A Better Way to Teach Martial Arts

Newsletter 933

A Different Method for Teaching Martial Arts

One thing I noticed,
Over the years,
Is that people like to make things harder.
In the beginning,
Mac was easy,
intuitive.
Tried a Mac lately?

Or,
How about a car?
Used to be you could take your car apart,
Fix any little problem,
And even the big problems.

You know how we used to work on Volkswagons? (Beetles)
We would drive the car over a couple of four by fours,
Let the air out of the tires,
Loosen four bolts,
And lift the car off the engine.
Try that with your new Lexus!

And,
The sad thing,
The same thing has happened to the martial arts.
They have become so difficult.
Memorize a couple of dozen routines,
Make a couple of hundred techniques work,
And so on.

But…
Here’s something interesting,
You hear it all the time,
But it’s still interesting…
You never use forms in combat.

And,
I should correct that…
You never use forms in combat…in modern times.
Back in the sixties and seventies we did.
Used the heck out of the forms.
Taught us incredible things.

So what happened?

People started making the forms difficult.
Instead of letting people just do the forms,
Until the forms taught the people,
Teachers started getting nit picky,
Explaining things that didn’t need explaining.
Foisting BS concepts.
Mixing pieces of different arts together,
Without understanding what either art was.
And so on.

Got real difficult,
You know?

But the mind doesn’t like difficult.
And,
Let’s face it,
A fight isn’t difficult.
You either trained in your basics,
And those basics are intuitive,
Or you didn’t,
And they aren’t.

In matrixing you make things logical,
And this makes things simple.

You don’t have to memorize techniques
you would never use in combat.
We use an entirely different method
For learning techniques
That WILL work in combat.
Here is how I teach.

Let’s say I give a person the matrix of blocks.
This is a handful of blocks that,
Through a simple trick of logic,
Becomes over 60 techniques.
The student starts working his way
Through the circle of blocks.
He reaches one which doesn’t work.
He comes over to me and says,
‘Al, this doesn’t work.’
I say,
‘Oh, you can’t make it work.’
They say,
‘No, it actually doesn’t work.’
So I say,
‘try changing which foot is forward.’
It doesn’t work.
‘Try changing the timing.’
It doesn’t work.
‘Try changing…’
It doesn’t work.
And so on.
Finally,
They throw up their hands.
They say,
‘I told you…it doesn’t work!’
I say,
‘Oh,
Why didn’t you say so!’
They blink,
Their eyes open,
Sometimes we get a little frustration popping out.
I say,
‘So,
Did you learn anything?’
And…they did.
They usually say ‘yes.’
If they say no,
I ask them,
‘Well, would you use it in a fight?’
‘No.’
‘Then I guess you learned something.’

Now,
You may think I’m being ridiculous,
But the Martial Arts are full of techniques
That people try to make work,
And they don’t work.
Yet people train and train,
Never actually coming to grips
With the fact that the technique doesn’t work.

Let me light this method of teaching up.

You get frustrated by your ‘smart’ phone.
You curse the thing for being dumb.
We’ve all been there.
But a child picks that phone up and programs it for you.
ARGH!
Makes it even worse, doesn’t it?

Now put that child in the cockpit of a stealth fighter.
You know what’s going to happen, don’t you?
Grin.
And that brat,
Making a super techno gimmick like that work,
Is all the more frustrating.
Repeat…
ARGH!

But the child has not been taught that doing something wrong is…wrong.
So he just makes his mistake,
corrects,
Never inputs society calling him stupid,
And flies the plane.

I don’t have to train him,
By using methods like the one I described earlier,
To accept his mistakes.
He’s already quite happy making mistakes!
And he is willing to learn from them.
Doesn’t have all that ‘grown up’ distraction stuff.
Heh.

So,
Let’s bring it home.
The martial arts are every bit as complicated
As flying a super stealth fighter jet.
The proof is that so few do it right.
They end up fighting,
And not handling the incoming missiles,
And downing the attacker,
In a simple, scientific manner.

Unless,
Of course,
They have embedded themselves with
A heaping helping of…
matrixing.

Guaranteed,
You have been infected by grown up things like…
‘YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!’
How many times have you heard an instructor say,
‘No, no. Do it like this.’
‘No, no. Use your arm like this.’
No, no. Don’t kick in a situation like this!’
About a million times.
Even the best meaning instructor
infers,
implies,
Tells the student he is wrong.
And the student,
Having been educated in school,
Knows that he is wrong,
And somebody else is right.
His parents have told him he is wrong.
His teachers have told him that he is wrong.
Even his friends have told him that he is wrong.

You know how I teach?
Let’s say I see somebody eating a kick.
Trying the same wrong block over and over.
I don’t tell him why he is wrong.
I never tell a student he is wrong.
I simply say,
‘Move to the left.’
The student doesn’t.
I repeat,
‘Move to the left.’
The student doesn’t.
And,
After a few dozen times,
He finally moves to the left.
Kick slides by.
‘What are you going to do?’
Student looks blank.
‘Do it again.’
The kick slides by.
And,
eventually,
The student blinks,
Hooks the kick,
And body bumps the hip.
Opponent goes flying.
I never told the student what to do…
I never made him wrong,
Or tried to tell him what I would do.
I just gave a simple direction.
Move this way.
Move this way.
Never getting frustrated.
Never making him wrong.
Never lecturing him.
Just…
LETTING HIM DISCOVER THE TECHNIQUE!
I don’t teach,
I back off and let the student fall forward.
When he finally catches himself…
He has educated himself,
And he has learned how to educate himself,
And educating himself is going to get that much easier.
And my job gets easier and easier and…easier.

Okay,
I should wind it up here,
I’ve blatted your ear long enough.
If you want to jump out of the trip
Where people tel you you are wrong,
Then come on over to the matrixing trip.
Guaranteed.
It I fun.

The Circle of Blocks is in the ‘Matrix Karate’ course.
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/

But if you think you’re smart,
And want to cut to the chase,
Try the Master Instructor Course.
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4-master-instructor-course/

Now…
HAVE A GREAT WORK OUT!
Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/5-core-package/

Spreading the True Martial Arts

How to Teach the True Martial Arts!

This newsletter I want to talk about something,
not everybody might like it,
but it has to do with growing the martial arts,
and growing your income.

Look,
here is the straight skinny,
the country is having probs,
incomes are down,
and wouldn’t you like to have a few extra bucks?
And,
wouldn’t it be nice if those few extra bucks
came from teaching martial arts?

How to teach martial arts to anybody!

It’s one of my pet projects,
encouraging people to teach.
The thing is
there are a lot of teachers out there,
many aren’t really qualified.
They might have credentials
from big name organizations,
but that doesn’t mean they have the knowledge.
It takes a precise knowledge
of how to teach martial arts.
I discovered this with one of my first black belts.
He went out and started teaching,
and when I got over to look at his class,
he was teaching calisthenics.
There were a few martial arts thrown in,
and he was good,
but he opted for teaching…calisthenics.
Push ups, sit ups,
a few kicks,
running around the room.
And,
finally,
as an after thought,
he might teach a self defense move.

Now,
why he did this,
I don’t know.
But I do know that I checked on his school a couple of decades later,
when it was under one of his students,
and it had gone to full contact karate.
Basically,
fighting and…calisthenics.

So,
I understand that martial arts change,
especially when people don’t understand the underlying reasons.
I can only conclude
that the degradation of his school
was my fault.
I taught him,
I was young,
I hadn’t figured it out,
I taught him well,
he was good,
but…he didn’t understand the underlying reasons,
so his school degraded,
didn’t die,
just degraded to the point
where it was teaching people how to fight.

So,
I offer underlying reasons,
and I try to fix schools that have degraded.
And…
I encourage people to teach martial arts.
I know that the people who have done my courses
are going to understand why a technique is,
how it works,
and,
more important,
how to get the student to understand.

Want to know something interesting?
I’ve got a book
‘How to Start Your Own School,’
and when somebody write me and asks me about teaching,
I usually give them that book for free.
It’s part of the Master books,
I could sell it Kindle for a few books
(and I probably will)
but I give it away to people who say they want to teach.

Look,
the difference between man and beast is the fact that man understands.
Animals don’t.
They just fight,
and make up a reason for fighting.
Silly animals.

Anyway,
the point of this rant is that if you are hurting economically,
a victim of the money crunch happening in this country,
you can do something about it.
You could order the Master Instructor Course,
do it,
know that you know more than ANY martial arts instructor on the planet,
and then you could head down to the YMCA,
see if they need an instructor.
You can put up cards at a local gym.
You could gather a bunch of neighborhood kids.

You can start out low,
$10 a month for kids,
you can go high,
charge good bucks at the gym.

YOU CAN START YOUR OWN CLASS.
Be it Karate or kung fu,
aikido or pa kua,
or whatever,
and using the data that is inside
The Master Instructor Course,
you could teach that art better than it has been taught
since whoever founded it was teaching.

Spare time.
Saturday afternoon.
Evenings.

You could build it into something large!

Do you understand?
The martial arts are a blessing.
They make people better.
They make strong bodies,
increase awareness,
and they are a fist in the face of the bad guys.
But we need people who understand what they really are.

Oinky Donkey.
I hope my rant has helped.
I don’t want you poor,
and I want everybody healthy and happy,
So…think about it.

Let make a couple of other announcements
before I close off.

I’ve got a new site up.
It’s about Bruce Lee.
Can you find it through google?
It’ll be tough,
but it’s out there.
Next week or two
it’ll be easy to find,
but right now…
can you find it?

And,
we’re waiting on word of escrow
for Monkeyland.
Escrow,
120 acres on a hilltop,
and start building a temple.
And I will let you know as soon as this thing comes true.
Pics and everything.
you’ll be blown away.
incredible site.

Okay,
that’s…ooop!
I almost forgot.

If you have a website,
or a functioning blog,
let’s trade links.
I’ve got three different sites
that are chunking pretty traffic,
a link might bring you a little traffic,
and google likes links,
so they might send you traffic.
Just email me at aganzul@gmail.com
and ask about linking up.

Okay,
now that is it.
You guys and gals
enjoy the heck out of this week.
Have lots of work outs,
do what you want to do,
and live life like you were meant to!

Al

And don’t forget to go to…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4-master-instructor-course/

What Happened to Kill the Martial Arts

How the Martial Arts were destroyed!

That the martial arts were destroyed is all too obvious. The good news is that it is easy to fix them.

For thousands of years the martial arts were passed on from instructor to student. There were high standards, and any who didn’t adhere to these high standards would simply be beaten up. Challenged. So only the best passed on the best art.

Do you just do a bunch of air punches and kicks?

Or do you receive actual instruction as above?

Find out more at MonsterMartialArts.com

Immediately after world war two American servicemen went to the orient and began studying the martial arts. Because of the length of tours of duty, the servicemen were enrolled in schools for maybe two years, often only one year. Yet, they came home as black belts. Or, they didn’t even make black belt until they were on the plane and awarded themselves.

This resulted in a huge degradation of art. Instead of teachers having ten years experience, they had a year or two of experience, and they were, even if only a brown belt, promoted as black belts…and as masters.

Now, there is a complete write up on this phenomenon at Monster Martial Arts. Read the Matrix Karate page and you will fully understand exactly how it all happened, and not just from Japan to the United States, but all through the history of the martial arts.

And, this leads us to the cure for this ‘disease.’ Knowledge.

You see, there is an exact science to the martial arts, and to teaching the martial arts. This science is called Matrixing, and it is designed to show the student what the weak points of his martial art are, and how to fix them.

This is the first time in the history of the martial arts that an actual science has been figured out and used. Furthermore, since it is a science, and not just an art, you actually learn faster…a lot faster. Not slow, like in ten years of paying dues, but as fast as you can understand knowledge.

If you want to know about this science, if you want to fix what has been done to your martial art, simply head over to Monster Martial Arts and read about Matrixing. The whole site is devoted to Matrixing, and so is the Monster Newsletter.

The Real Truth About Matrixing in the Martial Arts

Matrixing in the Martial Arts

One of the things that amazes me is the lack of logic in the martial arts.

Now, in the beginning of my studies, I thought there was a logic. A fellow throws a punch, and you do a block, and that is logical. But, unfortunately, that was the end of logic.

My first system, a kenpo system, began a wild foray into the number of things you could do to maim a human body. There were punches and kicks and blocks and throws and…and they were done to every single part of the human body.

But it was all out of order. It was random listings of techniques, and no technique, in spite of the hype about ‘key techniques,’ led to another in any sort of logical sense.

So I went to a classical karate system, and things were different there. Yes, the techniques were still random, but there weren’t as many of them, and I was drilled in them until the power popped out of me like a Tokyo nuclear plant.

I was relatively happy, all that karate power, but the happiness left when I started teaching.

Simply, I saw people start and quit, and the few who made it were special before they began. So how does somebody get Joe Average to stick it out, and gain those special abilities that elevate him and make him somebody special?

This was the point that I began really cutting things up, reassembling, and searching for an answer…a logical method for teaching martial arts.

This first matrixing actually took place in Santa Rosa. I broke four martial arts down to a simple geometrical logic, and presented them.

Man, it worked like a charm. The guys and gals mastered this stuff within a couple of months! I think the slowest one was about four months. I mean, incredible!

Problem. They had the moves, but they didn’t have that power. But the power was what it was all about. Power, such as I am talking about in Karate, opens the door to the self.

So I gave up. Sort of quit, and just entertained myself by researching other martial arts.

But every once in a while something would happen that would keep me sort of revitalized.

Myself and a fellow locked ourselves in a room and did nothing but martial arts for one week. After he left me he went to a classical Japanese Karate school and was instantly promoted to 3rd degree black belt. True story.

Then there was the one week black belt course, where I took five guys and we spent forty hours in an attic.

I became a writer for the martial arts magazines, wrote dozens of articles, and had my own column in Inside Karate (Case Histories).

The one year course I taught for my son. Six students, five of which made it to black belt, and with the full and complete power of Karate.

And there were other things that happened. You see, I would research an art…then teach it. But my teachings were always to cement what I had learned, and figure out how to slant it towards matrixing.

And, eventually I had a student who said, ‘Let’s start a school!’

But I had had a school, a half dozen schools, and I didn’t really want another school.

But, I guess I did, because I let myself be talked into it. And this was the first time that I started really teaching all the stuff I had accumulated.

I taught Karate and Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Pa Kua, and I taught them with the Matrixing data I had discovered. I showed what they really were, and how they fit together into one art. And people began to experience not just the power of karate, but of the whole martial arts, and they began to get it quick!

Interestingly, I had people come in and challenge me.

I never let a fight develop, I just sat them down and explained matrixing to them, and they walked out, a little dazed, a lot brighter, and much happier.

And, if there was a shortage in any of my martial arts, people would come in and help me. I had a fellow with ten more years experience than I had come in and teach me systems of Shaolin and Tai Chi. Really rounded me out, helped me figure out better ways to apply matrixing. And things like this happened all the time, and they were out of the blue, gifts, blessings from some invisible martial arts god that grinned when he looked down and saw what I was doing.

One day my student came to me, the same one who had wanted to start a school, and he says, ‘Let’s start a website and sell martial arts!’

I tell you the truth, I didn’t want to. I didn’t understand computers too well, it sounded like a lot of work, and…and somehow I found myself in a studio, shooting video after video, teaching the arts just as I taught them in class, whole arts in a couple of hours.

But, the business failed, and after a couple of years my student came to me and said, ‘Time to split.’

I asked him what he wanted to do with all the videos we had shot.

‘Oh, they’re yours. That’s you. Do what you want with them.’

So I started Monster Martial Arts, and something interesting happened. I sold a few courses.

And something else happened, people started writing in and telling me how blown out they were, that they had learned so much, that, for the first time since they began studying martial arts…they finally understood them.

And Monster Martial Arts began to grow.

So read some of the testimonials (wins) listed at Monster Martial Arts. These are the words of people, people like you, people who want to know the real martial arts, and don’t want to spend three lifetimes doing so.

Have a great work out.

Advanced Methods of Learning Martial Arts and the Three Types of Thought

Learning Martial Arts With New Method!

Learning Martial Arts should be easy, but some martial art teachers would have you believe that it takes years and years, decades. And, here is the unfortunate truth, it is these same martial arts teachers that are making it difficult to learn. Most people, you see, teach by the most inefficient method possible.

Learning Martial Arts is Actually Easy!

This article is going to be about the three methods of human thought and how those methods impact on the instruction of such arts as karate or kung fu. Just understanding the four methods of thought changes the way people think. This can make learning martial arts as simple as falling off a log.

The first thing to understand is that people try to see the whole picture. They look at the world, try to understand it, try to make it make sense, and this method of thought is called Mosaic. This is the method for savages, for people who require a science of chipping stone arrowheads, but no higher abstract is needed.

As mankind progress linear thought appears, and this is the sequencing of orderly pieces of data. This includes ABCs, numbers, different arrangement of data so as to facilitate the absorption process that is learning. This is a much more efficient way of learning, and of creating abstracts of data which are necessary to create a society, and a functioning human being in that society.

The martial artist is caught between the mosaic and the linear. He is learning sequences of techniques, but they are out of order, muddled, don’t make sense. Consider a technology described by the alphabet of 3, R, 2, $, 5, cat, 6, re, watermelon…that is what the martial arts look like.

Because of matrixing, however, the techniques and general knowledge necessary to learning martial arts have been put in proper order. The result is a new method of learning, for which I coin the phrase ‘matrixing.’ In this method one assimilates the pictures (completed mosaics) fast enough to input strings of whole pictures…no data, but whole and completed pictures.

The only difficulty in this method is that people are often caught and muddled by other methods that they can’t put aside those methods for matrixing. A martial arts master who has learned by the linear method might not be able to put aside that linear method for the matrixing method. It doesn’t happen a lot, but when it does happen the martial artist should probably just continue with his methods and stay away from matrixing.

The end result of learning with matrixing is that the mind becomes intuitive, gets used to working the right way, and all sorts of other subjects are quickly and easily absorbed. People have been using Matrixing to learn school subjects like English, how to work the internet, how to shoot video,  how to coach football teams, and so on, with incredible results. The best way to learn matrixing, however, is through learning martial arts with it first.

 

Can You Make a Living Off a Martial Arts School

Making a living from a Martial Arts School

Interesting question, making a living off a martial arts school. So many want to do it, so few succeed. So what are the barriers to success in teaching martial arts as a living?

Bruce Lee started out teaching in a garage in Oakland!

First, sad to say, you have to treat it like a business. This means keeping track of students, reminding them on the phone, doing all the paperwork, collecting money, and so on.

The difficult thing isn’t getting students, the difficult thing is keeping them. Most people, in this enlightened age, are flakes. They get excited over something they’ve seen on TV or the net, and then something else comes along, and so very few people actually make a plan and stick to it.

You, as a martial arts instructor, have to sit down with the student from day one, and get him to make a plan.

And, on day two, you have to resell him on the plan.

And, on day three, you have to resell him on the plan.

And so on.

Someday he’ll ignite, start following the plan on his own, but it will take a lot of work to get him there. Heck, just getting students to turn off their cell phones during class can be a lot of work.

Interestingly, I estimated it takes about an hour a week to keep a student interested. So forty students would take forty hours, and then you get to spend maybe ten hours teaching them.

Of course, as time goes on, and you build a rep, and students actually start realizing what you are doing is good for them, these figures change. But, it takes time.

In the business world they say you have to run a business for a year at a loss before it starts to pay. This isn’t an absolute, but it does take an immense amount of work.

I know these things I’ve said here to be true because I have had a half a dozen different schools over the last few decades. And scores of classes at gyms and YMCAs and that sort of thing.

Anyway, I’ll write more about this later, address any specific points. If you have any questions or thoughts, use the comments below.

This has been a page about running a martial arts school.

Another Master Instructor at Monster Martial Arts!

Ty Hatfield is Master Instructor Number 52,
he completed the Master Instructor Course offered through Monster Martial Arts,
and here is his win…

…to be honest, it is all about Position. Too many teach (just the) moves. I take that move from many (different) positions and can see it not only from one way but in a 3d kind of thinking. It is like being able to see a floor plan and not only put in the Fire Sprinkler system but the Ductwork, electrical, walls, ceilings, to be honest from one glance I can see everything at one time. I see this in my mind, and I’m able to feel it from many points of views 🙂
See what I’m talking about?
Thanks,
Ty Hatfield

Thank you,
Master Instructor Hatfield,

Now,
a couple of things.
I know there are a few people blinking,
after all, over 50 Master instructors in a couple of years…
what the heck is on that Master Instructor Course?
Because all the Master Instructors
are giving wins like this,
they all talk about being able to see what is going on in the other guy’s head,
being able to see what people are going to do
just by looking at their bodies.

What is on the course is simple…
it is the actual data as to perfect body alignment,
and the actual data that enables one
to make any technique work any time.
Period.

Ty is a grappler,
and I have other Master instructors that have studied Karate and Silat and JKD and judo andTaekwondo
and on and on and on…
The principles are universal,
and this is the only time in the history of the planet that they have been defined.
simply,
you can use them.
Well,
congrats to Master Instructor Ty
and well done.
I hope many follow your path.

The Master Instructor Course is available at Monster Martial Arts.

Win #34–The Only Martial Arts Course Of Its Kind!

When I say the only and most unique Martial Arts Course of its kind, I’m referring to the Create Your Own Art Course, You’ve got courses about Shaolin and Wudan, MMA and ripping heads off, but this is the only course that goes to what it is all about. Here’s a quick win.

I purchased your course on “Create Your Own Martial Art” and absolutely love it. I believe that your matrixing system is very unique.–DW

Now, to be sure, the course is old. Technology was lacking back then, the picture is grainy and the sound is scratchy, but the material on the course is unique. I take Pa Kua Chang, combine it with some basic but overlooked concepts, and create an entirely new art, complete with forms, twoman forms, and an amazing potential for applications. The real joy, however, is that I tell you exactly how to do it, thus opening an incredible door into advanced martial arts research and study.

And here is the point. Art is about creating something. If you are doing the Monkey see monkey do, robotic training of same old same old, then are you making art? The weird thing is that so many people think that memorizing what somebody else has done makes them an artist. That’s like saying working on an assembly line makes somebody invent a car!

Anyway, come on by Monster Martial Arts and check the Create Your Own Art course out, and pick up a free book on this Matrix thing while you’re there.