Awarding a Mixed Martial Artist a Black Belt

Newsletter 986

The Interesting Thing About Black Belts

I’ve written often about
what a black belt is,
what the requirements should be,
and so on.
Let me say some unpleasant things here.

I volunteered my time
at a local martial arts school.
One night I was sitting with a half dozen MMA instructors,
and the talk turned to black belts.
One fellow had 22 years experience,
but was not a black belt.
Had no plans for testing.
Was quite happy to be a lower belt.
The other fellows accepted this as normal,
but it really made me think.

The fellow had the qualifications,
he knew what he was doing,
but there was some sort of mystique
concerning the longer you wait the better you are.

I asked one of the fellows later
about his promotion to black belt.
He said he had studied for some 20 years,
and suddenly realized that he wasn’t going to get any better.
Oh, he would get smarter,
pick up a few more sly tricks,
but he was now descending,
his body getting older
faster than he could learn.
So he went to the school owner
and told him that he wasn’t getting any better
so he better get his black belt while he was still any good.
He was given his black belt.

Now,
I’ve given you the data,
and maybe you’ve read some of my writing
about a black belt being ‘expert,’
so what does all this tell you?

To me it says that there is too much emphasis
placed on winning,
and not enough on structuring MMA
so that people can be properly evaluated.
That in the MMA (and this includes many brands of Jujitsu)
people are more concerned with who they can beat,
rather than mastering the distinct body of knowledge
that MMA is.
And this is what makes MMA a sport rather than an art.

Look,
being a sport is not bad.
It just sounds bad here because
it is coming through the filter of Al Case
who promotes art as best.

But,
really,
it is all up to you.

Interestingly,
I approached the head of the school I was volunteering at.
I suggested we categorize techniques,
make it easier to teach,
make the body of knowledge succinct and precise
so that we would better teach it.
He agreed,
and it actually fit into his plans for the school,
but every time we started to do something
he found an excuse,
disappeared,
changed the complexion of our meetings,
and so on.

As a sports man
he was unable to become an artist.
And here’s the funny thing,
he had trained in many of the classical arts,
he knew where I was coming from,
even agreed that I was right,
but at heart,
in the core of him,
he was a believer that might makes right,
that beating people up
was more important than teaching them methods
that would create distinct methods resulting in art,
the ability to classify ability,
and so on.

Simply,
it was more important to win a tournament,
than to do an art.

Well,
I’ll leave you fellows and gals
to figure out the worth of what I have said here.

In the meantime,
one of the most exact studies I have done
on what ranking and abililties are
was in the Outlaw Karate book.

Here is the Amazon page for it…

OUTLAW KARATE

There is a complete art in it,
complete with tests,
but see if you agree with how I analyze belt rankings.

Have a great work out!

Al

How is Kung Fu Power Different that Karate Power?

Newsletter 881

Comparing the Power of Karate to the Power of Kung Fu

The instructors in Karate and Kung Fu
don’t tell you what I am about to tell you.
The reason is simple,
they don’t know,
or if they do know,
they don’t really understand.
Which is to say they surround it in mystical terms.
With Matrixing,
of course,
there are no mystical terms.
There is only the real science of the martial arts.

So,
power in karate comes from:
sinking the weight
thrusting the weight
turning the hips

This is simple stuff,
most instructors might know one or two of these things,
never all three…
AND THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE THEM TO CREATE THE FOURTH POWER!
chi.

But this is covered in depth in The Master Instructor’s course.
For here and now,
let it suffice to say
that every move should have these three items,
and in the proper mix.

Now,
power in Kung Fu is similar:
dropping the weight
thrusting the weight
turning the whole body

It’s funny,
the two arts have the same principles
but they are different in a super major aspect.
That aspect is turning the hips (karate)
versus turning the whole body (Kung Fu)

Karate tends to turn the hips in a tight area.
putting the body weight into the strike very efficiently.

Kung Fu turns the whole body,
which includes the hips,
in a larger area.

Now,
don’t get me wrong,
there are going to be some arts
some techniques,
which overlap in this analysis.
And there is a simplicity here
which might be misleading.

But if you look at Shaolin on youtube,
and I use Shaolin as the example because it is considered
(by many)
to be the grandfather of the martial arts,
you will often find the body spinning in a large circle.
Sometimes it will end in a stance with an explosion,
but the power was generated by spinning the whole body,
then condensing the power manufactured in the spin
and sticking it into the technique.

I have come across descriptions of Shaolin
which talk about the axis of the body
(the centerline of north and south pole,
or crown and anus)
spinning,
and the rest of the body being a ‘flag.’
And this then gets real mystical.
I recommend Tai Chi Touchstones,
if you are interested in deciphering this.
Touchstones is not totally scientific,
but being translated by a westerner
(Douglas Wile)
it is couched in terms that can be taken as scientific.

Anyway,
we are talking two different methods here,
but based on the same principles,
with one of the principles expanded.
Which one is right?

They are both right.
You just have to know how to develop each method of power,
and then know when to use them.

So,
I usually just say
go check out the Master Instructor course.
But let me give you the two arts discussed here.
The whole arts on the courses,
forms, techniques, theory, everything.
You can easily develop the two types of power.

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

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/6-shaolin-butterfly/

Check them out,
they are easy to understand,
because they aren’t written mystically,
but rather scientifically.
Matrixing, ya know.

Have a great work out!

Al

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

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/6-shaolin-butterfly/

http://www.martialartsinstructortraining.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

The Greatest Strategy in the Martial Arts

Newsletter 821 ~ sign up now!

What’s with All the Bowing Stuff in the Martial Arts?

“Politeness is the greatest strategy.”
Al Case

The most polite man i have ever met
was my instructor in the Kang Duk Won.
He was also the best martial artist I ever saw,
which leads to an interesting possibility:

Politeness goes hand in hand with competence.

Think about it,
if you are polite,
honestly polite,
then you won’t be scared,
you won’t have hidden demons driving you,
the martial arts will have expunged you of all that.
You will be honestly competent.

So practice politeness
as well as seek competence.

Now,
with that in mind,
what is the purpose of bowing in the martial arts?
Aside from my little diatribe on politeness,
why should people keep bowing and bowing all the time?

On one level,
it is a sign of respect.
I respect the work you’ve done,
the level you’ve reached.
And under that is the implied question:
will you teach me.
And the teacher bows to show respect
to those who have come seeking his instruction.

On another level,
it is merely saying hi.
hi to everybody in the school.
Hi to everybody who contributed to the school,
even if they are passed on,
a simple greeting to your friends.

With those two viewpoints in mind,
here are the times you would bow.

Bow when entering the school.
Bow to senior classmates.
Bow to junior classmates.
Bow when stepping onto the mat.
Bow to the instructor,
especially when asking a question.
Bow after receiving instruction.
Bow at the beginning of class.
Bow at the end of class.
Bow before you engage in any drill,
be it sparring, form, etc.
Immediately disengage and bow
if an injury has occurred
as a result of something you’ve done.

AND,
bow to a classmate outside of school,
or,
if not considered appropriate,
give him/her some sign of greeting.

AND,
whenever entering another school,
always bow,
show that you have studied the martial arts,
and that you are aware of martial etiquette.

Sounds like a lot of bowing,
yes?
Well, it is,
but let me offer an insight.
I can’t imagine not bowing,
I strive to bow the most,
to set the best example of being polite.
I am constantly running into students
who are surprised when I bow to them.
But,
it encourages them to bow.
And,
it makes you feel good.

Imagine walking into a school gymnasium,
or an auditorium,
with 500 people present.
Imagine yelling out…
HI EVERYBODY!
And having them all yell to you…
HI, AL!

After near 50 years in the arts,
that’s what it feels like to me
when I bow.

And I like to think
that maybe I’m as competent as I am polite.
One can hope.

Here’s a link to the martial arts
I have been studying for near 50 years.
Take a look,
and see if I’ve made any inroads,
if the changes i have made from the classical
have value.

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

have a great work out!

Al

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

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

True Martial Arts Training Methods

Newsletter 816

Relaxing is the only way to find the True Martial Arts

I remember reading of Koichi Tohei,
many years ago,
and some scientists asked if they could test his ki.
Like, on machines.

Click on the Cover

Now this isn’t a smart idea.
Ki is an energy motivated by thought,
sometimes the energy can be registered,
but the thought never can,
so science often proves there is no such thing as ki.
Can’t be measured…doesn’t exist.
Which is the same reasoning
that kept the world flat for so many centuries.
They just don’t what to measure,
and there isn’t a machine in existence
that can measure thought.

That said,
the test went round and round,
they couldn’t explain what Koichi was doing,
and they couldn’t figure out the readings they were getting,
and he,
probably with a diabolical sense of humor,
told them he could slow his heart down.

They said nonsense,
a human being couldn’t control the nervous system in that way.
So he did it.
He dropped it some 30 beats,
then sped it up again,
then slowed it down.
And the scientists were really confused.

So let’s talk about what you are supposed to do
with your mind in the martial arts.

First,
forget it.
It’s just a bunch of memories.
Get rid of the past,
at least ignore it,
and you are more in the present,
and then you can better control your body.
Logical, right?
But too simple.
People have a hard time buying into this simplicity.

So,
in Karate,
we trained so that the mind
didn’t become excited,
and so that we kept looking,
and ignored emotion.
Ignored the emotion of fighting.
Didn’t feel the anxiety,
or panic,
or sudden beating of the heart
as the world devolved to chaos.

Note that I am moving at the same time.

When somebody throws a punch at me
I actually slow down.
My mind looks right past any memories,
and I focus on the moment.
I stop reacting,
even to my own training,
and start moving with the person.
In real time.

Now,
there are MANY examples of this in the world.
The baseball player,
for instance,
the guy way out in the field,
takes off…AT THE CRACK OF THE BAT!
Not before it,
not after it,
but at the same time.
AND,
he moves intuitively to where the ball is going.
He attempts to ‘meet’ the ball,
at some specified time and place.

But how did he know where the ball was going…
at THE CRACK OF THE BAT!

There are other examples,
but this is my favorite,
probably because everybody knows what I am talking about.
Especially if they have played baseball.

If you have ever had a sixth sense,
known when something was going to happen before it happened,
felt somebody walk behind you (hairs on end),
that is you,
putting aside memories,
and perceiving directly.

In Karate,
it happened about the time I got to Black Belt.
When I got there I began to focus,
without excitement or distraction,
on what was happening.
And it really screwed people up,
when I displayed no reaction time.

Reaction comes from ‘react’
which means you are so immersed in memories (or training)
that you can’t perceive directly.

Signals have to travel through the body to create motion,
instead of you,
apart from your body,
just creating motion.

Okay,
I’ve talked long enough,
probably left as much confusion as enlightenment.
But here’s the trick…
You have to train with people
in a system which understands this.
In which the techniques support this,
the forms are aligned and orderly.
The freestyle is not a fight,
but a procedure of learning how to look.
Not getting excited,
not getting distracted by emotions,
but calming yourself
so that you don’t get excited.

I’ve done the best I could
to give you a good system.
In fact…systemS.

Here are the systems…
http://monstermartialarts.com/courses/

But you have to work,
and work hard.
You have to get the idea that I’m talking about in your mind.
You have to force yourself to calm,
to put aside excitement,
and become cool and machinelike in your actions.

Good luck with this,
in spite of all the simplicity of my systems,
it is still hard.

It’s hard to restrain emotion,
put aside memories,
memories that you sometimes don’t even recognize as existing,
and function on a high level.

But it is possible.
Good work out to you.

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/courses/

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

Winning with the Martial Arts

Newsletter 803
Make Your Day with a Martial Arts Win!

Great Afternoon!

I was teaching this morning,
and it is almost impossible to describe
how wonderful one feels
after sharing the martial arts.

Sharp,
quick,
strong,
happy.

Hey,
I thought I’d share a win.
I get wins all the time,
and if I’m a little busy,
so what…
I can still share a win,
right?

Before I do,
however,
google is figuring out
how to send newsletters into Spam folders.
So put me in your contacts,
or just go to
https://alcase.wordpress.com
and sign up.
The newsletters always end up there.

Now,
here comes a win from Jason W.

I’ve trained on two continents officially hold 1 black belt, and unofficially am that level in 2 others. I am currently working through the purple belt level in your Kang Duk Won course. I have to say that the workout is as tough as anything I did in Hapkido, but I am slowly getting there. The KDW material is filling in all the holes I had in my training. It’s really amazing how much stuff the instructors leave out or don’t even know. About a year ago I was at the place where you started in developing matrixing. I was looking for ways to bridge all my training into a logical system apart from the individual styles. I am lucky I found your site. I saved myself about 40 years of headaches! Just keep up the good work.

Thanks, Jason.
I appreciate kind words,
I love your win.

Jason is doing the course at
KangDukWon.com.

I wrote it in attempt
to keep alive all the material
I learned at the original Kang Duk Won.

So,
have a win,
and share the arts,
and if you have a win,
send it in.

If you want to beat the blues,
read the wins.

Okley donkley,

you guys have a GREAT work out,
and I’ll talk to you later.

Al

KangDukWon.com

And don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter at
https://alcase.wordpress.com

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

The Difference Between Tai Chi Chuan and Karate

Tai Chi Chuan vs Karate

One of my work out partners,
way back in the Kang Duk Won,
decided he was going to do Tai Chi Chuan.
He figured it would be easy,
because of his karate conditioning.
He threw his back out so badly
it took him two years to recover.

Soft, flowing Tai Chi Chuan,
and it was too tough for a young karate guy.
What’s wrong with that picture, eh?

What is wrong is simple,
when Bruce, my friend,
did Tai Chi he thought he could just do a karate kick slowly.
But karate is fast and explosive,
the leg is out and back,
in Tai Chi the muscles have to strain to keep the leg up.
And I mean a whole sequence of muscles.
Bruce’s muscles,
though karate powerful,
couldn’t support the leg for an extended period of time,
and the result of his attempting to do such a thing
disrupted the muscles
all the way back to the spine..

Now isn’t that interesting,
tai chi chuan has more ‘weight lifting’
in its moves.
Karate has the fast explosion,
and the muscle tightening (focus)
builds the muscles.
But those muscles are built
at the beginning and end of the move.
In Tai Chi the muscles must support the weight,
throughout the move,
for a long(er) period of time.

A simple difference,
but it leads to an important concept.

Karate is explosive energy.
Tai Chi is suspended energy.

The difference manifests in movements,
in timing,
in focus of concentration,
in emptiness,
in energy.

Now we could actually analyze these differences
from different points of view.
But what I’ve said here is probably the best point to start.

Not speed,
not sensitivity,
though those are important,
but defining how energy is actually used.
Because how energy is used
defines the other terms.
This concept is core.

This is not to discourage you from trying,
but to caution you,
and help you make the transition.

If you do your karate forms slowly,
and round out the edges of your motion,
you can get Tai Chi power.
Just take it easy when you begin.

If you do your Tai Chi forms fast,
you can find Karate power,
and pretty easily.
But you do have to adapt to a different mind set.

Explosive and slow
two sides to a coin,
two sides to the martial arts.
And there are many more sides that these concepts can lead to.

Here’s the link to the Five Army Tai Chi Chuan course.

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/five-army-tai-chi-chuan/

Have a great work out!
Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/five-army-tai-chi-chuan/

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

New Pan Gai Noon Black Belt!

The Value of Pan Gai Noon

Good morning!
Hmm, afternoon.
Well, good whatever.
It’s easy to lose track of time,
you just sink yourself into a work out and
zingo bingo,
where did the time go.

Before we talk, I want to announce
Will Stockinger!

Will completed studies on Pan Gai Noon.
I think he might be the first
Pan Gai Noon black belt
I’ve awarded.
He’s been sending me videos for a while now,
and he made it look good on the videos.
So well done Will!

A word about the PGN.
Karate is my base art,
I collected a lot of systems over the years.
As I went through these systems
I began to understand certain things
about how Karate evolved.
I understood these things
not from people writing about them,
but from doing the forms myself,
and feeling the changes.
Mind you,
there were a lot of holes,
but Matrixing enables one to find
and fill up the holes in a martial art.
Anyway,
long ago I came across the saying,
that if you don’t know sanchin
you don’t know karate.
And it’s true.

Once I realized this I began to research sanchin.
I collected the various forms of it,
and I realized something:
Uechi Ryu sanchin is for dynamic tension.
Goju sanchin is for breathing.
Shotokan sanchin is for technique.
As you can see,
this represents how sanchin developed from China.
And I began to wonder,
what sanchin looked like in Pan Gai Noon.
But I couldn’t find much on it.
So I relied on matrixing principles,
and set the thing to concepts
which are in buddhist belief systems,
and I wasn’t doing sanchin as a karate form any longer.
Yes, there was still the pop and power,
but there was also flow and emptiness,
and this made the form different in a lot of ways,
opened my eyes to a lot of different concepts.

One of the things I realized
is that you don’t need people to pound on you
to make your form work.
You need gentle pressure
that will make the chi in your body respond.
Pounding doesn’t make the chi work,
it makes the muscles work.
But if you do body testing
the way I describe in
The Master’s Handbook,
then it is different,
and the form is different,
and,
here’s something interesting,
the techniques become different,
and you start to see a logic of technique
that I haven’t see in any other art.
The techniques flow,
and there is a progression of technique
that is startlingly matrix-like.

So these old guys,
back in China,
had designed a system over the decades
and centuries,
that described a closed combat system
that had an inherently matrix-like
progression of techniques.

Mind you,
the student wouldn’t see it,
it’s hidden in the form.
But if you do it long enough,
then it sort of pops at you,
and you start doing the principles of the martial arts,
and not just the techniques.

So that is how I structured
my Pan Gai Noon.
to represent the principles,
to establish the more matrix-like
progression of techniques.

And I wrote about this
in a variety of places.
The Matrixing Chi book
uses Sanchin as the starting point
for developing chi.

I’ve also done a video course,
which is available as part of
‘Evolution of an Art,’
at Monster.
I think this is the only place
where I’ve recorded Sanseirui.

Then there is the book
‘Pan Gai Noon.’
I think it is based on the course book,
with a few things added.

And,
there are lots of places
where I’ve touched upon the art,
written articles about it,
and so on.
Here is one of the best…

http://monstermartialarts.com/three-secrets-pan-gai-noon-karatekung-fu/

So there is a lot of things you can do
to examine my work,
and make up your own mind.

At any rate,
I do consider Sanchin,
and the other two forms,
seisan and sanseirui,
as extremely important.

Okay,
if you’re interested,
I recommend the Evolution of an Art course,
it’s got three arts in it,
Pan Gai Noon, Kang Duk Won, Kwon Bup.
That’s three books,
and three sets of video tapes,
for the price of one course.
And the books on those courses,
are also in the books I’ve
put upon Amazon.

Here’s the link
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/evolution-of-a-martial-art/

And,
that all said,
oinkly donkey
time to move on.

Again,
congrats to Will,
thanks for your hard work.
Yours is an amazing journey.

And,
to everyone…
HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!

Al

PS
Have a great Superbowl sunday!
And don’t forget to work out
after you pig out!

Five Martial Arts Books Written over Twenty Years Make an Encyclopedia

I Wrote an Encyclopedia of Martial Arts

There are five books in the Martial Arts encyclopedia, and they cover Karate from China to America, from the first transmutations of Kung Fu to the latest scientific innovations.

Pan Gai Noon, is on of the more important Chinese Arts that influenced Karate

Kang Duk Won is a pure form of Karate before the Japanese went power crazy on it.

Kwon Bup is an American version, very powerful and straight forward.

Outlaw Karate is the record of my attempts to create a style of Karate that could be done in one year. A black belt in one year really is a heady concept.

And the last book, Buddha Crane Karate, begins going into matrixing concepts.

I haven’t listed as an encyclopedia (though I did at one time), and that is because these five books were written over a twenty year period. They have different software programs, different technologies, and, taken together, they are ragged. So I list them as separate books, but they are an encyclopedia of Martial Arts. They are all technique, not a lot of words, just the actual moves.

You can find the Encyclopedia of Martial Arts on this page.

http://alcasebooks.com/martial-arts-books-2/encyclopedia/

Wing Chun Karate is Interesting…

Wing Chun and Karate?

Wing Chun and Karate, seemingly opposites, but not. Actually, I found more similarities between Wing Chun and Karate than almost any other martial arts.

Wing Chun, of course, is the Chinese Martial Art that has soft blocks, which is to say guiding blocks, and hard strikes. It has been around for hundreds of years, and it is quite sophisticated. A person who has actually reached the ‘inner circle’ of this Chinese Martial Art is quite untouchable, can fight blindfolded, has a full range of sixth senses having to do with anticipating attacks before they happen, and so forth.

The main difference here is the direction of the blocks.

Wing Chun blocks tend to come back towards the body.

In Karate blocks tend to go away from the body.

In either art, if you are moving the block sideways, you are doing the block wrong, for there is no body, and therefore no possible body alignment behind the block.

And, yes, whether you are blocking hard or soft there must be body and alignment of structure behind the blocks. You can’t overwhelm the attacker’s strikes (as inKarate) if you don’t have this body and structure, and you can’t effectively guide the attack if you don’t have this body and structure.

Now, that all said, take a look at ‘Wing Chun Kung Fu,’ by James Yimm Lee, and you will find a section on the eight gates and four doors. Is this not perfectly transferable to Karate?

And, once you understand this, and if you are in a real style of Karate, you will understand how the concepts of grounding and deep stances must be used. And, if you are in this style of hung fu, and come across Karate, you may realize ho more effective, especially the early training, would if you deepened the stances and worked on the grounding and alignment.

Thus, these styles of Japanese Martial Art and Chinese Martial Art do have more than surface similarities, and it is even of high benefit to study both systems. You must not try to blend them however, past what I have said here. That would muddle either art, cause confusion, and detract from both Wing Chun and Karate.

If you wish to go further with the concepts outlined in this article on Wing Chun and Karate you should examine Matrixing at MonsterMartialArts.com, a specific course that would apply would be the Master Instructor Course.

Making the Four Decisions of Martial Arts Freestyle!

Winning at Martial Arts Freestyle

To be victorious while using martial arts in a fight it is necessary to make the decision to win the fight. Without that decision, simply, there is no way you are going to become victorious in freestyle, or kumite. Thus, you have to practice making the decision, and then implement a plan so that the decision becomes reality in your martial arts freestyle.

Amazing new book! click on the cover!

There are five decisions you must make to back up the decision to win a fight. This combat strategy is found in every fight. This is the strategy you must understand and master if you are going to be able to deliver the original decision.

The first decision, and the most important, is that there is going to be a fight. Interestingly, you don’t have to get in a fight if you refuse to make the decision to be in a fight. Even if the other person has made a decision, unless you agree with his decision, you don’t have to fight.

The second decision involves distances involved in the fight. You should understand , at this point, that a fight is going to collapse in distance. And, you must understand that if you can control this distance, and even change collapsation into expansion at will, you can control and win a fight.

The third decision has to do with which side of the bodies the fight is going to occur on. One out of eight people being left handed, a fight will usually occur with right hand, and the bodies will turn to fit the hands, and the fight will be on that side. If you can control that decision, as to which side the fight will be on, then you are going to win that fight.

The fourth decision is going to be whether you are on the inside or the outside. What this means is that if he punches with a right hand, you must block/push/whatever so that his right hand misses you on the outside, and you see the inside of his wrist. And, if he punches with the right, you must block/push/whatever so that his right hand misses you on the inside, and you see the outside of his wrist.

There are other decisions in a fight, there can be millions of decisions, literally. Do you wish the fight to be conducted at a specific distance, such as foot, or fist, or elbow, or whatever. Or, do you wish to control the decisions so that the fight collapses or expands in distance as you wish, from foot to elbow to knee to throw to fist to foot to whatever, your choice, and so on.

The point, however, is that to control all the other decisions, you must control the first four decisions. If you can understand and create drills to back up these decisions, then you can win any fight. Of course, as I said in the beginning, the first decision, that you are going to win that fight, is the most important.

The Matrix Karate course will enable you to figure out ALL the decisions one has to know how to make in a fight.