The Return to Caveman Karate!

You Have it Too Darned Easy These Days!

I know, there ain’t nobody tougher than Matt Hughes. Until he got beat.

Oh, maybe it was Anderson Silva that was the toughest…oh. He got beat, too.

Hmm. Maybe we oughta rethink this thing of who’s tougher in the martial arts.

Come on! Grow a pair!

Here’s an interesting thing to think about. Old time martial artists had to work a full day. And I mean herding cattle, digging crops, fixing sheds, fences, houses, whatever…and then they worked out.

I mean, we have it softer now. We go to the dojo with the soft mats so we don’t hurt ourselves when we fall down.

And we take a break when our muscles get all tired, and we wipe all that horrid perspiration off our brows and drink our designer water and…

No soft mats in old times.

And, for those snidely kickers who crow, how about doing your kicks barefoot on splintered planks, planks that you had to pick up and carry to the next dojo because the North Korean communists were right over the ridge. Heck, the bombs are dropping in the next field so we’d better hurry up!

I was trained in a dojo that was pretty rude. No amenities, and we froze in the winter and dripped in the summer, and we loved it. And we kept doing it when sane people would look at us and shake their heads.

But now I am healthy, and those headshakers are out strolling in their walkers and pulling their oxygen canisters behind them. If they aren’t on their battery powered government issued SUVs for seniors.

So what is tough?

And what is smart?

It’s tough to train all day, no matter what temperature it is, on whatever terrain you’ve got. In fields, watch out for that cactus, forgot my water.

It’s smart to train so that you don’t get injured.

Now, mind you, while I have always had a certain caveman mentality about all this, I should say that I have grown a bit more pointed in my observations since moving to Monkeyland.

We have to get up early here, and we do so because there is no TV to bore us to sleep in the evening, so we go to bed early.

We eat hearty because there are no snacks.

And we work out long and hard, and are grateful for the respite from all the work.

And I want you to think about this…when you do the martial arts because you love them, not because it is conveniently located at a strip mall….

When you do martial arts because you love them, and not because your mother signed you up to a contract….

When you do martial arts even though you are tired and beat and worn, and for the simple reason that…well…there is no reason. You just do them, they become a part of you, and then it’s like they do you.

When you get out of the convenience of fantasy and into the real world of martial arts, then you start digging deep, and then you find out what they are all about.

Take a trip to the Kang Duk Won if you want some old time Karate!

Check out Buddha Crane Karate if you want some incredibly ground breaking Martial Arts.

How to Knock Out Somebody with a Good Karate Punch

If you want to knock out somebody Karate is a good tool, but it does take a bit of understanding.

First, you can knock somebody out with a karate punch to the body, and I actually recommend it. I’ll go into that first, and describe the first knock out technique.

85% of the people throw a right hand to the face. This is usually an ill conceived round house punch, and it is predictable and easily blocked. So you set up for a good, hard punch to the face, and then you drive a straight line to the gut.

Mind you, this is a thrusting punch, and you want to lock your arm and go all the way through the fellow.

Most fellows don’t have great conditioning, and so the body support system collapses, and they are down, and can even be totally unconscious. It takes a heck of a wallop, but it can work. Practice driving your punch through a heavy bag every day for an hour. Get the idea that you can’t be stopped. Watch the bag bounce away.

The other and more sure knock out, is the punch to the head. When you punch the head you are trying to rattle the brain inside the skull. To actually make it slosh back and forth so hard it flattens out on the inside of the skull, and the fellow you hit drops unconscious.

And, yes, you can thrust through the head, the same as if you thrust through the body.

But, the better method is the light flick of the karate fist. It takes no energy, is mounted by a single clear and concise thought, and it describes the ‘invisible punch,’ that Mohammed Ali used to knock out Sonny Liston. People thought that the punch didn’t connect, that Liston took a dive, but, really, Ali just flicked a fist effortlessly, you can see Liston’s head duck down slightly, and then he is just falling.

To do this punch you have to be light and effortless. You should hang a speed bag and float by it, and just snap your hand like you were snapping a dish towel. You want the bag to rattle back and forth like rocks in a can. The fellow won’t see it coming, or he will dismiss it as lightweight because there seems to be no mass behind it. But, when it connects, bingo, lights out!

In closing i will say that it takes work to make this kind of speed punch work, and I would recommend that one learn how to break bricks with good karate punches if they want to really master this karate technique.