Author Archives: Al

Speed Drilling in Karate

Newsletter 703
The Secret of Speed in the Martial Arts

Let’s talk about speed in the martial arts.

We used to have this exercise
back at the Kang Duk Won
it was called ‘Speed of speed.’
And,
it was brutal.
You faced your partner,
and there was only one attack:
a chop to the neck,
you turn the hand
so the flat of the hand strikes the shoulder.
What made it brutal was the times
when you collided with your partner.
Neither of you was faster,
and you both ended up hurting.

making faster karate techniques

speed kick in karate


 
Believe me,
as stupid as it sounds,
you won’t see this exercise
anywhere in the martial arts.
It just hurts too much.

Yet,
here’s the thing,
after a few months of doing this,
of suffering bone bruises to the forearms
you found that you were faster.
Some lower belt would come in
and he’d just start to twitch
and…WHAM!
you were hitting his shoulder so hard
his head near fell off!

Now,
I tried teaching that,
and people didn’t want to learn it.
Man,the groans and moans.
So I persisted,
and had small classes
of REALLY tough martial artists,
but I kept thinking about speed.

I thought about the kenpo
circularity of motion theories and drills,
but hitting somebody ten times in a second
didn’t allow one to get the body behind any of the strikes.
Hmmm.
So you have to be fast in the intuitive sense,
in the sense that Speed of Speed built up,
of seeing when somebody was starting to move,
and moving before him.
THAT was when you could get the whole body behind the strike.

So,
have you ever watched the Magnificent Seven?
The scene where Yul Brynner claps his hands?

I started out with the hands apart,
standing in a back stance,
and the partner has to close the distance
and punch the chest before the hands clap.
Worked like a charm.
Easy to do,
not so brutal,
and directly applied to increasing power through weight.

And,
there were variations I tried,
one of them,
of unusual interest,
is standing to the side with a stop watch.
Tell somebody to punch when they hear the stop watch click,
and click the stop watch a second time when the punch touches the target.
Interestingly,
times were being measured in a full second.
Yes.
That long.
No chance at all
of the punch being fast enough to work.
But what turned the trick
was to stand behind the person being punched,
and let the person watch you click the stop watch.
Man,
then they sped up,
and that was because you got rid of all reaction time,
and the puncher could see and anticipate.

But isn’t that what it is all about?
When somebody is about to punch
you don’t wait for the punch,
you look,
you examine,
you analyze,
you predict when it is coming.

Usually it starts with some kind of emotional set up,
but with the stop watch there was no emotion
and guys could get past the idea of emotion,
get past fooling each other with twitches and tells,
and directly view the factors of the strike.
People got fast real fast,
and we could tailor the strikes,
increase speed in everything
from blocks to kicks to whatever.

Now,
you can use this data,
do the exercises,
make your own exercises,
have some real fun,
and get past a lot of stuff,
and increase speed in the one area
that really matters,
putting weight behind a real strike.

And,
if you have a little extra hair on your chest,
you can always try speed of speed.
To this day
I know that that exercise,
as crude and brutal as it was,
was the one that made the real difference in me.

Okay,
if you want to increase speed
because you have perfect alignment in your body,
and perfect alignment WILL increase your speed,
then check out the Master Instructor Course.

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

AND,
BTW,
I’ve been fooling around
making a few sites just for grins and giggles,
so try this one…

http://combatselfdefence.wordpress.com

It’s aimed at explaining things about matrixing and neutronics,
and how they apply to the martial arts.
It’s not for everybody,
and I’m not done with it,
I’ll be working on it as time goes by,
but it’s at a point where
I thought people would appreciate it,
maybe even have some insight as to what they would like on it.
Feel free to leave comments on the site,
what you think,
any advice,
whatever.
It actually gets to me
faster than an email.

Okay,
it’s the middle of summer
so act like it!
Work out till you sweat COPIOUSLY,
and enjoy an occasional beverage.

Have a great and work out filled weekend!
I
Al

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

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Why We Wear Martial Arts Uniforms…

To Gi or not to Gi, that is the Martial Arts Question…

I put on my first gi back in 1967. It was pretty cool, my school had actually found a company that could supply us regularly. Very difficult to find sometimes, back then. We didn’t mind the $15 we had to pay.

It was yellowish, too short, looked ridiculous, but I found something interesting: it taught you how to focus. When you punched right it ‘popped!’

So I made everything I did pop, every kind of kick and punch and even block that I could…I popped.

I bought my first Tokaido, and it was a day in heaven. I’m not a clothes hound, but when I stepped on to the mat in that Tokaido, I felt…BIG!

And, my techniques were better. It took more power to pop, the material was thicker.

Of course, I had to buy the Tokaido, I had been made into an instructor, and I was told to look the part, or else!

I wore that uniform til it literally disintegrated. I went through the ‘don’t wash’ period, for a couple of weeks. Then the smell made me realize that I wanted to wash it, and I used to wash it and press it and fold it with absolute devotion and respect.

Yet I knew, always, that it was always in my mind. It was my uniform, my way of ‘preparing’ for my mock combat, my lessons in mortality and immortality.

Don’t want to wear one? That’s cool. Choice.

But look inside the uniform first, look under the skin. Check out to see whether you have the requisite pride, and in the proper degree and form, before you hold them in disregard.

As for me, they’ll have to pry my gi from my cold, dead…body.

Have a great work out! Al from monstermartialarts.

Check out the new Kenpo Karate book!

Is it Time for Modern Weapons to be in Martial Arts Classes?

Martial Arts Taken to the Mat…

Guest blog by Alaric Dailey

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

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

body guard martial arts novel

An amazing Martial Arts novel. Click on the cover.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 .Marksmanship

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

5. how to deal with an active shooter situation.

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

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

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Mugger Speaks Out for Self Defense!

Self Defense for a Mugger!

Okay. I’m a mugger! Got to earn a living, and I usually earn it on shmucks like you. I simply come up behind you and conk you with a baseball bat and take all your money while you’re tossin’ the ball in snoozeville.

My favorite tool is a knife. A sword ain’t bad, but the man in blue might arrest me if he sees me with one. Heck, he might even shoot me!
Don‘t want that, man.
So I like a knife. You sneak up, stick the blade up against the throat, and whisper, and the fool fills his pants and empties his wallet at the same time!
Hah!

gung fu bookAnyway, one thing I hate is people who scream.
I mean, can’t a guy get a little peace and quiet on the job? Can’t ya just dry up and give me your wallet? Why do you have to make all that noise? Don’t you know it tends to draw a crowd? And I don’t want no crowd around me when I work. Ya know?

And, talkin’ about it, I also don’t want nobody throwin’ stuff at me.
Ya know, I had a guy the other day threw a bunch of pennies, right out of his pocket, fer Chrissake, threw some pennies at me and yelled! Scared me half to death, and one of those pennies actually hit me in the eye! Man, I was runnin’ and cryin’ all at the same time, and, let me tell you, it didn’t feel good!
So knock that crap off! No throwin’ stuff or makin’ a bunch of noise.
I mean, gimme a break, eh?

But the worst thing ever is when I’m tryin’ to mug somebody, and he has a knife hisself!
I mean, if a guy like that sees me coming, and he’s got a knife in a slick, little holster under his jacket flap, or something like that, he might get it out and actually stick me! Can you believe the nerve of the guy?
And what would the other muggers think if it was a …(choke)… a girl that stuck me!? Man, the shame!
I mean, lay off on that fightin’ back stuff. I just want your money, I don’t want no trip to the bone factory!

So there ya go, just a couple of things that tick me off, and that I don’t want you doing. Keep ‘em in mind cause it’ll help me do my job. Keeps me off welfare, ya know?

About the author: Al Case is the webmaster at MonsterMartialArts.com. Check out his Blinding Steel Course, the fastest and most efficient way to stick a mugger in the world!

 

How to Defend Against Dogs with Martial Arts

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!

best karate kung fu chi training manual

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/

Breathless Martial Arts…Empty Karate…Silent Aikido

The Value of Silence in the Martial Arts

Karate, Gung Fu, Taekwondo…no matter what martial art…they need silence to grow.

My first hint of this was the ‘empty’ in Empty Hands, which is the literal translation of Karate.

Empty hands, and empty mind. A zen thing.

kung fu karate

Be silent, my friend, and hear yourself think…

 
Not how many tournaments you can win, not how ‘bad’ you are, but how silent you can be.

A light bulb depends on space to create the spark that lightens society. Is not space emptiness? Silence?

The human being is a light bulb, a machine through which sparks energy. But he blathers so much that there is no silence, thus, he never turns on those extra sensory perception tools like telepathy.

He is left with the sound of his body, a noisy thing that obscures his real thoughts.

A human being must create silence, and then the light bulb can go on.

When there is no sound he can create silence.

When there is no sound he can listen…and hear.

Hear what?

Hear his own thoughts.

Hear the thoughts of others.

When I was in the city I found it difficult to work out. I had done martial arts in such a way, and for so long, that I wasn’t interested in speaking, and the speaking of others disturbed the silence.

Humans are a loud variety.

Their heads actually make enormous noises, but the noises are beneath the human band of hearing. Thus, he is guilty of noise pollution, a machine trundling through life making squeaking gurgling sounds that are deafening to animals, but nothing to himself. He has made sure he can’t hear his own noise.

A polluter.

When you create enough silence the world speaks to you.

You can hear the animals look at you.

Animals are silent. They know how to listen. They never bothered to learn how to speak. Their ‘speech’ is more in action, pose, posture, grin.

Humans are so miserable.

They talk and they talk and they talk, and the world never listens.

Try the martial arts.

Try them blindfolded in a room without lights late at night.

Move by using your imagination.

Do your karate or kenpo or aikido in silence, lessening even the slither of bare foot over carpet, doing without noise.

Until not even your breath can be heard.

Breathless Martial Arts.

When you finally succeed in making perfect silence, then will you hear the true martial arts.

Then will you hear the world.

Then will you hear yourself.

Al Case has been studying the Martial Arts since 1967. Tai Chi Chuan is perfect for creating silence in the Martial Arts.

How to Kill a Leopard with Your Bare Karate Hands!

You Can Kill with your Bare Karate Hands, Too!

Okay, I say bare Karate Hands, but it could be bare Kung Fu hands, or Kenpo hands, or whatever.

But the point is this is a true story of a man who killed a leopard with his bare hands. Complete with the technique he used, and the sense of personal self belief that is necessary to kill a wild animal that attacks you.

Picture from the Field Museum

Picture from the Field Museum

 
Carl Akeley was born in 1864. He stuffed animals for PT Barnum, went to Africa on many safaris, and one day he had an encounter with a leopard.

I believe he had just shot a wild pig, but when he went to claim it, he found a bloody trail leading into the underbrush.

He stepped up to the underbrush, heard a growl, and a leopard jumped out at him!

He couldn’t get his gun up, the leopard latched on, and Carl was in a fight for his life!

Now, what would you do?

Scream for help? Probably.

Hit the leopard with your fist? Probably, though it wouldn’t do much good.

Maybe you should do what Carl Akeley did, and punch the leopard down the throat.

That’s right, he punched his fist right down the leopard’s throat.

That hurt, and the leopard let go, but Carl didn’t.

He body slammed the beast, then leaped into the air and came down on the leopard with both knees, killing the animal.

Now, how much presence of mind does one have to have to do this kind fo thing?

Most people would try to pull their arm out of the Leopard’s grip, but that would go against the curve of fang. So the right way to go is right down the throat, hit him in the gag reflex, and then prepare a double knee counter attack!

Now, did Carl Akeley ever study Kung Fu? Probably not. But he was strong and had presence of mind, which are things that a stufdy of kung fu and the martial arts readily gives.

Get FREE martial arts books at MonsterMartialArts.com

Karate Breaking Will Smash a Man’s Skull!

Break that Sucka!

Karate Breaking Techniques were the rage back in 1967. This was because Karate, and other martial ars like Kung Fu and Taekwondo were new to the land. Nobody knew anything back then, and darn, if you could break a board…why, you could break a man’s skull!

There are some interesting things about a skull, and let me preface this article on karate breaking methods with a rather fascinating datum.

karate breaking technique

It takes Great Karate technique to break a skull!



While a skull is hard and rigid, it is easy to break. To prove this take an egg out of your refrigerator, hold it in your palm, and…without using the fingers!…squeeze.

As hard as you squeeze, that egg is going to laugh at you.

Now, use your fingers, and clean up the gooey mess. If you squeeze a skull it ain’t gonna break. If you poke it soft enough, it will. How soft? Fifteen pounds of pressure per square inch is enough to break a skull.

There are a lot of variables, of course. The skull bone differs in thickness. Hair cushions. And so on. Which puts the real force required somewhere between 16 and 196 pounds. Hit a fellow in the side of the skull, right behind and above the eyes, and the bone is thin, and it might take only 15 pounds of pressure to break that puppy. But thee are some places where the bone is thick and the pressure could take 200 pounds easy.

But, that said, a karate strike, properly done, will range from 300 to 400 pounds of pressure. That should be more than enough to crack up a skull.

So what stops a skull from being cracked when a karate punch is applied to it?

First, a skull in motion is harder to break than a skull in place.

A karate punch will frequently glance off a head moving frantically out of the way. In other words, you have to have the intended target hold still so that a perfect karate strike can be focused exactly if you wish to increase your breaking chances.

Second, speaking of moving out of the way, if a surface is pliable it will resist breaking much more than a surface that is rigid. This is to say that a skull being karate kicked will move back, thus dissipating force; which is to say that if you want to do your karate breaking techniques on a human style head, it would be nice if that skull would lay down on a concrete surface with no give.

And, speaking of karate breaking techniques, we come to the juice of this martial arts article. If you want to break a cranium, you need to practice your martial arts breaking techniques on similar objects first.

Start with Karate board breaking.

To build your break a board technique, start with one board. Number two pine, an inch thick, 12 by 12.

Once successful, go to two boards, three boards, and so on.

And, do not put pencils between the boards. Putting pencils at the edges creates space in the material being broken, and while a bunch of boards makes it look like karate breaking is awesome, the truth is that you can only break five or six boards with no spacers, but you can break up to 20 boards with spacers.

So be honest. Don’t go for the yell of the crowd at a karate breaking demonstration…go for the inner satisfaction of being able to break only a piddling five or six boards with no spacers. This presents the question of whether you wish to impress impressionable young minds, or build your inner strength of character.

And, speaking of honest board breaking techniques, don’t go leaving your boards out in the sun for a few days prior to your breaking exhibition. Dried boards break easier than regular boards. Like kindling, as a matter of fact.

But, on the same token, don’t let your boards get wet before you break them. Your iron hand kung fu technique will turn into mushy hospital visitation rights.

And, that is about all there is to breaking boards, and, if you insist, upon karate breaking human skulls.

But…if you wish to do karate breaks on skulls, let me offer the obligatory caution: detached retinas, brain hemorrhage, fractured bones, and permanent neurological disorders. All of which translates to slurred and halting speech, let alone cauliflower ears and big, old puffy noses and…over 6 deaths a year in the boxing ring.

So practice your karate breaking technique, and do it for real, as if you really had to break a skull, but settle for perfection of character by resisting the urge to violence.

Here is an hilarious anecdote about a fellow who knocked himself out with karate breaking techniques. If you want to actually learn Karate well enough to break skulls, click on Matrix Karate at Monster Martial Arts.

Here’s a great article on Karate Breaking Techniques. If you want to start work on really advanced Karate, here’s a book on how to Build Chi Power.

Basic Karate Kata Revolutionizes How to Teach Karate!

Basic Karate Kata Introduces New Teaching Method!

Let’s face it, most basic karate Kata are boring, and couldn’t boredom be the reason many people quit their karate class early on?

With this in the back of my mind, I decided to make a better basic Karate Kata. Simply, I wanted my karate class to be fast and fun. I wanted a karate form that would include all the basics, and actually involve the student.

best karate form

Does your karate form look like this?

 

Before we get into the form itself, consider that most forms are basically step and block drills. Step and strike. A piece of a karate technique, and not the whole thing. Thus, in addition to being boring, the forms have little value except for indoctrination into how to learn things rotely.

Can anybody spell second grade? How about behavior modification? Both good reasons to put aside long used teaching methods and find a better way of teaching Karate, or kung fu, or whatever your martial art is.

beginner karate

Or does it look like this?

In making the basic Karate Kata called ‘House’ I decided to use three basics, the low block, the outward middle block, and the high block. Those are easy enough for a beginner to learn quickly, and real enough for simulated fighting.

I then placed these blocks on a line, and put a punch after each block. Thus, there is stance change, weight shift, basics, and the idea that you can actually block and then offer a karate punch, or martial arts counter of some kind.

Now, to be honest, Chinese Kenpo, as presented by Ed Parker, had a good idea in their short one basic karate kata. The unfortunate fact is that while the idea of facing all four directions was good, it needlessly complicated the basic function of this kenpo form.

So, in line, three blocks, strikes right after each of the blocks, and you have something that works in real fight simulation, and can be learned quickly and easily, and, here’s an important element, can be upgraded into a more difficult variation.

Let’s say you begin the student on the first step, a low block and punch, and he can’t quite get it. That’s okay. The martial arts are new to him, and he’s confused by all the data. Let him be confused, drill him only on that one move until he gets it, then give him the second piece. Then, drill him on the first and second movements till he gets them, his own confusion will keep him entertained, and, finally, he can progress to the third move.

Thus, the karate student learns the whole kata.

Now, want to keep him learning? Want to make sure he does the form enough to get the deep down essence of the moves? Have him drill it in two man fashion. This is just like one step blocking movements done at the beginning of a traditional Karate class, except that it is a two man form, and the reality of the movements, that is to say the form, is being re-inforced with every single strike. More important, it takes no excessive teaching, you just have the student do the basic karate form and feed it strikes. He will have realization within minutes concerning how to do this, and he will be off to the races!

The Karate student thinks he knows it? Ask him to speed up. Ask him to do it without stepping,  while standing in place. Ask him to do it with a (rubber) knife or stick!

The possibilities are endless, and this simple, basic karate Kata is suddenly opening doors that are refused to students who learn in the same old same old mass education manner.

If you would like to do this form yourself, click on Basic Karate Kata, if you would like to learn an entire karate system taught in this manner, go to Matrix Karate at Monster Martial Arts.

Teaching the True Art of Karate

Spreading the True Martial Arts

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 Karate?

teaching martial arts

Learning Karate Changes Even Bullies

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 Karate.
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 karate 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 karate 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 karate 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 karate, and other martial arts.
I know that the people who have done my martial arts 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 a karate 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/

This has been a page about teaching karate…and other martial arts.