How to Create a Motor in the Martial Arts

Here an old post that deserves a new read…

One of the more profound mysteries in the martial arts is the concept of Chi. Chi is a mystical energy that pervades the universe in mysterious ways. And, chi is supposed to be a mystical energy that after a lifetime, you can use to do superhuman things. Unfortunately, proof seems to be sadly lacking for these claims concerning Chi. Maybe there are a few people who can do things, but most people can’t, and just a few exceptions here and there don’t prove the truth of certain theories concerning the subject of Chi. Fortunately, there is a theory that will result in Chi, that is not mystical, and that will work. A motor is two terminals which result in tension. Everything in the universe can be defined as a motor. Every tension in the universe is the result of a motor. An atom has a proton and electron interchanging to create energy. A cell has sodium and potassium interacting to create energy. Everywhere in the universe that you find two terminals opposing, you will find energy, and you will find a motor. And, when you take a martial arts stance with the human body, you have increased your weight, and this causes energy to move between the body and the planet. When you shift the weight from leg to leg, from stance to stance, the weight moves up and down the legs, and this excites the tan tien, a spot two inches below the navel which generates energy for the body. Thus, there is energy, and the body is a motor, and you can call this energy chi. Here’s the problem: everybody concentrates on making the body strong, and so creates only the low level chi required to operate the body. What people should be doing is focusing awareness on the procedure. If you build the awareness it takes to create the energy, you will build the energy that will result in the ‘superhuman’ potential that people look to Chi for. Thus, do your form, build awareness, and concentrate not on the violence of action, not on building the body, but on becoming aware of what you are doing. Feel the energy going down and up your legs, feel the energy building in the tan tien, and feel your connection with the planet. Do this and you will shortly become aware of energy building in your body in a surprising way. Energy that tingles a body part just by thinking of it, energy that warms the palms upon mere thought. Energy that can be channeled throughout your body and into the various body parts, and can even be felt outside your body. Once you have started building energy in this manner, then you can start searching for more spectacular ways to use it.

How to Create a Motor in the Martial Arts

One of the more profound mysteries in the martial arts is the concept of Chi. Chi is a mystical energy that pervades the universe in mysterious ways. And, chi is supposed to be a mystical energy that after a lifetime, you can use to do superhuman things. Unfortunately, proof seems to be sadly lacking for these claims concerning Chi. Maybe there are a few people who can do things, but most people can’t, and just a few exceptions here and there don’t prove the truth of certain theories concerning the subject of Chi. Fortunately, there is a theory that will result in Chi, that is not mystical, and that will work. A motor is two terminals which result in tension. Everything in the universe can be defined as a motor. Every tension in the universe is the result of a motor. An atom has a proton and electron interchanging to create energy. A cell has sodium and potassium interacting to create energy. Everywhere in the universe that you find two terminals opposing, you will find energy, and you will find a motor. And, when you take a martial arts stance with the human body, you have increased your weight, and this causes energy to move between the body and the planet. When you shift the weight from leg to leg, from stance to stance, the weight moves up and down the legs, and this excites the tan tien, a spot two inches below the navel which generates energy for the body. Thus, there is energy, and the body is a motor, and you can call this energy chi. Here’s the problem: everybody concentrates on making the body strong, and so creates only the low level chi required to operate the body. What people should be doing is focusing awareness on the procedure. If you build the awareness it takes to create the energy, you will build the energy that will result in the ‘superhuman’ potential that people look to Chi for. Thus, do your form, build awareness, and concentrate not on the violence of action, not on building the body, but on becoming aware of what you are doing. Feel the energy going down and up your legs, feel the energy building in the tan tien, and feel your connection with the planet. Do this and you will shortly become aware of energy building in your body in a surprising way. Energy that tingles a body part just by thinking of it, energy that warms the palms upon mere thought. Energy that can be channeled throughout your body and into the various body parts, and can even be felt outside your body. Once you have started building energy in this manner, then you can start searching for more spectacular ways to use it.

Karate, Dark Alleys, and Gloopy Aliens!

Good Morning USA, and world, and, uh, guess I’ll throw in the universe. Never can tell, some gloopy alien with three eyes might be keeping track of those strange critters on earth. Might be reading this article right now making sure we’re not being contentious and guilty of sedition to the alien galactic empire. Hello, Gloopy Alien. I wonder if he knows what this here finger of mine is for? Hah. Speaking of weird and Gloopy Aliens, the founder of modern Karate, Gichin Funakoshi, was about 80 years old, and was out for his nightly walk. The night was ominous, Japan was in an unsettled state, and he saw a mugger waiting on a street corner. Gichin knew, deep in his heart, that that mugger was going to try to mug him. Hey, you think a mugger’s going to risk picking on somebody who is big? Nope, muggers want to get on with their work with the least amount of personal risk, you know? Smart guys, these muggers are. Anyway, Gichin keeps on walking makes sure he looks feeble, and as he passes the mugger and the mugger leaps at him he whirls and grabs the mugger. Now, you might be wondering where he grabbed the mugger. A death lock on the carotid–a specialized nerve center that immobilizes totally? Well, uh, he didn’t do any of those things. He grabbed him by the, um, cajones. The apples, you know..the coconuts. He grabbed him by the children he might sire some day, by the future, by his only source of fun on those long, lonely nights that frustrate a mugger when he is all by himself and can’t find anybody who even remotely likes him. Now the founder of modern Karate has a mugger by the embarrassment, and what is he going to do next? Does he flick a set of knuckles to the throat and crunch the Adam’s apple…cause it to swell up and stop the mugger from breathing? Does he launch a spear hand thrust to the chest and yank the mugger’s very heart out and take a big bite while the terrified mugger watches in terror? Or does he just start to close his hand. Close his hand slowly, and watch the life blood drain out of the mugger’s face, and the very life right out of his quaking and pain infested body, and the happiness out of his future? Squeeze, until the nutty pulp runs out from between his gnarly, old fingers. Squeeze, until a loud popping sound fills the night air. Squeeze, until the mugger screams like a little girl and falls to the pavement, never to enjoy the feel of loving again. Gichin called for the cops. Yep, he stood on that corner and held that man and called for help. And the mugger was totted away to think about his crimes, and the terror of having his manhood held by another man. An interesting lesson for a mugger, eh? Another interesting lesson would be if you looked up the real meaning of the word testament and where it comes from and all that. Anyway, the point of all this is this don’t walk down that dark alley. Yep. My students have heard me say this, and they know what I mean. When you have a choice of a long walk down a lit street, or a short trip through a dark alley, take the long way. You can tell you’ve made it, that you do understand what the martial arts are all about when you can see a dark alley before you reach it. Hey, a sunny street in the heart of town might be a dark alley if there’s some idiot waiting for you. And you should have developed the extra perception, through those endless hours of practice, to know the difference between a dark alley and a well lit street.

How to Do The Classical Karate Horse Stance Form

The Iron Horse Kata

Tekki One, also called the Iron Horse, and other names, is considered a pivotal form in Karate.

Gichin Funakoshi, who is considered the father of modern day Karate, thought the form good enough that he spent ten years doing it.

Sure, he did other forms, stayed well rounded, but his real focus was on endless repetitions of the Tekki Form.

Power in a Horse Stance

The Iron Horse is not a long form. Maybe a dozen moves, depending on your variation or school, but it is an energy heavy form.

All that time spent in the horse stance builds amazing amounts of pure energy. Simply, being that low, the legs have to work, and the tan tien has to work, and the result is oodles of energy, or ki power, as they call it.

The iron Horse is also not a technique heavy form. Actually, the techniques are just an assortment of odd blocks, useful in odd situations. The real thrill, however, is learning to go sideways in stance.

This is actually pretty important, as one should be able to move fast, and still drive his weight into the  ground, if he wants to develop any serious combat abilities with the art of Karate.

The things to remember when doing Tekki are simple.

First, keep your stance low and your weight down.

Second, keep the hips low and level.

Third, let the hips turn when you move, don’t jam up the body by trying to move the legs sideways without the benefit of aligned hips.

Fourth, focus on breathing.

Fifth, focus on the loose-tight aspect of the hands.

And, there’s a lot more, but these other factors will become apparent if one just focuses on these beginning five concepts.

Now, as to where the form came from, that’s an interesting question.

My instructor told me that it was so people could fight in rice paddies, so they could move side to side in the slick earth. I think that’s a pretty good one, but probably a myth.

Another one I heard is simply to enable a student to fight while on the back of a horse. But horses were scarce back then, and, hmmm. Sounds a bit mythical, too.

Personally, I think the form just evolved, maybe from some instructor who had limited room to work out in.

You can pick up Tekki One, and a thousand variations on youtube. These versions, however, are usually tailored to tournament, and will lack a lot when it comes to instructions. My advice is to pick the simplest version you can find, and stick to the basic principles I have outlined here.

The Toughest Karate: The Toughest Karate Master

There’s going to be a lot of opinions on who was the toughest Master of Karate, but Motobu Chōki certainly deserves consideration. He was one of the first instructors to teach Karate outside of Okinawa, and he is responsible for the fame and notoriety that resulted in the spread of Karate through Japan. Interestingly, this ‘George Washington’ of Karate is not a commonly known figure.

Motobu was born in 1870, and descended from the royal lineage of Okinawa. As the third son, he was actually not supposed to study Karate, but that seemed to make him want to study all the more. He spent much time hitting the makiwara, lifting heavy objects, and training however he could.

Eventually, because of his tremendous agility, people called him Motobu the Monkey. He also was looked on as a fierce, though unschooled (brutal?) street fighter. Though he was held in low esteem for his street fighting, instructors took him on as a student, presumably because of lineage.

His instructors read like a Who’s Who of early Okinawa. Among the masters who taught him were Ankō Itosu, Sōkon Matsumura, Sakuma Pechin, Kōsaku Matsumora, and Tokumine Pechin. This would be like somebody who studied under Morihei Uyeshiba, Bruce Lee, Gichin Funakoshi, and Ed Parker.

Motobu eventually made his way to Japan, where some Karate instructors were earning a living teaching the art to the Japanese. Motobu being a rough character, and not succeeding at business, was talked into signing up for a fight in a ‘Judo v Boxing’ match. He was fifty-two years old the night he entered that contest, and he was about to change Karate for all time.

His opponent is said to have been a strongman from some western country. Strong or not, Motobu is said to have moved forward with a single punch to put the fellow down for the count. People were astonished at this incredible win, and newspapers gave the story coverage, and here is where the tale takes an odd twist.

The newspapers didn’t have a picture of Motobu, so they published the only image they did have, which was of a young fellow name of Gichin Funokoshi. That’s right, Motobu knocked the strongman out, but his fellow countryman, and competitor, Gichin Funokoshi, got the credit. Thus, Shotokan was spread around the world, and Motobu went home.

Motobu Chōki, brawler and roughneck, is as responsible for the spread of Karate as anyone, and he was a true master. He was a karate technician of tremendous punching power, and he founded the Motobu Ryu Karate school. People may not know much about him, but he is definitely in the running for toughest Karate Master of all time.

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Using The Martial Arts To Read Minds

The first time I ever read someones mind was in San Francisco. My wife and I were wandering through the stores in Chinatown, and we entered a shop where a grumpy faced old Chinese lady sat on a stool in a corner. As we peered at the goods, the grumpy one snapped at her daughter, “Look, look, look, everybody just look!”

We left the store, and I asked my wife, “Did you hear what that old lady said?” “How could I,” answered my wife. “She was speaking in Chinese.”

Speaking in Chinese, and I had heard her in English. In essence, I had read her mind and translated her thoughts into English. And I could do this, I instantly knew, because of the martial arts I had been studying.

The mind is like a big radio transmitter, but it transmits, and picks up, thoughts. The sad fact, however, is that the mind is always full of static. Children can usually read minds, but they outgrow the ability and don’t even remember it when they are adults.

In the martial arts you use the discipline of the body to clear out the static and clutter. You do this by concentrating on doing one thing, the form. Eventually, the distractions to the mind clear away, and the original ability is once again possible.

The problem, of course, is that the martial arts are so messed up that it is difficult to find a form, or series of forms, that work well anymore. Oddly, almost any form can work in this manner, if it is properly analyzed, and tweaked so that it is scientific and true. This normally takes a tremendous amount of work, occurring over decades, but the process can be speeded up if one learns the proper science.

Interestingly, the old religious classics of such arts as Tai Chi and other Wudang arts, speak of being child like in your approach to the world. I also saw mention of this concept in Buddhist works of Zen. The problem, of course, is that by the time one resurrects this ability one has become old.

At any rate, the old tales are true, the martial arts really do work, and in ways far removed from fighting. Indeed, though the martial arts teach people how to defend themselves, things like reading minds is the real start. And the start of this start, for most people, is simply walking through the doors of that neighborhood dojo and learning a little Karate or Tai Chi Chuan or Aikido.

The Effectiveness Of Communist Kung Fu Strategy!

I’m just finishing a book by Clay Blair, entitled The Forgotten War, which is about the Korean War. It is an eye opener, and extremely interesting. It is of particular interest to martial artists.

The Korean War consisted of a charge by the North Korean People’s Army, which pushed the US almost off the peninsula. A push back by the United States to the Yalu river. And a push back to the 38th parallel by the Chinese Communist Forces which almost worked, but which was countered by the US, expanded by UN, forces.

The Chinese combat strategy consisted of three principles. Charge if the enemy flees, and retreat if they attack. If the enemy is doing nothing, probe for weakness.

This is a wonderful strategy…for single soldiers. For millions of men, it doesn’t work. This strategy doesn’t hold up to the complexities of modern warfare.

The communists, you see, in embracing this strategy, were willing to trade bodies for bullets. They would charge, hundreds of thousands of men, and trust that they had more bodies than the US had bullets. They didn’t.

While the communist strategy is a wonderful one for man on man combat, it falls all apart on a modern battlefield. When the NKPA, and later the CCF, charged down the Korean Peninsula, they did so with no thought for supply lines. They couldn’t feed their soldiers, rearm them, or even get the wounded out.

What I find most interesting, in light of these lacks, is to apply the strategy of Matrixing to the battlefield. Getting an overview of national geography, specific terrain, freezing winters, muddy springs, and boiling hot summers, it is fascinating to consider whether the Chinese Communist Forces could have won if they had been a little less exuberant and a little more thoughtful in their planning. What if the CCF had established methods of resupply, applied their millions of men in manners that didn’t waste them, had taken the time to think their way through the terrain and opposition?

I recommend this book, it’s a lot of fun, and a real thought provoker, if you have a mind for combat strategies, the martial arts, and that sort of thing. I especially recommend looking into the matrixing strategies of Matrix Martial Arts, and seeing if you could win, at least on paper, one of the great undecided wars of this last century. For myself, it offers a terrific method for exercising martial arts strategies on a grand level.

Kang Duk Won Korean Karate Research Engineer

I remember a class mate of mine named John. He worked over at Ames Research center as a research engineer. Imagine that, a geek, sweating and punching his all for the knowledge of the Kang Duk Won.
One day he showed up at class all glum. “There going to fire me,” he said. The college I got my degree from said I hadn’t really gotten my doctorate. I owe them one thesis.
It was one of those bureaucratic snafus. Nobody was at fault, but John was going to lose his job, stop his Kang Duk Won studies, and have to travel back to the east coast to do one lousy thesis.
The next day he came in all happy. “My boss said it was stupid. He declassified some of my work and told me to send it in as a thesis!”
The upshot of it was this, and we of the Kang Duk Won knew it to be true: he didn’t want to stop studying the Kang Duk Won, and he moved the universe to fulfill his dreams.
Those were the kind of people I studied with at the Kang Duk Won.

The Truth Behind the Discipline of Zen Karate!

What joy do you get out of doing the Martial Arts? What strange abilities can you really discover and make real? Is there a reality that could be called Zen Karate…or zen kenpo, or zen whatever other martial art you might study?

There is a discipline referred to as zen, and the best book for describing it is Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. Past that, zen is the method by which you experience yourself, as discovered through specific discipline. My specific discipline and experience was through the martial art of Kang Duk Won karate.

The discipline is achieved through the practice of kata and bunkai, and through this discipline you learn to control your body. People who fight just because they like to fight, as in MMA, never experience this discipline. They might know how to do the martial, but they don’t know how to do the art.

And, if you can learn to control all the intricacies of your body, you realize that it took control of mind to do so. The struggle to make your body do the things that you want it to do exactly as you want comes from you making your mind do exactly what you want. And now we come to the crux of the situation.

Why doesn’t life happen the way you want it to happen? Why can’t you drive that fast car, have the cheerleader for a girlfriend, get that great job? The reason, for most people, is that they haven’t learned the secret of controlling themselves.

I am not speaking of controlling your body, nor even that weird thing you call a mind, now. I am talking about the fact of controlling you, controlling the person who tells your body and mind what to do. You.

You want to be as snazzy as Bruce Lee, as rapid as Jet Lee, able to jump through hoops better than Jackie Chan? Learn to control your body, then learn to control your mind, and, ultimately, learn the secrets of controlling yourself. Learn to control that person who is controlling your body and mind.

I advocate a study of the martial arts as the the best method for learning to control yourself. Karate, tae kwon do, krav maga, they are all valid paths for learning how to control yourself, and to see yourself as separate from body and mind. Learn to do this, dedicate yourself to the gladiatorial method that will make you have zen karate, or zen pa kua chang or zen whatever, and you will be able to control the universe, and all the fast cars and cheerleaders therein.

What if You Could Learn Real Kung Fu in a Couple of Months?

Interesting idea, eh? Sounds like one of those old Kung Fu movies, but is it possible? Could it be true that you actually have unlimited potential, and could learn a complete Kung Fu system within a couple of months?

The mind is unlimited, you know, and that means that you are unlimited. The trick of course, is to figure out a Kung Fu program that downloads into your mind with perfect sense and ease. The trick is to find a software program that really works, and that is actually designed to match your mind.

Most Martial Arts programs take a long time to learn, and there is a reason for this. Actually, there are several reasons. They all have to do with incorrect data, illogical data, missing data, and that sort of thing that crashes a computer.

First, you must realize that the martial arts are taught using ancient oral traditions. They are passed along by the use of songs and poetry. This is incredibly inefficient, and there is no telling how much data has been lost over the millennium.

Second, you must realize that the martial arts are taught by ‘monkey see monkey do.’ This is mimicry, which is the simplest form of communication in the world. It works, but does not allow for the interchange of concepts, which makes it totally inadequate for teaching Kung fu, Hapkido, Krav maga, or any art you may wish to mention.

Third, you must realize that the martial arts are taught by having students memorize random strings of data. Memorization is totally inadequate, and often has nothing to do with learning. A tape recorder can’t think, it’s as simple as that.

So to learn a complete kung fu system, or to straighten out any martial art you might know, you must change the way you look at the martial arts, and especially their training methods. You must have mimicry and memorization, but the subject has to be arranged in the correct order. This is difficult to do, for people have been enraptured, and convinced, that the old ways of learning are the best ways.

The human mind, you see, is a perfect computer, but it is prone to ‘garbage in garbage out.’ You don’t have to fix your mind to learn more, you just have to fix the programs that go into it. Doesn’t matter what Martial Arts you know, doesn’t even matter if you don’t know the martial arts, you can learn a kung fu system, or any martial art, within a couple of months, all you have to do is change your method of training.