The Method to My Martial Arts Madness!

When I was beginning my martial arts practice

my intent was to learn every single art I could.

These days I practice forgetting every martial art I can.

I can’t wait to see what people make of the above statement.

Without context, 

it sounds stupid, idiotic, and can be used against me.

But with context it is a different story.

Here is the context…

To understand the Martial Arts you need a large data base.

You need to understand how different arts do their kicks,

how combat strategies differ.

And so on.

But once the database is large enough

you have to focus on the techniques that work for you,

and the number of techniques that work

is surprisingly small.

So you go through a thousand techniques,

you become able to do them,

but some of them you are able to do better.

Some of them work better,

and work better in combat,

and work better with your body.

So you pare down the thousand techniques

into ten or twelve.

My ten or twelve techniques are based on specific concepts.

For instance

First concept = control the distance

Second concept = move left or right

Third concept = up or down

Fourth concept = open or close

Fifth concept = right weapon for right distance

Sixth concept = collapsing the distance

Here’s the breakdown:

control the distance so you can be the one attacking.

Move left or right so you can disrupt his analysis of distance.

Up or down refers to whether he will kick or punch, although it can be constructed differently.

Open or close refers to whether you can trap his limb or not.

(are you working on the outside of his arm, or the inside?)

Right weapon refers to if he is at punching distance

can you beat him at that distance,

or shift to a distance (weapon)

you can beat him at.

Collapsing the distance refers from going from 

kicking distance to punching distance

to knee distance to elbow distance

to grappling/takedown distance…

Ir shift to whatever distance is your strength and his weakness.

Pretty simple, eh?

So at first I practiced specific arts for specific concepts.

TKD for kicking

karate for punching

Wing chun for elbows,

aiki/jujitsu/etc

for grappling.

And so on.

I distilled all this from the breaking down of thousands of techniques,

And I broke everything down using matrixing.

And i found that individual arts are nothing but smaller modules,

and if you can study a half a dozen modules

you’ll have your dozen techniques or so.

Anyway,

that’s the way I did it.

Obligatory ad here…

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 11 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’

ll find that useful

find the book/course that is right for you,

and matrix your own martial arts.

Have a great work out!

Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

The Martial Arts Night Before XMAS!

HanaKwanMass!

And, I’ve got my yearly 

‘Night Before Xmas’ rendition for you.

But,

first,

HanaKwanMass means

Hanukah plus Kwanza plus Christmas!

You might offend two thirds of everybody you meet,

but you get three times the gifts!

Yahoo!

Now,

in the interests of offending everybody everywhere

is the Martial Arts Night Before Christmas!

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS!

Twas the night before Christmas

I was in my shack

primed and ready

for the red fat attack.

my weapons were loaded

the windows were barred

all would be safe

while I was on guard

The chimney was decked

with concertina wire

I crouched by the couch

ready to fire.

I had an M60

with ammo to feed

I didn’t care

if the red fat did bleed.

A loaded shotgun

and grenades to spare

when red fat came down

I’d blow him out of there.

Throwing stars and knives

and a really long sword

and if that didn’t work

I knew a bad word.

Sitting there late

my eyes started to close

when suddenly I heard

a bunch of ho hos.

Off with the lights

safety off, too

I  watched the fire close

and heard a sound from the flu.

‘Ouch and gosh darn it

who put the wire here

those are my undies

starting to tear!’

Then a shower of soot

and a grunt and a groan

he landed in the fire

and gave out a moan.

He was rubbing the place

where the wire did tear

so I held down the trigger

and lead filled the air.

belt after belt

did I deal the red fat

he danced and he jumped

I knew he felt that!

then quicker than spit

I ran out of lead

but enough was enough

he had to be dead.

Boy was I shocked

to see him stand tall

stepping out of the fireplace

not bothered at all.

So I grabbed up the 16

to mow him down

he had to be hurting

cause I saw his big frown.

Then I was empty

and he came straight for me

I pulled out my knives

and sliced him with glee

He jumped to the side

moving real quick

disarmed my knives

with a well placed kick

then he dropped the big bag

he had on his shoulder

reached forth his arms

and his anger did smolder

He grabbed hard my neck

and held me up high

I tried kicks and punches

but I was like a fly

Not karate nor judo

no art did work

and he grinned a mean grin

and called me a jerk

‘Don’t you know

you stupid little man

Christmas is forever

in spite of your plan.’

Then he threw me aside

and proceeded to work

giving presents to all

and to me a great smirk

And when he left

the great big red fat

he left me a lump of coal

the big red fat rat!

HANAKWANMASS TO ALL

and to all a great work out.

Al

BTW…

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 11 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

And don’t forget to check out the interview

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

The Geometry of Fighting in the Martial Arts!

T-Day is over!

Long live HanaKwanMass!

You’ve been warned! ;0)

Many people think the martial arts are all about fighting.

they are about a lot more than that,

but let’s just consider the fighting aspect.

I was okay as a fighter.

Some people thought I was good,

some people could kick my ass.

It happens.

But I didn’t care about fighting

I wanted to understand.

that was my goal.

I consider martial arts as a way to understand life.

As time went by I became better at fighting.

I was aging, 

I didn’t have the strength,

but I found that with intense practice

i could see what people were going to do before they did it.

Then I wrote the Flow Chart.

Take a glance at it below

and then I’ll tell you what it means.

What this weird thing is is an analysis of motion in the martial arts.

The squares are the footwork.

I probably could have used a key,

or better terminology.

But if you think about it

it gets understandable.

You’re standing about where the ‘wing chun’ label is

and you either step out,

or you cross step,

with the right or the left foot.

The oval refers to hand techniques.

I had a lot of fun making this,

trying to make sense out of where i would be

what direction I would be traveling,

which foot or which hand,

and so on.

I was influenced in the creation of this by Eddie Rickenbacker.

He was a WW1 flying ace,

and he would imagine himself in the center of a bubble,

and try to imagine all the directions he could be attacked from

and what he would do for each attack.

My Flow Chart is more concerned

with facing a person,

and imagining incoming directions, motions, hands, feet,

and so on and so on,

and what to do about each possibility.

The take away from this,

was I was able to understand each art

as it relates to each art.

Taekwondo at the kicking distance

Karate at the punching distance

Aikido moving in the direction of a circular punch

Pa Kua Chang against the direction of a circular punch.

What I have said here

is VERY simplistic.

Every art has solutions for every incoming attack.

But by isolating the concepts of an art

I was able to use all arts together.

So I began using these concepts in teaching.

I would freestyle with a student

and restrict myself only to the footwork of a specific art.

Some of my conclusions were:

No trouble with Karate because I had trained

that specific art and was familiar with specific solutions.

We had kicks in karate so I was able to understand 

and isolate taekwondo.

I was not able to use Aikido purely,

but it became the most powerful of my tools

when I was able to isolate Karate and Wing Chun

and then put them together

(understand at what distances they could be used

and developed Lop Sau (circling fists)

I was never able to use Pa Kua Chang.

At all.

When I limited myself to X stepping

every student I had,

from the lowest white belt

could kick my ass.

Interestingly,

I would see people use it who had studied only Pa Kua

and it was very effective.

My training methods,

being eclectic,

hurt me in this one instance.

So here’s some ways you can use the Flow Chart

help yourself isolate concepts from other arts.

help yourself understand how concepts

from various arts have become mushed together

and how that interferes with your understanding.

figure out to be more specific in your training and drills.

Do these simple things

and you will find a lot of gold in the Flow Chart.

Okey dokey.

I was looking at Amazon,

and I have some highly rated books.

Look for my author’s page if you want all my books,

but here’s a short list of my highest rated books.

The Last Martial Arts Book has 11 ratings for 5 stars.

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

The Book of Five Arts has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

The Science of Government has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

Chiang Nan has 5 ratings for 5 stars.

And a whole bunch of books have 1 or 2 ratings for 5 stars.

Search for the Al Case author’s page

if you want to examine those,

or the lesser starred efforts.

And,

that’s about it.

HanaKwanMass is coming,

so think about what art you want to gift yourself,

or some one else.

Have a great work out!

Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview

BTW

I’ve got nothing but five star reviews on 

The Science of Government.

It’s really nothing more than applying matrixing to politics.

Matrixing + Politics = Sanity

I told you matrixing works with anything.

Here’s the link…

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

Beating Up a Crowd of People!

Have you ever wondered what you would do

if you were caught, or targeted, by a mob?

This is actually not an inconceivable situation

considering the antics of such as BLM or Antifa,

In 2020 these groups caused:

$2 billion in damages

rioted in 140 cities

caused the injury of 2000 cops

resulted in the deaths of 25 Americans.

There weren’t any congressional hearings on this

nor any real reporting from the media,

but these are the figures

as far as I have been able to figure.

And it is a distinct possibility

that such riots could happen again.

So,

the question…

what would you do if you were caught up in, 

and especially targeted by

a mob of crazy people?

I took Aikido in the early seventies,

and I was fascinated by the videos

of people doing multiman combat.

I also had many situations during karate classes

where we would fight multiple attackers.

Eventually, basing the material on Aikido

and on certain karate concepts,

I filmed the ‘Matrix Aikido’ course.

This is a great course, 

as it is based on concept

and not memorizing endless techniques.

One day I was visiting one of my student’s classes.

There were about 20 young men (age 18-25) in the class.

I was asked many questions,

and the subject of fighting large numbers of people 

was brought up,

and the students’ challenged some of my assertions.

‘Okay,’ I said.

‘let’s see if I can make my theories work.’

I always remember the surprise on their faces,

they asked me how many of the students

should attempt to lay hands on me

I said, ‘Everybody.’

Man, they were blinking,

then they looked at each other and grinned,

and the melee was on.

It was some ten minutes

before anybody laid a hand on me,

and I will tell you EXACTLY what I did.

Mind you,

I was theorizing and training in pure concepts at the time.

First,

there are three directions

that a punch will take

generally speaking,

and this tended to hold true

for my situation.

First,

 the punch might hit you.

Second,

if you move back,

it will pass in front of you.

Third,

if you move forward,

it will pass behind you.

There were a few kicks,

but I just used the same theory,

but adapted it for kicks.

I then attacked.

Yep,

you heard me right,

I went forward,

into the mass of twenty men.

They were trying to create enough room

so they could punch (kick) me.

This moved them away from each other

just enough so I could slip between.

I wouldn’t always recommend a charge,

but we were in a big park

and I had plenty of room to maneuver.

As they turned to chase me

they were now in each other’s way.

As I recall,

Aikido holds that three people

is the worst scenario for people attacking you

because they have enough room.

More than three and they get in each other’s way.

Now I had only two concepts in mind.

I moved in and grabbed their bodies and ‘danced’ with them

and flung them away.

Or,

I slowed down as the punch came in

pushed their punch across their body

then they were tangled and I pushed them away.

And I kept throwing them in front of each other 

At all times I went forward.

This gave me the initiative.

I never went backwards.

Everybody chased me

and was constantly having to step around bodies.

It was one of the easiest fights I had ever had.

Now,

the only other thing of interest in this

is that when I started I noticed one person looking at me.

I knew he was going to be the one to get me.

I made it my strategy to always avoid him.

But at the end,

he got close and tagged me in the back with a punch.

Now,

what I did was that simple.

It was not complex.

If I had tried complex maneuvers

they would have got me in the beginning.

Though, as I progressed

and figured things out,

I did mix in specific techniques,

appropriate to the ‘punch in front or punch in back’

that I was conceptualizing.

And,

I knew what I was doing 

would hold true for clubs and such.

It might even hold true for firearms,

but there would be considerable limits

on what I could do in that situation.

Which brings us to the Antifa/BLM riots.

Buildings burning,

people with guns

and

Kyle Rittenhouse

Kyle wasn’t trained in the martial arts,

he was only trying to get away,

and only the fact that he had a gun 

enabled him to do so.

If he tried to get away and hadn’t had a gun

he likely would have been killed,

at least severely maimed.

If he hadn’t had a gun,

of course,

he might not even have been attacked.

But that is a probability I wouldn’t bet on.

So,

imagine yourself in that situation.

Do you understand the concepts I outlined,

always attacking,

stepping in front of or behind the strike,

how to adapt it to kicks

or to weapons like clubs or even swords.

What is most interesting is seeing how many techniques

you can come up with from the 

‘punch in front, punch behind’ concept.

This will define an entire martial art.

It will be logical,

and you should avoid poser techniques.

And,

if you find fault with my method,

or think it won’t work,

what can you come up with?

Anyway,

have fun with this.

And thanks to Kumar for asking.

Here is the link to Matrix Aikido

where I give a seminar and show

the actual conceptualizing of Aikido.

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-aikido/

Have a great work out!

Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview

BTW

I’ve got nothing but five star reviews on 

The Science of Government.

It’s really nothing more than applying matrixing to politics.

Matrixing + Politics = Sanity

I told you matrixing works with anything.

Here’s the link…

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

A Sum Up of Martial Arts Chi Power!

Good morning!

and it really is.

I recently received an email asking for more info on Chi.

Here’s what I said.

Hi Jon from Missouri! Thanks for writing.

Chi is quite interesting. Think of the body as a machine, which it is, and things are easier to understand. It creates energy through biochemical actions. This energy takes on many forms, and is usually used to power the muscles.

Chi is more of ‘invisible’ (to our eyes) energy. It is also present in everything in the universe, even ‘space.’

If you follow the principle of ‘wt = work = energy’ the body will create more energy. This is the reason for lower stances. Though once one has started to manifest chi the lower stances become less necessary.

What stops chi from naturally manifesting? The fact that energy is channeled into muscles. If you can figure out how to move without using muscles, or ‘holding’ the muscles in unbendable positions.

Martial arts, especially the forms, provide different ways of channeling energy. Hard arts are relatively inefficient. Soft arts are more efficient.

Can you relax when you strike somebody? That’s crucial to manifesting chi in combat.

Relaxation requires a calmness of mind that is quite unnatural, except for babies. Babies haven’t learned to use their muscles, so they grip with energy. The grip of a baby is all out of proportion to their size and development. When they try to apply energy to the world, however, they are forced to use muscles, and there goes the chi.

To achieve the proper degree of relaxation you need to not think.

It’s this way: If you don’t use muscles you can use chi. If you don’t think you can develop the intention necessary to direct chi.

BUT, there is a kicker to all this. When chi manifests it doesn’t feel at all like the descriptions have it.

I was looking for some mystical thing, but when it manifested, though it was exactly as described, I would never have recognized chi from the description. It is much more subtle and understated, and more ‘real world natural,’ than the descriptions would have you believe. Yet the descriptions are correct.

Weird, eh?

Chi manifests when you use no effort.

Chi develops in proportion to lack of muscular effort.

People who use muscles are strong.

People who use chi (when they finally are able to use it)  will use a combination of chi and muscle. Morihei Ueshiba was known to actually pluck small trees out of the earth. He claimed it was his ability to direct chi that enabled him to do this.

When you use chi your mind starts perceiving the world differently.

When I made my breakthroughs I stopped having dreams. My mind was that calm that it no longer generated dreams. (Dreams are a low level form of static in the mind, as far as I am concerned).

People with chi will have amazing stamina. There is no way to measure this, as people and their control of chi is so totally different. 

People in my base art (Kang Duk Won) developed chi within a couple of years. I was slow; I took 3 and a 1/3.

However, they did not normally develop chi past this to any degree because KDW is a hard art. i went into Aikido and Tai Chi and learned a LOT more. Contrarily, people in Tai Chi and Aiki lacked hard art experience, and their chi was often lacking. They just didn’t understand the real world.

Chi is usually more subjective, but you will be using your body differently than other people. You will also be using your mind differently than other people.

Concluding this little rant: figure out how to do your forms using less and less muscle, less and less effort. Focus your mind on the fact that your body is a machine. Figure out how to breath down to the tan tien (a point an inch or two below the navel) and then channeling it through your body. Then do the same things for applications, no energy and no effort, and figure out how to remain calm even when the world is blowing up around you. Forms are a form of meditation and will help with that.

There is, of course, a lot more to chi than this. And a lot less. Hope you get intrigued by this description. My testimony is that chi, and the pursuit of chi, has enriched my life by orders of magnitude. I wish everybody understood this and tapped into this incredible energy source, but there is not much accurate teaching these days, and most people are not willing to do the work.

Thanks for asking, I’ll probably use this reply in a newsletter.

Have a great work out!

Al

That’s a bout as precise as I can get in a short answer.

You can read more by looking through my books, 

‘Matrixing Chi Power.’

There is also volume seven

of the biggest martial arts lesson.

‘Chi Power.’

Here’s a little clip for your entertainment,

MB 116 slap grab elbow lock

I’ve got hundreds of these clips,

many of them recalibrated to the slap grab so they’ll work better.

And,

the obligatory ad…

The Last Martial Arts Book

It’s got five hours of video links in it.

Have a great work out!

Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview

BTW

I’ve got nothing but five star reviews on 

The Science of Government.

It’s really nothing more than applying matrixing to politics.

Matrixing + Politics = Sanity

I told you matrixing works with anything.

Here’s the link…

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

Matrixing the Hurricane Punch!

Matrixing the Hurricane Punch!

Happy Hurricane!

That’s right, 

I live in Florida and I just lived through

terror and despair and fear.

That’s right,

I watched the news and survived.

So let me tell you what really happened 

with the hurricane where I lived,

it makes for a delightful bit of matrixing

and may give you ideas for how to apply matrixing

to the world.

It is easy to matrix a hurricane,

a hurricane is like a big old punch to the gut.

So I’m watching all these complex charts,

and the news people are talking statistics

and,

of course

HEAD FOR THE HIGH GROUND!

YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!

THE HURRICANE IS COMING TO GET YOU!

Except I looked at the maps

the simple ones showing the path of the hurricane

and I immediately saw what was wrong.

The hurricane passed over Cuba,

then veered right

and headed for Tampa on a straight line.

Do you see what is wrong?

Nature abhors a straight line.

Nature,

except for a few stupid trees shooting for the sun

does not happen in straight lines.

Only men, with their buildings and jabs,

create straight lines.

And here this hurricane was on a straight line for me.

Heck,

Something was wrong with this picture

and I began to apply matrixing.

Matrixing is all about the analysis of force and direction.

That’s all it is.

So here is a straight punch hurricane

and what are the forces that will act on it?

Only two.

There is the surface the hurricane travels over,

and there are the ‘masses of air’ to the sides of the hurricanes.

The surface over which a hurricane travels over

is either flat (the ocean)

or rough (trees and houses and things)

Just by surface alone,

because it has to be a circle,

I could see that the hurricane was going to loop.

As big as the hurricane was,

and considering the surfaces over which it traveled,

I figured it would hit land above clearwater (where I live)

I blew it.

The hurricane skated over the water

and hit land over a hundred miles south of me.

Why did it hit 100 miles below me?

Because there was a HUGE mass of air to the north.

The hurricane simply ran into a wall and turned.

I saw a bigger map later,

and saw the HUGE mass of air to the north,

and that was why it had missed me.

The news media had this information,

So why were they all shouting

HEAD FOR THE HIGH GROUND!

YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!

THE HURRICANE IS COMING TO GET YOU!

Because that’s how they ‘sell newspapers.’

They create fear

and it’s like a roller coaster.

Everybody wants to get on for the scary ride.

So everybody watches the news.

Once I saw the media was wrong

I decided not to evacuate.

Police drove through my park every few hours

telling me I had to leave.

In essence, 

they were yelling…

HEAD FOR THE HIGH GROUND!

YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!

THE HURRICANE IS COMING TO GET YOU!

Why would the police do this?

One, because they believed the news people.

Two, 

more important,

because if people are scared they need the police,

it justifies the police

and gives the police more money.

Period.

So the real irritation

of the big hurricane punch

was that I had to turn off all the lights in my house

and let the police pass by.

Chances are they would do nothing,

but they might do something,

and they could give me a ticket.

Can you dig it?

A thousand dollar fine

for defending myself against 

the big hurricane punch?

So the police are now put in the position

of potentially becoming the enemy,

interfering with my right to defend myself.

The winds howled,

the rain splattered,

I heard things go bump in the night,

things like pieces of branches hitting the ground.

Midnight my carport started flapping.

Horrendous racket.

I had no rope,

so I wrapped a piece of electrical cord

around one of the supports,

and ran my car over the cord.

Saved my carport.

And it was fun to be out there in shorts and a tee

fighting the elements.

And for all you people who scream

‘what if the wind blew you away?’

‘What if your house collapsed?’

‘What if the police tried to save you and died!’

‘What if…what if…what if…’

I say:

STOP LIVING A LIFE OF FEAR!

I was working off matrixing.

I knew the dynamics of a punch.

I KNEW the hurricane punch was going to miss.

And if I had known that it was going to hit

I would have headed for my son’s house,

a couple of miles away

and hunkered down.

He lives on the high ground.

That’s right.

I was so sure of my matrixing

that instead of heading a couple of miles to a ‘safe’ house,

I stayed home

drank an adult beverage

played on the computer,

and was so very happy.

And,

for those people who got slammed by the punch,

my sincere thoughts and prayers.

But,

did you know what happened

when the news and the police and the politicians all yelled.

HEAD FOR THE HIGH GROUND!

YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!

THE HURRICANE IS COMING TO GET YOU!

All the people in my area drove a 100 miles to get away.

They drove to (drum roll) Fort Meyers

and Orange county.

That’s right,

they drove right onto Ground Zero.

Because they listened to FEAR,

because they listened to the news,

because they followed the directions of the police,

they took the Great Hurricane Punch

right in the flippin’ gut!

Too bad they didn’t know matrixing.

Too bad they didn’t know the martial arts.

They could have stayed home.

They could have had popcorn and chocolate,

maybe an adult beverage,

been safe with their kids

playing board games

and making up scary stories.

Now,

I suggest you study the martial arts

and study matrixing,

and do it quick

before Twitter and Facebutt and all those guys

convict me of ‘spreading disinformation.’

After all,

they don’t want me to interfere

with their money making business.

And the next time somebody starts yelling FEAR!

Look at the situation,

analyze the potential forces and flows,

and put them out of your mind.

A person who works off of fear

is not able to analyze

and ALL his opinions are worthless.

Don’t bob and weave,

don’t side step and block

if the punch is going to miss.

Okay,

enough about the dreaded and terrible Hurricane Punch,

let’s talk about fun!

Thanks for buying

How to Fix Karate.

Do you know why How to Fix Karate is so different?

Every book out there

talks about the way the old masters did it.

They make photos of their system

and THEY NEVER consider whether their system is right.

How to Fix Karate takes each step

of each form

analyzes each step

for workability,

asks whether it is right or wrong,

and offers reasons

as to how and why something might be wrong,

and offers alternative solutions.

No other book does that.

All other books

treat Karate like a sacred cow,

never touching it.

How to Fix Karate dissects the sacred cow,

takes it apart like a 50s car

and shows you how to put it back together…

SO IT WILL WORK!

Anyway,

here’s a little clip for your entertainment,

MB 149 Two Man Punch Drill.mp4

and don’t forget to check out 

HOW TO FIX KARATE

Remember,

it’s not a little book.

Two volumes for over 400 pages,

a thousand images,

and it is not designed to be read,

it is designed to be scrutinized,

to be poured over,

to make you THINK!

This is not simple Hurricane Punch,

it is the real thing.

Have a great work out!

Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview

BTW

I’ve got nothing but five star reviews on 

The Science of Government.

It’s really nothing more than applying matrixing to politics.

Matrixing + Politics = Sanity

I told you matrixing works with anything.

Here’s the link…

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

Republished a Martial Arts Book!

I republished Chiang Nan as a video course book.

It’ll be available on Amazon in a day or two.

It has links to about five hours of video.

So far I have several books repub-ed as ‘video course books.’

How to Fix Karate 1

How to Fix Karate 2

Shaolin Butterfly (the butterfly form) (Kindle)

Shaolin Butterfly

Nine Square Diagram Boxing

Hidden Techniques of Karate (Chiang Nan)

Sales are good, and I thank you.

and I’ll be doing more books,

and writing new ones.

I have a couple of hundred hours of video

that have never seen the light of day,

so I’m looking forward to that.

And,

the courses are still the best source of information.

They have all the videos,

the best videos,

and all the bonuses.

Anyway,

I had a fellow asking about the usage of the hips in the martial arts.

The hips are the cornerstone of the martial arts,

because that is where the major weight of the body resides.

If you hit somebody, 

try to get your whole body behind the strike (block)

If you have to move out of the way,

you have to move the hips to effectively move the body.

Unless you want to bend at the hips and be out of balance.

We used to have an exercise.

We would hold a broom stick across the front of hips

then slam the hips back and forth,

pivoting from one front stance to another.

We would judge out effectiveness

by how well the tips of the broom stick

would snap into place.

Really got us centered down.

But here’s the funny thing,

each art has a specific to the hips.

Consider that there were only three directions that the hips can go,

forward, down and rotational.

In karate you thrust.

You drive the hips forward and align them with the strike or block.

In Pa Kua Chang you rotate the hips.

In Aikido you rotate the hips.

But in all arts you must sink the hips.

Sinking the hips connects with the ground,

braces your technique on the earth itself,

and you might consider a small study in physics

concerning the idea of grounding.

Understand what a ground is in electronics,

what it is in architecture,

and so on,

and suddenly you have the idea.

You see most people don’t understand

that their body is a machine

and that it must function as a machine.

Instead, they get emotional,

they start putting their attention (intention)

on their head,

and the body becomes up rooted easily.

One of my big kicks

was to show somebody how to ground.

I would push on their shoulders

and show them how to let the force

go through their bodies and into the ground.

Then,

when they had it,

I would simply say ‘look up,’

and they would fly away.

The col thing was that after I had done that a few times,

people started learning how to put their intention down,

and not be distracted by up.

In other words,

they learned not to be dependent upon their eyes.

They learned intention

without the distraction of the earthly senses.

Very interesting.

Want to know something REALLY interesting?

I would take a student and deliver strikes and have him give the blocks.

Easy peasy, he’s got it in no time.

Then I would have him close his eyes and I would say,

‘I am striking you slowly,

block when you feel it.’

Sometimes my strike would touch them.

Sometimes they would feet it coming too soon.

But eventually, and we’re talking about an hour or so,

even spread out over a couple of classes,

they would feel me coming and get it right.

Blew their minds.

You don’t need your eyes.

You don’t need your ears.

You just need to know where you are

and forget about what is happening.

It’s that easy,

and it changes everything you do.

It’ll change the way you move.

It’ll change the way you fight.

But don’t believe me.

Try it, you’ll like it.

But you should practice your forms a whole lot

before you try it.

The forms enable you to learn control and discipline,

and control and discipline

is what the martial arts are all about.

Anyway,

I’ll talk more on this stuff some day,

but for now,

check out my books from above

and have a great day.

HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!

Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview

BTW

I’ve got nothing but five star reviews on 

The Science of Government.

It’s really nothing more than applying matrixing to politics.

Matrixing + Politics = Sanity

I told you matrixing works with anything.

Here’s the link…

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

A New Master Instructor!

And a new video!

Good morning!

And congratulations to 

Master Instructor Craig Palenzuela

Here’s part of Craig’s win from doing the course…

-Thank you for writing this! I found this easy to follow and understand. I’m very happy I took a chance this.

-This course was a win! The biggest win I had in this course is it solidified for me that I have been right all along in my methods than others “more experienced” because of a “rank.”

-The reality is, a lot of the material I already knew. However I never had anyone explain it in a technical and mechanical way. The examples of the 4 powers and the 6 tools to me were damn near mind blowing. It was the smack on the forehead “oh yeah that’s right” moment.

It cleaned up a lot of the “clutter”. Now, as I mentioned a lot of this material I knew. I was very fortunate to train with Master John Wesley Shepherd who was trained by the late GM Sherman Harrell who was directly trained by GM Tatsuo Shimabukuru, the founder of Isshinryu. He used to explain things in a similar fashion. Sadly, he was never around enough and we were mostly taught by his big brother Billy who is an excellent practitioner but as a teacher………. you get the idea.

We spent a lot of the times teaching ourselves. Because of this, maybe we ourselves stumbled onto these lessons when you combined grown men from different occupations and backgrounds. Fast forward years later after our school closed down, I begin training in Escrima de Cuerdas, an art founded by a simple carpenter the late GM Liborio Heyrosa who couldn’t read or write. He was subsequently trained directly by the late GM Venancio Anciong Bacon (founder of Balintawak) and Nene Rosales a famous Filipino fencer.

– It (this course) helped me tremendously because regardless that the Philippines is a former U.S. Commonwealth, sometimes there is a bit of a language barrier. Some of these lessons did not translate. Your lessons created the bridge. Now everything made sense. The part that also helped tremendously was as we were all taught that it should be one continuous motion or no wasted motion but you explained it and demonstrated in a way that made sense…

The other thing that opened my eyes the most was the body testing. In Isshinryu for us this is common…….when performing Sanchin. I’ve never seen this done while throwing a basic straight punch. Heck, I never even thought of it myself. This to me is the highlight of the read/videos. I’m sure some will say I’m nuts but that’s what it was to me. I can’t wait to try this on everything but it also helped to perfect every technique within a kata. I now see each movement as unique.

Can’t wait to download the Matrix Karate Course! And also, thank you!

Thank you, Craig.

And well done.

Interestingly,

Craig says he knew a lot of the material before,

he is exactly the SECOND person who has said this about the course.

This is after me selling the course for 15 years.

what is of interest is that Craig says

they ‘spent a lot of time teaching ourselves.’

This is actually one of the reasons I figured this out.

My instructor hardly ever said anything,

and in the silence I had to figure things out.

My father was an engineer

and I was raised with an eye towards physics and mechanics,

and that is probably my secret.

You see the martial arts have been handed down

mostly through oral tradition,

and that is a fine way to build up mysticism.

The result is teachers use examples that are unique to their culture,

and fail to impart the actual mechanics and physics of the art.

Anyway,

Again,

congrats to Craig,

and well done.

Now,

thank you to those who have purchased the book courses on Amazon.

I’ve got two of them up right now,

How to Fix Karate

and

The Shaolin Butterfly.

These are books,

but with links to the videos from the actual courses included.

This is a real step forward for saving money,

and for getting the full course.

And,

I’ve included a video this week.

I’ve got hundreds of these snippets. 

I once sold them as a course which six whole people purchased.

So I’ll probably pop them into the newsletter,

won’t be any order,

but they’re a lot of fun,

and pretty educational.

So have fun and enjoy,

and if you like these snippets make sure

you subscribe to the blog at MonsterMartialArts.

(upper right hand corner of the page)

Here you go…

HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!

Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview

BTW

I’ve got nothing but five star reviews on 

The Science of Government.

It’s really nothing more than applying matrixing to politics.

Matrixing + Politics = Sanity

I told you matrixing works with anything.

Here’s the link…

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

Comparing Karate Over the Decades!

Hi guys and gals, 

I want to talk about the differences

between freestyle over the years.

But, first…

I am closing a few sites.

I’ll keep the monster up,

and a couple of others,

but I’ve got 7 or 8 websites that are going down.

Simply,

the webhoster is so incompetent,

and moving the sites and repairing them…

it’s just not worth it.

The KangDukWon.com website is gone.

If you are mid lesson, let me know.

And,

there is a bigger reason.

Advertising on Google is silly,

and I have found the best way to market my courses

is to change them into books on Amazon.

So I’ve got the How to Fix Karate books up there,

and The Shaolin Butterfly.

And I’ll have more,

but I’m making these changes

because the internet is changing.

And I will consider certificates for a couple of the courses.

The Matrix Karate course,

the Master Instructor course,

and a few others.

Okay,

Karate has degraded over the years.

Badly.

I do all arts,

but my base art is karate,

and this degrading of art is hurtful.

So this is what I want you to do.

Go to Youtube and find 1970 Karate.

That was when I learned,

and you can see hard techniques,

lots of good control,

and sportsmanship.

I knew a lot of the guys in this clip.

Then look for 1980s karate.

These guys are marginally better,

but they are dancing around more

(courtesy of Bruce)

and their control isn’t as good.

Then find

Old School Karate VS Modern Karate Tournaments

The music probably wasn’t needed,

it becomes a put down,

but the point is…

what happened?

Parents.

Children.

Politics.

Money.

protective gear.

Some other stuff, too.

Society has become drugged out,

education has become political indoctrination,

but I don’t really want to go into those things.

I want to discuss the big five.

Parents sign their children up to defend themselves,

but if there is an ‘owie,’

bang—those kids are gone.

I’ve taught classes to kids,

as soon as I get even the teensiest bit down and dirty,

the parents glare at me like I’m abusing their children.

Children.

If the kid goes home and complains that it’s too hard,

Bang—those kids are gone.

Parents have totally bought into the idea

that their little snowflake dumpling needs reassurance

and not hard work.

Politics.

People would rather talk than work out.

Whenever I had a talker I would focus on him till

he started working, or left.

I had no room in any of my schools for people 

who didn’t want to sweat.

Money.

To stay in business you need it.

But if you are lowering standards to keep people

you aren’t teaching karate.

Protective gear.

People think you need to hit harder,

or can hit harder,

so they give up learning control.

And control is CRUCIAL to the martial arts.

But people buy into protective gear because 

the school owners push it because

it makes them a profit

and they can stay in business

and lower their standards.

So,

what do you do?

Find a hard class that works hard.

Find the fellows that work the hardest and pair up with them.

Teach a hard class and take no prisoners.

I couldn’t believe it,

I was astounded,

I was actually shocked,

the first time a fellow stepped off the mat

so he could get a drink of water.

“But I was thirsty!” he explained.

And I said,

“In a real fight you’re going to stop everything

and get a drink of water because you’re thirsty?”

Want a real story of tough?

I was teaching a bunch of guys,

and my son was among them.

After some six months

Aaron complained of chest pain.

When I looked

he had an indentation on his sternum.

Somebody had actually punched a dent in his chest.

Doctor said to take a few weeks off,

it would heal.

I said, ‘Okay, you’re off for a few weeks.’

Aaron said, ‘No, I’m not.’

We argued and I put down the law.

I was a bit surprised when he showed up for class.

I said, 

“Get the F out.”

He said,

“You’re going to have to make me.”

Argh!

So I could have gotten physical

which would have caused damage,

or I could let him stay,

in which case he only ‘might’ get damaged.

So he stayed.

I was always proud of the fact

that he had the real spirit.

Willing to work

even to the point of injury,

and beyond.

Mind you,

I still don’t think he should have been in the class,

I believe in taking care of injuries,

but he was so tough

that I couldn’t stop him.

And that means he can’t be stopped in life.

Because the dojo is a microcosm.

It is a little life in which lessons are learned.

And when I watch these pattycake sessions

that people think are real Karate,

I feel so incredibly sad.

Okay,

obligatory ad…

Chiang Nan

here’s the page

Here’s a sample

CHIANG NAN

HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!

Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview

BTW

I’ve got nothing but five star reviews on 

The Science of Government.

It’s really nothing more than applying matrixing to politics.

Matrixing + Politics = Sanity

I told you matrixing works with anything.

Here’s the link…

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

Videos Added to the Rolling Fist!

Subscribe on the upper right!

Hi guys and gals, 

I put a bunch of new videos on the Rolling Fists course.

If you have gotten the course,

check out the new videos.

I have a ton of videos I’ve never released,

so I picked through them for the Monkey Boxing ones

that had to do with the Rolling Fists.

The quality of the videos on the course isn’t always the best,

my camera was breaking down.

So these new videos were taken for the Monkey Boxing course,

with a new camera, 

and I was more seasoned.

So if you bought the course,

go to the download page and scroll to the bottom.

Here’s a drill I do.

Better hand speed,

Increase the power,

and there are tons of techniques in this vid

which is on the Rolling Fists course.

MB 26 Matrixing Rolling the Wall

Okay,

Let’s talk.

I’m going to tell you how to hit harder.

It’s going to get a little weird,

but that’s okay.

You like weird, right?

You will notice in the drill above

that I hit the bag pretty hard.

But there’s a trick to it.

The trick is not to hit with muscle,

but to hit with the weight of the whole body.

I’ve said it before,

the secret of a punch

is how much weight you can transfer to your opponent.

Can you put enough weight on his body that it overwhelms his structure?

So, you practice moving forward a couple of inches.

You don’t focus on the muscles,

on the biceps,

on the arms,

on how hard you can hit.

You focus on moving your whole RELAXED body.

You practice having an unbendable arm upon impact.

An arm weighs twenty pounds.

You build the muscle, increase the speed

and you get to a hundred pounds,

but you’re working your ass off to make that happen.

If you just synchronize your fist,

so that impact lands with the weight of the whole body,

then your punch,

with very little effort,

is going to be more than you weigh.

You weigh 200 pounds?

Excellent.

With little training you have a 200 pound punch.

Plus.

Oh, you’re a frail little girl?

You only weigh a 100 pounds?

Don’t try to out muscle the big thug,

just move your body in so that your 100 pounds lands on him.

Plus.

If you watch me in the video above you can see exactly what I’m doing.

I don’t move with frantic speed,

I conserve motion, make tight circles, and shuffle forward.

Now it gets weird.

Want to make the punch even harder?

When you punch look inside your body

and look for what part of your body gives way.

Does the shoulder go up?

Practice keeping it low.

Don’t let your body part show the shock of impact.

Practice punching in this manner

until your body does not reveal any of the weight

that you are so freely giving.

Does the hip lag?

Work on the hip.

Does the elbow collapse?

Work on the elbow.

Do you see what I’m doing?

I’m using impact on my body when I punch as biofeedback 

to see what part of my body needs to be improved.

You can’t do that with big, old muscle punches.

You can only do it with moving the whole body RELAXED.

Energy flows more efficiently through a body that is relaxed.

That is a matrixed fact.

Heck.

It’s downright neutronic!

And,

if you think about what I’m doing,

by relaxing and looking into specific body parts

I am tapping into internal energy.

It amazes people when I seem motionless,

stick out my fist,

and they fly away,

feeling like a horse has kicked them.

So use this concept when you’re practicing the Rolling Fists Drill,

which I also call Rolling the Wall,

Or Lop Sau (Rolling Fists) bagwork,

or whatever.

Guaranteed,

your punch will rival any ‘old master,’

and without all the work.

Don’t fight harder, fight smarter.

Okay,

Rolling Fists!

And thanks to those who have checked out Fixing Karate,

and the latest,

the Butteerfly book/Course

Both are on on Amazon.

HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!

Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview

BTW

I’ve got nothing but five star reviews on 

The Science of Government.

It’s really nothing more than applying matrixing to politics.

Matrixing + Politics = Sanity

I told you matrixing works with anything.

Here’s the link…

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…