Last newsletter I talked about the basic poser technique,

a technique where the attacker has to wait

while the defender does the technique.

That’s the basic thing you’ll see

that makes a technique useless and unworkable.

A secondary poser would be one where

the defender has unrealistic hand speed.

The attacker throws a punch or two,

and the defender’s hands are a blur,

almost invisible.

But is it realistic to assume

that you will be that much faster than your opponent?

In a fight everything speeds up.

Your attacker is going to speed up.

And that includes doing unorthodox things

that you won’t see on the mat.

So the idea of you being incredibly fast

and the opponent reacting in an exact, prescribed manner,

is false.

So,

solution.

Don’t practice techniques where the other guy waits for you to do the technique.

That was my first advice from the last newsletter.

AND…

practice techniques that are simple and basic,

and rely mostly on basics,

until you go out of your body.

This happened for me

right before I got to black belt

on applications from the form Botsai.

(Bassai, other spellings)

We did the three blocks

right at the beginning of the form,

and I knew I couldn’t keep up with the three attacks.

Month after month I practiced,

Trying to do something I knew I couldn’t do.

With endless practice I started to economize my motion,

and I started to use my body as one unit.

What I call CBM,

or Coordinated body Motion.

All parts of the body begin motion at the same time.

All parts of the body end motion at the same time.

All parts of the body contribute to the motion

according to the various percentages

of muscle, mass, etc.

One day I was doing the technique,

and suddenly it was as if I was behind my head,

not looking through my eyes,

but seeing everything without blinking.

My hands moved,

perfectly CBMed,

and my ‘whole body speed’ was faster than the attack.

That was a major point for me.

My body working as one unit,

being apart from my body,

and my body moving in response to my thought,

and not because of ‘reaction times.’

I often hear people talk about muscle memory,

and that is a silly concept.

Your muscles don’t remember sequences.

They remember pain,

but the real ‘memorization’

is a circuit in your mind.

And that circuit is enacted by you.

The human being.

And if you practice long enough

the circuits tend to delete

and you move without the need for circuits.

Which is seen as you being apart from your body.

Moving in…’the now.’

So good martial arts is liberating,

imparts a certain freedom of the soul.

And that is why you have to stay away from posers of ALL kinds.

Unfortunately,

most arts are so filled with posers

they rarely impart this freedom of the soul.

But almost any art can work

if you simply get rid of posers,

Focus on techniques that rely on basics

and a true estimation of time and speed of hands and so forth.

I would recommend applying Matrixing to your art

to make this happen.

Matrixing is the only scientific analysis of the martial arts.

Remember this:

Science only measures.

Matrixing provides solutions.

Obligatory ad coming up.

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This art has the meditative aspects of Tai Chi,

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Incidentally,

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Stay tuned,

and…

Have a great work out!

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

(Two Volumes)

The Point of Martial Arts Fighting

The number one reason people get into the martial arts is fighting. Everybody has had that bully in their background. Everybody would like to feel bigger, stronger, free from the threat of violence.

karate bully

About the first and only science of the martial arts…matrixing.

Now, to be truthful, if you just want to fight, I recommend going to a boxing club for a few months. You’ll get in shape, you’ll learn what it feels like to get hit, and you’ll learn how to hit back.

If you think there is something more than fighting, however, then you must look to the martial arts. You must believe that the world isn’t just a struggle for survival, but that there is a point to it all. You must believe in yourself as a human being, and that you can actually ascend to higher levels of awareness.

First you must build a structure for containing the knowledge in the martial arts. This is why you do forms; this is something that boxing does not have. This is the mechanism which will elevate you.

Second, you must achieve discipline. I don’t mean the discipline where you get a belt on the bottom as punishment. I mean the discipline of doing something every day because you love doing it, and for no other reason.

Third, you must study a system that has logic. The reason for this is one of expedience. You don’t want to spend decades sorting through the bushwah. You want to get there while you are still young.

Fourth, you must not stop. Drill those basics patiently, open your eyes and look. You must not just work out, you must invest awareness into your art.

The Martial arts, you see, are a manifestation of the spirit. It is your awareness filtered through your own logic and spread across the heavens. Life is heaven, you know, but only if you can isolate the art of your soul and show it to the universe.

You can learn the truth about Martial Arts fighting.

Here’s an article about people who can’t confront martial arts violence.