Tag Archives: martial arts forms

Newsletter 1030
Will the Real Karate Stand up?

Got an interesting email.
Fellow asked me which version
of the basic forms in matrixing
are the real ones.
The reason is that there are small differences
in the forms over the years.
And, he’s right.
So, what’s my excuse?

Aw, heck. I don’t have an excuse.
I just kept tweaking and tweaking.
The first version is going to be just as good as the last version.
So how can I say that about a science?
Because there is an art to the science.

I don’t break certain rules,
the body has lines of energy,
the body must be mounted on a base,
and so on.
But I do things like tweak entries,
explore different set ups,
that sort of thing.

And I expect you to do the same.

Back in the fifties
Gichin Funakoshi made the remark
that he didn’t recognize Karate as it was done,
that it bore no resemblance to the art he had been taught.

Well, of course.
Young turks in the colleges took it and ran with it.
Power was more important to them.
To an old man like Funakoshi
technique would have been important.
This would result in a MASSIVE shift
in how forms and techniques were done.

And,
I have said this:
that the karate I see in schools, on youtube, and so on,
bears NO resemblance to the art I was taught.
And it is obvious why,
I have spoken of this many times.
Karate has been adapted for tournaments,
for politics and children and vested interest.

Now,
ideally,
once people are done exploring the arts,
playing with this concept of styles,
once they undo the silliness of politics,
of being watered down for children,
and so on,
they will reach the same conclusion I did.
All martial arts are the same.

The physics of the body work only one way,
and so a body will eventually be tweaked to what works,
and what works is physics.

So much for the argument of which art is better.
They are all good,
but only as good as the man who
understands physics can make them.

All right,
One of the last versions of classical Karate I did was…

Temple Karate

Check it out.
It isn’t the perfect matrixed forms,
but it is classical karate
as seen through a physics filter.
Should make you think.

Okay
have yourself a great work out!
Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview

BTW
I’m always pushing my novels,
did you know I write other stuff?
If you want to know the truth about government,
you will find some startling matrixing going on in

THE SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT!

The Secret at the End of 50 Years of Martial Arts Forms

Newsletter 966

Fifty Years of Martial Arts Forms

Felt like a work out the other night,
so I went out and did my forms.
I did the basic Pinan (Heian) forms.

I learned those forms near 50 years ago.
I do them near every day,
and for a simple reason:
I learn something from them.

I look at each angle,
adjust those angles according to stance,
and the surface I am on,
if the legs are spread wider
it changes the angle of the arms.
I work on breathing,
focusing on the tan tien
and coursing energy through the body,
making sure I have the correct angles
to support the energy.

As I go through the forms
I imagine opponents,
how the blocks would work,
focusing on the snap and pop
as I loosen and tighten the muscles,

The forms are calisthenics,
a lot of people don’t think of the forms like that,
they are into the mystical and such,
and I am not unaware of the mystical,
but if I am doing a horse,
I am squatting.
If I am doing a front stance I am lunging,
And together with the tightening of the muscles
I am getting a real work out.

The great thing is I don’t have to pay for my work out,
I paid for these forms near 50 years ago,
I bought them,
so I use what I bought.

Almost every day I repeat those forms,
and here is the interesting things.
In the beginning I had to remember them,
work on my memory,
and I did.
But at a certain point they became intuitive,
I could just snap through them,
very liquid.
But I find myself going more slowly these days,
feeding awareness into the forms,
and here’s the odd thing.
When somebody hits me,
they are hitting my energy,
the patterns of energy I have carefully placed in my body.
They are hitting my awareness,
an awareness that makes the body firm and solid,
and quick and fast.
Isn’t that interesting?
That awareness could be mystical?
But mystical comes from mystery,
which merely says you don’t understand something.
But after 50 years of forms I understand them.
When somebody hits me I just run awareness through my body,
to the point where I am being struck,
and energy follows it,
the muscles become hard almost without tensing,
and the fist or foot bounces off my frame.

And,
when I strike back,
I control myself,
because if I put too much awareness in my fist,
the other fellow will be hurt.
But I don’t want to hurt anybody,
I just want to practice my art.
Heck,
if 50 years of doing these silly forms has given me this much,
imagine how much I will from another 50 years!

Here are three arts,

3a Evolution of a Martial Art

including the one with the Pinans in it.

Have a great work out!
Al

A WIN!
Al,
When I do my forms now I find myself working less on visualization and more on listening to what the structure of the form I’m doing has to teach me. Have you ever experienced this? A kind of spontaneous learning by repeating the form over and over just being aware? I am almost certain you have, but I like chatting with you about these things cause you invariably give me something new to consider.
A good workout to you
Justin

“A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence.”
– Bruce Lee

Linking Martial Arts Forms to Expand Your Art by Ten Times…

Newsletter 883

Interlinking Martial Arts Forms

Here’s an interesting little trick for you,
one that will open your eyes and expand your art by ten…

I did Kenpo back in 67,
I noticed right away that the forms
were built simple to complex.
Actually,
simple to hard to understand.

You learned your basics with the first two forms,
then everything went haywire,
the forms were lists of techniques,
no real logic behind the sequence of the forms,
or even the relationship of the forms to themselves.
Mind you,
it was fun,
but it was HARD to really learn anything.
You ended up just memorizing,
and doing the martial arts like a dance.

Then I went to the Kung Duk Won
learned the classic Karate forms.
It was still a list of techniques,
but the forms had more meaning,
the arrangement from basics to complex
took on a different meaning.

Before I go on,
here’s a clip from Pinan Five
Give you an idea of how some of this karate stuff works…
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=Sz1asLo9ktc

Anyway,
before we were so rudely interrupted by the video…
I noticed there was a general trend,
from white belt to black belt,
and the trend went like this…

block then counter
two block and counter
three block and counter
block and counter simultaneous

Do you see the progression?
While it looks like a progression of numbers of blocks,
it was actually a progression of time,
but you might have to see the actual techniques
to understand that particular thing.

One of the things I did
when I started ‘pre-matrixing,’
was make huge lists
of all blocks and counters,
and arrange them according to belt level.
Man,
did that make things easy.

But,
there was something else I noticed at the Kang Duk Won.
The forms expanded on the footwork,
and there was a link between the forms.
Pinan two and four were similar in certain ways.
And Pinan three and five were similar.

This,
again,
I utilized in matrixing.
Not just arranging the numbers of blocks and counters,
but sequencing the blocks and counters in time,
and then…
arranging the forms to accurately represent this linkage.
Zingo bingo,
there was the roots of real matrixing.

So,
go ahead,
do it.
Take your forms,
ask yourself about simplicity and workability,
arrange the techniques,
then arrange your forms,
or rather,
as you will probably have to do,
create new forms to contain
the much more logical and easy to teach techniques.

Guaranteed,
you’re going to twist your head on this stuff,
it took me decades to figure this out,
of course,
I didn’t have the simple things
that I have laid out for you here.

And,
there is an easy way.
Instead of pounding your head in frustration,
instead of doing something with your head
that heads are not well built to do,
just take a gander at

Matrix Karate.

It’s all there.
The linkage of techniques,
the linkage of forms,
freestyle methods to go with belt levels,
AND A BONUS COURSE ON KICKING
with the forms,
the techniques,
and everything in logical order.
AND…
all the distractions of other arts,
arts that do not match up with the basic concepts of karate,
have been eliminated.

Makes for a VERY pure path.
And a very QUICK path.

But don’t believe me.
Twist your head for thirty years,
and then come up with what I already did.

Here’s the link.

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

Have a great work out!

Al

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

http://www.martialartsinstructortraining.com

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

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