The gimmicks I refer to are martial arts internet scams.

I opened up my email today and found a little gem about ‘family self-defense. It opened with the usual, a scary scenario where a guy’s whole family is at gunpoint. Then proceeded to state that anybody could kill you anytime because of the internet (burglars are getting smarter!)

Then, of course, the solution: this guy had studied 13 different arts, but couldn’t defend himself. So, now that he had lain like a victim while his family was terrorized, he had had epiphany. He boiled down his 13 arts, his 1800 useless self defense techniques, and had come up with a ‘family self defense systems.’

Anybody for a little hard work?

This person talked about how useless classical martial arts are, and how he could now train anybody, even if they were fat, lazy, diabetic and in a coma, to drop a gorilla with a simple one finger pressure point strike, leverage the Gracie Brothers with a simple fulcrum principle, have mental powers that would shield them from an attacker, and all with out using their hands.

And in one hour.

The price, of course was a number ending in 7.

I used to read these ads on the back of comic books, and it appears that the internet is the new comic book ad venue. Back in the sixties it was a guy who kicked sand in your face, but you took this miraculous weight lifting course, beat up the bully, and got the girl.

Now the target for these ads are old men who sit around and worry about Obama, ISIS, and the home invasion that is going to happen to them.

Here is the truth concerning these ads.

You can’t learn anything of value in an hour. Especially not without tons of hours of training to learn about the body, the leverages, the construction of the skeletal structure, and the way people react in combat.

Now, the fellow is right, in certain ways. The Martial Arts can be considered useless conglomerations of techniques that don’t always work…but only if you don’t work at them.

You have to make them work if you’re going to make them work.

Now, I haven’t boiled the martial arts down, I’ve organized them so that techniques become easier to learn. I’ve put logic in them so that intuition can happen faster.

But if you think you aren’t going to have to work, you’re a fool.

So, do the people who buy these internet marketing martial arts gimmicks deserve to die?

Nobody deserves to die.

But these fellows who buy gimmicks, instead of applying themselves to better conditioning, a knowledge of how to defend themselves, will probably be the first to die, or to at least lie like a trussed up pig while bad guys ravage their homes, their daughters, and so on.

IF, home invaders do happen to call on them.

Big If.

Anyway, if you are a success at anything, you know it took long hours and hard work. Sure a few people got lucky and hit the lottery, but the majority of people who have success earned it the old fashioned way: hard work over long hours.

So why not apply that principle to the martial arts?

About the Author: Al Case has been studying the martial arts since 1967. A writer for the magazines, and the originator of Matrixing and Neutronics, he has produced a score of martial arts training videos. All of them take work and intelligence, and not one of them is a gimmick. If you really want to protect yourself, in a logical and efficient fashion, check out Matrix Karate at MonsterMartialArts.com.