The Evolution of the Shaolin Martial Arts!

Most people say the Martial Arts

came from the Shaolin Temple.

Undoubtededly,

the Shaolin Temple is a big influencer.

But,

my own theory is slightly different.

Originally

I wrote a short column about ‘Og and Bog.’

Og steals Bog’s apples by conking him on the head,

Bog imagines a defense for getting conked on the head,

and we have a technique

and the birth of the martial arts.

Which is to say

from the very first time

one man raised his fist to another,

martial arts have been developing.

Verbal history,

not a reliable thing,

says that Bodhidharma came to Shaolin from the east,

trained the monks in meditation,

and when they proved too weak to meditate properly,

he gave them the martial arts.

But when you look at the exercises credited to Bodhidharma

they look like calisthenics.

So how do simple calisthenics

become martial arts?

Let’s create a possible scenario

to present my theory.

Warlords reigned,

they conscripted peasants,

and taught them how to fight.

How to use the spear,

how to do basic ‘boxing’ (kung fu).

The peasants who survived the battles

might retire to home,

and go to a temple to pray,

maybe even feel a bit of remorse

 about the deaths they caused

and join a temple.

At the temple they want to stay in shape

so they use the basic calisthenics they used in the military.

They even use some of the fighting routines.

But the essence of the temple isn’t in fighting,

and if one is in daily meditation

and begins a regimen in fitness,

it is conceivable that the exercises they did

begin to take on the form of meditation.

No, not every monk is a warrior,

but if even one soldier takes refuge at the temple

translates his military exercises

into meditation…

that might have great influence.

So we have a sort of a criss cross here

between meditation and physical combat.

It’s a maybe,

but a logical sort of a maybe.

Now let’s talk about what happens if a person

 practices a routine for years,

and especially in conjunction with meditation.

He becomes aware through meditation,

and as he focuses his meditation on his calisthenics,

he achieves a different type of awareness in his calisthenics.

He starts to feel this thing called chi,

a ‘breath energy’ circulating through the body.

He finds this thing called chi is difficult to explain,

but if a person is dedicated to motion,

and to the calm and breathing techniques of meditation…

he can achieve a certain degree of awareness of,

and control over this somewhat invisible energy called chi.

And all this backs up various religious theories.

The interesting thing is that Shaolin happened,

and it is so far back

that all we’ve got is theories.

But we have another art that isn’t thousands of years old.

It is influenced by Shaolin, but…

Tung Haichuan

back in the 1800s

apparently knew some kung fu.

He went into the mountains,

met some monks,

and they taught him how to meditate by walking the circle.

Tung Haichuan supposedly combined

the circle walking and the kung fu

to make Pa Kua Chang.

People immediately invested PKC

with all sorts of religious theories.

The eight trigrams,

all that sort of thing.

A good example of a ‘calisthenic’ being adapted to kung fu,

and kung fu becoming more meditative,

just as what probably happened

thousands of years ago at the Shaolin Temple.

And!

If you look at Karate,

it was a martial art designed by and for palace guards.

Heavy duty self defense

and hard core fighting.

In just a bit over a hundred years it has become

heavily infused with zen concepts.

A martial art expanding awareness

through dedicated and repetitious motion,

until it becomes,

in its purest form,

a source of enlightenment

and spiritual development.

AND…

A good question here is

could MMA become spiritual?

I would guess probably not,

and this simply because the techniques are

more dedicated to destruction than control.

The practitioners might even laugh if 

a student wanted to find the zen

behind an arm bar.

Hey,

it may have taken MANY generations

for Shaolin to become more than

a physical calisthenic for ex-warriors,

and to become a method of awareness and control

and not simply an excuse for destruction.

So that’s my theory,

if you feel it is full of holes,

or you feel some other possibility is probable,

leave comments.

I do want to say that when I developed the 

The Last Martial Arts Book: Nine Square Diagram Boxing

I was trying to create movements

that would have meditative aspects

as in  Tai Chi Chuan and Pa Kua Chang.

I wanted to create a degree of spiritual awareness,

and yet have the art be totally workable on the street.

I want the meditation, the control, the spirituality,

but not at the cost of losing the destructive potential of the art.

Check it out on Amazon,

and if you decide to get it,

make sure you…

GET THE EDITION WITH THE 5 HOURS OF VIDEO LINKS!

Give yourself a present,

and don’t forget to give me five stars!

Have a great work out,

and have a great and profitable New Year!

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 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 Secret Behind Mastering the Martial Arts

Newsletter 947

Becoming a Master in the Martial Arts!

You give a guy a hammer,
show him how to build a wall,
let him build walls for a couple of months
and zingo bingo,
the guy is a framer.
He knows how to set down the two by fours,
nail them into a wall,
uses a square like a champ,
pounds those nails in a wack or two,
and he is quick.
He is expert.
One could even say he is a black belt in framing.
Or,
depending on his job,
he might be a black belt in roofing,
or building chimneys,
or whatever.
Expert.
Zowie.

But,
he can’t build a house all by himself.
Not quick and fast
with no mistakes.
But,
he’s got a leg up on everybody else.
A guy who could build a house would be a master.
He is expert in a number of fields.
He’s an expert in framing and flooring and installing sinks
and putting in light switches and…
and everything you might expect to find in a house.

Simply,
he has become expert in a number of fields.
And if he was a good master
he would even know how to get the money
to build the house.
That’s right,
he would contract it out to various experts,
let them do the work,
while he checks up on them every few days.
Isn’t that odd?
To think of a contractor as a master?

And,
yes,
there are a few contractors who build shoddy houses,
they aren’t as expert as they think they are,
but they fool people and get away with it.

So,
that all said,
a fellow who knows one art can be said to be an expert.
He knows Aikido,
he is a black belt in Aikido.
He knows Taekwondo,
he is a black belt in Taekwondo.
And so on.

Here’s the hard part,
he doesn’t know enough different arts,
and so it takes a lifetime to become a master.

Oh, yes,
he’ll make it,
but it’s hit or miss,
he picks up things by listening to what others say,
by reading books,
by stumbling across concepts he might have seen in his own art,
but in which he doesn’t have the art,
or drills and discipline,
to make work.

And here’s something a. lot of guys are going to hate…
MMA, being a bunch of arts put together,
doesn’t make a master.

A master is made by the accumulation
of the various knowledges of the various arts,
MMA is good fighting.
It is not broad knowledge,
but specialized knowledge,
and limited to the rules of the ring.

I’m not knocking MMA,
just saying something that most MMA fighters,
if they are honest,
will readily admit.

But the real point here is not how many fights you have been in,
the real point is how much knowledge you have.
And knowledge is in the various martial disciplines.
If you study karate,
you need to study tai chi and aikido and krav maga and TKD and…
and if you study MMA you need to peruse the various disciplines
from which MMA came,
to find the knowledge behind why you are a good fighter.
Wing Chun, Shaolin, Silat,
all the arts,
they each have parts of the whole,
and they must be studied in order to put
the parts of the whole together
and make one art.

One art out of all the pieces of arts that you know.
All the concepts of all the arts
arranged in order
that they may be understood purely.

That is what a Master knows.
So there are few masters,
for few people take the time to go into all the various disciplines.
Mostly it takes forty or fifty years,
and then the guy dies.
But a few people understand what I am saying,
and a few people understand that matrixing
teaches one not just the various concepts,
but how the concepts fit together.

Here’s a link about some of the people I have taught,
and who have taught me…

Instructors

Have a great work out!
Al

Instructors

Here’s a win I received a few years ago…

A WIN!

Master Case,
I purchased your Matrix Core Course last October and it’s truly amazing and revolutionary material, it’s taken me months to complete, and it covers a lot of martial arts ground.
Then I purchased the Matrix Master Text and it blew my mind even further out.  It helped me understand the core material even better.
I have never paid so much for a PDF download file in my life, but after opening that eBook, and reading it, I realized how much time and energy you really put into your Matrixing work. Your core course and the master text are worth a lot more than what I paid, you have by far over delivered by redeeming my time spent in the martial arts and saving me all that scratching on my head for the coming years ahead.
I will never see the martial arts the same way again.  After over 20 years in the martial arts studying Judo, Jujitsu, Hapkido, Kenpo, Tang So Do, and Taekwondo, I have learned more in these past 11 months, than I have in my entire martial arts career.

Thanks!
Elmer G

You Can’t do One Martial Art without the Other!

Newsletter 878

THE SUMMER OF SUPER MARTIAL ARTS!

Happy hot day to you!
Hot days are the best days,
the work outs sweat you hard
and you detox the body.
Do it!

One thing people should remember,
when it comes to the martial arts,
is that they are not all hard,
nor all soft.

Take a look at Morihei Ueshiba.
Guy studied some serious hard arts
before he came up with peace and love.

How about Tai Chi?
Those soft moves
are backed up by some brutal moves.

So what does this mean?
It means you have study both the hard and the soft.
You can’t study one without the other.

Now,
eventually,
if only by age and injuries,
your hard art will soften up.
Then comes enlightenment
and a profound appreciation for both sides of the yin yang.

But why wait forty years?
Why risk not making it to forty years
and not even discovering the other side of the art,
of yourself?

I’ll tell you the truth here:
when people ask me why my karate punches are so effective,
I tell them Tai Chi.
When people ask me why my Tai Chi is so effective
I tell them Karate.

That’s the truth.
Because I know what a hard punch is,
I have been able to develop tai chi to handle them.
Because I know what sensitivity and balance are
I have been able to develop Karate beyond simple muscles.

Okay,
I know I’m preaching to a a few of the choir here,
but there are others out there
who need to know this.
Who need to do some Tai Chi or Aikido
to go along with their punchology.
And there are others
who need to beef up their punches
with some good old karate or kung fu,
if they are going to evolve
their sweet and sensitive side.

Here’s TWO links…

3c Temple Karate

2c Five Army Tai Chi Chuan

If you order the DOWNLOAD ONLY…
(Not the physical disks!)

I will give you two for the price of one.
Simply order one of the above courses,
Temple Karate or Five Army Tai Chi,
DOWNLOAD ONLY,
and write to me,
say you want the two for one deal,
and I will send you the passcode for
the DOWNLOAD ONLY.

Let’s see,
it’s wednesday,
so let’s make this offer good through Sunday, July 16.
Come Monday don’t bother to whine and grovel,
it’s gone.

So do it,
take advantage,
I don’t make offers like these often.
In fact,
can you even remember the last time?
So do it,
and make this the summer of super martial arts,
study and master BOTH sides!

Have a great work out!

Al

Here’s TWO links…

3c Temple Karate

2c Five Army Tai Chi Chuan

If you order the DOWNLOAD ONLY…
(Not the physical disks!)
ONLY GOOD UNTIL SUNDAY, JULY 16, 2017!

http://www.martialartsinstructortraining.com

go to and subscribe to this newsletter:

https://alcase.wordpress.com

Remember,

Google doesn’t like newsletters,

so this is the best way to ensure you get them.

You can find all my books here!

Books

A New Master Instructor!

A New Martial Arts Master Instructor!

Click on the pic, become a Master instructor yourself!

congratulations to
Master instructor John C. Enger
Here is his win…

Hello Al……

Has been a few years now since purchasing about everything you offered on your site…including the “Masters Instructors Course”.

I can tell you this…… in over 40 years of Martial Arts and a retired law enforcement Commander who instructed Defensive tactics and was my department’s SWAT Team Leader there is nothing which compares to the material you have put into the “Masters Instructors Course”. — and I mean nothing! I have many, many book and manuals and what you have put together is the “Bible” needed for every martial arts instructor, young and old to learn some new things and truly call themselves a MASTER INSTRUCTOR. If one applies all of what you have poured into this material they will be far ahead of the average instructor out there. Thank you for sharing this gold mine of information which I certainly believe will be timeless in its instruction!

Also….I have for the past two years studied the OUTLAW KARATE course material and have instructed much of it to my students. THANK YOU for this great system. I wish I had studied under you many years ago to have been able to have received at least my SHODAN in this system from you. It is indeed an incredible system….. although not ranked in the system from you personally I want to tell you that a great many students have learned and greatly benefited from you through me teaching what you have imparted to me through your DVDs and manual. I hope you do not mind my sharing this with students. Since i do not hold rank in it I must teach it as an add on …. but what an add on it is Al!

Thank you John,
and well done.
You really make my day.
And for everybody,
here is John’s website…
http://www.shinja.us

Shinja, incidentally, means ‘believer.’
Very nice.

Now,
a couple of things…
John has pointed out that
the material of the Master Instructor course
is true,
and sets a standard.
And this is important,
and I am going to say something rather controversial in a few paragraphs,
may even cause some hate mail,
but I sort of enjoy hate mail.
Makes me grin.

So John mentions teaching Outlaw Karate…
and not being certified.
So let’s talk about certification.

Who gave the first black belt?
Well,
whoever it was,
he wasn’t certified,
he simply
convinced everybody he knew what he was doing,
and he offered his blessings
and made up this thing called a certificate.

Now,
there are two certificates in the martial arts that mean something.

First,
that certificate you spent a couple of years bleeding for.
Sweating,
working out every day of the week,
learning a method
that makes human beings
out of these animal earthlings.

Okay,
who’s to say your art is any good?
Might be a rotten art,
you know?

Still,
that damned certificate means something!
You Fing earned it!
You paid for it with your sweat and soul.

That brings us to the second certificate you should prize,
The Master Instructor Certificate.

Your first certificate,
in the art of
Aikido or Karate or Kung Fu
or something somebody put together,
it represents your blood and tears,
your hard work over time,
the polish of your soul.

The second certificate,
the Master Instructor Certificate,
represents that you understand
what you are doing.

The second certificate,
even though there is no blood and bruises behind it,
shows that you are no longer a ‘monkey see monkey do’ instructor,
but rather…
somebody who understands the martial arts.

There is a huge difference between somebody who does the martial arts,
no matter how well,
and somebody who understands what they are doing.

And,
to be honest,
if your art is a lousy martial art,
once you do The Master Instructor Course,
it will become a good martial art.
You will suddenly understand
the WHY behind the stances
the WHY behind making ANY technique work
the WHY behind internal power
the WHY behind EVERY move in your forms
and how to get the idea of WHY
from inside your head to inside your student’s head.

you will understand how to make your art perfect,
and in some cases,
you will understand why you need to change certain things
to make your art perfect.

Okay,
want to hear something interesting?

Some 30 or so years ago
I lived in Ukiah, California
As I have done in every town I have lived in
I taught martial arts.
One of the people I taught was Tom Mann.
Tom then opened a martial arts school in Willits, California.
he taught for a number of years,
his student took over at a certain point,
and they had students who went out to other areas
and taught this thing
which I called Kwan Bup.
So,
one night a couple of years ago
I got curious,
and I googled ‘Willits Kwan Bup.’
What I came up with was this link…

starring a fellow name of Sono Carrigg.

Now,
it is obvious that this fellow hasn’t done the Master Instructor course.
And his form,
if he really did five years of training,
is lacking.

I happened to be up in Willits last year
and I saw Tom,
and I asked him about Sono Carrigg.
I asked Tom who had taught Sono.

Tom said,
“I don’t know.
I know I didn’t,
and I asked the guys who teach around here,
even from other schools,
nobody knows who taught him!”

Hmmm.
How interesting.

Now,
at this point
you might be wondering,
was I upset that he was teaching my art?
Was I enraged that he represented himself
as in my lineage?
Nah.

What he teaches is his problem,
not mine.

Here is a point to be understood…

Never get upset at how little a man knows,
just do something about how little you know.

That is a truth.

So now I have John Enger,
most respectful,
honorable
(if you took a look at his website
you can see that he insists upon
surrounding himself with competent martial artists.
Heck,
two of them have Master Instructor Certificates.)
and John is teaching part of my art.

That’s fine,
I want people sharing my art.
I don’t care if you take it apart,
you might make something better.
I don’t care if you call it something else,
you are making it your art.

But I would wish
that you do the Master Instructor Course
before you teach ANY art.

If you wish certification in an art,
we can set up a video test.
But if you have the Master Instructor Cert,
signed by me,
then that is all you need,
because that means that you not only bled and fought,
but you understand,
and,
most important of all,
that from this point on
you won’t be passing down some sort of hackeysack kung fu,
but something that you fought for and…
UNDERSTAND!

There are too many people out there
teaching,
who don’t know WHY they are doing forms
who don’t know WHY the techniques are done the way they are done
who are good at convincing the news media
that they know something
but who haven’t studied with anybody
and don’t know anything,

And I told John,
Teach what you want,
call it what you want,
I know that since you have done The Master Instructor Course,
your teaching will be true.

I hope you guys understand what I am saying here,
I am not necessarily a believer in large associations.
Large associations tend to breed politics,
politics breed policing the martial arts,
which leads to passing state requirements
and a board of certification
and a certificate signed by politicians.

I do believe in your hard work,
and I believe that The Master Instructor Course
will help you out
and bring us a better you
and a better martial art
and a better martial future.

It all comes down to one man.
Not an organization,
not outrage because somebody down the street
is a lousy martial artist…
it all comes down to you.

And I know that The Master Instructor Course
will make a better you,
and make a better art.

Okay,
my apologies for running off at the mouth,
I can see that this isn’t my most polished writing,
but it certainly is heart felt.

I’ve included the link for the Master Instructor Course here.

1d Master Instructor Course

It is money back guaranteed,
recommended (by win)
by probably a hundred Master Instructors,
and these are mostly guys with decades of experience
and in multiple martial arts.

Please,
increase your understanding,
do this course and
become a martial arts instructor who knows WHY,
It will make a better you,
and a better martial art.

Now,
have a great work out,
and…
HANAKWANMASS!

Al

1d Master Instructor Course

What is a Master in the Martial Arts?

Newsletter 691
Mastering the Martial Arts

Good morning!
Good work out!
Good you!
That’s right,
you get up in the morning,
you work out,
and you feel great all day!
And that is what you should be doing
every single day!
Without fail.

becoming a master in the martial arts. Click on the little man now!

Okay,
before I start,
check out the pics on the right,
That is a matrixing family.
Note the closeness,
the warmth,
the grins…
that is what martial arts are supposed to do!

Yes,
beat people up.
Sure.
Protect yourself and loved ones.
Yup.
BUT,
the grins on the faces,
the look of knowledge in the eyes,
THAT us what it is all about.

And,
BTW,
that smiling family just brought home a truckload of trophies,
went to a tournament and had some kind of fun.

Now,
what is a master?

The first definition I came across is
‘a guy who has slaves.’
We can chuck that one,
because martial arts are about freedom,
not slavery.
They give you competence,
clarity in life,
the ability to take charge.
Not slavery.

Second definition I noticed right off..
‘skilled practitioner of an art.’
Okay,
that’s good.
BUT,
here is the one I live by…

acquire complete knowledge or skill in (an accomplishment, technique, or art):

The word is COMPLETE!

And the confusion that people have is this;
they think that being able to beat people up
makes them a master.

Being able to beat people up
makes you a bully.
It doesn’t make you a master.

It is the knowledge that you must possess.
Not the ability to beat people up.

And,
speaking of beating people up,
a master has control,
skill,
and he controls another fighter,
indeed,
the whole situation,
so that there is no fight.
That is a master.

You can see that a lot of people
should be turning in their business cards…
right now.

They insist upon being called master,
because it is necessary to their esteem,
because that is the ritual in their system,
because a bunch of old men
had decided they had paid their dues.

But they have never been judged for knowledge.

Okay,
here are some questions for you.

Where does chi come form?
What is chi?
Can you tell what art somebody knows
by watching the geometry he displays
in the way he uses his body?
Can you see what somebody is thinking?
Can you make somebody release his anger
merely by being with him?
Can you control your emotion
so that it NEVER gets in the way?
Can you help a student
and NEVER get frustrated
by his ‘stupidity?’

These are the things that are inherent in a master.

Sure,
they can freestyle,
they can beat people up,
but they never have to.
They have control of themselves,
to the point that they can control any person
in any situation.

Not the power to beat up, hurt and maim,
but the patience to help and teach and guide.

Now,
many arts try for that ideal,
and some make it
every once in a while,
but none of them make it
all the time.

Yet EVERY art could.
And every artist could.
All they have to do is matrix.
That means apply logic
to their art
and to themselves.

The seeds of success are in EVERY martial art.
BUT,
the arts have been so screwed up,
so messed up,
mixed together with other arts,
slanted by well meaning instructors who didn’t really understand,
politically corrupted,
and so on.

The purpose of matrixing
is to help people see the truth of their art.

Without matrxing,
you might see it,
you might glimpse it,
after thirty or forty years.

With matrixing
everything falls into place.

Don’t get me wrong,
it is going to take work,
but it will be organized work.
Work that leads somewhere.
Work that makes the man…
the very enlightened man.

Okay,
I haven’t said this stuff for a while,
I’ve talked about everything else
from enlightenment to testicles,
but don’t get me wrong…
this planet is messy,
people are screwy,
and the martial arts are one of the easiest ways
to make things right.

But don’t take thirty or forty years.
Order the Master Instructor course right now.
find out how to use your body without muscles.
Find out the six secrets
that will enable you to make ANY technique work.
Guaranteed,
as soon as you see these truths
you will start going through your forms
looking to make sure you are doing the right things.
You will go through all your techniques,
focusing on the simple truth
to make them work.

No more confusion.

And you will be able to show ANYBODY
how to master the martial arts
by teaching these 13 things.

You will know the simple three step method
that will enable you to teach anybody the martial arts.

Okay,
thanks for letting me say all this.
And for those who have done the Master Instructor course,
thanks for becoming masters.

Next newsletter I’ll probably take it easy,
but,
listen,
every once in a while
I get the severe urge
to just shake people by the shoulders,
to take them and shake them
and say…
LOOK! DARN IT! LOOK!
THE TRUTH IS RIGHT THERE!

I really want people to succeed in the martial arts,
and I want a better world,
and the Master Instructor Course
is a huge step towards this.

Okey donkey.
Thanks for being,
take care
have a GREAT work out!
And I’ll talk to you next newsletter.

Al

1d Master Instructor Course

Monster Newsletter #336–A New Master Instructor!

Man,
is Monday the greatest?
Or what!
A new week,
a chance to work out all over again,
and again and again!

Now,
what makes this week especially juicy is
a new Master Instructor!
As I said last newsletter,
there were two new ones,
and this is the second one…
congrats to Master Instructor Alex Rodriguez!

Hi Al. Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know how much I enjoy all of your DVDs. Since I got the first one I have been hooked. I watch them at home, the office, on my iPod when I travel. Keep up the great work.

I am writing to share one of many wins as a result of the Master Instructor Course. When I received the DVDs a few months back I watched them four or five times and read the manual several times as well. I am currently a student of Tai Chi, Hapkido, Jeet Kune Do and Kali/Eskrima. My level of study and retention have increased significantly, and I have been asked by my various instructors to assist during classes and training sessions. Several of the people I study with have asked me to train with them separately, or look forward to partnering with me in class as they figure that they can learn something from me. It is very flattering when they tell me this, but it is also very humbling. There is great responsibility in working with someone else, and I take that to heart. I hate the monkey-see, monkey-do attitude of teaching, and work hard to avoid that, instead I use the principles that you have outlined in the course.

A couple of the guys have started coming over to my house where we train in my garage. Tai Chi is very new to me (although I have your two DVD sets, I have been doing it in a class for only a couple of months) and my instructor continually pairs me up with newer and advanced students alike as she can see that I understand when she is teaching and am able to teach it to others. My fellow students like to pair up with me during sparring because I will stop and explain certain evasive techniques, proper kick placement, CBM, and more. They tell me that they learn from me.

Thanks Al. Your work is phenomenal, and I so look forward to my daily dose of matrixing.
Alex Rodriguez

Thank you, Alex.
Thank you for understanding the responsibility here.

You know,
I don’t know how many of you remember,
but there was a question
a number of months ago,
what happens if a guy has no martial arts experience
and he takes the Master Instructor course.

This is not to say Alex has no experience,
he is obviously off and running
and in the greatest of ways.
But,
no matter what level of student he is in a class,
people seek him out for his knowledge.

Look,
this is the age of knowledge.
These are not ancient times
when people couldn’t read,
had to follow the directions of the man in the castle…
these are times
when every man and woman
can make of themselves
exactly what they will,
and the secret of making yourself
is in passing your knowledge along.

This is so freaking true
I should be SHOUTING IT!
When you teach somebody
there is a momentary space in your mind,
you have emptied something,
and something else will rush in to fill the gap.
When Alex teaches,
he is learning.
Like as not,
after showing somebody something,
passing some juicy tidbit of knowledge along,
he’ll be driving home
and he’ll have a thought.
Probably couched in a feeling of satisfaction.
Realizes something
he didn’t think about before.
Some connection is made.

This is my secret,
it works every time.
Every time I release a book or video,
I am suddenly freed up
and having thoughts
beyond what I was doing.

The door has opened for me.

And I know
that this brings the quality of martial arts
up in this world.

I die today,
come back tomorrow in another body
I know I will find better martial arts,
and it is all because of the master instructors.

So thank you, Alex.
And thanks to all you other Master Instructors out there.
Thanks for making this world
a better place to live in.

Now,
I don’t have much else this week,
heck,
hard to get better than a new Master Instructor,
but…
if any of you guys and gals have a great photo
pass it along.
I’ve got a little project going,
you’ll find out about it within the month,
but,
if you have a photo, preferably a jpeg or a tiff,
but at least something that can be read by a mac,
pass it along.

Working out in a strange place?
Caught flying through the air with a triple jumbo splat kick?
cheesecake that’s not to…(ahem) dangerous?
Send ‘em to me.
I might be able to use them in a really cool project that I am working on.

Okey doke,
I’d love to say more,
but I think,
instead,
I’ll just tell you to go to the Master Instructor page.
I know you’ve read it before,
but read it again,
see yourself in a new light,
grab a hold of a little of your true power.

Now,
don’t make me say it twice…
don’t make me stop this car (grin)…
just get out there and…
WORK OUT!

Thanks
Al

:o)

Here’s the URL again.

http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Master_Instructor_Course.html

This is two DVDs
with the secret of perfect form
and perfect technique
The manual comes on CD (PDF).

Quote time…
take a bit of wisdom
and change it into a bit of martial arts wisdom.
a fun exercise for the mind
and good for the soul.

I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter’s gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.
Yasser Arafat
I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and practicing the martial arts. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.

A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he’s not a man of action. You must act as you breathe.
Georges Clemenceau
A man who waits to do the martial arts is not a man. You must act as you imagine.

A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad.
Bodhidharma
A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in the martial arts.

A leader is a dealer in hope.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A leader is a dealer in martial arts.

More next time.

Send me your wins!