Tag Archives: taekwondo

Reaching the Highest Grade of Martial Arts

Highest Level Martial Arts!

Good morning!

I’ve always felt that

Karate is like chess

and boxing is like checkers.

They are played on the same board,

or in the same ring.

In essence,

they are games that analyze motion.

The motion of the body

the motion of the limbs

the motion of the opponent

In boxing,

the motion is dedicated to 

collisions of the fist with flesh.

In karate,

and the majority of other martial arts

the motion is dedicated to 

collisions of the fist and foot with flesh,

entangling limbs to trip, lock, throw, etc.

Some arts specialize more than others.

But,

still,

it is all about the analysis of motion.

And here we come to something interesting.

The highest stages of martial art

are dedicated to non-motion.

Simply,

you analyze motion

until you enter a state of non-motion.

The easiest example of this

that I can think of.

You and Joe Blow are playing soccer.

You are racing for the ball.

You are running next to each other 

at the same speed,

and you notice that you and Joe are motionless

compared to the background moving behind you.

You and Joe are in your own world.

Strange things happen when you are in your own world.

Time can be manipulated.

Between the two of you

you can agree to a passage of time

that is different from

the passage of time in the ‘real’ universe.

Now,

if you practice long and hard

you can create this sense of time without Joe.

You just look at an opponent

and different rules apply.

Motion becomes different.

it becomes uniquely adjusted by one person

agreeing for both people.

Read that one again,

it’s so damned simple it’s difficult.

It took me decades to find that reality,

that different sense of time,

that place where my sense of self

was strong enough to affect

the universe outside myself.

So,

how do you find this place?

First,

meditate through forms.

Second,

meditate through form applications (techniques).

Third,

when you freestyle with somebody,

eschew violence for staring at them so hard

that you end up feeling like you are in a tube.

One day I asked my instructor

if he had ever had any mystical experiences.

He said that one day

he was working out

and was looking down a long tube at his opponent.

He said the tube felt like it was 60 feet long.

He could see everything before it happened.

He even knew what his opponent was thinking.

When I was in my fifties,

some twenty years ago,

I had that experience.

I only felt like I was about 10 feet from my opponent,

but it was a stable experience,

not a one time thing.

At that time I started doing a mental drill.

And I think it helped me.

I would do forms,

often with my eyes closed,

or in a dark room,

and visualize myself as fifty feet above myself;

looking down ast my body.

I would tell my body,

 way down there,

how to move.

This brought an incredible sense of peace to myself

and I truly felt like I was expanding

as a martial artist,

and as a human being.

Have fun with this.

And, have fun with this little video clip.

MB 114 slap grab options

And don’t forget to drop by

http://www.monstermartialarts.com

Have a great work out!

Al

Hi, Kumar.

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

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6L5DSD1?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

And volume two is at…

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6XVTB9V?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

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.

How to Develop Martial Arts Chi Power!

A Sum Up of Martial Arts Chi Power!

Good morning!

and it really is.

I recently received an email asking for more info on Chi.

Here’s what I said.

Hi Jon from Missouri! Thanks for writing.

Chi is quite interesting. Think of the body as a machine, which it is, and things are easier to understand. It creates energy through biochemical actions. This energy takes on many forms, and is usually used to power the muscles.

Chi is more of ‘invisible’ (to our eyes) energy. It is also present in everything in the universe, even ‘space.’

If you follow the principle of ‘wt = work = energy’ the body will create more energy. This is the reason for lower stances. Though once one has started to manifest chi the lower stances become less necessary.

What stops chi from naturally manifesting? The fact that energy is channeled into muscles. If you can figure out how to move without using muscles, or ‘holding’ the muscles in unbendable positions.

Martial arts, especially the forms, provide different ways of channeling energy. Hard arts are relatively inefficient. Soft arts are more efficient.

Can you relax when you strike somebody? That’s crucial to manifesting chi in combat.

Relaxation requires a calmness of mind that is quite unnatural, except for babies. Babies haven’t learned to use their muscles, so they grip with energy. The grip of a baby is all out of proportion to their size and development. When they try to apply energy to the world, however, they are forced to use muscles, and there goes the chi.

To achieve the proper degree of relaxation you need to not think.

It’s this way: If you don’t use muscles you can use chi. If you don’t think you can develop the intention necessary to direct chi.

BUT, there is a kicker to all this. When chi manifests it doesn’t feel at all like the descriptions have it.

I was looking for some mystical thing, but when it manifested, though it was exactly as described, I would never have recognized chi from the description. It is much more subtle and understated, and more ‘real world natural,’ than the descriptions would have you believe. Yet the descriptions are correct.

Weird, eh?

Chi manifests when you use no effort.

Chi develops in proportion to lack of muscular effort.

People who use muscles are strong.

People who use chi (when they finally are able to use it)  will use a combination of chi and muscle. Morihei Ueshiba was known to actually pluck small trees out of the earth. He claimed it was his ability to direct chi that enabled him to do this.

When you use chi your mind starts perceiving the world differently.

When I made my breakthroughs I stopped having dreams. My mind was that calm that it no longer generated dreams. (Dreams are a low level form of static in the mind, as far as I am concerned).

People with chi will have amazing stamina. There is no way to measure this, as people and their control of chi is so totally different. 

People in my base art (Kang Duk Won) developed chi within a couple of years. I was slow; I took 3 and a 1/3.

However, they did not normally develop chi past this to any degree because KDW is a hard art. i went into Aikido and Tai Chi and learned a LOT more. Contrarily, people in Tai Chi and Aiki lacked hard art experience, and their chi was often lacking. They just didn’t understand the real world.

Chi is usually more subjective, but you will be using your body differently than other people. You will also be using your mind differently than other people.

Concluding this little rant: figure out how to do your forms using less and less muscle, less and less effort. Focus your mind on the fact that your body is a machine. Figure out how to breath down to the tan tien (a point an inch or two below the navel) and then channeling it through your body. Then do the same things for applications, no energy and no effort, and figure out how to remain calm even when the world is blowing up around you. Forms are a form of meditation and will help with that.

There is, of course, a lot more to chi than this. And a lot less. Hope you get intrigued by this description. My testimony is that chi, and the pursuit of chi, has enriched my life by orders of magnitude. I wish everybody understood this and tapped into this incredible energy source, but there is not much accurate teaching these days, and most people are not willing to do the work.

Thanks for asking, I’ll probably use this reply in a newsletter.

Have a great work out!

Al

That’s a bout as precise as I can get in a short answer.

You can read more by looking through my books, 

‘Matrixing Chi Power.’

There is also volume seven

of the biggest martial arts lesson.

‘Chi Power.’

Here’s a little clip for your entertainment,

MB 116 slap grab elbow lock

I’ve got hundreds of these clips,

many of them recalibrated to the slap grab so they’ll work better.

And,

the obligatory ad…

The Last Martial Arts Book

It’s got five hours of video links in it.

Have a great work out!

Al

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…

https://www.amazon.com/Science-Government-Fixing-world-government/dp/B09JRFSVVY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1V6SI5F4EVGX2&keywords=the+science+of+government+al+case&qid=1638483302&sprefix=the+science+of+government%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-1

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6L5DSD1?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

And volume two is at…

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6XVTB9V?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

Matrixing the Hurricane Punch!

Matrixing the Hurricane Punch!

Happy Hurricane!
That’s right,
I live in Florida and I just lived through
terror and despair and fear.
That’s right,
I watched the news and survived.

So let me tell you what really happened
with the hurricane where I lived,
it makes for a delightful bit of matrixing
and may give you ideas for how to apply matrixing
to the world.

It is easy to matrix a hurricane,
a hurricane is like a big old punch to the gut.
So I’m watching all these complex charts,
and the news people are talking statistics
and,
of course
HEAD FOR THE HIGH GROUND!
YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!
THE HURRICANE IS COMING TO GET YOU!

Except I looked at the maps
the simple ones showing the path of the hurricane
and I immediately saw what was wrong.
The hurricane passed over Cuba,
then veered right
and headed for Tampa on a straight line.
Do you see what is wrong?
Nature abhors a straight line.
Nature,
except for a few stupid trees shooting for the sun
does not happen in straight lines.
Only men, with their buildings and jabs,
create straight lines.
And here this hurricane was on a straight line for me.

Heck,
Something was wrong with this picture
and I began to apply matrixing.

Matrixing is all about the analysis of force and direction.
That’s all it is.
So here is a straight punch hurricane
and what are the forces that will act on it?
Only two.
There is the surface the hurricane travels over,
and there are the ‘masses of air’ to the sides of the hurricanes.

The surface over which a hurricane travels over
is either flat (the ocean)
or rough (trees and houses and things)
Just by surface alone,
because it has to be a circle,
I could see that the hurricane was going to loop.
As big as the hurricane was,
and considering the surfaces over which it traveled,
I figured it would hit land above clearwater (where I live)
I blew it.
The hurricane skated over the water
and hit land over a hundred miles south of me.

Why did it hit 100 miles below me?
Because there was a HUGE mass of air to the north.
The hurricane simply ran into a wall and turned.

I saw a bigger map later,
and saw the HUGE mass of air to the north,
and that was why it had missed me.

The news media had this information,
So why were they all shouting

HEAD FOR THE HIGH GROUND!
YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!
THE HURRICANE IS COMING TO GET YOU!

Because that’s how they ‘sell newspapers.’
They create fear
and it’s like a roller coaster.
Everybody wants to get on for the scary ride.
So everybody watches the news.

Once I saw the media was wrong
I decided not to evacuate.
Police drove through my park every few hours
telling me I had to leave.
In essence,
they were yelling…

HEAD FOR THE HIGH GROUND!
YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!
THE HURRICANE IS COMING TO GET YOU!

Why would the police do this?
One, because they believed the news people.
Two,
more important,
because if people are scared they need the police,
it justifies the police
and gives the police more money.
Period.

So the real irritation
of the big hurricane punch
was that I had to turn off all the lights in my house
and let the police pass by.
Chances are they would do nothing,
but they might do something,
and they could give me a ticket.

Can you dig it?
A thousand dollar fine
for defending myself against
the big hurricane punch?
So the police are now put in the position
of potentially becoming the enemy,
interfering with my right to defend myself.

The winds howled,
the rain splattered,
I heard things go bump in the night,
things like pieces of branches hitting the ground.
Midnight my carport started flapping.
Horrendous racket.
I had no rope,
so I wrapped a piece of electrical cord
around one of the supports,
and ran my car over the cord.
Saved my carport.
And it was fun to be out there in shorts and a tee
fighting the elements.

And for all you people who scream
‘what if the wind blew you away?’
‘What if your house collapsed?’
‘What if the police tried to save you and died!’
‘What if…what if…what if…’

I say:
STOP LIVING A LIFE OF FEAR!

I was working off matrixing.
I knew the dynamics of a punch.
I KNEW the hurricane punch was going to miss.

And if I had known that it was going to hit
I would have headed for my son’s house,
a couple of miles away
and hunkered down.
He lives on the high ground.

That’s right.
I was so sure of my matrixing
that instead of heading a couple of miles to a ‘safe’ house,
I stayed home
drank an adult beverage
played on the computer,
and was so very happy.

And,
for those people who got slammed by the punch,
my sincere thoughts and prayers.
But,
did you know what happened
when the news and the police and the politicians all yelled.

HEAD FOR THE HIGH GROUND!
YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!
THE HURRICANE IS COMING TO GET YOU!

All the people in my area drove a 100 miles to get away.
They drove to (drum roll) Fort Meyers
and Orange county.
That’s right,
they drove right onto Ground Zero.
Because they listened to FEAR,
because they listened to the news,
because they followed the directions of the police,
they took the Great Hurricane Punch
right in the flippin’ gut!

Too bad they didn’t know matrixing.
Too bad they didn’t know the martial arts.
They could have stayed home.
They could have had popcorn and chocolate,
maybe an adult beverage,
been safe with their kids
playing board games
and making up scary stories.

Now,
I suggest you study the martial arts
and study matrixing,
and do it quick
before Twitter and Facebutt and all those guys
convict me of ‘spreading disinformation.’
After all,
they don’t want me to interfere
with their money making business.

And the next time somebody starts yelling FEAR!
Look at the situation,
analyze the potential forces and flows,
and put them out of your mind.
A person who works off of fear
is not able to analyze
and ALL his opinions are worthless.

Don’t bob and weave,
don’t side step and block
if the punch is going to miss.

Okay,
enough about the dreaded and terrible Hurricane Punch,
let’s talk about fun!

Thanks for buying
How to Fix Karate.
Do you know why How to Fix Karate is so different?
Every book out there
talks about the way the old masters did it.
They make photos of their system
and THEY NEVER consider whether their system is right.
How to Fix Karate takes each step
of each form
analyzes each step
for workability,
asks whether it is right or wrong,
and offers reasons
as to how and why something might be wrong,
and offers alternative solutions.
No other book does that.
All other books
treat Karate like a sacred cow,
never touching it.
How to Fix Karate dissects the sacred cow,
takes it apart like a 50s car
and shows you how to put it back together…
SO IT WILL WORK!

Anyway,
here’s a little clip for your entertainment,

MB 149 Two Man Punch Drill.mp4

and don’t forget to check out

HOW TO FIX KARATE

Remember,
it’s not a little book.
Two volumes for over 400 pages,
a thousand images,
and it is not designed to be read,
it is designed to be scrutinized,
to be poured over,
to make you THINK!
This is not simple Hurricane Punch,
it is the real thing.

Have a great work out!
Al

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…

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

Republished a Martial Arts Book!

I republished Chiang Nan as a video course book

It’ll be available on Amazon in a day or two.
It has links to about five hours of video.

So far I have several books repub-ed as ‘video course books.’

How to Fix Karate 1
How to Fix Karate 2
Shaolin Butterfly (the butterfly form) (Kindle)
Shaolin Butterfly
Nine Square Diagram Boxing
Hidden Techniques of Karate (Chiang Nan)

Sales are good, and I thank you.
and I’ll be doing more books,
and writing new ones.
I have a couple of hundred hours of video
that have never seen the light of day,
so I’m looking forward to that.

And,
the courses are still the best source of information.
They have all the videos,
the best videos,
and all the bonuses.

Anyway,
I had a fellow asking about the usage of the hips in the martial arts.

The hips are the cornerstone of the martial arts,
because that is where the major weight of the body resides.
If you hit somebody,
try to get your whole body behind the strike (block)
If you have to move out of the way,
you have to move the hips to effectively move the body.
Unless you want to bend at the hips and be out of balance.
We used to have an exercise.
We would hold a broom stick across the front of hips
then slam the hips back and forth,
pivoting from one front stance to another.
We would judge out effectiveness
by how well the tips of the broom stick
would snap into place.
Really got us centered down.

But here’s the funny thing,
each art has a specific to the hips.
Consider that there were only three directions that the hips can go,
forward, down and rotational.
In karate you thrust.

You drive the hips forward and align them with the strike or block.
In Pa Kua Chang you rotate the hips.
In Aikido you rotate the hips.
But in all arts you must sink the hips.

Sinking the hips connects with the ground,
braces your technique on the earth itself,
and you might consider a small study in physics
concerning the idea of grounding.
Understand what a ground is in electronics,
what it is in architecture,
and so on,
and suddenly you have the idea.

You see most people don’t understand
that their body is a machine
and that it must function as a machine.
Instead, they get emotional,
they start putting their attention (intention)
on their head,
and the body becomes up rooted easily.

One of my big kicks
was to show somebody how to ground.
I would push on their shoulders
and show them how to let the force
go through their bodies and into the ground.
Then,
when they had it,
I would simply say ‘look up,’
and they would fly away.

The col thing was that after I had done that a few times,
people started learning how to put their intention down,
and not be distracted by up.

In other words,
they learned not to be dependent upon their eyes.
They learned intention
without the distraction of the earthly senses.
Very interesting.

Want to know something REALLY interesting?
I would take a student and deliver strikes and have him give the blocks.
Easy peasy, he’s got it in no time.
Then I would have him close his eyes and I would say,
‘I am striking you slowly,
block when you feel it.’

Sometimes my strike would touch them.
Sometimes they would feet it coming too soon.
But eventually, and we’re talking about an hour or so,
even spread out over a couple of classes,
they would feel me coming and get it right.
Blew their minds.

You don’t need your eyes.
You don’t need your ears.
You just need to know where you are
and forget about what is happening.
It’s that easy,
and it changes everything you do.
It’ll change the way you move.
It’ll change the way you fight.
But don’t believe me.
Try it, you’ll like it.
But you should practice your forms a whole lot
before you try it.
The forms enable you to learn control and discipline,
and control and discipline
is what the martial arts are all about.

Anyway,
I’ll talk more on this stuff some day,
but for now,
check out my books from above
and have a great day.

HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!

Al

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…

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

Zowie! Volume 2 of how to Fix Karate is out!

How to Fix Karate (Volume Two)!

Zowie! Volume 2 of how to Fix Karate is out!
The whole book is over 400 pages,
around a thousand graphics,
over 50,000 words.
So I had to cut it in two. Amazon has a lot of trouble
with a book that size.
And, the cost for a book that size becomes exorbitant.
But…

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

I will be coming out with hard cover versions.

And thanks to all who have purchased volume one.
Any five star reviews would be appreciated.

Okay,
let’s talk.

Got an email the other day,
and we were talking about force and flow.
And the concept of flow as more than just motion came up.

So,
let me explain.
Flow is motion
force is no motion.
This is not quite right,
of course.
force is going to be when two flows collide
and create other motion.
But it all becomes martial pertinent when you say

‘If the force is greater flow it,
if the flow is greater force it.’

Then you can consider force as no motion,
but it is really the moment when flow changes.

But this is all complicated when you take the mind into account.
flow is motion
emotion is motion inside the head.
read that again.
Make sure you understand it.

The point is that you need to rid your head of emotion
if you want to perceive motion correctly.
Emotion can slant your perception of motion.

But now things get interesting.
The body is a motor.
It can have motion.
But the mind just sits in the head,
or thereabout,
and it can create emotion outside the body.
(Actually, it’s not the mind,
it is the spirit,
the mind is just a bunch of memory)

Let me explain.
Joe Blow gets emotion,
there’s all this anger running around inside his head.
With most humans the anger can get a little outside the head.
You can feel when somebody is angry.
It’s just…’in the air.’

But once somebody can control emotion,
he becomes more able to project emotion.
Mind you,
he doesn’t project willy nilly,
like a person out of control,
he projects with intention,
and you can fill the air with emotion.
You can stop people coming at you with emotion,
and you can control people with this kind of emotion.

When you are strong enough,
in control enough,
to project emotion,
it doesn’t feel like emotion.
It feels like…flow.

It is like an actual swirling in the air.

This is because it is not anger.
It is not out of control baby emotion,
it is full grown emotion moved around by…intention.
Your will.
Your desire to make things happen
on a much higher level
than normal people are aware of.

So this is what is in my mind
when I speak of force, flow, emotion, and that sort of thing.

If you practice karate
or other classical arts
long and hard enough,
this all becomes second nature.
Matrixing,
of course,
will speed up your growth of these abilities.
It is just logical and makes sense,
and the concepts of the martial arts are easier to understand.

Here’s the links for the two volumes of
How to Fix Karate!

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!

Al

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…

How to Fix Karate is Published!

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…

The Tale of the Karate Book

Writing a Book on Karate!

Good morning!
Yes, I’m still here,
and my thanks to those fellows who have written me
and told me to get off my butt.
Kumar, Jerome, Michael,
you know who you are.
Thumbs up!

Now,
let me tell you what is happening and why.
And, before I start,
I’m going to be talking about
‘The Book!’
And if you’re not interested,
or wanted me to go heavy duty
on the art,
self defense,
concepts,
whatever,
that’s next time.

This time I’ll tell you what my problem is

I’ve studied martial arts for over 50 years,
I’ve written probably a hundred books and training manuals,
thousands of articles,
been a professional writer,
so I know my way around a keyboard.
But this book…
this book has been a bugger.
And the problem is simple,
I’m trying to put too much in it.

One,
I want to cover karate like it has never been covered.
That’s my base art,
and I want to leave it in better shape than I found it.

Two,
I want to show some advanced matrixing.
I want to show where karate can go,
and in the simplest fashion.

Three,
I want to fix karate,
and that means pointing out some serious problems with the art,
and show how to fix them.

I’m not focusing on matrixing,
except by the way.

Right now,
the book is about 300 pages and counting.
And,
it has been a true mess to figure out.

Normally,
I get an idea,
I write it.
I write about as fast as I can talk,
books are usually done within three or four days,
and I’m off on another project.
The books I write are quick and easy and very logical.

Karate is not logical,
so it is like I am untangling this MASSIVE knot,
and retying it.

And,
I have had a terrible time with formatting.
I am trying to write the book so it can be understood on the paper page,
but I want to format the thing differently.
For instance,
I write the forms on the left page
and the techniques on the right.
I don’t do the form,
then show the techniques,
I show the techniques along side the form,
and this makes perfect sense
if you are scrolling on a computer.

But creating in this fashion
and for the paper page, too,
has been REALLY messy.
300 pages
and I’ve reformatted it 4 times,
and rewritten it probably six.

I NEVER rewrite.
And now I am stuck in it.

So,
not to bore you,
but that’s what I’ve been doing.

The good news is I actually called on a reader
Ted V,
and he has proven to be a good editor.

Think about it,
the guy was able to tell the arrogant Al Case
that his work is a mess
and I better get back to the drawing board.
I thank him,
and serve warning that it’s coming.

Anyway,
I won’t bore you anymore
with the trials and tribulations of writing
except to say one thing.

I decided,
and this was a conscious decision I made over 50 years ago
to practice two arts this lifetime.
One is karate,
for the external.
One is writing,
for the internal.
A very yin and yang balance.
And they compliment each other wonderful.
I always tell people they should have two arts in their lives.

So if you have a physical job you love,
pick up painting or sculpting or poetry or something.

And if you have a mental job
pick up karate, yoga, dance, whatever.

Seek balance.

Now,
my apologies for yakking on about
‘The Book.’
It will get done,
I seem to have the formatting fixed,
and my writing is taking on the normal flow again,
and I am hoping this project
becomes the most intense
and thorough examination of karate ever written.
Thanks for being patient,
and have a great work out!

Al

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…

Self Awareness in the Martial Arts

Building Self Awareness in the Martial Arts

I am speaking of the classical martial arts.
some types of Karate,
some types of kung fu
aikido,
tai chi…
that sort of thing.

I am not speaking of MMA
and the various arts
that fall under that umbrella.

First,
there is sport
and there is art.

Sports are when you try to beat somebody
Art is when you try to discipline yourself.
Huge difference there.

Trying to beat somebody doesn’t make you wise
Disciplining yourself makes you wise.

But,
I’ll be in your face with this,
if you don’t understand the difference,
why this is so,
then you’re just going to be pissed off at me if you’re into the sports
And you’ll be a parrot supporting your art if you are classical.

So,
here it is…
what is the difference?

This universe consists of motion.
Objects fly through space.
Go on,
think about it.

cosmic forces impinge on a planet,
a planet forms.
Gravity and such causes compression,
rocks heat up,
heat rises to the surface
a volcano blows up
people run for their lives.
Living in this world
is like living on a game board.

But,
on this game board we call earth
there are humans
and humans have choices
and can even affect the game board.
They can move away from the volcano.
They can dodge meteorites.
They can step out of the way of cars.
Or they can get into the cars and drive through crowds.

All there is in life
is the analyses of the flow of objects
period.

So how do you analyze the flow of objects?
In boxing you hit the bag
and there are drills for bobbing and weaving.
But the point isn’t to analyze the flow of objects.
The intent is to make the body strong
and to create knee jerk reactions.
Yes,
this is good,
but it does not build the awareness
that will turn into wisdom.

You won’t get wise by being punched,
otherwise we could make Mozarts with clubs.

You won’t get wise unless you pursue awareness.

So,
we come to the martial arts,
and the point I am trying to make here.
Some martial arts,
many martial arts
have gone the way of boxing.
Boxing works,
after all.
Even though it doesn’t breed wisdom,
or elevate one’s awareness and self awareness.

In the classical martial arts,
the real ones that haven’t fallen to knee jerk training methods,
there is a pursuit of awareness.
There are drills that cause one to become more aware
and more self aware.
Smarter and wiser.

Sure,
boxing works,
and it can be used to beat people up pretty ruthlessly,
but what good is the ability to beat people up
if you keep walking into the traffic?

So,
let’s delve into this subject of awareness in the martial arts.

There are four methods for enlightenment.

scripture
yoga
fakir
martial arts

One can study scripture
and eventually figure out wisdom.
Very intelligent approach,
but not useful for self defense,
but…enough wisdom and one can see a fight coming
and avoid it.

One can study yoga,
which exercises the body
and holds on still long enough
that he might see the motion within his body
and that tends to bleed over to seeing the motion
outside one’s body.
and hopefully the yoga will see the fight coming
and avoid it.

One can deny the existence of the universe
as a fakir does
until he sees himself
and becomes aware of himself.
Sort of a crazy method,
but it works.
But it is difficult to get punched in the face
and say it didn’t happen.

And then there are the martial arts,
which I will describe in a second,
after I have made a brief summation
of the other three methods for pursuing enlightenment.

A scripturalist
learns ABOUT the motion of the universe
until he becomes aware of potential consequences,
and in this method he is enlightened,
which is to say
he is made self aware.

A yoga
looks at the universe inside his body
until he can see the similarities of motion
between the universe of his body
and the game board universe in which he lives.

A fakir says nothing exists
denying the universe
until he figures out that he is all that exists.

A martial artist
studies the flow of fists
until he understands that the universe
is nothing but the flow of objects.
He becomes aware that he cannot see the flow of objects
unless he looks at them,
and he can’t look at them,
unless he looks at himself.
Self awareness.

Of the four methods
the martial arts are the best and the surest.
This is because
reality impinges if he doesn’t look.

How many times have you heard something like this…

‘He tagged you,
better open your eyes.’

Yet most martial arts
have put aside the drills that open the eyes,
and gone the way of such as boxing
with their emphasis on knee jerk reactions.

A knee jerk reaction is a jerk of the body to a threat.
It is not self awareness.
And you have instructors touting muscle memory,
instead of teaching people to ‘open their eye,’
or attain self-awarenes.

And there is just enough truth in muscle memory,
that people think there is more.

You are walking through a dark house
a tap on the shoulder
and you turn around and smack the guy.
Wonderful!
Except the guy happened to be your granny
offering you a fresh baked cookie.
That is muscle memory.

You are walking through a dark house
a tap on the shoulder
and you turn and hug your granny,
or smack the guy with the club,
because that is not muscle memory.
That is awareness.

Looking at the flow of objects
on the game board of this universe,
Now analyze force and direction
until you are aware of force and direction
to the point at which you becomes enlightened.
Self aware
Wise.

Now,
if you are still with me,
I have one more point to make.
There are degrees of self awareness,
and these degrees can be arranged in a scale.

A baby walks into walls, falls down.
He isn’t aware of his body much at all.
He/she might be fantastically aware of themselves,
but as the game board of the universe impinges on them
hits them on the nose with enough walls,
awareness of self falls to awareness of hard objects that flow.

A teenager is aware of his body
but not of himself.
He/she is usually out of control
(unless they have VERY enlightened parents)
and deliberately runs into the walls of the universe.

A fellow who has started the martial arts
has taken a step towards self control.
And this is a discipline
and a step towards self awareness.
Unfortunately,
the state of the martial arts,
the obsession with hitting people for fun
keeps them in a very low state of self awareness

A black belt…in a GOOD art,
an art that is logical and based on physics,
has a greater degree of self control.
He has awareness of himself,
but not to any great degree.
He is a baby in a new universe.
The key here is this:
while there is an art to destruction
the true art lays in control.

A fellow who has mastered a true art,
one based on physics and with the precept just mentioned
is aware of himself to a great degree.
He is somewhat enlightened.
But he is like a teenager in a new universe.

How do you become totally enlightened?
Totally self-aware?
Don’t give in to the games of the universe.
Don’t teach to dominate.
Don’t play politics.
And…
Do study other arts,
and study fields outside the arts
with the intent of developing self awareness within those fields.
Most of all…
teach with the idea of helping others.

And here is the fun fact…
there is no end to developing self awareness,
and that is the True Art.

Okay,
time for the obligatory ad.
If you do the one simple exercise in the Matrix Karate course
you will be close to, and might even attain, enlightenment.
That is because it puts the observation of the flow of the objects (fists) of the universe
to logic.
That which is logical is ten times easier to learn
ten times faster to absorb.
But here is the cruel trick.
Most people read the drill,
it is called
‘The Matrix of Blocks,’
and they say,
‘Oh, I’ve done all those blocks.
So I don’t need to.
I understand what he’s saying,
and it’s enough that I’ve read it.’

Grrr.
I am close to saying a dirty word here.
That’s like saying
‘I’ve been in a car,
so I don’t need to know how it works.’
Or,
and this is a good one,
‘I’ve seen water,
so I don’t have to take a bath.’

Stupid, eh?
So you have to get the course,
and…GET A PARTNER.
And…DO THE MATRIX OF BLOCKS.

Knowing about it is not enough.
Having a surface knowledge of the basics isn’t enough.
You have to experience the blocks
and how they work together
in the Matrix of Blocks.
Just a few times through,
until you can do them as easy as you count from one to ten,
and then you’ll have it.
But please…
don’t read about it and think you know it.
Don’t be a paper tiger.
Be the real thing.

MATRIX KARATE

And,
my HanaKwanMass present to you,
If you order the Matrix Karate course,
you may order any other course you wish,
of comparable value.

That’s the Master Instructor course,
the Matrix Aikido course,
the Shaolin Butterfly
or whatever.

To be specific,
any course that’s $40 or less.

Just make your order,
and write me and tell me what course you would like
and I’ll send you the download link.
email me at aganzul@gmail.com
Write me if you have questions.

Now…
HANAKWANMASS!
And have a great work out!

Al

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…

What is ‘Fake Karate?’

One Thing Wrong with Karate…

Good morning!

One of the main things wrong
with karate today
is bunkai.

It’s funny,
I have heard people who believe in
the more combative methods,
talk about how worthless Bunkai are.

And,
I have seen a LOT of schools that don’t even practice bunkai.
so people don’t practice making karate work,
and,
as a result,
they don’t know how to make it work.

when I was training we didn’t call the form applications ‘bunkai.’
We called them ‘Promise Fights.’
It was the ‘promise’ of a fight.
But,
as time went on,
it was more.
It was the postulate of a fight.
A postulate is an idea.
If you practice promising enough,
the idea works.
It is that simple,
and that complex.

First,
many of the applications are worthless,
they are either dancers or posers.

Second,
they don’t fit the form.
But the forms have been really screwed up,
so that is understandable.

Third,
when we did the form applications,
or ‘Promise fights,’
as we called them,
we had 1/3 to 1/2 of the class time to do them.
We would face each and get ready,
we stepped forward with an attack,
and the defender did his promise fight.
Class after class,
year after year,
and a strange thing happened.

Because it was the same every time
we began to see where a body would move
before it would move.
We weren’t fighting,
we were looking,
and we would suddenly see the dip of the shoulder,
the turn of the foot,
the glaze of the idea,
and we knew what was coming,
before it was even launched.

So damned simple and workable,
yet it has,
in many schools,
been put aside.
And even if bunkai are practiced,
they don’t make sense,
they don’t fit the form,
they dance and they pose.

Our applications were VERY workable.
No posers,
no dancers.
They looked like the forms,
but they were VERY functional in combat.

I’ve talked about how the upper students
could actually make them work in freestyle.

And people have given up doing applications
across the arts.
It is easier to have a fellow punch a bag,
than think about the turn of the hip,
or the wrist,
year after year.

The sad truth is that most people
think that karate,
and other martial arts,
are all about fighting.

May I coin a phrase?
If people think that,
they are not doing karate,
they are doing…
‘fake karate.’

And here’s an interesting little item,
the people who say,
‘my art is better than yours,’
are manifesting a fight,
and they are guilty of…
‘fake karate.’

And,
believe me,
Fake Karate is every bit as bad as fake news.

Okay,
just to let you know,
I’m working on a book,
and it’s a big one.
Might even come in two parts.
But it is proving…difficult.
Usually,
when I write a book
I sit down and write it,
takes maybe a week or two.
But this one is just beating me up.
I have rewritten it,
broken it into pieces,
recombined it,
and it is just being stubborn.
So,
my apologies for making you wait,
but,
you might want to make sure
your matrix karate is ready for when this is released.
You are really going to need
to have your art down,
because this is going to expand it.
Severely.

The book is about what happened to karate,
and i am specifically speaking of the applications.
The bunkai, if you will.
Full of history,
full of applications,
full of matrixing.

So,
I’ll keep working on it,
but you should look into either

Matrix Karate
or
The Master Instructor Course

In fact,
I really shouldn’t do this.
there’s no reason to,
except that I’m a nice guy…

Buy one and I’ll give you the other.
Just buy one,
then email me at: aganzul@gmail.com
and I’ll send you both courses.

This is good until October 31st.
Happy Halloween!

Now, have a great work out!
Al

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

BTW
I’m always pushing my novels,
did you know I write other stuff?
If you want to know the truth about government,
why we have riots and why idiots keep getting into office,
why the government seems to do the exact wrong thing
almost ALL the time…
then check out:

THE SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT!

1a Matrix Karate

1d Master Instructor Course

A NEW MASTER INSTRUCTOR!

A NEW MASTER INSTRUCTOR!

Congrats to the latest Master Instructor…
Mr. Francisco Sierra de la Rosa

Here’s his win…

In my case, being a person who already practiced martial arts before, both Chinese and Japanese styles, the concepts I was looking for were not so much technical concepts as the possibility of learning elements related to teaching, body structure, and the science behind the movement of the body when practicing martial arts.
I consider that in the course there are really useful and important tools when it comes to martial arts and their application, very important is the lesson on grounding and how it affects the movement of our body and the ability of this to relate to an opponent.
Another concept very well treated in the course is the explanation to the student of concepts such as the generation of energy and the importance of dantien … or at least a simple way to understand the Chinese teachings on how force works.
I consider that one of the most interesting elements that I have learned is the importance of angles in martial arts, it is true that this concept I had dealt with before, almost without realizing it, but not with this clarity, applicable to different situations.
In short, if we are able to combine our physical structure, with the world around us, we find the practical application of lines, angles, circles and elements that undeniably build the world, the result of this I consider these concepts of the most important during learning in the course, and applicable in all systems that someone works, with their differences and details of each art.

Thank you, Francisco, and well done!

He’s really pointed out three crucial items.
teaching, body structure and…
the science behind body motion.

Teaching is easy to understand,
take something from your mind
and put it into your student’s.
But…so few can do it.

Body structure is another bug a boo.
It is crucial,
but nobody understands the six secrets
that will make ANY martial arts technique work.

The big item, however,
is what is behind motion.
Would you like to know what I was thinking,
when I wrote about
what is behind the Martial Arts?
It’s real simple,
but unless you get it,
you don’t understand what is behind motion.
The best way to explain this is this…

You are looking through binoculars.
Who is looking?
You.
The binoculars are but a tool.
Okay, you are looking through your eyes.
Who is looking?
You.
The eyes are but a tool.

Now,
I have said everything,
that is the secret.
And to understand the martial arts,
the universe and life,
all you have to do is understand one thing:
Who are you?

Okay, obligatory ad…

The Master Instructor Course.

1d Master Instructor Course

All the secrets
easy to understand,
easy to teach.

You’re welcome.

HAVE 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!