Newsletter 1031
The Secret of Karate Bunkai

We actually didn’t all them bunkai,
we call them ‘Promise Fights,’
or ‘form applications,’
or simply techniques.
But the real description was…

‘Promise Fights.’

It was explained to me that
they were the ‘promise of a fight.’
It was decade before I figured out
what the phrase actually meant.

Before there is action there must be thought.
Action does not occur before thought,
action cannot occur at all without thought.
Period.
The actual word would be…

‘postulate’

A postulate is the thought before the action.
So without a postulate
there is no action.

And,
to drill those techniques until you are sweating blood
is to make the postulate work.
It is to make the idea work,
is to make the concept work.
It is the postulate…
or it is
the promise that your technique will work.
The more you drill
the more your promise will come true.

Now,
a couple of things.
If the technique is flawed the promise won’t come true.
If the technique is a poser the promise won’t come true.
If the technique is inappropriate,
poorly put together,
or mechanically or dynamically unsound…
the promise won’t come true.

But,
if the technique is correct and appropriate,
if the technique matrixed…it will come true.

But,
all conditions being met,
this where the magic starts.
Endless drilling = martial magic,
and in the most extreme sense of the word.

I remember one time I struck a fellow in the face,
pulled my punch,
didn’t touch him,
and he staggered away holding his chin.
My promise,
my postulate was so strong,
he thought he had been hit.
I had actually changed his reality with a thought.

That takes a LOT of drilling
with the correct techniques.

We took our techniques form the forms.
Basic techniques from pinan one through pinan five.
Up to green belt we had about 20 techniques,
real basic things,
block and counter.
We drilled those until we
NEVER HESITATED!
And never missed our target,
never flubbed a block.
We would do the technique twice on each side.
If we made a mistake we would do the technique
more than twice.
Sometimes a lot more.

Come the green belt test
we would run through the promise fights
in about five minutes.
And that was considered slow.
And we were judged for perfect form.
We had to have perfect form in the middle of a fight,
and every technique was considered a fight…
with ourselves,
could we meet the demands of discipline.

Think about it,
ten seconds for two attacks,
ten seconds for us to attack our partner twice,
20 seconds and we had done one promise fight.
20 promise fights times 20 seconds,
400 seconds
6 1/2 minutes
No hesitations.
You can’t hesitate in a fight.

Okay, brown belt we had maybe 50 techniques,
fifty promise fights or ‘bunkai.’
20 seconds for both partners to get through each technique
times 50 = 1000 seconds.
Or…17 minutes.

Sometimes the instructor
would have us do just the techniques
from a specific form or two
and we would really focus on getting things perfect and fast.

Black belt we had about 70 techniques.
1400 seconds,
or…23 minutes.

About the time we were ready for black belt testing
you would see fellows sweating blood after class for hours
trying to get the promise fights into the required time frame.
Once the black belt test started
the instructor would just sit there and watch,
and you NEVER wanted him to make a check on his clipboard.

A green belt test you could make a few errors,
same with the brown belt test.
There were NO errors allowed on the black belt test.

Do you know what kind of mental focus is required to achieve this?
Superhuman is the only word that comes to mind.

And we did it in about three years.
And we ended up being totally intuitive.
Simply, we were not allowed to think about what we were doing,
so we didn’t,
and the only choice we had,
the only result
was intuition.
We had to know what we were doing
with no hesitation.
You can’t hesitate in a fight.

Now,
if this seems brutal,
it actually wasn’t.
It was just demanding,
and done on a gradient,
first you only have to do 20 techniques,
then you only have to do 50 techniques,
then 70 is reachable.

So that is the secret of the bunkai,
of the form application,
of the…promise fight.

Here’s the obligatory ad…

Matrix Karate

Matrix Karate will help you understand the martial arts
so that a black belt test will be easy.

Have a funtastic work out!
have yourself a great work out!
Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview

BTW
Have you read ‘The Bomber’s Story?’
It is the ultimate conspiracy novel,
tells you who owns the US and the world,
and there’s even a little martial arts in it!

THE BOMBER’S STORY

1a Matrix Karate