How Long Does It Take to Get a Black Belt?

Can You Earn A Black Belt in A Year?

Well, it certainly doesn’t take 4 or 5 years to get a black belt, and that is in any martial art, Karate, Kung Fu, Taekwondo, or whatever.

I say this off the top because people think it does take that long, and this is one of those big lies that has been foisted upon the public.

Let me give you a few facts.

Chuck Norris earned his black belt in Tang Soo Do karate in about a year and a half.

Mike Stone, one of the best tournament fighters ever, and the fellow who taught Priscilla Presley Karate, earned his in something like 7 months.

So you can earn a black belt in karate pretty fast.

In fact, back in the sixties, it used to take about two years. That’s right. And fellows who were above average and dedicated could get there in about a year.

So what happened to make it longer and harder to get expert ranking in the martial arts?

Tracy’s Kenpo Karate hired a fellow from the Arthur Murray Dance Schools to put karate sales to contracts. The contracts were based on a four year program.

What this meant is that people were in contract, committed to a four year program of paying fees.

Can you spell ‘MONEY?’

It wasn’t long before every martial art jumped on the bandwagon.

All the talk of zen and noble warriors, and it was about a buck.

When I wrote ‘Outlaw Karate: the Secret of the One Year Black Belt,’ I had this in the back of my mind.

Me in 1974. Karate had just gone to contracts, but I could see how it used to be.

I had studied Kenpo, and knew how it was based upon selling a technique or two every week for for years.

I had studied classical karate, and I had seen how people loaded up the systems with all sorts of stuff, just to make it longer to teach so they could keep students.

I had also come across the facts I recited earlier, about it taking only a year or two, and I was interested in returning the art to that rate of training.

And, let me say something else, I saw that people who learned by those faster methods were better.

They were better because they weren’t overloaded with data from multiple arts, they weren’t trying to absorb exercises and drills designed to make training time longer, they were better because they were aimed at a goal, and that goal had not been spread out over time.

Spread out, which is to say dissipated, weakened, diluted.

Which is to say that because they hadn’t been sold a bill of goods, they were not confused or sidetracked in their training.

I actually discovered several different methods of getting a person to black belt in a year or less, and this in any art.

More important, I discovered ways of putting the martial arts to logic; a logic that is not inherent to the eastern methods of learning.

Outlaw Karate: The Secret of the One Year Black Belt, is one of those methods.

it is one of the better ones because it reduces karate training to the basics, to the methods used back in the sixties. No frills, just the hardest core techniques that worked in a fight, and which built a karate fighter out of anybody who was willing to work hard, and keep his eye on the target.

The name ‘Outlaw Karate’ comes from the fact that I thought I was going ‘outside’ the boundaries of Karate. Actually, I found out that I wasn’t, I was just returning to a harder time, a no nonsense time when people knew they could get where they were going by applying themselves.

A time not configured by ‘contracts’ and the desire to make as much money as you could from a student.

Outlaw Karate: The Secret of the One Year Black Belt, is only $15 on Amazon.

I suggest, if you are serious about Karate, and want to break away from the bushwah and the frippery of contract sales, that you get the book. Focus on one form every two months.

Schedule a couple of hours every night, and go for it.

Do the forms, get a partner and do the techniques, do the drills and freestyle.

At the end of a year you will be in the best shape of your life. Your reaction time will be non -existent and you will be moving intuitively.

Most important, you will be a living testament to the way the martial arts used to be.

One of the many books I have written about how to earn a black belt in a faster period of time, and yet be a better black belt.

You will be a diehard fighter of unparalleled prowess and common sense.

You will find out truths about yourself that are available nowhere else in this culture, on this planet, anywhere.

That’s my Outlaw Karate Promise, and my guarantee that you can get a black belt in one year.

And I invite you to email me and ask ANY questions you wish, and to let me know how you are doing.

That’s Outlaw Karate: The Secret of the One Year Black Belt.

STUDENT WIN: Then I found your site. WHAT A RELIEF. I Feel very strongly that what I am learning is the real deal, and its so simple. I love how you make it so practical and yet traditional at the same time. You don’t bullshit, and you get straight to the point. I’ve been practicing the Outlaw Karate basics since I’ve ordered it, and let me just tell you, I was practicing the stances and my brother (for some reason he loves surprising me with his feet) did a high kick and I automatically went into right high block.I broke out into the hugest grin, I wish you could’ve been there. Your right, it is easy to pick up,

STUDENT WIN: I have for the past two years studied the OUTLAW KARATE course material and have instructed much of it to my students. THANK YOU for this great system. I wish I had studied under you many years ago, to have been able to have received at least my SHODAN in this system from you. It is indeed an incredible system…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Al Case began martial arts in 1967. Among the arts he has studied are Kenpo, Karate, Aikido, Wing Chun Gung Fu, Northern Shaolin Kung fu, Southern Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Kua Chang, and various weapons. He became a writer for the magazines in 1981, and had his own column in Inside Karate. He is the webmaster for MonsterMartialArts.com and several other martial arts related websites. He is the discoverer of Matrixing Martial Arts logic and Neutronics Martial Arts Philosophy. He can be reached through his websites.

Click on the cover to go to Amazon and find out more…

How I Got the Ultimate Karate Punch in the Face

It’s the wind up, it’s the karate punch, it’s the…oops!

Good Lard is it a beeootifull day, especially for the ultimate karate punch..

Good day to work out, limber up the muskles, knock the fat off yer frame. Get healthy. Ya know? Are ya ready to talk martial arts?

Click on this guy to get the ultimate karate punch.

Click on the book to find out about the man who killed Kenpo Karate.

One of the drills I hated the most, but got the most out of, was the simple horse stance. We would spread the legs, get the thighs down to where they were almost parallel to the floor, and put up one high block, and extend the other hand to the side in a chicken beak, and look at our finger tips. We called this position Kima Chasie. Horse Meditation.

And we meditated on the pain it would cause us.

Now, forget the pain, forget the stronger legs, forget everything but the real purpose of it. Get out of your body.

After a couple of years of dabbling with horse Meditation I decided to do it right. I decided that pain wouldn’t cause death (in this instance) and that I should just do the exercise until I got what it was all about.

So, I hit the stance, looked at my fingers, and concentrated on breathing. Time passed. Minutes seemed like hours. My mind began to still, the world slowed down. Seconds seemed like hours.

And, suddenly it all stopped hurting. No pain at all. The whole universe was one peaceful concept that i could live with forever.

How long did it take me to get there?

Five minutes.

That’s all.

Zingo bingo, instant enlightenment.

Doing the Horse Stance Form and techniques at 61.

Now came the problem. When I tried to move, I couldn’t. My whole body had locked up. Man, I was freaked. Tried to wiggle backwards, couldn’t move, couldn’t even rock. Tried forwards, ah, there we go, I could fall for…oh shit…ah! Landed on my face.

So, enlightenment is possible through the old training methods, but sometimes it can be weird, freaky, and even as significant as a karate punch on the nose.

Hey, any of youse guys feel like coming over to see me, I live on good old Monster Martial Arts. Brings your friends, the doors are open, leave your old life outside.

See ya.

Al

Here’s a great article on how to be Karate tough. If you can take it. Grrr.

Chuck Norris Puts Out Line of Pink Martial Arts Gear!

Chuck Norris Wore Pink to Beat Up Bigots!

It’s true, a whole new line of pink martial arts gear, and it’s pretty obvious Chuck Norris is coming out of the closet. At the very least, coming clean about a not so honorable period of his life.

Reson and the Age of Kenpo Karate

Apparently, many years ago, before he became more famous than Rock Hudson, Chuck used to tend bar. He would wear a pink apron and pick fights with anybody who made a remark.

He was young, and he excused such behavior by saying, ‘I just want to rid the world of bigots.’ On the side he would say he was just looking for ways to practice his martial arts.

And, you can believe the above is true because…I read it on the net!

Actually, a fellow wrote into a forum I was on and wanted to read an article on this thing he had heard about Chuck Norris wearing pink and picking fights with drunks, so I thought I would oblige him.

The fact of the matter is that I was learning martial arts, I was a new instructor at the local Kenpo school, when Chuck was making  a name for himself on the martial arts tournament scene.

Every week, it seemed, Chuck was winning a tournament, taking down some of the biggest names, taking home the biggest trophies.

Then, a couple of years later, when I was a black belt and out teaching at my own martial arts school, he became a movie star!

Man, we would flock to the movies, watch him beat holy heck out of uunsavory charcters, and we would cheer!

My particular favorite fight scene of his, more even than the battle with Bruce Lee in ‘The Way of the Dragon,’ is in the martial arts/horror flick ‘Silent Rage.’ There is a reality in the barroom fight with the bikers that is so darn nifty it takes the breath away.

Now, over all the years of Chuck Norris, all the movies and the TV show, I have never heard anything scurrilous said concerning him. In fact, people would always remark how he was the most polite fellow they had ever met, how he went out of his way to be kind to people.

Tough guy? Maybe. Certainly a tough karate fighter.

Bad guy? Not to my knowledge.

Wear pink and beat up drunks? Negative.

In spite of all research, in spite of my sleazy talents as a yellow journalist, I could find no mention of Chuck Norris wearing pink and beating up bigots.

All I heard was good things.

And, the Chuck Norris line of pink Martial Arts gear? Made it up.

About the Author: The author began martial arts in 1967, and does not use a pink pen when he writes. He has written over a dozen martial arts books on such subjects as Pang Gai Noon, Kenpo Karate, Marine Corps Martial Arts, the One Year Black Belt System, and, of course, Matrixing Karate. You can find these books at AlCaseBooks.com.

Be sure to subscribe to this blog.

MonsterMartialArts.com has the best martial arts home study courses on the planet.

How to Break Through to a Real Black Belt

What is the difference between a Black Belt and a ‘real’ Black Belt?

Interesting question, eh?

To explain this let me make a statement, and then explain how that statement works.

The statement is that a real black belt does less to create more.

Now, back in China, there were people who could do less to make more. They learned this over millennium, and it became a part of their cultural teachings in many of the martial arts.

The art trailed to Okinawa, and the concept tried to hang on. In some respects it did, in others it didn’t.

Then the Japanese (among others, they weren’t alone in this, just more efficient) came along and they said, ‘We want power!’ So they made the work outs brutal, putting force above intelligence, or awareness, and they succeeded in deep sixing the already dying concept of ‘doing less to create more.’

And, they are not the only ones who did this. Americans are guilty of going along with this, not just as students, but as ‘power seekers’ on their own.

Now, power is fine, for a beginner. But when you train in the martial arts you progress to a point where you get tired – that’s as good a way of putting it as any – of working so durned hard.

Part of this realization may come from finally seeing through the blinders of power to the fact that a little bit wisely and judiciously applied accomplishes just as much, and more, than a lot blindly applied.

But you finally realize the truth, that it is not how much power you can create, but how smartly you focus your awareness to create and apply that power. Thus, the more you become empty, before and after the focus, relaxing to do the technique, the less power you actually have to summon up.

You do less, and create larger effects. You punch lightly, and it hurts more. You relax and throw more efficiently.

You are not building muscles now, but rather awareness; you are learning to focus, to use, awareness as a power. Call it chi, if you wish.

This concept had millennium to take root and develop in China, and teachers would teach it from the get go (before the Great Cultural Revolution). Now people only attain it rarely, and not if they stick to the power seeking commercial schools that have come to reign.

Here’s the interesting thing: you measure force, the power of a beginner, with physics. But you cannot measure chi with physics.

For you cannot measure awareness, especially when used in this manner.

Now, the hallmark of the real black belt is not how much power he has, but how light and liquid he is; how empty he is; how measured and sure he is of his position in space. How aware he is.

Learn to do more by using less (force, impact, energy, whatever) and you will be a real Black Belt.

You can subscribe by going to the top of the sidebar…

A god example of physics and real martial arts is my Pan Gai Noon book, available in paper or kindle on Amazon.

Wing Chun Karate is Interesting…

Wing Chun and Karate?

Wing Chun and Karate, seemingly opposites, but not. Actually, I found more similarities between Wing Chun and Karate than almost any other martial arts.

Wing Chun, of course, is the Chinese Martial Art that has soft blocks, which is to say guiding blocks, and hard strikes. It has been around for hundreds of years, and it is quite sophisticated. A person who has actually reached the ‘inner circle’ of this Chinese Martial Art is quite untouchable, can fight blindfolded, has a full range of sixth senses having to do with anticipating attacks before they happen, and so forth.

The main difference here is the direction of the blocks.

Wing Chun blocks tend to come back towards the body.

In Karate blocks tend to go away from the body.

In either art, if you are moving the block sideways, you are doing the block wrong, for there is no body, and therefore no possible body alignment behind the block.

And, yes, whether you are blocking hard or soft there must be body and alignment of structure behind the blocks. You can’t overwhelm the attacker’s strikes (as inKarate) if you don’t have this body and structure, and you can’t effectively guide the attack if you don’t have this body and structure.

Now, that all said, take a look at ‘Wing Chun Kung Fu,’ by James Yimm Lee, and you will find a section on the eight gates and four doors. Is this not perfectly transferable to Karate?

And, once you understand this, and if you are in a real style of Karate, you will understand how the concepts of grounding and deep stances must be used. And, if you are in this style of hung fu, and come across Karate, you may realize ho more effective, especially the early training, would if you deepened the stances and worked on the grounding and alignment.

Thus, these styles of Japanese Martial Art and Chinese Martial Art do have more than surface similarities, and it is even of high benefit to study both systems. You must not try to blend them however, past what I have said here. That would muddle either art, cause confusion, and detract from both Wing Chun and Karate.

If you wish to go further with the concepts outlined in this article on Wing Chun and Karate you should examine Matrixing at MonsterMartialArts.com, a specific course that would apply would be the Master Instructor Course.

New Martial Arts Book Publications

Three New Martial Arts Books!

Good morning to you!
Did you know ‘good morning’
was originally
‘May God give you a good amorning.’
And,
as I recall, it was sort of…
‘Have a God morning.’
Or something like that.
interesting, eh?

So,
God being awareness,
May you have an exceptionally aware morning,
and that through dedicated martial arts practice.

Okay,
that message being duly relayed,
let’s talk about THREE new martial arts publications.

First,
I finished the Matrixing Kenpo series.
Third book is out there,
which includes a totally new take
on how to structure kenpo,
how to rearrange the techniques,
including a monstrous WHY you would want to.

Really,
took the lid off Kenpo with this series.
Check it out on Amazon.
It might be in Kindle,
but the paperback is best.
Kindle really screws up the formatting.
Can’t handle pictures.
So paperback is best.

Now,
the second and third publications
are Neutronics.

I put four neutronics books into paperback form.
Two in each book.

Volume one has
Prologue and Neutronics.

Volume two has
The Neutronic Viewpoint and 24 Neutronic Principles.
This is like the bible of Neutronics.

And,
someday,
I really want all the Neutronic writings in one volume,
The complete science behind matrixing and the martial arts
all in one.
That would be cool!

So,
let me tell you something about Neutronics,
so you understand what it is
and why it is important.

A Neutron doesn’t do anything.
In Neutronics,
the neutron stands for awareness.
When you do martial arts,
and I am talking about the real martial arts now,
you try to achieve more by doing less.

in terms of motion,
you practice motion
until you find the neutron,
the awareness of you behind it all,
which is motionless.

Weird, eh?

Consider this line from The Tao,
‘Do nothing
until nothing is left undone.’
Gibberish,
until you understand Neutronics.
Then it becomes an amazingly powerful datum
that rocks your martial arts world,
and enables you to change the universe
quickly and easily.

Consider this:
God is that which can’t be pronounced,
smelled, touched, tasted, etc.
God is not anything in the universe.
So what is the oNLY thing in the universe
that can’t be touched,
tasted, seen, heard, and so on?

Awareness.

Or,
the neutronic being
which has a body…
so that it CAN touch, taste, etc.

Consider this one datum,
and ALL other philosophies align and finally make sense.
Heck,
the various philosophies
become merely one piece of the larger pie,
which is the astounding existence of you.

And,
if you’ve been doing your matrixing,
then you may recall me saying the same thing about Matrixing.
It makes the individual arts
pieces of the larger and whole art.

So you practice matrixing
to understand the whole martial arts,
and you study neutronics
to understand everything.

The discipline of the martial arts
focuses awareness,
the neutron,
so that it becomes more powerful as an awareness,
and so that it can understand everything.

Everything.
Why you live.
Why you die.
Why governments slaughter their citizens.
Why people kill for belief systems.
Why the universe exists.
Why life goes on.
Everything.

But,
if you don’t have the discipline of the martial arts,
then the words of neutronics are just meaningless gibberish.
You must have discipline to understand
and therefore to increase awareness.

You must have discipline,
and you must matrix that discipline,
you must focus yourself as an awareness,
lest you spend your life in a stupor,
dreaming that you are awake.

Now you know what neutronics is.
And,
you know why it is important.

So,
three books.

Mtrixing Kenpo Part Three,
which will really revitalize the whole art of Kenpo.

And four Neutronics books in two volumes.

They should be on Amazon,
probably late today,
maybe tomorrow,
but you might have to do some searching.

But,
keep in tune with the Monster
and i’ll have ads and announcements as time goes on.

So let’s finish off with win today…

Sir,
Just a thanks for helping me figure out karate. Ive been studying for years now and a lot of stuff in the different styles never made sense. Once I accepted that I was taught the wrong reasons for the part of the technique I was doing, it opened my eyes. … Your writings have helped me to think outside the box. Please keep it up.

Regards,
Damian M

Thanks Damian,
and thanks to EVERYBODY
Without you,
without the dedicated martial artist,
this planet would be a boring old FEMA camp.
So take care,
thanks,
and have a great work out!

Al

Here’s a link to my Karate site…

http://learnkarateonline.net

See you there!

How to Find a Martial Arts Pressure Point

Martial Arts Pressure Points

Good goldurn morning!
Or evening,
or whenever it is!
But you know that whenever it is…
all you have to do is work out.
Work out,
and the mysteries of the universe
unfold before you.
Mysteries,
such as…
pressure points.

I had an email today,
in it was a question about pressure points,
and I get this question every once in a while,
when am I going to do a book/course on pressure points.

Heck,
why write a whole book
when I can explain pressure points right here?

To understand pressure points
think electricity.

Points are like wall sockets,
for instance,
there is a pressure point
on the elbow.
It is called the funny bone,
but it’s not a bone,
its just where the nerves pass close to the surface,
and you can strike that point,
or grip it,
and cause some pain.

Then there are nerve clusters,
like switchboards.
For instance,
there is a cluster of nerves right near the armpit.
Stick a finger in there,
and you cause a severe reaction.

Now,
we could get into energy,
electricity is an analogy for electricity,
and where the lines of energy run,
and which way they go,
and so on and so on.

But you don’t need all that stuff.
And,
if you think about energy the way I am describing it here,
and what I am going to tell you to do,
then you will learn about pressure points faster
and with better result
than if you spent twenty years
examining how the meridians effect the kidney
if you strike the second toe
of your left foot
twice at midnight.

You must learn to look with your hands.

I spent about three years at the Kang Duk Won,
and during that time I hit people,
and I got hit.
Nice,
perfectly controlled strikes.
A few bruises,
a cut lip or a mouse,
but,
generally speaking,
we were practicing pretty darned fine control.
And,
we were learning to look through our fists.

Listen,
if somebody gave you a box
and asked what was in it,
you might shake it.
You could tell if what is inside is hard or soft,
liquid or solid,
and,
if you shook it long enough,
swear to god,
you could probably tell the color
of whatever is inside the box.

I know,
sounds weird.

But I kept hitting people,
and,
like most,
I could tell when I was hitting bones or muscle,
soft tissue or hard,
and I could gauge the reaction of people to these strikes.
And I could tell by my reaction
when people struck me
what was inside the body.

It’s like radar.
consider this analogy…
You come up to a house and knock on the door,
you listen.
You can hear the echo of your knock
resounding through the house.
Now,
knock so that you get the best echo,
you get that really hollow pitch
that reaches all-l-l-l the way
through the house.
Now,
knock on your partner’s chest.
Listen.
Listen to the reverberations.

Listen to the changes as you knock
on different parts of the body.
What does it sound like
listen to your fist
when you knock on a bone?
What do the lungs sound like?
Heck,
it’s like a doctor’s stethoscope,
except that you are using your own enhanced senses.
And you can tell what is in the other person’s body.

Now,
it is just a quick jump to pressure points.
Take a look at this…

I am working a pressure point.
Now I don’t know where this point came from.
I’ve never studied pressure points,
but I find that I can feel the body
and the points are ALL over the place.
Almost anywhere you touch the body
you can cause a reaction.

So let me explain something.
I just touch the body,
using the ‘listening’ I learned to do with the fist.
I listen with my fingertips,
extend my senses inside his body,
touch with authority,
and,
zingo bingo
we have a pressure point.

Is it a real pressure point?
I don’t know.
Doesn’t matter.
All that matters is this…
practice your techniques and listen with your fists.
Feel the effects as you strike your partner.
Be gentle,
for you can hear more if you are gentle
than if you are distracting yourself with a loud yell
or a huge force of radiating energy.

It’s a matter of focused awareness,
that is all…and nothing more.

But how do you focus your awareness?
Through control.
Through learning control.

and,
sorry to say,
sorry if i step on toes here,
but not through boxing or MMA,
for the purpose in those sports
is to smash and destroy.

Look,
I love to watch MMA,
and there are instances of high control in some of those games
but they are the gladiatorial games of Rome
brought to modern times,
and they don’t teach pressure points
or how to increase your awareness.

Only the classical martial arts teach that,
and those only rarely,
because most of the stuff taught today
is not aligned.
Doesn’t make sense.
Are random sequences of techniques,
and not a step by step journey
to increased awareness.

And with increased awareness
comes a knowledge of pressure points.

So my advice
to anybody who wants to learn pressure points
is this.

Work out.
Do the classical.
Align the classical with matrixing,
so that you actually understand what you are doing
and are on a step by step procedure to awareness.

Do your forms and techniques,
do them with sincerity,
do them with lots of energy,
and do them silently,
learn to listen with your fists.

Do that
and you need no further instruction.
The secret isn’t a secret,
it is just a matter of your learning to focus awareness
in a rather unique manner.

And,
if you are interested,
the video clip was from
Five Army Tai Chi Chuan.
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/five-army-tai-chi-chuan/

but it doesn’t matter which course
you start your matrixing journey on,
all that matters is that you start,
and that you persist,
and that you learn to focus
the precise and exact awareness
that you are.

Have a great work out!
Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/five-army-tai-chi-chuan/

Practicality of Combat Style Karate Kata, and…

…What a Modern Classical Karate Kata Looks Like

With the advent of Krav Maga, Systema, Sanshou, Jeet Kune Do and MMA people don’t fight like they used to, and one has to examine the functionality of Combat Karate Katas.

People are faster, more vicious, more likely to use power base kicks rather than simple jab type front kicks, and worse they like to go to the ground.

What does this mean for the traditional combat style kata?  Does this mean they are useless?

Personally, I don’t think so.  However, other people do.

While I do not suppose I can speak for him,  Kancho Joko Ninomiya, the founder of Enshin appears to feel that kata are necessary but the old ones don’t quite cut it in the modern world.

If you are unfamiliar with Enshin, here is a quick run down on it.  Kancho Joko Ninomiya won the 1974 All Japan Karate Championships (a Kyokushin bare-knuckle full contact championship).  Then he moved to America and founded his own karate style, using his own bare-knuckle tournament to evolve the style.

When he started to create his own kata, he kept the traditions of kata, but made them fit the new style.  He also didn’t bother with fancy names, instead the names are things like “shiro obi no kata”, or “ao obi no kata”, literally they are “white belt kata” and “blue belt kata” respectively.  However, they include things that were heavily used in Kyokushin, but don’t exist in the original katas like Sanchin and Seisan, things like boxing style jab/cross combinations.

So, this is what a modern kata looks like, and following that are its bunkai (application).

Interested in more combat style Karate? Check out Temple Karate at MonsterMartialArts.com

Defining the Ultimate Karate Form…Sanchin

The Real Truth of Sanchin Kata

Guest Blog by Alaric Dailey

It has been said that if you don’t know Sanchin, you don’t know karate. I suppose there is some truth to this.

Sanchin is taught in many variations, the least modified version of which, appears to be the Pangainoon/Uechi-ryu variation.   This is because of all the Naha-te styles, Pangainoon has been “out of China” the least amount of time.  This also happens to be the version I know, so I will be comments from the point of view of how it was taught to me, and why it is that way.

Release of NEW book on Pan Gai Noon! Click on the cover for more data.

Sanchin means three battles, those three battles are “order”, “form” and “breathing”.  These are the same 3 battles that you fight every time you learn a form.  You learn the order of the moves, how to do them properly, working out how they flow together (the form), and how to extract every ounce of internal and external power, both of which are enhanced with breathing.

Part of the proper form is “loose-tight”, which is quite the trick in Sanchin, since it is a dynamic tension form.  However, you have to loosen, your muscles to strike with force, to block with speed, and to tighten them as you are struck with the body checking.

Part of every form is to clear your mind and attempt to perform it with “mushin”, the “no-mind” of zen.

Truly Sanchin, is a very difficult form.  Pangainoon/Uechi-ryu, teaches it as the first form, and expects you to test on it at every belt, and to improve on it.  Other styles, such as Isshin-ryu, Goju-ryu, Kyokushin, and Okinawan Kenpo treat it as an advanced kata, in some cases styles have made it the shodan (blackbelt) kata.

It is interesting, that you also see the “aikido unbendable arm” as the guard, or Wing Chun stylists would recognize it as Tan-sao. I see many people holding their sanchin arms much lower than I was taught, Sensei always said your fingertips should be eye-level. My Wing Chun Sifu says the same thing about tan-sao, of course NOT holding the tan-sao at this level meant that Bruce Lee found it useless, so he through it out of JKD.

Just for a point of interest, here are a few different versions of the form.

And here is a White Crane form named the same thing that appears to be the same form

 

 

I personally don’t believe that the unaltered white crane form was the one taught to the Okinawans, we see far too much tiger in the Okinawan karate versions, a greater emphasis on external power, tiger claw strikes etc.

About the Author: Alaric Daily began practicing the martial arts in 1992. Martial Art she has studied include Pangainoon, Karate, Kenpo, Wing Chun, Krav Maga, Judo, Jujitsu, Aikido, Bagua Zhang, and Tai Chi Chuan

Overcoming Pride in the Martial Arts

My martial arts hubris, and how I overcame it

Guest blog by Alaric Dailey

In my other articles I started that my original karate dojo may have been the best thing that ever happened to me.  If you haven’t read them you might find them interesting, especially the ones on Dojo-kun and Do vs Jitsu.

Among other things that I rarely see in other schools, each belt test consisted of kata, punching and kicking, hojo-undo etc, but they also included reading a book and a verbal book report.  The very first test was, like many styles, a yellow belt.  I will never understand having a rainbow of colors that DON’T get darker as they go…

That first test was quite an eye opener for me though, Sensei had added his own requirement, because he was not about making money, nor was he interested in having half-hearted students, nor students that would leave.  He wanted people that were going to forever be changed, and continue to practice for the rest of their lives.

The requirement he added?  Go to another martial arts school, and take a minimum of one class with them.  Give a verbal report.

This requirement, was a bit baffling, why take anyone just starting in your school, and require them to go try another school and possibly lose them?  Because it makes sure you are in the art that you will stick with.

For my yellow belt test, I took a 3 day introductory course to Tai-Chi, knowing nothing about any other martial art I made the mistake to trying to compare it to what I knew.  To give you some idea of what kind of apples and broccoli I was trying to compare, I was taking Pangainoon, and the first form you learn is Sanchin and the school I went to was doing Yang Tai Chi.

I made all sorts of uninformed, biased assumptions, I loved karate with a blind passion, and wanted to impress upon my sensei how much karate meant to me.  Thus I took the classes looking for what I perceived to be flaws and weaknesses in the art such as

* no application of technique – never did I get any instruction of “this is a block, this is a strike, this is what you are defending against”
* the stance was too wide – I was not given any explanation for a neutral bow, or why it would be a good stance.  In my mind Sanchin was the ultimate fighting stance.
* No power in their techniques – I had no understanding of chi power, even though Pangainoon teaches it, I hadn’t really even gotten an introduction.

I wilfully and with eyes open wide walked into a trap that ensares so many others.  I blinded myself to the benefits of other arts.

I was lucky that I didn’t entirely discount everything I learned. I continued to keep in contact with the Sifu, and shortly before he left for China, I had the opportunity to witness him do Tai-chi very fast, it was amazing.  Suddenly all the soft flowery techniques appeared to have power, and were obvious as to blocks and strikes.  At this point, I had also had enough Pangainoon to understand some of the techniques and chi.

I was lucky for many reasons, I was lucky that my Sensei had the confidence to send us other places. I was lucky that I choose a school that was so different that I was forced to re-evaluate what I was learning (even if it was only in the back of my mind).

Luck aside, my own belief that my karate style was the only “good” style, quickly crumbling down.  I wouldn’t have been able to overcome this false pride, had I not had these opportunities.

If you run a school, you will do your students a massive favor if you encourage them to go practice with other schools.

If you are a martial artist of any style, you can benefit from swallowing your ego and practising at other schools, especially those that are radically different than yours.  For example, if you do Tai-chi, you might want to try a boxing school, if you do Wing Chun, try Judo or Jujitsu, etc.

You never know, you might might new friends, you might learn something new.  As I often say “more bodies, means more opportunity to learn, especially when they are doing something other than you are doing”.