Martial Arts Zen Training with Guns

Newsletter 995

The Gun, the Sword, and the Martial Arts

The gun extends a straight line
The sword extends a straight, or curved line.
The bullet goes further than the sword,
but,
even with training,
not too much further.
Odd statement, eh?
I mean, the bullet disappears into a mile away.
The sword ends at three feet or so.
But here’s the kicker,
the further away you are,
the more control of your body you must have.
Beyond a certain distance,
probably 15 feet,
control goes out the window,
and you miss a lot of shots.
(We’re not talking about sniper rifles here)
So let’s look at the basic-basics of the sword—and the gun.

Sink the weight for both.
Breath deeply and control that breath.
Relax.
Align the body properly.
Move the body with CBM
(Coordinated Body Motion).

Well,
we are fine through the first four items.
Sink, breath, relax, align.
Motion (CBM) is where it all falls apart.

I was watching a movie last night,
Jason Statham shot about 40 guys
in about five minutes.
He shot them while he turned flips,
under his arm,
behind his back,
swinging off the side of a ship,
during explosions.
40 guys,
and he wasn’t even nicked.
I guess he had that motion thing down,
right?
Nope.
The camera had it down.
The script had it down.
In reality he would have been shot,
filled with lead actually,
by the time he hit the second or third guy.
That’s just the way it is.

(why do you think SEALs sneak in?
Because charging in an easy way to die.
Why do you think ninjas sneak in?
They don’t want somebody to fight back-
they don’t want to get hurt.
Why do you think your friendly neighborhood mugger
attacks from the rear,
swinging a weapon…
he doesn’t want to risk getting a boo boo!
It’s not actually cowardice,
it’s simply good tactics:
hit without getting hit.
Deliver a force or flow,
without receiving a force or flow…)

Anyway,
It is INCREDIBLY difficult
to hit a moving target.
(People tend to shoot where something was,
and not where it is going to be)
And it is harder to hit a moving target…
while you are moving.

When you train with a gun you have to have a stable platform.
You run from place to place,
momentarily freezing and shooting,
then continuing.
Only when you make the final approach
do you unload,
firing everything you’ve got,
because during that last few feet,
when you are running,
you’re probably going to miss,
so shoot a lot of bullets and hope.

Of course,
all statistics can be improved by practice.

But,
motion is a killer.
In the martial arts
you are closer,
and there is this thing called ‘block’ and counter.
You train to handle the attack.
With a gun the only way to handle the attack
is to duck,
hide,
get a mile away.
No blocking.
So you do not develop the idea of motion against motion.
At least not to an appreciable degree.

Yes,
there are gun tactics,
training in them helps,
but if you really want to know tactics,
you must have an intuitive understanding
of how to respond with your body
to the motion of his body.

You really need the martial arts
in addition to training in shooting.
You need that ‘zen’ frame of mind.

And here is where it gets interesting.
Here is the point that led me to write this little squib.

When you train with the martial arts
you develop a state of mind.
This is a ‘zen’ state of mind.
A peacefulness during combat,
a peacefulness during…motion.

You actually develop this same state of mind
with any other practice.
Practicing something until you have mastered it
brings calmness, certainty, peacefulness.
You can attain it with a gun,
while you are ‘in platform,’
but there aren’t any practices that I know of,
in gun training,
to impart that zen state of mind
while you are using a gun while in motion.

So if you want to learn a gun,
good,
it is a tool for a martial artist,
if there ever was one.
But you need something like ‘The Gun Kata,’
made popular in ‘Equilibrium.’
I am really waiting for some fellow
to send me a video,
or a link,
to somebody doing an effective Gun Kata.

Here’s a link for weapons training…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/3a-blinding-steel-matrixing-weapons/

Have a great work out!
Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/3a-blinding-steel-matrixing-weapons/

Secret Martial Arts Weapons Concept

Newsletter 932

The Sneaky Secret of Martial Arts Weapons!

GOOD MORNING!

Don’t mean to shout,
but it really is a good morning.
Absolutely PERFECT for working out!

Hey,
I want to tell you something that you don’t know.
Makes it a secret,
right?
So here’s the secret.

Take a stance,
extend your awareness.
Your opponent moves towards you,
and as soon as he steps on your territory,
you move.

Pretty simple,
right?
Everybody knows that.

What people don’t know
is that if you stand upright and extend your hands
the tips of your fingers define your personal space.
Oh,
not exactly,
there’s some fudge here and there,
but generally speaking,
if you were to stand and simply spin,
with your arms outstretched,
you could draw a circle on the ground
and find that the tips of your fingers
define your personal space.
More or less.
Close enough for government work.

Okay,
that’s cool,
a lot of people don’t know that,
but maybe you did.
So here we go.

Stand upright,
half a weapon,
and spin,
and the tip of the weapon
defines your personal space.

I find this so fascinating.
A weapon isn’t alive,
yet your personal space,
the distance to which your awareness of body reaches,
expands appropriate to the distance of a weapon.

We are talking about how much space
your awareness fills.

We are talking about expanding your awareness.

If that doesn’t twiddle your pork chops,
I don’t know what will.

Educators say you can’t get smarter,
you can only get dumber.
People accept the shrinking of their awareness
as a result of livingness.

Yet awareness is the real you,
and you can extend it,
make it bigger,
get smarter in a way
that educators and other dopes
have no understanding of.

So you practice the martial arts,
you are as effective as far as you can extend awareness,
which is to say,
you’ve got as much space as a pup tent.
But by the mere fact of picking up a weapon,
the tent gets bigger.
You get bigger.

And,
as you figure out how to move that weapon,
you become ever more aware of the space around you.
Cool.

Now you understand why I push my latest course,
Matrix Kenjutsu.

You see,
you don’t need to study a course
that takes years and even decades.
You don’t have to follow a line of techniques
that meanders here and there,
and might make you a bigger awareness,
and might not.

Now you can go straight to the bigger awareness,
fill in all of the space with real you.
And that is the glory
of the logic
of Matrixing Kenjutsu.

Onkly Doggie,
I’d tell you more,
but all I’d be doing
is telling you how to get bigger and smarter,
and the truth is not in my words,
it is in you picking up the sword,
the staff,
and growing your awareness,
finally realizing the truth of that old saw…
‘A weapon is an extension of the self.’
Now you know why,
and that should make your next work out…
TRULY FANTASTIC!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/matrixing-kenjutsu/

Here’s a link for an article about when I first started doing this book.
I intended to finish it quickly, but it’s actually been five years!
https://alcase.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/new-book-about-the-samurai-sword-is-coming/

Three Things to Think about in the Martial Arts

Three Interesting Things About the Martial Arts

Man,
what a great Saturday!
deep horse,
meditate,
glow all day.
You know?

I want to say something,
you might find it interesting:

Everybody on this planet is insane
because there is war on this planet.
If ONE person understood this,
war would end,
and the planet would be sane.

I came across this idea many years ago.
Found it interesting,
thought I’d pass it along.
Let you guys think about it.

And,
I want to say something else,
I’ve been working a lot,
newsletters are fewer,
but,
if I don’t answer an email,
or say something that doesn’t quite work,
let me know.
I make mistakes.
But a mistake is wasted if I can’t learn from it.

And,
while you’re thinking about that,
let me talk about the point of this newsletter.

The most important thing you can do is practice.
I’ve been practicing for near 50 years.
I do forms for maybe fifteen minutes at a time.
So let’s say 15 minutes a day,
365 for 50.
So I have done 273,750 minutes of forms.
Or over 4500 hours.

Now it helps if you are doing the forms matrix style,
with perfect form.
But still,
even if your form is all messed up,
that is 4500 hours of controlling my body.
Which means 4500 hours of learning to control my mind.
Or 4500 hours of refining my spirit.
Of polishing myself.

And,
of course,
I have so much more to go.

But it’s a start.

I just wish I had matrixed forms right from the get go.

Now here’s an interesting thing.

People stop doing a form,
stop repeating a form,
because they feel they aren’t getting anything out of it.
But a form is how you control your body,
which takes control of the mind!
So you are getting humungous amounts of benefit.
It just takes a while to feel it.
To understand and appreciate it.

People stop at Black Belt.
Short sighted.

Martial Arts are not a quick school,
you graduate and never have to do them at all.
They are a long school.
You might learn them fast,
but that should be to teach you how to do them
for the rest of your life.

When I was having shoulder surgery.
I couldn’t do my forms.
But I visualized them.
Doctor’s ready to cut me,
and I am far away,
perfectly relaxed,
occupied with important things.
With the control of my mind.
With learning to be me.

And,
people stop doing forms because they think they know them.
How silly.
You might know what a glass looks like,
but that’s not the same as pouring liquid into it every day,
washing it,
using it,
appreciating all the different tastes of life.

All right.
I could go on forever.
Literally.
For a form opens the door to you,
and you last forever.

But,
I need to go do them,
not just talk about them.

So,
have a fantastic day
and a great work out!
Al

BTW
Next book is almost done.
‘How to Matrix the Martial Arts,
and the universe and life and everything else.’
Until then,
get this one…

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

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

A Very Nice Martial Arts Win

Winning in the Martial Arts!

Hey,
I received the following win from Will S in the email.
Wins like this make my day.
It is just guys like you and me
figuring it out,
living good,
and spreading the energy.
Here go.

Find out the truth about real samurai swordfighting

Hi sensei Al

How are you sir? This time, how unusual…I don’t want anything from you. Just to say thanks for everything and I hope you are in great health and your shoulder has healed up well. Of course I practice and teach my matrixing and  duly read and ponder on the newsletters, most of them indeed are very stimulating to deeper thought and research, others are informative nonetheless. Some grind my gears in the best sense of the word, those that make me think and go aha! or even worse, spark and explosion of sudden realization in body and mind. Usually sits quite deep and ends up as something that becomes part of oneself or ones way and to pass on to the postulants…try to define energy? What is energy? I mean really? So I guess, you sowed very well because it seems there is something growing, that encompasses the realm of physical understanding or trying to make sense of a move.
I think this is why I am at the point where I am now. A work in progress, not there yet, but definitely no longer where I once was either. A lot of it was distorted, wobbly and shaky, but in the end, there was coherence, there was sense and there was logic. There was truth. As we know, for something to be true its opposite must also be true. In this case, you pushed me with my nose onto it, gently yet diligent and patiently. Thank you. You are a hell of a martial artist and an amazing teacher.
I am glad you are around, sensei Al. All the best to you my friend,
happy workout, and new videos are coming soon.

Thank you, Will.
And,

listen to all of you guys and gals out there.
Yes,
I push matrixing,
but as Will says in the first sentence,
you don’t have to want something.
You can chat,
share win,
gripe if you want
(you just need to do more work outs)
or whatever.

But here’s the thing…
you can’t change unless you seek to go outside yourself.
Yes,
change comes from within,
but that change must be prompted by external forces.
But before the external forces can work,
you have to want.
You have to look for those external forces.
They won’t act on you otherwise.

And,
of course,
if the external force is me calling for more work outs,
that is excellent.

A world of happy,
stable,
doing well
martial artists.

That’s the goal here.

Listen,
when I started,
way back in 1967,
I was involved in an art that I thought
WAS THE BEST MARTIAL ART IN THE WORLD!
Heck,
the instructors said so,
my classmates believed it,
so…?

Then one day I met a fellow,
and he showed me something,
and I changed.
I quit the school
(found out it was sort of a McDojo),
gave up being a teacher,
and started over as a white belt.

The point is that no matter how good you are,
there is something more to be learned,
but you have to be willing to let that learning touch you.
You have to open the eyes and ears,
and be willing to redefine your belief system.
You have to go outside yourself.

The point isn’t to have the best system in the world,
the point is to make logic out of the chaos,
and make the best system in the world. for yourself.
Every person’s system will,
in some way,
be different.
But you have to be willing to seek to find it.
You have to be willing to change things,
you have to be willing to make things work.

Okay,
‘nuff preaching.

Check out Blinding Steel

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/3a-blinding-steel-matrixing-weapons/

Blinding Steel is not just weapons,
it is a complete progression
from weapons to hands to takedowns.
It has eight drills which encompass all motion,
and which can be adjusted to
hands once you have given up the weapon,
to takedowns once you have closed sufficient to negate hands.

So check it out,
works well with any system,
and really opens the eyes.
Provides the external stimulus to change,
if you get what I mean.

Now…
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

Shoot ‘Em Again! It’s Only a Stun Gun!

The Problems of Stun Gun Self Defense

Stun guns became popular for self defense a number of years ago. People touted them as a more humane way of taking bad guys down, and now they have had a number of years to become tried and tested. Unfortunately, their are a few problems with using a stun gun for self defense.

First, let’s address the human angle. No bullets, no surgery, you can zap the hell out of a guy!

Well, not really, shooting somebody with 50,000 volts is rough on the body. If that body has a weak heart, or is even weakened from excess drugs or drinking, it could be killed.

And, having said that, there have been a couple of videos on the net where police sit back and zap the hell out of some poor shmuck. Grinning, and secure in the knowledge that they can torture without worrying about leaving bullet holes.

Humane? No. Dangerous? Yes. Period.

Another point we should take up is the use of a stun gun by Joe or Jane Citizen. Do you know how long it takes to get a stun gun out of holster or purse? And is Joe or Jane a sure shot? They haven’t practiced, so can we be sure they will hit the target first time every time?

So the conclusion is obvious, stun guns are not excellent for self defense, and they do have drawbacks and dangers.

Is it better than shooting somebody?

Maybe, if you actually manage to get a shot off and the bad guy doesn’t have a heart attack.

So what is the alternative?

I personally believe that all police officers should have martial arts training. I believe Tokyo had its police officers all study Aikido, and I think that a study of Aikido, or Tai Chi, or any non-aggressive martial art would be a hundred times better than excessive force and the use of deadly force weapons.

Look, here is the brutal fact, if the police feel they have to arrest somebody they won’t let up. This has the consequence of making police into bullies.

The counter argument is if they let somebody go, and that somebody kills somebody, the police are then responsible.

But martial arts training, especially if it is not aggressive, gives better reactions, and a variety of non-deadly force responses.

So, make the police learn something that will soften their approach, without softening their purpose to arrest bad guys.

And, as for Joe Citizen, maybe if he took a little martial arts he would end up with the self-respect and attitude that drains the bad out of bad guys.

Matrix Kung Fu is a course filled with takedowns and locks. This is a virtual alphabet of grab arts, and it is available at MonsterMArtialArts.com.

Is a Shotgun good for Self Defense?

Is the Shotgun a Good Martial Arts Weapon?

Speaking of shotguns and self defense, let me say, at the outset, that no muggers were harmed in the making of this blog.

And, to be perfectly clear, the few ‘real’ experiments were conducted on a cow.

And, just so PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals) won’t get their skirts in an uproar, I actually had to shoot the cow to save its life.

We have a cattle guard at our ranch, a row of pipes which stops cows from crossing into areas which might be hazardous to their health (freeways), and one of the cows was jumping the cattle guard. If the cow misstepped it would have slipped a leg into the guard, which leg probably would have broken, and we would have had to shoot the animal. So I was saving the cow’s life by shooting it with a shot gun.

And, I only shot it in the butt. And only after one of the old farmers around here assured me that bossy wasn’t going to suffer damage.

Okay, all that disclaimer stuff aside.

I drove up to the gate where Red (our name for Bossy) was getting ready for a leap. I unlimbered the shot gun, and from fifty feet away I spanked her.

She jumped, bellowed at me, and ran away. And thus her life was saved.

And I started wondering about the spread of the shotgun.

A handgun is basically a 12 foot weapon. Past 12 feet people, unless they are severely trained, will miss.

A shot gun, everybody thinks, is unmissable at that distance.

What makes a shotgun hit at that distance is the fact that you have two hands on it, and it is cumbersome, and you have to steady it to shoot it in the first place.

But I would say that by 20 feet the shot gun, in the hands of the untrained, is still going to miss.

At 12 feet the shot spreads out to about 6 inches, give or take.

At 20 feet it spreads to maybe 15 inches, give or take.

At 50 feet, which is the distance I plastered old bossy at, the shot pattern was more’n a couple of feet wide.

So if you shoot somebody at 50 feet the shot will spread out and you’ll only hit them with a couple of shot.

And these figures I give you are only estimates, will vary from shotgun to shotgun, and so on.

But the point is that at 50 feet bossy only got hit by 2 or 3 shot, little pebbles, and a lot of the zip had gone out of those shot by that time.

So she was spanked, no holes in that tough, old hide.

But, let’s talk about humans.

At 50 feet a human might absorb a few pellets, and that human better hie themselves on down to the local get well station. Especially if the pellets hit tender areas. Eyes, groin, whatever.

So how good is a shotgun for self defense?

12 to 15 feet you’re gonna kill the crap out of somebody if you actually hit them.

Past that you have lessening consequences.

So why are people so afraid of shotguns? Because when they see the damage a shotgun can do at 12 or 15 feet they are dumbstruck.

You don’t leave a polite hole in a door, you blow the doorknob off, or the hinges, and the door slams back, or, at worst, you have a six inch hole in the door.

Imagine that on a human body.

Yikes!

Now, because of the spread of the shot, it is an excellent hunting weapon.

Because of human psyche, it is an excellent mob buster.

And, in close quarter work, saw that barrel off, which is highly illegal and could get you arrested and I don’t recommend, and…and you don’t get that much difference.

The importance of a sawed off shotgun is not that it is so much more deadly – the shot spreads a bit more, has slightly less range – but that it is easier to handle.

Have you ever seen ‘Wanted Dead or Alive?’ With Steve McQueen as Josh Randall? It’s not that he blows bad guys into tarnation sized smithereens, but that he is so quick to whip it around and get it into action. Can’t do that with grandpa’s old greener.

Anyway, I assure you that old bossy is still alive and giving milk. Also, feel free to argue with my conjectures regarding spread and distance and all that. My experiments were VERY unscientific, and there’s nothing wrong with feeding me some good, old fashioned scientific data.

Past that, whether you see fit to walk down the street with a shot gun for self defense is up to you, but I wouldn’t recommend it. I would recommend a good course in the martial arts. That and some of that uncommon common sense.

About the author: Al Case has been doing martial arts for 50 years. He is the author of Fixing MCMAP, which analyzes the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program and offers some very interesting and effective changes.

Martial Arts Self Defense Against Modern Weapons

Modern Weapons vs Martial Arts

Guest blog by Alaric Dailey

Shihan would say “best defense is ‘please don’t hurt me’ and if they continue to harass or intimidate you, only then do you try to take the gun from them”. My sensei would tend to agree with him, and why shouldn’t he, after all Shihan was his Sensei.

Nick Cerio didn’t feel that way, as a police officer he felt that the inclusion of defenses against modern weapons was absolutely necessary. So with Ed Parkers blessing Cerio branched Kenpo to include some modifications including adding gun defenses.

Have you read the latest Al Case Martial Arts thriller? click on the cover!

The Israeli Defense Force has to deal with guns all the time, so Krav Maga includes gun defenses.

I personally feel, that given the fact that above the age of twelve most fights include a weapon or multiple attackers, you must start addressing modern weapons.  Of course I also tend to agree with Shihan, and diffuse the situation if possible. However, I think you should also be trained how to handle such a situation properly, not making mistakes like trying a disarm and ending up wrestling over the gun, and having it pointed at yourself.

Gun safety, especially among children becomes more important every day.

Handling someone with a weapon, and especially a gun, is a dangerous thing to do. The techniques should be tested, and proven.  Thus, my personal opinion is to that the best place to borrow these modern weapon techniques from systems that must defend against them on a day to day basis.  Feel free to look around and compare, but the best most realistic techniques out there are from Krav maga.  Not only are these techniques easy to learn, no non-sense, and realistic, they are proven effective, which is why law-enforcement teaches them all over the world.

So as you may have guessed, I feel it is foolhardy to proclaim that you teach self-defense and not teach modern weapon defenses. Here are some of the ideas that I think should be incorporated into training, besides things like disarms.

1. Teaching everyone not to touch a gun they have found (contamination of evidence), children should get an adult, adults should call law enforcement.

2. Safe gun handling, handing off a weapon, clearing a weapon etc.

3 .Marksmanship

4. First aid/CPR and treatment of combat wounds.  A great choice would be EMT training, since most “First aid courses” are simply courses of “call 911”. If you are not qualified to teach these courses yourself, make sure students have access to those classes.

5. how to deal with an active shooter situation.

As for myself, when I open my own school, I intend to make regular trips to the range, and encourage my students to join me, Also I intend to ask my students to pursue getting their own conceal carry permits.

Alaric Daily began practicing the martial arts in 1992. Martial Art he has studied include Pangainoon, Karate, Kenpo, Wing Chun, Krav Maga, Judo, Jujitsu, Aikido, Bagua Zhang, and Tai Chi Chuan.

For a real Martial Arts tune up…subscribe to this blog.

Gunfighter Zen

Special Deal on Black Belt Course!

Great week to you!
And,
a GREAT work out!
Every work out is a prayer,
so who are you praying to?
To the divine spark within,
that it may manifest and brighten the entire and glorious world!
That’s who!

Now,
I have never had more people respond,
than to the last newsletter!
A few of you fellows,
apparently,
have itchy trigger fingers.
Grin.

I’m not going to go into the specifics,
we would end up with a forum
and lots of different ideas.
let’s talk about that extra rule I threw in,
that got the most comment of all the rules.
Here it is…

‘keep your gun loaded and ready
until somebody with a star says to freeze.’

The most interesting comment I received on that one
came from a fellow in Texas.
You know,
the place where lots of gunfighters came from?

He said,

If someone with a star says freeze and you elect not to, prepare for a gunfight with a professional who probably shoots at least 200 rounds a month and practices all sorts of different firing courses. Your choice. Choose wisely.

Got to grin on that one,
eh?
Now,
interestingly,
I have a slightly different opinion.
Mind you,
I would follow this advice if possible,
but nagging in the back of my mind
is the fact that here in Los Angeles
the cops aren’t always in control.

There was the mid east fellow
who pointed a cell phone at the cops
and got puncturized a few dozen times.

Then there was Thomas Kelly,
a homeless, mentally ill fellow
about 5 foot 6,
who was beaten to death by
a half dozen LARGE officers.

Just recently,
there was a cop who put his boot
on the neck of a fellow
who was handcuffed on the ground,
told him to stop struggling,
then taz-ed him.

And I’ve got DOZENS of incidents like that.
Hmmm.

And,
in all fairness,
if you knew the kinds of crazies
the LA cops had to deal with,
you might not blame them.
But…
do you see the quandary here?
For all the good cops…
how do you know the officer holding a gun on you
is a good one?
The fact that he didn’t shoot already
is not in itself
proof.

Now,
your best bet for survival,
even if the world goes crazy
and ALL cops turn criminal,
is to learn the martial arts.
You have the peace of mind,
you understand about compliance,
and you understand about fighting back
if necessary.

My best advice on this matter,
would probably be to leave the scene of the crime,
and have your lawyer turn you in.
That,
or,
depending on the circumstances,
follow the advice of Bob Lee Swagger
and dig a deep hole back in the woods.

Okay, okay,
so I’ve gone far overboard,
but you can’t tell me you haven’t thought about things like this.
Usually over a beer or eight,
but we live in a crazy world,
and let’s cross our fingers,
and work out extra hard,
that we never have to look at this extra rule.

Now,
let’s travel back to the martial arts.
Did you know that I put the 3 Month black Belt Course
on a special site,
and put it in download form?
If you go to
LearnKarateOnline.net
and nose around,
you will find something called
120 Video Lessons to Black Belt!
you can do the course
as a download.
All 120 segments,
all the lessons,
everything,
and $25 cheaper.

Isn’t that a lot more fun than a gunfight?
And my rather dubious advice concerning gunfights?

And,
speaking of gunfights,
and gunfighters,
you might want to consider the quote from last newsletter,

“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast”

Nice,
eh?
Lot’s of meanings,
almost zen-ish,
or Taoistic,
you know?

So where did it come from?
Interestingly,
not many got this one.

Yes,
it was in ‘Shooter,’
and has been attributed to various sources,
but the earliest source I found was…

Doc Holliday!

Now,
who knows the truth,
but…
Doc Holliday?
Makes you think,
eh?
I mean,
how zen were those gunfighters of the wild west?
Huh!

Anyway,
I’ll have another quote for you at the bottom of the newsletter.
For now,
remember to go to that URL.
http://learnkarateonline.net/
And look around for the 120 lessons to Black Belt course.

Have a great work out,
and then sit back and watch…
great things are going to happen to you!

Al

Help support the Great Matrixing Tour!
Order a course now!

Okay, who said…

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

And do you think it is true?

Email me at aganzul@gmail.com,
subject line–’unsubscribe’

Space Age Materials in Ancient Martial Arts!

Ancient Martial Arts Weapons Department

I’m always fascinated by weapons.
It’s so nice to think that you can stand back and defend yourself
without ever getting your hands dirty.
The problem is that I don’t like many of the weapons out there.

I like the Chinese sword.
It is delicate and quick,
like a knitting needle.

I like blow guns,
they are silent,
foldable,
you can make poison darts.

I like two sticks,
they are fantastic for training.

And I like a few others,
but most of them are too heavy,
or confined in their motion.

Now,
that said,
I probably never told anybody this,
but my father was an engineer.
Actually,
he made prototypes.
At first he worked for a small company named Ampex.
He was responsible for materials and machining
for the original tape recorders
back in the fifties.

In the sixties he went to Memorex,
became the prototype engineer,
again,
responsible for machining exotic materials.

Now,
let me bridge this to the martial arts.

In his spare time
he used to play golf,
and he started putting together weird golf clubs.
By weird,
I mean that he had access to space age materials.
And he started making golf clubs
with titanium shafts,
fibre glass shafts,
heads made out of…whatever,
and so on.

He probably invented a couple of things,
but he never bothered with patenting,
the companies he worked for
were pretty obsessive about patents,
so he didn’t bother.
He knew if he patented a golf club
one of those companies
would claim it was theirs.
Seriously.

Anyway,
the reason I bring this all up
is that I don’t see any martial arts weapons
using space age materials.

There’s a couple of things out there,
especially knives,
and there’s some other oddities,
but when is the last time
you saw a sword made out of some exotic material,
kept a better edge,
even if you used it to pound in spikes?

I know there have a been a few things made,
but not a lot.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have a staff
as light as fiberglass,
but virtually unbreakable?

A sword that actually bends?

Now,
I can see problems with some of these things,
for instance,
something might not have the weight,
and you do often need weight in a weapon,
but if you put an exotic metal blade on the end,
it would be as quick as a knitting needle,
but longer than a Chinese sword,
and it might put a whole new slant
on fighting with weapons.

Man,
I can think of all sorts of problems,
but it would be fun to make something like that,
see what the probs are,
then reinvent it again,
and eventually focus
on something better.

The whole thrust of war
has been for better machines.

The machine gun revolutionized warfare.
Then along came the tank.
The submarine,
the blimp…and the plane.

So why not the martial arts?

Think about it,
a heat seeking nine section chain dart.
Or,
a laser guided samurai sword…

Well,
perhaps I’m going a little too far,
but if necessity if the mother of invention,
imagination is the father of invention.

All right,
let me share a win…

Al,
I just wanted to say that I think that your Blinding Steel program is a great addition to my students escrima training. I have been teaching them the Heaven Six patterns and found that your concept of the Circle of Blocks is a great way to enter into these patterns. The ability to flow from the circle to the heaven patterns is a great way for the students to learn movement, striking and blocking with ease. The nine square concept made it very easy for them to see the angle of attacks that can be delivered at any given time. It also is a great way to remove the fear of being struck during the disarm section of Blinding Steel. Excellent info once again. Well done Al, well done. I just want to say thank you and keep up the great work.
Michael G

Thanks Michael!

And for everybody,
my programs,
and especially the Blinding Steel,
are martial arts by themselves,
but their real purpose
is to clarify all martial arts,
and you can use them
with your martial art
no matter what martial art it is.

Anybody who teaches martial arts weapons,
should consider implementing blinding steel.

Anybody who teaches Karate,
should start of with Matrix Karate.

And the Shaolin Butterfly
should be taught before traditional Shaolin.

Don’t you understand?
These are unique and whole martial arts by themselves,
but they expose and clarify
and give a big, whomping, huge,
kick in the butt
to all the traditional martial arts.

I haven’t re-invented the martial arts,
I have just figured out better ways to teach them,
how to make them work together,
how to figure out the lost (concealed) pieces,
and so on.

It’s like putting space age material,
on ancient weapons,
and getting something better.

Oinkey Donkey,
here’s the URL…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/3a-blinding-steel-matrixing-weapons/

have a great weapons work out!

Al

How I Beat Up a Naked Burglar!

 

 

True Story of Crime and Punishment!

You wake up with your wife’s elbow in the ribs.
She whispers,
“Honey, there’s somebody in the house!”

Burglars? Pah! I thrive on burglars!

So you gently slide out of bed,
careful not to make a sound,
and you head for the door,
maybe grabbing a baseball bat or golf club on the way.
You tip toe downstairs.
Sure enough,
there is a burglar,
and you jump out with raised baseball bat,
and he shoots you in the center of the chest
with a cheap a$$ Saturday night special
And,
as you lay there on your kitchen floor,
listening to sobbing and sirens,
you wonder what you did wrong…

Well,
where do I start?
The first thing you did wrong,
and the single thing that got you shot
was that she whispered,
you tip toed,
and you scared the burglar.
Heck,
him shooting you was probably an accident.
He didn’t want to shoot anybody,
he just wanted the silverware,
but when you snuck up and surprised him
and he spun and the gun went off…
and those sirens,
and you lying on the floor,
dying.

We (the wife and I)
were moving.
We had actually moved out of the house,
and we were spending our last night in the area
sleeping in the dojo,
car packed and ready to go in the parking lot.

About two in the morning we heard noises
from the parking lot.
I tip toed and whispered,
and if what had happened next hadn’t happened,
my car,
with all possessions,
would have been stolen.
What happened next was…
MY WIFE SCREAMED!
She shouted,
she screamed,
she said things that would have made a teamster blush!

And the burglar,
car thief in this instance,
took off like a bat out of heck!
Man,
you never seen such fleet feet in your life.

Noise,
that was the trick.
Burglars sneak in and try to be silent,
noise means they are in danger of being caught,
so they run for it!

Now,
are you ready for the story?

We moved to Los Angeles,
I taught a lot of martial arts,
and every once in a while I thought about
how my wife’s scream
had saved the day.

One night,
elbow in the ribs,
“Al!
There’s somebody in the backyard!”
And we heard voices.
‘Man,
you got to learn!’
And,
‘Lemme go! Leggo!’

I hopped through the house
trying to put on pants as I ran.
I grabbed my staff as I exited the back door
and in the back of my mind,
was the message,
don’t be silent!

So I roared out there,
shouting with the staff up for a good head strike,
and stopped cold.
A naked guy was standing there
staring at me in shock.

He stared,
I stared,
and then he started to move.
“I’m outa here,” he said,
or something like that.

I began swinging the staff,
and the staff began to whistle.

I said,
“No,
you’re not,”
and the staff whizzed through the air,
making a low siren sound.

Mr. Naked realized that he was about to get clobbered,
the staff was moving so fast he couldn’t see it,
but he sure could hear it!
It was really moving!

So he jumped over the fence.

I realized there was only one way out for him,
down my neighbors driveway.
So I ran down my driveway,
listening to him running on the other side of the fence,
and he must have thought he was free
when I jumped in front of him,
swinging that durned staff so fast and hard!

He ran back up the driveway.
And I,
now grinning,
knew that there was only one other way out for him.
He circled through the carport
and began running down the back area of the apartments.
And I,
I calmly sauntered over to the front of the yard
and listened to him
as he tripped over barbecues,
baby carriages,
fences,
small dogs,
toys,
potted plants,
and everything under the sun,
and when he burst out of the last gate
there I was,
swinging that staff like a son of a gun.

Well,
there was one more way for him to get out,
there was a really tall fence
over which was a parking area for a restaurant,
and I don’t know how he did it,
I don’t know how he managed it without,
uh,
‘mangling his mangoes,’
but he went over that fence.
Now I was behind him,
and I chased him down the street.
The last I saw of Mr. Naked
he was running down Vermont street,
a very busy Los Angeles street,
two in the morning,
naked.
Dangling.
Flopping.
Arms pumping.
And I always wondered where he found clothes.
Probably off a line somewhere.
But…
I hadn’t been silent.
No more creeping through the house,
risking getting shot.
If there’s a burglar in my house
the first thing I do is scream,
“Honey, give me my gun!”
Then I bang doors,
stomp loudly
and announce in my bravest,
most determined voice.
“I don’t know who you are,
but I’m going to shoot your *$$
full of lead!”

Then I’m going to laugh,
as the chicken$***
runs for cover.

This is easy to do, if you know Blinding Steel!

Now,
this is good advice.
And the only other thing I want to say about it is this…
Mr. Naked had been fully clothed
when he had gone into the seven eleven on the corner,
and he had grabbed the big jar of pennies and dimes and stuff
for ‘Jerry’s Kids.’
He ran out of the 7-11
down the street
and into my back neighbors yard.
My neighbor heard noises,
thought somebody was trying to steal his Harley,
and he came out looking for trouble.
Mr. Naked,
still fully clothed,
tried to escape over the fence.
That was when I heard
‘You got to learn!’
And,
‘Lemme go!
Then Mr. Naked fell over the fence,
leaving his pants in my neighbors hands,
and meeting me,
Mr. In Your Face Ninja Son Of A Gun
looking for a little redemption
from that car thief incident
many years previous.

And,
here’s the thing.
When the police came
I remember them picking up a thousand pennies and dimes
in the dark of my back yard,
and I realized
99 times out of a hundred
the police show up after the crime.
Heck,
they don’t know it’s going to happen,
and that means this:

You are your own first line of self defense.

You can’t rely on somebody saving you,
you are going to have to save yourself.
It’s all up to you…
and the martial arts that you practice.

So,
sleep light,
keep a staff or machete
or something next to your back door,
and if you shoot somebody,
hope they fall down inside the house!

That,
and one other thing,
I would say that it is better than fifty fifty
that the bad guy will have a weapon.
That’s right,
I lucked out,
but…
but you should get the Blinding Steel Course.
The fastest,
most efficient method
for handling a weapon in the world.

How to handle a weapon,
or how to handle somebody
if they have a weapon!

Check it out here…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/3a-blinding-steel-matrixing-weapons/

This is a large course
four videos and two books,
and it is all based on simplicity.
Not having to memorize tricky routines
that will get you killed while you’re trying to remember them,
but simple stuff
that opens the doors
to possibility after possibility after possibility…
It is a matrixed course,
the matrix of weapons,
and it is the best and fastest in the world.

Okay,
almost time for another work out,
I’ve really been digging the Pan Gai Noon lately,
maybe a little of that,
then some of the more rigorous classics.
Yeah,
that sounds good.
Actually,
sounds like a lot of fun!
I’m already breathing harder
and preparing myself mentally…

‘I get to work out…I get to work out!’
YEAH!
You, too!

Talk to you later.

Al

If you’re a martial artist, or even want to be one, head over to MonsterMartial Arts.com