that I did because I was teaching my son; I wanted him to have the best, the things that worked the most. During the course we cracked his breast bone, actually put a dent in it. When the doctor said ‘No more Karate,’ Aaron refused, told me I would have to beat him up to stop him, and then walked into class that night. His attitude was not singular.

Mike had broken fingers for nearly the whole year.

Some of the guys, grown men, broke into tears during class.

All throws were taken to the max, which is to say we didn’t have mats, and we threw each other on the floor, full force, and laughed.

One night Josh found himself at a party, and a fight broke out. He stepped into a corner and faced outward and waited. Man after man ran up to fight him, took one look at the look in his eyes, then turned and ran looking for another fight. He just wasn’t a victim, and it was plain to see.

One day Aaron was walking down the street and was jumped by two much larger fellows. He rendered them both unconscious within ten seconds.

And so the stories go. It was tough and it was brutal. I can honestly say it was the toughest class I ever taught.

And I still think that the art was the toughest, and that solely for the attitude of the students. They laughed when they broke their bones, they persisted through tears and blood.

And they made Outlaw Karate a legend.

So, was it tough?

Heck, you can get a copy of the book, or the book and a video of some of the forms and techniques, and decide for yourself.

No matter what you decide, it will be a healthy addition to your martial arts; it will be something that  will work, and it will certainly enhance your other martial arts.

Book and video Outlaw Karate Course.

Just the  Outlaw Karate book (from Amazon).

 

 

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

Knife Fighting: the Wrong Way and the Right Way

A Knife Fight Goes Bad…

Billy Jack, stoic Indian with Green Beret Martial Arts training, was one of the first movie heroes to beat up bad guys with karate/kung fu/taekwondo/whatever.

Interestingly, I met a real Indian war hero who told me what it was really like. He was a chubby fellow from Northern California, and he had been a Navy SEAL. At least so he said.

green beret martial arts

Can you handle ANY weapon? Click on the image…

He told me that the Navy had been looking for people who were extra sneaky and mean, and they tried him and a few other Indians.

He told me they would sneak around the bush, sneak up on the VC, and kill everybody they could.

He said that one night a couple of his friends came back from a mission laughing. They had apparently snuck into a VC barracks and sliced the throat of every other man. They thought it was going to be a great joke when the survivors woke up and found that the men on each side of them had been killed.

And, he told me of a knife fight he had had when he was a teenager.

He got into it with some other good, old boy, and they were rasslin’ and stabbin’ each other when the cops pulled them apart and arrested them.

The other guy went to the hospital, where he might not make it through the night.

My friend sat there, waiting to see if he was going to be charged with fighting or with murder. And he wiped some blood off his shirt. Talk to the cops. Wiped some more blood off. Talked the cops. Wiped some more…”Hey! I’m bleeding!”

Apparently the other fellow had managed to stick him in the gut, and the fold of skin had compressed while sitting and the blood only seeped out, which made it look like he wasn’t really injured.

So he went to the hospital, the other guy lived, and he joined the Navy to avoid charges for assault and battery, which was the way they did things back then.

Anyway, I don’t know the truth of his story, he could have been telling me a big windy, but I do know something about knife fighting.

You can stab, or you can slice. Bad idea to throw, ‘cause there’s no smarts in throwing away your weapon. How you hold the knife depends on what you want to do, unless you go in without a plan. not a good idea. Everybody should be trained, and that training should have an idea for every possible situation.

Anyway, I’ve written a complete course, with a few hours of in depth video instruction, on how to handle knives and other bladed weapons. The course is called Blinding Steel, and it is available at Monster Martial Arts.

But the thing about knives is this: it is the most common weapon you will meet in a fight. After all, knives, for the most part, are legal.

You can carry a Bowie knife, or any large knife, even a machete.
You can carry knives openly, or even concealed.
The only knives you can’t carry are things like dirks and ballistic knives and daggers and stilettos.
You can’t carry knives that look like something else, like a tube of lipstick or a pen or something like that.

But you can carry a knife, and bad guys will resort to a knife as their weapon of first choice. After all, past a gun, which is illegal for the most part, in spite of all constitutional guarantees, a knife is easy, quick, and visually frightening.

But, if you study a real martial arts course on knives, like Blinding Steel, then you won’t have much to worry about. With Blinding Steel knife course you learn how to use anything for a weapon, and you can even take a knife away from some idiot and insert it where there isn’t much chance of getting a sunburn.

That’s Blinding Steel, at MonsterMartialArts.com.

Did Bruce Lee Know the Soft Side of Wing Chun Kung Fu

Bruce Lee and the Two Styles of Wing Chun Kung Fu

Whenever I try to explain to people that there are 2 styles of Wing Chun, anyone that “knows” Wing Chun, tries to tell me that I am wrong, that there is no second style, only the variation being that of Moy Yat and Leung Ting.

The objection stems from the fact that most people do not know that soft-style exists.  There are no “training” videos sold of soft style,  and finding a video on YouTube is next to impossible.

bruce lee wing chun kung fu

Two sides, my friend. Learn them both if you want to be great!

Soft-style was only taught to a select few students, William Cheung learned both soft-style and hard-style. Bruce Lee, Leung Ting, Moy Yat and other famous Wing Chun Stylists either never learned soft-style, or chose never to teach it. Think of it like this, hard-style was taught to the outside world, and they guarded the REALLY good material and kept it only in the family. Because I do not know these individual people, I don’t know the reason their lineages don’t include soft-style, whether they wish to continue the secrecy, or whether they simply weren’t privy to it.

The Tan-sao is a perfect example, of the difference. Hard-style leans and drops it down so it is almost horizontal, soft-style maneuvers the body properly, and keeps the tan-sao up, the eyes just barely able to see over the fingertips.  Bruce Lee threw out the Tan-sao because he said it was worthless, and indeed if the tan-sao is held low, it doesn’t block anything.

When comparing forms, you will observe hard-style people simply lean from one side to the other when performing chum-kil, while soft-style will actually take a full step.

Both of the videos below include Bil-jee, if you watch those variations of that form, you will see many more differences.

 

Some of the key differences between hard and soft Wing Chun are as follows:

  • Hard-style relies more on muscular strength, while soft relies on correct body alignment. As sensei says, “if you are leaning, you are falling”.  This is true in all arts, and one of the reasons my Brazilian jujitsu instructor harps on good posture. If you rely on a lean ,you must rely on muscle.
  • Hard-style uses a more collapsed forward guard with no forward intention, under the assertion that in trapping your energy is harder to read.  While the energy is indeed harder to read, the guard is easier to blast through. Such a guard and collapse and trap a guard that has no forward intention.

Hard-style Wing Chun is what Bruce Lee was unhappy with when he created JKD.  Even so, he and many others proved it was incredibly effective, even without knowing the “family secret”.

‘Matrixing Karate: Master’ is on the Bookshelves!

Releasing the Fifth Volume of Matrixing Karate: Master

This is the official announcement that ‘Matrixing Karate: Master,’ has been released.

It was actually finished a couple of weeks ago, and it has had time to get up on Amazon, and it is in the createspace bookstore, so it’s time to make it official.

Release of final volume of Matrixing Karate Series!

Release of final volume of Matrixing Karate Series!

 
The first volume of this pivotal Karate series was dedicated to fixing basic movements. Volumes 2 – 4 were aimed at explaining matrixng principles, introducing matrixing graphs, and so on. Volumes 1 – 4 were based on the Matrix Karate course available at MonsterMartialArts.com.

The fifth and final volume is a bit different. It is based on a series of manuals written over the years, and upon the ‘Create Your Own Art’ video course.

The thing that makes this final book so important, and sets it apart from even the books it was based upon, is that it goes through the history and concepts of Matrixing and details exactly where each concept came from.

Thus, you are taken on a journey, from the first martial art studied by the author, Kenpo Karate, through each and every martial art he studied. This includes detailing concepts from separating two arts successfully (Kang Duk Won and Kwon Bup) and developing a third based on those two. (Outlaw Karate: The Secret of the One Year Black Belt). It goes into the exact influences that resulted in the development of matrixing, including the original matrixing lists from the 70s and 80s, and leads right into the creation of the Matrix graph.

One thing that may be surprising to students of the martial arts is that the author developed matrixing without the matrixing graph. Instead, he used lists of techniques, reworking the lists for every concept he encountered. This actually entailed, literally, thousands of lists. Thus, the development of the Matrixing Graph is a bonus to the martial arts of unparalleled value.

The book may be found on Amazon. It is paperback, and students of the martial arts are encouraged to get the earlier volumes first, that they may better understand the import and significance of this volume.

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If You Want More than Just Martial Arts Fighting…

To Fight or not to Fight

The following is a guest editorial from Alaric Dailey

Being a student of traditional Karate-Do, when I make mention to a school owner or martial artist or parent of a child taking classes somewhere that “martial arts is more than punching and kicking, there is more to being a martial artist than simply being a fighter” I get a blank stare. At this point, I have to explain the following.

wudan assassin

The Wudan Assassin, on kindle or paperback…click on the cover!

These days, tradition is often poo-pooed with some comment like “if it doesn’t make me a better fighter than I don’t care”.   But being a fighter doesn’t make you a good person, in fact, simply knowing how to fight can make you arrogant, or worse, a bully.

This is often evidenced in “fighter” gyms, people walking around with bad attitudes, all about testosterone and ego, injuries abound because people are always trying to prove they are the king of the mountain.

The way of the warrior, Bushido, is about being a gentle soul, learning not only to punch and kick, but to help others, to be calm and humble.

In other words, learning all those “useless” things, like the language, the manners, the meditation, the discipline, reciting Dojo-kun are not useless, they are about expanding your mind, and making you more than a fighter.

In my original dojo, my sensei not only give us the meditation and such, but would also tell us stories of the Samurai, and give us pieces of Bushido that most westerners never hear.  “Ikebana (flower arranging) is a great way to clear your mind”, and “self-defense is not just about punching and kicking, it is about avoiding and defusing danger in the first place” were words of wisdom that we often heard from sensei.

When the Japanese would teach an art, they would distinguish whether or not it included only fighting techniques, or would give you “the way”.  If you have “the way” it is a Do, Karate-Do, Ju-Do, Aiki-Do, etc.  If it is purely fighting techniques it was Jitsu, Karate-jitsu, Ju-jitsu, Aiki-jitsu, and Nin-jitsu.

As a side note here, you will notice there is no such thing as a “Do” for Ninja fighting techniques.  This is because the ninja weren’t fighters, they were assassins, their skills included, poisons, escape, evasion, not being seen, killing techniques etc.   Being a hired killer, and being a better person have nothing to do with each other.

There are 7 virtues
Rectitude (義 gi)
Courage (勇 yū)
Benevolence (仁 jin)
Respect (禮 rei)
Honesty (誠 makoto)
Honour (名誉 meiyo)
Loyalty (忠義 chūgi)

and 3 more associated virtues
Filial piety (孝 kō)
Wisdom (智 chi)
Care for the aged (悌 tei)

I see it as a great loss that so many have thrown away history and tradition, the Do, in favor of the more testosterone fueled (and MMA fanned) jitsu.  It is a sad state of affairs that our children grow up idolizing real and fictional people who push the ideas “might makes right” and “the ends justifies the means”, never once mentioning justice and mercy.

I highly recommend “The Hagakure”.

Check out the Karate Katas that work.