Overcoming Pride in the Martial Arts

My martial arts hubris, and how I overcame it

Guest blog by Alaric Dailey

In my other articles I started that my original karate dojo may have been the best thing that ever happened to me.  If you haven’t read them you might find them interesting, especially the ones on Dojo-kun and Do vs Jitsu.

Among other things that I rarely see in other schools, each belt test consisted of kata, punching and kicking, hojo-undo etc, but they also included reading a book and a verbal book report.  The very first test was, like many styles, a yellow belt.  I will never understand having a rainbow of colors that DON’T get darker as they go…

That first test was quite an eye opener for me though, Sensei had added his own requirement, because he was not about making money, nor was he interested in having half-hearted students, nor students that would leave.  He wanted people that were going to forever be changed, and continue to practice for the rest of their lives.

The requirement he added?  Go to another martial arts school, and take a minimum of one class with them.  Give a verbal report.

This requirement, was a bit baffling, why take anyone just starting in your school, and require them to go try another school and possibly lose them?  Because it makes sure you are in the art that you will stick with.

For my yellow belt test, I took a 3 day introductory course to Tai-Chi, knowing nothing about any other martial art I made the mistake to trying to compare it to what I knew.  To give you some idea of what kind of apples and broccoli I was trying to compare, I was taking Pangainoon, and the first form you learn is Sanchin and the school I went to was doing Yang Tai Chi.

I made all sorts of uninformed, biased assumptions, I loved karate with a blind passion, and wanted to impress upon my sensei how much karate meant to me.  Thus I took the classes looking for what I perceived to be flaws and weaknesses in the art such as

* no application of technique – never did I get any instruction of “this is a block, this is a strike, this is what you are defending against”
* the stance was too wide – I was not given any explanation for a neutral bow, or why it would be a good stance.  In my mind Sanchin was the ultimate fighting stance.
* No power in their techniques – I had no understanding of chi power, even though Pangainoon teaches it, I hadn’t really even gotten an introduction.

I wilfully and with eyes open wide walked into a trap that ensares so many others.  I blinded myself to the benefits of other arts.

I was lucky that I didn’t entirely discount everything I learned. I continued to keep in contact with the Sifu, and shortly before he left for China, I had the opportunity to witness him do Tai-chi very fast, it was amazing.  Suddenly all the soft flowery techniques appeared to have power, and were obvious as to blocks and strikes.  At this point, I had also had enough Pangainoon to understand some of the techniques and chi.

I was lucky for many reasons, I was lucky that my Sensei had the confidence to send us other places. I was lucky that I choose a school that was so different that I was forced to re-evaluate what I was learning (even if it was only in the back of my mind).

Luck aside, my own belief that my karate style was the only “good” style, quickly crumbling down.  I wouldn’t have been able to overcome this false pride, had I not had these opportunities.

If you run a school, you will do your students a massive favor if you encourage them to go practice with other schools.

If you are a martial artist of any style, you can benefit from swallowing your ego and practising at other schools, especially those that are radically different than yours.  For example, if you do Tai-chi, you might want to try a boxing school, if you do Wing Chun, try Judo or Jujitsu, etc.

You never know, you might might new friends, you might learn something new.  As I often say “more bodies, means more opportunity to learn, especially when they are doing something other than you are doing”.

How to Kill an Attack Trained Guard Dog with Tai Chi Chuan

Martial Arts Defense Against Killer Dogs

Is this going to be a GREAT week or what?
Eh?
I mean,
the stars are in alignment,
the tea leaves are propitious,
and,
if that isn’t enough…
you get to work out!

Click on the Cover!

Of all them prophetic devices…
only the work out is the sure thing,
so I think I’ll work out twice!

Oinkly doggie.
Let’s leap right into the good stuff,
let’s talking about taking out attack trained,
killer vicious curs called…
guard dogs.

I was ten years old,
was cutting across a neighbors estate on my bicycle
and a big, old weimaraner
who I had known and played with,
attacked me.
Dragged me off the bicycle
and I managed to steer the falling bike
towards the property line,
and I fell into the street.
Off the property.
The guard dog,
who I had known and played with,
petted and wrestled with,
growled and snapped at me,
but was stopped by the property line.

Okay.
Guards dogs gone wild.
you know?

So I was afraid of dogs after that.
Then,
when I was eleven,
my older brother gave me his paper route.
And,
on one of the streets,
you guessed it,
a dog.
Not a guard dog,
but he would run into the street
and chase me.
I would peddle and cry.
And I asked my brother what he did about the dog.
“I kick it.”
It’s got to reach you,
so when it jumps,
I kick it.

I envisioned kicking,
even practiced it a bit,
and,
the next day,
I was delivering papers,
and,
you guessed it,
the dog comes chasing after me!

Man,
I stomped that sucker right in the face.
He yipped and ran.
And,
a half hour later,
I rode past that house again.
I was feeling a bit proud,
maybe even a bit blood thirsty,
hoping that dog would attack me again
so I could nail his face with my
Sunday go to meeting shoes.
(They were the only hard soles I had)

There were teeth on the ground!
I had actually knocked his teeth out!
HAHAHAHA!

And,
over the years,
I think about the A$$whole
who owned that dog.
Cause it’s the owner that should be kicked,
not the dog.
I’ll bet the owner thought it was funny,
his lights were on,
he let the dog out,
laughed when the paper boy ran.

Well,
he was feeding that dog mush with a spoon now!

Okay.
That sets us up.
Let’s talk about Monkeyland.

We have dogs up here.
Truth,
I LOVE dogs.
I hike all over with them.
I throw sticks.
I even swim with them!

Nothing is better than a big, old mutt
with a wet, sloppy tongue.
Nothing.

So we’ve got three dogs.
One is a hundred pound lab.
Big frigging tongue on that boy!
The other two are Mallenois.
Mother and pup.
Mallenois are like under sized german shepherds.
And,
they are highly prized as guard dogs.
My partner brought them up,
introduced the mother,
who was highly trained,
as a killer.

Well,
that’s not really what we’re about at Monkeyland,
but he’s my partner’s,
so now we have a highly trained attack dog.

Here’s the bad news.
The mother is loving,
one of the most loving dogs I have ever seen.
It is…
over loving.
Frantic.
Desparate.
You can’t go outside without the dog leaping on you,
hugging you,
trying to curl around your feet,
prostating itself and
…just wanting love.

The trainer,
you see,
has done a number on her.
Probably a good trainer.
My opinion,
however,
is that the dog will protect instinctively.
Doesn’t need to be trained to harm a human being.
In fact,
I think the training,
to harm another human being,
is a crime.
And what it has done to that poor dog…
Lord.
That poor dog is just out of its mind.

It’s always the owner,
in this case the trainer,
you know?

Anyway,
before I rant on a$$wholes who train dogs,
let’s talk about taking out a dog
that has been trained to harm human beings.

I went out on the front porch to do a work out.
Beautiful out there.
A mile of green valley and blue skies.
High, puffy clouds wafting across the sky.
A hint of breeze to cool off the work out
and let it go even longer.

Paradise,
you know?

BUT,
the dog wants love.
Is desperate for love.
And it crawls under my feet,
tries to jump on me.
So I practice my footwork,
anticipating directions,
and the dog is falling into space,
can’t keep up,
even falling down.

Hey!
This is fun!
BUT,
somewhere in there,
the attack responses are triggered.
The dog leaps at me.

Remember that dog I played with?
And who dragged me off my bike?
Man,
here it as,
all over again.

Not quite vicious,
but the line between love and hate,
usually large,
has been slipped over.
The dog leaps at me,
snapping at my wrists.
I realize that this is one of the devices
that the trainer must have used.
Play,
slap around,
get it to go lightly vicious.
A game,
you know?

But the A$$whole trainer
obviously didn’t know martial arts.

I was doing Tai Chi at the time,
the first move,
ward off.
The dog leaped,
I shuffled back slightly,
bowed my belly in,
and held my arms out,
the dog was in my space,
and I lowered my arm so that the forearm was at the neck,
turned my hips,
and threw the dog.

Man,
you have never seen such a quick and efficient throw.
That dog just flipped on its side.

It leaped at me.
I did golden rooster,
a simple knee,
and the dog bounced off the point of the knee and fell back.
Yipping!

I smiled,
cocked my head,
and held my hand out and motioned to the dog like Bruce Lee.
Come on.

The dog went for the feet.
I was wearing soft shoes,
so I merely stepped in front of my left foot with my right,
then,
when the dog was fooled,
slapped it in the head with a left sole behind the right leg.
Came right out of nowhere,
rocked that momma like there was no tomorrow.

Now,
I was being incredibly soft.
I LOVE dogs.
Even attack trained vicious guard dogs.
It’s the owner,
you know?

But I moved across that porch,
befuddling,
confounding,
confusing,
and threw that dog this way and that.
Didn’t use any force.
Just slipped and turned,
gave the dog the target,
then withdrew it.

And,
after a while,
the dog wasn’t sure what to do.
In the game it had been trained in,
it won,
got a cookie for savaging a wrist or ankle.
Got loving for biting the padded mid section.
Here,
there was no midsection.
And the ankles bit back and were gone.
And the wrists,
oh Lord,
going for the wrists
was a fool’s errand.
That always resulted in a disappearing target,
and a dog body flipped on it’s side,
and a series of Karate punches to the belly.
Soft punches.
And,
grin,
I avoided any of the Tai Chi strikes.
I didn’t want to kill the dog.

So,
that’s how you handle an attack trained
vicious,
killer guard dog.

Karate will work fine,
or any other art,
but remember that it is play here,
and that you are,
in essence,
undoing what the dog has been trained to do.
And,
remember,
it is always the owner.

The guard dog,
any dog,
is just one of God’s critters,
and we are charged with taking care of them.
Not using them against our fellow man,
beyond their natural protectiveness.

And,
it makes me think,
there are a few people I’d like to ‘de-train’
a few politicians.
Hmmm.
Maybe that’s a story for another time,
eh?

Have a great and glorious work out!
And don’t forget to pet your dog,
and play with him every day.
especially if he’s been attack trained.
Grin.

Al

Here’s the link for Matrix Tai Chi Chuan.
That’s the stuff I use,
and I recommend it HIGHLY!

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/2ba-matrix-tai-chi-chuan/

Outlaw Karate Training Book Released!

The Release of Outlaw Karate

Time for a March work out!
Everyday
all March
when April comes
you will just laugh.
Guaranteed.
You’ll be powerful,
strong,
light on your feet,
and having so much fun…
you’ll be laughing.

I’m releasing the Outlaw Karate book on Amazon.
So let me tell you about Outlaw Karate.

My son came to me,
he was around 16,
and he said,
‘Dad,
I want to learn Karate.’

There is a particular joy
about passing the art
down to one’s own flesh and blood.

It continues the saga of enlightenment,
and improves the race
on a VERY personal level.

So I told him to get a partner.
He got his friend Josh.
Then Mike called me up,
one of the first guys I taught in Los Angeles,
and he was actually mad at me.

“What do you mean having a class
and not letting me know?”
And he brought his son, Tracey.

Then a guy called me out of the blue,
asked if I taught Karate.
Hmm.
So I gave him directions to my house.
Then,
the very first night,
Charles knocked on the door.
He had been one of my models
for one of my early videos.
He had just dropped by to see what was up.
He looked past me
at the guys stretching.
He didn’t even ask me,
just said,
‘Oh,
you’re teaching again.’
And he walked past me and took his place.
‘I knew there was a reason I wore my gi today.’
And he laughed.

So,
out of the blue,
odd,
not a plan,
but it was started,
and here is the thing…
have you ever had a class
where not one single person
missed a class
for an entire year?

UnFINGbelievable.
And,
I have to say,
I was a bit inspired.
I was absolutely and delightfully brutal.
Toughest class I ever taught.
If somebody didn’t punch hard enough,
I stepped in and knocked somebody up against a wall.
‘Not hard,’
I would say,
‘but thorough.’
Don’t damage,
but make sure you push him hard enough
so that your punch will work!’

If a throw didn’t work,
I would step in
and bounce somebody’s body on the floor.
‘Merge with the planet!’
I would say.
And I would grin.

And,
the class responded.
Mike had broken fingers for a solid year.
Every time they started to heal,
somebody would break them again.
I just laughed and said,
‘you’d better learn when
to keep your fists closed.’

Tracey ended up crying almost every night.
He hates it when I tell this story,
but we broke the little boy
and ended up with a man.

Somebody,
don’t know who,
cracked my son’s sternum.
Got an X ray
and it was actually chunked in
about the size of a knuckle.
Doctor said,
‘No more Karate.’
Aaron ignored him,
told me to go shove it
when I tried to keep him out of class,
and continued.

Everybody was hurt,
injured,
beaten,
and grinning.

I always remember the night
Josh had had enough,
he actually turned around,
ran out the door,
and ran up the street,
tears streaming from his eyes.

He was back for the next class.

The weirdest thing I ever experienced
during that year,
was when working with my son,
I would look at his body,
and think,
I’m doing this with my own body.
Really freaked me out.

And,
lots of things happened
to the guys because of that year.

Josh went to a party,
a riot started,
and he positioned himself,
and stood there
in the middle of a total riot,
and nobody attacked him.
Nobody came at him.
Everybody left him alone.
They just looked at him,
solid,
capable,
in control,
level eyed,
and they went away.
He became a rock star,
was in several bands around the LA area.
Said he loved to pound the drums,
reminded him of Karate,
and that Karate inspired him.

Aaron,
he was on his way to work one day
and he got jumped by two muggers.
He knocked one to the ground
and totally one.
One punch.
Then turned and kicked the other one so hard
that he flew through the air
and hit a parking meter
and bent the pole.

All the guys had something weird and wacky happen to them.
Five of them made it to Black Belt.
Charles was already past Black Belt
from his previous studies with me,
so it didn’t matter with him.
He was just there for the class,
anyway.

You could probably find things about Outlaw Karate
if you searched my blog.
Some rewrites of this,
some other stuff.

Outlaw Karate was a combination of arts.
I took Kang Duk Won
and Kwon Bup,
and I threw out the repeat techniques.
I boiled the forms down to six,
very simple,
direct to technique
patterns.
And,
here’s the thing,
this happened about 1991.
I had written most of the graphs for Matrixing,
I had sorted through hundreds of arts,
looking for the best stuff.
Inside Karate had asked me to write a column for them,
simply because they liked all my articles.
They liked the way I phrased things,
gave things the earthy feel,
and communicated to the individual.

So I was on the edge.
It was still a few years,
but Outlaw Karate
was the toughest Karate I ever did.
And it was sleek and powerful,
and there was no fat,
just brute, raw power.

Most important,
it was probably the ‘spring board’
to matrixing.
Right after that,
I put together the perfect forms of Matrix Karate,
and evolved the art.

But I had to get down and dirty,
roll in the mud and the blood and the beer,
so to speak,
to evolve out of what everybody thought
Karate is supposed to be.

I named the system Outlaw
not because of all the Hells Angels and other bikers
I trained with back at the Kang Duk Won,
but because I was going outside
what people thought Karate was.

So,
that’s the story.
And,
I am releasing,
officially,
the book I wrote on Outlaw Karate.
Includes all the forms and techniques.

It was previously only available in PDF
with the Outlaw Course
at the Monster.

It’s right here on Amazon at…

http://www.amazon.com/Outlaw-Karate-Secret-Ultimate-Encyclopedia/dp/1496049527/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393865022&sr=8-1&keywords=outlaw+karate

Check it out,
and have a great work out!
Al

Staying Young and Fixing Pain with the Martial Arts

Get Rid of Injuries, Get Young, All with the Martial Arts!

no matter when you open this,
stop everything you’re doing and work out!
Better than vitamins and pain killers.
Better than a trip to the doctor…
or even a sharp stick in the eye!

Okay,
I want to tell you how to achieve eternal youth,
how to cure yourself of any illness,
and all through the Martial Arts.

The idea and inspiration for this newsletter came from Terry S.
Thanks, Terry.

Terry sent me an email,
and in it was a notion I have come across before
and which I had entertained.
Getting older,
feeling the aches and pains,
feeling the stiffness,
and…here it comes…
giving up the hard martial arts and doing the soft martial arts.

This is actually pretty significant,
if you’re a hard martial artist,
it is REALLY difficult to give up your love.
So here is my email back to Terry,
with a thanks for making me think over this stuff…

Now, shelving hard arts. Nay! Don’t do it.
I once didn’t do Karate for a long while, and I missed it so much, and I did lots of tai chi and pau kua, but…I wanted my Karate!
So I started thinking about old zen sayings, stories of various masters, and lots of other things. And, I really went neutronic on the thing.
Now, one of the reasons I gave up Karate was because I was getting massive headaches. I don’t get headaches, and I knew I was throwing more power and my body was getting older, and I was literally giving myself whiplash.
Now, first solution, make the body stronger. But I don’t feel like doing that sort of physical exercise. nothing against it, but it was taking me in a direction I didn’t want to go in. I wanted intention, spiritual oomph, not muscles.
So, conclusion, do Karate without muscles.
First I started doing all my forms tai chi style, and, you know, it actually worked!
But, there were all sorts of problems. Tai Chi relies on what I call ‘suspended energy,’ you hold the arms up, the legs, and so on. This actually hurt my back, and various other body parts. The reason was because I thought I could hold the stances because of all my karate. But karate develops ‘explosive energy,’ and though the muscles develop accordingly, they are not prepared for suspended energy.
So I tried different things to adapt the stances, change the forms, all sorts of things, going through all my forms.
In the end, tai chi is better for tai chi, but I found some interesting ways to practice karate ‘tai chi style,’ without losing the karate oomph.
First, don’t lock the whole body when focusing. Focus only the fist. Keep the rest of the body loose, make sure there is a line from the earth to the fist (or through the block); have somebody push on your fist (or block) and channel to the ground. The person must know how to push so the energy travels without wiggling, and so the person being pushed on can correct with small motions. If you have to correct with large motions against the push then you are out of alignment before you have even started.
Now, doing it this way, I found that I could move faster and faster, didn’t get the blinding headaches, and could do karate full speed.
And, this led me to something quite interesting…doing your martial arts without ‘mass.’ Energy has a certain mass. So instead of running energy, and creating mass, I was moving the body empty, and that’s why I was picking up speed when I should have been slowing down because of age, injuries, and so on.
This became handy as a way to handle injuries, incidentally.
And, I thought about things zen and what old masters said, and having the pliability of a child, and being innocent, and all that sort of thing, and I have seen two year olds crawl like maniacs through small spaces, run bent kneed under tables, and laugh and never get tired.
Why?
Because they are moving without mass. They haven’t learned how to use muscles, and are not putting all sorts of attention on ‘hard’ modes of operating the body.
Then I started getting younger.
I watched people I have grown old with, watched them as they went to walkers and oxygen canisters and even motorized wheel chairs.
I could probably run a marathon right now. The other day I was sprinting full tilt across a field playing with my dog.
Old people, my age people, were watching, and I could feel the amazement in them. What the…how is Al doing that? Why isn’t he using a walker/oxygen canister/motorized wheel chair?
Because I figured out, logically, that to be young you just have to take the mass out of your body, the locked up energy, the considerations that you are old and ready to dodder around.
Anyway, I don’t mean to rant, and I really should put some of these things down in a newsletter, so I think I will.
Thanks for the idea, and good luck figuring out how to do TKD masslessly. Let me know of your progress, and share any wins or probs with me. Maybe you can help me figure out more stuff.
Have a GREAT work out!
Al

So,
there is the email,
with a few spelling errors I made fixed up.

If you do the martial arts masslessly,
your body doesn’t lock up energy,
doesn’t become inflexible,
retains muscle
(on retaining muscle,
you’d think you wouldn’t,
but you do.
I guess that even moving masslessly the body has to work,
you just don’t know it).

The end result of moving in this fashion
is greater health,
injuries start to go away,
the body fixes itself,

It’s like getting the benefit of Tai Chi for health,
but without the new age stuff…
you do it while retaining combat practicality.
In fact,
your combat practicality increases.

Now,
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention something.
Matrixing.
Look,
it is a decision,
this whole thing is a concept in the mind,
but you have to do the martial arts
to a point where you have discipline and awareness,
then you use the discipline to channel the awareness,
then you have the spiritual oomph to make a real decision.

It takes a fair amount of awareness
to truly move the body without mass,
let alone make a decision of that sort.

So,
Matrixing will align your form,
make it more efficient,
and enable you to get discipline and awareness
MUCH faster.

That all said,
if you want more data on healing the body,
go to Neutronic Healing.

If you want more data on Matrixing,
go to Matrix Karate,
it’s the first course on Matrixing.
Shows how to make the matrixing graphs,
gives you ALL sorts of data
about matrixing,
along with a complete karate system
you can use as a template to matrix ANY martial art.

Okay,
Have a great work out!

Al

PS
I lost all addresses and records in my recent computer crash.
That means I lost a lot of data on how to guide people through matrixing,
catch duplicate orders,
and so on.
I apologize,
but you can always write me with any question or concern.
aganzul@gmail.com

Matrixing the Rain and Tai Chi

Muddy Tai Chi Chuan

Good and wet Hello!
Have you ever worked out in the rain?
A lot of battles happen in the mud,
so why not?
You can perfect your stance in mud
and really learn how to grip the ground.
I used to work out in the rain and mud on a regular basis,
because I really learned about sinking my weight
and having balance
and all sorts of things!

Now,
I want to talk about Matrix Tai Chi,
but let me rant on
about this weather report first.

It rained up here at Monkeyland.
It has rained before
but I just stayed in the cabin and worked.
This time,
however,
I had to go to town
and had to come back in the rain.

It wasn’t bad going down,
the rain was a mist,
and the earth stayed solid.
Coming back,
however,
was an entirely different story.
We made it up the three mile grade to Monkeyland,
then the fun started.
The mile across Charley Valley to the temple
is filled with cow crap and gopher holes.
Seriously,
if you leave the road,
and the ground is soft
your vehicle could actually drop to its frame
when the gopher tunnels collapse.
So the trick is to stay on the road.
Not easy when the mud is that sticky, clining, ice skatey, slick as snot stuff.
First fifty yards and the chunks of muck were getting flung up
at the undercarriage of my poor Xterra.
Clinks and clunks filled the air,
and the car started slewing back and forth.
Not much,
but…could I stay on the road.
Using my best Chi Sao skills
I worked the wheel,
feathered the gas
and went into a gully.
Gave it the juice on the way down
and barely made it to the top of the other side.
Back and forth I went,
the steering wheel like so much mush,
came to a turn over a culvert,
why I stayed on the road I don’t know,
but I angled the turn
gassed at the right time,
and shot into the straits to the hill up to the temple.
At the bottom of the hill traction quit on me.
All the dashlights were blinking
and the tail of the car swished back and forth like a cow’s tail.
On the right is a wall of dirt,
Okay,
I could handle that.
Lean the car against the mountain,
and walk the rest of the way.
But on the left is a big chasm
where the earth has given way
probably because of the gophers.
If the tires bit suddenly,
I would be going for an eight foot drop into a ravine.
Halfway up the tires lost it totally,
the back of the car slewed to the right
and I was aimed at the chasm.
I cranked the wheel,
worked the gas pedal like I was trying to milk a bee
and the car slid backwards.
I thought it was all over then,
but it suddenly bit for an inch.
One single, MF inch,
and everything changed,
the car oozed up the road,
inch by inch,
the tires sending out chunks by the ton,
and,
suddenly,
we hit a rough patch,
granite gravel,
and the car spurted up the hill like nothing was wrong.

Now,
I know we’ve all driven in the rain,
but I want to give you a blow by blow
of things that happen
out of the blue
when you’re living off the grid,
away from civilization
If the car got stuck,
or worse,
went into the ravine,
we would be here until the rain stopped,
and the sun got strong enough to bake the ground.
Could be two months.
That would be an extreme,
but it has happened.
One of the neighbors,
down the hill and right next to the road,
couldn’t cross the creek for two weeks.
It was Xmas,
and his whole brood,
all the sons and daughters and grandchildren
couldn’t get to town,
couldn’t get presents,
spent Xmas morning staring at a Christmas tree with no presents.
And he’s down in the flatlands,
where the weather is mild.

So,
when you come to Monkeyland,
you have to bring water to drink,
food to eat,
think about stockpiles in the event of an emergency,
be prepared to throw a tent,
or sleep in a cargo container.
The septic is good for two people,
so where are you going to dig your hole?

Where we going to work out?
In a cargo container?
In a field amongst the cow droppings?

If it rains
and you get stuck here…
it could be trouble.

Oh,
we all share,
we’ll all get by,
but you will always remember staring at the last can of stinking beans,
and wishing it was more.

And,
it will get better.
(Heck, it’s paradise now…
so paradise will get better. grin)
But it will take people,
donations for equipment and materials,
got to build a dorm,
a dojo,
a bigger cess pool.

So,
that’s the update
on this slice of heaven
up in the clouds.
Thought you’d like to know,
or should know,
if you are planning a visit.

Okay,
thanks to all for ordering Matrix Tai Chi Chuan.
Read about it on this Monster Page.
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/2ba-matrix-tai-chi-chuan/

And let me explain something about Matrix Tai Chi Chuan.

It is one of the worst of arts
when it comes to teaching.

The arts,
you see,
are broken down like this…
some moves are the alphabet,
some techniques are words,
some sequences of techniques are sentences,
some forms are paragraphs,
A system is a story.

Now,
if you have ever experienced the Chinese alphabet,
there isn’t one.
You memorize hieroglyphics.
Thousands of them.
How would you feel if somebody handed you ‘War and Peace,’
and said you should read it by memorizing it
by reading the sentences until you could remember them.
Weird, eh?
And it would take a long time.

That is how the Chinese teach Tai Chi.

It probably started out like Karate
with blocks and kicks,
but now the blocks are forgotten
except as addendums to whole sequences of techniques.
That’s like saying you have forgotten what the letter A is for
but you have to learn a paragraph from War and Peace.

Can you spell ‘Chinese Fire Drill.’

Now the odd thing is that the Chinese are so brilliant
that they came up with this method.
There are subtle nuances that are unbelievable.
But you have to spend a couple of decades
memorizing things you don’t understand
before certain things click,
and you begin to get a glimmer.

What Matrix Tai Chi does is delineate the alphabet
the words and the the sentence structure,
without losing any of the subtle nuances.

Heck,
you start to see more and more of these subtle things
as you progress from Matrix TCC to Five Army TCC.
Well,
of course.
You have learned how to read
before you start memorizing,
so it actually becomes easy
and even logical,
and the mind starts to leap forward.

Let me tell you a sneaky, nasty, little secret.
I never studied Tai Chi with a teacher.
I learned it out of books.
Not even videos,
we didn’t have them back then,
and we didn’t have the glut of qualified TCC teachers
that we have now.
Now go look at the thing in Matrixing Chi,
or find one of the clips of me demonstrating TCC.
How could somebody do that without a teacher?
By understanding Matrixing.

Look,
my father was an engineer,
I was raised up on western logic,
and somehow,
I came up with Matrixing.

Heck,
I spent years trying to memorize the form,
I went through Yang and Chen and Sun and Wu.
I learned ALL the PRC forms,
but it wasn’t until I started applying the Master Instructor principles,
and suddenly realized how Matrixing would work on TCC
that it all clicked.
A lot of wasted time,
but I was doing martial arts
so it wasn’t all wasted,
and all that hard work finally came together.

Now,
if you want to learn Tai Chi,
it doesn’t have to be mysterious.
You just have to do Matrix Tai Chi first.
If you know Tai Chi,
wouldn’t you like to be able to teach it
ten times faster?
Get the students into the heavy duty $hit
now
instead of waiting for them to memorize enough form
to have a glimmer?

And,
wouldn’t you like to know what it all means?
Heck,
I have talked to people who have studied for decades,
but until they started matrixing,
didn’t see the self defense potential
in one of those simple
but glorious Tai Chi sentences.

I have know people who didn’t understand
how one sentence linked to another
who were lost in the middle of the maze.

Yes,
they got benefits,
but wouldn’t those benefits be ten times greater
if they understood what they were doing?
Could actually read the Tai Chi Language?

Okey dokey,
while you guys and gals think about that,
and hopefully not for too long,
I gots to go.
My partner tried to get out of the valley on his tractor…
and he’s stuck in the mud!
A friggin’ tractor!
You can’t get a tractor stuck in the mud…
but I just went out on the porch,
and he’s walkin’ across the valley,
shakin’ his head.

which just goes to show…
never…
NEVER…
underestimate Monkeyland mud!

HA!

You guys and gals have a glorious
and WET
work out!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/2ba-matrix-tai-chi-chuan/

Combat Strategies in Shaolin Gung Fu!

Shaolin Gung Fu VERY Effective in Combat!

Here is the lie: Kung fu is a physical art based on mythology, and it has no modern combat applications. The point is that Kung Fu is based upon five animals, and that these animals do not relate to combat. This idea, that the animals don’t relate to combat, is, as we shall see, is so ridiculous it is…ridiculous!

The five kung fu animals In the Shaolin Butterfly are not the classical five animals. The butterfly, the crane, the monkey, the tiger, and the dragon are the five animals in this kung fu. The battle strategies of Shaolin are easily illuminated through a study of these five animals.

The first animal is the butterfly, and the stance utilized by this animal is the back stance. This stance is used because the butterfly must flit and flee to avoid damage, and the back stance is a step backward. Thus, the direction of the Butterfly is to the rear.

The Crane is the second animal, and the Crane utilizes a one legged stance. Standing on one leg and using kicks a student will achieve great balance. Thus, the crane goes in an upward direction.

The third animal is the monkey, and the stance used by this animal is the horse stance. This stance requires that a person drive their weight downward and hold their position. Thus, the direction of the horse is straight down.

The tiger is the fourth animal, and the tiger utilizes a forward stance. This stance is designed for charging, for attacking, and it is an aggressive stance. Thus, the tiger goes in a forward direction.

The dragon is the fifth animal, and the dragon utilizes a twisted stance, with the body turned over the feet. This stance is good for spinning to catch an opponent unawares, catching oneself in awkward positions, and so on. Thus, the dragon moves in a spin or a circle.

If you examine the points of a compass you will find the directions that the five animals take, and a strategy based upon handling all incoming potentials of attack. The Monkey goes down and the crane goes up, the tiger goes forward and the butterfly goes back, and the dragon circles, which illuminates a distinct possibility for lateral motion.

The directions of these five Shaolin Butterfly animals create a thorough and strong strategy with no weak points–just one of the secrets of the Shaolin Butterfly, which you can find at Monster Martial Arts.

Energy Beams in the Martial Arts

The ability to create beams of energy, though I have never seen nor heard of it discussed, is at the heart of the martial arts. I include pressor or tractor or any other type of beam in this discourse. A beam is a line of energy thrust outward from thebody of the martial artist, and this beam is usually constructed upon a line, though it need not be. It can be said that your martial art is not a true martial art unless it builds the ability to create a beam of energy at will. Most martial practices on planet earth are aimed towards building muscle, or the shabby excuse of energizing body parts. The purpose of this article is to awaken the reader to the potential of creating beams of energy. The first thing to be understood is that the body is nothing more than a machine. It is an organic machine constructed of meat and bone and various linking systems. Indeed, to the person unused to a body, it can resemble a Rubic’s cube, though, in fact, it is very simple to use. To use the body as a beam generator one must practice classical forms, and understand the value of classical stances. To practice the classical stances requires work, which work necessitates the creation of energy in the Tan Tien, which is the one point, which is nothing more than an energy generator on a body/machine level. This work should be augmented by breathing in accordance with the expansion or contraction of the body. To stance, to work, to breath, to concentrate awareness along the path of the arms, to imagine. It is imagination that sets us apart from the beasts, and it is imagination that is necessary to create the idea of a beam of energy coming out of the body. You must practice until the mind is calm and then it will be able to imagine. To test your ability to beam it is necessary to use a simple and often over looked gimmick. Set up a candle and face it, punch, and stop your fist an inch from the flame. Do not trick flick the flame by leaving the line of the beam, but focus, and keep the line of the beam as straight as possible. With success over time, stop your fist two inches from the flame, then further. increase distance until you can put out the flame from across the room. Eventually, with great patience and desire, you will be able to merely look at the flame and make it go out. There are those that laugh and such practices as detailed here are of little importance, and there are those who will not persist, but seek the instant gratification of simple fighting. Then there are those who will discover the depths of their being through this simple exercise. The difference between the two is faith, belief in yourself, and the desire to awaken your true abilities, and thus awaken yourself.

Chi and the Truth!

Chi and the Truth! Chi, a mysterious energy which surrounds us, constructs us, is us, and…what is it?

To understand what Chi is it is necessary to define exactly who and what we are.

To define who we are it is necessary to analyze the shape of our true body. Your immediate body is the body you are currently in, the one which is playing the guitar, typing the keyboard, talking to friends and using of the six senses.

We are the eyeball and the eardrum and the hair and throat and toenails and everything that is in between and has organic sensation. We journey about the planet and have fleshy existence, and we pursue fleshy pleasures. The body we really care about is the body that is constructed of Chi. This is the body as far as we can perceive, and note that I don’t say experience through the senses.

Indeed, to experience the larger body of yourself you often have to put aside concepts of the six senses, you have to experience life beyond the immediate body. This brings us to the concept that if everything is our body, then what is this thing called Chi?

Chi is the organic thing you have presence in, that thing you call a body, and everything else, too. It could be a wavelength, or an idea, it doesn’t really matter as long as we understand that it is. How do we take control this thing we call Chi?

I mean, if you can move an move your limbs and walk about, why can’t you move that cloud or make the seas surge…if they really are part of our True Body?

Why can’t you stop that volcano, or make it rain when the crops need it, or pull the plug on the those filthy politicos that keep wasting all our resources?

The first reason we can’t make our true Body work is that we are not used to making it work. We are used to sitting around and being made stupid by pills and TV and the things that lull our senses, and our sense of our True Body, into unconsciousness.

We can undo that by turning off the TV, or any type of programming that does not allow honest exchange, and by practicing a discipline. The discipline you practice must make you look at your immediate body, unbind your senses, excite your imagination, and open you up to the idea of your True Body.

The discipline you practice must cause you to examine your immediate body until there is no mystery to it, and so that it is not merely an exercise in scientific examination.

The discipline you practice must make full use of your senses until you step beyond your senses, outside of your immediate body, and experience your True Body. If you are still unable to perspire the rain and wave the clouds at will, then you must understand that the True Body you are occupying is also being occupied by everybody else on the planet. Thus, to make your True Body move, you must make everybody else turn off their TVs and stop taking pills and let go of their unconscious and freezing hold on the True Body. You do this by helping them find a True Discipline that will take them beyond their immediate body and awaken them and take them.

Neutronic Tai Chi Training Drills

Advanced Tai Chi Training Drills

So let’s talk about Tai Chi training

and let’s talk about Neutronics.

In Neutronics

one of the things you do

is figure out whether a motion is positive or negative

(whether it is coming towards you or going away)

and you do the opposite motion

until a balance is achieved,

until one goes neutronic,

until there is harmony,

until there is no threat

from either positive or negative.

In Tai Chi

this relates to

if they push…pull.

If they pull…push.

Simple dimple, eh?

My problem

was that I was figuring this stuff out

without anybody to work out with.

So,

how does one go Neutronic

while doing the form?

It’s easy if you have somebody to attack you,

you just keep doing it,

keep thinking about how to work those principles

make your mistakes,

and

zingo bingo

you find the perfect balance

But,

without anybody to play with,

how do you do it?

Probably one of the most impactful drills

I ever did,

was just do the form

and imagine in my head

that I was fifty feet above.

After doing this for an hour

I got in the car to go to a store

and found that I was so disconnected

(in a good way)

that I couldn’t operate the car.

Oh,

where are my hands?

Oh,

my depth perception is totally F.

Is this my body sitting in the seat…

well,

if it’s not my body…

whose is it?

And the feeling of total and utter joy

just permeated my beingness,

and my body felt lighter than a feather.

At one point I was actually holding on to the steering wheel

as if to keep myself from floating.

Now,

I make no guarantees,

I won’t ever say

‘this drill is guaranteed to work this way,’

because everybody is so different.

But,

that’s what happened to me

from doing a tai chi form

and imagining myself

fifty feet above my body

watching from afar,

giving commands to my body from afar.

Another drill I did

when doing the Tai Chi form

was to imagine balls (bubbles?) attached to my palms.

And I had to imagine myself

sucking with my hands

to keep the balls in place.

Sometimes the balls would be small,

sometimes they would join into a big ball,

and the ball would expand until it was the size of a room.

Sometimes I had my hand palm up

and had to balance the ball(s).

Sometimes I had my palm face down

and I had to imagine extra suction power in my palms

to keep them from falling.

I quickly grew a sensation in my palms that was beyond warm.

Another drill I did

was to do the form in a dark room,

no light at all

and even my eyes closed,

and imagine the arcs of energy I am describing

with my hands,

with shoulders,

hips,

elbows,

etc.

I mean

what geometric form

does each body part create

in space

as I do the form?

Now,

this next one,

I vacillate,

sometimes do it one way,

and sometimes the other.

It has to do with the legs.

Sometimes,

I feel the power and push against the earth.

Sometimes,

I take all weight out of my body

and pretend my legs have no power

and that there is no sensation…

I don’t ‘push legs’ from stance to stance,

I just move the body

and the legs are empty things

that just come along for the ride.

Now,

there are lots of other things I do.

Sometime I should write

a book of exercises

that I do

like the ones I am telling you of here.

And it would have to be a book,

a long one.

Remember,

I’ve been reading and researching for near fifty years,

and as I grow

the list of exercises I find

to make myself grow

grows longer and longer.

And,

I have to tell you,

some of these exercises will work with other arts,

and some other arts

have their own unique exercises.

The trick is

you have to understand the geometry

of each individual art

and how that geometry fits

with the arts on the whole.

That’s why I sell so many arts,

each one of them showed me things

about how to manifest energy,

chi power, if you wish.

And the thing is,

even with a book of chi exercises

(should I get around to writing such a thing)

I always feel that I am just scratching the surface.

And,

to be honest,

I am.

Now,

I would be remiss

if I did not tell you

that the exercises I describe here

and a lot more

that you will encounter and discover for yourselves

as you progress

I used while I was doing

Five Army Tai Chi Chuan.

Here’s the URL

http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Five_Army_Tai_Chi_Chuan.html

Oh,

and remember,

you should feel a distinct difference

in the way you do your push hands or freestyle

or other practical applications

when you do Tai Chi

after doing some of these exercises.

You should feel more sensitivity,

more energy,

even better see the intention of your partner.

I mean,

these Neutronic drills

should make something happen,

or…

keep doing them.

Be willing to spend a few hours on each one

before progressing to the next.

Make sure you have gotten everything you can

out of each drill

before moving on.

Oinky doinky

Time for me to move on.

Don’t forget to visit the Tai Chi page,

and I’ll talk to you next time.

Have a great work out.

Al

This has been a page about Neutronic Tai chi Chuan Training Drills.

Combat Chi, Why It Disappears

Combat Chi refers to chi used in a fight.

Pretty simple, eh?

Now Chi is real. There has been too much written on it to dispute it. And, one can develop chi through certain martial arts…but not all martial arts.

What Can You Really Do with Martial Arts Chi Power?

Martial Arts like the MMA or jujitsu don’t develop chi. They aren’t interested in chi, but in muscles and reactions and taking down an opponent.

However, if one gets involved in a study of classical karate or Kung Fu, or Tai Chi Chuan or one of the other internal martial arts, then tales of Chi power abound.

Which brings us back to the question of Combat Chi…why does it work for some people in combat, and why does it abandon other people.

There can actually be several reasons, but the two main ones have to do with whether the system is sound, and whether the student has trained enough and in a realistic manner.

Many, maybe even most, of the martial arts systems these days have been altered over what they were some fifty years ago.

Arts like Kenpo and Taekwondo, though they may claim long lineage, are actually ‘put togethers.’ That is, they were created by individuals, and they don’t have the long line of workability backing them up. Simply, they haven’t been practiced long enough for the moves to become polished and logical enough to manifest Chi.

And, even if they do have a little chi, it is not combat chi. A good example of this would be the Tai Chi Chuan developed by the People’s Republic of China.

If one can find a relatively unchanged method of combat, one that has endured for generations, there is good potential for finding a system that will work to build chi, and in such a manner that it will not desert the practitioner in the middle of combat.

So you have to have a good system. The other necessity is a good student…one who practices diligently and in a realistic manner.

This means no padding or gloves or other protective gear. One has to be able to feel the full effects of the technique to gain control over the technique.

And, this means drills that hold to the classical chi power, yet arranged so that they are realistic for combat. Practicing 500 techniques that don’t have any relationship to combat, such as in most kenpo systems, is not realistic. Practicing the same basic move, focusing on the right tilt of the hip, the twist of the wrist, the body alignment and so on…that is realistic.

Mind you, it is not enough that the technique be simple, else boxing would develop chi. No, there has to be a logic to the movement of body that generates the chi.

If you want to learn more about Chi, check out The Punch, at Monster Martial Arts. Not a system, the material in this book will enable one to develop enough combat chi that it doesn’t desert them, if they are just willing to drill and drill and…drill!