The Rundown on the Rhonda Defeat!

Newsletter 785
Rhonda!

Happy Thanksgiving!
I give thanks for many things,
I give thanks for working out,
and what working out does for me.

Who would have thought,
in these robotic,
wartorn,
poverty stricken times,
there would be such a unique and fun way
to find personal responsibility
and martial excellence?

Before we talk martial arts,
I want to share a thought.
I was sitting somewhere,
working on my laptop,
and I had this thought.
So I emailed it to myself,
and it’s been sitting there,
and thanksgiving is a good time to share it. Here we go:

Your duty is to observe the universe, to listen to both sides, to never take a stand against one side or the other, until the truth pops out. The truth is not a viewpoint or opinion, it is merely what is.

Now,
let’s talk martial arts.

It was a shock when Rhonda got knocked out.
And I don’t understand why it was a shock,
because it was inevitable.
It was inevitable as soon as Joe Rogan claimed that
Rhonda wasn’t once in a lifetime,
she was once in history.
It seems that we finally got the ultimate ‘adjective.’
Not star,
not superstar,
not once in a lifetime,
but once…ever.

As soon as I heard that I knew Rhonda was going to lose.
I just knew.

Part of it is that when you listen to fighters
and they describe what they are going to do to their opponent,
they are living in a fantasy.

‘I’m going to do this.’
‘My striking is superior and he can’t match my grappling.’
‘I’m going to pound his face into the floor.’
I know,
when I hear this sort of thing,
that the fighter is in his own mind,
trying to psyche himself up,
but it is a lost cause.

There is just a hollow feeling,
a ‘spirit-less’ feeling,
to such words said before a fight.

The winner,
on the other hand,
doesn’t boast about what he is going to do.
He is serious.
He has no fantasy distracting him.

Here’s the weird thing:
Rhonda didn’t say such a thing,
it was Joe Rogan.
But it was so unique,
and everybody was so pro-Rhonda,
I just knew she about to fall.

Now,
here’s the thing:
when people think they are the best,
there is no place to go but down.
When they are serious,
and look at each fight as a challenge,
a mountain to climb,
there is no where to go but up.

Rogan,
with his statement,
left Rhonda no where to go but down.

I don’t say Rogan made her lose,
there was just a predict in his words.
There was a summation
of the position that the world put Rhonda in.

Tell the truth,
she is probably going to be more alive,
more determined now,
than she was before.
Now she can climb again.
Now she can go up.

Now,
the fight itself.

Rhonda tried to box a better boxer.
Holly is a champion boxer,
Rhonda apparently had a fantasy of trying to outbox a boxer,
so she didn’t go to the ground.

I think everybody agrees,
Rhonda would beat Holly on the ground.

What a miscalculation on Rhonda’s part.

And,
what will she do next time?
Will she work on her boxing game?
Of course.
But the heart of her strategy
should be her ground game.
How to avoid Holly’s fist
get under it,
and take that girl down.

Truth,
I watched Rhonda simply run into Holly’s fat fist time after time,
and I cringed with each impact.

Man,
Rhonda can take it.
But it was not smart.
It would have been a lot smarter to assess the distances involved,
and respect Holly as a champ in her own right.

Here’s the truth:
we all strive to be the best we can be.
To strive to beat somebody else,
however,
is only a partial proof,
for it comes at the cost of another human being.
The true art is being the best you can be
without beating somebody else.

Weird,
eh?

That said,
I watch the fights,
I learn from them,
and I appreciate them.
With all my talk,
one has to appreciate the measuring stick.

Okay,
nuff said.

Go to this course for the complete data
on how to assess distance in a fight.

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-kung-fu/

And,
have a lot of great turkey,
make up for your gluttony with lots of work outs,
and here;s looking forward to…

Hanakwanmass!

Have a great work out!
Al

BTW – Thanks to you guys who wrote in and stated that you were part of The Fifty. You certainly are, and thanks.

Sign up for this newsletter at MonsterMartialArts.com.

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-kung-fu/

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

Learn to Fight like a Girl!

 

Think You’re a Real Martial Arts Man?

Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘Throws like a girl?’
What a put down, eh?
Some guy so weak, so uncoordinated, that he…’throws like a girl.’
Awkward, the arm all wrong, and the baseball sails a few pitiful feet.
And, that attitude has pursued us. We think of women as lesser, and even treat them with disrespect.

Click on the cover to find the source of the martial arts…

Not the Amazons who propel the race, but weak sisters.
Tell me you haven’t been rude to a girl. Laughed at her. Didn’t show up when you were supposed to.
Well, fellows, I hate to tell you, but the sisterhood is about to make you pay for your disrespect. The next time you answer the door, bow on to the mat, even laugh at a girl on the street, a dark shadow will fall across your grave. You will look up at that shadow, your jaw will drop, and…Rhonda Rousey!
OMG! The bitch who knuckle slaps men, women, and people who don’t know better!
And you didn’t know better.
No fear, however, for there are a couple of things you can still do to salvage your honor, retain the upper hand, and come out with your skin intact. Maybe.
First, remember, women don’t have those hangy downy things between their legs, so don’t go for a groin shot!
Second, normally, if you are fighting a guy, pulling hair is a no no. But Rhonda’s a gal, so it’s all right if you pull her hair. Just watch out for a scissors takedown and rear naked choke.
Third, you’re a guy, you got weight, so fall down and roll away. Make her stoop to your level.
Fourth, you could always offer to shake her hand, then sucker punch her. Nah. That might piss her off.
Fifth, and last, start crying for your mommy. Maybe, just maybe, she’ll take mercy on you. Of course the world will know that you are a whining crybaby, not fit to kiss the hem of a real woman. But that’s okay. You were that anyway, or you wouldn’t have to worry about a mere slip of a girl handing you your fanny on a platter.
Oh, and one last thought: you know that phrase, ‘Throws like a girl?’ It’s been replaced by ‘Punches like a Rhonda.’
Think about it. And be respectful while you do.

There you go,
hope Rhonda sees it,
hope she likes it,
because I don’t feel like trying to pull her hair.

And,
on the serious side…
here’s the link for
Binary Matrixing in the Martial Arts.

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

The book is selling well,
people are saying good things,
and it really opens up the martial arts.
I mean,
wouldn’t you like to know the one secret
from which ALL martial arts grew?

So check it out,
then check out Blinding Steel,
the one and only perfect martial art.
Guaranteed,
scientific learning is so-o-o-o much better
than monkey see monkey do mysticism.

Remember,
Matrixing has the real reasons behind the martial arts,
and Binary Matrixing is the start of it all.
It is the acorn from which the might oak grew.

Now,
have a fantastic week!
And an even more fantastic work out!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/5a-binary-matrixing-in-the-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 Size of the Bullet…the Size of…the Fist?

ANSWERING QUESTIONS OF FORCE IN THE MARTIAL ARTS

The following is a quest editorial by Alaric Dailey

Why is it, that karateka punch with 2 knuckles? why is it, that boxers punch with heavily padded gloves? And why was it unfortunate for Art Jimmerson (the boxer) in the first UFC to wear a single glove. Furthermore, why do big slow bullets have a reputation for stopping power vs smaller faster bullets (specifically the .45 vs 9mm argument).

New book about the fist power of Karate…click on the cover!

It all has to do with penetration vs dissipation, when it comes to force, a martial artist must put as much weight and power into as small of area as possible to maximize its effect. Making the chosen weapon as small as possible, increases its penetration.

Pads dissipate the force, spreading it out over a wide area, and adding a nice soft surface. In the old days people did bare-knuckle boxing, and hitting the head with bare-knuckles is extremely dangerous, and can cause major damage, this is why boxing added gloves. Boxing gloves are huge and bulky, and they still manage to knock each others brains silly, that gives you some idea of how hard they are hitting.

When sparring in the martial arts, we will often wear pads, to dissipate the force, so that we wiggle the persons nose, rather than smearing it all over their face.

Thus when Art Jimmerson went into the first UFC with a boxing glove on, he went in taking away power off his punches and eliminating his ability to grab.

A really great demonstration of this can be seen with an sewing pin and a balloon. Sewing pins have that nice round end, and you can press pretty darn hard with the round end and never pop the balloon, but turn it around and use the sharp end, and it penetrates immediately popping the balloon. The round end dissipates the force, the sharp end penetrates!!! Easy as that to see.

As a related note, bullets travel SO fast that they have the opposite problem, they have a tendency to go directly through the target, rather than imparting that energy and stopping. At subsonic speeds the .45 has the larger diameter and slower speed to impart more of that force into the FIRST thing it hits, where the 9mm has a tendency to got right through the first thing and second. The faster and smaller bullets can pass right through and do LESS damage. This is why you use hollow-points for self-defense, they open up, causing them to slow and impart that energy, or at least more of it. This tendency for over penetration is something to think about when choosing a home-defense round, so when you shoot the bad guy, it doesn’t go through him and harm someone else.

The End of the World and the Martial Arts

What Martial Art Would You Study if The World Ended?

I will talk about the end of the world towards the end of this newsletter,
but I really want to start just by talking about
an old movie I was watching the other day,
an old classic from the eighties called
‘Heroes of the East.’
You might recognize it from a different title,
Challenge of the Ninja,
or Shaolin against Ninja,
or something like that.

In it
a young Chinese master gets married,
and his wife is Japanese,
and she is tearing the house apart
by kicking and punching everything
from walls to statues,
and the young master tries to get her to stop.
That leads to misunderstandings
which lead to a score of Japanese masters
coming to China
and challenging the young master.

Now,
on the surface,
it is Chinese arts are better than Japanese arts.
Which they had to do
because it was a Chinese film.
But,
it is done so delightfully,
so tongue in cheek,
and the hero,
Gordon Liu,
ends up making friends with all,
and everybody agreeing that all arts should be shared
and people should get past their misunderstandings
and get along.

Now,
Gordon Liu,
if you recall,
is a Chinese film star
who is actually a real Shaolin Master.
And in an interview on the disk
he talked about getting along
with the Japanese masters
and what it was like to work out with these guys
and how they all learned so much from each other.

They didn’t even speak the same language,
but they managed to have the time of their lives,
and to communicate on VERY deep levels
just by doing the martial arts.

So,
here’s something to think about
when you think about martial arts masters,
the real ones want to keep learning.

They don’t tear each others arts apart,
they ask questions
and trade techniques,
and keep learning.

One of my favorite stories came from
the daughter of Dong Hai Chuan
the founder of Pa Kua Chang.

Common stories had him fighting
the founder of Tai Chi Chuan for three days,
-imagine that,
fighting for three days,
without getting tired.
Hmmm.-
but she said that their house
always had visiting martial artists
sitting around
talking and exchanging ideas,
every once in a while one of them showing a technique,
and the others offering suggestions,
and analysis.

Not fighting.

Rather,
thinking about
and talking about,
and…
sharing.

I remember when I was learning Kenpo,
and the teachers encouraged such thought as,
our belts were always one belt better than…
insert the name of another school here.

And,
Shotokan practitioners
were looked down on
as mindless robots
with their endless three step punching drills.

And,
kung fu was too flowery
-that from kenpo,
who have the biggest flowery,
circular hands theory
in the world!

And
judo was only good for sport,
and only a fool would allow himself
to be taken to the ground,

And,
what good was kendo
because you can’t carry a sword with you
on the street.

And…
you get the drift.

Now,
this wasn’t a bad kenpo school,
it was actually pretty good,
with a VERY good martial artist
at the head.

But,
there is money to be made,
if you can convince people
that other schools are bad,
and yours is good,
and it all starts from your own students,
and selling them a bill of goods.

And,
if you think kenpo is the worst in this,
think again,
my favorite bad mouthing
of all time,
is the Japanese stylist who claimed
that western people couldn’t learn karate
because it took three lifetimes.

Uh,
yeah.
Two more to go for me,
right?

So,
have we dispensed with this ignorance?

Not quite.

The good thing is that students are loyal to their school.
This is a good quality.

The bad thing is that they are so loyal
they refuse to look outside their school.

If the martial arts had stayed the same,
and everything was closed combat,
and systems stayed pure,
and represented the actual evolution
and accumulation of art
over decades,
then maybe I would say don’t go outside your school.

But,
the arts have changed,
and the closed combat systems are not so pure anymore,
so if you are going to make it
you have to learn, learn, learn.

Look everywhere.

Read every book.

Watch every movie,
every video,
go to demonstrations,
meet people,
learn,
and be willing to trade martial arts
with the most polite and inquiring mind
you can have.

Okay,
let’s talk about the title to this newsletter,
Martial Arts and the end of the world.

If the united states fell,
was invaded,
suffered civil war,
what martial art would you use
to defend yourself,
to take into the new world order?

It’s an interesting question,
isn’t it?

Up front,
I would wish I had the discipline of a classical martial art.
The fact is that discipline,
of itself,
enables one to exist through anything,
to survive,
and to get better.

Discipline is the gold here.

But,
if we are talking about choosing a single art
to make work against soldiers or mobs,
in any situation and against any weapon,
then I always go to Blinding Steel.

Now,
Blinding Steel is the name of the course,
but…what is it actually?

Blinding Steel came about because of
one of the first things I ever matrixed,
Matrix Kung Fu.

You’ve read the story
of how i laid thousands of business cards
with all the techniques I knew
on the backs of them
across my living room.
I had techniques from half a dozen systems of Kenpo,
several systems of Pa Kua,
aikido,
all sorts of kung fu,
and LOT of good, old Karate,
tons of tai chi,
and so on.

And I sorted through this mess,
drove myself near insane,
and finally saw the truth of the martial arts,
and finally had my big matrixing break through.

Now,
Matrix Kung Fu
is a study of joint locks,
and
it is the ABCs of takedowns.
Trip and throw,
lock and slam,
it is the world’s first look
at how to scientifically arrange
stand up takedowns.

In a way,
there is a heavy kenpo influence,
but…
without the Kenpo.

Odd, eh?

But,
here‘s the thing,
I didn’t provide for entry techniques.

Don’t get me wrong,
each technique has a way to enter the throw or takedown,
but
there is no way to set up a master flow
that will enable you to move into any of the techniques.
A little experience,
and you can figure things out,
a little work,
and you can make it work in any situation.

But,
I wanted more.
I wanted to include weapons,
and I wanted to include distances,
and methods of attack
that led into the throws.

By the oddest quirks
I had amassed an assortment of techniques
which didn’t seem to fit into matrixing.
But I kept working,
and I was into analyzing and matrixing
Indonesian weapons systems,
and it hit me,
and I saw how I had been playing in a different culture,
and how I could put it all together.

So Blinding Steel is an analysis,
a matrix,
of Indonesian systems,
that use weapons,
go into hands,
and slide into takedowns.

And,
here is the rub,
just as Matrix Kung Fu was good,
but I wanted to expand it to include more,
The Blinding Steel was phenomenal,
but there was no deep analysis of throws
on the end of it.

So the two went together,
hand in glove.

And I had started by called one of them Matrix Kung Fu
because I had matrixed throws that were very kenpo in nature,
and I had named the other Blinding Steel
as a great name for a study of weapons,
but,
together,
I called them
‘Monkey Boxing.’

This because I used to do them
while listening to a lot of Bob Marley type music
and moving more like a monkey,
especially on the set up and entry.

So,
if I had one art to take into the end of the world,
and I had little time to learn it,
but I wanted it deep
and able to encompass a LOT of martial arts,
it would be
Matrix Kung Fu
and Blinding Steel.

Matrix Kung Fu is $25
we are talking instant download here.

Blinding Steel is $35.
Again,
I am talking instant download here,
this deal isn’t for the physical disks,
I live on a mountain top
and it is hard to get to the post office,
so,
if you want ten bucks off the instant downloads,

Go to:

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4ab-blinding-steel-package/

Now,
remember,
this is an INCREDIBLY FAST system.
You get weapons,
and you get the transition to empty hands,
and you get the COMPLETE data
on how to matrix those empty hands
into the throws and takedowns of Matrix Kung Fu.

A complete system
which teaches you how to make a weapon out of anything,
and how to disarm anything,
and it is the FASTEST course I actually have.
It is so darned logical,
but,
more important,
it puts a logic
into ‘flowing.’

Okay,
there you go.
My good deed for the day,
and I sure hope the world doesn’t end,
but,
if it does
you will have the means to survive
and to bring the highest quality martial arts
in the whole wide world
into a brand new future.

Okay,
you guys and gals have a MOST glorious day,
check out that movie if you can,
Heroes of the East,
make sure you talk to other martial artists,
and trade data
so that you both learn,
and don’t forget,
Ten bucks off
on the Blinding Steel package.

Have a great work out!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4ab-blinding-steel-package/

George Zimmerman Too Fat to Beat Up Trayvon Martin!

Does Mixed Martial Arts Really Work?

In a most interesting testimony at the George Zimmerman trial, George’s Mixed Martial Arts instructor says that his student was physically soft, and didn’t really know how to punch.

This is a fascinating piece of information, and may impact upon the case.

His face is skinnier here, but did he know how to punch?

On television George Zimmerman looks chubby, certainly expanded from the pictures of him taken after he allegedly killed Trayvon Martin.

Could somebody overweight and soft taken on somebody young and (presumably) in shape? And do it without even bruising his knuckles?

On the contrary, Trayvon Martin had the bruised knuckles, and George Zimmerman, who had taken Martial Arts for a year, had the bruised face.

This must have been difficult testimony for the Mixed Martial Arts instructor, whose name is Adam Pollock.

He described George as a pleasant fellow who was overweight. Not much muscle or strength. And, after a year, he doesn’t know how to hit somebody.

This makes the instructor look bad. That he could teach somebody for a year and not enable him to defend himself, nor even know how to punch.

Still, whether the Mixed Martial Arts instructor is bona fide or not, whether the MMA is workable or not for real street defense, whether the mixed martial arts instructor was merely defending for a friend and ‘slighting’ the truth, all bypasses the main thing: the black eyes and the broken nose decorating the face of the defendant.

Perhaps it would have been better had George taken some courses from Monster Martial Arts.

Your Martial Art Sucks Because Mine is Better!

On Sucky Martial Arts!

I like getting comments on the martial arts articles and blogs I write. I like to know what people are thinking. Recently, however, I received a notice that somebody had commented on one of my blogs. I clicked over to the blog and examined the comment.

It was something to the effect of, ‘Yeah, your art sucks, it’s the kind of art that was losing back in the UFC 1 – 5.’

Take this, trash mouth!

I grinned.

This was what I call the Beavis and butthead martial artist. Now, I am going to say a couple of mean things, so don’t take them out of context, or blow them up.

These fellows have little control over language, usually using ‘dude’ or ‘bro’ freely.

These fellows think whether a man is a man is decided in the ring, and no where else, and any of that zen crap is just that…crap.

And, these fellows usually have read all about Bruce Lee, and they are free thinkers (study everything) but don’t have the discipline to make anything work…they lack the incredibly discipline that Bruce Lee had.

And, these fellows talk trash. A lot of trash.

Now, I love MMA. I love to watch it, I love to watch the training methods, and I have opinions on who is going to win a fight or not.

But I don’t speak ill of MMA. Heck, there’s too much to learn, and it is too darned fun.

And, the really MMA fighters don’t usually speak ill of classical martial arts. Many of them have studied classical martial arts, and they know there is a dividing line here. That go to more reality is a decision of the person.

Of course, there are exceptions. You will have the trash talk before a match. You will have people that actually don’t like each other. But I ignore that. It’s about the art, you see? And I would like to think that, underneath it all it is about exploing and finding superior training methods.

Not just a human cockfight, but a deeper purpose. A point wherein the human being stops trying to beat people up, and starts looking for the truth of himself.

Now, does my art suck because it didn’t win at UFC 3 or whatever?

Nope. It just means that Beavis and Butthead are grinding axes with what goes for brains.

This has been a page about Mixed Martial Arts and sometimes unfortunate attitudes of the mentally challenged.

Go to Monster Martial Arts if you want to see some martial arts that result in increased intelligence.

Reaction Time in Karate, Kung Fu, Aikido, and All the Martial Arts

Getting Rid of Reaction Time

Reaction time, in karate, Kenpo, taekwondo or any martial art, is a fascinating beast. I say beast because it is the one thing people have that they should get rid of. It is one thing that can get you killed faster than a bomb in the diapers.

Reaction time is reaction, which means that it is something occurring after something else has happened. Do you understand what this means? If you possess reaction time, you are moving second and behind whoever is launching a punch at your face.

Now you are forced to move, and this because of the attacker’s direction, rather than in keeping with your own wishes. That means you are the target, and you are attempting to get out of the way, to construct a good block, or whatever. It means you are not moving because you want to and decided to.

The best way to understand this thing is if there is attacker A on the A position. And a defender B on the B position. And a third position, maybe off to the right, which we will refer to as spot C.

The amount of time it takes A to go to B, B can move to C. But B HAS TO move at the exact same moment. If B moves after A, then he is going to get his block knocked off.

And, if B moves because of something he learned in a lesson, or because of a drill, or because of anything else, then he is moving as if yesterday. B must watch A ‘in the present moment,’ and he must move in accordance with his own wishes and not because of what A is doing. This is the only way for B to actually live through a real fight.

There is, interestingly enough, the point of view of A, and of actually being able to hit somebody. If you have seen how many misses there are in the MMA, then you will understand this. Simply, A is moving to where B is, but B is no longer there.

In other words, for A to actually make contact with his opponent, he must launch himself not to where B is, because B is going to move, and the location B is where he used to be. And A must not attempt to ‘curve’ the trajectory of his strike, for that will destroy his base and take power out of the movement. The trick is merely to understand the one sentence: in the time A goes to B, B goes to C.

In summation, let me say that many people talk about timing and slipping strikes and that sort of thing, but they usually don’t really understand the equation I have given you here. To understand this equation-in the time A moves to B, B moves to C-you should write it out, along with every fight situation you can imagine, on a piece of paper. No matter what martial art you study, Kenpo, Kung Fu, Aikido, or whatever, this piece of data will enable you to shorten and even get rid of your reaction time, and elevate your martial art to a much higher level.

This has been a page about reaction time in the Martial Arts.

Brazilian Jujitsu and Matrix Martial Arts

Matrix Martial Arts and Brazilian Jujitsu

One of the questions I get the most is

‘how do you matrix Brazilian Jujitsu.’

Honestly,

I was not trained in ground grappling,

and though I have dabbled,

and worked out with various people

I usually end up recommending

that a person study matrixing,

and figure out how to matrix the thing themselves.

Now,

Master Instructor Ryan Head

has been working on just that.

So,

for the first time ever

the Monster Newsletter is about to be written

by someone other than me.

Here is Ryan Head’s analysis of Brazilian Jujitsu.

I think you will find it scholarly,

interesting,

filled with valid points,

and it will make you think

Thanks for the quick reply and feedback on my attempts at matrixing BJJ. Now, you mentioned interest in the possible intentional confusion in the teaching of BJJ. Well, some of what I have come to believe is from research, some from my own experiences, and some straight from Helio Gracie’s own words.

For starters, I’ve looked up the supposed origins of brazilian jiu jitsu on sites like wikipedia and they’re not quite accurate or at least not telling the whole story from what I can tell.

The way I understand it is that some time in the early twentieth century…. maybe the twenties… I’m not a hundred percent on exact dates and some names, Japanese jiu jitsu experts came to Brazil.

One of them in particular decided to teach some of his art to a few select people. Some have said that his art was actually Judo, but seeing as how Judo focuses on throws and Jiu jitsu focuses on locks more, I tend to believe it actually was Jiu jitsu.  Anyway, Carlos Gracie was taught this art and received the rank of black belt. Once his teacher went back to Japan, Carlos decided to start teaching and opened his own Jiu jitsu school in Brazil.

His little brother Helio, who was much smaller, weaker, and very prone to illness as a child, would often come to the school and watch as Carlos taught. He watched so much that he memorized every move that Carlos taught. I believe that Carlos actually taught Helio some of the art during this time period as well, but had not made him an instructor.

Then, one day, a class of students was at the school and Carlos was running very late. I guess some of the students were threatening to leave and Helio didn’t want his brother to lose their business. So, he volunteered to teach the class. He ended up being pretty good at it and well liked by the students. So, Carlos made him an instructor.

As time went by, Helio, who was still young and a bit small and weak at the time, realized that he had a lot of trouble making some of the techniques work, because of his size and strength level. So, he began changing things and adapting the art to work better for a weaker person. That was how the Gracie style of jiu jitsu which would become known as Brazilian jiu jitsu started.

I think several things happened after this. One is that even though this art has been around for a lot less years than many other arts, it’s managed to spread so quickly and predominantly in the last twenty or thirty years that it has had ample opportunity to get twisted and confused.

Another thing which I personally view as a drawback is that the original Japanese version of the art, and, in fact, many other arts started out either based around the use of weapons or in defense of them. So, they were tooled for real combat. Helio, outside of an ugly mugging type incident which does not help his image, never used his art or tested it outside of a ring or mat to my knowledge. So, brazilian jiu jitsu is actually designed more around one on one competition without the use of weapons.

Of course, it can be used in self defense, but mainly when weapons and multiple opponents are not involved. It has a few weapon defenses, but certainly not the best I’ve seen.

Anyway, that was mainly meant to establish the differences that Helio made in the art. After Helio himself, we get into the real culprits.

I don’t recall where it’s from and it may be floating around on vhs or dvd somewhere online or something still today, but there is a video interview with Helio Gracie which I have a computer file copy of. In that interview, Helio points out that at the time which this took place and still today, you could go to most book stores and probably countless places online and find any number of different books and/ or dvds from people professing to teach BJJ. Many of these were people whom Helio had never heard of.

I’m sure there are plenty of qualified instructors in the world at this point whom he never met.

However, a lot of these guys were claiming to have trained with Helio at the Gracie school in Brazil. And in fact, a lot of these people were from Brazil. Upon looking at some of what they offered in their courses though, Helio completely dismissed them as frauds.

He pointed out that Brazil was a very poor country and that there were a lot of broke and dishonest people there who were more than willing to try to pass off a fake version of his art to pad their pockets. That happens with a lot of arts, but what’s worse is that Helio said that even his own sons were guilty of it to a degree, saying that when they taught others, especially in America, they often left out many of the key elements of the art he created.

He took special note of the standup elements being incorrect or gone all together. Some of his sons offered courses where you simply order more dvds for more belts and they didn’t really know if the student was learning or not.

After seeing this interview, I started taking another look at not only how I was being taught (at least my teacher has a legitimate Gracie school representative for a teacher who is well known and established), but also what’s in books and dvds on the market concerning BJJ.

I noticed that if I wanted information about Jeet Kune Do for example, I could find something dealing with an entire fighting range such as kick boxing or trapping.

However, if you look for something on BJJ, you can find entire books and dvds devoted to single positions and only around three locks. They teach one position at a time, one technique from the position, maybe move into a specific flow of techniques from that position (like my teacher does), but rarely actually focus on the real concepts behind what is being done.

It seems to me that they want to relay just enough information to the student or customer to keep them coming back for more.

You’ll also notice that most books and dvds of this nature are actually more expensive than products of the same length in other arts.

I’m not sure how much is deliberate and how much is from a result of the monkey see, monkey do method which you’ve spoken of, but I seem to see it a lot.

I also notice that although brazilian jiu jitsu is among the best I’ve ever seen at maintaining contact and grounding when doing their techniques, the art as it’s been taught to me is almost completely devoid of CBM.

I can’t help but wonder if that is how it started out or just another aspect of its current watered down state.

Well, like I said, some of this is my opinion, but this is where my research has lead me and I’m fairly comfortable with saying something is wrong with the way BJJ is taught today. I hope this was helpful.

Thanks Ryan,

your analysis is quite interesting.

You know,

Brazilian Jujitsu

is one of the most potent arts in the world.

Yet,

you can see the corruption setting in,

how it sets in,

and why.

This is exactly what Matrixing is out to fix.

Jujitsu, karate, savate,

whatever your art,

it can be quicker to learn,

more efficient to use.

You can get ALL the benefits of your art

without the bushwah.

Here’s an URL

http://www.monstermartialarts.com

Go there,

pick out the art closest to yours

and start matrixing now

Thanks again, Ryan

Al

Help support the Great Matrixing Tour!

Order a course now!

http://www.monstermartialarts.com

The Degradation of the Martial Arts

Martial Arts Degrade Naturally!

What you can do about it!

I love speaking about how the Martial Arts have fallen apart.

All Arts ascend, coast, and descend!

The evolutionary curve of anything is discovery and ascension, coasting, and descension.

First, somebody discovers something, it gets a buzz, and it gets promoted.

Second, it becomes accepted, and there is little resistance to acceptance.

Third, people move on to the next great thing and forget about it.

Sadly, this paints people as whimsical creatures of fad.

So the martial arts get rediscovered periodically, people get excited about them, and then they get left behind. This holds true for every martial art in existence, and, in fact, this phenomena can be observed in everything in life.

The trick is to present the martial arts so that people don’t want to leave them behind.

People don’t want to leave science behind…they can’t, it works, and it keeps working, and it can’t be disproved.

Oddly, in spite of faddish claims, there has never been a science of the martial arts. There have been all variety of methods, but no real set of principles expounded, no predictable results charted.

And there we have the problem of this up and down faddish viewpoint of the martial arts: art is an expression of self; science is logical and predictable results.

When putting together Matrixing I quickly realized that I could predict resutls. Matter of fact, I realized this when I kep ttrying to do things other than matrixing. The ‘faddish’ parts of my own mind were betraying me, and I had to keep failing, and keep being forced back to the matrixing viewpoint, before I finally got it.

So here’s something to think about. I studied Karate, but when it came time to teach it, the fad had passed, and it was time to teach kung fu. When I learned kung fu, the fad had passed and I had to learn something else. Art after art, I passed through the so-called ‘golden age’ of martial arts, always a step behind the fad, but–and here is the blessing–always being forced back into matrixing so I could assimilate new arts.

Now, when it is time for you, the young reader, to teach an art, will it have passed? Will you be trying to teach something that people are already forgetting about? Will you alter the concepts and teachings so you can appeal to a jaded audience?

I can’t tell you how real-unfortunate but real-these questions are.

At any rate, anyone wishing to look in to Matrixing their martial art, fixing it so it doesn’t degrade, and learning all sorts of things about how to learn all sorts of arts in quick snap time, need merely mouse on over to MonsterMartialArts.com.

 

 

Proof that Martial Artists with Tattoos are Weaker!

Watching the martial artists on the UFC last night.
The first two matches the fellows with less tattoos won over the fellows with more tattoos.

I got your chi right here...beotch!

Then I went to the UFC house, and the guys with more tattoos won!
Wait a minute, this isn’t the way the statistics have been going!
Then i realized, the coach for the guys who happened to have no tattoos wasn’t even showing up. So I would say that the results are skewed. Still, I can’t ignore them, I just have to expand my database. And I’m going to have to take into account factors such as the disappearing MA coach. Oh well. It’s still fun.

My website is Monster Martial Arts, and a lot of people get interested in my book on The Punch, which lists the concepts and training routines you need to have the strongest punch in the world. There’s a free martial arts book on the home page.