After 50 Years He Passes his Black Belt Test!

Newsletter 972

Can You Believe It? This Guy Got a Black Belt!

The guy’s name is Russ Holder,
and his earning a black belt is definitely
one of the sweetest wins I have ever had
since I started the martial arts back in 1967.

Russ sent me an email a few years back,
it concerned the Kang Duk Won.
Kang Duk Won means ‘House for Espousing Virtue.’
I had studied kenpo for a few years,
then a friend took me to the Kang Duk Won
and the top of my head blew right off.
I had never even imagined an energy like this school.

The instructor,
Robert J. (Bob) Babich
was simply the best martial artist I have ever seen.
After 50 years experience,
and having seen and met a LOT of martial artists,
after working for the mags,
this is quite a statement.

And the people at the Kang Duk Won,
MG!
This was before the MA got popular,
there were no strip mall dojos,
and only the most diligent,
hard working,
Craziest people studied there.
I drove fifty miles for a class,
suffered bone bruises, contusions,
and definitely a few concussions.
And loved it,
and never wanted it to end.

Bob had studied with Don Buck,
and Mas Oyama,
and he conducted classes that were totally unbelievable.
And this bozo guy,
this Russ fellow,
wrote me and said,
‘Hey, we probably worked out together.’
And,
comparing notes,
it was obvious we worked out together.
He knew about the sweat,
the pain in the bones,
the unbelievable exhilaration
one of Bob’s work outs created.

So we have talked over the years,
shared stories,
taken each other back to that point in our lives
where everything mattered,
and nothing mattered.

Russ was a biker,
(is a biker!)
one of those guys that the newspapers slandered,
but who you could trust with your life.
A man as good as his word,
and worth more than a handshake.

So go here…

http://www.russellrazholder.com/eventpics/Karate_idx/2019/190529_1stDegreeBlackBeltTest.php

Poke around,
see the pics,
read the wins.
It only took Russ 50 years,
but he earned his black belt.

So many people start and quit.
So many people are in it because ‘it’s cool.’
Russ was in it for the art.
something was boiling in his bones,
and it came out after 50 years,
50 years to black belt,
but what a journey, eh?

Congrats, Russ.
You are old school and more than cool.
And I hope that people understand what you’ve done.
A humble bow to you.

Here’s a website I set up to teach the Kang Duk Won,

http://kangdukwon.com

Have a great work out!

Al

A WIN!

Hi Al,

Your Kang Duk Won orange-belt course is amazing!

People say that kids are supposed to learn faster than adults, and
that is generally true. But I have the feeling that I’m learning way
faster than when I was a kid!
It is not astonishing, I can train when I want, I can “see the
teacher” showing me” the forms and techniques as many time I want,
thus I’m more motivated and there is no culpability with missing a
lesson or anything.

Plus, Your course is clear and complete. For the first time, I came to
really understand, and see the usefulness, of what I’m doing! It is
very simple yet very complete, a true joy to go trough.  What a change
for me!

“If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”
– Bruce Lee

Winning with the Martial Arts

Newsletter 803
Make Your Day with a Martial Arts Win!

Great Afternoon!

I was teaching this morning,
and it is almost impossible to describe
how wonderful one feels
after sharing the martial arts.

Sharp,
quick,
strong,
happy.

Hey,
I thought I’d share a win.
I get wins all the time,
and if I’m a little busy,
so what…
I can still share a win,
right?

Before I do,
however,
google is figuring out
how to send newsletters into Spam folders.
So put me in your contacts,
or just go to
https://alcase.wordpress.com
and sign up.
The newsletters always end up there.

Now,
here comes a win from Jason W.

I’ve trained on two continents officially hold 1 black belt, and unofficially am that level in 2 others. I am currently working through the purple belt level in your Kang Duk Won course. I have to say that the workout is as tough as anything I did in Hapkido, but I am slowly getting there. The KDW material is filling in all the holes I had in my training. It’s really amazing how much stuff the instructors leave out or don’t even know. About a year ago I was at the place where you started in developing matrixing. I was looking for ways to bridge all my training into a logical system apart from the individual styles. I am lucky I found your site. I saved myself about 40 years of headaches! Just keep up the good work.

Thanks, Jason.
I appreciate kind words,
I love your win.

Jason is doing the course at
KangDukWon.com.

I wrote it in attempt
to keep alive all the material
I learned at the original Kang Duk Won.

So,
have a win,
and share the arts,
and if you have a win,
send it in.

If you want to beat the blues,
read the wins.

Okley donkley,

you guys have a GREAT work out,
and I’ll talk to you later.

Al

KangDukWon.com

And don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter at
https://alcase.wordpress.com

http://www.amazon.com/Matrixing-Tong-Bei-Internal-Gung/dp/1507869290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423678613&sr=8-1&keywords=tong+bei

How to Find a Martial Arts Pressure Point

Martial Arts Pressure Points

Good goldurn morning!
Or evening,
or whenever it is!
But you know that whenever it is…
all you have to do is work out.
Work out,
and the mysteries of the universe
unfold before you.
Mysteries,
such as…
pressure points.

I had an email today,
in it was a question about pressure points,
and I get this question every once in a while,
when am I going to do a book/course on pressure points.

Heck,
why write a whole book
when I can explain pressure points right here?

To understand pressure points
think electricity.

Points are like wall sockets,
for instance,
there is a pressure point
on the elbow.
It is called the funny bone,
but it’s not a bone,
its just where the nerves pass close to the surface,
and you can strike that point,
or grip it,
and cause some pain.

Then there are nerve clusters,
like switchboards.
For instance,
there is a cluster of nerves right near the armpit.
Stick a finger in there,
and you cause a severe reaction.

Now,
we could get into energy,
electricity is an analogy for electricity,
and where the lines of energy run,
and which way they go,
and so on and so on.

But you don’t need all that stuff.
And,
if you think about energy the way I am describing it here,
and what I am going to tell you to do,
then you will learn about pressure points faster
and with better result
than if you spent twenty years
examining how the meridians effect the kidney
if you strike the second toe
of your left foot
twice at midnight.

You must learn to look with your hands.

I spent about three years at the Kang Duk Won,
and during that time I hit people,
and I got hit.
Nice,
perfectly controlled strikes.
A few bruises,
a cut lip or a mouse,
but,
generally speaking,
we were practicing pretty darned fine control.
And,
we were learning to look through our fists.

Listen,
if somebody gave you a box
and asked what was in it,
you might shake it.
You could tell if what is inside is hard or soft,
liquid or solid,
and,
if you shook it long enough,
swear to god,
you could probably tell the color
of whatever is inside the box.

I know,
sounds weird.

But I kept hitting people,
and,
like most,
I could tell when I was hitting bones or muscle,
soft tissue or hard,
and I could gauge the reaction of people to these strikes.
And I could tell by my reaction
when people struck me
what was inside the body.

It’s like radar.
consider this analogy…
You come up to a house and knock on the door,
you listen.
You can hear the echo of your knock
resounding through the house.
Now,
knock so that you get the best echo,
you get that really hollow pitch
that reaches all-l-l-l the way
through the house.
Now,
knock on your partner’s chest.
Listen.
Listen to the reverberations.

Listen to the changes as you knock
on different parts of the body.
What does it sound like
listen to your fist
when you knock on a bone?
What do the lungs sound like?
Heck,
it’s like a doctor’s stethoscope,
except that you are using your own enhanced senses.
And you can tell what is in the other person’s body.

Now,
it is just a quick jump to pressure points.
Take a look at this…

I am working a pressure point.
Now I don’t know where this point came from.
I’ve never studied pressure points,
but I find that I can feel the body
and the points are ALL over the place.
Almost anywhere you touch the body
you can cause a reaction.

So let me explain something.
I just touch the body,
using the ‘listening’ I learned to do with the fist.
I listen with my fingertips,
extend my senses inside his body,
touch with authority,
and,
zingo bingo
we have a pressure point.

Is it a real pressure point?
I don’t know.
Doesn’t matter.
All that matters is this…
practice your techniques and listen with your fists.
Feel the effects as you strike your partner.
Be gentle,
for you can hear more if you are gentle
than if you are distracting yourself with a loud yell
or a huge force of radiating energy.

It’s a matter of focused awareness,
that is all…and nothing more.

But how do you focus your awareness?
Through control.
Through learning control.

and,
sorry to say,
sorry if i step on toes here,
but not through boxing or MMA,
for the purpose in those sports
is to smash and destroy.

Look,
I love to watch MMA,
and there are instances of high control in some of those games
but they are the gladiatorial games of Rome
brought to modern times,
and they don’t teach pressure points
or how to increase your awareness.

Only the classical martial arts teach that,
and those only rarely,
because most of the stuff taught today
is not aligned.
Doesn’t make sense.
Are random sequences of techniques,
and not a step by step journey
to increased awareness.

And with increased awareness
comes a knowledge of pressure points.

So my advice
to anybody who wants to learn pressure points
is this.

Work out.
Do the classical.
Align the classical with matrixing,
so that you actually understand what you are doing
and are on a step by step procedure to awareness.

Do your forms and techniques,
do them with sincerity,
do them with lots of energy,
and do them silently,
learn to listen with your fists.

Do that
and you need no further instruction.
The secret isn’t a secret,
it is just a matter of your learning to focus awareness
in a rather unique manner.

And,
if you are interested,
the video clip was from
Five Army Tai Chi Chuan.
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/five-army-tai-chi-chuan/

but it doesn’t matter which course
you start your matrixing journey on,
all that matters is that you start,
and that you persist,
and that you learn to focus
the precise and exact awareness
that you are.

Have a great work out!
Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/five-army-tai-chi-chuan/

Publication of Final Volume of Matrixing Karate Series!

Releasing the Fifth Volume of Matrixing Karate: Master

This is the official announcement that ‘Matrixing Karate: Master,’ has been released.

It was actually finished a couple of weeks ago, and it has had time to get up on Amazon, and it is in the createspace bookstore, so it’s time to make it official.

Click on the cover for the latest book in the Matrixing Karate series.

The first volume of this pivotal Karate series was dedicated to fixing basic movements. Volumes 2 – 4 were aimed at explaining matrixng principles, introducing matrixing graphs, and so on. Volumes 1 – 4 were based on the Matrix Karate course available at MonsterMartialArts.com.

The fifth and final volume is a bit different. It is based on a series of manuals written over the years, and upon the ‘Create Your Own Art’ video course.

The thing that makes this final book so important, and sets it apart from even the books it was based upon, is that it goes through the history and concepts of Matrixing and details exactly where each concept came from.

Thus, you are taken on a journey, from the first martial art studied by the author, Kenpo Karate, through each and every martial art he studied. This includes detailing concepts from separating two arts successfully (Kang Duk Won and Kwon Bup) and developing a third based on those two. (Outlaw Karate: The Secret of the One Year Black Belt). It goes into the exact influences that resulted in the development of matrixing, including the original matrixing lists from the 70s and 80s, and leads right into the creation of the Matrix graph.

One thing that may be surprising to students of the martial arts is that the author developed matrixing without the matrixing graph. Instead, he used lists of techniques, reworking the lists for every concept he encountered. This actually entailed, literally, thousands of lists. Thus, the development of the Matrixing Graph is a bonus to the martial arts of unparalleled value.

The book may be found on Amazon. It is paperback, and students of the martial arts are encouraged to get the earlier volumes first, that they may better understand the import and significance of this volume.

Subscribe to this blog in the top right sidebar.

The Seven Things My Karate Instructor Told Me

A Study in Silence and True Karate Teachings

I studied Karate for some seven years, and in that time my Karate instructor told me seven things.
I should say first that he didn’t tell me anything else.
He was a silent man, and he would sit in his office, students clustered around, and the students did all the talking. He would give a yes or no, but even a lot of that. He would just smile and enjoy.
Big difference from most people, who really don’t know when to shut up.
And, the odd thing I noticed, the more people talk the less they say; they are like radios set to some station of static and left to chatter.

‘There are many roads to the top of the mountain.’ He told me that one when I asked him which art was best.

‘A tight fist is a heavy fist.’ He was admonishing me to understand the ‘loose-tight’ concept of the fist. We of the Kang Duk Won, you see, were not encouraged to make our whole bodies rigid. The better a student was, the less tight his body was, and the more tight his fist, and only his fist, was. Surrounding that fist was silence. Emptiness. A dearth of chatter. No talk.

‘How’s work?’ He used to ask everybody that when they entered the school. It was his way to get us to start the conversation.

Once I asked him what the difference between ‘The Way,’ and a method was. He asked me if there was one, and he did it in a way to let me know that there wasn’t one. How interesting. It was the death of mysticism for me, or at least let me know that he wasn’t bent on the mystical approach.

‘I just do the forms. Everything is in the forms.’ I had asked him how he got so good, and it was part of a larger question about what he studied, how did he keep learning now that he was at the top.

‘Want a drink?’ A real ice breaker if there ever was one. But it was an ice breaker for us, not him. He was already totally and truly comfortable with himself; he lived, and he knew it, and he loved it.

‘Wham!’ Yes, he would actually say ‘Wham! when he was emphasizing a point. He would set up the technique, glancing at you to make sure you were paying attention, and then he would do the technique, liquid lightening, and say ‘Wham!’ instead of kia-ing.

That’s it.
When he taught a form he did so almost completely silently. He just showed, repeating as needed, in small sections for the white belts, and almost whole forms, and only once or twice, when we were black belts.
Past that, he instructed by example, by doing intently and with more focus than any human being I’ve ever seen.

Here’s the thing, people who talk haven’t done the forms enough, haven’t sunk their awareness into the forms deeply enough to become the forms, and to have the forms speak to them. Believe me, this is not mystical, it is hard work, and the secret to everything in life.
The simple fact is that people who teach by speaking are usually trying to explain what they don’t know. They are making up reasons to bolster their lack of understanding, and their reasons are usually wrong. I say this after almost fifty years of watching people teach.
The really sad thing is that they are going to try to explain this article, have a dialogue about it in their head.
What they really need to do is do the forms until all dialogues stop happening in their head.
They need to create silence, first of the voice, then through their forms.
This is the only way to really learn true Karate.

Releasing The Ultimate Karate Encyclopedia

Massive Karate Encyclopedia!

Hi Guys, I have released ‘The Ultimate Karate Encyclopedia.’

I began Martial Arts in 1967. I studied every martial art I could, became a writer for the mags, had my own column in Inside Karate, and over these years (nearly fifty now) I kept notes, compiled books, researched systems, and so on.

One of the things I did was go through an evolution of Karate. This included five specific martial arts, which are presented in the following five volumes.

Pan Gai Noon ~ From Kung Fu to Karate (Volume One)
Kang Duk Won ~ The Korean Contribution (Volume Two)
Kwon Bup ~ American Power (Volume Three)
Outlaw Karate ~ Secret of the One Year Black Belt
Buddha Crane Karate ~ The Birth of Matrixing.

During this time I experienced a variety of writing and graphic styles.

I actually began my first books when black and white photos were cheap, and I cut the photos out and pasted them by hand.

In Buddha Crane I used an Appleworks software program, which mean that I drew hundreds of figures using nothing more than lines and arcs.

And I traveled through a progression of Poser programs.

This will give each volume a distinctive, and sometimes historical flavor.

And, to be honest, a sometimes messy flavor. Sorry about that, but that’s history.

Martial Arts wise, I didn’t study those arts in that specific format. I studied them haphazardly, then put them together so that they made sense.

You will have seen some of the work in some booklets I published many years ago, but not too much. Most of this stuff has either been available only in PDF, and usually is bundled into one of the courses I sell at MonsterMartialArts(dot)com.

You will find that the material does progress nicely through form and technique, presenting an fairly accurate evolution of form and technique. It starts out with Kung Fu inspired Karate, and travels all the way through to Matrixing concepts.

When you look at the books, choose wisely. If you are a long time practitioner of Karate, for instance, you might find the Kang Duk Won interesting, but, then again, you might have done enough that it isn’t.

That all said, I recommend starting with Pan Gai Noon and moving forward. It is a solid start, and as you go through the books – and I expect you to do, not just read – you will find yourself evolving with the art, and understanding MUCH more about the martial arts.

And, I want to caution you, this is not an encyclopedia of form and technique. It is NOT, except where VERY pertinent, a bunch of talk.

As I said, five volumes, and taken together there are 820 pages, 79,000 words, and 1,618 graphics.

That’s a lot of writing, and a lot of information, and should keep you busy for a while.

You’ll have to look the volumes up separately on Amazon, I don’t have a central page for them all yet. Type in the name of the book + Al Case. For instance ‘Pan Gai Noon Al Case.’

That should work.

Have a great work out!
Al Case

New Kwon Bup Karate Book

Karate Encyclopedia Going Great Guns!

Got a new martial arts book out.
Actually,
it was available in Evolution of an Art,
but I couldn’t get it on Kindle,
and I finally managed to get a real, live paperback version!
So
click on the side bar cover image on the Monster, or just go to

http://www.amazon.com/Kwon-American-Karate-Alton-Case/dp/1494995549/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391376085&sr=8-1&keywords=kwon+bup+al+case

Now,
a few words about what Kwon Bup is.

When I went to the Kang Duk Won
it was pretty unique.
The owner,
Bob Babich,
had walked on on tournaments,
caused a ruckus that did,
everybody wanted to push the tournament,
a lot of community spirit,
and Bob just stood up and walked out,
and all his students followed him.
Why?
Because it was bogus.
Not real.
Decisions made by favoritism,
decisions made by people
who wouldn’t know a real technique if they saw it.

And,
because of this and other things,
such as the fact that Bob taught outlaw bikers,
gave him a ‘bad’ rep.

And outlaw school.
a rogue school.
Only bad people go there.
Yet,
on any good day,
you would see people from other martial arts schools
come down to see the class.
I was shocked,
one day,
when Ralphie Vallederez (sp, sorry)
the guy who had won the California Karate Tournament one year,
and who happened to be the big gun at my Kenpo school,
showed up to watch a class.

And,
for those who think we were crazies,
unwashed and disrespectful,
Bob studied with Don Buck,
who happened to be Mas Oyama’s favorite American student.
And when you walked into the dojo,
you bowed,
you were polite,
and you never lost your temper,
period.

It was quite the sight,
to see all these Hell’s Angeles,
standing so polite,
talking to Bob.

Not because he was a brutal a-hole who would knock the crap out of you.
But because when he started getting more polite,
you perked up,
something was wrong.
When Bob was upset
(almost never)
he would speak softer and softer,
almost whispering,
could’t hear him,
but you suddenly felt like your bowels were going to loose.

I remember one time
I was on the left side of Bob
during a class,
and Mud Car was ont he right.
Mud Car was our resident crazy.
He was just loopy,
looney tunes.
I’ll tell you about what a wacko he was some time,
but
during that class,
Bob really into it,
pushing,
and every feeling the push,
getting the pure art
worked into their bones,
really in heaven,
and suddenly Mud Car says,
“Hey Bob,
I have a pain right here,
on my shin.
Doesn’t hurt a lot,
but it comes and goes,
pinches,
really.
Do you know what I can do about that?”

POOF!
The magic evaporated,
everything went.
The plug was pulled and the intensity disappeared.

And,
believe me,
this really was a spiritual moment crushed.

And Bob turns to me and snarls,
“You could hit it with a lead pipe!”

He didn’t say it to Mud Car,
because it would have been wasted,
and maybe because Mud Car deserved to be knocked down,
and Bob wasn’t that kind of guy.

But I,
feeling the rage of that moment,
was absolutely frozen.
Couldn’t move.
Not terrified,
just so stunned I was incapable.

Bob continued,
and I managed to somehow move,
after everybody,
not even knowing what I was doing,
just copying somebody,
stunned and brain dead.

I never wanted to see him mad,
ever.

And,
that was the only time I ever saw the tip of that iceberg.
I saw him talk soft,
and that wasn’t so bad.

One time I used poor control,
after class he came up and spoke softly to me,
“Your control wasn’t good.”

Man,
I turned into a blithering idiot,
I could feel the weight of the world on me.
“I’m sorry,
I got excited, I–”
He stopped me with,
“Don’t worry. Just watch yourself.”

I have watched myself for forty years because of that whisper.

Anyway,
I could go on and on,
really golden times,
but…

After I left the Kang Duk Won
I started a project
of recording the art.
But,
after teaching for a while,
and realizing certain things,
and coming across variations of the Kang Duk Won,
I realized that I had been learning two arts.
One was the Kang Duk Won.
The other I called Kwon Bup.
It was the art practiced by Bob,
developed by Bob,
and put into the Kang Duk Won.

Now,
it is said that only a person with several decades experience
can hope to make an art.
And then,
that person has to be of rare quality.

Bingo and bingo.
Aside from a politeness
that made gentlemen out of Hell’s Angels,
Bob had the most immaculate technique I have ever seen
and I have seen a lot in nearly fifty years of studying
every martial art I could.

So I wrote the Kwon Bup book.
It is the forms and techniques
of the best martial artist I have ever seen.
This is a guy who could thrust his finger through a board,
and not break it,
but leave a hole.

Very few people have ever done that,
and I don’t know of any in America.

So,
now you know what I am pushing,
higher abilities,
politeness,
a very rarified realm of Martial Arts.

And,
I’ve got a few more books coming out
in the next couple of months.
The ones I’m working on right now,
however,
are in the vein of evolution of an art.

Pan Gai Noon for the china to Okinawan connection
Kang Duk Won for the pure Karate pre-Funakoshi
Kwon Bup for the American translation
Outlaw Karate for work I did on synthesizing KDW and KB,
and Buddha Crane for the Matrixing breakthrough.

A complete history,
not in talk,
but in technique.
An encyclopedia for the faithful.

Okily donkey,
there you go,
hope you like it…

http://www.amazon.com/Kwon-American-Karate-Alton-Case/dp/1494995549/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391376085&sr=8-1&keywords=kwon+bup+al+case

Now,
while you’re looking at that,
I’m getting back to work.
Have a great work out!

Al

Are Old Time Martial Arts Better?

Was It Really Better in the Old Days?

You always hear the term about ‘the good, old days.’ And, in the martial arts, this is really true. I always hear people thinking back to when men were men, and sheep were…you know.

But it is a legitimate question.

On one hand, you have the great arts coming out of the orient. I was studying back in the sixties and seventies, so the main arts were judo and karate, with a smattering of Kung Fu. We studied in in dirty dojos and did manic drills. We brooked no nonsense, and we were patient with beginners.

On the other hand, you have designer water, contracts and classes in the Y, at the gym, down on the corner, and in every friend’s garage.

So, my personal opinion is that the martial arts were better. I started at a McDojo, then went to a classical korean Karate school (Kang Duk Won).

The McDojo was the state of art to come, with thick mats and air conditioning and tournament freestyle and contracts and good looking chickies.

The Kang Duk Won had a mat that had been ripped and stitched so many times it was like walking across Frankenstein’s face. The bag went to the cobbler’s every week. We packed out own bags for better texture and weight and resistance to our endless kicks. Warn’t no chickies allowed.

The McDojo had shiny trophies, high fives for points, and you pressed your gi before class.

The Kang Duk Won you did hundreds of kicks, you didn’t wash your gi, and you couldn’t press the clutch down because your shins were so badly bruised.

In modern times we have scientific achievements that enable one to get more strength in the muscle.

Of course, modern times has a lot of junk science and internet gimmicks, so…?

Now, it’s pretty obvious which way I am biased. I was there, I don’t think alzheimer’s has obscured my memories of those old work outs, and I have seen modern schools that teach 18 arts on their front sign, but are a jumble of bags and exercise equipment inside.

But, nobody made me God, and if you think otherwise, then go ahead and tear me a new one. Heck, I might even learn something!

And, if you are old school like me, then feel free to leave your memory. Heck, it might just become legend!

If you want to read more about old time martial arts and the Kang Duk Won, try KangDukWon.com!

Trying to Shut Down a Karate School..and Getting Shut Down Yourself!

The Black Belt Who Tried to Shut Down Kang Duk Won Karate School

Speaking of Black Belts, I once met one who had actually walked into the Kang Duk Won and tried to shut that Karate School down.

I met him at the place I worked, a plastics factory in Sunnyvale, when I discovered that he knew Karate.

The Man who couldn’t be shut down.

We talked, and he told me that he had been made a 3rd degree black belt because he could ‘fight so good.’

I know he knew one form, the horse stance form, but I don’t think he knew any others.

He claimed that he knew the Mu Duk Kwon, or the Oo Duk Kwon, or something like that. It’s been a long time, and we only talked about it briefly.

So he had a black belt, and he said that he and his teacher used to go to karate schools, sign up for a free, introductory class, and then pick a fight with the instructor and beat him up.

True.

He named several karate schools, one of which I knew had gone out of business.

Then he told me about the time he walked into the Kang Duk Won to get a free class and shut it down.

This interested me, because this was my school.

He and his teacher walked in, and were greeted politely. They talked for a few minutes, but the teacher, Bob Babich, didn’t say much, and his eyes started squinting, and he started staring at them.

That’s it, just getting intense. No warning, ‘no howdie do what art ya study,’ just…a look. A look that penetrated right through the two fellows.

The two fellows began to feel uneasy, then downright queasy.

This had never happened to them before, and suddenly, the teacher decided they should leave.

After hearing the story I decided to do some checking of my own, so I went to the top black belt, who had actually been described as present at the time of the confrontation. His name was Ron, and he described the incident, without prompting, exactly as the black belts had.

He said that Bob Babich (the owner of the karate school) had suddenly gotten real tight. Just looked at those two fellows so intently that even Ron wanted to back away. And he was just an onlooker, off to the side.

Now, interestingly, I always remembered that story, and years later I had my own karate school.

One day this fellow came in, walked up to my partner and started talking.

I saw it a mile away. I saw it in the way the guy was twisting himself for the punch. The way he was mentally setting himself. The way he was edging the conversation.

He fully intended to cold cock my partner.

I moved in from the side and took a position. When he punched I was going to hit him. And I could feel this manic glee, and I had a vision of this fellow flying through the wall and into the accounting office next door.

I was about to tap into my art big time.

He started to move, and I shifted.

He looked at me.

Back to my partner, he started to move, and I started to move.

And this happened a couple more times, and the guy gave it up.

I had split his intention, and destroyed his purpose, simply by understanding it, and moving into it.

Not as good as Bob, but it certainly stopped a fight and saved my partner.

Interesting people, these fake black belts, they think it is about fighting, when it is not about fighting at all.

Have you looked into studying the Kang Duk Won yourself? This is simply the best online Karate course in the world, filled with videos, rare books, and some pretty darn amazing instruction.

This has been a post about a Black Belt trying to shut down a Karate School.

The Merger of Tongbei Kung Fu with Karate

How Tongbei Influenced Karate

The two styles of Karate are Shorei and Shorin. One of the styles of Karate is for large people, and the other is for small people. Another way to look at it is one of the styles of karate is for heavy handed power, and the other is for quick, light people.

To be honest, the distinctions between these two martial arts variations have largely disappeared. This is because, in this writer’s opinion, there has been a lack of teacher ability, and a general obsession for power. This has resulted in a loss of the quick footed style, and a degradation of actual power in the heavy footed art. 

Tongbei blocking drill done Karate style.

I first began martial arts in Kenpo, back in the 60s, and the teacher (Rod Martin) was short and light footed. As Kenpo was more intent on hand motion, and less on stances, there was virtually no development of power. Speed, however, was there aplenty. The best teachers had a natural speed.

When I went to the Kang Duk Won I encountered tongbei speed and power. Tongbei refers to internal Kung Fu, much like Tai Chi Chuan, and it had been injected into the Kang Duk Won.

The teacher at this school (Bob Babich) was short and fast. He had the same natural speed, but there was a difference between the two teachers.

The Kenpo teacher was quick and fast, and when he hit you you knew you were hit. Fine and good, what everybody expected from Karate.

The Kang Duk Won teacher had the same quickness and speed, but everything was totally different.

When he moved there was a whiplike motion to him, and you could feel the very air crackle with power.

He was speedy and light, perfect for a light art, but he was injecting Tongbei power into it, internal power.

As I said, the air would crackle with his motion, and when he stomped his foot to emphasize a technique you could feel the floor shake…and the timbers in the building would actually shiver.

Further, he had a sixth sense in everything he did. He would anticipate and move before, seriously before, any attack. He had immaculate control, able to actually touch your eyeball with his finger in the middle of freestyle. Most important, and probably crucial to it all, he was polite.

I know, doesn’t seem to fit, but there it was, and it took me decades to figure out the significance here.

He was doing less for more.

He was exerting less and less effort, and getting more and more power.

And this made him not hungry for power, but polite.

When I explain this to people, even quoting The Tao to them (Do nothing until nothing is left undone, etc.), they don’t understand.

The large misfortune is that I am large person, over six feet.

I tapped into the tongbei power, but in a different manner than Bob. I can do things, but because of my frame I can’t do them the same as Bob, and I have different abilities. It makes it difficult to teach in the same manner as he.

Still, the Tongbei influence is alive and well, just manifesting differently in a different person with a different body.

The good news is that I wrote down many of the pertinent exercises we were doing at the Kang Duk Won.

Some of these had no names, we just did them.

Most of them I have never seen in any other school. They simply don’t seem to exist outside the Kang Duk Won of the 60s and 70s, nor in any style of Kung Fu I have seen.

I often wonder if they were a simple invention of the fellow who ‘invented’ the Kang Duk Won. A fellow name of Joon Byung In. He was at the crux, he learned Kung Fu, then twisted it into the style of Karate he learned.

Well, it is something to wonder about.

Anyway, I wrote down many of these exercises, put them in a book called ‘Amazing Fighting Drills.’ It is possible to get that tong bei power, which is no longer taught in any style of Karate I have seen, if one reads that book and does the drills listed in it.

The person would have to change his style of Karate, eliminate the obsession for (false) power that has become the hallmark of Karate, but it is possible.

I make no guarantees.

I put that book up for sale, and sold almost no copies.

The problem was probably in my marketing, maybe even in the title itself.

What if I had called it something like, ‘Tongbei Fighting Secrets of the Ancient Masters,’ or something else like that. Hmmm. I’ll have to think further on that.

And, if I was really good at marketing, maybe that would have helped.

I eventually took that book off the market, let it gather dust while I thought about it. Then I put in as a freebie on the course offered at KangDukWon.com.

That’s where you’ll find it. Three or four belt levels along, in the best online Karate course in the world.

This has been an article about two styles of Karate and the Tongbei Solution.