The Key to Becoming an Original in the Martial Arts

Newsletter 934

Outside the Martial Arts Box!

I used to ask my instructor
what he did to get better.
What did he work on?
What were his training methods?
He answered me:
‘I just do the forms.’
But he could stick his index finger
through a board and leave a hole.
Obviously,
there had to be something more.
It took me a while,
but I figured out the ‘extra ingredient.’
Going outside the box.

For instance,
I’ve written about his kicking bag.
We couldn’t go to a store and buy a bag back then,
we had to make our own.
I bought a duffle bag,
packed it with sawdust,
used it for a while.
It was a true piece of…stuff.
But it worked,
and I practiced,
and my kicks got better.
He did the same thing,
sort of.
He was able to find the canvas ‘sleeves.
He filled it with sawdust,
and the thing was too light,
didn’t pack right,
fell out of shape after a few hundred kicks.
So he experimented,
going ‘outside the box,’
and packed it with sawdust and water.
It got moldy.
He tried adding bleach.
Got soggy,
and he tried other methods.
His stroke of
outside the box
genius?
He cut newspapers in circles,
and stacked the circles in the bag.
Rock hard,
never fell out of shape,
light enough to hang without bending the rafters,
and so on.
This is true ‘out of the box’ thinking.
He did something totally unique,
nobody had EVER done anything like this,
and likely haven’t since then.
But his kicks were truly…
outside the box.

So,
let me describe the trap you are currently in,
which stops you from thinking outside the box.
I came across a fellow on the net,
and he was talking about if bags get too hard
you can’t kick them.
And he’s going into the physics,
and how it is physically impossible
according to the rules of the universe,
and so on.
If my instructor had ever paid attention to the physics…
he never would have made that bag.
He would have been trapped by,
not the physics,
but the belief system surrounding physics.

I was once told that a bumble bee can’t fly.
His weight is too much,
his wings too stubby,
according to physics,
the bumble bee can’t fly.
Thank god the bumble bee doesn’t know physics.
Thank god the bumblebee has his own belief system.

And we get all these athletes
training by physics,
eating the food,
using the training devices,
following regimens described by people
who know physics.

Before the four minute mile was cracked,
it was considered impossible.
No human could ever do that.
Now,
on the top tier of runners,
you’re sort of a wannabe
if you can’t break the four minute mile.
But the physics didn’t change.
What changed was people’s belief in physics.
Or,
they didn’t accept the physics,
and they went ahead and broke the rules.
Went outside the box.
Did something that nobody believed they could do,
just because,
in their supreme moment of ignorance,
they believed in themselves,
and ignored the idiots.
They went outside the box.

When my instructor kicked that bag,
it was too hard,
he should have broken his foot.
But,
he figured out how to kick the bag a little,
and his foot got stronger,
but more important,
his belief that he COULD kick that bag got stronger.
And,
as he kept kicking that bag,
his kicks slowly improved,
and his belief system,
his idea of what it was possible for him to do,
changed.

So that is how you go outside the box.
You get an idea,
you chip away at it,
you look at it,
and you expand your belief system
beyond the belief system
of those that are trapped by belief systems.

Now,
you don’t have a unique idea?
Yes,
you do.
When the instructor has you do ten kicks in class,
do eleven.
Go home and do a hundred.
I noticed that the fellows in my school
who had the best kicks,
were practicing 200 kicks per kick per side.
So I went home and started practicing
250 kicks per kick per side.
And,
man,
am I glad I did.
I’m 70 now,
and when I practice with these young kids,
my front kick is still faster,
and they really don’t like blocking it,
it hurts them to block it.

And,
what about forms?
Do you do your forms twice or thrice
and then call it?
How about doing your forms ten times?
Or,
have you ever done a form100 times in a row?
It changes you.
It changes the way you think about forms.
It changes your belief in forms.
Something I used to do,
I was practicing Tai Chi,
and I decided to pile stance it.
There are about 108 moves
in the classical form,
I took a full minute to do each move.
Took me two hours to do one form.
But,
Lord,
I was different after that.
My Tai Chi was different,
and I started to really understand
what the old Tai Chi masters were talking about.

Anyway,
I hope this gives you an idea on how to think outside the box.
The only advantage you’ve got is your imagination,
imagination IS thinking outside the box,
so put in a little extra sweat,
and put yourself outside the box.

And,
obligatory ad,
The book,
Chiang Nan,
is definitely outside the box.
I combined Karate and Tai Chi,
and got some interesting results,
results not covered by the fellows spouting their physics.
Here’s the link.

https://www.amazon.com/Chiang-Nan-Al-Case/dp/198767765X

Have a great work out!

Al

Here’s a link for an article about when I first started doing this book on Kenjutsu.
I intended to finish it quickly, but it’s actually been five years!

https://alcase.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/new-book-about-the-samurai-sword-is-coming/

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Secret Martial Arts Techniques Found!

Newsletter 933

Finding the REALLY Secret Martial Arts Techniques!

Happy Father’s day,
Mother’s day,
son’s day, daughter’s day…
Happy Everybody’s Day!

And it really is Everybody’s Day for the martial arts.
Cause you can celebrate EVERY DAY!
Just by working out!

I had the most interesting conversation the other day.
I was talking with a fellow instructor,
he has lots of experience,
and he told me about when he was a beginner in Brazilian JJ.

“At the end of the beginner’s class the instructor came out and told us we had to leave. The doors were being locked, and we had to be on the other side. I asked him why. And he said, ‘because we’re going to have an advanced class. These are the secret techniques, we don’t want to risk them getting out.’”

Woah.
Secret Techniques.
So secret only a special few can know them.
Woah!

Then my fellow instructor laughed,
and he said,
‘I went through that school,
I learned all the ‘secret techniques,’
and then,
to make sure I was doing them right,
I looked them all up on the internet.

So there’s the story on secret techniques.

Now,
there are techniques that people don’t know.
You’ve heard me rail about the Okinawan Karate Masters,
who made a secret pact,
not to teach karate.
What a bunch of boneheads.
And I think that,
whenever I see a picture,
or a write up,
on one of these sacred fools.
Karate is suffering to this day,
other arts are more workable,
just because of these boneheads.

The good news is that,
with a little work,
you can figure out what wasn’t taught.
You can’t learn much on the net as a beginner,
but if you’ve put in some quality work time,
you can use the youtube.

You can figure out all the stuff
the boneheads didn’t want you to know.

And,
of course,
there’s Chiang Nan,
my book,
and all the stuff I’ve put together through matrixing.
No secret,
just hard work,
a little thought,
and those secrets aren’t secret any longer.

Heck,
it’s better than suffering through a class
where they kick you out
if you are about to learn anything.
Huh!

Here’s the Chiang Nan link…
https://www.amazon.com/Chiang-Nan-Al-Case/dp/198767765X

Now,
you guys have a great summer,
put those work outs together,
and make yourself something to be truly proud of.

Have a great work out!

Al

Here’s a link for an article about when I first started doing this book on Kenjutsu.
I intended to finish it quickly, but it’s actually been five years!
https://alcase.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/new-book-about-the-samurai-sword-is-coming/

Secret Martial Arts Weapons Concept

Newsletter 932

The Sneaky Secret of Martial Arts Weapons!

GOOD MORNING!

Don’t mean to shout,
but it really is a good morning.
Absolutely PERFECT for working out!

Hey,
I want to tell you something that you don’t know.
Makes it a secret,
right?
So here’s the secret.

Take a stance,
extend your awareness.
Your opponent moves towards you,
and as soon as he steps on your territory,
you move.

Pretty simple,
right?
Everybody knows that.

What people don’t know
is that if you stand upright and extend your hands
the tips of your fingers define your personal space.
Oh,
not exactly,
there’s some fudge here and there,
but generally speaking,
if you were to stand and simply spin,
with your arms outstretched,
you could draw a circle on the ground
and find that the tips of your fingers
define your personal space.
More or less.
Close enough for government work.

Okay,
that’s cool,
a lot of people don’t know that,
but maybe you did.
So here we go.

Stand upright,
half a weapon,
and spin,
and the tip of the weapon
defines your personal space.

I find this so fascinating.
A weapon isn’t alive,
yet your personal space,
the distance to which your awareness of body reaches,
expands appropriate to the distance of a weapon.

We are talking about how much space
your awareness fills.

We are talking about expanding your awareness.

If that doesn’t twiddle your pork chops,
I don’t know what will.

Educators say you can’t get smarter,
you can only get dumber.
People accept the shrinking of their awareness
as a result of livingness.

Yet awareness is the real you,
and you can extend it,
make it bigger,
get smarter in a way
that educators and other dopes
have no understanding of.

So you practice the martial arts,
you are as effective as far as you can extend awareness,
which is to say,
you’ve got as much space as a pup tent.
But by the mere fact of picking up a weapon,
the tent gets bigger.
You get bigger.

And,
as you figure out how to move that weapon,
you become ever more aware of the space around you.
Cool.

Now you understand why I push my latest course,
Matrix Kenjutsu.

You see,
you don’t need to study a course
that takes years and even decades.
You don’t have to follow a line of techniques
that meanders here and there,
and might make you a bigger awareness,
and might not.

Now you can go straight to the bigger awareness,
fill in all of the space with real you.
And that is the glory
of the logic
of Matrixing Kenjutsu.

Onkly Doggie,
I’d tell you more,
but all I’d be doing
is telling you how to get bigger and smarter,
and the truth is not in my words,
it is in you picking up the sword,
the staff,
and growing your awareness,
finally realizing the truth of that old saw…
‘A weapon is an extension of the self.’
Now you know why,
and that should make your next work out…
TRULY FANTASTIC!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/matrixing-kenjutsu/

Here’s a link for an article about when I first started doing this book.
I intended to finish it quickly, but it’s actually been five years!
https://alcase.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/new-book-about-the-samurai-sword-is-coming/

Here’s the Right Way to Teach Kenjutsu

Newsletter 931

Teaching Matrix Kenjutsu!

All right!
The disk button is working!
And thanks to all those who have purchased!

http://monstermartialarts.com/matrixing-kenjutsu/

Now,
lets talk about why we should teach.
Because if we teach…we learn!

When you are a beginner somebody is showing,
and you are working your way through the confusion.
When you are no longer (quite) so confused…
you turn around and show somebody else.
This is teaching.
You are not just doing the other side of ‘copy catting,’
you are looking at the art from a different viewpoint.
You are ‘outside’ the technique,
learning what you looked like
when you were learning,
seeing things that you are doing that,
no matter how long you practice,
you will never see as just a student.
But as soon as you have to take control of somebody else’s body,
then you get the other half of the viewpoint,
the other half of the martial arts,
and you start to understand the whole technique.

You see,
martial arts aren’t just things we copy,
they are things we have to look at,
analyze,
understand.
And,
inside that all of that is the fact that you are…
‘controlling another person’s body.’
And what better way to learn how to control another person’s body,
than to teach.

I’ll tell you,
I almost feel sorry for those fellows,
who punch the bag,
and think they have worked out.

They have,
but only to the halfway mark.
They’ve worked out their body,
but not much is happening inside their mind.

So that’s why I wanted to present the Matrix Kenjutsu
from the teacher’s viewpoint.

Now just have you copycat me,
but see what student’s do,
see mistakes,
and learn from them,
sometimes without even having to make them yourselves.

Okeyly Donkey
Have a Stupendous Work Out!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/matrixing-kenjutsu/

Here’s a link for an article about when I first started doing this book.
I intended to finish it quickly, but it’s actually been five years!
https://alcase.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/new-book-about-the-samurai-sword-is-coming/

New Course on How to Matrix Martial Arts Weapons

Newsletter 930

Matrixing the Samurai Sword and Staff

One of the things that people have asked for
ever since the first matrixing course hit,
is for me to matrix the sword.
Specifically, the Samurai sword.
So I done it.

You can find a Matrix Kenjutsu box on the monster,
or there is a link down below.

The course is based on the book
‘3rd Level 6th Sense Sword Fighting.’

I actually wrote that book back in the 90s,
and I always received the best comments on it,
so it was time.

Now,
the course consists of 2 parts.

First is the Matrix Kenjutsu part.
I simply filmed each of the cuts, blocks,
how to do directions, and all that sort of stuff.
And I felt it was too simple.
I needed to predict any questions people might have.
The segments were too short.
The whole thing is only an hour long.

I always want to give people more than their moneys worth.
So I filmed a second part.
Teaching Matrix Kenjutsu.
In Teaching Matrix Kenjutsu
I filmed about 20 segments,
long segments,
in which I teach Matrix Kenjutsu to a student.
This ended up being over three hours of instruction,
showing not just the art,
but how to teach it.
You’ll see the mistakes made,
the questions asked,
the ‘what ifs’ that arise,
and so on.

Now,
if you do this course,
and have done the Master Instructor Course,
and send me a video of yourself doing the art,
just showing the strikes, the footwork, the two man defenses,
I’ll be happy to certify people.

And,
I’ll tell you right now,
you can teach this as a seminar to get people in your school,
or as a complete course along with whatever other art you teach.

I am about helping people become competent,
understand the truth of the martial arts,
and this really entails making teachers.

So,
the door is open,
whether you just want a new art,
an expanded viewpoint of matrixing,
or something to teach,
Matrix Kenjutsu is the real deal.

I’ll be talking about it over the next couple of weeks,
but for now,
head over to the monster page

http://monstermartialarts.com/matrixing-kenjutsu/

and check it out for yourself.

And,
just put it up,
so if anybody encounters any problems,
in ordering or the downloads themselves,
let me know at
aganzul@gmail.com.

And,
for now it is just Instant Download.
Sorry,
my printer is refusing to print disks,
so until I get that fixed,
instant downloads only.

Okeyly Donkey
Have a Stupendous Work Out!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/matrixing-kenjutsu/

Here’s a link for an article about when I first started doing this book.
I intended to finish it quickly, but it’s actually been five years!
https://alcase.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/new-book-about-the-samurai-sword-is-coming/

Why Can’t I just Kill With One Strike!

Newsletter 929

For the People Who REALLY Want to Kill somebody with One Martial Arts Technique!

I get this every once in a while,
somebody wants to find the ‘magic technique,’
the technique that works for everything.
Somebody wants to study just one thing
and be able to kill anybody with it.

Now,
I am not going to teach you how to spell comic book,
and for a simple reason,
there actually is a technique,
a perfect technique,
that will do this.
And,
not to be mystical,
or obfuscate,
it is the last move at the end of Seisan.
Go ahead,
find it,
see what it does,
figure it out,
and practice just that one technique.

BUT,
that having been said,
I want to describe the philosophy behind
why you have to learn a whole martial art,
spend years studying,
instead of just buying a gun.

Okay,
first,
let’s consider celestial navigation.
You want to take your rocket ship to Arcturus.
You blast off,
you’re sailing away,
but…where is that durned star?
You’re confused by the time you reach Jupiter.
There’s the big dipper,
bunch of stars over there,
and the seven sisters,
and..Beetlejuice?

Wish you had a map, eh?

Now,
let’s compare that to taking somebody DOWN!
You punch for the throat,
except he’s punching too,
so you shift, and he misses, but you miss.
But his arm is there,
so you go for an elbow roll,
except he’s twisting in response,
but your foot is…

Do you get the idea?
The same as going for a star without a map,
there is amazing confusion in a fight.
So you have to make a map.
You have to make it with your experience.

You punch,
he strikes,
but you’ve studied slipping in JKD,
the elbow roll comes,
he shifts,
but you know about shifting from Tai Chi.
he strikes,
but you know about dropping an elbow from karate,
and you finally strike him in the throat,
AND…manipulate him,
AND…take him down.

Now,
the analogy may not be quite clear,
so let me elucidate.
You find arcturus by your knowledge of what and where the other stars are.
AND…
you achieve your takedown by navigating a map of the human body,
by knowing where the joints are and how they turn,
by understanding leverage,
by subtle shifts of anatomy,
his and yours,
and you navigate to the final strike and takedown.

So when you study a whole art,
instead of buying a gun,
or searching for that mystical one finger technique
that reverse spirals the energy
so that the chakra explodes
in the fourth lumbar…
what you are doing is studying
a method for navigating the body.
No star will confuse you,
no motion or joint will confuse,
and you will find your way to…
better health,
understanding that common folk don’t have,
and the certainty that martial arts bring.

So, the best map for understanding the body,
because it can be applied to ANY martial Art!
Is
The Master Instructor Course.
You learn how the body works.
You learn how techniques work.
You can make any art work,
any technique work,
you understand forms better,
and…and it just gets better.

Here be da link!
http://www.martialartsinstructortraining.com

Have a great work out!
Al

Here’s the link for the ‘One Terrorist, one bomb, one martial arts technique… http://www.sooperarticles.com/sports-articles/martial-arts-articles/one-terrorist-one-bomb-one-martial-artist-1657952.html

http://www.martialartsinstructortraining.com

Why You Are Stupid

The Reasons for Your Stupidity!

I could go into your parents wanting to be your friend instead of taking responsibility. 

Or I could talk about how school is designed by government to make you a stupid but more compliant citizen.

I could go into drugs or electronics or any number of things.

But the fact is that 98% of the people on this planet are stupid. 

To be precise: they are dreaming that they are awake.

Instead, I would like to tell you the solution, or how to wake up, how to make the dream give way to reality.

First, get rid of the GMOs, cigarettes, Parma prescriptions, food additives, vaping, obsession with playing a stupid video game, and so on.

Live now.

Second, begin a program for putting your body into good shape. Being overweight, while touted as ‘sexy’ by ad executives who know better, is unhealthy and puts you at risk.

Start riding a bike, join a dance class, learn yoga, or, my favorite, start doing the martial arts.

Third, throw the F-bomb TV out the stinking window!

You are not watching programming, you are being programmed.

Fourth, start reading, look for things that will undo that terrible (but oh so veddy expensive) education the government gave you.

Fifth, matrix.

What the heck is matrixing?

Matrixing is logic, pure and simple.

It is taking all the factors, comparing them, and boiling them down to the essential concept.

I use matrixing, I developed matrixing, in the martial arts.

Consider your garage, a hopeless mess. You couldn’t find a lawnmower in there if somebody ran it over your toes. That garage is like your mind. And your mind, because of drugs, education, and all the stuff I’ve just told you, is an F-bomb mess.

Consider a bookshelf, the one in your room. Everything is thrown on it. Shirts, ties, plants, even a book or two. Although the books are upside down and shoved into a corner. Heck, there’s even a cat turd on the top shelf!

Consider your mind, everybody tells you what to think, education fills you with weird concepts, and TV lies to you as a matter of perverted honor.

And you buy it all!

So, do what I said earlier. Get rid of drugs, electronics, your bad education, and everything else that has contributed to the mess of your mind.

But the question, really, is how do you get rid of it.

My solution was to do martial arts. They put my body in shape, put me in control, and started the procedure of cleaning out my brain, my mind, my spirit, whatever you want to call that clusterF-bomb you call a mind.

Now, there is still a problem.

You can do karate, or any martial art, and get in good shape, and even be thinking at a halfway decent rate, but there is still a mess.

You see, the martial arts are a put together, a combination of techniques, a build up of what everybody thinks is right and works.

Do you honestly think the martial arts are immune to the BS I listed above?

They have been put together by raving lunatics! People with vested interest! Religious wackos! Anybody who can beat somebody else up thinks they are smart.

Right.

They never heard that ‘Might doesn’t make right!’

So you figure out this matrixing thing.

You put the martial arts techniques in order.

As you put the martial arts in order you start to put your mind in order.

You start being able to think, to make correct decisions not based on all that crap that everybody and their uncle has pushed down into your mind.

Your mind becomes quick and fast, lean and mean, and you are able to think, and…to observe reality.

You awake.

You look around and ask yourself (I kid you not) why is everybody so stupid?

But now you know.

And now you can go find matrixing, and do it, or you can stay asleep.

You can stay just as stupid as you like.