Author Archives: freema6

Real Karate Techniques Don’t Use Muscle Memory!

I come across these internet huckster sites every once in a while, or some psycho babble fellow who thinks he knows something, and they talk about increasing muscle memory, but they are just plain wrong. The fact is that real karate techniques don’t use muscle memory, nor do any other martial art, be it kenpo or aikido or whatever.  Check out the video, and I’ll tell you all about it in the article right below.

First off, who’s fighting (doing the martial arts drill)? You are. You use muscles, they don’t use you.

When somebody punches at you, do you jump out of your body and let your body fight? Nah. That’s just silly.

When you get in a  fight  you tell your body what to do, and it does it. And you don’t rely on muscular memory patterns.

Yes, when you first memorize something, there is a pattern, and you could call that muscle memory, but it is really installing a circuit in your mind. Incorrect training and that circuit stays there. Correct training and that circuit goes, and you take charge.

The real key here is that people are interested in selling other people hogwash by fancy labels. So don’t believe that muscle memory crap. It is you memorizing, and then you doing, and you should be in charge of your muscles, telling them what to do in the moment, and without putting things on some sort of muscle automatic thing.

Look, the guys who won the championships will tell you that you must do the work, but that is a matter of spirit. You must do the punch, but that is a matter of you. Muscle memory has almost nothing to do with actual fighting, real karate techniques, nor any real martial art worth its salt out there. Check out my site, Monster Martial Arts, and you’ll find an approach that is so far removed from that type of thing you won’t believe it.

The Problem When You Learn Karate and How to Freestyle

When you learn Karate there are the forms and the techniques, and then there is how to freestyle. Why are they different? Why can’t you use the techniques from Classical Karate in Freestyle? Check out the video, then I’ll tell you about it.

There are two answers to this.

First, you can use bunkai in kumite, you can use those form applications in freestyle, when you are a black belt. But you can only use them against lower belts. Upper belts will be wise to your tricks, grin, and they won’t fall for it. But the lower belts, they just don’t know enough, haven’t practiced enough.

So your form techniques should work on the street, if you have a good instructor, a good system, and you have been a good student.

Second, there is a huge, massive gap of data; there are chunks of art missing from Karate (and other arts) which, if understood, will close the gap between classical forms and freestyle.

This is the thrust of the Matrixing method, to enable students to see those missing pieces, downsize that chunk of what you don’t know down to nothing, and you will find that classical forms and freestyle are virtually the same.

No, I am not kidding you…that’s the truth.

Over the years well meaning teachers have just not figured out what was missing, and have, in certain cases, contributed to the occlusion of data.

Here’s what one instructor had to say after seeing the Matrix Karate Course…

“…because of the Matrix concept, I have totally re-structured my self defense program…”

I get these kinds of wins every couple of weeks. Some guy is introducing matrixing, restructuring his class, and basically getting rid of that huge chunk of missing martial arts information.

If you matrix, you can learn  karate, and you can learn how to freestyle, and they will mesh and merge and come perfectly together. There will be all sorts of things that suddenly appear and make sense…things you didn’t even know existed. The Matrix Karate course is available at Monster Martial Arts.

The Problem is that Matrix Karate is Too Fast!

Within the Karate Fist is Great Spirit

Matrix Karate is too fast, what a weird complaint, eh? Yet, it is true.

When I am running the Matrix drill on the Three Month Black Belt course, you can see the speed of learning, and it is amazing. Logic replaces randomity, and the student suddenly opens his eyes, and we’re off to the races.

And, there is nothing that can match the reality of the drill. The strikes are all hard, the blocks are all tested by the drill, and everything makes sense.

The problem is that I don’t have time to make my student smooth. He just catches on too fast, and one has to validate his knowledge as it grows, or you risk miring the student…he will start doubting himself if you don’t do this.

But, I’d rather have a guy who is real, and knows the fighting connection, than is pretty. When you think about it, pretty is a state of polish. Now that I’ve got him to Black Belt his intuition has turned on, and polishing is going to be very fast and efficient.

Anyway, we’re about to start the next segment of his training, and it’s going to be fun. Matrix Karate may have been too fast, but the benefits can’t be refuted, and now it is time to polish. Check out my page on the Three Month Black Course. You’ll probably understand what I’m saying when you see what my student says in his testimonial/win.

The Singular Attack of MMA Jujitsu v Karate Style Classical Martial Arts

classical martial arts

A Good Stance is a Good Defense Against a Single Leg Takedown!

The one thing I am always asked aout, as an instructor, is what do you do about the MMA Jujitsu type of attack. This isn’t just jujitsu, it’s wrestling, or any art where you take somebody down.

The attack is dive with a grab for the leg, and zingo bingo, you’re on the ground. At least, that’s the way it is in the MMA and the UFC.

Well, not really. You’ll notice that fighters in the octagon are relying on the single leg takedown less and less.

And, it used to be that nobody would even try it. Just too risky, somebody could clock you in the head while you’re bent over grabbing a leg, or maybe just knee you in the face. It just wasn’t a good attack.

What happened to make it popular?

What happened is that people who specialized in it entered the ring. People who spent hours a day working on that one martial arts technique  look unbeatable, so everybody decided that was the unbeatable technique.

What they should have done was realize that it wasn’t the technique, it was the dedicated training regimen. You put in an hour a day on single leg takedowns for a year and you will be able to do them to most people. Unless that ‘people’ has spent an hour a dya learning how to avoid that martial arts technique.

I am not attacking MMA or Jujitsu, or wrestling or any other sport. I am just advocating that people need to get more dedicated, then such thigns as the single leg takedown won’t look so great.

Truth, you need to be a well rounded martial artist with good conditioning and a healthy mind set.

Truth, while the single leg takedown is a great technique, you may want to avoid it on the street. It’s dangerous to roll around in the blood and the mud and the beer…and while the friends of the guy you’re fighting are coming arunning.

If you want a really well rounded approach to the martial arts, check out Monster Martial Arts. There’s an article there which will detail how to round yourself out. It is called ‘What’s Wrong with the Art?’ I hope it will help abuse people of lop sided training methods that result in such things as putting MMA Jujitsu v Classical Martial Arts.

How to Toughen Your Fists with Karate Techniques

hard fist

Toughen your Fist to have The Hardest Punch!

One of the neatest training devices is a simple box of sand. You make a spear hand and thrust downward. As time passes, you get deeper and deeper, and you learn how to be ore intense and demand that extra inch out of yourself.

Interesting, this is a method that is supposed to be used for sharpening knives. If you want a real sharp knife,  theory goes, you thrust knife down, and the sand whittles away at the edge.

Mind you, I have not played with this, so use at your own risk. And let me know if your knife gets damaged. I’ll put the results in ablog.

Anyway, your hand won’t get damaged by thrusting it into a bucket of sand. As a matter of fact, the fingers will become able to stand impact, your spearhand will start to shine, and you will have martial arts weapon of unusual intent.

Of course, your hand might look  a little gnarly, but that’s okay. Just hold up your hand and put a crazed expression on your face and nobody is going to want to fight you. Grin.

Have a great day, and if you want some great tips on toughening the hand, specifically how to have the hardeat punch, check out the book I’ve written. It is called The Punch, and it is at Monster Martial Arts.

A Simple Martial Arts injury Results from Incorrect Training Methods

Within the Karate Fist is Great Spirit

I lay on the floor gasping, suffering from the simple martial arts injury of…having the air knocked out of me.

It was a simple punch to the belly, didn’t really even hurt much, but I couldn’t breath. The rest of the class gathered around, stared as my face turned red.

The instructor stepped in, pushed me flat on my back, grabbed a hold of my belt, and jerked upward. Air flooded back in, and suddenly I could breath.

This injury was pretty common back then. And the usual practice was to bear hug the sufferer from the rear and lift him up. This would stretch out the muscles, causing them to relax, and then you could breath. At least I think this is what was happening. Sort of CPR for the Karate induced injury, if you get my drift.

The second method I have described. The guy is flat on his back, you jerk up on his belt, and the muscles relax and he starts breathing.

The important thing here, however, is that we were being taught incorrectly to suffer such an injury in the first place.

Later, I went to a more traditional dojo, and we were taught to tighten the belly on impact, when punching, when blocking, when kicking. Basically, when the body expanded, or was impacted upon. Once I learned that, i never had the breath knocked out of me again.

Drop by Monster Martial Arts, there are all sorts of tips, for everything from injuries to techniques to…whatever.

I have a confession to make, I used to practice Shotokan Katas while I was going to an Ed Parker Chinese Kenpo Karate style martial arts school.

I kow, heresy, I am impure, oh sob and moan.

But, on my behalf, Kenpo was originally Shotokan. Check out the video, and then I’ll tell you about it.

You didn’t know that Ed Parker Kenpo Karate was originally a shotokan based hard style of Karate? But it’s true! If you look at the first book Ed Parker wrote, it is a sequence of techniques that, when put together, make up the forms of Shotokan.

Mind you, it might not have been Shotokan proper, might even have been Isshin ryu, or shito ryu, or something like that, but the point is made. Chinese Kenpo was originally basic Japanese Okianwan Karate.

Why did it change? Because Parker never got his black belt (Oh, I think he did, but not from Thunderbolt Chow). So he taught a bunch of fellows Karate, ran out of stuff to teach, and started teaching a type of made up Kung Fu.

Look, I know a few dunderheads will get upset with this history, but it’s fairly accurate, there are a slightly different versions out there, but it seems to hold up when you do a little basic net research, and especially when you see that first book.

So, when I say I was doing Shotokan Karate (the Heians out of the Best Karate seriess by Nakayama, while I was studying at an Ed Parker Chinese Kenpo Karate style of martial arts school, that isn’t a bad thing. Heck, if it was good enough for Ed. Right? Check out my site, Monster Martial Arts,  lots of books and courses and things, all the way back to the martial arts taught in the sixties.

The False Martial Art of Karate

The art of Karate is good, except for the false art taught with it. Check out the video, then I’ll tell you about the false art.

The True Art, the Kata and the Bunkai and all that, give one an education of the body, teaches the mechanics and the physics of motion. This is useful stuff that shold be taught in any school.

However, when it comes to kumite, what is called freestyle, there are several problems.

One problem is that the freestyle doesn’t use the moves of the forms. Yes, the forms shouldbe adjusted a bit, but the real problem lies with something I call the Joy of Combat. This is when people start liking fighting just because they like to fight.

What does fighting have to do with Karate?

Karate, or any other art, Kenpo or Taekwondo, or whatever, should be about conditioning the body, calming the mind, and finding a truth of spirit.

Yes, you have to learn how to fight to give up fighting, but it seems like too many arts get stuck in learning how to fight, and never give up the fighting.

If you agree with my sentiments here, and maybe want to find a better method, check out my website…Monster Martial Arts.

Growing Internal Power Karate Style

Within the Karate Fist is Great Spirit

It’s easy to grow Internal Power, no matter what style of Karate you do. The problem is that there are so few accurate descriptions–we are lacking directions, you see–that very few people ever make the simple connections.

Now, I read the existing descriptions, mostly Chinese, a few Japanese, and I couldn’t get it. But I kept coming across this thing called ‘Moving the body as one unit,’ and I tried to put it to work.

Unfortunately, it being alien, I screwed up a few times, but I finally formalized the procedure.

1) Start moving all body parts at the same time.

2) Stop moving all body parts at the same time.

3) Synchronize motion of the body parts, taking into account the length of the limb, the amount of weight, the musculature involved, and so on.

Now, there’s more, but it all started with getting these three things down. Once they were down, I was growing internal energy. The problem…I didn’t know it.

Internal energy, when you don’t know what you are doing, grows slowly. Fortunately, once you know what you are doing, it can grow speedily.

So, after a couple of years of following and refining the three steps listed above, a guy showed me a spinning kick out of Tae Kwon Do. I liked it, but it was not combat useful, so I changed it. I stood in a horse stance, swapped feet, and kicked with the back foot in a ‘spinning’ horse stance.

Actually, it was more of a ‘pop hop’ kick, but you don’t see the hiop part because you move fast and keep the head in the same place in space.

Zingo Bingo, internal energy exploded from the tan tien, and brother…I FELT IT!

Of course I had a couple of years of internal energy stored up from doing the forms, that helped–grin–but the explosion was just as the old CHinese and Japanese texts had described…with one difference.

The Internal energy descritions came from Tai Chi, or Aikido, or Wudan based arts, and the descriptions described a slower pace, a slower emitting of energy. So, while the descriptions were accurate, they confused.

So:

1) Do your Forms

2) Use your body as one unit (I call this concept CBM–Coordinated Body Motion)

3) Have patience.

Just remember, it’s like cooking, sometimes you have to sit watch the pot simmer. But, following the directions above, you shouldn’t have to wait as long.

For further and very exact directions as to how to grow Internal Power Karate style, or kung fu style, or in any martial art, check out the book I wrote. It’s called http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Matrixing_Chi.html, and it’s at Monster Martial Arts.

 

The Art of Karate and Three Bottles

Ancient Karate Class!

Ancient Karate Class!

The Art of Karate may be analogized to three bottles.

First, when you learn a classical art, like Shotokan or Goju or Uechi…it is like crawling up the inside of a bottle. The closer you get to the top, the harder the climb, yet the more sky you see.

Second, breaking bottles requires a higher degree of skill and artistry. You must stand an empty bottle and chop at the neck. The angle of the chop and the construction of the glass make a break possible. Make sure you have practiced much before you do this, and be careful not to cut your hands. If you want a good example of this, just check out the first karate kid movie. Though it is just a movie, it does show the art.

Third, digging up a bottle is…an entire article. So simply do a search for the title of this article…’Digging through the Soil of Human Experience…and the Perfect Karate Punch.’ Guaranteed, it is worth it.

Get an absolutely free martial arts book at Monster Martial Arts. It’s at the top left of the home page.