The new site,
Monkey Boxing Now,
is going great guns.
Thanks to all.
And,
I should,
before we get back to matrixing,
explain a few things.
Matrixing is the science,
the logic,
the whole martial arts.
Monkey Boxing is the art I developed,
after decades of practice,
for true self defense.
In Matrixing
I go into the real reasons behind the martial arts.
In Monkey Boxing
I go into Monkey Boxing for self defense,
for reality and combat.
In Matrixing
I impart the knowledge of the martial arts.
Monkey Boxing
is for fighting.
But that doesn’t mean Matrixing is not for fighting.
Don’t get that wrong.
Matrixing can be applied to all martial arts,
bring them together,
allow one to see the truth behind their martial arts,
and fix them if need be.
Monkey Boxing is the art I developed for fighting.
It is how I teach,
How I apply myself to combat.
You will find pure knowledge in matrixing
and be able to apply it to any martial art,
and therefore fix that martial art.
Monkey Boxing develops
speed, power and technique,
in the realm of combat applicable martial arts.
Both are real.
You’ll find more drills and exercises in Monkey Boxing,
and the drills and exercises are aimed at improving
speed, power and technique.
Matrixing will give you drills and exercises,
but the drills and exercises are aimed at
building a complete art,
no mistakes or hesitations,
no problem dealing with arts other than yours,
because you understand how all arts work.
Monkey Boxing is the fastest way I know
to take out a suicide bomber,
disarm a Jihadist,
or just handle somebody protesting in the streets
and who got carried away.
I hope this makes sense to you.
Both approaches are valid,
both have fantastic impact.
But they are for different purposes.
Let me put it baldly.
If you want knowledge,
if you want to see the martial arts as a whole picture,
if you want the understanding
of how all arts fit together,
if you want to understand self-defense and fix your art,
go do matrixing.
If you done all the matrixing,
or,
you just don’t give a darn about all that stuff,
and want to learn the fastest,
quickest,
most efficient way of slaughtering an attacker,
of rendering a thug to the mud,
of unconsciousizing a terrorist,
do Monkey Boxing.
Yes,
you can do both at the same time,
but that isn’t the point of this newsletter,
the purpose of this newsletter is just to delineate the arts,
to separate Matrixing from Monkey Boxing.
I will be announcing Monkey Boxing releases
in this newsletter,
but I will probably be putting that info
into a side panel.
Or you will have to periodically check in with
A complete Martial Arts System! ~ Click on the cover!
Hey,
one of the biggest,
most frequent questions I get,
when I’m teaching,
is where do you look
when you are free styling.
OR,
and this is really bad,
I get kids who freestyle
while unconscious.
Would you like to fight while unconscious?
Let me explain.
If you were in the middle of a street
and a car came barreling towards you,
would you look at the car?
Or would you look at the driver?
Kids and beginners always say,
‘I’d look at the car.’
I make the noise of somebody being smunched,
run over by a car.
Crunched.
Here’s the thing,
the car has no mind.
It is a piece of metal and machinery.
The car has no direction,
except that which is fed into it by the driver.
So you look at the driver.
You look at the person behind the wheel,
you read his intentions.
Read his intentions.
A car has no intention.
Only a human being has intention.
So you must look at the driver of the car.
AND,
that means,
when you are fighting,
you must look at the eyes.
The eyes are the windows to a man’s soul.
Look at the eyes,
and you can see the intention.
You can see the thoughts.
You can see the intention.
Not at first.
At first you see eyes.
You see flesh and tissue.
But,
with practice,
with dedicated dedication,
you will,
at last,
see the thought behind the body.
The spirit behind the flesh.
The ‘I am’ directing the action.
I know,
I’ve heard all the theories,
even been told to do them,
and even believed them for a while.
Look at the chest.
Use peripheral vision.
See the whole body by unfocusing.
But you’re still looking at the vehicle,
and not seeing who’s driving.
Oh,
eventually,
even without eyes,
you’ll start to perceive
things happening,
but it will be slow and faulty.
Who do you think is looking through those eyes?
Here’s the funny thing,
I was teaching a kid the other day,
and I made him look at me,
really look at me,
the ‘I am,’
and not the body,
and he broke down.
Went into the giggling hysterics.
Couldn’t look at me.
When I was a child and in trouble,
parents lecturing me,
I’d look down,
and immediately got the:
‘Look at me when I’m talking to you!’
They didn’t want me going unconscious.
I had to stay there and take my punishment.
Funny thing,
after a little of that,
I didn’t want to get in trouble.
It was just too hard looking them in the eyes.
This video clip is how you use the blinding steel material…
So that’s the key,
it will help your martial arts tremendously,
it will help your matrixing fantastically.
Because,
here’s something simple,
if you can’t look at it,
you can’t fight it.
And that means you can’t fight.
Why?
Because if you’re not looking,
then you’re unconscious.
Okey dokey.
Thanks to all who have purchased
Tiger and Butterfly Martial Arts,
it’s on Amazon.
the system I do,
right after Tiger and Butterfly
is the Blinding Steel course.
In otherwords,
I teach the hard stuff with the Tiger/Butterfly,
then I do the weapons,
which is Monkey Boxing,
then I finally go through the Matrix Kung Fu.
Funny when you look at it that way,
goes to show how advanced some of those
four original matrixing courses are.
Why would I recommend those?
Because those three forms
focus on grounding,
and dedicated hand motion.
All three forms teach one how to move in any direction,
and yet keep your ground,
and use that ground in your hand techniques.
There is a tremendous swirl of energy
up the body in those three forms.
And,
the energy is easily manifest in the hands,
and the hands,
almost perfectly fit the ‘slap-grab’ concepts
which are outlined in Binary Matrixing.
This is not to say the forms of classical Karate aren’t good,
they are,
but they are ten,
and the request was for three.
And,
this doesn’t mean Shaolin isn’t good,
but Shaolin spreads out over a number of concepts.
And,
why not Matrixing?
There are three forms in Matrixing?
Because the purpose of matrixing
is to put logic in the martial arts.
What good is all that knowledge
if you can’t apply it to a variety of martial arts,
to more than three forms?
So I was sort of caught,
hoist with my own petard,
I believe it is called.
I wanted to say matrixing more than anything,
but if you only had three forms,
then those are the three.
They give more internal energy,
contain more face to face,
hand to hand combat.
And,
I can’t resist,
I would recommend the iron horse
(kima shodan/tekki 1)
as a fourth form.
Just because it causes
oodles and oodles of pure energy.
Anyway,
that all said,
the reason the question was so good,
so appropriate,
was because when I write a book
I always think it is the best.
You have to, or why write?
So I think a book is the best,
but it may or may not be,
I have to wait to see what people say.
And the idea that one could study only three forms,
aligned with my purpose
in the Tiger/Butterfly book.
My purpose,
as always,
is to put together
a better martial arts system.
Each time I sit down to write,
I am thinking,
how can I make this better,
how can I formulate what I’ve done,
into better and better art.
How can I give people the purest information
to cause them the quickest progress,
and the most profound experience
in the martial arts.
So if the question had been,
what seven forms,
then I would have rejoiced mightily.
But…
three forms.
Zowie.
What a question.
You guys feel free to consider your choices.
Put them in the comments for this newsletter
at monstermartialarts.com.
Hey,
again,
thanks for purchasing
the Tiger and Butterfly book (amazon)
Happy Fourth of July! When Americans declared freedom. When a country dedicated itself to liberty. We are unique, and it shows in our martial arts.
Click on the cover!
The weapon of choice, back in 1776 was the Brown Bess. Brown Bess was a long, heavy smooth bore musket. It could fire one big ball, or a bunch of smaller balls, which made it into a sort of shotgun.
The name ‘Brown Bess’ was probably derived from the German
“brawn buss” or “braun buss” meaning “strong gun” or “brown gun”
A dictionary of vulgar terms explained Brown Bess thusly,
“Brown Bess: A soldier’s firelock. To hug Brown Bess; to carry a fire-lock, or serve as a private soldier.”
Some say the term was originated by Rudyard Kipling…
In the days of lace-ruffles, perukes, and brocade Brown Bess was a partner whom none could despise – An out-spoken, flinty-lipped, brazen-faced jade, With a habit of looking men straight in the eyes – At Blenheim and Ramillies, fops would confess They were pierced to the heart by the charms of Brown Bess. — Rudyard Kipling, “Brown Bess,” 1911
At any rate, Americans were required to own and keep a Brown Bess. Can one image? Americans being forced to have weapons? The shame of it!
Accuracy for the Brown Bess was about 100 yards, and then it was time for bayonet work.
Another weapon, used by snipers, was the Pennsylvania rifle. This was a grooved barrel rifle with accuracy up to 300 yards.
So the sniper had to steady a ten pound barrel that extended 48 inches, take a quick shot at a charging soldier, and then, should he miss, use a little cold steel. I’m not sure if the Pennsylvania Rifle had a bayonet, but no self respecting infantryman would go to war without a cutter.
Let’s talk about bayonets. They were triangular. They weren’t designed to cut, but to tear and rupture.
So, here is the scenario the founders of this country had to face.
A long line of British soldiers. British soldiers that had mastered the art of holding their position and rapid firing in rows, so that the colonists were decimated.
The rows would be marched to within 100 yards and hell’s afire.
Behind the rows of colonists the snipers used the Pennsylvania Rifle to pick off British officers, and thus create confusion in the ranks.
The colonists lined up and died, and those that were left, if they hadn’t run (and they often did), faced a manic charge of cold steel.
And, make no mistake about it, the British soldier of the time was the absolute best soldier in the world.
He could shoot accurately and en masse. He stood his ground. He charged with fire in his eyes.
Interestingly, until the Americans learned such discipline, they relied heavily on guerrilla warfare.
They were like apaches. They were like VC. They were like ninja, stealing in, opening fire, and running. They hid behind trees and did their damndest. Interesting times.
And, here is the pipper. The Revolutionary war was NOT popular. Many people didn’t want to fight the British. They were loyal to Britain, and they worked against those fool colonists who spouted this ‘liberty’ nonsense.
But we made it. We managed to outlast the best military in the world, and then go on to create our own best military. For over 200 years we have strived, have risen, have introduced the concept of liberty to the rest of the world.
So happy Fourth of July. It is a holiday that should be celebrated not just here, but around the world.
And remember, your ability to know and use violence, whether it be in the forms of weapons, or the choice of martial arts, that is what protects you and keeps you safe.
Newsletter 815 ~ Sign up now on the Free Books page!
New Karate Black Belt Test!
Good morning! Wonderful morning. I just did a whole bunch of forms, I feel like a million.
The most important Martial Arts book ever written.
Hey, there’s lots of stuff happening, so let me start with… CONGRATS! to Peter Carmody
Peter passed his Matrix Karate Black Belt test.
The test was done on video, and Peter went through having to repeat the test, doing all the corrections, and making all the matrix karate material work.
And he made it look good!
Video testing is interesting. You could probably film yourself on an iPhone, don’t wear black against a black wall, white against white, and so on.
Have some sunlight, or a few bulbs glowing.
You don’t need lots of space as long as I can see your whole body.
Have a partner.
Be willing to fail once or twice, at least.
And here’s the thing, Matrix Karate is pretty darn unique. You see, most karate systems were developed for specific reasons, bodyguarding, the element of being grabbed, having to deal with weapons, etc.
Not saying you won’t encounter these things today, you need some awareness of these things, but the real factor is that we are a fist culture. If you are in a fight the usual weapons will be fists. Then something that can be used as a cub, then a knife, etc.
But fists are the base of it all. And, if you can handle a fist, it is just a short step to a knife, if you have enough brains to adapt.
Anyway, Matrix Karate is designed around the structure of the body, it is a complete art, taking into account all angles of attack and defense. But it is SIMPLE! Because the posing and the unnecessary techniques have all been weeded out.
You have to learn about mistakes, but the essence is in the logic where one move leads to the next, with no circus moves.
It’s funny, I remember one of the first wins I ever received, this was about ten years ago. The guy wrote that he had gone to a martial arts school, and the first technique they taught him was a cartwheel into a jump kick. Not how to block and punch. Not even the basic kicks, but a jumping kick off a whole body contortion.
Can you see why matrixing was so desperately needed? A little common sense? And every system, no matter how classical or developed, benefits from the direct infusion of logic that matrixing provides.
Anyway, well done to Peter, and I recommend Matrix Karate and the Master Instructor Course (you need both of them to test). Whether you are accomplished and have a black belt, whether you are a raw beginner, whether you are just in the middle and need to get going, Matrix Karate is the easiest, the best, the most efficient and completely rounded karate on the planet. Period.
Gonna be a 100 degrees this week!
It’s time to really sweat!
So turn off that air conditioner
and get ready to ROCK!
Release of final volume of Matrixing Karate Series! Click on the Cover!
Let’s talk about matrixing.
In fact,
let’s talk about the big bugaboo of the martial arts…
MISTAKES!
Mistakes are not actually mistakes.
If you block something wrong,
for instance,
it’s not because you made a mistake,
it’s because you made a calculation,
a computation,
based on your current data.
When all the input finished,
when you finished calculating
the trajectory of the fist,
the angle of the block,
and so on,
and got hit in the face,
it is because you did what you trained yourself to do.
You didn’t make a mistake,
you responded according to your training.
This is actually true of everything in life,
but since martial arts are a microcosm,
a small classroom,
let’s look at the martial arts potentials here.
A student is trained to do a block.
He practices and practices,
until it is ingrained.
Until it becomes the intuitive response.
Then an attack happens,
and it is the wrong intuitive response.
This,
incidentally,
is why so many arts fail.
Take Kenpo,
for instance,
two arts,
the art of the technique,
and the art of freestyle,
and they have nothing to do with each other.
The training,
you see,
has left reality.
Then it takes twenty years or so
to make the intuitive work.
Maybe.
So here is the question:
How do you create a correct intuitive response…
EVERY TIME!
And that brings us to matrixing.
In matrixing a mistake is never a mistake,
it is an opportunity to learn something.
So consider this.
A right fist to the face can be blocked four ways.
Use your right hand to push it to the right
Use your right hand to push it to the left
Use your left hand to push it to the right
Use your left hand to push it to the left
I know,
there are lots of potentials here,
lots of other blocks.
But we are keeping it simple.
You can apply what I am telling you here
to other techniques and arts later.
So you practice the first one:
Use your right hand to push it to the right
and you practice it because it is the right one.
It is the one that works best.
And you practice and practice,
and then,
one day,
you are attacked,
and it doesn’t work.
WTF!
The reason it didn’t work might be anything,
a slight curve on the punch,
a delay in timing,
a sneaky distraction,
who knows and who cares.
What we care is the solution.
Instead of practicing just one defense,
you have to practice all four.
And practice and practice.
Sometimes,
if one of the potentials almost works,
you have to practice it a lot.
Sometimes,
if the potential is a disaster,
you just have to practice a little,
every once in a while,
just enough so that you realize…
here it comes…
WHAT DOESN’T WORK!
You see
it’s not enough to know what works,
you have to know what doesn’t work.
Not to make what doesn’t work intuitive,
but so that you can see what doesn’t work in the middle of combat.
This is a different level we are talking about.
We are not talking about being cause and effect,
we are talking about causing the cause and effect.
We are talking about a ‘master viewpoint.’
When somebody punches you shouldn’t react,
you should move with them,
in tune with them,
developing the block or counter or whatever
in the middle of the moment.
This is mushin no shin,
or mind of no mind.
This is when your memories
memories that you might have implanted yourself,
don’t distract you.
This is when you do purely and truly.
And it is really amazing
when you find yourself in the middle of one of these moments.
I was working out with a couple of fellows the other day,
using sticks.
These two fellows had worked out for years,
knew each other well,
knew the material well,
but when it came time to demonstrate,
the teacher turned to me,
because he could feel that I was more ‘in the moment,’
and showed the technique on me.
Simply,
I didn’t hesitate,
or make mistakes,
I just stayed with him,
moving in time with him,
moving in tune,
and even when he started deviating the technique,
there I was,
sticking with him,
making it work.
So you see,
you can’t just practice the martial arts,
you have to understand them.
You can’t just practice a technique,
you have to practice ALL of the techniques,
all variations.
You can’t train yourself to just respond,
because then you are training yourself
to be effect to the other guy’s cause.
Instead,
you have to train all the potentials,
even the mistakes,
then mistakes won’t fool you,
or otherwise trip you up.
The best place to do
what I have told you about here
is the Matrix Karate Course.
The Matrix of Blocks,
which is just one small item on this course,
goes directly to the heart of this.
You will then understand how blocks work,
how they work together,
and how to define what mistakes are
so they never trip you up.
This is turning out to be the best summer ever! The reason is simple…I’m teaching again.
150 Kenpo Techniques matrixed ~ Click on the cover!
It feels so good, after the shoulder injury and surgery, to get back out on the mat. If you don’t recall, I fell off a skateboard and killed a ligament, and the whole shoulder went south.
BUT, doc said surgery would get me back to 99%, and he was right. He was really right, because he had no idea of the rigors of the martial arts.
What I did, when I decided the time was right, was go to a place in town, walk in, and ask if the guy needed help.
He said yes, and after a few classes of helping, I am sometimes being handed the class and told to have fun.
And, as all you guys know, there is NOTHING as fun as the martial arts.
Here’s the interesting stuff, the martial arts have totally changed since I learned them. I don’t consider all changes bad, but there are things I have to accept if I want to teach. And, there are things that have stayed the same, which leaves a huge door for me to introduce stuff that is so old it has been forgotten.
It is fascinating to pull out an old drill, hand it to the students, and watch their eyes bulge.
But, I have to present the drill differently than how it was handed to me.
When I was learning, the teacher gave you something and you were expected to do it. Didn’t matter if it hurt. I mean, so what if it hurt? You’re here to learn karate, so don’t waste time sniveling, just do the drill.
And we would do the drill with manic intention.
Now, when I teach those drills, I have to make them soft, and very, very gently lead the student to harder versions and real workability.
Currently, I am working on a series of drills to bring fighters in freestyle closer together, to cut down reaction time, and make sure that blocks work, and punches have the desired effect.
All without giving nary a bruise.
But, I can’t tell you, it is more fun than I have had since…since I don’t know. After being sidelined for a couple of years, limited to nothing but forms, the feel of working techniques on real bodies is absolutely and totally and utterly exhilarating.
So, I get letters sometimes, from people who can’t find workout partners.
I tell them: teach your wife, work with your brother, or cousin or nephew or whoever. Put up a flier at the local gym, or the Y, or just be seen working out in the park.
There are 7 billion people on this globe of dirt, all will turn their head to a car crash, many will become instantly fascinated by martial arts, and you are telling me you are alone. That nobody cares.
Don’t make me sigh.
Just get out there and do it.
And, as this newsletter indicates, you can always just walk into a school, ask if you can help out. You won’t make money, but you can do the martial arts, you can play with other people, and the information will trade back and forth like magic! That is a supreme blessing, on this planet or any other.
Here’s the obligatory page that you DEFINITELY need to go to…
Defeating Distractions to Find the True Martial Art
Good afternoon! Special day tomorrow, I’ll tell you about it down the page, but before we get to it, remember this: the only way to celebrate this special day is to… work out!
Okay, hope your interest is piqued, but before we talk about that special day, let’s take a moment to talk about emotion.
Ultimately, you don’t want to have any emotion in your martial arts. You don’t want to cry, or feel fear, or anger, or any kind of emotion.
Emotion is a distraction. It gets in between the thought of what you are going to do, and the reality of what you do.
There is this thing called emotional content, Bruce Lee mentions it in ‘Enter the Dragon,’ but even that, ultimately, is a distraction.
To get to the pure state where you can read the mind of the attacker, see what he is going to do before he does it, and move with perfection, you must get rid of ALL emotion.
There is a problem, however. The problem is that nobody really knows what emotion is.
If you can stick with me through a couple of points I can help you understand, which is to say that I can help you understand something that nobody understands.
Here’s the dictionary definition for emotion: a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others: she was attempting to control her emotions | his voice was low and shaky with emotion | fear had become his dominant emotion.
But that doesn’t tell you what emotion is. That is like saying electricity goes through wires, but there is no mention of where electricity came from, what a generator is, or how electricity ‘flows’ through a wire.
It is an inadequate definition.
Here are three more definitions: 1 she was good at hiding her emotions: feeling, sentiment; reaction, response. 2 overcome by emotion, she turned away: passion, strength of feeling, warmth of feeling. 3 responses based purely on emotion: instinct, intuition, gut feeling; sentiment, the heart.
Again, these don’t tell you where emotion comes from, what has generated it, and how it really works.
So, here we go, here is what emotion actually is.
Emotion stems from motion inside the head.
And here is a truth, there are only people in this universe. Everything else in the universe, all the objects and non-living things (or ‘low living’ like animals) are the effect of motion in the universe.
A bug sits on a stalk, a frog sees the swaying stalk and must flick his tongue. A coyote sees the motion of the tongue, and is compelled to eat the frog.
The universe happens like dominoes. And, the ONLY thing in the universe that can upset the dominoes, can change the path of the falling dominoes, can change cause and effect, is a human being.
A human being has choice, and that ability, that decision making ability, is apart from the universe, and can cause the path of the universe to change and change and change.
So a human being can change the universe, but how does he change it? by having a thought first. So he thinks, and does what he thought about, and what he thought about comes to be.
But, in between the thought and the accomplishment, is emotion. Think about it:
A man wants to accomplish something, he sets out on the task, then he gets angry, or fearful, or otherwise emotional, and his ability to make accomplishment is lessened.
He was distracted.
Which brings us to the crux of the matter, why does man create these (his own) distractions? Why does he create emotion and waylay himself? Why?
What happens when you squeeze an lemon? Juice squirts out. Gets in your eye and you cry.
So a man creates emotion when he is squeezed, like a lemon, and ‘things’ squirt out.
things like fear, anger, hate, and so on.
And these things disrupt the mind, cause distraction, and obscure the basic thoughts that one may have.
When I was a child I was spanked, which is to say I was squeezed. I experienced fear, and pain, and anger, and that stuff, because I didn’t know what it is, it stayed with me for a long time.
It would even be fair to say that, like dominoes, certain of those emotions caused me to study martial arts. How weird.
So when you feel pain and anger and all those unpleasant things just say ‘no’ to them. Just refuse them. Refuse to dwell on that emotion, refuse to have motion inside your head, refuse to feel the lingering effects of being squashed (squeezed), and go about your life. Refuse the distraction and accomplish your thoughts.
Of course, it is not always easy to do that. Sometimes what is big in your head is greater than your ability to ignore.
That is where the martial arts come in.
The martial arts train you to accomplish an attack, no matter the distraction, and the heck with emotion.
No other practice on earth does this more efficiently or to greater effect.
You face your partner on the mat. He growls, people yell, you are tired, but because you have endured training, and pain and other distractions, and gotten to your black belt, you are able to ignore the distractions, move forward, and accomplish the thought of the strike, or the lock, or the takedown, or whatever.
You simply train yourself to ignore the motion inside your head, to ignore anything in the universe that tries to stop you, and you accomplish your thought.
Here’s a cruel trap, people who start the martial arts, then quit, were distracted. They let something squeeze them, and they quit. And the cruelty is that if they had kept going they would have found the ability that would have enabled them to ignore distractions, and accomplish their thoughts.
Catch 22. Yes?
One last thing I want to say about this. There are many people who fail, and, there are many people who are studying something thinking it is a martial art, when it isn’t.
You have to study the true martial arts. You have to find forms that work, and you have to make them work. You have to cleanse your techniques so they become pure and can show the thought that created them.
That path creates the discipline.
Just fighting does not. Fighting teaches you to fight. Doing the real martial arts, practicing techniques until you can make them work, that is the discipline of ignoring distractions and getting yourself to the point where you can make your thoughts work.
The best method, because incorrect movements (which are distractions) have been removed, is Matrix Karate.
Okay, that special day I was talking about. For me it is the most important day in the universe, for it is when I decided to have physical presence on this planet. Birthday.
And, if you have been following this blog for the last couple of decades, then you know I always ask for one, specific present.
Forgive me. If I have sent out the wrong order, didn’t answer an email, didn’t answer an email quickly said the wrong thing, didn’t understand something, failed in some way, if i have done ANYTHING that might have offended you, or caused you ANY sort of distraction…
Forgive me.
Help me clean up my universe, help me not have the distractions of bad service, poor communications, or ANYTHING else.
May you have the best work out of your life. Really.
Cover of volume 1 of Kindle version of Matrix Karate ~ click on cover to find out more
Speaking of blocks… When I was in my teens I was studying Kenpo. I learned all these neat tricks, was excited about fighting, and I kept having these weird ideas about strategy and how the martial arts were shaped. Oddly, I couldn’t make these strategies work. I could fight well, but these things I was thinking about, they just eluded me in combat. And it was because there wasn’t much in the way of blocking, in Kenpo.
In my twenties I joined the Kang Duk Won, I bashed my arms for years, and I learned about pain. I learned that pain is a warning device. And it was all because of blocks.
Funny. Most people won’t use a real block in freestyle. I can, and do if I am teaching somebody and there is a lesson in it. But it’s easier to just hit the other fellow than it is to block.
But I never would have learned how to slide in and hit somebody if I hadn’t learned how to block.
I always remember the specific technique where it all came home. It was the technique from the first move of Batsai. Batsai is spelled a few different ways, but it means ‘defending a fortress.’
In that technique I had to do three blocks. And I had to do these three blocks with hips twists, I had to twist the hips to align the body so it could support the impact without collapsing. And I had to do it faster than somebody could throw three punches at me.
For months I tried to get that technique. I would practice it and practice it, get guys to give me that attack, but I just couldn’t move my body fast enough.
One day, I did. Just like that. One second I couldn’t, and the next second I could. Like a switch had been thrown. But here’s the interesting thing: I felt like I was behind my head. I felt like I was out of my body, just a little bit, and watching my body move without me.
Well, it was moving because I had mastered the thought pattern behind the blocks. I had practiced that mental circuit until it broke, and what was left was me.
From there I moved into other things, hitting without blocks because, darn it, I had gotten so good at them I didn’t need them. And I moved into concepts of how to move the energy in my body just by thinking about it. Which is understandable if you realize that learning how to block had taught me how to influence my body with just thought.
I began to be able to accomplish all those odd ideas I had had way back in Kenpo. Which led to Matrixing.
Nowadays people don’t practice the blocks. And if they do, they don’t practice them with the proper hip movement, the proper alignment, the proper breathing and thought.
I know this because when people come to me for lessons, they show a complete lack of understanding, no knowledge of the drills, of how blocking works.
The thing is there is a whole realm of thought that goes with learning how to block. You learn all sorts of things, and it builds a springboard for moving into other concepts.
Think about it, you can box, and learn how to take a punch, but that doesn’t teach you how to run energy through your body.
Nothing wrong with boxing, it’s actually pretty good stuff, fills in a few gaps that are in the martial arts, but it just doesn’t have the energy theory that goes along with the martial arts.
Anyway, I’m working on the Matrix Karate for a Kindle version. Kindle is very unfriendly to photos, so I have to take some out, and rewrite the thing. It’s be good, but not as good as a book, or a video. Heck, even the other electronic readers are better, because they take PDFs easily.
But one of the things I focus on to make up for that lack, is the specific blocking in the forms. Not the matrix of blocking, which provides a logic which blasts one to intuition, but the old way, learning the blocks, making them work, until the art does you, and you become the art.
You guys are lucky. You understand something the Kindle readers may never understand. You get everything on these courses. On the other hand, the kindle readers may understand something you don’t because they will be seeing the art in a more bare bones viewpoint, that will let their mind fill in the blanks, which is very healthy for a student. Well, who’s to say. The real lesson is in the work out. Getting the material and doing it, thousands and thousands and thousands of times, until it becomes you, and you become it. That will teach you the art, no matter which of my books or courses you get.
Gorgeous day.
Absolutely gorgeous.
And that means it is an absolutely gorgeous day for a work out.
So get going!
Was teaching this morning.
We were doing Promised Fights,
and my partner was grimacing,
and finally backed off.
“Ow,” he said.
And we got into a long discussion.
Heck,
he was hurting,
I had to let him recover,
give him some data,
and then hurt him some more.
Right?
First,
I started out with the old
‘Do it a form a thousand times and you know it.
Do it ten thousand times and you’ve mastered it.’
My student did exactly the right thing,
he said,
‘So if I do it 20 times a day,
then in fifty days…’
“Yep,” I said.
“You could know it.
You could be expert in 2 months.
But you have to do it right.
You have to understand the alignment,
how the feet work and why,
and you have to know the Promised Fights…
otherwise you could do it forever and not know it.”
Second,
we went into proper body alignment,
which is covered on the Master Instructor Course,
and how the feet must align properly,
and how the particular form we were doing had to be done
to make this all work.
I ended up saying,
“align your body,
make it a single unit,
then he won’t hit your body parts,
he will hit a single, integrated unit,
and it won’t hurt you.
Energy flows through a body that is a single unit,
it doesn’t flow through body parts used in individual fashion.
This is especially important in a Promised Fight.”
And,
came the look I had been waiting for.
I had been using the term Promised Fight,
and I knew he would eventually ask about it.
“What is a Promised Fight?”
A Promised Fight,
or a Promise Fight,
is a piece of the form applied.
A form Application.
It is a self defense movement.
It is bunkai.
It is the working part of the form.
But,
it is more.
In fact,
if a person doesn’t understand what I am about to tell you,
he/she is not doing karate.
They are just fighting themselves.
I asked my instructor what a Promised Fight was,
and he said,
‘The Promise of a Fight.’
And,
while the study of PFs gave great abilities,
and the answer he gave me was correct,
it was terribly incomplete.
To understand what a Promised Fight is
I need you to look up the word ‘Postulate.’
Look it up for yourself,
get all the nuances,
where it came from,
and all that,
but for this newsletter,
the short and inadequate version is this:
suggest or assume the existence, fact, or truth of (something) as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or belief
Assume existence,
put forth the truth,
as a basis for belief.
If you understand the hint here,
you should be diving for a big old Oxford Dictionary,
wanting to know why a simple karate move
becomes the basis for truth in this universe.
So let me break it down a bit,
from the viewpoint of 50 years of training.
A postulate is a thought,
which if worked on,
becomes true.
Worked on,
as continually done in a work out.
As in a piece of the form,
practiced again and again and again.
Now,
let me back up a bit,
a form is a circuit,
a pattern of moves that you practice and practice
until you just do it without thinking about it.
You strengthen the body,
you remember the applications,
you get light and quick,
and all those sorts of things.
When you do a piece of the form,
over and over and over,
you condense the circuit,
and you get rid of thought,
and suddenly there is nothing but the move.
Somebody punches,
and you don’t exist,
you just track the incoming,
and the Promise Fight,
the postulate of moves,
pops out of you.
And it works.
You punch him,
and he falls down.
And he doesn’t understand what hit him.
But here is the truth of it all…
a thought hit him.
A Postulate of thought hit him.
A Promise Fight,
clean and simple,
without distractive thoughts,
hit him.
And there is nothing purer in this universe.
Now,
I am always so busy trying to get people to understand,
offering all sorts of methods,
that i sometimes forget to go into this factor.
BUT,
in Matrix Karate there is the Matrix of blocks.
These are like mini-Promise Fights.
Very important to get these,
to understand them,
it is important to learn the small PFs
before you get to the big ones.
The big ones are on Temple Karate.
There isn’t talk of a matrix there,
because it is assumed you have done the groundwork of Matrixing first.
And the form applications are VERY pure Promised Fights.
They REALLY result in a zen frame of mind,
and the ability to hit somebody with a thought.
If you get Temple Karate
and you haven’t done Matrix Karate,
then you are taking the long route.
It will take you years,
and as distractions mount,
you can be knocked off the path
and never get there.
So you should do Matrix Karate,
work on the Matrix of Blocks,
make inroads and discover what a PF is.
And,
you can always take the pieces of the form,
they are pretty obvious,
and work on them to make real Promised Fights.
Then you do Temple Karate,
get into the classical forms,
and really go to town on the Promised Fights.
Matrix Karate is pretty simple,
it presents the movements that are pure karate,
no distractions from other arts.
It aligns you,
and sets you up for the broader moves of Temple Karate.
It is a real Closed Combat System.
You can do it by itself,
or you can do it,
then move into the classical,
and see what kinds of things
the old guys who came before us were into.
Temple Karate is a larger assortment of tricks,
it broadens the education,
and digs you to new depths.
Anyway,
that is the story on Promised Fights.
Dig ‘em…they are the real zen of Martial Arts.
Here’s the link for Temple,
if you have already done Matrix Karate.
You can just go to MonsterMartialArts and find Matrix Karate,
it is one of the first arts presented on the home page.
Matrix Martial Arts 