Gichin Funakoshi and the True History of Karate!

The Common misconception is that Gichin Funakoshi is the father of modern Karate. Well, he could be considered such, except that something odd happened a century ago, that puts a blot on this conception. We’ve got to give him credit for spreading the art, but was it the true art?

I know what I write here is not going to be the most popular article I ever wrote, there will be a few people who are going to want to take me to task. However, the history that I am about to tell you really happened, it is the truth. That said, please know that I do respect Gichin Funakoshi and what he did for Karate.

In turn of the century, last century, Japan, people, same as people all over, loved the human cockfight. It wasn’t uncommon for people to gather to watch gladiatorial contests between different arts and artists. Certain of these gladiators even offered open challenges to the audience, step up if you think you can beat me.

One night a Russian strongman issued a challenge to the Japanese audience. One can imagine the sneering challenge, and the surprise when a frumpy, old Okinawan stepped up to the ring and prepared to fight. The year was 1921, and the turning point for karate was about to occur.

Motobu Chōki was 52 years old when he stepped into the ring that night. He had studied with virtually every Okinawan Karate master in Okinawa, and he had, when he was young and impetuous, honed his art in the violent red light districts of his island home. This history, and a daily regimen of makiwara, and perhaps the hint of royal blood and pride in his veins, served him in good stead.

One punch later, a punch almost too fast to be seen, Motobu climbed out of the ring, the Russian strongman lay sprawled and snoozing the fist snooze. Reporters went wild, wrote their stories, and submitted them to the editors. Editors went wild, and, since they didn’t have any photos of Motobu, but they did have a picture of a guy doing karate, they popped in the wrong picture.

So Gichin Funakoshi, a mild school teacher from Okinawa, got credit for the violent knock out and ultimate karate prowess of Motobu Choki. And Motobu, though he did teach karate and have an effect, because he wasn’t fluent in the japanese language, and because the media did such a bang up job of reporting, got no credit. And Funakoshi is credited with spreading Karate to the world, yet, it wouldn’t have happened without Motobu’s one punch one kill competence and attitude.

Now, who has the real karate, a school teacher who shmoozed with the Japanese because of the wrong picture and good communication skills, or a rough cob who got the job done. No, Funakoshi’s karate is not bad, and generations of karateka have worked to improve it. However, there is still that one blot, a hundred years ago, provided by a man with a slobber knocker punch, which offers the concept of who had the True Art.

Kung Fu Master…and the Secret of Light Kung Fu!

One of the neatest things in cinema was when David Carradine in the old Kung Fu TV series walked on the rice paper. Rice paper is extremely thin, and the moisture on the sole of the foot, along with the weight of the body, was enough to tear the stuff. The legend, of course, was there is this thing called Light Kung Fu, where one could actually make the body lighter, maybe even levitate it.

Now, me and my friends would watch David Carradine, Kwai Chang Caine, and wish we had a kung fu master to teach us how to walk on rice paper. Why, we could do all sorts of things if we could only know Light Kung Fu! Bad guys would be nothing if we had that awesome ability!

So, a little thought about the problem, a little western ingenuity, and we came up with a solution. Take a roll of toilet paper and unroll it on a linoleum floor. Now, very carefully, put a small drop of water on each square. Now, walk.

Rice paper is like wet toilet paper, you see. So we walked, and…the thin stuff was ripped apart. Hmmm.

Try it again, placing the foot and not turning it at all. Squoosh, squoosh! Darn stuff just tore apart.

So we placed a long row of chairs next to the strip of tissue paper, and tried supporting ourselves as we walked the walk. Rip, squish, darn! This was tougher than we thought.

Now, to be truthful, we never did manage to walk the walk, and not tear the filmy stuff into shreds. And, to be truthful, I don’t think it is possible, toilet paper is designed to dissolve in water, and rice paper is not. But something really neat did occur because of this intense interest in being able to do what the old masters did, even if they were only actors on TV.

We worked out long hours. In between trying out our light kung fu, we practicing kicking and blocking, we did our forms again and again. In essence, though we never walked the light kung fu walk, we became masters through another route, through dedication and long hard work and by pursuing dreams!

How to Empty the Mind.

Hi Guys,

latest newsletter,  time to empty out your head…

Monster Newsletter #256–A Walk on the Weird Side!

The day is grim,
grey,
cold…
but,
above the grim, grey and cold…
the sun is shining!

Happy happy
I get to work out!

And…
so do you!

Now,
I am going to get a little weird this newsletter,
nice of me to warn you,
and the reason is that
I am working on Matrix Tai Chi,
doing real research,
and formulating actual concepts
to rule the universe,
and,
when I do this kind of thing,
I get a little weird.
I’m somewhere,
you know,
but I’m not quite sure where,
but I’m determined to bring something back
to this universe
for you to play with.

That said,
let me make a few left turns.
Hold on,
I’m not trying to buck you off,
there really is something here…

I was thinking about how many hours
I have worked out
this lifetime.
42 years X 1 hour a day= 15,000 hours (approx)
But,
add in a few of those ten hour days
researching and writing,
and I’ve probably worked out
50,000 hours.

And I started thinking,
what is the quality of my work out?
What is the dividing line
where I go from copycatting
and doing the same the same old
and actually
start learning something?

And this led me back to
one of my original thoughts
concerning the martial arts.
You’ll actually find this
written about in
The Master’s Handbook,
written some 40 years ago.

Karate means empty hands,
and you can’t have empty hands
unless you have an empty mind.

And,
I know this principle holds true
through all the arts.
No exceptions,
or what you are studying
isn’t an art.
It is something else.
A sport.
A war.
Up to you.

So,
to achieve enlightenment,
to find the true art
and get to the end of The Way
you have to ask yourself a question.
What makes an empty mind?

Applying Neutronics to the question
(For something to be true
the opposite must also be true,)
we must ask ourselves the question,
what makes a full mind?

Hmmm.

Now,
I know you’ve been stuffed with education,
politics,
TV programming,
and that sort of thing.

As for TV programming,
just go work out a few hours.
All that electronic paraphernalia will vanish.

As for your education,
I’d hold to the math, science, physics,
but throw the rest of it away.

science describes the universe,
measures it,
and is useful,
for it is a way of being sure of our perceptions,
of validating what we see
as real.

Economics?
Toss it.
The rule of economics is
make more than you spend.
You get that one,
and the rest will come true for you.

Philosophy?
I think therefore I am?
A word game.
If I don’t think will I not be?
Well,
that sure flies the wrong way,
when compared to emptying the mind.

Politics?
Ha!
Politics is the art of selling people problems
so you can take their money.
Apply physics to the measurement of money in politics
and this philosophy becomes so utterly plain
it is ridiculous.

Now,
having thrown away ninety per cent of western education,
we are left with the question
what’s in an empty mind?

Hmmm.
It’s not
I think therefore I am…
it is
I perceive therefore the universe is…

As long as I perceive
the universe will continue to be.

The more emptiness I create in my mind,
the more perceptions I will have,
and the more true the universe will be.

And we are left with an answer,
of sorts.

And the answer,
to phrase it as a question,
is
Who is perceiving?

Funny,
it is the same answer
I used to toss back and forth
with other drunken students
back in college.

But,
once you get an empty mind,
(a real one, through discipline, not a drunken one)
you aren’t so easy
to judge or be judged.
And,
your work outs become prayers.
Sacred spaces in which
you expand your perceptions,
become more you,
and the true art
becomes a never ending path
and
life becomes a joy.

Sorry.
Told you it was going to get a little weird.
Well,
scratch an Al,
and he bleeds.

So I will finish the Matrix Tai Chi
as soon as I can,
and try to hold the weirdness to a minimum.

No guarantees,
though.

I have to tell you
there is an utter joy
to being lost in the weirdness
and not knowing
how to get out…

weird

Anyway,
if you don’t want to be weird,
I suggest you grab ahold of Matrix Karate.

Use the graphs I show you
on that course
and you can matrix all of life.
You might go through a little weird,
but you won’t be lost in it,
and,
who knows…
you might like it…

Matrix Karate,
logic in a world of random tricks
it is the solution.
It will make sense out of any art you study,
and you will have taken your first significant step
on The Path of The True Art.

http://www.monstermartialarts.com

Now,
weirdness aside,
let me say,

HanaKwanMass

HanaKwanMass
is a put together of seasons greetings.
It is designed to please everybody,
or,
if you feel like it,
offend everybody.
Heh!

So you’re going to get a lot of HanaKwanMass from me
for the next month,
and,
the whole season is brought to a frothy finish
with my recitation
of what to do
when the big, fat, red intruder
tries to home invade
via the chimney…
oh, man…
we’re gonna be ready for that bozo!

So
work out,
my friends,
find an empty mind
make the universe real,
and
HanaKwanMass!

Here’s that link again

http://www.monstermartialarts.com

Al
=o)

PS–If you want the latest article, try googling ‘ The Secret of How Chi Awareness Works!’

One of the definitions of sanity is the ability to tell real from unreal. Soon we’ll need a new definition.
Alvin Toffler

Which Art is Better, Karate or Aikido?

I know, the question is a bit bogus, as one should be comparing arts such as Karate and Aikido merely so as to make them compliment each other. Thus, with that statement made, let us discuss how the fist should wiggle into the glove. No pow and bam, just an honest, up front viewpoint for your edification and enlightenment.

Karate is supposed to be straight line, and Aikido is supposed to be the circle. Yet, if on looks at Karate, let alone the martial arts, one will see that perfection of geometric figure is loose, at best. If Karate could actually adhere to the perfect line, if one examines how the bones, joints, muscles and so on function, the body would probably explode, or, at least collapse upon itself.

And, on the other hand, if Aikido tried to adhere to the perfect circle, except in the most theoretical of classes, the art would not work. And, to be honest, aikido is not your best art for down and dirty combat. While Aikido is pure and wonderful, and can evolve the practitioner to high levels, one should use a martial art like Karate to enter the fight, then apply aikido.

Think about it this way, a fight is the collapse of distance. The length of the arm, and the circle being made, the lever of the extend arm is too long. However, if you want magic, use karate to kick, punch, find yourself on the inside as the distance collapses, and then use a shorter lever.

Instead of doing a two step and trying a three foot arm circle to a wrist twist, try a hard middle inward block, slide in, maybe with a short fist or elbow, then turn the waist. As you turn the waist, bring the arms up to a short position, lever the elbow, shove your shoulder in and pull. Go ahead, try this scenario with a friend, watch a little youtube to get the motions, and you are going to find an instant blend of karate, even the hardest of karate, like Shotokan, and with the purest of Aikido, even the soft of Morihei Uyeshiba.

Now, the above being detailed, the big weakness of Karate is that it is limited, in most modern formats, to destruction. It has been tailored for tournament, gloves put on for more violence, and given over to fighting for fighting sake. But while there is an art to destruction, the true art is in control.

Thus, a study of Aikido, with the advices I give you here, will enable you to confront the fiercest violence, and transmogrify that violence into the most magical and wondrous of techniques. You kick, you punch, maybe soften the fellow up, then you simply embrace the arms and learn how to go with the flow.

A last word about all this, don’t mistake the throws of judo or jujitsu for Aikido techniques. While techniques of the ju variety are wonderful, we want to move from hard to soft complete, and a certain amount of hard is still involved in ju techniques. That all said, I wish you the best with your new art, and a new art it is…karido…aikate…your choice.

Who would win the fight, Bruce or Mohammad Ali?

Man, there’s gonna be a knock down! I can feel it in my bones! The question is, will Bruce knock down Mohammad, or will Mohammad knock down Bruce?

Okay, first things first, let’s talk about the physical measurements of the men. Bruce Lee was 5 foot seven, and Mohammad Ali was six foot three. The point goes to Mohammad on this one, though it really should only be a half a point, for Bruce’s legs made up for the discrepancy in reach.

Now, weight is going to be important in this match up, so let us take a look. Bruce Lee fluctuated a bit, but at his ripping best he was probably about 160 pounds, Mohammad fluctuated, also, but we can round it out to about 200 pounds. Edge goes to Mohammad in this area, for 200 pounds of flesh is going to have a sizable smackaroonie behind it.

One always has to consider speed in a contest, and here the edge goes to Bruce. Yes, Mohammad had an instant of invisible punch to his credit, but that was only once. Watch Bruce Lee, and even though he wasn’t wearing gloves or in a fight, his speed is a constant blur.

All around martial ability must be considered, and here, again, Bruce gets the edge. Yes, Mohammad was fluid, powerful, and unique, but he only used his arms. Honestly, though we are limited to one point here, I would like to give more to Bruce, for you would have to tie one of Bruces legs behind his back to get an even fight in this category.

One of the most important weapons in a fight is the mouth. Simply, if you talk the talk hard enough, you might not have to walk the walk. That said, in spite of Bruce’s movie inspired oratorical abilities, no one in the world could compete with Mohammad’s trash talk, why, you would have to tie one of Mohammads lips behind his back to get an even contest!

Now, Mohammad is slightly ahead, but the contest is about to be evened, for we are going to consider the most important question in the martial arts, what a person knows. Mohammad knew a lot, there is no doubt, but his was a natural talent, and limited by being able to use only his hands, knowing no grab arts, and so on. Bruce, on the other hand, not only knew an amazing amount of martial arts, he knew Mohammad Ali, he used to watch movies of Mohammad and study his technique.

In conclusion, I am not going to call a knock out, because these men were two fast to be knocked out. But I am going to give a decision to Bruce, this because he not only watched movies of Mohammad Ali, he used to watch them in a mirror so he could adapt Mohammads techniques to both sides! Now that is truly above and beyond, and it is for this reason I give the decision to Bruce Lee!

Five Things Totally Wrong with Freestyle!

The problem with freestyle is that it has devolved into fighting. Sounds contradictory, I know, but I began learning martial arts back in the sixties, and I have seen a different face of freestyle. This was a freestyle that was actually more effective, easier to learn, and tempers the personality to grow a better human being.

Now, I have nothing against MMA, or UFC, or learning ground and pound and all the other modes of freestyle. Truth, I think some of this stuff would have been awfully useful back when I was beginning. That said, consider the following points.

Controlled freestyle in the martial arts effectively died when people started putting on pads and protective gear. Sure, we occasionally wore pads back then, but the purpose was for injuries that had occurred. The breaking point, however, was when school owners realized how much money there was to be made in selling protective gear, they pandered to mothers fears, which stopped little Johnny from learning about true control, and effectively stopped the personal growth stage of the martial arts.

Bruce Lee took a frightful toll on freestyle by introducing bouncing. He watched films of Mohammad Ali, realized that bouncing disrupted timing, and changed the world of freestyle. Unfortunately, the effect was also that people stopped learning about timing, and stopped observing a whole fact of life, for time, as you may not have known, keeps this universe going.

With a lack of reality and a lack of timing eating at the innards of budding students, a loss of control was quick to follow. I remember seeing a fellow with three karate lessons under his belt taken to a tournament and encouraged to fight, not to get a point, but to fight. He fought, there were injuries, and nobody showed any control. And control, control through timing and reality, is what the martial arts evolution is really all about.

The final straw behind the death of freestyle had to do with lack of respect. I was taught to bow when I entered the school, and to bow when I got on the mat, and to bow to my classmates and partners, and to bow to the instructor, and it all showed respect. Now there is a bully boy attitude of we’re tough and the hell with the other school, and this derails the art of freestyle, and the art of human compassion.

I know there will be those who disagree, and, let’s face it, my criticisms must be tempered by the real gains of the new arts, of the mixed martial arts and the ultimate fighting championships. There are things to be learned in the new arts, and, I am not opposed to many of the new training methods. When I see people fighting to hurt one another, showing no control and total lack of respect, I am on the other side, the old side, the side that shows compassion for their fellow man.

So, I ask you the question, what can you do to resurrect the old attitude of respect? Will getting rid of gloves and pads enable people to feel the reality of what they are doing, and get rid of harmful attitudes? And, can you do this and still make the art work?

Five Things I wish People Would Have Told Me About the Martial Arts!

Okay, I’ve been doing the martial arts for over forty years. I’ve lived through the arts of the decades, judo in the fifties, karate in the sixties, kung fu in the seventies, and so on, and I’ve analyzed durn near every art there is. I’ve made up a list of things which I wish people would have told me, or I somehow could have found out, when I first started.

The point here is that classes were where you worked out, and not where you talked. However, and it was years before I realized it, the reason a lot of people didn’t talk was because they didn’t know anything. So are you ready for things you should know before you start the martial arts.

I wish people would have told me about pain, pain hurts, and if I had known the truth about pain it wouldn’t have hurt so darn much. The pain of a block, for instance, can go either way, it can go into the blocker or into the striker, depending upon which one has more intention. It’s not a matter of tough, its a matter of which way you want the energy to go, and it goes following the direction of the more superior mind.

I wish somebody would have sat down and told me what all the body parts are for, or at least told me that learning would have been ten times easier if I had figured out the purposes of the body parts are. What does it matter how you turn the bones, and why does it matter which side of the bone the muscle is on. A very important point could have been made if somebody had just told me I had a head and I could think with it!

This matter of how a body works could have made the martial arts ten times easier if somebody had explained why and how all the parts had to work together. This is a thing called harmony, and when the body has harmony, then intention can flow through the body and make it ten times more efficient. How much does each part weigh, what is the ratio of muscle to body part, how far does each body part have to move to stay with the whole body, how much effort is required for each body part.

Speaking of harmony, if somebody had explained that it was not just harmony within your body, but harmony that was outside your body, then I would have had a ten times easier life. Heck, getting along with your fellow man takes all the tussle out of life. And the truth of love your enemy wold have made me a real martial artist of quality and magnitude.

Probably the most important thing somebody could have told me would have been to work harder. Heck, if I had worked harder I would have gotten to the end faster, maybe even gotten further, maybe even learned more! The point here is that I could have learned all the things that I eventually figured out faster, and then I wouldn’t be griping about all the things that I should have been told.

Ah, the things I didn’t know, they were so great, but, at last I know them. Even more important, you know them, so you don’t have to be slow or stupid or lazy or things like that! Unless, of course, you want to pretend that I didn’t say anything.

The Real and Mystical Reason Why I Didn’t Matrix Shaolin Kung Fu!

Matrixing, to put your fevered mind to rest, is the analysis and handling of force and direction. Everything in the universe has a direction, and everything in the universe has lots of potentials for collision. Thus, the study of Matrixing becomes crucial if one is going to understand things like Shaolin kung fu.

Now to be thoroughly clear, and to set up this article in the proper manner, let me say that the martial arts are taught through the memorizing of random strings of data. This is like somebody memorizing a few songs on the guitar, and thinking he is the next Segovia. Obviously, one has to break through the memorizing process and start finding the structure of music, and how to arrange an art before he can make claim to being a master artist.

So, let’s talk about Shaolin. Shaolin has a few thousand years of history, and this has resulted in every kung fu monk and his brother adding to the mix, and thus the logic and organization of the art has become thoroughly and totally mixed and muddled. There is a mountain of random data, you see, and there is no set of principles with which to define it.

If one studies Shaolin styles like Hung Gar or Choy Li Fut, one thinks that kung fu is deep stance, windmilling arms, and a hodge podge of concepts which pop out at you. One thinks there is a hierarchy of rank up to the head abbot, and one must meditate and beat his fists into heated iron pellets to get the real kung fu. Unfortunately, this is a small subset of principles, and while the true art is touched upon, it is not penetrated.

If one studies Wing Chun, one thinks that he has to stand squarely, achieve balance, and absorb attacks with the antennas of the forearms. Three forms, a wooden dummy, and never the idea that everything is just random strings of data, and not the whole. Thus, Wing Chun is phenomenal, yet it just touches upon the True Art, and never embraces it.

Then, of course, there is the Mantis, if we wish to speak of antenna arms, and circling motions that manipulate an opponent to his destruction, and so on. But, if you look at it, it is almost like Wing Chun and Hung Gar or Choy Li Fut have been combined. Thus, the principles wallow and intermingle and intermarry and interbreed into fresh bastards and the True Art is obscured in a fog of amazing ability and astounding art.

This all said, Shaolin would be easy to matrix, and come to the truth of, as would Hung Gar or Choy Li Fut or Wing Chun. But I chose Karate to present the principle of Matrixing, and to expose the world to the concept of analysis and handling as a logic. Simply, the mountain was smaller, the history was shorter, the cloud of obscuring fog more transparent, and it could be defined.

And here is the blessing, learn how to matrix karate, and you can use that matrixing as a template. All you have to do is plug the basics of Shaolin into the template provided by Matrix Karate, and you have true art. Too much mountain, too heavy a fog, and yet it can all be resolved into nice, tidy, little, easy to learn packages of True Art, and thus assembled into the whole of The True Art.

Matrixing Music!

Here’s the latest newsletter, enjoy!

Monster Newsletter #255–Matrixing Music!

Look at you,
wallowing in that swivel chair,
turkey juice oozing out your pores
and the world expects you to go buy something.
HAH!

Now go the center of the room,
stand there in a pose,
and wait.
Just wait.
Pretty soon an artistic desire will come over you,
your body will shift slightly,
a second posture,
a third,
and,
zingo bingo…
the work out has begun!

Now that you’re awake…
let me say something.
There are a lot of newbies to the newsletter,
and some of them don’t know much about matrixing,
and a lot of times I wander off
talk about other stuff,
so,
today,
to start the Hanakwanmass season off right,
let me tell you something about Matrixing that you didn’t know.

Matrixing is nothing more than the application of logic.
People think it is going to be a deep secret,
but,
it is really a simple secret.

The problem is that the martial arts
are nothing but strings of random data.
Sequences of tricks,
with no regard for logic.

This,
in itself,
is a phenomenal testament
to the power of the martial arts,
and how powerful martial artists are.

That the arts work
though arranged so piecemeal…
wow!

But you knew that,
you have never been able to deny your own power,
or you wouldn’t have found the martial arts,
and you wouldn’t have found matrixing,
but that isn’t what I wanted to tell you.

What I wanted to tell you
was that when you matrix the martial arts,
when you see a logical bit of software
for your head,
then the head,
the hardware,
starts to straighten out.

The head likes logic,
it starts to matrix things on its own.

So I did the martial arts,
then I started in on math,
wrote a book on the subject.
And I attacked English,
grammar,
and the world started getting real easy and simple.

Almost black and white,
if you know what I mean.

And,
I matrixed music.
And here is what I want to tell you.

If you memorized the Moonlight Sonata
by Beethoven,
could you say that you were a master musician?

People might be in awe of your fingers…
but you would know that you weren’t really a master musician.

You’ve got a ways to go
before you’re a master musician.

The point here is that copying strings of random data
does not a master make.

Well,
if you memorize the strings of data long enough,
and have the kind of mind
that can penetrate through
to the structure beneath.

It is not until the person doing the memorizing
breaks through the memorization process
and starts to realize
that there is a whole structure of music
that he can use
to tap into his creative abilities.

Music is a structure of sound
that is mathematically separated into individual notes.
A master musician can rearrange these individual notes
into a variety of harmonies
through a variety of genres,
duplicating or not
other musicians.

This is a limiting definition,
in a way,
but,
once one understands the structure,
it is entirely unlimiting,
and the spirit does soar.

Without the structure,
it soars about as much as a five year old doing fingerpaints.

With structure…
hello moon, hello stars,
I see a quaint galaxy over that way.

Matrixing provides the structure.
It defines the individual arts.

The thing is,
without the structure defined by matrixing,
art is limited.
You can’t define what you know,
so you can’t know more,
and you’re just lost in a cloud of random thoughts.

With the structure defined by matrixing,
the fog dissipates,
shapes become recognizable,
arts become defined,
and,
you become unlimited.

Matrixing.
It limits
so as to unlimit.
It grounds you
so as to soar you.
It binds the body
in a fashion
that unlimits the spirit.

So,
listen…
get yourself a present.
You spend countless hours,
through the weeks and months and years,
working out.

But,
wouldn’t you like to have the hours you spend
be dedicated to the whole art,
and making your spirit soar,
right now?

Instead of
just memorizing strings of random data
and waiting for decades
for enlightenment to happen…

don’t you want it to happen now?

I tell you this,
I spent seven years to enlightenment,
then I spent another fifteen defining the art
and becoming a master,
and,
looking at my whole over forty year career
all I can do
is wish somebody had come up
and hit me with the matrixing two by four
right on the side of the head,
right in the beginning.

If I had only had the structure right from the beginning,
there is no telling where I’d be now.

Well,
maybe there is,
maybe I would be just sitting here,
turkey juice oozing out of my pores,
thinking about going to the center of the room,
and striking a pose…

Okey doke
friends and neighbors,
here’s a link for you…

Matrix Karate

Al
=o)

PS–If you want the latest article, try googling ‘ The Secret of the Three Essentials of the Martial Arts’

I got tired of playing other people’s songs.
Gregg Allman

The Secret of How Chi Awareness Works!

One of the biggest mysteries of the martial arts is internal energy. Wudan arts, like Tai Chi Chuan and Pa Kua Chang and Hsing i claim it. Supposedly it takes lifetimes to build, but when you get it you can defeat attackers with just a sigh and a brush of the palm.

Well, the truth of the matter is that internal energy is in many arts, and if it is not, it can be put into any art easily. The principles of internal energy, you see, are easy to understand. So if you study kenpo or tae kwon do, or even boxing, then the door is hereby opened for you, this article is going to lay out those principles and shove you through the door.

First, you have to have phenomenal basics, not just good, but phenomenal. What this means is that you must drop your weight when striking or blocking, and do so with such awareness that you actually create a beam of energy down your leg. You must align the parts of your body so that they form an unbroken line of intention, but are relaxed, very important that they are relaxed, because intention and energy will flow easier through a body that is relaxed.

Now, you must make sure that you move the parts of your body at the same time. Everything starts together, and everything stop together, this is called Coordinated Body Motion. Analyze your body so that when it swings into alignment all of the pieces are moving in harmony, and with consideration for their mass and size and shape and so on.

Now, you’ve got basics, and here comes the internal energy. Fill a pipe half with sand and cap it. Move that pipe in such a way that when you stop it all the sand strikes the inside of the pipe at the same time.

This is what internal energy is and does. It is energy swirled on the inside of your body in such a way that it hits the inside of the block, or strike, or foot, or whatever, at the same time. We used to develop this type of energy in karate all the time, but we didn’t call it internal because it didn’t have any undue significance, it was just the way you moved.

It is helpful if you move slowly, concentrating on feeling the motion of energy inside your body. And, to be truthful, the internal Wudan martial arts have arranged their forms so as to help the process. But you can feel it in Karate, or tae kwon do, or any striking art, if you just take the time to appreciate what you are doing.

The real key is that this method, and, to be truthful, all methods, rely on awareness. It is an idea that moves awareness, and the path of this awareness can be called Chi, or Ki, or Prana, or pneuma, or intention. Now, the real question here is whether you can take the time to invest your movements with chi, or intention, or whatever you want to call it, do you have the patience and the awareness to make something significant out of your martial art.