It’s Xmas,
Merry Xmas!
And,
of course,
HanaKwanMass!
Got three new vids out for you.
Two of them on working out.
Look,
it is very important to get the teacher’s viewpoint.
You will see this in these videos.
Hey,
you’re teaching yourself,
right?
So it’s important.
But the logic here goes a bit further.
If you are the dummy (the receiver)
in training,
you learn how to take a punch,
how to see a punch,
how to analyze a punch from the viewpoint of one getting struck.
This is valuable data.
If you are the person doing the hitting,
you get to learn how to implement a technique,
how to drive through a block,
how to make it work in spite of anything
an opponent might do.
VERY valuable data.
But when you teach,
you get both viewpoints,
and you get outside the technique.
You start to understand it in a way
that a student,
be he attacker or defender,
will NEVER understand.
Never.
That is the MOST VALUABLE data of all.
So figure out these warm ups,
get your family members to warm up with you,
start to appreciate
how little people understand their bodies
and how to make them work.
Guaranteed,
see it from a teacher’s viewpoint
and you’ll suddenly understand things
like you NEVER understood them before.
Here’s the Christmas vids.
‘MB 30 Moon Form Variations’
Different way of doing the Moon form.
Look,
low level students repeat the form
until they can repeat it like robots.
Yes,
they blow through circuits,
and will eventually make the moves intuitive.
BUT…
they don’t understand
all the different ways
of looking at and doing a form.
‘MB 31 Warm Ups kids’
Perfect for teaching kids,
for getting them to make the transition
from play to work.
But you have to be patient.
These Warm Ups are also excellent for people
getting back into the martial arts after lengthy time off,
or rehabilitating.
If you want some real fun,
I suggest you bolster these warm up routines
with exercises from Yogata.
‘MB 32 Warm Ups Adults’
These are the Monkey Boxing warm ups.
A little more vigorous,
they focus on making the body empty
at the same time you warm it up.
Not muscles,
but mind,
emptying the body so it can move faster
and with more sureness.
Okey doggone oakley
time to eat, drink,
and celebrate a couple of thousand years
of attempted peace.
With Monkey Boxing
maybe we can get there a little faster.
HANAKWANMASS to all,
and to all…
here is my famous Christmas ditty,
designed to put joy in your hearts,
and bells on your swords.
Click on Cover for The Secret of the One Year Black Belt!
BUT,
before we go with my yearly rendition
of the Night Before Xmas,
let me say something.
First,
please forgive.
If I have offended you,
been late on an order,
said something you didn’t like,
please extend your forgiveness to me.
I’m trying hard,
but I make mistakes.
A little forgiveness
will go a long way.
Thanks.
AND,
before we start
on that bit of eternal poetry,
let me say something.
Did you know
more people have canceled their subscription
to this newsletter
after reading this poem
than…than…
I don’t know.
I just know that a lot of people cancel.
EXCELLENT!
I only want the serious martial artists.
And how can you be a serious martial artist
if you don’t know how to laugh?
Or at least groan at my poem?
So to you,
the grumps,
the misogynists,
the bank robbers and dog kickers,
the fellows (and gals) who don’t work out
and will live a dry,
mundane,
boring,
empty of excitement
life…
this poem is designed
to get rid of you.
TAKE THAT!
Heh heh!
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!
Got lots of things today,
including a PHEEEnominal win from a Monkey Boxer.
So…
LET’S START!
First,
it is the month of HanaKwanMass,
and I should explain that to all you newbies
who only joined the newsletter in the last year.
HanaKwanMass stands for…
Hanukkah, Kwanza, and Christmas.
Political correctness is for idiots,
if somebody says Happy Kwanza to me,
I say Happy Kwanza back.
Skin color, religion,
those are just distinctions for the ignorant.
We all bleed red,
and I don’t care what you call your viewpoint
of the Supreme Power.
So
HanaKwanMass,
I reach everybody,
or offend everybody,
and the heck with political correctness.
Second,
the path of the martial arts
involves making a person intuitive.
So they don’t have to think,
but do the right thing,
without thinking about it,
automatically.
What matrixing does is do this FAST.
Look,
there’s a lot to matrixing,
and that’s because the martial arts have had a lot done to them.
People,
well meaning instructors,
have obscured the real arts.
They have hidden the path to intuition.
Matrixing merely cleans up the field,
derails mysticism
with scientific observation,
and heaping helpings of logic.
One of the first things I ever wrote about Matrixing…
If you want to teach somebody how to count,
you wouldn’t say…
4, 7, green, 5 elephant…and so on.
You would say…
1…2…3…4…
and so on.
The martial arts, because of politics,
religion, nationalism, personal interest,
and so on,
are a mixed mesh up of…
4, 7, green, 5 elephant…and so on.
Matrixing returns the art to the logic of 1…2…3…4…and so on.
But there’s so much more,
there is the intense scrutiny of basics,
the rearranging of form,
the alignment of techniques,
and the presentation of a scientific philosophy
so that people no longer get lost in the mysticism.
Unfortunately,
people who aren’t too smart,
can’t let go of the mysticism,
and they resist matrixing.
Invariably,
they haven’t studied it,
but they sure know how to badmouth it.
So,
third,
here’s a win.
It is a spectacular win,
comes from a Monkey Boxing student.
And I should say something about this.
Matrixing presents the logic,
can be applied to any art.
Monkey Boxing is me teaching.
I use matrixing,
and all the tools at my disposal.
You might see a drill I learned in the Kang Duk Won
45 years ago.
You might see a translation from Wing Chun to Aikido,
that I worked on 40 years ago.
You might see something I made up yesterday
to help one student make the leap
from the hard grind of repetition
to the joy of intuition.
It goes this way and that,
an intuition of teaching,
and I have no way of judging
whether my instincts are correct.
So to get a win like this
really makes my day.
Here’s the win…
Al,
I don’t have room here to say this big enough or joyfully enough— but if I did, I’d put a HUGE big “Whoopee!!”
I’ve finally been through the first few videos of the Monkey Boxing course. I have a habit of watching all I have- this from a learning technique I picked up years ago called “super-learning” and it basically says to learn anything- first skim over the material, which creates a ‘sense of familiarity’ to the information. I’ve done that. I have been left on CLOUD 9.
I was injured in an accident in 99– got mashed between two HUGE trucks– my 16 ton tow truck and a 9,000 pound Ford Excursion SUV…. and after that, I took almost 3 years to learn just to walk semi-normally again and I still limp. Lately, I’ve had more “arthritic” effects and stiffening as a result. The other effect it had on me is, for some reason, and no doctors have been able to tell me why- I’ve lost a LOT of memories of my life. I can put all my past memories probably in a two or three hour video if I could transfer my thoughts to video. My 5th degree black belt in Kenpo- for instance– is GONE. I know it did it, and every so often get a little “glimpse” of things but doesn’t stay with me. My bodyguard years- I have a few memories of that- and even the last few years since the accident, most of the past part is just not there.
I’m telling you this because I wanted to get back into a martial art- more for self- defense than the “art” part. I’m 60, not in good health at all, but want to learn to take care of myself.
What I found, just watching the first 14 videos (for some reason I missed 13- which I’ll get when my internet is back on- my data limit ran out).. was that it IS exactly as you said– SO INTUITIVE!! It’s a truly NATURAL grouping of actions and motions- and I easily flow with it. I’m So excited, I could scream– probably will a bit later!! 🙂
I have begun, and will have to work consistently and SLOWLY, and let it build on its own. I can see myself doing it all- very slowly- and with dynamic tension to get the motions correct and build the muscles for that particular move as the same time- then over time the drills will build the motion back into my muscle memory (which hopefully will stay with me since they ARE natural- logical motions). I don’t know how long it will take me to learn and get really good at this- and don’t really CARE– because I KNOW it works- my “spirit” says it WORKS… and my mind KNOWS it works- because it is NATURAL/LOGICAL and REAL. I’ve already put my Kenpo books, cds., and other stuff I was looking at BACK in storage– and won’t be needing them. I’m not interested in spending another 5+ years just learning something that is NOT right for me anyway. And I love that just doing the Forms is the only realy “workout” I need. I DO a workout- have begun recently- called 7 miracle tiger moves.. which is dynamic tension in motion.. and LOVE them- they are very effective and are working. I can just AD this system to my routine and learn Monkey boxing while “working out” at the same time!! I LOVE this.
You can’t possibly KNOW just how happy this has made me. I have no one to work out with–and the forms will take care of that. Later, once I’m settled where ever I go- I want to get a dummy and stuff to work out on. I’ll probably teach it to someone close by once I get settled too.
I DO have a lousy internet right now, though– it’s wirless through Net Zero– which is a good service– but the “hotspot” I got from them is crappy. It’s a pad that I use for hotspot- and most of the time it kicks out right in the middle of whatever I”m doing- and I have to shut everything down and start over… and the signal strength is weak- so it doesn’t pick up well at all when it’s cloudy. I’m ordering a better “hotspot” later- like Jan. (my check this time is already spent on my truck).. Until then- I’m hoping all the videos you post are ARCHIVED– because I will miss from now to about the 5th… That is why I want to DOWNLOAD them all to my hard drive– because I use up “data” limit time watching them directly and can’t do them over and over like here at home.
I thought I would have loads of questions– but don’t- because it IS so “intuitive” and natural (or maybe the kenpo and tai chi is still in there helping with that somewhere- just unconsciously).. and I just LOVE this.. I was seriously looking at JKD online, and Wing chun online– etc.– but not now– I’m Doing MONKEYBOXING totally!! Forget all that other long time stuff!! 🙂
Anyway- hope this wasn’t too long- but just wanted you to know- I have FOUND my “niche” in this!!! THANK YOU.
David C
pS– There’s NO WAY I can possibly do the Monkey in a Box for a bit– I have trouble getting up and down out of a regular chair lately… but I’m working on it.. and I’ve always had this “feeling” in me that there was “an answer” or a “secret” to ALL martial arts– and this is it!!
David,
thank you very much for the win.
Thank you for allowing me to share this,
I know it will inspire people.
And,
for all you guys and gals.
David’s points are very simple…
anybody can learn it,
it is intuitive,
it can be learned fast…
or slow.
Depends on what you need and want.
And,
I don’t wish to replace anybody’s arts,
but that sometimes happens.
I actually prefer that you take my material
and revitalize your own art of choice.
Here’s the key,
matrixing breaks apart and rebuilds,
it makes logic, and logic becomes intuitive.
Monkey Boxing is me teaching.
I teach matrixed art,
and I draw on ALL my experiences
to get the student to experience ALL of his abilities.
Now,
those of you who have signed up for Monkey Boxing,
you’ll get a Monkey Boxing newsletter shortly
giving you the heads up on the new videos,
and other things that are happening on the site.
Here’s two links…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/
starts the matrixing path…
and…
http://monkeyboxingnow.com/internet/
a page I’m trying out
to gear to ads on the internet.
Excellent! You survived Thanksgiving, now all you have to do is make it through Xmas! Or, Hanakwanmass, as I call it. Remember, the best way to make it through anything, is to work out every single day. Nobody can beat a guy (or gal) who is in top condition!
Click on the Monkey to find out about Monkey Boxing!
Okay, time for an update on Monkey Boxing.
Before I start, let me say that the main focus of this newsletter is matrixing. Monkey Boxing will come up every couple of weeks, but, believe it or not, there are a few people who don’t want personal lessons from a guy with 50 years experience, they don’t want to tap into the mind that created matrixing and neutronics.
And, believe it or not, that’s okay, I have nothing against people who choose to remain ignorant. Good people, them, and future customers.
To them I recommend Matrixing. Good place to start before you jump into my world.
So, that said, Monkey Boxing is doing excellent!
About 20 videos were released this month. They deal with the whole spectrum of Monkey Boxing, from warm ups to kicks to the incredible ‘Rolling Fists’ exercise, to techniques and forms… lots of stuff.
And here’s something to think about… everything has my stamp on it, been matrixed up the yin yang, very scientific, very thorough, very intuitive, but… nobody has ever seen, except maybe through a quick mention, or an obscure video, such things as ‘The Circle of Blocks’ (Monkey Boxing Style) Monkey in a Box Circle of Blocks and attacks The Flower of Blocks Grab Hands The Monkey Blast
Never been seen, or almost never been seen.
Monkey in a Box will build your shoulder strength and help flexibility like gangbusters.
Grab Hands is a VERY heavy zen drill. BUT…you have to do it right. Here, you see it right.
The Flower of Blocks will build hand speed, and leg strength, if you do it while in a horse stance, like nobody’s business.
The Circle of Blocks opens up total new vistas of ability.
These things haven’t been seen, or only briefly referenced or described.
They are…NEW!
New martial arts. Stuff developed for Monkey Boxing, and never been seen in ANY other martial art.
Something to think about.
And, that all said, the coming months are going to be fantastic.
I’m writing a complete book, a freebie for the Monkey Boxers.
Dozens and dozens of unique and original (which is to say ‘never been seen’) exercises and drills.
The frustrating thing about all this is that I am gearing this off a real class I am teaching. People from the ground up, very little experience, so I jump around.
I’m writing a Monkey Boxing book, (freebie to subscribers) and the book will help in this. It will be ready in a month or so, and provide a massive overview and work out schedule.
But you will be picking and choosing, and trying to make sense out of this for a couple of months.
The good news is that in jumping around I am referencing things that haven’t been seen for a LONG while.
Grab Hands, for instance, you might have actually seen, but never the martial arts side of it, never the zen side of it. And it is TOTAL dynamite. Calms the mind, gets rid of twitches and flinches, and zeroes you in like a lazier guided rocket!
Okay, enough of the good news, let me give you some bonus good news.
Every month will be archived once past. BUT, I can’t sell an empty page to somebody on the first few days of the next month. So, the first week of the month, the videos from last month will remain up. After the first week, the previous month will get archived, but, for that first week, if you are smart… sign up and the previous month is still there. Watch, download, save your own personal copy, (but, please, don’t give my stuff away).
What this means is that you will have a window, about 7 days, when you can actually get two months for the price of one.
Remember, once a month is archived you will have to purchase separately.
Subscribers will, of course, have access to every month since they began subscribing.
Okay, that’s it, back to Matrixing next time,
AND GET READY FOR HANAKWANMASS!
Remember, a work out every day of the month is better than anything Santa can bring you. So start working out now, and give yourself the best present ever!
Neutronic Martial Arts and Indian Stealth Skills! part four
Good afternoon. A little wet around here, not wet enough, but it’s a start. And a good, healthy work out is also a start.
This is the fourth part of a five part series. Subscribe to the newsletter to read the other parts
In the first three articles we have discussed how and why the American Indian was possibly the finest light infantry in the world. In this article I want to take a look at something that is very spiritual in nature, not understood, or even talked about by many, and yet is easily understood if you have any idea how Neutronics works.
That the Indians were spiritual is very obvious. They attributed spirituality to everything. The wind was a spirit, the trees, every animal had a spirit, there was even a great spirit over all. This was a very pure look at man’s spirituality, but without the confusion of books, and differing points of view arguing arcane points. It was based on the world as they saw it, as they felt it, as they experienced it.
Now, here is something about Neutronics, something you will have to come to grips with if you wish to have a chance in heck of understanding how the Indian Warrior really worked.
In Neutronics you are considered the center of the universe. You can’t prove the universe exists, all you really have is your awareness of the universe, whether the universe exists or not, you exist, you are your own proof.
Most people are really screwed up. They think the universe is the cause, and they are the effect of the universe. You see this everywhere… somebody else did it! (point your finger at somebody else)
But you are not the movie screen, you are the projector! No matter what the universe does, you are the cause. Whether it rains, whether there is an accident, whether you do or do not get up in the morning… it is your ‘fault.’ You are the cause of the universe.
Okay, if you are still with me, if you haven’t run screaming into the wilderness, then consider this: the Indians believed that if you looked at an animal you were stalking, there would be some kind of ‘light’ (or something) emanating from your eyes.
In other words: they believed the animal could feel ‘awareness.’
This is actually very logical, when you consider, as earlier parts of this article pointed out, that the Indian methods built a higher awareness.
So the Indians would never look at their target when hunting.
THIS DID NOT MEAN THEY RETRACTED THEIR AWARENESS!
It required MORE awareness!
Simply, they did not shine the ‘flash light’ of their awareness, rather they controlled that ‘flashlight,’ and the result was a fed family.
I know there are some that are nodding and going, ‘uh huh, that explains it,’ but there are probably more that are blinking and shaking their heads, and saying, that Al guy is freaking NUTS!
So let me just back off here, except to say one thing,
Check out The Master Instructor Course
Once you understand the truth about how the wind blows, about how the body moves about the reasons behind motion and the martial arts you might be able to understand the concepts I have detailed here, and will definitely be in a position to better manifest them yourselves. Here’s the link…
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.
Defeating Distractions to Find the True Martial Art
Good afternoon! Special day tomorrow, I’ll tell you about it down the page, but before we get to it, remember this: the only way to celebrate this special day is to… work out!
Okay, hope your interest is piqued, but before we talk about that special day, let’s take a moment to talk about emotion.
Ultimately, you don’t want to have any emotion in your martial arts. You don’t want to cry, or feel fear, or anger, or any kind of emotion.
Emotion is a distraction. It gets in between the thought of what you are going to do, and the reality of what you do.
There is this thing called emotional content, Bruce Lee mentions it in ‘Enter the Dragon,’ but even that, ultimately, is a distraction.
To get to the pure state where you can read the mind of the attacker, see what he is going to do before he does it, and move with perfection, you must get rid of ALL emotion.
There is a problem, however. The problem is that nobody really knows what emotion is.
If you can stick with me through a couple of points I can help you understand, which is to say that I can help you understand something that nobody understands.
Here’s the dictionary definition for emotion: a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others: she was attempting to control her emotions | his voice was low and shaky with emotion | fear had become his dominant emotion.
But that doesn’t tell you what emotion is. That is like saying electricity goes through wires, but there is no mention of where electricity came from, what a generator is, or how electricity ‘flows’ through a wire.
It is an inadequate definition.
Here are three more definitions: 1 she was good at hiding her emotions: feeling, sentiment; reaction, response. 2 overcome by emotion, she turned away: passion, strength of feeling, warmth of feeling. 3 responses based purely on emotion: instinct, intuition, gut feeling; sentiment, the heart.
Again, these don’t tell you where emotion comes from, what has generated it, and how it really works.
So, here we go, here is what emotion actually is.
Emotion stems from motion inside the head.
And here is a truth, there are only people in this universe. Everything else in the universe, all the objects and non-living things (or ‘low living’ like animals) are the effect of motion in the universe.
A bug sits on a stalk, a frog sees the swaying stalk and must flick his tongue. A coyote sees the motion of the tongue, and is compelled to eat the frog.
The universe happens like dominoes. And, the ONLY thing in the universe that can upset the dominoes, can change the path of the falling dominoes, can change cause and effect, is a human being.
A human being has choice, and that ability, that decision making ability, is apart from the universe, and can cause the path of the universe to change and change and change.
So a human being can change the universe, but how does he change it? by having a thought first. So he thinks, and does what he thought about, and what he thought about comes to be.
But, in between the thought and the accomplishment, is emotion. Think about it:
A man wants to accomplish something, he sets out on the task, then he gets angry, or fearful, or otherwise emotional, and his ability to make accomplishment is lessened.
He was distracted.
Which brings us to the crux of the matter, why does man create these (his own) distractions? Why does he create emotion and waylay himself? Why?
What happens when you squeeze an lemon? Juice squirts out. Gets in your eye and you cry.
So a man creates emotion when he is squeezed, like a lemon, and ‘things’ squirt out.
things like fear, anger, hate, and so on.
And these things disrupt the mind, cause distraction, and obscure the basic thoughts that one may have.
When I was a child I was spanked, which is to say I was squeezed. I experienced fear, and pain, and anger, and that stuff, because I didn’t know what it is, it stayed with me for a long time.
It would even be fair to say that, like dominoes, certain of those emotions caused me to study martial arts. How weird.
So when you feel pain and anger and all those unpleasant things just say ‘no’ to them. Just refuse them. Refuse to dwell on that emotion, refuse to have motion inside your head, refuse to feel the lingering effects of being squashed (squeezed), and go about your life. Refuse the distraction and accomplish your thoughts.
Of course, it is not always easy to do that. Sometimes what is big in your head is greater than your ability to ignore.
That is where the martial arts come in.
The martial arts train you to accomplish an attack, no matter the distraction, and the heck with emotion.
No other practice on earth does this more efficiently or to greater effect.
You face your partner on the mat. He growls, people yell, you are tired, but because you have endured training, and pain and other distractions, and gotten to your black belt, you are able to ignore the distractions, move forward, and accomplish the thought of the strike, or the lock, or the takedown, or whatever.
You simply train yourself to ignore the motion inside your head, to ignore anything in the universe that tries to stop you, and you accomplish your thought.
Here’s a cruel trap, people who start the martial arts, then quit, were distracted. They let something squeeze them, and they quit. And the cruelty is that if they had kept going they would have found the ability that would have enabled them to ignore distractions, and accomplish their thoughts.
Catch 22. Yes?
One last thing I want to say about this. There are many people who fail, and, there are many people who are studying something thinking it is a martial art, when it isn’t.
You have to study the true martial arts. You have to find forms that work, and you have to make them work. You have to cleanse your techniques so they become pure and can show the thought that created them.
That path creates the discipline.
Just fighting does not. Fighting teaches you to fight. Doing the real martial arts, practicing techniques until you can make them work, that is the discipline of ignoring distractions and getting yourself to the point where you can make your thoughts work.
The best method, because incorrect movements (which are distractions) have been removed, is Matrix Karate.
Okay, that special day I was talking about. For me it is the most important day in the universe, for it is when I decided to have physical presence on this planet. Birthday.
And, if you have been following this blog for the last couple of decades, then you know I always ask for one, specific present.
Forgive me. If I have sent out the wrong order, didn’t answer an email, didn’t answer an email quickly said the wrong thing, didn’t understand something, failed in some way, if i have done ANYTHING that might have offended you, or caused you ANY sort of distraction…
Forgive me.
Help me clean up my universe, help me not have the distractions of bad service, poor communications, or ANYTHING else.
Good Lard…it’s summer! And absolutely perfect for learning another art. So which art do you want to learn this summer? A hard art to go with the soft? Soft to go with the hard? Weapons? Tai Chi? I mean, why not? what else do you have to do? And there is nothing else that is better for you.
Click here to get the whole story on Matrixing the Martial Arts
Okay, every once in a while I like to go over what Matrixing is, and suggested methods of study.
Matrixing is a system of logic. It is based upon analyzing potential motion. It is applicable to any art, and to any system.
But here’s the thing… the martial arts are put togethers. As such they are conglomerations of what worked for individuals. But these are all based on what an individual prefers, or works for his body, or the culture he has grown up in, and so on.
The result has been a lot of mystery, which is hidden by calling it mysticism.
So if you apply matrixing to your martial art, it becomes logical, and thus easier to learn, and there won’t be hidden spots. No more mysticism. Just hard core science.
That is matrixing in a nutshell. You can find out a lot more about it by subscribing to the newsletter, (alcase.wordpress.com), and just thinking about how it can be applied to your art.
Okay, recommended ways of studying matrixing.
Each course looks at the martial arts from a specific viewpoint, from a specific art or concept. If you have a specific weakness in your system, say…no weapons, or too hard, or something like that, you can just study the art that will take care of that weakness. Guaranteed, the logic on the art you study will start to seep into the rest of your arts.
BUT, the best way to study is probably to just follow the arts as they are listed on the site (MonsterMartialArts).
For instance: Matrix Karate analyzes the hard arts and classical blocks. Matrix Kung Fu analyzes locks and throws Matrix Aikido analyzes learning by concept. The Master Instructor Course analyzes the body Shaolin Butterfly analyzes footwork Butterfly Pa Kua Chang analyzes the transition from soft to hard Five Army Tai Chi Chuan analyzes soft takedowns And so on.
But each art can be taken apart by a sequence of matrixing courses.
If somebody wanted to learn karate, for instance, and from the ground up, I would recommend the following courses: Outlaw Karate (inspiration) Buddha Crane Karate (modular studies) Matrix Karate Making the art pure) Temple Karate (what old forms actually mean) and so on.
So there are many ways to study matrixing. But the fun of it all is this: you learn multiple arts…fast. Which is why I said, at the beginning of this newsletter, what do you want to learn this summer? Heck, you could learn three or four whole martial arts all within a year. That would be a high state of mastery.
Anyway, Here’s the Matrix Karate page, because that is the one that started it all, that is the one with some pretty crucial matrixing data on it.
Newsletter 793 The Truth of the Old Martial Arts Legends
Man, this is an absolutely perfect day. Absolutely perfect. You know what makes it perfect? I just worked out. If you ever want to make NOW better, just work out. The more you work out, the better NOW is.
I remember hearing old stories, old legends from China, and so on.
The fellow who practiced jumping out of a one foot hole. Then, the second year, a two foot hole. Three years a three foot hole. After ten years he was jumping ten feet up. Could jump on and off roofs. And twenty years…
Then there was a the fellow who lifted a calf on his shoulders. Did it every day. When the calf grew into a bull, his strength was prodigious.
And so on.
Interesting stories. Sort of like comic books. Keeps the young kids interested.
But there is truth to those old legends. The truth is different, however.
You do a form for a couple of years, you train your body to move quick and fast, any direction, any combination of techniques. Then, without really understanding what is happening, you move into the realm of the mind. Maybe ten or twenty years. Your thought process becomes quicker, faster, more intuitive. Then, without really understanding it, you move into the realm of the spirit. You stop looking at your body, for you understand it. You start looking at the attack, and you aren’t a sequence of nerves and twitches and muscles and stuff, you just go to where you are supposed to go, without the muscular fanfare, without the mental thinkingness. Your body just moves through space without effort.
The thing is… you make this happen not by measuring yourself, but by dedicating yourself. Not by thinking about it, but by just doing it, spending the years, doing the forms over and over, until the body gets tired of working, until the mind gets tired of thinking about it, until the spirit takes over and just does it.
Think about it like this: You are digging a hole, you are digging into the earth, but that is just a vehicle to make strong the body. You dig and you dig, the body gets tired, but you know you are getting close, you have to keep digging, so you steel your mind, and you make your body keep digging. And when the mind gets tired, you know you are closer than ever and all that keeps you going is your spirit. You ignored the protests of body and mind and you keep digging, and, at last, you reach it. It seeps out of the bottom of the hole, seeps into your feet, up your legs, invigorates your body, mind and spirit. You have found gold. Not the gross gold that is shiny rock, but the pure gold of refined spirit. The gold that makes you immortal, that makes you a pure and ever shining spirit.
Others, unless they have done the digging, cannot see it. But what others know doesn’t matter. What matters is what you know. And you know the truth of you.
This is the truth behind the legends. Superhuman deeds are possible, but they are not what you think. They are not comic book, they are real, but they are not normally visible, and they are not what people usually expect.
But, regardless, you won’t really understand this unless you start working out, and don’t stop. Work out until you are an old man. Until the body is tired, but you are not. Until you realize the flesh is frail, but the spirit is not. That is the only proof I can offer.
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.
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.
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
Search the testimonials for your martial art!
Free Martial Arts Books
HERE'S SOME FREE MARTIAL ARTS BOOKS, MY THANKS FOR DROPPING BY.
Includes books on Bruce Lee, the Truth About Matrixing, the first Martial Arts book sold in America (It's a real hoot!), and much more!
