Here is the lie: Kung fu is a physical art based on mythology, and it has no modern combat applications. The point is that Kung Fu is based upon five animals, and that these animals do not relate to combat. This idea, that the animals don’t relate to combat, is, as we shall see, is so ridiculous it is…ridiculous!
The five kung fu animals In the Shaolin Butterfly are not the classical five animals. The butterfly, the crane, the monkey, the tiger, and the dragon are the five animals in this kung fu. The battle strategies of Shaolin are easily illuminated through a study of these five animals.
The first animal is the butterfly, and the stance utilized by this animal is the back stance. This stance is used because the butterfly must flit and flee to avoid damage, and the back stance is a step backward. Thus, the direction of the Butterfly is to the rear.
The Crane is the second animal, and the Crane utilizes a one legged stance. Standing on one leg and using kicks a student will achieve great balance. Thus, the crane goes in an upward direction.
The third animal is the monkey, and the stance used by this animal is the horse stance. This stance requires that a person drive their weight downward and hold their position. Thus, the direction of the horse is straight down.
The tiger is the fourth animal, and the tiger utilizes a forward stance. This stance is designed for charging, for attacking, and it is an aggressive stance. Thus, the tiger goes in a forward direction.
The dragon is the fifth animal, and the dragon utilizes a twisted stance, with the body turned over the feet. This stance is good for spinning to catch an opponent unawares, catching oneself in awkward positions, and so on. Thus, the dragon moves in a spin or a circle.
If you examine the points of a compass you will find the directions that the five animals take, and a strategy based upon handling all incoming potentials of attack. The Monkey goes down and the crane goes up, the tiger goes forward and the butterfly goes back, and the dragon circles, which illuminates a distinct possibility for lateral motion.
The directions of these five Shaolin Butterfly animals create a thorough and strong strategy with no weak points–just one of the secrets of the Shaolin Butterfly, which you can find at Monster Martial Arts.
I have people asking me, every once in a while, for an example of Matrixing in the Martial Arts. This is something I don’t want to give, and there is an exact reason for me refusing. Let me explain this reason.
The mind is a bunch of memory. That’s all it is. An animal mind has very short span. A goldfish forgets within three seconds. That’s it. Simply, the goldfish is a being that lives within three seconds, and then moves on.
Bound by your own logic, matrixing sets you free.
Man is a rather longer memoried beast. It would be nice to go into this more, but this is not the time and place. So let it suffice to say that you can remember virtually anything. This lifetime alone, you can recall the most minute memories.
Now, mental abilities are something else, and they have absolutely nothing to do with the mind. Mental abilities, such as the ability to create problems, intuition, telepathy and telekinesis and all that sort of thing, that are not born of memory…they are what the awareness of the individual can do.
Separate them: mind is memory, and mental ability has nothing to do with the mind. Mental ability is what you, the human being, can do in your wildest dreams.
When you do the martial arts you memorize patterns. You memorize techniques. You memorize muscle motion.
You put all this into your mind.
But what can you do?
Well, you can do whatever is in your mind, but that has nothing to do with what you, the human being, can do in your wildest dreams.
You see, all this stuff you memorize into your mind is nothing more than…circuits. Just like an electrical circuit, bound by nodes and boards and such…everything is on a set path.
But you can only trap a human being so long. Eventually, be it a few seconds or a million years, the human being is going to say, ‘wait a minute! I recognize this place! I see what I’ve been doing! I see this memory!’
At that second the circuit is blown, the pattern disappears, and you become free.
Now freedom is relative, and that’s an absolute, and this is another one of those things I should skirt during the course of this essay.
So the point is this, when you blow a circuit you enter into mushin no shin. Mind of no mind. Or…a place where there are no memories telling you what to do.
Here’s a couple of things that go along with that phenomenon.
Mushin no shin can be achieved through the necessity of the moment…because of the need for survival. A fellow on the battlefield may experience it. Time slows down, he develops other perceptions rather instantly.
I remember reading of one fellow who survived Viet Nam because he could ‘smell’ Viet Namese. We could argue whether he actually detected by odor, or whether the human being sensed and attributed this ability to his nose, but the fact remains, he survived through an ability ‘grown’ for the moment.
Mushin no shin might last for a brief instant…then the memories come flooding back in. Still, that experience, that ‘aha’ moment, will open up a human being and let him or her know that there is a lot more to him, and life, than is ever written in a book, any book, in western society…or eastern.
Indeed, it is near impossible to describe this moment except in general and almost cartoonish terms.
The world glows. You understand God. You can see forever. These are descriptions of something that cannot be described.
And there are other phenomena connected with mushin no shin, or as I have segued into…enlightenment.
The difference between mushin no shin and enlightenment may be merely one of degree, or perhaps depth of understanding. Or perhaps the type and size of circuits blown.
But let’s return to the martial arts and why I don’t give examples of matrixing.
The martial arts are a series of memories. They are patterns. They are circuits implanted in the mind through hard work. And here is the bugaboo.
If the martial art is sufficiently illogical, there will be no mushin no shin, except by the severest accident. There will be no enlightenment.
One example of this is boxing. There are no examples that I can think of where a boxer suddenly threw off his gloves and said, ‘I understand that the essential nature of the universe is a golden vibe which we call God.’
There are a few boxers who have been pounded into believing in God, but this is not enlightenment, this is worship by the beaten.
Another example would be kenpo.
To be plain, I love Kenpo, I have loved it since I encountered in 1967, but I was not able to matrix it for a variety of reasons.
It doesn’t create a connection with the earth through serious stance work. It is a put together, a real conglomeration, of everything Ed Parker encountered and thought about: it is the memories, jumbled and reconstructed in a desperate effort to make sense, of one man. It is five evolutions of thought as one man went through life without ever encountering mushin no shin, or an ‘aha’ moment.
Nothing against kenpo, it just best exemplifies illogic in the martial arts.
And what it specifically exemplifies is the basic training method, which is memorization, or implantation of training sequences in the mind.
When I developed matrixing it seemed like an accident, but it was really my search for logic in a universe that is rather slipshod and haphazard and put together by whim and shamble.
Why me, why the martial arts, why the million and one experiences that set me free, I don’t know. Call me a cosmic accident.
But the fact remains, I tripped over a form of logic, described briefly in Boolean algebra, that puts order to ALL the jumbled up strings of random motions that we have been memorizing and calling the martial arts for a zillion years.
Now, if I could, in one word, or simple sentence, describe matrixing, I would, but you wouldn’t understand it.
Here is that sentence:
For something to be true the opposite must also be true.
Doesn’t make much sense, does it?
But it will if you do a few hundred hours of logical work in the martial arts.
Mind you, you could do a few thousand hours of work, a few million hours of work, and get nowhere. You would merely be trying to make sense of the insensible, the stored up memories in your mind.
You see, without the logic, without matrixing…the mindless mass of memorized circuits that are the martial arts just won’t make sense.
And, without the martial arts, with only the logic, you are left with:
For something to be true the opposite must also be true.
A simple phrase that means everything, and nothing, and is sort of like a zen koan, and doesn’t describe any sort of logic you have ever experienced.
So, it is impossible for me to give you an example, your jumbled up memory of a mind just won’t accept it. You will translate it into gibberish.
And, here is a cruel trick, when somebody gets close to understanding they say, ‘Oh, we’ve got that in our system.’
Simply, they have latched on to some simple point, and they do have it in their system, but their mind has slid right off of Matrixing the way teflon slides off bacon and eggs.
So you are caught. You are trapped in your own hard work, trying desperately to justify it, and refusing any example of real logic I could give you.
And your only real solution is to dig into the martial arts, and dig into matrixing that you might hope to understand the martial arts.
And, nobody really understands the martial arts.
True. Sad, but true.
They think they do, and they explain the martial arts by saying something like, ‘a punch is just a punch,’ or, ‘a kick is just a kick.’ Or some other pithy saying after a few decades in the martial arts.
Nope.
That’s just more teflon sliding off the pan.
The real martial arts are a thought.
Not meat, not mind circuits, not even freedom.
They are a simple thought.
And the only way you will ever understand the thought that is the martial arts is through matrixing. I say this because the martial arts have never been understood in the history of mankind. Ever. Not on any planet, not on any plane of existence.
If they had been understood they would have, like one of those circuits, disappeared, and we would have a civilization without war and disease and the general corruption of mankind.
This essay has been written by Al Case, the discoverer of Matrixing. You can read more concerning matrixing and martial arts at Monster Martial Arts. If you are more interested in the type of thought process described in this essay, you should go to the Church of Martial Arts.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter, download any free books, press the FB like button, and donate (order matrixing materials).
This has been a page about why there are no examples of Matrixing in the Martial Arts.
I’m addicted to the martial arts. I’ve studied Southern Shaolin and Northern Shaolin and Wing Chun and Tai Chi and Pa Kua and…I can’t stop.
This is not bad, of course, for the health benefits and the clarity of mind are absolutely phenomenal. There is one problem, however, that I wish to address here, concerning the martial arts.
Float like a butterfly, and sting like an …elephant!
It can take several years to become expert in a system of Gung Fu. It can take more than a dozen years to master a system of Gung Fu. This is much, much too long.
My solution to this problem was to concentrate on isolating the main concept–and motion–behind a system of kung fu, and concentrate upon just that concept. I didn’t want to learn by memorizing series of tricks, you see, I wanted to go for the gold. I wanted to find out the real secrets behind any system I studied. Every system I studied, however, was based on a different concept. Wing Chun slipped and angled , and the Mantis pulled with a hook. Pa kua made circles and deflected, and Tai Chi guided by absorbing. None of the systems seemed related!
But, I reasoned, fighting is, at heart, fighting!There had to be a simple concept that tied them all together. There had to be some simple thing that was common to each fighting system, no matter how different the fighting system seemed to be! There had to be an underlying principle that I was missing. And, in the end, I found it.
No matter what type of Kung Fu you are studying, the body is the common denominator. Kung fu, flower arranging, dance, taking a walk…they all need a body.
And the body is constructed the same, for the most part, from person to person. Thus, I dissected and analyzed all the arts, and found that there is a principle of body motion, relating to and coming from the body, that is the same for virtually all arts.
And the arts I was studying suddenly made sense, and I could see the connections. I had found the source of it all! Eventually, I formed my own system, and it is based on this common principle of body structure, and the only potentials of motion that a body is capable of. I call this system the Shaolin Butterfly, and the true glory of it is that is includes virtually all potentials of motion from all other systems of Kung Fu.
Oh, and one other thing about this system that is great–it can be learned in a couple of months.
I recently came across the most interesting discussion concerning Martial Arts testing for belts. It was interesting because it was well thought out, concerned, and because I disagreed with most of what was said.
Sometimes I will make a comment, but in this case I am prompted to tell the truth about Martial Arts testing. What makes this particularly juicy is that the people involved in this discussion were nibbling at the edges of what I did a lo-o-ong time ago, and which is more in keeping with the true spirit of the martial arts.
Is Karate the answer to this type of attack?
Originally there were no belts, which doesn’t mean there were no ranks.
Gichin Funakoshi introduced belts which, I believe, came from the a method used by swimming teams.
The first two belt ranks were white and black. This expanded to white, green, brown and black.
Some fifty years ago ranks and belts exploded. Ed Parker and Kenpo Karate led the way with a rainbow of colors. Taekwondo expanded the colors even further.
Now, this is the way it happened, but, there is an incredibly valuable piece of data missing.
I began studies with Kenpo, and was introduced to the belt system, and found it valuable in encouraging people to study.
Isn’t it interesting that people have to be encouraged to study?
But, when I went to the Kang Duk Won, I wasn’t encouraged to study. We had four basic belts, white, green, brown and black, further delineated by stripes, and nobody much cared.
Simply, people who cared about flashy belts left the school, and only the faithful, the ones who didn’t need to be encouraged to study, were left.
Nowadays people treat the martial arts like a business, structure everything around sales and promotion, and the belt is held up as the goal.
Fact: the belt means nothing.
Fact: knowledge means everything.
But these two facts seem to have become twisted, and the belt means everything, and knowledge means nothing.
I didn’t understand my Kang Duk Won instructors thoughts concerning belts, and I didn’t care. I was one of the faithful. I worked out till I bled, and there was no middle ground. There was no entertainment, and freestyle while recognized as a game, was treated like life or death.
Not to beat somebody else up, but to hone your own skills.
Interestingly, this type of freestyle brought one to mushin no shin (mind of no mind), which is an intuitive method, and it was a science, and it was TOTALLY combat effective. When people say their art is not combative effective, or not useful on the street, I know they didn’t study the real art, but rather an art that entertains children.
When I became an instructor I awarded rank according to forms and techniques learned.
As I progressed I realized the inadequacy of that, and I stopped giving out belts. For years I gave no martial arts tests, simply gave a person a black belt when he had the knowledge.
This thing of knowledge is quite interesting.
The number of forms learned, of techniques done, has no relationship to martial arts knowledge.
And I could ascertain the depth of knowledge a person had by simply looking at him.
Just to mention a couple of the actual criteria:
how deeply does a person ‘screw’ himself into the ground when doing his forms and techniques.
Or, what level of intuition has the student progressed to.
And there are other criteria, all coming from the removal of the student from his body.
I know, sounds crazy, but the awareness that is a human being becomes removed from his body through the method of doing the martial arts forms and techniques correctly.
Emphasis on ‘correctly,’ as it requires an experience of physics beyond the normal ‘fist in the face’ ‘apple falls on the head’ physics. This is an entirely different set of physics which I have seen only a few dozen people demonstrate, and none of whom actually understood.
Now, fees. I charge little, if at all. The rationale here is: how can I charge somebody for what he already knows? What he already paid for, and not just in money, but in sweat and blood?
Yet I had one fellow come to me and said he was required to pay $800, plus plane fare to Japan, plus lodgings and meals and all, to take a martial arts test.
For what?
Three old guys would sit behind a table and watch him demonstrate for an hour, then pass or fail with NO comment on why he was passing or failing!
Obviously, these guys loved themselves…and wanted his money. And they called themselves masters.
Anyway, as time went on I got back into giving not belts, but checklists, and then I would just work people to the bone, making sure they screwed themselves into the ground during form and technique, that they reached intuitive levels of freestyle, and other things.
And, eventually, I made these checklists public, selling them as courses, and here an interesting thing happened. Knowledge became able to be transcribed on paper.
Yes, the student still has to work, and those students in it for the entertainment or the belt and so on will have problems.
But a student who actually reads the courses, does the courses, gets the knowledge.
And they usually stop needing to be entertained and become the faithful.
This became an immense and tremendous boon to ANYBODY who possesses these courses.
It eliminated guesswork. It gave workable knowledge.
It enabled the true art to be passed on even if the instructor didn’t have all the knowledge, as it passed on the knowledge to all involved.
Then I come across discussions on how to test.
Man, there are hundreds of theories out there, but all passed on being able to monkey see monkey do a form, and none having to do with the perception of knowledge, of how to actually increase the students awareness.
So I say this: stop entertaining. Get brutal. Search for knowledge and not belts. Award rank for knowledge and not memorized skits.
This is the only way to the true art, and it is the way martial arts testing should be.
Here is a page that will tell you how to find out your true rank without Martial Arts testing.
Do you know what makes a work out good?
When it is focused on making you more aware.
True.
The body is important,
the muscles, the reflexes,
speed and strength,
adaptability and creativity…
it is all important,
but that is only a ‘biofeedback system’ to your awareness.
The most important thing in the martial arts
is building awareness.
The way you build awareness is to look at your technique,
practice your technique,
until you know how it works so well
that you can make it work no matter what.
And it is your awareness that will make this happen.
Now,
the problem is when people start thinking
that their body is what is important.
That is when the martial art becomes a martial sport.
Or,
when people start thinking that beating up people is what is important.
That is when they stop improving themselves
and start ‘de-proving’ themselves.
Here’s the thing…
when you beat somebody up
you are trying to decrease their awareness.
It’s true.
So you are trying to make them stupid.
So do you like living in a world where everybody is stupid?
If you like living in a world where people beat each other up,
then you do.
And you are then caught in a trap,
a monkey cage,
a vicious cycle,
even life after life.
But,
if you do martial arts
so that you look at your body in such a way,
that you learn,
that you get smarter,
then you like to live in a world that is getting smarter.
It’s a pretty strict dividing line,
you know?
You either want to get smarter…
or stupider.
You either want to help the world…
or hurt it.
You either want to do martial sports,
or you want to do martial arts.
Mind you,
I don’t look down on martial sports,
for that is where the people who want to get smarter come from.
That is where the people will suddenly get wiser,
realize that beating people up is a dead end,
and become martial artists.
But the actual fact of the matter is this…
there are three distinct levels of humanity here.
There are the animals in the jungle.
These are people who are like monkeys,
who chatter a lot,
act smart,
but are basically asleep.
They live in a cruel world,
and bounce around between people who tell them what to do,
manipulate them,
and so on.
These are the people who have no discipline,
no route to self awareness,
and who are your basic mankind.
They live,
they walk and talk,
they do clever tricks like work,
but they are not aware of who they are.
Then there are the humans,
the people who know martial techniques,
but not the compassion.
They fight for nationalism,
or become bouncers,
and they beat people up
while constantly telling themselves that they are right,
but it is only for a belief,
or a paycheck,
or some other temporary thing.
These people have a discipline,
a route to self awareness,
but they abuse it.
They know there is a logic and a compassion,
but they refuse it.
But at least they are on the doorstep to self awareness.
Then there are martial artists,
who strive to improve themselves and others.
Who,
instead of becoming bouncers and beaters,
become teachers.
These people are human beings of the highest caliber.
They help instead of hurt.
They share knowledge and discipline,
they build the road to self awareness.
They have logic,
but more…
they have intuition.
They live in a different world,
a world of impulse that is correct,
they listen to the voice in their head,
until they become that voice in their head.
They build a world that is evolving
towards a higher humanity.
I am not being cruel here,
I am not just assigning labels to separate or make elitists,
I am trying to help you understand
exactly where you are.
A monkey.
A human being.
Or a martial artist.
Which are you?
Are you asleep?
Are you awake but stunted in your growth?
Are you awake and trying to help everybody else wake up?
Here’s the thing…
you can kill a body,
but you can’t kill awareness.
Awareness is what travels from body to body,
looking through the eyes and ears,
having fun on planet earth.
Or having misery…and calling it fun.
But to the degree that you support a planet asleep,
where awareness thinks it is asleep,
to that degree are you unaware.
No man is an island,
we are all in the same boat.
But,
one method for waking up is the martial arts.
It is a discipline that trains you to look,
to be aware,
to wake up.
Haven’t you noticed that people who do the martial arts are more aware?
Understand things better?
Easier to get along with?
And haven’t you noticed that the longer you do martial arts
the easier life becomes?
So why not go all the way?
Why not become an awareness that is intuitive,
understanding,
compassionate,
who helps others become better,
who wakes people up…
instead of putting them to sleep.
Why not see if there really is a superior way of learning with Matrixing?
Why not see if there is a discipline that is more logical
than anything you have ever seen?
Why not find out if you can learn martial arts,
a LOT of martial arts,
faster than man has ever learned it before?
Why not?
Well,
I can only talk,
I can only explain,
whether you take the next step is up to you.
But the first four courses of Matrixing are:
Matrix Karate
Matrix Kung Fu
Matrix Aikido
The Master Instructor Course.
These four courses provide the basic graphs of matrixing.
On Matrix Karate you learn the basic geometry of the body,
not random tricks,
but a logical method for assigning function to the body
and its parts.
Never been done before.
On Matrix Kung Fu you learn the basic physics
of how to take down a body.
Oh, you’ll have seen some of these techniques,
but probably not all,
and certainly not in the correct and logical order.
On Matrix Aikido you learn how to think conceptually,
how to make a grab art out of anything,
and,
surprise,
you do Matrix Aikido
and you will suddenly be finding the techniques of Monkey Boxing.
For the first time…
a system where everything fits together in the right way,
even though there are different martial arts being used.
And,
the Master Instructor Course,
the pure logic of how to use the human body.
And here is the funny thing,
or perhaps I should say the tragic thing.
I have sold maybe a thousand of these courses,
and most of the people who purchased
had decades of experience
in a variety of arts,
yet they had never seen this material.
Or,
if they had,
they hadn’t seen all of it,
and certainly not as it is presented here…as a strict and orderly science.
Not as a logic that pushes one to the complete understanding of the human body,
and increases awareness.
There you go,
four courses that will change you,
will change your martial arts.
I suggest starting on Matrix Karate,
but whichever you do is fine with me.
Because whatever you do,
it is a first step into the true martial arts.
Oinkey donkey!
I will be returning home next week,
hopefully will be sitting behind my own computer by the end of the weekend.
I will then go through the mail again,
and take care of those problems that I haven’t been able to handle while on the road.
Thanks for being patient.
And…work out!
There is no greater gift one can give oneself,
than just working out.
Becoming pure through sweat,
divesting oneself of distraction
and finding the purity of the self.
Beyond what the world expects.
We were driving up this long, long road
to a place to pitch a tent for the night.
As we drove I noticed that the road was littered with rocks.
Little chunks that looked like sparkly granite,
maybe half the size of baseballs.
I veered this way and that
attempting to miss the rocks,
but knew I wasn’t successful.
Yet there was no sensation of tire over rock.
There should have been a hundred, little bumps,
things rolling under the car,
bouncing up against the undercarriage,
yet…
there was nothing.
How curious!
So I slowed down,
rolled down the window
and peered down at the rocks on the road.
Grasshoppers!
BIG…and beautiful grasshoppers!
Their acutely folded legs moved,
and they leaped,
but,
like as not,
I squashed them with my Firestones.
So I slowed,
drove more slowly,
and navigated the road filled with giant grasshoppers.
At the tent site there were only the occassional insect,
and I found one and squatted down to watch it,
to matrix it.
Colors to match the sparkle of dew,
perhaps to draw in smaller insects for a meal.
And there weren’t any larger insects,
so no fear there.
And if a bird,
or other beast came to feast upon it,
it jumped.
The quickness of the jump was savage,
an attack in flight.
And,
the sagacity of the insect,
it landed in twist,
so that it literally bounced off its rump
and faced the way it had come.
Well,
of course.
To flee again…in attack.
Is that good martial arts…or what?
I mean,
positively brilliant!
And what was the alternative?
To land facing away,
and to become a target in flight?
No,
better to flee as if in fight.
Surprise the foe with savage thrust,
yet always end up facing,
towards not away
ready to flight again.
Fight or flight,
flight and fight,
a marvelous yin yang of martial arts survival
and something that most people just roll over,
or swat away,
or laugh at.
Yet,
in mass,
grasshoppers are one of nature’s most ferocious armies.
Interestingly,
I was brought to think of the book by McMurtry,
‘Lonesome Dove.’
During a cattledrive the cowboys are overwhelmed by grasshoppers,
so they catch bagfuls of the critters,
dip them in molasses
and fry them.
Ummm!
Cowboy treat!
And even the hardiest,
most savage warrior
become naught but food
for those who can overcome their fear.
So,
in the midst of scorpions and tarantulas,
giant grasshoppers and other denizens of the enchanted land,
I pitched tent and had dinner.
And,
no.
It wasn’t a mess of fried grasshoppers.
Every place I go I see contest and battle,
creatures struggling for survival.
Interestingly,
it is only man that has a chance.
Only man has the ability to overcome himself.
To fight or flight and land so that he faces the true enemy…himself.
His cruelties and tortures,
his naked desires and covetness.
His desire to worship warped gods and think that
it is God that made him right.
And it is only by divesting ourselves of these cruelties and nightmares
that we can ascend to the truth of ourselves.
And it is only through landing in the correct manner so that we don’t fight ourselves,
but face ourselves,
that we will succeed.
Martial Arts creates this path.
Martial arts is where we learn to fight
so that we never have to fight.
This is a truth that we must take to ourselves,
and faster than we have ever done before.
And that is the message from the enchanted land of New Mexico,
the message I received just because I drove down a road
and didn’t want to kill
some of the most beautiful grasshoppers you have ever seen.
My apologies to those who wait an email,
or a fix on an order.
Everything is working,
but there are are a couple of things I just can’t do
until I get back to my computer.
I am able to connect to the net every day,
so if anybody wants to tell me off,
or wish me well
I can handle that.
BTW,
take advantage of the KangDukWon.com
I haven’t been able to raise prices
because of being on the road,
so,
temporary reprieve,
but prices are going up.
So,
if you want to learn how to fight like an animal,
if you want to learn the wisdom of nature,
you can start with the Shaolin Butterfly.
The animals covered in that include
the snake,
the dragon,
the crane,
the tiger,
the mantis,
and more…
here’s the URL…
Happy first day of the week!
Happy first workout of the week!
Make it a good one,
lose yourself in it,
and your whole week will glow.
True.
Okey doke,
thanks to all who are on the Kang Duk Won course,
don’t forget to set aside time each day,
whittle away at the art,
make it your own.
And,
congrats to Master Instructor Wilhem Stockinger!
Here’s his win…
I had a breakthru in the master instructor course yesterday, man the pieces finally came together…I was…screaming in ecstasy and joy…you are a genius master Al! I am so much more grounded and aligned in movement, it’s fantastic.
I finally got the missing pieces to what was once 6 years of Iu ryu jujutsu, 2 years of Gracie jujutsu,a few years of Muay thai kickboxing, and some Krav Maga and so on…I know I never mentioned my background since it fades away against yours and I was not enrolling into your course to talk about my past but to learn. And I did learn a tremendous amount, which not only corrected my faulty basics in form and execution, but also gave me understanding of form. Sensei, the 6 secrets, man, this is all Jujutsu theory I’ve been trained in for years, but nobody ever explained the principles, unless by practical example, but never the principles behind it. The why and how, not just the what. It was so enlightening. I am starting all over, but now the proper way. Thank you so much. I finally got the crack of technique over strength, of body mechanics over brute force. I am excited to be in the martial arts again. You are the real deal Shihan Alton Case. God bless you!
No,
thanks to you, Will.
Breaking through,
sharing your win,
somebody else is going to be
encouraged to make it, too.
And,
for everybody,
it’s easy,
it’s just how to fix your thinking.
Which makes it the hardest thing you’ll ever do.
Like Will says,
everybody talks about it,
without ever talking about it.
They talk about the surface
and never go into the depths.
They never go into why things work.
Endless drills,
endless techniques,
without ever telling you why.
So,
thanks again Will.
Persistence and tenacity in the martial arts,
that’s what you represent,
which are characteristics of good martial arts.
Okay!
I’m going to write an article on this,
it follows along with what WIll says above,
but I thought I’d mention it here, first.
I like to talk to the intelligent first,
then the masses.
Grin.
Do you know why I teach so many Martial Arts?
Why I am always open to new arts?
Why I listen avidly
when my fellow martial artists talk,
instead of opening my own yap?
It’s true,
like as not,
when the talk starts
I find it much more educational
to listen.
Well,
the reason is this.
If you were drilling a well,
you would need a stable base,
so you could build a high drill,
so you could drill deeper.
When you learn more martial arts,
when you toss the techniques around in your head,
compare and contrast,
fit them into the matrix of all techniques,
then you are building a wide database,
and you can then build a high drill,
and drill deep into your soul.
Data holds you together.
The more data you have,
the more held together you are.
Or,
think about it this way.
If you were going to build a telescope
to see to the furthest star,
then you would need a solid base,
so the telescope wouldn’t be shaken by wind or rain,
or any other force.
Then your sight would be solid and true,
and you could see to those far stars,
without them shimmying and shaking
and being a blur to your sight.
Do you understand?
The more you know,
the deeper you can dig into yourself,
the more of yourself
you can understand.
Simple,
eh?
Yet,
the work to make a wide database
especially in the martial arts,
with all the technique and styles and opinions and…
it can get pretty tough.
And,
it can get tough to keep it all in order,
which is one of the blessings of Matrixing.
Look,
people study,
they get a thousand techniques,
and it can take twenty years to sort it all out,
to learn to think about things in a way
that it all makes sense,
so that all of the data is at your fingertips,
instead of buried in the mass of
thousands of techniques.
So,
instead of lumping everything together,
and training like crazy.
You just put your techniques into a matrix,
fit that matrix to a larger matrix of all martial arts,
and the procedure gets REAL fast.
Oh,
like Will said above,
it can take time,
but not as much,
but,
the rewards once it all clicks,
there’s nothing like it.
It’s not just studying hard forever,
that is taken for granted…
it is making sense out of it quickly,
as fast as you input data and techniques,
that’s how fast you have to make sense out of it all.
Oinky Doinkey!
That‘s about it,
got nothing left to say,
and,
besides,
I’d rather work out than talk.
I’d rather dig deep
than open my yap.
There are three things you need if you are going to teach yourself Martial Arts, and a couple of secondary things you should know.
The three main things you need to teach yourself Martial Arts is a good Martial Art, a good teacher, and a good student.
We can assume that you are going to be a good student, set aside time every day, and stick to the program you come up with. In this case, if you are a good student, then you are a good teacher.
So we have to select a high grade martial art, and here is where we come into the secondary considerations you should think about when undertaking how to teach yourself Martial Arts.
To teach yourself Martial Arts you have to ask yourself why you want to learn.
Do you want to be strong and flexible? Excellent. Do you want to be tough? Not so good. Do you want to bully people? Uh oh.
The best martial Art to teach yourself, to be honest, is probably Karate.
If you want to learn Aikido you need a partner all the time.
If you want to learn Kung Fu there’s too much mysticism, meaningless chi exercises, abstract concepts that you might actually need a teacher to help you with.
Some arts are unbalanced. Taekwondo, for example, has too many kicks, and doesn’t give enough weight to punches and throws. Jujitsu has too many throws and not enough punches and kicks.
Mixed Martial Arts isn’t bad, but most MMA fighters got their start by learning a classical martial art first.
Karate, on the other hand, is based around self defense, so their isn’t a bunch of mystical concepts to mess up your mind.
And, it is well rounded, with a balance of throws, kicks, and punches.
Having selected the type of Karate you wish to learn, you now have to find the best courses and information in order to teach yourself Martial Arts.
Serious about learning How to Teach yourself Martial Arts? Check out KangDukWon.com.
For part two of this article, go to How to Find the Best Online Martial Arts Instruction at MonsterMartialArts.com.
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
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