Great Martial Arts Day to You!
And congrats to Master Instructor Marcel DaSilva!
Here’s his win…
I am writing to you in thanks for creating a teaching course for those who teach martial arts. It is so easy to forget the finer details in the arts and simply say do as I do and not think another thought about it. For example, breathing and its focus is taken for granted at times by students and we need to re-emphasize its use with stances, etc. I enjoyed your course and its use of CBM and especially for me the most thought provoking 6 tools or secrets. You are clearly a great artist and researcher. Thank you…Marcel A. DaSilva
Thank you, Marcel,
and well done.
The world needs more people like you…
people who know what they are doing.
And,
Marcel’s win reminds me of something that happened to me in college
that was really…bizarre.
Mind you,
it has nothing to do with the martial arts
until the very end,
but stick with me,
and you’re going to understand something
about martial arts and matrixing.
I was 19 years old,
and I was taking trigonometry.
Trig.
Grrr.
Mean stuff.
And I was talking to two fellows
who were older than me,
had been through the army,
and they were laughing about how ridiculous the course was.
I didn’t think it was ridiculous,
it was kicking my butt,
and I asked them,
‘If it is so ridiculous,
why are you taking it?’
Good question, eh?
Their answer astounded me.
‘To make money.’
and then they explained,
they worked for some government contractor,
and if they finished the course,
they were moved up in status (rank)
and they got more money,
just for finishing a class!
Okay,
I can dig that.
Then I asked the dumb question,
‘so you don’t intend on using trig?’
They laughed at me.
‘Who on earth would ever use that stuff?
It takes too long,
and you have to think,
and the time it takes to figure one trig problem out…’
they looked at each other and laughed at the idea.
Then one of them said,
‘Besides, if we want the answer,
we just look in one of the books.’
And I was stunned.
I knew about the books,
but I didn’t understand their real value.
These guys just looked in the books.
They didn’t spend a half hour solving a problem,
and go through the mental aggravation,
they just opened one of the books
with trig tables in it.
And it hit me.
Of course.
Why do what has already been done?
Now,
this little conversation really impacted on me.
Over the years I kept coming across books,
that summed up,
in a 100 or so pages,
whole subjects.
For instance,
a fellow named Thompson wrote a book on Calculus,
and I read it,
and instantly understood Calculus.
I understood it so well that I reverse engineered
and wrote a book on Algebra.
And,
I came across an interesting book on Latin.
Man,
that stuff got so interesting…
I about cried when my DVD broke.
So I looked around for another DVD
and I found it had been discontinued!
But why?
Why discontinue something worked?
And soon I realized why,
when I tried to find other courses
to replace that one
that was no longer available.
If people took that one course
they wouldn’t need four years of Latin in college!
Do you understand?
If you can’t keep a student studying
and thinking that what he is studying is important,
then you can’t make money off him.
And what is really necessary in college?
What does it take to get a job done?
Most people,
when they go to work after college,
take about a month to figure it out.
And they don’t use their college education!
They use about 2 per cent of it,
and the rest was just wasted time and money.
Mind you,
there is purpose behind some of the stuff,
and there is some value,
but…
actual usable data taught in college is about 2%.
Okay,
if you haven’t figured out where I’m going with all this,
then you probably went to college.
When I figured out Matrixing
I had no idea that I was figuring out
how to figure things out.
I was just looking for ways to sort through
the massive amount of data and find what works!
I had studied the classical,
and while I love it
and recommend it,
I think it is 98% useless,
and especially unless
you are going for advanced studies.
Most people need about 2% of that classical class,
and they need to drill it till it works,
and then…then if they are still interested,
there are amazing things to be discovered in the classical studies.
But,
first,
sell them something that works.
But the point is this…
matrixing is a way to figure things out.
It is not taught in school,
except for one graph that is taught
in a very specialized course (Boolean Algebra),
and then it is out of context.
So it is new and has never been seen before.
Matrixing is a way to align ALL the data
so you can inspect it
and choose EXACTLY what works for you.
And,
if you don’t understand matrixing
the martial arts are like running up and down
the aisles of a grocery store
looking for food.
Food…food!
And you are in the dogfood section.
No! I wanted food!
And you find all these magazines.
I said food!
And you are in the pharmacy!
Food! Where is the food!
Hair dye and greeting cards and motor oil and soft drinks and alcohol and cookies and toilet paper and endless boxes and cans with pictures of food on them…but how can you eat a can?
And,
finally,
over against a wall
you finally find…
carrots and peas and lemons and…
food.
That’s the way the martial arts are.
You do the forms
and you are constantly searching for techniques
you step three steps to the left,
trying to figure out how moving your hand this way or that
can be used in a fight.
You do some sort of a foot raise and a hand extend and…
but they don’t work when you try them out with a partner,
unless you change the crap out of those moves.
You do a jump and flip and spin
and your arms and legs are flying out and…
well,
it is good conditioning,
but you would never see that in a fight.
And speaking of fights,
so many people take MMA now,
but Rashad Evans,
in an interview in Black Belt mag,
said he wouldn’t use MMA in a street fight!
So MMA is excellent,
great conditioning,
learn all sorts of stuff,
but it is designed for beating somebody in a ring,
for money and glory,
and one of the best fellows to ever step in the ring
says he would use something else in a real fight!
Do you understand?
Holy @#$%^&*(!
Do you understand?
So I wrote this book.
It’s not a big book,
just over 100 pages.
And the videos show you exactly,
so there is no misunderstanding,
how to make those 100 pages work.
I DON’T WANT IT TO BE A BIG BOOK!
I want it to be the 2% of data
that tells you how to understand,
how to figure things out,
and then those big thick
1000 page books
filled with forms and techniques
and the history of every grasshopper that ever hopped
will be simple.
I want it to be the food section in a supermarket.
I want it to be the simple truth
of how to figure out what all the moves really mean,
how to figure out what all the hidden techniques are,
how to totally understand the truth of the martial arts.
And,
I did it.
Heck,
if you’ve been reading the newsletter
following the wins given by Master Instructors,
then you understand that I did it.
Read Marcel’s win again.
Simple.
No bushwah.
He got it.
2% of the martial arts
and the other 98% becomes totally understandable.
Do you want to know what happens when you read that book?
This is a really fascinating phenomena.
The person cracks open the book,
reads it,
blinks,
can’t believe it is that simple.
So he watches the videos,
sees that it is that simple,
and he smacks his forehead with one hand,
and he says,
‘Oh $hit!’
And things are never the same again for that dude.
Simply,
every time he looks at a form,
he takes it apart,
without thinking,
sees what works,
sees what doesn’t.
His form becomes perfect,
his techniques become workable without any bushwah.
And…
he becomes a teacher.
Simply,
why would he tell somebody something
complex and wordy
when he can just tell the simple truth?
And,
here is one of the many hidden blessings
when this happens.
All the mystical stuff suddenly pops.
He’s working away,
perfecting his form and technique,
and suddenly,
he sees what somebody is thinking.
He predicts a technique,
he has this eery sixth sense that happens at odd times.
Well,
of course.
He is not mired down in memorization
of long strings of random techniques.
He no longer has to think about it,
and he is free to actually progress.
His mind is uncluttered,
and his vision becomes free,
and he can go where he wants,
the the true nature of the person
is freed up.
And,
oddly,
this stuff happens especially with the classical studies.
But now,
instead of taking twenty years,
it just pops.
A few months.
That’s all.
And while some guys are spending twenty years
memorizing random strings of data,
trying to figure it all out,
trying to see the whole picture,
the Master Instructor just does it.
Reads the book,
watches the video,
and does it.
The 2% of the data that makes sense out of ALL the data.
Well,
I could rant on,
but you know the old saying,
you can take a martial artist to a bag,
but you can’t make him kick it.
Well,
maybe not so old,
but you understand.
Here’s the link…
And thanks again,
Master Instructor Marcel DaSila.
Thanks for being a great martial artist.
Al
Matrix Martial Arts 