Karate Fighting Footwork

Man,

what a gorgeous day!

Got up at 6,

worked out at 7

and everything gets better.

Hey,

a work out ALWAYS makes everything better.

So there are lots of footworks in the martial arts.

Karate has lots of footworks.

Unfortunately,

the forms don’t usually show them,

so the student doesn’t get the real education.

Usually he gets a straight forward step,

or a spin to the rear,

or something like that

which has little relationship to fighting.

There are two specific footworks

that we used for fighting at the Kang Duk Won.

One is in the forms,

but you’ll never recognize it.

Been hidden pretty good.

The other one is not in the forms,

but we used to use it all the time.

One footwork is the ‘Switch Step.’

The other is the ‘Triangle Step.’

The switch step you bring your front foot back 

so it is next to the rear foot, 

then step forward with the foot that was in the rear.

Now,

this is a tricky one

and requires exquisite timing.

but it real works.

The opponent thinks you’re moving,

but you’re really just setting your legs

for the attack and…

BAM!

You move in…and with the other side,

a side he’s not set up for.

It is best used for making small

forward and back movements.

Subtle movements when you don’t want to reveal 

directions and intentions.

It really messes with his anticipation of distance and timing.

The triangle step is your side to side movement.

the specific triangle might have your right foot forward.

You bring your right foot back and to the side,

and move your rear foot to the position

previously occupied by the right foot.

The problem is that people start moving

their feet forward and back,

and don’t realize it is a side to side movement.

The switch step we just used,

no drills or forms illustrated it.

We just watched our instructor,

that’s what he did,

so we did it,

and it worked.

The triangle step is actually in the forms,

but it has been obscured.

The last move of pinan four,

for instance.

Don’t step forward or back,

or switch feet…

do a triangle step,

and suddenly that move 

will reveal fighting potential in a form.

Now this is a bare hint of the things

I’m writing about in the book I’m working on.

There’s a lot of this stuff

as I lay out the forms

in a manner that is different,

and yet illustrates a core workability

that is often missing,

disguised, and obscured

in most classical karate systems.

Of course

you’re going to have to do the forms.

You‘re going to have to compare and contrast

the old with the new

to understand what is happening.

I’ll tell you right now,

this is not a book for people

who want to read about

and not do the work.

This book is only for people

who want to wade in,

get lost in the pages,

scratch their heads,

kick and punch the alligators swarming in their own heads,

and come the other side of the swamp.

One thing I will tell you, though…

there is matrixing in this book

and if you haven’t studied it,

the basic course on matrixing

will save your bacon.

It is ten times easier to study the classical

if you have studied matrix karate.

I have always told people,

do matrixing,

but DON’T put the classical aside.

There’s gold in those forms,

and hopefully,

with matrixing and this forthcoming book,

you’ll find it.

Probably a couple of months now

until I publish.

And say a prayer for poor Ted,

he’s right in the thick of 400 pages,

well over a thousand illustrations.

As soon as he’s out of the swamp

I’ll throw the rest of you guys in.

Here’s the obligatory ad for Matrix Karate…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/

Everybody…

HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!

Al

And don’t forget to check out the interview

BTW

I’ve got nothing but five star reviews on 

The Science of Government.

It’s really nothing more than applying matrixing to politics.

Politics is the justification for insanity by a group.

Here’s the link…

Beat Corona with Martial Arts!

Newsletter 996

Two for One Corona Martial Arts Special

Hey! hey!
How you all doing?
Lot of people got some time off
and you know what that means…
Training Time!

It’s funny,
I get people who ask me
if I’m worried about the Corona virus.
“Why?” I ask.
“You’re over 70!
You’re at risk!
One out of 10 people over 70…DIE!”

I’m gonna die,
okay,
I’ve known that all along,
everybody dies…
so what?
What is important is not that I’m going to die,
but the quality of my life before I die.

Did I work out every day?
Did I use the lessons of the martial arts?
Was I polite?
Did I make friends instead of enemies?
That’s the important stuff.

And,
news flash for the bozos
who want to get into the death stuff…
after working out every day
for more than 50 years,
I’m in fair good shape.
In fact,
I would put me in the 10-20 age group for risk.
That’s what happens when you work out.
That’s what the martial arts do for you.

So,
let me ask you…
have you worked out today?
Did you work out yesterday and the day before and…so on?
And, if you didn’t…
why not?
Why the F not?
What good is your life
if you don’t make yourself strong,
compassionate,
and learn how to enjoy your life
and the lives of everybody around you?

I guess you can see where this is going.
Yep.
Anybody who orders a course
between now and March 21
can get another one of the same or lesser price.
Two for one.
Yep,
the Corona Martial Arts special,
to encourage all you lazy couch potatoes
to be all the Bruce Lee you can be.

Just put in an order,
then email me at aganzul@gmail.com,
tell me what course you want,
got to be of equal value.
You order a $30 course
you can’t order a $50 course as your second course,
got to be a $30 course (or less).

This is my present to those of you
who want to survive not just the Corona thing,
but for life!
If you want to be stronger,
smarter,
have more friends,
be the one people look to in an emergency….

Two for One until March 31st.
April 1st and i will just write you back and say…Don’t be an April Fool!

Here’s a link

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/kung-fu-package/

Have a great work out!
Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/kung-fu-package/

Odd Energy Concepts in the Martial Arts

Newsletter 990

Odd Things About Energy in Tai Chi Chuan and Karate

I don’t talk about energy
in the martial arts
(in Tai Chi Chuan, Karate, etc.)
as much as I should.
Some people think energy (chi) is bogus.
That’s okay,
they can bail this newsletter and pick up the next one.
But here’s some stuff about chi in the martial arts.

I was talking to a student the other day,
and we got into postures
when you are just talking to people.
We had just finished some form
and she was standing,
and she clasped her hands in front of her.
Yikes!
I pointed out that when you do a TCC form
energy is moving.
When you clasp your hands
or otherwise touch your body
you turn the energy into the body
and the creation of chi stops.
Simply,
it goes into circuit,
instead of flowing outward,
which the form trains the energy to do.
So after a form,
you should simply stand,
let the chi exude from your fingertips,
and swell from your body.

This concept relates to postures
when in simple communication with somebody.
She understood that when you fold your arms
you are indicating,
on a ‘subliminal’ level,
you are closed to communication
When you open your arms you are open to communication
And there are variations and versions of this
‘opening’ and ‘closing’ of the body
that people do in simple communication.
But this opening and closing relates to the circles of the arms
and the flow of energy
when doing the martial arts
and specifically Tai Chi

In Aikido we used to do a ‘two step’ movement across the mat,
pretending chi was flowing out of our out flung arms.
Then we tried to keep that flow moving as we entered into techniques.

In karate we ‘pump’ the energy in the body.
we build it in the fists.
Which is an oddity,
because closing the fists actually stops the flow of chi.
But you need closed fists,
but you should,
every so often,
do your forms with open hands,
and explore the different sensations and energies you get.

In Tai Chi you move chi through the body, yes,
but it should eventually exit the body in most most postures.
Here is how chi works in a few of the stances.

slant flying
two ‘horizontal’ circles of the arms
the chi contracts and expands as if you are holding a ball of chi in your arms
this is very close to the tan tien.

brush knee
with roll back it is as if you are pulling a rope
then pushing with a palm
a circle in front of you with the blocking hand
a circle (pulsing oval) of the pushing arm next to you
(feels like a locomotive chuffing)

fair lady
the front hand makes a circle
the rear hand (oval) comes through the circle made.
Something interesting here,
fair lady was originally called
‘fair lady weaves at the shuttles.’
it was a series of plucking motions,
resembling a lady weaving at the shuttles.
Martial techniques changed the original motion
into a more shaolin or pa kua version.
specifically,
‘tiger comes out of the cave.’
You sink and then corkscrew upward,
one arm creating the mouth of a cave,
the second hand coming out of the cave.

I mention this last because martial arts names
especially Chinese,
resemble certain images,
and you have to explore the images
and the changes of images,
to get to the truth of how energy works.

So there are three postures.
first you look at what kind of circles are involved
in the hand motions.
Then you explore whether the energy
expands and contracts,
whether it fits an imagery
(fair lady can be done like a locomotive chuffing,
very interesting)
and you do a bunch of other things.
when you strike you should…
push with legs, turn waist, circle (pump) the arms.
And,
of course,
you should practice relaxing
and focusing on the smoothness of your motion.
It helps to imagine perfect circles
(ovals, spirals, etc.)

And,
BREATHING.
Probably the most important thing of all
when it comes to creating energy.
Breath in when the body contracts,
out when it expands.
Breath to the tan tien,
then sink the energy down the legs.
Breath as if into the body part striking
or getting struck.

And,
there is a lot more.
Usually small things
that create a big wholism.
What the hands do the energy in the tan tien will mimic.
Shoulders MUST be over hips.
turn the body as one,
all pieces of the body must support one intention,
and so on.

Honestly,
if I made a simple list,
it would be a thousand items.
but,
doing the form year in and year out
IF YOU UNDERSTAND THE TECHNIQUES
and you will figure them out in 20 or 30 years
or maybe 40.

Now you see why I obsess on matrixing so much.
People should, and can, learn faster.
If you do a form for 30 or so years,
if you understand the techniques,
you figure it all out.
With matrixing you can cut the time by tens.
Instead of 30 years,
3 years.

But there is money in stretching the time of learning out.
Car contracts are a big thing,
most schools can’t survive without them.
Sad,
when you think about people who want self defense,
and are sold,
literally,
a bill of goods.

But when martial arts started up,
over the ages,
people needed to be put in combat.
So they needed to be taught quick,
the teacher couldn’t mess up,
or make mistakes,
lives depended on him.
He didn’t worry about getting a student on contract for several years,
he simply taught fast,
knocked heads and you’d better learn,
or else.
Armies of pheasants were created in months, even weeks.

The US army is based on learn quick and fast.
We turn out the best soldieres in the world in a matter of months.
Can you imagine the US army with such a viewpoint
as is presented in the martial arts today?
‘It will take you three years to complete basic training.’
We wouldn’t be the best military in the world
with that kind of thought.
Yet that is EXACTLY the kind of thought
that goes along with the martial arts.

I can teach a guy to fight in a month.
Fight well,
survive in a real fight,
no problemo.
But fighting isn’t the martial arts.
If you read this newsletter again you’ll see
that I’m not talking about fighting…
I’m talking about the body as an energy system.
I’m not talking about muscles,
I’m talking about energy as a viable and useful tool.

Well,
I’ve talked long enough.
You’ve either got it,
or you aren’t going to get it.

There is more to life than push ups and fights.
There are philosophies,
energy systems,
methods of thought,
strategies,
ways of living
far beyond what you ever thought…Horatio.

So here’s the obligatory ad.
Have fun,

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

Or try the whole package…

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

and have a great work out!

Al

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

Or try the whole package…

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

 

Five Ways the Martial Arts Became Degraded

Newsletter 949

Five Steps of How the Martial Arts Failed!

I’ve spoken before of this,
some of my advertising is aimed at this,
so let me detail some of the exact steps
of how the martial arts degraded.

FIRST,
PROTECTIVE GEAR
One day the head instructor walked in
had a box of protective gear.
So we geared up,
and started hurting each other.
But we hadn’t been injuring each other
before!
Simply,
putting on the gear made us think
that we had to hit harder to have effect,
and,
we thought,
‘oh, we can hit harder,
they have protective gear on,
so it won’t hurt.’
But it did hurt,
and we started getting sprains and deep bruises,
even breaks,
so the protective gear didn’t work,
but the head instructor kept demanding we wear it.
Protective gear meant more money for him.
Interestingly,
protective gear works now,
but that’s because people aren’t teaching the real art,
which you will understand
as you continue with this little essay.

SECOND
EXPANSION
When I started martial arts,
there were maybe a dozen schools.
As the number of schools multiplied,
hard core martial artists stopped coming together
in the few schools,
and were spread out in the many schools.
in the whole SF bay area.

THIRD
KIDS
As the number of schools grew
instructors couldn’t pull in enough people,
but parents were willing to enroll their kids
at an astounding rate.
The art was quickly watered down,
drills were changed,
and protective gear was sold.

FOURTH
TOURNAMENTS
Tournaments were a wonderful way
to enroll people and keep them enrolled.
Unfortunately,
a technique that wins in a tournament
bears little resistance to a real technique.
Also,
there was grown a false sense of ‘penetration’
when it came to striking people.
My own instructor took the to a tournament
this was back in the late sixties,
and walked out mid-tournament.
The techniques were simply so degraded
he couldn’t encourage his students to learn them.

FIFTH
POLITICS
Back in the very early 70s
my instructor was sitting at his desk,
and two Koreans walked in.
They told him that
The Korean Martial Arts Association was being disbanded,
and if he joined the new Taekwondo association
he would be promoted two belts
(he was sixth black at the time)
and every black belt in his school would be promoted one belt,
and they would all get to learn brand new forms!
Forms that would replace the old ones,
which, according to these two Koreans,
were old and didn’t work.
Interestingly enough, this same association,
since that time,
has gone through two or three new sets of forms,
and there are even people who have returned
to those bad old forms
taught at schools
such as the Kang Duk Won.
This was politics,
TKD, sad to say,
was an invention by a military general
so Korea could have its own
more national art.
And so what if it didn’t work.

SUMMARY
So,
that’s the truth.
If I have stepped on toes,
sorry,
but I was there.
I saw this stuff first hand,
I experienced this stuff first hand.
It really happened.
And if you don’t like what I have said,
do some research,
if you can find histories that weren’t written
by some school for advertising,
you will come to the conclusion
that I am not kidding.

Now,
does that make the martial art bad?
No.
People have overcome bad training,
politics,
tournaments,
and other misfortunes.
The art is about people,
and the deeper a person delves into an art,
the more sure it is
that they will find the truth of the martial arts.

But there are systems which are ALL messed up.
and which are being sold as the next great thing.
And they CAN be fixed.
But you need a bit of matrixing.

But,
I don’t want to push matrixing here,
I want to push history,
I want to push actual,
physical martial arts.

I wrote five books,

Pan Gai Noon
Kang Duk Won
Kwon Bup
Outlaw Karate
Buddha Crane Karate

You can find them on Amazon.
Or,
better,
if you go through the website
you can find video courses in which I show these arts.
These courses often have the books (in PDF)
bundled in with the videos.
That’s your best deal.

Now,
I am not pushing remembering dates,
who taught who and why it matters.
I am pushing an actual progression through history,
China to Okinawa to Japan to America…
…to matrixing.
You can actually do the very techniques of which I speak,
you can see how they evolved from art to art,
country to country,
concept to concept.
Kung Fu to Karate to Matrixing.
And that is better than reading a thousand encyclopedias.
This is a PHYSICAL history of the martial arts.
This is the martial arts being written on your bones,
not a bunch of significant words on paper,
which may or may not be important,
but are definitely slanted to whoever writes them.
Better to do than talk about.

Okay,
end of push,
thanks for listening.

Here’s a list of some of my books,
including the ‘historical’ encyclopedia.

http://learnkarateonline.net/karate-books/

Have a great work out!
Al

http://learnkarateonline.net/karate-books/

Here’s a great win…

A WIN!

Al,

I have gone through many of your courses and am currently going through blinding steel and eventually on my way to forty monkeys. I recently went through your book Matrixing Tong Bei. Several things clicked and the martial arts universe opened up after finishing that book.

Respectfully,
Tyler K

Little Girl Uses Dreams to Catch Two Crooks

Newsletter 941
Catching the Crooks

When my grandmother was a little girl
the family was very religious,
went to church every Sunday.

One Sunday her younger sister was sick.
The family decided that just this once
she could stay home.
Sniffling and snuffling,
the young girl went to her room
at the end of the second floor hall
and went to sleep.

Shortly after the rest of the family went to church,
a car pulled up in front of the house.
Two rough looking fellows got out,
looked around,
and hurried up the walk.

In the house they quickly checked for occupants.
One fo the crooks ascended the stairs
and walked down the hallway,
looking in every room.
He stopped right before he reached the young girl’s room.
Heck, there wasn’t anybody home.
He turned around and helped his friend ransack the hosue.

They took jewelry,
silverware,
anything that wasn’t nailed down.
They put the swag in several pillow cases
they had taken out of a closet.
They walked down the front walk
got in their car and drove away.

An hour later the family returned home.
Shocked,
they went through the house,
the mother broke down in tears
and the father called the cops.

The cops came and looked for clues,
and talked to everybody.
But everybody had been at church,
nobody had seen anything.

‘I suppose it’s a good thing nobody was home,’
said the officer.
‘But somebody was home!
Our little girl is sick,
she’s sleeping upstairs.’

The cops asked to speak to the young girl.
The young girl was feeling better,
but she still sniffed and snuffled
when she walked into the room.
And she wasn’t surprised to find out
the house had been burglarized.

‘Oh, yeah,’
she said.
‘I saw them.’

‘But you were sleeping!’
protested her mother.

‘I know,
but I saw them in my dreams.
I watched them take everything.’

One of the cops snorted.
The older one,
the chief,
merely said,
‘Tell me what you saw.’

So my grandmother’s younger sister
told of the crooks driving up,
how they looked around,
how they checked the house for people,
but stopped before they reached her room.
She then described,
step by step,
how the crooks went through the house,
what they took,
how they carried it out the front door.

At the end she said,
‘When they reached their car
one of the men turned around,
saw me looking out of my window,
and he waved to me.
Then he got in the car and they drove away.

The family figured the girl had been hallucinating,
had made up a dream to match what had happened.
The younger cop thought it was a crock.
The older cop asked her to describe the two men.
She did,
and the old cop said,
‘That’s those two boys living on the outskirts of town.’

The cops went off,
broke down the door of the shack the two men were living in
and arrested them.
All of the stolen goods were recovered,
except for a few pieces of silverware
that had already been melted down.

The two crooks confessed,
and their descriptions of their crime
matched everything the younger sister had said,
except for the waving of the hand at the end.
One of the crooks said,
‘I would wave at nobody I had just stole from!’

Now,
this story is absolutely true.
It happened to my grandmother,
who relayed it to my brother and sister and I.
A bit of the Case family lore.

So why do I tell you now?
Because there is something very important you should understand
if you are ever going to learn the truth of matrixing,
and the truth of the martial arts.

There is a sixth sense,
and there are abilities in your dreams,
and they exist,
but they only exist for you
if you believe that they can exist.
Don’t believe and you never get those abilities,
believe and you will find them.

I was raised in a family where we believed in such things,
in the power of imagination and hard work,
where people could have special abilities
if they worked hard enough.

Many of you out there know what I say,
you probably have your own family legends,
your own experiences in imagination and abilities.
But for those of you who are weak in such things,
read this story again,
and realize that this is the stuff of martial arts.

You can learn them fast,
you can have intuition,
you can be superior.
Really,
there is nothing that you can’t do.

You just have to believe.

Have a great work out!
Al

Tai Chi is great for developing intuition and abilities,
here’s the link, and below it a great win!

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/2ba-matrix-tai-chi-chuan/

A WIN!

Al,
Great news! I have been working with the Matrix Tai Chi basics performing each one dozens of times and holding the finished posture for three breaths each. This has made my Five Army form so much better! My power has increased in my karate forms as well. Just need to work on Shaolin Butterfly to get the basics down for the Bagua stuff. Well hope you’re having a great 2016 so far.
Justin

Karate Blocking Transforms Martial Artist

Newsletter 807

How Karate Blocks Make You Better

May you have the best work out of your life.
Really.

Cover of volume 1 of Kindle version of Matrix Karate ~ click on cover to find out more

Speaking of blocks…
When I was in my teens I was studying Kenpo.
I learned all these neat tricks,
was excited about fighting,
and I kept having these weird ideas about strategy
and how the martial arts were shaped.
Oddly,
I couldn’t make these strategies work.
I could fight well,
but these things I was thinking about,
they just eluded me in combat.
And it was because there wasn’t much
in the way of blocking,
in Kenpo.

In my twenties I joined the Kang Duk Won,
I bashed my arms for years,
and I learned about pain.
I learned that pain is a warning device.
And it was all because of blocks.

Funny.
Most people won’t use a real block in freestyle.
I can,
and do if I am teaching somebody
and there is a lesson in it.
But it’s easier to just hit the other fellow
than it is to block.

But I never would have learned
how to slide in and hit somebody
if I hadn’t learned how to block.

I always remember the specific technique
where it all came home.
It was the technique
from the first move of Batsai.
Batsai is spelled a few different ways,
but it means
‘defending a fortress.’

In that technique I had to do three blocks.
And I had to do these three blocks with hips twists,
I had to twist the hips
to align the body
so it could support the impact
without collapsing.
And I had to do it faster
than somebody could throw three punches at me.

For months I tried to get that technique.
I would practice it and practice it,
get guys to give me that attack,
but I just couldn’t move my body fast enough.

One day,
I did.
Just like that.
One second I couldn’t,
and the next second I could.
Like a switch had been thrown.
But here’s the interesting thing:
I felt like I was behind my head.
I felt like I was out of my body,
just a little bit,
and watching my body move without me.

Well,
it was moving because I had mastered
the thought pattern behind the blocks.
I had practiced that mental circuit
until it broke,
and what was left was me.

From there I moved into other things,
hitting without blocks because,
darn it,
I had gotten so good at them I didn’t need them.
And I moved into concepts
of how to move the energy in my body
just by thinking about it.
Which is understandable if you realize
that learning how to block
had taught me how to influence my body
with just thought.

I began to be able to accomplish
all those odd ideas I had had
way back in Kenpo.
Which led to Matrixing.

Nowadays people don’t practice the blocks.
And if they do,
they don’t practice them with the proper hip movement,
the proper alignment,
the proper breathing and thought.

I know this because when people
come to me for lessons,
they show a complete lack of understanding,
no knowledge of the drills,
of how blocking works.

The thing is
there is a whole realm of thought
that goes with learning how to block.
You learn all sorts of things,
and it builds a springboard
for moving into other concepts.

Think about it,
you can box,
and learn how to take a punch,
but that doesn’t teach you
how to run energy through your body.

Nothing wrong with boxing,
it’s actually pretty good stuff,
fills in a few gaps
that are in the martial arts,
but it just doesn’t have the energy theory
that goes along with the martial arts.

Anyway,
I’m working on the Matrix Karate
for a Kindle version.
Kindle is very unfriendly to photos,
so I have to take some out,
and rewrite the thing.
It’s be good,
but not as good as a book,
or a video.
Heck,
even the other electronic readers are better,
because they take PDFs easily.

But one of the things I focus on
to make up for that lack,
is the specific blocking in the forms.
Not the matrix of blocking,
which provides a logic
which blasts one to intuition,
but the old way,
learning the blocks,
making them work,
until the art does you,
and you become the art.

You guys are lucky.
You understand something the Kindle readers
may never understand.
You get everything on these courses.
On the other hand,
the kindle readers may understand something you don’t
because they will be seeing the art
in a more bare bones viewpoint,
that will let their mind fill in the blanks,
which is very healthy for a student.
Well,
who’s to say.
The real lesson is in the work out.
Getting the material and doing it,
thousands and thousands and thousands of times,
until it becomes you,
and you become it.
That will teach you the art,
no matter which of my books or courses you get.

Here’s the full Matrix Karate course.

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/

Have a great work out!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/

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 the Kenpo Belt Rank System changed the Martial Arts

The Kenpo Belt Rank System

The Kenpo Belt Rank System is an interesting, little work. It is divided into a colored ranking system that goes like this: white, orange, purple, blue, green, brown (3 ranks), and Black Belt (multiple ranks).

150 Kenpo techniques scientifically analyzed.

There is a problem with this, which I will describe in a second, but first, let me tell how the belt system came about.

Originally there were fewer colors. Some hold only a white belt and black belt, but most belt systems, at least inKarate, had four colors. white, Green, Brown, and Black Belt.

Students of Ed Parker, the Tracy Brothers came a cross a dance instructor from Fred Murray Dance Studios, and he showed the brothers how to put students on contracts. This was a boon to the hard working karate instructor, for it enabled him to hold people to contracts, and therefore paying dues longer.

The problem was that there were so many techniques to be dispersed through the belts. Thus, the kenpo karate techniques were divided into 8 groups, which turned out to be about 40 techniques per belt.

Students were taught a technique every lesson, thus keeping them on a belt level for 20 weeks. 8 times 20 and you have 160 weeks, divided by 50 weeks in a year, and you have three polls years to get to black belt. And, it actually took about four years.

A complete system of Kenpo, including 150 techniques, made to work.

The problem was that before that people earned their black belts in a fraction of the time. Mike stone, arguably the best karate tournament fighter in the world, got his black belt in 7 months.

Now, if somebody like Mike Stone came along, he couldn’t earn his black belt fast, but was stuck in the time scheme of four years.

In other words, he could only go as fast as the contract allowed. The odd thing was that people loved it. Although, to be honest, this writer thinks they loved it because of the intimacy and efficiency of the private lesson.

Anyway, one can argue about this, dispute it if they wish, and so what. People either buy into it or not, and that is up to the person.

As for myself, I was to test for brown belt, and I got drafted, and then, when free again, I joined a different school.

The belt ranking system in this school was 8 belts, but there were only four colors: white, green, brown, and black belt. Each color had a level or two in it.

Making Kenpo Karate unique to every individual.

And, the odd thing, we weren’t on contract, and people could go as fast as they learned the material. This made us work harder, for we could see the end of the race, and didn’t feel we had to go around the track three or four extra times.

So we had people who earned a black belt in a couple of years, and sometimes less.

Oddly, time was increasing to black belt, but that was because karate, and then Kung Fu (courtesy of Bruce Lee) was popular, new systems were being discovered, and more forms and techniques were being added to the system.

So I made it through, just in time, I might add.

And that is the story, plus a couple of extras thrown in, about how the Kenpo Belt system came to be.

If you want to break out of the forced time to black belt, it is recommended that you start studying on your own, outside of school, and accumulate sufficient information so that you know what works, especially in Kenpo, and have a large database of martial arts knowledge.

Check out the ‘Creating Kenpo Karate’ series by Al Case. It has 150 techniques completely and scientifically analyzed, plus a wealth of data concerning how to make any martial art system efficient and workable.

This has been an article about the Kenpo Belt Rank System.

Martial Arts Laws that Make You Blink!

Newsletter 738
Martial Arts Laws that Make You Slap Your Head and go ‘Doh!’

Okay,
here’s the headlines:
In Republic, Michigan…
Women over 200 pounds
and wearing shorts,
may not practice the martial arts
while men are present!

How to analyze and handle Kenpo Karate

I’m not kidding. I saw it on the net,
so it must be true.
And if you’re a gal
over 200 pounds
don’t complain to me,
complain to the town council
at Republic, Michigan.
Or just don’t workout around men.

Ready for another headline?
In Jefferson, Idaho…
Women can’t take Karate lessons in a bathing suit
unless they are accompanied by the police
or have a club!
This law doesn’t apply
if the lady is under 90 pounds or over 200 pounds,
and it certainly doesn’t apply to female horses.
Oh, I ain’t kiddin’!

And I hope you don’t think I’m sexist,
here’s a headline about drunks!
(Does that make me a drunkist?)
In Cotton, Minnesota…
You may not work out in cotton pants with hip pockets!
Well, of course.
Hip pockets are just a little too convenient
for carrying a pint of alcohol.
And who among us,
during the sweat and bruises of a good work out,
doesn’t need to stop and swill a bit of courage?
Eh?

I read these headlines on the net,
can’t guarantee the veracity of them,
or even whether they are true,
but they sure do make you think.
I mean,
thank God for politicians.
It’s obvious they have our best interests at heart,
and they sure are making us safe
by passing laws like these.

And, speaking of thinking,
I was talking to Master Instructor Kurt Nelle’,
we were talking about the Kenpo Karate series,
and I asked him to give me a quick report.
Here it is…

Al, I just finished reading the 1st Kenpo Karate book and as requested I am doing a little book report.  I found the History both fascinating and refreshing. I have found that Kenpo history given by the various main stream Kenpo schools,(Parker, Tracy etc), tend to flatter them selves. I appreciate an honest history from someone who was there closer to the start of Kenpo in America.

Next I move on to main text of the book. My Kenpo instructor did come out of the Parker School however, he did not teach the Parker Forms or any forms for that matter. He only taught the self defense and fighting techniques as well as Kenpo Concepts just as you do in this book. You however, have taken it a step further. My Instructor taught the techniques exactly as they were found in the forms. You clean them up and make them more practical. I really appreciated this as I like a 1,2,3 technique as opposed to traditional Kenpo Overkill concept.

While reading over the Techniques and animation in the first book, something clicked in my memory. I went and reviewed the “Lines” section of the Matrix Tai Chi Program. Your explanation of the Karate Basics being found in Tai Chi led me to review the Matrix and  Five Army forms, as well as the Chang Man Ching, Yang and Chang Tung Shun Tai Chi forms that I also practice and teach. There within the sequences of all those forms were found the Kenpo applications. Not the traditional Overkill applications but the streamlined applications as presented in your Kenpo book. I don’t know if this was intended on your part or rather a happy coincidence. Either way, I have decided to use Tai Chi Forms as the only forms in my Kenpo. Its all in there, I just needed something to connect all the dots and that something is your three book series on Kenpo Karate!

Well that’s my book report. I’m moving on to the second and third books now, thank you for writing them!

Respectfully, Kurt

Thank you Kurt.

And if anybody else has a book report,
on any of my books,
feel free to send it in.
I can use what you write
to help people understand what is in my books,
and I’ll send you a freebie of
‘The 500 Martial Arts Articles’
in exchange.
It’s in PDF,
so you can read them right on your computer.

Now,
last things last,
my thanks to Omar,
he wrote in and complained,
said he wasn’t getting my newsletters.

I realized,
after I chatted with him,
that he might have been saying
that I am just not writing my newsletters
often enough.
I usually try to write two a week,
but I have probably been slacking.
I’ll try to get back to that,
and if I don’t,
feel free to complain.

You know
complaints are funny things.
Most people don’t want them.
I want them…fast.
They tell me when I messed up,
they apprise me of my mistakes,
and allow me to fix mistakes
before they become serious misunderstandings.
Business or personal.
And you know what the Neutronic viewpoint
of mistakes is…
Mistakes are an opportunity to learn.
So show me my mistakes,
and I’ll be grateful.

Now,
think that’s about it.
Got any questions,
or contentions,
shoot me an email,
it inspires me on the newsletters
and other things I write.

Check out the Kenpo books,
there are three of them,
and the first is here…

http://www.amazon.com/How-Create-Kenpo-Karate-History/dp/1500930253/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1413151594&sr=8-3&keywords=how+to+create+kenpo

Have yourself a great work out!

Al

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

The Messed Up History of Kenpo Karate

Kenpo History Sort of a Mess

Kenpo Karate is one of the most popular martial arts in the world, and the history is, to put it lightly, a mess.

There are three men who brought Kenpo to the streets of America. These are James Mitose, William ‘Thunderbolt Chow, and Ed Parker.

What really happened with Mitose, Chow and Parker.

James Mitose learned the art at a temple in Japan. Except, there is no temple there. The area is the home of kosho sect of the Yoshida clan, so maybe. Except…when you think about it, would there be much significance if your instructor learned Karate at a Baptist church somewhere in Illinois?

Yes, there are differences in culture, and there is a potential zen aspect to it all, but churches are basically meeting places.

The second man in this lineage is William ‘Thunderbolt’ Chow. Professor Chow claimed that he originally learned martial arts from his father, a Buddhist priest. Except, there are no records of his father as a priest. And how does that tie in with the Kenpo he learned from James Mitose?

The third man in this saga is Edmund Parker.

Parker brought Karate to the mainland, began teaching martial arts while at Brigham Young University. Except, he is said to have taught his students all he knew – he was only a brown belt – and when he went home and tried to get more to teach…Professor Chow wouldn’t teach him anything because he had been instructing without permission!

Now, there are a lot more sordid details to this story. There are fights and arguments and people slandering one another, and the reader might think, at this point, the this writer is writing black headlines just to sell an article. Except…the real problem here is not the three men, it is the students learning their kenpo karate martial art.

How to shift your forms for maximum potentials

People seem to need to bolster themselves up, to give themselves airs, to make themselves sound more important than they are.

So when Mitose says, in an offhanded remark, ‘Yes, my father used to show me tricks when I was a kid. We were living next to a church then, and we would roll around on the grass in the side yard. Lot of fun…’ the student bows deep and realizes that his instructor studied at a zen temple, was beaten with a bamboo rod for dozing, and had to go through rigamarole that would make Gordon Liu envious.

And when Thunderbolt Chow says, ‘Yes, my father had dreams of being a priest, talked about it often. Priests know really great martial arts, you know,’ the student holds his finger aloft as the lightening strikes him, and knows that he studying ancient and arcane mysteries written down in scrolls dating back to the time of Buddha.

And when Parker says, ‘My instructor didn’t have any more to teach me,’ the student catches his breath and claps his hands together, for obviously his instructor has surpassed his instructor, and the student is the real beneficiary of all this light and goodness.

the last third of 150 Kenpo techniques scientifically analyzed

Yes, there are people who spread rumor and prevarication to make themselves look good, but it is up to the student to be discerning and find out the real truth…and, there is a lesson to be learned here.

The lesson is that man learns best from his mistakes. He learns a little bit from doing something well, but he learns A LOT from messing up. And these three men, James Mitose, William ‘Thunderbolt’ Chow, and Ed Parker, they were human, and they messed up.

So, are we going to make them saints and pretend they made no mistakes? Or are we going to look extra hard at their mistakes and learn, truly learn, from them?

The author began studying Kenpo Karate in 1967. Check out the three volume set analyzing Kenpo Karate (see illustrations above for links). History, forms, and 150 techniques broken down and scientifically analyzed. This will forever change the way you look at and do Kenpo Karate.

How to Make Kenpo Karate Perfect

Are there Too Many Kenpo Techniques?

I wrote the following comment on a forum where I had posed a question concerning Kenpo having too many techniques. Thought it deserved a reprint here, because it goes to the heart of Matrixing. You can find the original article here…

https://alcase.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/ed-parker-finally-speaks-on-too-many-kenpo-techniques-2/

150 Kenpo Techniques matrixed

I wrote a dictionary of Martial Arts. You can find it somewhere on the net if you google ’Matrixing Technical dictionary.’

The thing that actually got me started on this thing of too many techniques for Kenpo is this simple fact: When you line up the techniques in your system they are taught a) out of order, and b) they’re are missing techniques. This has turned out to be an absolute, and this is why it takes people so many years to maser the martial arts. The first time I wrote out a list of techniques, in order and no missing pieces, the result on the students were astounding. It wasn’t even a combat sequence, it was just stand up grab arts, and there were only forty of them, but suddenly the guys were free styling like they had years of experience. The learning curve went out the roof, so I started doing it to everything, and the same results were evident in every art I had. The conclusion was this: if the art is in order, with no missing pieces, the learning curve can be up to ten times faster. The lack was in polish, but if the student stuck with it, the polish happened within a couple of months. So even that was transformed. Anyway, I started the martial arts back in 1967. and in that time I have never seen an art with all the pieces and in the right order. It just doesn’t happen. But if they did, I speak from personal experience, the result is an art that functions on a conceptual level, and is much faster and easier to learn.

Have a great work out!

Al from monstermartialarts.com

BTW ~ the special two courses for the price of one will be over on the first of January. Go to MonsterMartialArts.com, pick out any course, order it, then pick out another course of equal value, and email me (aganzul@gmail.com) and let me know. You’ll get that second course for free!

MonsterMartialArts.com came into existence in 2002. The first Matrix course (Matrix Karate) was introduced in 2007.