What is My Black Belt Worth?

Newsletter 892

Why Do I Need a Black Belt from You…

Thanks to all who have purchased
The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson of All!
It’s available on Amazon.
I’ll be putting up links and ads for it
one of these days.

Hey,
I’m not good at social media,
but I was trying to figure it out the other day,
and came across a site
with a lot of bad things to say about me.
I usually laugh at these things,
they’re always written by people
who have never taken a course,
but have an opinion.

For whatever reason,
maybe the desire for abuse,
I read a couple of the ‘complaints.’
And, man,
I got a good one.

‘Why do I need a black belt from you
if I already have one?’

Man,
unfortunately,
the complaint was old,
no way to really respond,
and I actually did want to respond.
My answer would have been:

because your system is probably flawed,
because you monkey see and monkey do learned
without understanding what you are doing.

Look,
I respect that the guy has probably put in some work,
maybe even a few years,
endured some bruises and such,
but he’s basically working at 10%
if he doesn’t know the reasons behind what he is doing.
The unfortunate news is
he wasn’t asking seriously,
he wasn’t seeking,
he was just being a Beavis and Butthead type of guy,
smart mouthing me.

That’s the trouble,
you see.
People want to argue without the facts.
You see it in politics.
The idiot who says things like:
‘You’re a racist,’
when there is NO hint of racism.
Or starts calling people names,
when you ask for the facts.

There is just a s segment of the population,
and this is true of the whole world,
that wants to be heard,
without taking the time to learn anything beforehand.

And,
this is true in the martial arts.
‘Al is bad,
you can’t make a black belt
in less than three years!’

But,
you can,
I’ve got video proof,
but they don’t take the time to see the proof,
they just want to be heard.

Ever hear that old saw?
‘Those who speak do not know,
those who know do not speak.’

That says it all.

Now,
for anybody who DOES want the proof,
who DOES wish to seek out the true martial arts…

Matrix Karate puts order in Karate
(and the martial arts)
MonsterMartialArts.com

There is a COMPLETE course of classical karate
KangDukWon.com.

There is video proof on the three month black belt course
(120 lessons!)
MonsterMartialArts.com

And,
if you can’t afford the SMALL sum asked,
you could always look through my books for proof.

Outlaw Karate: The Secret of the One Year Black Belt,
and many others…

And,
you could simply read my blog,
alcase.wordpress.com,
do a search for the term Master Instructor,
or other related terms,
you will come up with TONS of testimonials,
actual case histories,
if you will,
written by the people who have done the courses,
people who didn’t voice an opinion,
but went looking for the truth.

The truth is scientific.
It can’t be argued with.
But it can be ignored,
unfortunately,
it is usually ignored by those who ‘write’ the loudest.

Okay,
have a FANTASTIC DAY!
and a great work out!
Al

MonsterMartialArts.com
KangDukWon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Binary-Matrixing-Martial-Arts-Case/dp/1515149501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437625109&sr=8-1&keywords=binary+matrixing

go to and subscribe to this newsletter:

https://alcase.wordpress.com

Remember,

Google doesn’t like newsletters,

so this is the best way to ensure you get them.

You can find all my books here!

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

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 Break Through to a Real Black Belt

What is the difference between a Black Belt and a ‘real’ Black Belt?

Interesting question, eh?

To explain this let me make a statement, and then explain how that statement works.

The statement is that a real black belt does less to create more.

Now, back in China, there were people who could do less to make more. They learned this over millennium, and it became a part of their cultural teachings in many of the martial arts.

The art trailed to Okinawa, and the concept tried to hang on. In some respects it did, in others it didn’t.

Then the Japanese (among others, they weren’t alone in this, just more efficient) came along and they said, ‘We want power!’ So they made the work outs brutal, putting force above intelligence, or awareness, and they succeeded in deep sixing the already dying concept of ‘doing less to create more.’

And, they are not the only ones who did this. Americans are guilty of going along with this, not just as students, but as ‘power seekers’ on their own.

Now, power is fine, for a beginner. But when you train in the martial arts you progress to a point where you get tired – that’s as good a way of putting it as any – of working so durned hard.

Part of this realization may come from finally seeing through the blinders of power to the fact that a little bit wisely and judiciously applied accomplishes just as much, and more, than a lot blindly applied.

But you finally realize the truth, that it is not how much power you can create, but how smartly you focus your awareness to create and apply that power. Thus, the more you become empty, before and after the focus, relaxing to do the technique, the less power you actually have to summon up.

You do less, and create larger effects. You punch lightly, and it hurts more. You relax and throw more efficiently.

You are not building muscles now, but rather awareness; you are learning to focus, to use, awareness as a power. Call it chi, if you wish.

This concept had millennium to take root and develop in China, and teachers would teach it from the get go (before the Great Cultural Revolution). Now people only attain it rarely, and not if they stick to the power seeking commercial schools that have come to reign.

Here’s the interesting thing: you measure force, the power of a beginner, with physics. But you cannot measure chi with physics.

For you cannot measure awareness, especially when used in this manner.

Now, the hallmark of the real black belt is not how much power he has, but how light and liquid he is; how empty he is; how measured and sure he is of his position in space. How aware he is.

Learn to do more by using less (force, impact, energy, whatever) and you will be a real Black Belt.

You can subscribe by going to the top of the sidebar…

A god example of physics and real martial arts is my Pan Gai Noon book, available in paper or kindle on Amazon.

Four Year Incubation Period to Get to Black Belt in Karate

Four Years to Black Belt? No Way!

It often irks me when people talk about it taking four years to get to Black Belt in Karate. This is one of the most insidious and stupid concepts that has ever taken root in the martial arts. And, I might add, it is just as stupid in any art, be it Aikido or Taekwondo or whatever.

Reverse Your Thinking...Get to Black Belt in a Few Months!

Martial Arts instructors who push this concept often claim that it takes that long for the body to change. The tendons have to elongate and the muscles have to striate and the bones have to do whatever bones do when you block and punch with them. This is, of course, a justification for time, when their real motive is to keep a student on contract, or to enhance their authority, or some other tawdry reason.

I’m sure there is some change in the body over time, but not that much. The fact is that if you gave a black belt and a white belt a battery of physical tests, the black belt would have an edge, but not much. Black belts and white belts train side by side in many classes, and except for a little more huffing and puffing, within a month the white belt keeps up.

So it takes about a month to recondition the body, and this is easily provable if you just look at the army. They take a person and totally change his physique within two months. So the idea that it is going to take four years to reach some mythical, ideal body state is silly.

The second half of this equation, or point number two, has to do with history and the people who have made it to black belt. There are people, pretty famous people, who have made it to black belt fast…Mike Stone six months, Chuck Norris a year and a half, Joe Lewis made black belt in three different styles in one year…and so on. So it is possible, but you have to break out of the mind mold that has been sold you, that it takes four years to get to black belt.

Now we come to the kicker on this. Where did the four year to black belt idea come from? Actually, it came from a guy who didn’t even get his black belt…it came from Ed Parker.

Ed Parker was teaching people kenpo when it was still just karate, and he was a brown belt. He went home to Hawaii and asked his instructor for more techniques because he was running out, and he was told no. I guess Thunderbolt Chow didn’t think much of Ed Parker, because he refused to teach him more, and he wouldn’t promote him.

So Ed Parker went back to the US, found somebody else to help him put a system together, and began selling karate like you would sell cars. A couple of his students (the Tracey Brothers) actually got a car salesman to train them how to put people on contracts for the length of time it takes to pay off a car…four years. And that is the truth behind why it takes four years to earn a black belt in Karate, or Aikido, or Kenpo, or just about any martial art that bought into this idea.

The Real Truth About A Black Belt in the Martial Arts

Good morning!
It’s grey and looking to drizzle outside,
time to work out…
and brighten it all up!
The day is always brighter
after you work out.
It just is.

Now,
working hard,
things are popping,
and I should talk about
what a black belt really is.
I mean,
to earn a black belt is incredible,
and,
it is weird
that nobody knows
what a black belt is.

Well,
if you have read my article
In Search of the Master Founder,
then you have some idea.

But here’s the thing…
when I was studying kenpo
back in the late sixties,
the instructor said,
‘we’re actually a belt ahead of everybody.
Our orange belt (second belt)
is the equivalent of
the Purple belt (third belt)
of the guy down the street.’

We students.
of course,
bought into it.
There was no reason we should,
just our pride
and wanting to be better.

And,
truth,
the guy down the street
was saying the same thing.

Isn’t that interesting?
It’s a statement of the human condition.
Years later
I was talking to a fellow
who was raised in a communist country,
he asked me why Americans wanted to bomb everybody.
I told him we thought they wanted to bomb us,
and we were both struck sort of dumb.
We believed what our governments told us,
and so we were herded like sheep.
And,
sad to say,
it happens all the way down
to the community dojo.
Tell me that isn’t the human condition.
Huh!

Anyway,
you can see that this is one of the factors
that totally screwed up what a black belt really is,
and even destroyed the definition,
if there ever was one.

The point is that a black belt has a certain amount of knowledge,
(depends on the system: aikido v karate, etc.)
And that knowledge must be workable.
Must be able to be used.

Now,
most systems have totally overloaded the amount of knowledge required.
With the glut of information available
as different systems of martial arts
came to public knowledge,
everybody tried to include everything
(we’ve got that…nobody is better than us…
and it doesn’t matter that we are altering and totally screwing up our system!)

So,
back in the late sixties,
before the glut of information
destroyed the knowledge of what a black belt is
we had to learn ten kata to black belt (karate)
Not a lot of drills,
just a couple,
and then we had to be able use what we learned.
Period.

We got stronger,
faster,
our bodies shaped up,
but the real change was
in our minds.

There was a fellow I used to beat up,
his name was John.
He was six months ahead of me,
but I was just better.
It just happened to be.
So he got his black belt
and he started beating me up.
But I saw
that he had only gotten his black belt,
no special knowledge,
he hadn’t been taken in the back room
and told some secret,
he had just gotten promoted,
and it had gone to his head
in the best way
and he was kicking my fanny.

So,
I looked at that,
saw what had happened,
and made up my mind
and went back to kicking his fanny.

Look,
it was a thing of the mind.
We weren’t that far apart,
there wasn’t a gap of knowledge,
we knew what each other knew.

Now,
karate back then wasn’t fancy,
it was a CCS
(Closed Combat System),
and a person worked their fanny off,
and the real difference
was in the heart and soul.
And it was expected that
in three or four years
with sufficient basics
a fellow would gain depth of soul,
an experience of combat
that was measurable,
and could be awarded by the black belt.

Then we lumped arts together
had weird thoughts like
my orange belt is better than your orange belt,
and the thing fell to…pardon me for lack of a better word…shit.

It still is that brown and gooey.
There is a wild variance between black belts of differing systems,
huge numbers of deviated forms
techniques from varying systems,
drills and drills and…
and the whole thing has mushed and fallen to…you know.

So,
matrixing fixes that.
It isolates data,
demushes the bushwah,
makes it so that one can look at the scientific fact of ordered knowledge.
But,
that plug aside,
what is a black belt?

I know,
long trip,
but the answer will be worth it.

A black belt is a statement of self.

Black belt in Japan is dan.
Below black belt is kyu,
Kyu means boy,
dan means man.
But,
not exactly man,
but,
rather,
a statement of maturity.
Not maturity like puberty,
but maturity as in
a statement of self.

Who are you?
I mean…really?
What are you doing on this planet?
In that body?
Who are you?
This is the question that is answered
when somebody makes a statement of maturity…
when one achieves a real black belt.

Nowadays
so many people get their black belt
and it means nothing.
It means they are strong and fast and can beat people up…
but that is not a statement of maturity.
Actually,
it is often a statement of immaturity.

One of the odd things that happened
back at the Kang Duk Won
was that out of all the bikers that studied there,
all the Hells Angels and Gypsy Jokers and so on,
none of them ever got their black belt.
They simply kept beating people up.
A black belt was beyond that.
They knew who they were
and they had no interest in beating people up.

Now,
when I achieved my black belt
I had visions,
I went out of my body,
I gained perceptions,
and many other things.

It’s possible that I just raised the standard,
and that I was unique,
but I don’t think so.
The point is
that what I went through
is more of a measurement of black belt
than just being strong or fast or whatever.

That is the measurement of a human being
and it occurred back in the Kang Duk Won
in the late sixties.

Some of this was due to my instructor,
who was unique,
but regardless
everything changed,
and black belts are stronger,
faster,
and more childish.
They don’t mature.
They don’t make a statement of self.

Now,
it goes without saying
that this is not true for all.
As I said,
there is a variance of black belt out there.
You’re going to find genius
rubbing elbows with moron.
But,
I hope that what I have said here
has given you some clue,
inspired you to look
not at the vast amount of material,
but rather at the far vaster depths of the human soul.

That all said,
confession,
I don’t teach many people these days.
The reason is because
the people of today
have a difficult time
making a statement of self.

Back when I was at the Kang Duk Won,
there weren’t many martial arts schools,
so the few gathered
and there was higher quality.

Now,
with schools on every corner,
in every Y,
in the parks and garages,
the quality pool is too wide spread.
Add to that the drugs and general dissolution,
and you have not a lot of people
who can make a statement of self.

What happens when I find somebody to teach
is quite odd.
People get good,
then they start going up and down,
and then they quit.

They can’t take it; they can’t make a statement of self.

I think the fastest I ever blew a guy out was three lessons.
I had him drilling with somebody,
and he wasn’t getting it,
so I drilled with him.
Now,
I’m pretty pure,
I don’t have extraneous thoughts when I drill.
So he wasn’t getting any emotion,
any thoughts about the best hamburger
or what movie was coming out.
So he was getting absolute and pure
martial arts.
Just space
and motion,
and nothing else.

And when there is nothing else,
the spirit appears.
So,
third lesson,
he suddenly freezes up,
stops,
and can’t move.
After a few minutes
of just standing there
he looks at me,
and his eyes are all aglow
and he just shakes his head
makes excuses
and walks out.

Now,
I’m not going to tell you exactly what he said,
there is no significance there,
the significance is
he made a statement of self.
I offered the art,
he trusted me,
took it,
and blew out.

He wasn’t even in his body.

And,
for months
he wrote me emails
thanking me
praising me
and saying all sorts of odd things
that would have got him committed,
but which were nothing more than
a statement of self.

But,
he wouldn’t come back to class.

No more.
All done.
It wasn’t a matter of me filling him with too much material,
it was a matter of me showing him the space of himself,
the pure perception that he was.
A statement of self.

So,
I don’t teach much.

I want to.
But…people quit.
And,
what it takes to get a real black belt,
is a gentle touch,
a commitment to not quit
and
the ability to make a statement of self.

Isn’t this all weird?
I mean,
what the hell is this self thing
what’s to be frightened of?
Yet…
there it is.

Okey dokey,
if you want to align your art
elevate your art
and find out what this
statement of self thing is
come on by the Monster.

Monster Martial Arts

No matter what your art is,
it depends on knowledge,
real knowledge,
aligned knowledge.
That is the only way to destroy the mysticism,
plumb the secrets
and make a statement of self.

Without the knowledge
you are just exercising,
getting stronger,
and faster,
and learning a few tricks.

You guys and gals have a phenomenal day.
Work out hard and often,
and make sense out of what I say.
And,
whatever you do…
don’t quit.
If anything,
study harder,
work out harder,
it is the only way.

Al
=o)

How Long Does It Take to Earn a Martial Arts Black Belt

In Karate, Kenpo or Taekwondo there is a certain length of time that it should take to earn a black belt. These things are pretty much set in stone, but have been wildly abused by martial arts styles. Still, it is possible, if you understand certain things, to make your system easy to learn in a couple of years.

First, you should understand that karate, kenpo and taekwondo come from the same roots, and that is why there is a relative standard of time that it takes to achieve the first dan. Ed Parker learned and taught karate in the beginning of kenpo, and tekwondo developed form the eight houses, or Kwans, that were basically karate. Kung Fu based arts still rely on the same commonality of body motion, and thus are prone to the same rules.

There should be eight forms to black belt. These forms are usually the five pinans, or Heians, and have equivalent forms in taekwondo. Kenpokas, and other martial arts students will have to research this a bit to find eight forms that fit their art.

There should be about 72 techniques learned. This is the number of techniques that if practiced will cover the basics of the art, and will take a student to the intuitive state of mind that is necessary to be promoted to the dan ranks. More than this and it is confusing, less than this and there isn’t (normally) enough data.

The art should consist of a blend of forms, techniques, and freestyle. Blending martial arts kata, bunkai and kumite allows the concept of a perfect move to be constructed and bridged from theory to reality. Any art that doesn’t have all three should actually not be considered an art, as it will not give the benefits, no matter what anybody says, that are possible through these three practices.

The essence of the art should be always be towards good control. No matter how people proclaim that an art must be more real, it becomes less real as an art if it forsakes control. One must learn to control their body, their fellow man, and then the world becomes a better place where fights just don’t happen.

An art should be a balance of speed, power and technique. Speed can lead to power, but power doesn’t necessarily lead to speed, so speed is superior to power. Technique, however, is superior to both.

These factors all adhered to, along with a proper understanding of basics, and one can earn a black belt in as little as one year, though two years is probably the average time. To learn faster than that indicates that the person hasn’t spent enough time actually controlling his body, and so lacks the basics of controlling his mind. To learn slower is to waste your time.

These principles are adhered to in the courses offered at Monster Martial Arts.