Category Archives: karate DVD

Women Will Fall at Your Feet!

…and bullies will bow down!

The one thing that gets me concerning the Martial Arts, and it shouldn’t, but it does, are ads like the one right below.

I Couldn’t Believe I Froze Up … What’s Really Ridiculous Is That I’ve Been Trained In 13 Martial Arts Since I Was Only Four Years Old, So I, Of All People Should Have Been Able To Do Something, But I Couldn’t – I Didn’t Know What To Do In This Exact Situation, Even Though I Practiced Many Similar Situations. This Was A False Sense Of Security.

karate instruction manual to black belthey_skinny_adThis ad is off the internet, it’s part of a big pitch designed to empower people with ‘invisible force fields’ that enable them to handle multiple attackers with their bare hands, to tear apart whole mobs, and without any martial arts training.

Or, as in the case above, the guy had studied lots of fighting disciplines, but they didn’t work.

Okay, so let’s look at the real facts here.

Fact Number One: I doubt if the guy studied Karate, or Kenpo, or Aikido, or even a smidgeon of Shaolin. But if he did, he better ask for his money back because…They weren’t the real thing, they weren’t real fighting disciplines.

Fact Number Two: In spite of the hype of ads like this, ads which actually degrade the real martial arts in favor of making money for some bum who studied no martial arts, or martial arts that weren’t real, there is no substitute for learning a real martial art.

A fake, comic book, internet scam martial art is a handful of tricks that look neat, but have little relation to each other.

A real self defense method is a LOT of tricks, tied together with effective theory so that everything relates, and which then can work on you to change your mindset and make you a better human being.

Consider this: a real art, like Karate or Gung Fu or Krav Maga develops intuition. It develops a sixth sense. Let me tell you this: if I was that guy I wouldn’t have awakened when the bad guys so much as stepped on my property. The hairs would have stood on my neck, I would have been wired, I would have been more alert than Defcon Five! Because THAT is what a real fighting discipline does to you. It wakes you up, it makes you intuitive, it gives you that sixth sense. 

Consider this: when you study a real discipline, like Jujitsu or Wing Chun or good, old Karate, when somebody holds a gun on you…you instantly wake up! You are more alert than you have ever been, and you can’t stop the scenarios from enfolding in your mind. I can do this, I can do that, and you sort through them and wait, because you know, when the time comes, that you won’t be thinking, you will be doing.

Concerning the above two considerations, the above two chapters, I speak from personal experience. This is not a hype, or a war story, or some whimsical comic book supposition.

So the conclusion is this: if you don’t know a real form of self defense, a classical method that’s been formed through the centuries, then you are a sitting duck. You have no discipline for emergencies, you have no plan, and you likely don’t even have the conditioning.

Yes, sometimes a form of self defense like Karate or Kung Fu might have some mistakes in it, maybe defenses against weapons that are no more, maybe a poser technique, but even these problems tend to make you think, condition your body, give you alternatives in the extreme. Everything is an education, and it really all depends on what you do with it, whether you make it real enough to save your life.

And, here is the truth: don’t bother with the hype, don’t bother with comic book ads. Only seek out real martial arts, real forms of self defense. Learn them fast, and learn more than one, because what one doesn’t teach another one will.

To do less is to stand on the street in the middle of the mob holding hundred dollar bills and scream ‘Don’t take my money!’

You’ll end up in the gutter faster than fast, and it’s your own fault for not being prepared, for not getting in shape, for not giving yourself a real Martial Arts education when you could have.

About the Author: Al Case has studied Martial Arts since 1967. He is the originator of Matrixing Technology, which is the only science of the martial arts in the world. People who learn Matrixing can absorb classical martial arts three times faster, and make them work three times better.

If you want to learn a real method of Self Defense, the best place to start is Matrix Karate

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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I Use Karate to Kill People!

Using the Martial Arts to Dismember and Maim?

I got the idea for this title from a fellow who said, ‘What do we say when people ask us why we study karate?’

Well, I gave sound advice, tell them it’s good for you, tell them it gets rid of your hostility, tell them whatever, but who cares…you do them because you love them.

karate punch

A fast Karate punch…the only cure for a zombie!


But…inside my insidious cranium, I was thinking something else. Tell them you do karate so you can more effectively hurt people. Tell them you like pain. Tell them it’s better than a knife or gun because you won’t leave evidence.

And then I started thinking about Zombies.

The zombies are big on TV today (walking dead), and World War Z is coming up on the big screen, hmmm.

When I was a kid zombies were slow moving. You could outrun them by breaking into a fast walk. But now, zombies are hyped up druggoids that can outrun a cheetah and are stronger than an elephink.

But what if they new Karate, too!

I mean, that would be killer diller zombies! I mean, the human race would be blotto in the time it takes wind a solar watch!

So now, when people ask me why I study Karate and all them other durned martial arts, I tell them it’s because of the zombies! I know the zombies are learning karate, so I figure I better learn Karate better! You know?

Zombie Karate, where your fist becomes so fast it is like a bullet to the brain!

Zombie Karate, where your kicks are so powerful you knock the head off a zombie!

Yowzer!

Anyway, I don’t say those things, when people ask me why I learn karate, but…I should!

Real Shotokan Karate versus Beavis and Butthead

The Case for Real Shotokan Karate

I practice real Shotokan Karate, and the rest of the world doesn’t.

Don’t you just love a knucklehead statement like that? I mean, the fellow who makes it has broken rule number one: he thinks he is the only one, and therefore he is knee deep in loco.


shaolin kung fu
That said, let me give you a rundown on real Shotokan Karate, and what the rest of the world is practicing.

If you are learning a tradition with respect, no matter who the teacher is, no matter what the argument is between form and function, you are learning real Shotokan Karate. And, hey, while we’re at it, this statement extends to such arts as Karate and Taekwondo and Kenpo and whatever.

And, to put it another way…are you learning, or are you fighting?

Now, here comes the part where I offend people. The UFCers and the MMAers are fighting, so they are not doing a martial art. They are doing a martial sport.

A lot of people get upset with me when I say something like this, they take it as a personal attack,and then explain how their school is different.

And that is the dividing point, is their school teaching, or is it promoting fighting?

It is a simple question, with a simple answer, and Beavis and Butthead can’t answer it.

You know Beavis and Butthead? They are the fellows with bad grammar who go to forums and sites and drop comments like UR STOOPID! (note the misspelling), and F*** U! (No asterisks)

Brilliant fellows these, and they don’t study real Shotokan Karate. They study ca ca humor and eat with their mouth open and it’s really important who won the fight.

But it’s not important who won the fight. What’s important is whethere an individual is actually learning, becoming more disciplined and aware, exploring the manifestations of spirituality that a human being is.

The real fight, you see, is not between the gladiators in the ring, it is between the edification of the human spirit, and the degradation of the human meatball.

That’s why I study real Shotokan Karate, and that is the dividing line one must find in their own art if they are to win the martial art war.

 

Should Karate Student Learn Pa Kua Chang

Marital Arts Cross Training…Karate to Pa Kua Chang

Well, we all believe in cross training, but isn’t karate and Pa Kua Chang trying to mate the dog and the cat? I mean, they are different martial arts, are they not? One is the straight line, and the other is the circle, and never the two should meet. Right?

bruce lee workouts

I like to learn ALL Martial Arts!

 


Well, an interesting bit of martial arts history might be appropriate at this time.

Karate was put together over hundreds of years on Okinawa. There was a heavy Chinese influence on this development.

One of the four major karate systems that came to Okinawa fairly intact and wasn’t put together, was an art called Pan Gai Noon. This art became known as Uechi Ryu.

If you examine the history of Uechi, and of Pan Gai Noon, you come up with three distinct animal (concepts). These are the tiger, the crane, and the dragon. And, you come up with the influence of several Chinese martial arts, among which is…pa kua chang.

So, should a karate student study Pa Kua Chang? He should if he wants to know more than the surface techniques. He should if he wants to delve into the background and history and actual source of his art.

And, the pa kua chang student might be advised to learn karate. After all, to know only the circle is to know only half the art. One should know both the circle and the line if they are to consider themselves complete.

The true martial artist must know both the circle and the line, the hard and the soft, both the internal and the external, if they want to make it to the top of the martial arts world.

This, incidentally, is one of the reasons I wrote The Neutronic Motors of Pa Kua Chang. To help martial artists to be complete. The book is a study in how to develop chi power int he martial arts. To be exact, it is a complete system, and it is the absolute fastest and most efficient method for building chi power in the world.

So, if you are a karate student, you should study pa kua chang, and vice versa, and my book is a wonderful way to make this happen.

bagua zhang

It was Unique Karate Back Then

Unique Karate, that is the name for it

The reason it was unique karate was because it hadn’t flipped for the solely physical.

I remember going to class and doing karate exercises. I was quite fascinated when I had my first student go out on his on and tach, and when I visited his class I found him teaching calisthenics.

Robert J. Babich

Bob Babich


Push ups and sit ups. Running around the room.

I don’t think I ever did a sit up or a push up in karate class. Karate was a calisthenic in itself, you didn’t need to do calisthenics to do karate calisthenics. Heck, lifting the knee to do the kick a few hundred times was better than sit ups, so why not just do the kicks?

Karate got americanized in there somewhere.

People started thinking about how they wanted their body to look, instead of what they could do with their body. And they certainly lost sight of the mind and the spirit.

It became calisthenics and fighting.

This isn’t true for all, of course, but virtually all have been corrupted in this fashion.

I guess we had push ups and sit ups in PE in school, so we figured we’d make this karate thing better with good, old American know how.

Didn’t work.

And the result has been a downslide in such things as timing, speed, and things that the karate calisthenics build naturally.

Instead, we have people taking supplements so they can beef up.

What does that have to do with Karate?

Weird.

My advice, to somebody who wanted to learn karate the old way is simple.

Stretch, and do the classical forms.

The only other thing would be to study Matrixing, because that would help you understand what you are doing.

Well, it’s interesting. Because if somebody did actually manage to learn karate the old way they would find that other arts didn’t work too well against them.

You’d find Karate making a come back in mma training. You’d find people studying the linear, hip twisting loose-tight punch of Karate.

If somebody could get over how they looked, and would start obsessing on creating a unique karate again.

unique karate

If You Think Your Mind is a Mess…Try the Karate Mind!

The Karate Mind is a Way to Fix the World!

Speaking of the Karate Mind, a friend of mine recently made the observation that his mind was a mess. But I knew that he had got it wrong.  You see, it’s the world that is a mess, and the mind is just reflecting that mess. Actually, his mind was doing a pretty good job of reflecting what was out there.

karate mind

The Karate Mind Can Fix the World!



So how do you get rid of the mess ‘in your mind?’ People think there is something wrong with their minds. Uh uh. Not even. My mind is fine, and don’t you go playing around with it.

But, if you do want to make your mind reflect accurately, and without being disturbed by the mess it is reflecting, then you should learn karate.

A heaping helping of forms and freestyle will go a long way. You learn to concentrate, to focus your thoughts, and, interestingly enough, the mind starts to become immune to the mess that is the world.

You focus your attention, you still see the world the way it really is, but the world doesn’t matter. You get the power to say no to car salesmen, yes to good looking girls, no to that one drink too many, yes to that adventure that is right around the corner and is going to change your life.

And, interestingly enough, as you change your mind, you will notice that the world changes along with you. The world, you see reflects you….once you take charge of your mind.

So if you think your mind is a mess, I suggest you reconsider. The mind is not the mess, it is the world that it is a mess. You can, however, gain control over your mind, and make it work better, by simply practicing martial arts, and that will change the world.

Sports are good, theater is fine, but only in the martial arts do you really face real problems. You face that punch and learn not to look away. You feel that destructive energy, and you ward it off and move on in. Now that is the way to handle life, the mind, and just about anything else that comes your way.

This has been an article on fixing the world by achieving the karate mind.

 

First Time and Only Time I Ever Struck Somebody with a Karate Punch

You Don’t Want to Use Your Karate Punch Like This!

A Karate punch can be a terrible thing. Proper Karate training and you can shatter slabs of ice, stacks of boards and bricks, and even kill 1000 pound bulls. You can also make bad errors, such as I will point out in this martial arts article.

karate punch
I had been training for over two decades, striking the makiwara (punching board), practicing with friends, and even writing karate books on what I had discovered in the martial arts. Interestingly, in all that time I had never actually struck another human being. I knew I had a powerful punch, I had just never been in a situation where I had to use it.

I was in charge of a hotel in Los Angeles in one of the poorer sections of town. One day I leased a room to a pleasant appearing fellow, and shortly discovered that I had made a deal with the devil. This fellow had a second business of pushing drugs. Now, aside from actual medical marijuana cases, because of my martial arts training I don’t stand for drugs.

One sunny day I ascended upstairs and confronted the fellow, and told him that he had to stop selling drugs. At first he hemmed and hawed, tried to change the subject, but I kept after him. Finally, he just laughed at me, “The police don’t bother me, there’s nothing you can do about it, so leave it alone.”

Shocked, I blurted, “I want you out of here, you’re gone…now!” He just laughed at me some more. “It’ll take you months to get me out of this apartment.”

I suddenly went calm, and that is not a good thing, for it meant that I had been pushed too far. I dropped my weight into an hourglass stance, power surged up my frame and pulsed out my arms, and I struck him in the chest with two gnarly fists. What happened then was truly astounding.

Having never struck another person I had no idea what it would feel like, or what was going to occur. First, I felt this enormous weight surging back up my arms and through my body and into the ground…it was much more mass and resistance than I had realized. Second, a long second later–that’s right, there was actually a gap of time before the effects of my karate strike were realized–he began to launch through the air.

He flew up and over the bed and smacked against the wall, and he slowly struggled to his feet, rubbing his chest his hands, his eyes wide, “You can’t do that!” That just made me even more angry, and I started after him, then realized that he had told me something significant, “Why not?” “Because I’ve got somebody in the closet!

I went to the closet door and yanked it open, and a naked man stood there shivering in terror. That’s right, the drug dealer was gay, and his boyfriend had come to visit him, and…what the heck had I just done? In using my karate punch I had abused all the good things i had learned in the martial arts, I had struck another human being, and was left with a very sick feeling.

 

Make Your Own Karate Weapon!

Home Made Karate Weapon!

Say Karate weapon and people usually think of nunchucks and tonfas and that sort of thing. The truth of the matter, however, is that almost anything can be adapted for urban combat.

So let’s talk about some simple, easily made karate weapons for self defense and home protection. I’ve got three doozies that you might want to think about. The thing that is nice is that you can make these yourself.

Before I continue, however, I want to make a disclaimer. I do not advocate violence, nor the making of illegal weapons. What I offer here is solely for a time when law has broken down and you must fight for survival.

The first karate weapon I like is a Kubotan. These are nifty, little keychains attached to a small bar of plastic. You can make them with wood dowels (try spacing nails on the sides) and they can be used to stab, slash, bash, and even do a jointlock or two.

Second in the karate weapons line up is a tool that is great for older folk, but can be used by anybody. Take a cane, drill a hole in the bottom, insert a nail, put a hose clamp on the end, place a cork on it. This is for keeping legs away and stabbing feet when they get too close.

My third martial arts weapon is the belt. If you wear tight pants (don’t want them falling down) you can whip that sucker out and use it for a flail, or a whip, or a basher of indiscriminate nature. If you sharpen a heavy buckle, or have some projecting points on it, you have got a first class, medieval weapon.

Now, I have built these weapons, for cheap and quick, and I even practice with them occasionally. I sure hope the world comes to its senses, I hope the idiots in charge of governments come to an understanding that war destroys society, it doesn’t help it. But, when the food is scarce on the shelf and mobs of hungry people are roaming about, robbing and stealing for a crumb, the smart people will have quick and sneaky urban weapons of the type I have mentioned here.

In closing, let me say that when it comes to Karate Weapons I recommend Blinding Steel as the ultimate Martial Arts Weapons course. You learn all distances, all weapons, and in a matter of hours. That is the best way to be prepared if you actually have to use one of these Karate Weapons I have described in this article.

Bruce Lee Workouts And How to Have Amazing Strength-Part Two

Bruce Lee Workouts Resulted In Massive Speed and Strength!

When people do Bruce Lee workouts of some sort they have no idea what they are getting into. They see the movies, they read the books, but they don’t know what Bruce Lee was really capable of. They don’t know just how powerful he really was.

bruce lee workouts

It wasn’t just that he was a martial arts true believer, he could actually do superhuman feats. I’ve listed a few of the things he could do in this bit of writing, and you should think about them seriously when you do your Bruce Lee workouts. It’s more than just push ups and sit ups, it is a different and fantastical realm of physical capability.

First, the sheer speed coming out of Bruce Lee training routines is astounding. He could deliver a punch in five one hundredths of second…that’s 0.05 seconds. Try timing that on your stopwatch!

Second, Bruce Lee could extend a seventy-five pound barbell straight out for several seconds. That is a unbelievably difficult. Go ahead, pick up a cinder block and hold it straight out, and that is no where near 75 pounds.

Here is your sleight of hand, magician’s trick-The Little Dragon could snatch a dime out of your open palm and leave a penny. Man, that is faster than a banker forecloses! It’s hard enough to just snatch a coin, let alone leave some change!

Fourth, think you can do a pretty good push up? Try doing one with just the thumb and index finger! His fingers were stronger than your whole arm!

And this one will send the posers packing, Mr. Lee could do 50 one arm chin up repetitions! Let me say that again…that’s FIFTY one hand pull ups. How would you like to have a python as strong as his arm wrapped around your neck?

Sixth, and this is for all those pretty boys out there who do a few kicks and call it a workout, Bruce Lee could kick a 300 pound kicking bag and make it hit the ceiling! Now that is elephant busting power! Interestingly, Bruce had to have his 300 pound martial arts kicking bags made to order.

Seventh and last, Bruce could hold an elevated V-sit up position for 30 minutes. I would think that that would actually qualify him as a yoga master, in addition to all his other accomplishments. At any rate, think about some of these things when you are doing your own brand of Bruce Lee workouts.

The best way to build a perfect and strong body like Bruce Lee had is Yogata. Click to Monster Martial Arts.