Tag Archives: karate instruction

Injuries Grow in Brazilian Jujitsu!

Posted on February 1, 2024 | Leave a comment

Martial Arts Injuries in Jujitsu!

(sign up for newsletter!)

Recently read an article that claimed
Brazilian Jujitsu was causing lots of injuries.
I find this fascinating.

When I started Kenpo Karate back in 67,
within two years I had broken my toes twice,
my hand once
and needed to repair a cracked tooth,
and I attributed these injuries to two things.

First,
poor instruction.
Can’t argue with that.

Second,
protective gear.

Our instructor came out to the freestyle class one day.
He had a couple of large boxes filled with protective gear.
“Okay, guys,
now we can fight without getting injured.”
Oh, Lord, the injuries piled up.
Everybody thought they could hit harder,
everybody thought they had to hit harder.
They stopped learning control
and started punching harder.

When I went to a classical school
(Kang Duk Won)
I learned what power was.
By learning what real control was.
This school was ten times harder than the Kenpo school,
I ended up with so many bruises I couldn’t press the clutch pedal.
But I never received an injury.
Good instruction and no protective gear.

We learned to be protective of our partners,
and to be precise in our control.
We learned the consequences of poor control
through the ministrations of our ‘gentle’ seniors.
in other words,
if you showed poor control
a higher belt would step in and show you consequences.
But they did it with good control.
It was actually a very humane lesson.

Brazilian Jujitsu has lots of injuries.
There is no arguing that.
I have seen good schools with lots of injuries.
Especially to the hands and wrists.
Poor instruction?
Maybe.
But I would tend to think it is young turks
getting over excited by the action.

But here’s the thing…
if you do jujitsu correctly
if you find the angles
and use gentle force,
it works.
That’s what the name means.
Jujitsu means ‘gentle trick.’

But I see people,
especially in the cage,
where victory is more important than your opponent’s body,
who use full force
and crank to the max,
and who,
in rare matches,
can’t even be pulled off their opponent.

It is interesting,
we live in degraded times,
where honor is not as valuable as a punch in the face.
Thus, there aren’t many voices asking for
more rules to protect the fighter.

To be truthful,
I am not fond of rules.
Rules are needed in contests
where the participants might be out of control.
they don’t have self control,
and there is a need for ‘other’ control.
such as referees,
fines and punishments like being banned.

It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out.
But,
in the meantime,
I’ll stick with the classic arts
who preach honor and virtue,
over ‘winning at all costs.’

Okay,
obligatory ad.
If you want to know the right way to do Karate,
check out

How to Fix Karate:
A Karate Training and Workout Book
(Comes in Two Volumes)

These are the real techniques behind the forms,
techniques that can be used on the street,
and even in the ring.
The books have over FIVE HOURS of video links!

That’s five hours of video training
for the price of two books.
That is THE BEST deal anywhere!
And it will make your karate technically correct
and give you all the real techniques!

There it is,
check it out,
and enjoy the rest of this winter.
It’s almost spring,
and that is training time in my book!

Have a great work out!
Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview
https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.
(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)
My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them for 5 stars.
‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.
‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.
‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.
My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings
so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:
A Karate Training and Workout Book
(Two Volumes)

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

Eight Fighting Techniques to Base Your Martial Art On!

Posted on November 5, 2023 | Leave a comment

Only Eight Martial Arts Techniques!

Yep,

there are only about eight martial arts techniques,

everything else is fluff and stuff.

Of course there are a thousand deviations,

and they are valuable for your overall education,

but,

when you get to the down and dirty,

there are only eight techniques.

Now,

this is not boxing.

This not padded gloves to dissipate force,

and eliminate grabs.

This is somebody strikes

or is going to strike,

and you either slab and grab his arm,

or you shoot straight in

going for the one punch knock out.

One strike one kill,

you know?

Of course,

as everybody knows,

a plan only works until the fight starts.

SO,

once you have tried to stick your fingers in his eyes,

and MAYBE tried a follow up body shot…

you will find yourself on the inside of his arm

or on the outside of his arm.

You don’t have time for a poser,

he’s not going to wait while you do all your tricks.

You only have one chance.

And,

derivation here,

what I am going to tell you works best,

and perhaps at all

if you ‘shock and lock’ him.

Which is to say,

you simply distract him with a slap or an elbow or something

so that you have an opportunity to  apply one of the eight techniques.

If you have twenty years experience

you can consider not doing the ‘shock and lock,’

but that’s at your own risk.

If you are on the inside of his arm

elbow the head and push his arm up into a ‘chicken wing’ elbow lock.

Or, elbow the area under the armpit and snake your arms around

to a ‘figure four’ armlock.

Either of these can deviate out to arm bars or splitting techniques

(lower body goes in the opposite direction of the upper body)

or spinning him around and angling him up to what I call

a ‘vertical arm pin.’

that’s two techniques with a few deviations.

third, foot sweep,

can be deviated into knee to groin

or various kicks,

but you want to pull his leg viciously

and make him face plant

so you can walk on his neck.

Four,

if you haven’t locked in that body shot,

do it now.

Reverse punch,

and I often teach the ‘pubic punch,’

which is angling the punch down towards the hip joint.

He collapses on the ground and it takes no special force or effort.

Now,

if he strikes,

and you end up on the outside of his arm,

cool.

Inside means you have targets,

but you have also presented targets.

Outside means you have less targets,

but have presented almost no targets for him.

Slap and grab,

or perhaps just let him punch between your arms.

First technique is simply an arm bar,

or an elbow roll deviation.

Second technique,

elbow to the head and extend your arm in front of his face,

and slide your leg behind him to split him.

(top goes one way, bottom goes the other)

Third technique,

elbow under the arm,

split him by going under the arm.

Whether you split him by going under or over his arm

is often dependent on the relative height 

of your opponent.

You can add sweeping to this,

because there is an inherent sweep in the split.

fourth technique, punch.

Hard.

Break things in his body.

So that is the list of eight techniques,

which eight lead to a variety of deviations,

if you enter one of the eight,

the deviations become apparent with practice.

He punches and you are inside.

1) elbow head and elbow lock over his arm

2) elbow armpit and elbow lock under his arm

3) Punch (pubic preferred)

4) Sweep w leg options

He punches and you are on the outside

5) break and/or arm bar/elbow roll

6) split above the arm

7) split under the arm

8) punch

Now,

I know there are going to be all sorts of objections here.

Some of the objections will be that you simply don’t understand my terms,

but if you examine the description of the techniques,

you will find them in your art,

or your art is severely lacking.

Some of the objections will be that you have a thousand techniques in your art

and you simply can’t give them up.

But I am not asking you to give up your data base.

I am merely asking you to focus on that first punch in a fight

and do some real karate.

Some of the objections will be because there are no pictures

and it is difficult to mock up these techniques in your mind.

Why don’t you kick?

Kicking is for when you are far away

and kicks take time to become ‘one strike one kill,’

and you want to close and break or disable

as much as you can in a direct and short period of time.

Karate is not a far away polite business.

It is mean and nasty and as brutal as you can make it.

Why are you not making the split one of the techniques on the inside?

Because you have to go through the closure of distance,

and that is the progression of closing distance after the fight starts

What the heck is ‘shock and lock,’ and do I have time for it?

It is hitting on the way in,

and the way I have set it up there is extreme fluidity of motion

that will make the progression from slap and grab to shock and lock

 and to the final technique incredibly fast and virtually unavoidable.

What about wrist locks?

They are there,

but it is difficult to grab a fist in the middle of a fight.

It is easier when he is there,

and maybe trying to back out of his predicament.

And there are other objections.

But if you study what I said here,

and just drill the eight techniques for a short time,

and just explore your position…

everything will become apparent.

Incidentally,

what I say here is in all my courses,

but I never really talk about it

except as the technique progresses.

But it really is the essence of my Monkey Boxing.

I really should write a book on this little thing I have said here.

But…time. Sigh.

Okay,

guys and gals,

hope you got something out of all this,

and feel free to look at…

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

https://www.amazon.com/How-Fix-Karate-One-Training/dp/B0B6L5DSD1/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1RWF2LRFTSRZO&keywords=how+to+fix+karate&qid=1699188789&s=books&sprefix=how+to+fix+karate%2Cstripbooks%2C136&sr=1-2

(There is a version with five hours of video

but you have to hunt for it on Amazon)

And don’t forget to give me five stars!

Have a great work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find that useful

find the book/course that is right for you,

and matrix your own martial arts.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

The Curse of the Closed Combat System

Posted on September 20, 2023 | Leave a comment

When Did Karate Fail!

It’s a very common opinion, these days, that karate doesn’t work.
In this article I will tell you why it doesn’t work, and when it stopped working, which may help you make it start working again.
Mind you, there are other reasons than what I detail here, but the reasons I detail here are probably the most important reasons, specifically, the reason which was put in place by the founders of karate. A deliberate but unintended consequence of a very bad decision.

The King (emperor) of Okinawa was commanded by the emperor of Japan to live in Japan. This was a political expedience.
The problem was the Okinawan bodyguards suddenly lost their jobs.
They became wood cutters, dock workers, school teachers, and so on.
Did they stop their training in karate? Probably not. As any student of the art knows, it is the monkey on the back, a joy that is almost impossible to give up. It would not be given up easily.
Thus, the art was taught at the homes of the bodyguards, and the students were probably tough kids, or kids that wanted to be tough.
It wouldn’t have died out, and it would have remained fairly pure. But purity, as this article presents, can be a myth.

About 1900 Gichin Funakoshi had a bright idea: let’s teach karate to the school children!
Karate made small bodies strong.
Karate instilled discipline.
Let’s not, however, teach little Johnny how to rip somebody’s throat out over lunch money.
Thus, the great dumbing down was begun.
There was, however, something worse that was happening.

Karate is a CCS. A Closed Combat System. This means it is a set number of techniques, and development through the inspection of other practices is discouraged.
Karate actually became a CCS years earlier when the system was codified into forms.
Forms make it easier to teach. Forms make it easier to remember the random but physically similar techniques.
Forms doubtless caused a surge in ability as it focused training, and lifted up the lesser students.
And there was a wonderful mindset created through Karate. A zen mindset that made a superior human being.

Up until that time Karate had been, to coin a phrase, an OCS. An Open Combat System. They took techniques wherever they could find them. Trips to China, shipwrecked sailors, talking with some friendly fellow in a bar, and ending up in an alley testing out these ‘extra’ techniques.
Now it was a Closed Combat System, a system which refused data from other sources, and the children were being deliberately dumbed down, and that was the one two punch that sealed Karate’s demise.

It didn’t happen suddenly. In fact, as the art spread new blood kept it alive and quite deadly.
But, eventually, it was no longer the province of the ‘tough guy’ who wanted to be tougher and who was willing to suffer the bruises and blood and a few lost teeth of those early practices.
Then it became sold.

One could accuse Gichin Funakoshi as the first person to commercialize Karate. After all, he sold it to the school system.
But when the Americans, with their capitalistic greed (hey! I’m just sayin’!) the game was all over.
McDojos sprouted in the strip malls of America.
Forms were put aside for kid’s games so the parent’s could be kept happy. Which was, is, probably the cruelest trap of all. I want my child to defend himself, but if he gets a single bruise I’ll sue you!

Nowadays it is difficult to find a real version of Karate.
Oh, it is out there, altered, pushed by the fanatic who doesn’t give a golden tu_d if you get a bruise.
But mostly you will find…MMA.
Hey, advertising. And the Gracie Brother’s creation of the UFC is the greatest advertising ploy since Bruce Lee.
We’ve had 30 years of advertising with the big buck tournaments. It has replaced boxing to a great extent. And it’s made some people rich.
Commercialism.
Sometimes good, often bad.

Want to know how to tell when an art has gone CCS and has started to die? If not in the physical working then in the virtuous mental attitudes? The Virtue that used to be the coin developed by years of intense and unwavering training in the Martial Arts?
It is…My Art is better than yours.
I saw this happen when Karate, was in its heyday, spreading through the US and the world like wildfire.
Suddenly other arts came along, and to get students instructors would wink about another art or school and imply, or say it outright, ‘My art is better.’
And it fed the ego of the student.

Now it is happening in MMA. Not a week goes by when I don’t see some ego driven, bully boy type of child say, If it doesn’t work in the ring then it doesn’t work!
Which certainly explains why, when SEALs go to work they always end up on the ground, wrestling around and looking for arm bars.

MMA is not an art. It is a sport. An art self improves, a sport attempts to prevail over another human being. And the truth is that you don’t become better by making someone worse. That is the bully lie that has infected many MMA teachings.
That is not to say there isn’t art to some of the techniques.
But it doesn’t matter because as long as the bullies can beat up the karate man, and people of other disciplines, the lie will be accepted as the truth.
It is not MMA. It is MMS. Mixed Martial Sport.

Mind you, I am not attacking the art of Jujitsu, or other MMA based arts. Effectiveness is to be appreciated and studied. And to the extent that it becomes art i love it. But I am pointing out certain attitudes and how some misguided people degrade the art.
And, hopefully, this will create an understanding that will improve the arts on all fronts. Don’t degrade other arts, make yourself better by making others better.

Don’t like what I’m saying? Then change your sport. Or, better, change your mind.
But the truth is that when a system becomes CCS, when data is refused to be inputted, either because of commercial interests, or children running around screaming ‘My Art is Best!’, then that art has gone over the cliff and is heading for the spiked rocks below.

Really don’t like what I’m saying? Order a course in Matrixing, open your art up and accept the superiority of a true OCS…the ultimate OCS. A system that doesn’t take from all in random bits and pieces, trying to be OCS but only marginally succeeding, but rather aligns all the data so you can make the right choices…in combat, or in life.

About the author: Al Case has been studying the martial arts since 1967. He wrote articles and had his own column in Inside Karate magazine. He has written over forty books on the martial arts, including ‘How to Fix Karate,’ which is a two volume, 400 page book going into and fixing every move from the most important eight forms of Karate. It includes FIVE HOURS of video instruction.

And have a great work out!
Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview
https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 11 ratings for 5 stars.
(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)
My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them for 5 stars.
‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.
‘The Science of Government’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.
‘Chiang Nan’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars.
My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings
so hopefully you’ll find that useful
find the book/course that is right for you,
and matrix your own martial arts.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

How to Fix Karate is Published!

Posted on July 15, 2022 | Leave a comment

How to Fix Karate is Published!

Newsletter 1047 ~ sign up on right top.

All right!
I know you are doing fine!
People who study the martial arts are ALWAYS fine!
So…
‘The Book’ is published.
At least the first half is.

How to Fix Karate (Volume One)

The book is over 400 pages long.
It comes in two volumes because
I can’t put that much material in a single volume.

The book presents eight forms,
the basic forms of karate.

Book one dissects Pinan One and throws it out.
Yep.
All the way out.
And the reasons are delineated in detail.

I give you the ‘New Pinan One,’
which is Matrix One.
A MUCH more intelligent form.
And I give you all the reasons,
and show you how to make 16-20 techniques from that one form.

I then have sections for
what is wrong with pinan two and
how to fix it
what is wrong with pinan three and
how to fix it.

The remainder of the forms,
including advanced materials and
a whole video course
(Matrix Combat),
are in the second book.

I have included links at the beginning of certain chapters
which will lead to videos of me doing the forms.
Please keep receipts
in the event that links change.

This is NOT a book for dummies.
People will think that I have made it too simple,
they will think I have made it too complex,
that my logic is faulty,
they will argue over my reasons and conclusions.
This is good,
because I am going to tell you a secret…

Virtually EVERY martial arts book written
is merely a show and tell
of what they have been shown.
There is almost NO original thought,
certainly not analytical thought,
in the martial arts books on the market.

It is just what they have been shown
and accepted without question.

People have much pride in passing down martial arts
EXACTLY as they have been shown them.
Nobody asks why.
Nobody looks at the material and says…that technique sucks,
Nobody questions the venerable old master
and asks themselves if the old guy is in his second childhood,
or suffering Alzheimer’s,
or just had too much to drink.
They just take the art and pass it along,
and they make up reasons for forms that don’t make sense,
and teach the same old worthless techniques
that don’t work in reality..

The only real objection is in the form of people who quit karate.
And they have certainly NEVER looked at the art,
and questioned it,
or they wouldn’t have quit.
They just didn’t understand it and they quit.
Period.

Can’t really blame them.
Honestly.
They found karate to be unworkable,
and it is difficult to argue with their conclusions.
Hopefully we can rescue a few of these people
and bring them back into the fold.

Anyway, this book will cause consternation, argument,
and all the other things that a real artist must deal with
if he is to understand the art.

The glory of this book is that I’ll take the forms,
technique by technique,
and tell you not only what is wrong with it,
but how to fix it.
The techniques will suddenly make sense,
which will bring about a rejuvenation
in the belief in forms as a method.
I use logic, history, physics and matrixing to do this.

And,
as you argue over my conclusions
and even think bad thoughts of me
I will have succeeded.

When I was in 6th grade
everybody was doing reports on South America.
Joe had 10 pages.
Barry had 15 pages.
Sue had 30 pages.
And that was about it.
I wrote over 200 pages.
Had to put it in two folders.
Teacher’s eyes popped out.
All the kids started whispering and
I thought I had done something wrong.
Turned out I had actually done something right,
for a change.

But that wasn’t the real story.
The real story was that the next semester
we did reports on Central America.
I did 300 pages.
Zowie.
BUT… six kids had larger reports than me.

Now you’d think I would be disappointed.
I wasn’t top dog.
But I had an interesting thought:
I made those kids do more than me.
I inspired them.

And I realized that this was what I wanted to do.
I wanted to inspire people.
It was cool.
It gave me such a sense of self worth I never got over it.

And that has been what has been driving me all these years.
That and the idea that I wanted to write a letter
to people who live a thousand years from now.

In writing this book I feel I have succeeded in my purpose.
Enjoy the book,
hate it,
argue over it,
and that is my success.
You won’t be able to stop analyzing
and looking and figuring out
how to make Karate
the powerhouse it originally was.

I will have made a whole art
become a method for analytical thought.
Talk about changing the world.

Here is the link.

I do have to thank Ted VanderNoot for his editing.
No matter how hard I look,
the mistakes are all still mine.
Sigh.

If you want to see a real mistake,
glance at the back cover.
It’s a small mistake,
that is huge,
and glaring,
and you’ll laugh.

The second book is going through the publishing process.
I am publishing hard bound copies
in the near future for those interested.

Do me a favor and pass the word
on this book.
And give me five stars when you can.

Okay, everybody,
HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!

Al

How to Fix Karate (Volume One)

And don’t forget to check out the interview
https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

BTW
I’ve got nothing but five star reviews on

The Science of Government.
It’s really nothing more than applying matrixing to politics.

Matrixing + Politics = Sanity

I told you matrixing works with anything.

Here’s the link…

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

Increasing Power in the Martial Arts with Formulas

Posted on May 9, 2021 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 1012
The Formula for Power in the Martial Arts!

Good morning!
Happy Mother’s Day!

I thought you might like to look at
formulas in the martial arts today.
This is actually pretty hefty stuff,
and you might want to have a dictionary at hand,
especially when I talk about things like
mass, energy, and other physics terms.

First,
energy is the capacity for work.
Work is the amount of weight lifted.
So the deeper the stance,
the more weight your muscles feel.
The more weight you feel,
the harder you work.
The harder you work,
the stronger you get.
This strength is channeled to the tan tien
and then to the rest of the body.

Second,
when practicing,
I move slow.
Moving slowly increases the amount of time
I am lifting the weight of my body.
Thus, I am lifting more,
thus, I am getting stronger.

Third,
when doing forms,
I use dynamic tension.
Dynamic tension is when you use
muscles against muscles,
and even
muscles against themselves.

Fourth,
when doing applications
I increase speed,
because
speed times mass increases the mass.
100 pounds of punch at one second
becomes 200 pounds of punch at 2 seconds.
And so on.

Fifth,
I try to make sure my body is properly aligned.
This creates a connection from the fist to the planet,
or the technique to the planet,
so when I hit somebody,
it actually feels like I am hitting them with the planet.
And when I get hit,
it feels like they are hitting the planet.

Sixth,
I try to use CBM
‘Coordinated Body Motion,’
all body parts move at the same time
starting at the same time
ending at the same time,
contributing appropriate to their
size, mass, angle, and so on.

Seventh,
I try to CBM all the formulas.
Putting them together when appropriate,
focusing on specific formulas when appropriate,
and so on.

And,
of course,
I practice all the time.
The more I practice
the more these formulas and concepts work.

So that’s it.

Oh,
there are lots of other formulas in Matrixing.
But these are pretty specific to action and movement.
And they should help you
when you analyze what you are doing and why.
They should really make your art POP!

Now,
here’s the thing…

I learned the first formula from doing Karate
I learned the second formula from doing Tai Chi Chuan.
I learned the third formula from doing Pan Gai Noon.
I learned the fourth formula from Karate.
And so on.

So you have to study a lot of different arts
to get all this.

You know what?
Evolution of an Art has three arts on it.

Pan Gai Noon
Kang Duk Won
Kwon Bup

It’s a good place to start.
The price of a night on the town
and it will feed your mind and spirit for years.
It will certainly help you make serious inroads
into the formulas I listed here.

Here’s the link…

Evolution of an Art!

Now,
go get your mommy some flowers!
And have a great work out!
Al

Evolution of an Art!

BTW ~ have you read my novel…Monkeyland?

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

New Karate to Tai Chi Book Rockin’ it!

Posted on April 22, 2018 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 925

A Super Win from the New Book/Video course

Thanks to everybody
who has purchased
How to Translate Karate to Tai Chi Chuan
Wins all over the place,
and here’s a really great one.

Hello Al, this is Jason W. I would like to express my deepest thanks for the link to the course you sent me that was very gracious of you. I have been working on it and I have to say that this is the very best course yet. I liked the Matrix Karate and although it is a complete fighting system, I felt that much of the bulk of really good and usable Kang Duk Won technique wasn’t included. Kang Duk Won really didn’t make sense and large parts of it I deemed unusable in a real fight. Your Tai chi/Karate course makes it all relevant and usable. From the very first move in Pinan 1 it’s awesome. I never really understood the downward block as a countermove to a front or round kick. Unless the guy kicking is a total putz you run the risk of damaging your forearm and no matter what training you put into it a trained Muay Thai fighter will break your arm in two. But the way you showed it as a downward strike into the groin/abdomen makes total sense and is so simple and natural I scold myself for not seeing it sooner. Of course I come from an internal martial arts background and I have always had a hard time reconciling the hard arts vs. the soft ones. It seemed like I was shifting from one to the other in a sparring session. Your way of putting these together makes it flow naturally and I feel I have made a tremendous leap forward in not only understanding internal power, but realizing the internal energy in external martial arts which is the end goal of all styles. I would really like to see you develop this further for example going forward and doing the post Pinan forms of KDW. Oh and I really like the backward steps in the forms. It allows me to practice the forms in a much smaller area (an item of great concern in bad weather). Keep up the great work Al, your martial genius never ceases to amaze me.

Thanks for those kind words, Jason.

And,
for everybody,
I added a chapter to the book,
so download again,
there is a chapter on chi principles.

And,
I added a modification after the form Channan one,
should really make better footwork out
certain sections of the forms.

And,
one of the purposes of Tai Chi is to pump up the chi.
Unfortunately,
the art is not presented well for self defense.
It has self defense,
but it takes a long time
for people to understand it as self defense.
Karate has hard explosive energy,
and the chi pumps up differently,
isn’t even noticed for a couple of decades.
So we have a weird situation.
Tai Chi has chi but little self defense,
karate has self defense, but little chi.
Generally speaking.
So to put them together,
beef up the chi in karate,
make the self defense more obvious in tai chi,
was just what the doctor ordered.

Read the win,
guaranteed,
this book/course will do what i say,
and in spades.

And please remember
I started karate in 1967,
I started tai chi in 1974.
It took a lot of experience to put this all together,
and you’re welcome to it.
The book is on amazon,
the video course w bk is available at monstermartialarts.com

How to Translate Karate into Tai Chi Chuan

Have a great work out!
Al

How to Translate Karate into Tai Chi Chuan

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,

Book on Al Case’s Martial Arts Just Published…

Posted on January 26, 2018 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 914

Release of New Martial Arts Book!

Hi Guys and Gals,
I get emails sometimes,
asking me what I teach.
I have a truckload of arts,
I have 50 years of collecting methods,
but what do I use on a day to day basis?

Obviously,
I teach different things for different people,
different arts for different groups.
But,
what art do I teach in the perfect setting,
students who actually desire to learn,
and so on.

So I wrote a book presenting the series of forms I teach.
I included the three matrixes that I use for techniques.
I included lists of grab arts and where I teach them in the system.
I included lists of freestyle methods
and where I teach them in the system.

Now,
I’m pretty liquid.
People are different,
what they want is liquid,
so I adapt.
But,
in this system
is my best efforts
at forms that are concise,
not so difficult they can’t be remembered,
let alone used.
At the sequence of techniques
that bring people to intuitive self defense.
At how and when to teach grab arts and freestyle drills.
So,
the link is here…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/al-case-martial-arts/

check it out,
see if you get that feeling that speaks to you,
that this might be for you.

and have a great work out!

Al

I just released this, so if links don’t work, any problems with the download, let me know at: aganzul@gmail.com

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/al-case-martial-arts/

http://monstermartialarts.com

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,

Training to Relax in the Martial Arts

Posted on June 24, 2016 | 1 comment

Newsletter 816

Relaxing is the only way to find the True Martial Arts

I remember reading of Koichi Tohei,
many years ago,
and some scientists asked if they could test his ki.
Like, on machines.

do yoga

Click on the Cover

Now this isn’t a smart idea.
Ki is an energy motivated by thought,
sometimes the energy can be registered,
but the thought never can,
so science often proves there is no such thing as ki.
Can’t be measured…doesn’t exist.
Which is the same reasoning
that kept the world flat for so many centuries.
They just don’t what to measure,
and there isn’t a machine in existence
that can measure thought.

That said,
the test went round and round,
they couldn’t explain what Koichi was doing,
and they couldn’t figure out the readings they were getting,
and he,
probably with a diabolical sense of humor,
told them he could slow his heart down.

They said nonsense,
a human being couldn’t control the nervous system in that way.
So he did it.
He dropped it some 30 beats,
then sped it up again,
then slowed it down.
And the scientists were really confused.

So let’s talk about what you are supposed to do
with your mind in the martial arts.

First,
forget it.
It’s just a bunch of memories.
Get rid of the past,
at least ignore it,
and you are more in the present,
and then you can better control your body.
Logical, right?
But too simple.
People have a hard time buying into this simplicity.

So,
in Karate,
we trained so that the mind
didn’t become excited,
and so that we kept looking,
and ignored emotion.
Ignored the emotion of fighting.
Didn’t feel the anxiety,
or panic,
or sudden beating of the heart
as the world devolved to chaos.

Note that I am moving at the same time.

When somebody throws a punch at me
I actually slow down.
My mind looks right past any memories,
and I focus on the moment.
I stop reacting,
even to my own training,
and start moving with the person.
In real time.

Now,
there are MANY examples of this in the world.
The baseball player,
for instance,
the guy way out in the field,
takes off…AT THE CRACK OF THE BAT!
Not before it,
not after it,
but at the same time.
AND,
he moves intuitively to where the ball is going.
He attempts to ‘meet’ the ball,
at some specified time and place.

But how did he know where the ball was going…
at THE CRACK OF THE BAT!

There are other examples,
but this is my favorite,
probably because everybody knows what I am talking about.
Especially if they have played baseball.

If you have ever had a sixth sense,
known when something was going to happen before it happened,
felt somebody walk behind you (hairs on end),
that is you,
putting aside memories,
and perceiving directly.

In Karate,
it happened about the time I got to Black Belt.
When I got there I began to focus,
without excitement or distraction,
on what was happening.
And it really screwed people up,
when I displayed no reaction time.

Reaction comes from ‘react’
which means you are so immersed in memories (or training)
that you can’t perceive directly.

Signals have to travel through the body to create motion,
instead of you,
apart from your body,
just creating motion.

Okay,
I’ve talked long enough,
probably left as much confusion as enlightenment.
But here’s the trick…
You have to train with people
in a system which understands this.
In which the techniques support this,
the forms are aligned and orderly.
The freestyle is not a fight,
but a procedure of learning how to look.
Not getting excited,
not getting distracted by emotions,
but calming yourself
so that you don’t get excited.

I’ve done the best I could
to give you a good system.
In fact…systemS.

Here are the systems…
http://monstermartialarts.com/courses/

But you have to work,
and work hard.
You have to get the idea that I’m talking about in your mind.
You have to force yourself to calm,
to put aside excitement,
and become cool and machinelike in your actions.

Good luck with this,
in spite of all the simplicity of my systems,
it is still hard.

It’s hard to restrain emotion,
put aside memories,
memories that you sometimes don’t even recognize as existing,
and function on a high level.

But it is possible.
Good work out to you.

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/courses/

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

1 Comment

Posted in aikido, chi power, internal martial art, karate, kenpo, kung fu, zen

Tagged , , , ,

Karate Blocks Make the Man!

Posted on April 30, 2016 | 1 comment

Newsletter 807

How Karate Blocks Make You Better

May you have the best work out of your life.
Really.

earn black belt karate

First Volume of Matrix Karate ~ Kindle version

Speaking of blocks…
When I was in my teens I was studying Kenpo.
I learned all these neat tricks,
was excited about fighting,
and I kept having these weird ideas about strategy
and how the martial arts were shaped.
Oddly,
I couldn’t make these strategies work.
I could fight well,
but these things I was thinking about,
they just eluded me in combat.
And it was because there wasn’t much
in the way of blocking,
in Kenpo.

In my twenties I joined the Kang Duk Won,
I bashed my arms for years,
and I learned about pain.
I learned that pain is a warning device.
And it was all because of blocks.

Funny.
Most people won’t use a real block in freestyle.
I can,
and do if I am teaching somebody
and there is a lesson in it.
But it’s easier to just hit the other fellow
than it is to block.

But I never would have learned
how to slide in and hit somebody
if I hadn’t learned how to block.

I always remember the specific technique
where it all came home.
It was the technique
from the first move of Batsai.
Batsai is spelled a few different ways,
but it means
‘defending a fortress.’

In that technique I had to do three blocks.
And I had to do these three blocks with hips twists,
I had to twist the hips
to align the body
so it could support the impact
without collapsing.
And I had to do it faster
than somebody could throw three punches at me.

For months I tried to get that technique.
I would practice it and practice it,
get guys to give me that attack,
but I just couldn’t move my body fast enough.

One day,
I did.
Just like that.
One second I couldn’t,
and the next second I could.
Like a switch had been thrown.
But here’s the interesting thing:
I felt like I was behind my head.
I felt like I was out of my body,
just a little bit,
and watching my body move without me.

Well,
it was moving because I had mastered
the thought pattern behind the blocks.
I had practiced that mental circuit
until it broke,
and what was left was me.

From there I moved into other things,
hitting without blocks because,
darn it,
I had gotten so good at them I didn’t need them.
And I moved into concepts
of how to move the energy in my body
just by thinking about it.
Which is understandable if you realize
that learning how to block
had taught me how to influence my body
with just thought.

I began to be able to accomplish
all those odd ideas I had had
way back in Kenpo.
Which led to Matrixing.

Nowadays people don’t practice the blocks.
And if they do,
they don’t practice them with the proper hip movement,
the proper alignment,
the proper breathing and thought.

I know this because when people
come to me for lessons,
they show a complete lack of understanding,
no knowledge of the drills,
of how blocking works.

The thing is
there is a whole realm of thought
that goes with learning how to block.
You learn all sorts of things,
and it builds a springboard
for moving into other concepts.

Think about it,
you can box,
and learn how to take a punch,
but that doesn’t teach you
how to run energy through your body.

Nothing wrong with boxing,
it’s actually pretty good stuff,
fills in a few gaps
that are in the martial arts,
but it just doesn’t have the energy theory
that goes along with the martial arts.

Anyway,
I’m working on the Matrix Karate
for a Kindle version.
Kindle is very unfriendly to photos,
so I have to take some out,
and rewrite the thing.
It’s be good,
but not as good as a book,
or a video.
Heck,
even the other electronic readers are better,
because they take PDFs easily.

But one of the things I focus on
to make up for that lack,
is the specific blocking in the forms.
Not the matrix of blocking,
which provides a logic
which blasts one to intuition,
but the old way,
learning the blocks,
making them work,
until the art does you,
and you become the art.

You guys are lucky.
You understand something the Kindle readers
may never understand.
You get everything on these courses.
On the other hand,
the kindle readers may understand something you don’t
because they will be seeing the art
in a more bare bones viewpoint,
that will let their mind fill in the blanks,
which is very healthy for a student.
Well,
who’s to say.
The real lesson is in the work out.
Getting the material and doing it,
thousands and thousands and thousands of times,
until it becomes you,
and you become it.
That will teach you the art,
no matter which of my books or courses you get.

Here’s the full Matrix Karate course.

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

Have a great work out!

Al

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

1 Comment

Posted in chi power, external martial art, internal martial art, karate, kung fu, pan gai noon, tai chi chuan

Tagged , , ,

Best Internet Karate Course in the World

Posted on August 25, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Best Internet Karate Course Works Like a Charm!

internet karate courseWins are pouring in on the Best Internet Karate Course in the World, and you can see them on the right side of the page at KangDukWon.com. Here’s one…

Hi sensei
, I love it, hone it day by day. I am reading all the manuals you gave me…its fascinating, all the bonus stuff. I’ve learned more in a minute from watching and reading (you) than in whole live classes, seriously. You really changed my mind about Karate, that’s most unusual. Thru your system and instruction it takes now about 1-3 days to understand and memorize a kata, deeply ingrained. That’s high speed! I see the light…
Will Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in karate, martial arts, mixed martial arts, ultimate fighting championships

Tagged , , ,