Duc Tape and WD40 in the Martial Arts

A fellow once told me that the two most important things in life

are duc tape and WD40.

This is because everything is either falling apart,

or getting smunched together.

Makes sense, eh?

So I’ve been working on a Neutronics book

and I realized a couple of things.

There are three problems in life.

For a body it is inflammation.

For a mind it is tension.

For a spirit it is lies.

On the body level it is inflammation.

Well, actually it is inflammation or compression.

Inflammation is when your body has an illness of some sort.

Inflammation is generally a germ,

but it could be food, DNA, or whatever.

Compression is when you get in an accident.

Compression is you took a wrong turn,

were in the wrong place at the wrong time,

and that fellow in a Ford smacked you.

On the mental level,

all problems come from two terminals opposing.

Two terminals opposing could be a push or a pull.

There are A LOT of potentials

when applying this to the mind.

You disagree with others,

you disagree with ideas,

you disagree.

The basic problem here,

when you break it down enough,

is that  since the mind is nothing but a bunch of memories,

there is a conflict between memories and reality.

On the spiritual level

all problems come from a lie.

Lying creates tension in the mind,

and can cause the body to get sick.

this distracts one from the truth of the spirit.

This makes life hard to live.

These three things are interconnected.

And the results of dealing with these things

on a neutronic level can be interesting.

You can handle inflammation with certain herbs and such,

and sometimes drugs.

You can handle compression with surgery.

Handling the body in this way will usually work,

unless you go off and die,

but it ignores the tension in the mind

and the distraction of the spirit.

You can handle your mental turmoil

by getting rid of problems.

This can be done on the surface,

but the real handling is going to take place deep in your mind.

Handling the mind in this way usually works, 

unless your mind is really messed up.

but it ignores the fact

that the spirit is still messed up.

If you didn’t allow the spirit to become distracted,

which includes concepts such as:

tension, splintering, shattering, etc.,

and usually means a lack of integrity or wholeness,

you would rarely become ill

or even confused in your life.

To handle the spirit is the easiest of all,

yet almost no one does it.

To stop lying you must be ruthlessly honest with yourself.

You must tell the truth at all times,

and develop virtues such as

compassion, kindness, patience, and so on.

You should find a list of virtues and start practicing them today.

That’s it.

If you handle the spirit,

if you stop lying,

then the mind is no longer stressed

and the inflammation is cured,

and you have a harmonious person.

This is actually pretty important stuff.

And I figured it out simply from observing the world,

talking to people,

and Matrixing.

When you do the martial arts

it tends to handle the body.

A handled body handles the mind,

a handled mind can handle the spirit.

If the martial art is messy

it takes a while, 

and can even fail.

If the martial art is matrixed,

which is to say logical and aligned,

the body is aligned and won’t suffer inflammation so easily.

the mind refuses the tension of opposing terminals

and ceases being distracted,

and the spirit becomes harmonious.

If this doesn’t make sense you should read

this newsletter over a few times.

Doing a Matrixed Martial Art

aligns the data of motion.

This aligns the mind so it stops distracting,

and the spirit becomes harmonious.

Obligatory ad for this wonderful bit of wisdom…

The Last Martial Arts Book: Nine Square Diagram Boxing

GET THE EDITION WITH THE 5 HOURS OF VIDEO LINKS!

This is a complete and matrixed art,

Applicable on the street,

as meditative as Tai Chi Chuan,

and modular in construction like Pa Kua Chang.

Give yourself a present for Christmas,

and don’t forget to give me five stars!

Another Neutronics book will be here in a couple of months!

Have a great work out,

and HanaKwanMass to all!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 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 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 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 the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

Everything in Life is Karate!

I think it was Gichin Funakoshi

who said that

‘all life is karate.’

So what does that really mean?

It means that you put a filter over your eyes

and view everything through karate.

As a professional writer I came to learn that

you can compare language to forms.

The motion of the body is a verb

that ends with a punctuation punch.

Basics are letters.

Techniques are words.

Forms are sentences.

I believe Kenpo has also stated this.

Music is particularly well suited to the karate analogy.

Timing is an exquisite sense of how to fool the listener/opponent.

The shape of your hand as you play notes and chords…

Dance…the comparison is obvious.

They are both body motion.

If you ride a bike,

the bike is the form,

the ride is the freestyle.

Running a business

is strict adherence to form,

implementing techniques

with the occasional freestyle

as individuals have their own bright ideas

that aren’t so bright

or somehow go against the master form.

Driving a car,

sailing a drone,

marching, running, climbing trees,

dealing with people so that all win,

Everything in life can be reduced to form,

to technical deviations,

to freestyle applications.

Now,

the cruel trick is this:

all Karate is done wrong.

All karate is based on blocks, kicks and strikes.

Which are good foundations,

but the real secret of karate

is in the ‘slap/grab technique.

That is a technique which precedes all motion.

Yet nobody teaches it.

A few arts come close,

but nobody has ever actually broken down body motion

and understood the subtle implications

in the motions leading up to blocks.

Try it.

Try making slap/grabs in every technique.

You’ll find that the techniques suddenly work.

and they actually work in freestyle.

It wasn’t that the founders hid things,

though they did

in a secret meeting back about 1900.

It was that they didn’t understand this subtle implication

of the motion of the body

before and leading into virtually every technique

in karate,

and virtually all other martial arts.

Go ahead,

try it.

Find the slap/grab.

Find the slap,

or the grab,

or the slap/grab.

Once you see it,

you’ll be amazed.

And for those who wish to see how

I extrapolated this little motion,

check out the

How to Fix Karate Books

(two volumes, you have to order them separately)

on Amazon.

They’ve got about five hours of video links,

and they show how I use the slap and the grab

and the slap/grab,

all the way through.

Okay,

that said, it’s time to say…

Have a great work out,

and HanaKwanMass to all!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 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 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 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 the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

The Secret of the Karate Spear Thrust!

Did you know…

the spear hand is not a spear hand.

When I was at the Kang Duk Won

there were all sorts of people studying.

Glass blowers,

grave diggers,

college students,

and lots of outlaw motorcyclists.

1 per centers.

Mostly Hells Angels.

One day I went to class

and there were about twenty Harleys parked outside.

The Hells Angels were doing a documentary on themselves,

and one segment had to do with martial arts.

So Ted,

a big second black who had joined the HA,

places three boards on a couple of cinder blocks.

He psyches up,

thrusts a right spear hand down,

and the boards don’t break.

Well, they broke,

but not all the way.

Ted lifts up the first board. 

Clean break.

He lifts up the second board.

Clean break.

He lifts up the third board…

it’s got a knothole in it.

It was broken, but the knothole

had stopped it from separating.

So Ted replaces the third board, 

puts the first two boards on the stack,

and breaks it with a spear hand with his left hand.

Bang.

Clean break,

Cut,

Print,

call it a wrap.

I don’t recall whether he broke his hand,

but he might have.

Or at least a couple of fingers.

Now people used to be able to break boards

pretty easily with their fingers.

Not any more.

I don’t see buckets of sand for conditioning in the dojos,

I don’t see people doing fingertip push ups.

So,

for the time being,

except for a few hardy souls

who believe in ancient training methods,

breaking with fingers is a lost art.

The original finger tip break was probably

for breaking through armor on samurai.

I’m just guessing,

but it sounds logical.

Or,

perhaps it was for inserting the fingers

into the neck,

through the armpit joint of the armor,

or whatever.

Not having seen old Japanese armor

I don’t really know.

BUT…

I do know that while I used to train in the old methods,

and I was able to do a few tricks,

like break a one inch board with fingertips,

I am no longer going to spear anybody.

Just too old.

Which led me to an interesting discovery.

What if the spear hand was not a thrust

to break a body?

What if it was intended to be a grab?

If you look at every spear thrust

in the Pinan (Heian) forms,

and change it to a grab,

It not only makes sense,

and protects the hands…

it leads to some interesting locks and throws.

I detail a few of these in the

How to Fix Karate books.

But you can figure a lot of these out yourself.

Instead of striking,

move the hand deeper and grab.

Look for a way to manipulate the opponent.

What if the move on the way up the center,

in Pinan three,

was not a spear hand to the sternum,

as usually taught?

What if it goes past the neck 

and you simply stand up and grab his neck in a headlock?

Think about it.

Try it and see if it works.

See if you need to alter the movement

to make it work.

And,

by the way,

if you want to see the things I came up with,

check out the

How to Fix Karate Books

(two volumes, you have to order them separately)

on Amazon.

They’ve got about five hours of video links.

Okay,

last thing.

It’s almost time for…

(drum roll)

HanaKwanMass!

That’s right!

A combination of Hanukkah, Kwanza and Christmas!

HanaKwanMass!

That way you can offend everybody at once!

Have a great work out,

and HanaKwanMass to all!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 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 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 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 the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

Congrats to New Master Instructor!

Congratulations to Amerus Guffey!

Here’s his win…

This is Amerus Guffey, I’m here to speak on the course I took and what I got from it. First off I want to start by saying how amazing that was. Most Dojos and gyms I’ve been too ALWAYS sugar coat it. They teach [how] to move and can only explain so much, or they will teach all the moves but can’t explain anything about why or when to use the technique.

I’ve spent 18 years doing daily meditation and training in all types of arts and with energy I even have my Master Certificate for Universal Reiki healing. So I 100% agree and know for a fact about everything [about] breathing that you spoke on and the importance of it. What I found to be intriguing to me is that a lot of the things you spoke on and explained I already do without having being taught. Day in and day out I think martial arts, how to improve and learn about the human body and the mechanics…and naturally things clicked in my mind of what to do how to do it and how it would work.

The two portions of this course that I truly enjoyed was was [the section on teaching] …and it’s really cool to see someone else understand me in a way, that’s how it feels. Seeing you do and explain was not only a Honor but it also made me see that I’m not the only one who actually lives this life style. Most gyms and dojos [where I live] run only 2 days a week for 1 hour a day. And what they teach isn’t truth they just want the money.

The 2nd part I loved was ‘The 6 Tools.’ The 6 tools are not only what I do but you gave me another way to break it down and understand it, to be able to explain to my students. Even tho I know what I’m doing and what’s happening with the body I can’t put it into words like you did in this portion. And for the price!! You can’t beat it. ~ Amerus Guffey

Well done Amerus

and congratulations.

Amerus was badly overlooked in his training,

in spite of the fact of being accomplished and dedicated in his training,

it seemed that promotions were refused him.

I don’t promote much anymore,

but I do recognize Master Instructors.

It was an honor to recognize him.

And what is a master instructor?

A black belt is expected,

at the time of his testing,

to be in top notch physical shape.

And karate training is often a boot camp of physicality,

But an instructor is not judged on his physical shape,

he is judged on his knowledge.

Here’s the cruel fact.

Schools that make instructors do not have tests 

that make the instructor demonstrate his knowledge.

Or if they do have tests, 

they are questions on things like history or lineage

and don’t deal with the exact physics

that make the martial arts work.

They rely on time,

or politics,

to make an instructor,

let alone a Master Instructor.

The master instructor course is a precise book,

illustrated by video,

of the EXACT knowledge necessary to be a master instructor.

When I ask for people to tell me what they gained from the course

I am simply making sure they read it and understand it.

I’ve only had a couple of people,

out of thousands,

who claim they knew this knowledge before the course,

and even then they were grateful.

I have a gift as a writer,

and as Amerus said,

I can’t put it into words like you did

And, 

I don’t charge for the certificate.

You buy the course and send in the win,

there are no extra charges.

I just appreciate the fact that there is one more person in the world 

who actually understands what he/she is doing.

Again,

thanks Amerus,

you did well.

And link is here…

The Master Instructor Course

Have a great work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 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 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 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 the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

Adding Chi to Tai Chi Chuan!

I remember when I first heard about Tai Chi.

Quite fascinating stuff.

Over the decades it became more fascinating,

and I learned how to differentiate

the myth from the reality.

In this newsletter 

I want to list a few of the things I do

that helped me figure out Tai Chi.

Do remember that these things take time,

even with matrixing.

They also demand a certain amount of belief

that you are going to get to where you’re going.

Move the hands like the hands of a clock.

They move evenly,

at the same rate of speed.

It helps if you watch them

and get a little removed from your body.

Breath as if to the tan tien,

and keep the tan tien taut.

Don’t flex the muscles of the abdomen, 

especially over the tan tien

(Tan tien ~ ‘The one point’ ~ 

the center of the body)

Like you’ve got an unbendable arm,

just running energy through it,

keep the tan tien taut, not tight.

move the arms into the posture

and keep them unbendable

while you turn the waist

and shift the weight.

Push with the legs,

you can feel the weight,

and alternate with weightlessness in the legs.

Synchronize the parts of the body

so they begin motion at the same time

and end motion at the same time.

this is CBM

(Coordinated Body Motion)

The energy in the tan tien

will duplicate the motion of the hands

if you have a taut belly and unbendable arms

and synchronize all motion.

Feel the air when you move the palms through  it

Imagine yourself above your head

as if looking down from above

imagine yourself as if pulling the strings

attached to the parts of the body

like a puppet.

Now,

here’s the thing,

this will cause energy to flow

help you enter a meditative state

and even understand the physics involved.

BUT

it is worthless if you don’t practice applications.

This means you should understand the hard style first,

and you should train yourself to handle attacks

without using force.

Make your body as if a glove

into which the opponent puts his fist,

then adjust the glove to unbalance him.

No contact

except the brush of skin on skin

and unbalance the opponent.

Practice push hands,

and especially the Lop Sau

that I have created.

Not the traditional,

which is merely a piecemeal drill,

but the whole drill I developed.

There’s lots of other things you can do,

the classics are full of stuff,

but you need to understand the hard arts,

then practice A LOT!

But these things should help you.

Check out the tai chi courses on Monster Martial Arts

And,

if you want to learn the Tai Chi concepts about ten times faster,

check out

The Last Martial Arts Book:

Nine Square Diagram Boxing.

Make sure you look for the version with five hours of video included.

And don’t forget to give me five stars!

Have a great work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 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 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 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 the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

The Two Muscles in the Martial Arts!

There are two ways of using the muscles in the martial arts

One is to use the muscles,

the other is to not use the muscles.

I know, sounds like zen double talk.

The first method is to tighten the muscles,

specifically upon impact.

The second method is to ‘empty’ the muscles,

to just flow energy through them.

When I first began training in 1967

I was taught to use muscles,

to ‘focus’ the muscles by tightening

everything at the point of impact.

When I went to the Kang Duk Won

(not American KDW)

I was taught,

and mostly through experience and not words,

to tighten only the fist.

Eventually I stopped tightening the fist entirely,

merely sticking the bones of my arm

into the opponent’s body.

This required almost no muscle.

There are several things to be understood here.

If you tighten the muscle energy doesn’t flow through the body.

This leads to inefficiency,

energy loss,

and so on.

It is important to go through the tightening of the muscle phase,

lest you don’t understand what a punch really is.

This is why TCC sometimes doesn’t work,

the student doesn’t understand the reality of combat.

If the student does understand the reality of combat,

TCC is one of the better and more effective arts out there.

The ‘unbendable arm’ (Aikido)

is the best example of an ‘empty arm.’

Or an arm through which energy flows.

Aikido doesn’t develop this for combat,

but rather uses it almost as meditation

and for show.

I use the ‘unbendable arm’ in all movements.

I move my slightly bent arm with only a bit of

expansion and contraction.

The less I move,

the more ‘flow’ I create,

the more subtle are my movements,

my power,

my effectiveness.

When adapting the ‘unbendable arm’

to arts such as Karate,

One MUST understand how to sink the weight,

how to push with the legs,

how to turn the hips,

and how to move all body parts in harmony

so as to strike with the entire body weight.

I still have snap,

but it is subtle,

and designed around the delivering

of the whole weight of the body

into the target.

By developing the ‘complete energy’ of a strike

into the ‘no energy’ of a strike

one loses his tendency to be jumpy,

to respond with violence,

and attains a very calm mind,

one that doesn’t set up fights through mental attitudes.

The odd thing is that this sounds like mysticism,

but it is really hard core science.

It just goes beyond the ‘Newtonian’ science

we have been raised on.

Hey,

Happy Thanksgiving!

Take advantage of the time off

to do extra work outs,

and don’t forget to check out

my books on

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

(There is a version with five hours of video

but you have to hunt for it on Amazon)

And don’t forget to give me five stars!

Have a great work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 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 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 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 the book that works for you.

The Five Armies of Tai Chi Chuan!

I say Tai Chi Chuan,

but these five armies. are usable

in every martial art.

The five armies are:

the wrists

the elbows

the shoulders

the waist

the feet

It’s pretty simple,

actually.

If you understand a little push hands

it will really make sense,

but even if you don’t,

there is a logic here that can’t be denied.

If somebody grabs your wrist simply roll it.

This escapes all wrist grips,

and provides wrist twist counters,

and opens up a LOT of other doors.

If somebody pushes on your forearm,

simply fold it back.

The idea is to let the person fall past

and circle your arm to strike him.

If the person is closer

and pushes on your shoulder, or your upper arm

so that it affects the shoulder,

circle the shoulder.

If somebody is pushing on your body,

turn the waist.

If somebody has penetrated past the waist,

simply shift back,

let him pass.

Okay,

this is designed for push hands,

but push hands is designed for martial combat.

So you don’t have to be in push hands mode,

if somebody is pressing an attack

on one of the five areas,

or zones,

or whatever you want to call it,

just use one of the five armies.

Shift back and:

roll

fold

circle

turn

shift.

If you can do all of them that is great.

That is applying CBM

(Coordinated Body Motion-using the body as one unit)

to the technique.

Now,

if you stop thinking about him coming in,

and start thinking about you moving forward,

you end up with the total strike.

You push with the feet

as you turn the waist

and circle the shoulder

and unfold the elbows

and snap the wrist.

So you can apply the Five Armies concept

to defense or offense.

Or any combination of attack and defense.

This concept is demonstrated for Tai Chi

in my

Five Army Tai Chi Chuan course

I would also recommend,

if you are more into Karate or the striking arts,

my book on

Chiang Nan

The point isn’t that this stuff hasn’t been done,

it’s just never been explained in a clear and concise manner

the way I do it.

Check them out,

and have a fantastic work out!

Al

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

(There is a version with five hours of video

but you have to hunt for it on Amazon)

And don’t forget to give me five stars!

Have a great work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 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 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 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.

Only Eight Martial Arts Techniques!

Yep,

there are only about eight martial arts techniques,

everything else is fluff and stuff.

Of course there are a thousand deviations,

and they are valuable for your overall education,

but,

when you get to the down and dirty,

there are only eight techniques.

Now,

this is not boxing.

This not padded gloves to dissipate force,

and eliminate grabs.

This is somebody strikes

or is going to strike,

and you either slab and grab his arm,

or you shoot straight in

going for the one punch knock out.

One strike one kill,

you know?

Of course,

as everybody knows,

a plan only works until the fight starts.

SO,

once you have tried to stick your fingers in his eyes,

and MAYBE tried a follow up body shot…

you will find yourself on the inside of his arm

or on the outside of his arm.

You don’t have time for a poser,

he’s not going to wait while you do all your tricks.

You only have one chance.

And,

derivation here,

what I am going to tell you works best,

and perhaps at all

if you ‘shock and lock’ him.

Which is to say,

you simply distract him with a slap or an elbow or something

so that you have an opportunity to  apply one of the eight techniques.

If you have twenty years experience

you can consider not doing the ‘shock and lock,’

but that’s at your own risk.

If you are on the inside of his arm

elbow the head and push his arm up into a ‘chicken wing’ elbow lock.

Or, elbow the area under the armpit and snake your arms around

to a ‘figure four’ armlock.

Either of these can deviate out to arm bars or splitting techniques

(lower body goes in the opposite direction of the upper body)

or spinning him around and angling him up to what I call

a ‘vertical arm pin.’

that’s two techniques with a few deviations.

third, foot sweep,

can be deviated into knee to groin

or various kicks,

but you want to pull his leg viciously

and make him face plant

so you can walk on his neck.

Four,

if you haven’t locked in that body shot,

do it now.

Reverse punch,

and I often teach the ‘pubic punch,’

which is angling the punch down towards the hip joint.

He collapses on the ground and it takes no special force or effort.

Now,

if he strikes,

and you end up on the outside of his arm,

cool.

Inside means you have targets,

but you have also presented targets.

Outside means you have less targets,

but have presented almost no targets for him.

Slap and grab,

or perhaps just let him punch between your arms.

First technique is simply an arm bar,

or an elbow roll deviation.

Second technique,

elbow to the head and extend your arm in front of his face,

and slide your leg behind him to split him.

(top goes one way, bottom goes the other)

Third technique,

elbow under the arm,

split him by going under the arm.

Whether you split him by going under or over his arm

is often dependent on the relative height 

of your opponent.

You can add sweeping to this,

because there is an inherent sweep in the split.

fourth technique, punch.

Hard.

Break things in his body.

So that is the list of eight techniques,

which eight lead to a variety of deviations,

if you enter one of the eight,

the deviations become apparent with practice.

He punches and you are inside.

1) elbow head and elbow lock over his arm

2) elbow armpit and elbow lock under his arm

3) Punch (pubic preferred)

4) Sweep w leg options

He punches and you are on the outside

5) break and/or arm bar/elbow roll

6) split above the arm

7) split under the arm

8) punch

Now,

I know there are going to be all sorts of objections here.

Some of the objections will be that you simply don’t understand my terms,

but if you examine the description of the techniques,

you will find them in your art,

or your art is severely lacking.

Some of the objections will be that you have a thousand techniques in your art

and you simply can’t give them up.

But I am not asking you to give up your data base.

I am merely asking you to focus on that first punch in a fight

and do some real karate.

Some of the objections will be because there are no pictures

and it is difficult to mock up these techniques in your mind.

Why don’t you kick?

Kicking is for when you are far away

and kicks take time to become ‘one strike one kill,’

and you want to close and break or disable

as much as you can in a direct and short period of time.

Karate is not a far away polite business.

It is mean and nasty and as brutal as you can make it.

Why are you not making the split one of the techniques on the inside?

Because you have to go through the closure of distance,

and that is the progression of closing distance after the fight starts

What the heck is ‘shock and lock,’ and do I have time for it?

It is hitting on the way in,

and the way I have set it up there is extreme fluidity of motion

that will make the progression from slap and grab to shock and lock

 and to the final technique incredibly fast and virtually unavoidable.

What about wrist locks?

They are there,

but it is difficult to grab a fist in the middle of a fight.

It is easier when he is there,

and maybe trying to back out of his predicament.

And there are other objections.

But if you study what I said here,

and just drill the eight techniques for a short time,

and just explore your position…

everything will become apparent.

Incidentally,

what I say here is in all my courses,

but I never really talk about it

except as the technique progresses.

But it really is the essence of my Monkey Boxing.

I really should write a book on this little thing I have said here.

But…time. Sigh.

Okay,

guys and gals,

hope you got something out of all this,

and feel free to look at…

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

(There is a version with five hours of video

but you have to hunt for it on Amazon)

And don’t forget to give me five stars!

Have a great work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 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 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 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.

The Secret of Martial Arts Whole Body Energy!

You know,

I talk about matrixing a lot.

Figuring out all of the blank spots in your art,

getting rid of poser techniques,

making logical sense of the whole thing.

But one thing I don’t talk about enough

is CBM

CBM is Coordinated Body Motion

In oldspeak,

or mysticism,

it is using the body as one unit.

This is a solid concept,

but often discounted.

It’s faster to just pound on a bag,

make your arm muscles big and strong,

and rely on that.

It is harder to do the forms slowly,

or at least with attention to detail,

and figure out how to use the body as one unit.

CBM.

But think of this.

Instead of building the arm so it is strong enough

to knock over 200 pounds,

why not train yourself to use the 200 pounds of your body?

The point of a punch (or technique),

is to deliver weight.

So just learn to put the entire weight of your body into the strike.

It’s easier in the long run,

and when you get old and lose your muscles,

you will still have an interesting by product.

Energy.

Energy is the capacity for work.

Work can be measured by weight.

But while you’re thinking about this,

let me tell you something else,

something a little more advanced.

You use your body as one unit.

You strike with the whole weight.

It is more efficient,

less tiring,

more effective.

But,

what happens when you CBM the other guys’s body?

This is the real secret of the grab arts.

This includes aiki, chin na, and even advanced judo/jujitsu

When you have achieved sufficient CBM

you touch the other person’s body with CBM

and his body will react by moving…WITH CBM!

The explanation is simple.

Bodies are bodies,

and you can hook them together.

ten marines lifting together can lift more

than twelve marines lifting separately.

This is a proven fact.

If you’ve only CBMed a little, 

you probably won’t be able to do this.

But if you CBM a lot,

your body doesn’t just operate on muscles,

it operates on energy,

and the person you touch,

their body will react with energy,

and they will unconsciously,

without even knowing it,

CBM.

Now you try the throw.

You throw the arm,

which weighs 20 pounds,

and the body goes along

which weighs 200 pounds.

This is actually how old men,

frail and fragile,

can push young men,

robust and muscular

a dozen yards with no effort.

And you really don’t want to know what a fully CBMed strike,

with all the energy pouring forth,

is like.

Now,

the unfortunate fact is this is difficult to prove,

unless you happen to cross hands with some old fellow

who has taken the time to develop his art,

and he is willing to share his art with you.

But the theory is solid,

and it’s not going to hurt you to think about it,

and maybe consider it in your training.

He strikes,

you evade,

you push and his body CBMs

and flies away.

And he will never know what hit him.

Unless, of course, 

he read this blog.

If you want to learn more about CBM

I mention it in a lot of my courses,

and my arts are designed to promote CBM

even if I don’t mention it.

But I always suggest

The Master Instructor Course

That was the first time I talked about it,

years ago,

but the data is there,

plus A LOT
 of other stuff.

Everything you need to master ANY art.

BTW

thanks to all who have purchased the 

The Last Martial Arts Book

(There is a version with five hours of video

but you have to hunt for it on Amazon)

Don’t forget to give me five stars!

Have a great work out!

Al

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 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.

The Secret of the Real Martial Arts

All right,

a beautiful day for secrets.

Of course, that means you might have to think.

NO! comes the scream.

I DON’T WANT TO THINK!

Too bad, so sad.

But if you want to learn the real martial arts you will have to think.

And specifically,

you will have to think about what I am about to tell you.

What is the purpose of the martial arts?

Why, it’s to beat people up!

And it is.

On a certain level.

But what is really at the end of the martial arts path?

What do you get if you are studying a true martial art and persist?

To love and trust your fellow man.

What?

What FN planet did this bozo study his fake ass martial arts on?

Let me explain.

A beginner puts out blocks,

ridges of energy,

and this pushes the opponent away, or back, or whatever.

It stops his opponent,

but it also stops his own ability to perceive.

Necessary in the beginning, maybe,

but not the end,

it’s the beginning of the real martial arts.

You go through the procedure of learning

how to put out a ridge of energy

so you can NOT put out a ridge of energy.

A ridge of energy will stop you from perceiving

 the thought of the opponent.

You want to know what the opponent is thinking,

You want to know when he is thinking.

If you stop his thought from coming through,

then you can’t see the technique the opponent is planning,

and then you can’t do the right thing.

You’ve been reduced to simple blocking

which may or may not be the right thing.

You’re back to being a white belt.

So how do you stop yourself

from stopping the thought of the opponent?

You accept the opponent.

You don’t think of him as bad or good,

you don’t judge him,

you don’t stop him.

If he wants to hit you,

fine,

accept that.

Trust him to punch you.

Trust,

and here’s the crux of the matter:

like him.

That is the really real secret of real martial arts.

That is what awaits you if you study a real martial art.

You don’t make the other fellow wrong,

even if he is offering you a knife for your heart.

You don’t get upset if he wants to do bad things to your family.

You like him,

you appreciate him for the opportunity he has offered you.

You accept him as a seriously misguided individual

and do what you have to…while liking him.

If you refuse to like somebody,

even if you are right that he is evil,

then you will not see his true potential,

you will not read his body actions,

you will not see his thoughts

and you will have stopped yourself

from effectively handling him.

The only solution is to trust everybody.

Even Hitler.

Don’t trust him to treat you fairly,

trust him to be what he is.

I hope you understand,

but if you don’t,

don’t worry.

You will if your art is true and you persist.

And,

don’t forget to give me five stars…

when you purchase

The Last Martial Arts Book

(There is a version with five hours of video

but you have to hunt for it on Amazon)

Have a great work out!

Al

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 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.