Learn How to Fight in Two Days!

How to Fight!

I received the most interesting email the other day.

I have an interesting question for you. And I go to you because you fixed how I view karate and many other arts. Matrixing is genius. It’s simplistic way of thinking makes even the difficult seem attainable. Sometimes people need to learn how to defend themselves within a short period of time. They have been threatened, they have moved to a dangerous area. Domestic issues, etc. Whatever the issue, they need self defense fast. My task is: can you come up with a concept, strategy, or martial art one can learn in a few days or weeks? Just wondering?

Thanks Kyle,

it is fascinating

and right up my aisle.

When I was figuring matrixing out,

I was really trying to get a person to black belt fast.

Not how to fight fast,

I didn’t care about fighting.

But,

of course,

I came up with several methods for fighting.

Check out the ‘How to Fight Course’

on the home page of Monster.

Check out the last newsletter.

Very interesting stuff.

The thing is,

I was always concerned more with

how do you keep a calm and aware mind

while training.

How to put the art into fighting,

or how not to lose the art.

how do you use fighting

to develop mushin no shin.

But,

what if I didn’t care about that?

What if a cousin came to me,

said there were bullies who were going to beat him up on monday

could I teach him to fight over the weekend?

Hmmm.

Yes.

No prob.

There are two things to consider,

one,

his basics.

Two,

enough actual fighting experience.

Depending on the situation,

I might focus on things like

poking somebody in the eye.

But,

maybe it’s a school situation,

and I don’t want him to come home

with a felony on his record,

so…

two days in which to train him

how to have a straight wrist when punching.

And I have to do it,

without wearing him out.

So you get a light ball

and throw it at him,

and have him punch it back to you.

Or kick it back to you.

If he punches it wrong it flies to the side.

So his timing must be

impeccable.

The other thing,

get him enough fighting experience.

So rhythmic freestyle

until it comes out of his ears.

That’s on the Matrix Karate course.

Get him used to moving,

blocking,

hitting back.

Slow enough so he doesn’t tire out,

and you can keep going

and going

and going!

And,

spice it up with hours of rolling fists,

right out of the How to Fight course.

Now,

those two things,

basics

and actual fight experience,

and then spice it up with lots of little things.

Work him for 15 to 20 minutes of freestyle,

then practice hitting him on the body,

on the  shoulders,

in the head,

in the face.

Very light,

very controlled,

slowly giving him the idea

of what a hit is like,

and let him practice not getting flustered.

Now,

I don’t particular like what I am saying here,

because I am training to fight.

I am not training for the long view,

for the peace of mind

that comes with learning the true art.

But,

this is the real world,

and somebody is not going to stick around

long enough to learn the real art,

if they are getting beat up on the street.

So it is valid

to make him survive,

and polish him up later.

But,

it is a severe second choice

to training him from the ground up

as an artist.

So,

you want to train somebody fast,

heck,

you have to train somebody fast,

or,

here’s a good one,

you want to train somebody to stay aware

in the middle of a fight,

what I have told you here

is the start.

Heck,

notice that on the front page of monster,

it is designated as second black belt material.

It is advanced,

on the fighting side of things,

very advanced,

but,

simple.

But that’s the truth of your studies.

If it is simple,

it is going to be easier to remember,

and easier to make work,

to use in a fight.

But,

I would prefer that you use it

to build on the classical.

As I said,

I don’t like it,

just teaching fighting,

but who cares?

Your life

is more important

than what I like.

Right?

Oinky dokey.

Remember the URL…

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

Now,

have a great week end,

a great work out,

and I’ll talk to you later.

Al

How to Fight; How to Beat the Crap Out of Somebody!

Learn to fight and beat the crap out of somebody!

 A fantastic day to you!

And you can make it so…

with a work out.

And that’s the truth.

Learn how to fight the right way and take out the trash.

I think I mentioned this in an earlier newsletter,

but I want to go over it again.

The question is:

why does it take so long to learn how to fight.

I had had five lessons,

and I had signed a contract,

so it was time to introduce me

to the facts of life.

It was time for my first lesson in kumite

Oddly,

I don’t think they knew it,

but if freestyle had been my first lesson,

I would have signed a contract then and there.

Most people,

however,

would have run out the door

after a lesson like what I received.

So the instructor,

his name was Rex Blaine,

put me in a karate stance,

put my hands in the read position,

and told me to block what he threw.

Don’t try to hit him back,

I didn’t have any control,

just protect myself.

Sounds fair, eh?

Rex was like liquid lightening.

He was small and quick.

His favorite trick was standing a brick on a table,

and punching it with a half fist.

The brick wouldn’t break,

it would shatter,

almost explode.

And it was due not to his power,

but to his speed.

Well,

he went to work on me,

I was big and slow and lumbering,

and didn’t know anything,

and he cut me to pieces.

He punched me gently in the ribs.

He slapped me delicately in the face.

He chopped me in the neck and kicked me in the groin.

And,

as the lesson progressed,

he started hitting me harder.

Touches became bruises.

Slaps became welts.

He rocked my head with a punch.

The lesson ended when I struck him.

I know,

I wasn’t supposed to,

but the flow of energy into me was so great,

and suddenly I lashed out

and weak ass punched him in the shoulder.

He grinned and bowed,

I was confused,

he was pleased,

and that was the lesson.

Now,

I loved fighting.

I stayed extra late at night,

I worked out with other fellows after my classes.

I showed up an hour earlier

for the saturday kumite class,

and stayed an hour late.

I went to every tournament.

I broke bones in my hand

and insisted upon lessons while in a cast.

I broke bones in my feet,

and didn’t tell anybody.

I just wanted to fight,

and,

in my heart of hearts,

I wanted to get over the complete and utter humilation

of that first lesson.

I didn’t want to be somebody’s rag doll.

After two years

I was okay.

Not good,

but okay.

They told me I would be better

after I signed my next contract.

When I went to the Kang Duk Won

things were different.

I was made to do forms endlessly,

and to work on the techniques,

and,

at the end of class,

I would get to do a freestyle drill,

and then I was allowed to do ‘limited freestyle.’

The freestyle drill

was a same old same old drill,

a chop to the neck or the hip,

and I was expected to learn the difference between

a low block and a middle block.

The limited freestyle was

freestyle using only the right side.

freestyle using only kicks.

freestyle using only chops,

and that sort of thing.

But my opponent knew my limits,

so nobody won,

and,

like as not,

we just ran into each other

and caused arm bruises.

I stayed there because

it was a place of power.

Instructors came from other schools

and watched the classes.

Hells Angels and other outlaw bikers attended class.

When we did forms

you could feel the swoosh of energy

sloshing through that old building

like water in a bathtub.

And,

after two years

I was actually allowed to freestyle.

Interestingly,

I kicked ass.

Not in a mean way,

I had,

through two years of bruises and pain,

learned to respect my opponent.

Not to play a mindless game of tag,

but to focus myself in the moment,

to be aware,

to be polite.

When I went against the upper belts,

I still lost,

but I lost gently.

They would point me,

(with fists that could kill a bull)

and,

if it looked like I didn’t understand what they had done,

they would advise me politely and kindly,

and work with me

until I closed the chink in my armor.

A couple of years of this,

and I was near unbeatable.

I don’t say this with pride,

but with certainty

and a gratitude

for those who took the time

not to beat me,

but to educate me.

I had the opportunity to freestyle

with a fellow who attended my old school.

From the moment we bowed,

he was dead meat.

But I shifted away,

slapped his punches aside,

and gently placed my fist

on his torso.

And though I was polite with my advice,

I could tell he didn’t get it.

He still wanted to play the game of tag,

of gotcha,

of man beat man.

True freestyle is not man beat man.

True freestyle is an education for children.

So,

let’s return to my question.

Why does it take so long to learn freestyle?

It takes long because you don’t trust the fellow who is teaching you.

Simply,

you don’t want to input the data,

you don’t trust the data,

if it comes from somebody who is beating you.

Now,

I have explained this to people,

and watch their eyes glaze over,

and this is a classic case of

people are asleep dreaming that they are awake.

They think they trust their instructor.

But,

at heart,

they don’t.

But they are in a position

where they are committed

and end up lying to themselves

and living the lie.

Now here’s an interesting experience for you,

the guy who taught me push hands,

he was one of my students.

I trusted him

because I was better than him,

so I was willing to input the data.

It took me a half hour to learn push hands.

And now the question becomes,

how can I get somebody else to learn that fast?

Well,

I had matrixing,

but it is more than that.

Matrixing allows me to align the data,

makes it easy to understand and apply.

But what we are talking about here

is a filter

a person puts in front of himself

to slow or control the flow and input of data.

The key ingredient here

is to enable trust to occur.

To not beat somebody up,

to not get in the game of fighting,

to not let the student erect barriers and filters.

Once I understood what I was trying to do

it became incredibly easy.

The reason I was able to was simple,

I actually wanted to teach.

I didn’t want to fight.

I wanted to learn.

That was the core of my genesis.

So I came up with the freestyle methods I use,

and they were easier than two years of bone bashing bruises,

and they didn’t allow for people gaming people

over who was better.

Key to this method was one simple datum.

Don’t fight,

teach.

When I freestyle with a guy who has NO experience,

my directions are simple.

‘I want you to slowly strike me,

and teach me how to block.’

This one simple command

opens the door.

It reverse ALL the gamesmanship of fighting,

and makes the student

from the first second on the mat,

take the viewpoint and attitude of a teacher.

He becomes a person giving,

instead of a person taking.

Take a look at the pictures of the old masters,

the ones not posing grimly,

but laughing,

smiling,

loving life.

They got over fighting,

got into sharing their knowledge,

and they ended up smiling.

Not firm jawed talk of respect,

but knowing grins and laughter.

And that is what real freestyle training should be.

And,

if it was,

the world would be a kinder place.

Here’s the URL for Rolling Fists.

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

It is just one of the methods I use,

an advanced method for black belts,

but anybody can use it.

If you want to outgrow the need for beating people,

and get into the joy of real instruction,

of actually sharing the unique art that is you,

try it.

Okey dokey,

time to go out and work out,

so don’t forget that URL

And I will talk to you later.

Al

 Roman Emperor and all around good guy Marcus Aurelius said…

Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.

I found it interesting, because if you conceal a flaw, your concealment becomes a blank spot, and the world will wonder, and imagine the worst, about that blank spot. After all, if you’re concealing something, it must be bad, right?

Okey donkey, who said this gem…

An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.

Going from Karate Freestyle to Kung Fu Freestyle

Learning how to progress from Karate freestyle to kung fu freestyle in the martial arts is most interesting. Most people don’t understand the bits and pieces, and so make it a long, drawn out thing. It doesn’t have to be. It can be quick.

Martial Art Testing by video is the latest rage.

 

The first thing is to get the gross motions down. I use Karate freestyle training for this. The attack comes form a distance, and so the defender is able to see it and build a response. Start slow, build response, get faster. It’s pretty straight forward. My next step, in this thing of martial arts freestyle tends to be different.

In a fight, distance collapses. So karate freestyle will only work for a while, then the distance has collapsed, and one has to enter the next stage of fighting. Here is where we slide into kung fu freestyle.

There are many types of kung fu freestyle; there is sticky hands from wing chun, pushing hands from tai chi chuan, and so on. One of the core drills is called loop sau, or rolling fists. The drill is usually done as an arm pounding exercise, to toughen up the arms, not as a freestyle drill. If it is done as a freestyle drill it is usually used to show tricks, and it is very one dimensional.

There are actually six pieces to the drill, and then some methods for expanding the drill, and shifting it into other distances.

In doing the Rolling Fists video I taught a fellow over three months. These are ten minute segments, a total of three hours of instruction, where I take him through each of the pieces, then slide him through the methods by which one shifts distances, enters other freestyle methods, and so on.

The result is his karate freestyle opens up the fight, then he enters what I call ‘the funnel.’ In the funnel he uses rolling fists to blast away, and then slides the attacker into a different mode.

Talk about shock and awe.

You start simple with karate fighting, and by the time the attacker figures it out, you change into kung fu freestyle, then =when he thinks he’s got that figured out, you are already shifting into another one.

And you can move back, out of the funnel, anytime you want.

What this means is that every time the attacker thinks he’s got something, you change. And I tell you this…in a fight, the fellow who changes, who controls the changes, is going to win. He doesn’t have to be stronger, or even faster, he just has to change better.

Anyway, that’s the overview of what my basic freestyle methods are. I’ve had great response to the Rolling Fists DVD, which I released last Friday, and it is obvious that some eyes are being opened. If you don’t know the Rolling Fists freestyle method you are seriously missing something good. The method moves you into close quarters at increased efficiency, and it creates a higher degree of intuition.

You see, most people are stuck in the karate mode. It is effective, builds strong bodies twelve ways, and I love it. But, that is only about one sixth of the fighting distances, and you have to know them all if you are going to stand a chance of winning.

You can’ rely on just knowing a part of the martial arts, you have to know them all. If you’re going to learn how to fight in the martial arts, you have to know how to progress from karate freestyle to kung fu freestyle.