Category Archives: karate techniques

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.

Karate Instruction Takes a Turn for the Better!

Karate instruction on the Upswing!

Karate instruction, for years, has been on a down path. Back in the fifties people came to America and called themselves black belts, and started instructing, when they were but brown belts, or worse. The premier example of this is Ed Parker, but he is not alone.

karate instruction made easy

Good Karate Instruction Can Be Hard to Find


Over the years people sought higher standards, but it was sort of a losing game. After all, the people of America wanted to learn to fight, and they didn’t seem to understand that fighting is not what the martial arts are really all about; the martial arts, and Karate specifically, is about scientifically taking your opponent apart. When one has this type of efficiency and competence, they aren’t usually interested in fighting anymore. What a delightful martial arts catch 22, eh?

The worst example of this point of love of fighting, I hate to admit it, is the UFC, MMA, and that sort of thing. People gather round the tube and cheer for trash talking head bonkers who present the art in the worst light. What is really wrong with this is that some of the top fighters are polite, hard working, and they get painted with the ‘beavis and butthead’ brush stroke. Sheesh!

Anyway, shove all this aside, there is hope for karate instruction int he united states, and all other martial arts instruction. Generally speaking, the flashy advertisements give way to the search for competence. Some guy who makes a good video on youtube will be found out as a fraud once people start taking his techniques apart.

And, speaking of the internet, probably the most efficient and glaring success in the martial arts home video field is Monster Martial Arts. Monster presents a series of videos which reveal the true martial art in depth. Whole arts are taken apart and dissected for workability…whatever the art ‘matrixed’ (Monster’s particular choice of martial technology), the results are quick, efficient, and free from politics and bushwah.

Hey, does it work? That is the main and real question Monster keeps asking, and keeps answering.

Anyway, because of websites like Monster MArtial Arts one can say that America is overcoming the poorly trained martial arts instructors, the glut of people who just want to fight, and other similar bad influences. The result is a higher class of good karate instruction.

Karate Kiai and Discovering The Enigma of Kotodama

Karate Kiai Defeats Attacker Without Touching Him!

Karate Kiai means ‘spirit shout,’ and it is the deadly scream that karate practitioners utter when chopping an opponent’s head off. Well, maybe I overstated that a bit, grin, but there is a truth to the karate shout that is unarguable and leads to some rather rare and mysterious knowledge. I am referring to the subject of Kotodama, which means ‘Word spirit.’

spirit shout

The True Power of Karate!

The idea behind a Karate kiai is to put all energies into one moment, one attack, and thus to enhance the power of the strike. The idea of scaring an attacker is somewhat secondary, but still very significant. Both of these ideas lead to rather interesting conjecturings and mysterious realities.

Kotodama is generally directed at the notion of creating soothing sounds, which sounds can engender a more spiritual feeling in a person. There is, of course, the flip side of this subject, the bad word belief, in which a sound is used to harm somebody. Either way, the study of kotodama results in the notion of kotomuke (soothing speech to bring peace), and kotoage, which is a way of invoking magic.

My first experience with the kotodama comes directly from a decades long study of karate, kung fu, and other martial arts. This gave direct experience with the power of screaming at an attacker and weakening him. In one case I used the power of the karate kiai to defeat a would be mugger…and he turned around stumbled down the street, his body shaking uncontrollably.

Experiences like this, which were brought about by the faithful practice of karate forms with correct emphasis on Karate kiai, brought me to a profound appreciation of the subject. Of interest in this is the speech mannerisms of salesmen and mentalists, and others of that sort. Observing how such people conducted themselves, the tones they used, the pitch of sound they used, brought me to the realization that we are talking about the subject of vibrations.

Vibration is commonly acknowledged to be the source of the universe. Between the idea of an Eternal Spirit and the rather short termed and solid life of objects (of which the universe is made), is vibration. This idea is true on the atomic level of protons and electrons, and on the larger scale of whirling galaxies and entire universes.

What we are more interested in, however, are the vibrations possible to us in our day to day lives as human beings. Can a person speak in such a way as to cause a vibration which can move the universe? The answer to this is as sharp and distinct as the phenomena of an opera singer singing a note that cracks a glass.

The method for achieving this ability is just as clear cut. First, one has to know, through the simple practice of virtue, that they are spiritual in nature, and that they can create vibrations which not only shatter glass, but which can rattle objects on tables, and, more easily, cause comfort or discomfort to their fellow human beings. Second, one has to discover and adhere to the exact disciplines which create this ability…then the result is that a simple Karate kiai can become Kotodama, can become a mystical spell or chant which has the power to harm or heal.

 

Three Secrets of True Shaolin Kung Fu Training

True Shaolin Kung Fu Training Methods!

The gains people get from true Shaolin Kung Fu training are absolutely incredible. The key to gaining all these benefits is to train in the correct manner. After all, you could have the sweetest piece of steak in the world, but cook it improperly and you’ll have a charcoal mess.

shaolin kung fu training methodsWhen one is learning Kung Fu one should always move the body as one unit. Six Harmonies Boxing proposes that one should move the hand with the foot, the knee with the elbow, and the hips with the shoulders. This is technical and sound advice, which tends to isolate body parts even as it unifies them.

As for the hands and feet, one should step or twist into a stance in conjunction with the starting and stopping of the hand movement. For the knees and elbows, one should properly align the body when doing any movement. For the hips and shoulderes, move them together and you will be putting all your body weight into whatever motion you are doing.

The second of the three secrets of Shaolin Kung Fu training is to use the waist when turning the body. This is something that people begin to learn naturally after understanding the points about moving the body as one unit. The advice here is to use the waist to make the body turn, don’t turn the arms first and expect the body to follow.

If you move the arms first, the body weight is going to be trying to catch up, instead of projecting weight and energy, and this tends to separate weight from action. Separating weight from action will delete real power from a move. If one studies this concept carefully they will end up developing the true chi power of Shaolin Kung Fu.

Lastly, one must focus on proper breathing. There is a commonly held principle that one should breath in when the body contracts, and out when the body expands, but there is more to this principle than just that. One must breath, and use that breath to guide awareness through the parts of their body.

To make this happen one should ‘swim with awareness’ when doing the movements of their kung fu patterns. This means to push the hands through the air as if moving great weights, this sometimes makes it look like one is swimming through molasses. Of course, this tends to be more true in the internal manifestations of Shaolin Kung Fu training, but that is fine.

To summarize, these are three very important points that many people neglect, or simply just don’t appreciate. Yet they are key to progress in the martial arts. Make the body parts work together, use the whole body, and put breath awareness into your motion, that is the simple and plain secret of true Shaolin Kung Fu Training.

shaoin training

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.

Karate Kick Harder: 7 Training Tips that Will Put the Power in Your Kicks!

Karate Kick Harder by Kicking the Right Way

Karate Kick Harder doing these seven simple tricks. Most Karate students you see, don’t really understand how to execute a proper leg kick. These students are told to kick air, or kick a bag, and that’s not much of a Karate lesson.

Karate kickFirst, you must lift the knee and thrust the foot in on a straight line when you execute a Karate kick. The foot will then travel into the attacker’s body on a straight line. It’s like hammering a nail into a wall, you have to make sure the force travels straight into the spike.

The second tip is to tilt the hips slightly upward. You don’t have to tilt them a lot, but they have to tilt enough so that energy can run between the tan tien and foot. A good karate kick will have the whole weight of the body in it..

Third tip is that you must rotate the hips slightly, making sure that the whole body goes into the kick. Your Karate kick will be harder, and and it will even be a bit longer. Not turning the hips tends to jam the kick and make it less useful.

Fourth thing you must do is turn the foot you are standing on. Turn it so that the whole body moves as one solid unit. Very important, when doing a karate kick, because using the body as one unit puts more intention into the kick.

Number five on this list is that you must sink your weight down the leg you are standing on and into the ground. Dropping your body weight while doing a hard kick will give you added solidity. The body is a motor, and it must be bolted in place to work efficiently.

Sixth karate training trick, bend the leg you are standing on. People who straighten the support leg are exploding energy the wrong way, actually ‘unbolting’ the motor from the ground. You need to send a ‘tractor beam’ down the leg to fix the body solidly in place.

Last martial arts training tip, relax all of the body except the foot being used. There is obsession with creating rigid energy, but this is a tremendous waste. If one wants to do a karate kick harder they must learn how to use energy in the body, and energy travels easiest through that which is empty.

There is a free kicking course bundled in with the Matrix Karate course, and it will make your Karate kick harder…make it hard enough to knock over an elephant. A big elephant.

Karate Chop Is Not The Deadliest Strike One Can Learn In Karate

Karate Chop Touted as Deadly Strike, But it Is Not!

Karate chop him, screamed the actress, and I had to stifle a grin. This was a cinematic effort where neither the actor, the writer, the director knew anything about the real martial arts. They were like those people back in the fifties who used to think that a karate chop to the neck would kill people in their tracks.



When I first began studying the art of Chinese Kenpo Karate I was told that a spear hand strike to the solar plexus or the neck was the deadliest martial arts attack one could deliver. Just stick those steel hard fingers in the soft areas and watch your opponent die. A spear hand was supposed to be better than a karate chop, but only by a little.

Then I heard about the Dim Muk strike, or what is referred to as The Death Touch. You tap a villain on a special spot on their body and they drop dead. Of course, it would take a couple of decades to master the Chi Power necessary, learn all the pressure points and times they were vulnerable to strikes, and by that time I’d be ancient and too slow to deliver such an attack.

One day a student was walking past my Karate instructor holding a piece of thin particle board. He stopped, grinned, and held the board out. Break this, he challenged my instructor.

karate kickMy instructor’s name was Bob Babich, and he was a thin fellow with stringy muscles. Given the target, he sunk his weight, pivoted his hips, and snapped a single finger. A single finger, and when he brought it back, he had left a nice, neat, little hole in the particle board.

Many people think I am telling fairy tales when I relate them this story, but the fact is that the single finger trick could be done by no less than fifty people on Taiwan back in the 1950s. Many kung Fu masters from across China had sought refuge in that little nation to escape communism, and many were able to do this rather unique strike. Unfortunately, there were not enough students willing to undergo the training necessary to such a feat, there weren’t as many people to draw from as in China, and the single finger trick has pretty well died out.

Interestingly, one of the fellows who nibbled at the single finger trick was Bruce Lee. He could stick a finger in a soda (beer) can and leave a hole, and this was back in the day when cans were made of real metal and not this cheap aluminum stuff. This was good, and one wonders whether he would have mastered the single finger trick if he had lived longer.

At any rate, when students ask me what the deadliest karate trick in the world is I tell them about the single finger technique. It is not a made up fable, it is the result of real and dedicated training in arts such as karate, kung fu, or any other legitimate martial art that has stood the test of time. And, as for the karate chop, that is a good karate technique, but it is only the first step on a much more real journey.

Before you learn the one finger trick you have to learn The Secrets of The Punch. Mouse to Monster Martial Arts for that.

Bubishi Martial Arts Book Is Recognized As Bible Of Karate

Bubishi Recognized as Bible of Karate

The Bubishi, the one having to do with White Crane and Monk’s fist Boxing, was compiled sometime over the last few hundred years in Fuzhou Province. Fuzhou is where Shaolin Kung Fu was practiced, and which kung fu became the inspiration for Naha-te, which became Karate. There is no doubt that it is one of the most influential martial arts books in history, and probably the bible of All Karate.



The Bubishi is actually a lengthy work of art, jam packed with poems, anatomical drawings, and so on. In writing this article I decided to concentrate on the eight phrases which were pivotal to the inspiration of such arts as Goju Ryu Karate and Uechi Ryu Karate. The meaning of these phrases, which are named Kempo Hakku (Eight Rules of the Fist), can be found by examining them through the Science of Matrixing

The beginning phrase is, ‘the mind exists as one with heaven and earth.’ This is a realization that the universe is dichotomous, that there is the realm of the spirit and there is the realm of material universe. This means that the universe is nothing more than a machine built between the two terminals of spirit and matter.

The next phrase is, ‘the circulatory rhythm of the body is like the cycle of the sun and the moon.’ A smaller example of the universe, the body is a minor universe. This means that, the same as the larger universe, the smaller universe of the body is a machine.

martial arts bookThe next phrase is, ‘the method of inhaling and exhaling is simultaneously hard and soft.’ Breath out when the body grows larger, breath in when it grows smaller. Always keep the belly slightly tight and ready.

The next phrase is, ‘act relative to time and change.’ This means that when the universe changes, you must change with it. One will find that the universe actually mirrors the intentions of the person, and gives one feedback on the deepest levels as to his personality and worth.

The next phrase in the bubishi is, ‘techniques happen in the absence of conscious thought.’ Practice your techniques until they become intuitive. On a deeper level, through the practice of the martial arts (Karate) a martial arts student will, in the end, find himself incapable of hiding in the mind.

The next phrase is, ‘the feet must advance and retreat, part and meet.’ This looks like a principle of fighting strategy. But if one learns how to control distance they can control the combat, and ultimately they will be able to harmonize with an opponent.

The next phrase is, ‘the eyes miss not even the slightest change.’ One should use the martial arts as a tool to grow their awareness. The superior human being does not let his awareness so much as blink.

The last phrase in the Bubishi is, ‘the ears listen in all directions.’ One must travel beyond the need for physical senses. Find out who you are, for the spiritual being is far beyond the physical.

The Bubishi is truly a Bible of Karate. To understand this work of art, one should take the Master Instructor Course. Head to Monster Martial Arts for this Martial Arts DVD course.

Learn Karate By the Simple Trick of Flipping The Matrix

Learn Karate the Right Way!

To learn Karate or Taekwondo or Kenpo, or to learn any martial art, there are many different methods. Unfortunately, most training methods work in limited ways. There is one training tool, however, that can be used in any martial art, and drives the learning curve straight up the wall.


Most methods of learning, you see, rely on monkey see monkey do, which is pretty much the slowest and most inefficient, martial arts method in existence. The fastest and most up to date method for learning a martial art is by the science of matrixing. No offense, but if you live in some out of the way place and haven’t come across matrixing, you could probably do a quick google search on matrix karate, or matrix aikido, and find out what it is.

At any rate, there are some rather simple methods one can use if one decides to learn by Kung videos, learn taekwondo online, or whatever. The first method, though it is still of the monkey see monkey do variety, is to learn a form or martial arts kata. The learning curve starts to take off, however, when one realizes that they can practice the form facing in any of the four directions of the compass.

One faces in a certain direction when learning a form, maybe because they are watching a martial arts video, gets used to the direction, even uses key things in the environment to orient themselves. So to start facing north instead of south is actually a good thing. One quickly discards environmental cues and starts inputting the form without need for external reference points.

A second way to learn self defense forms is to simply do them on both the right and the left side. Everybody comes across this one pretty quickly. To do the Kung Fu forms, or the karate techniques on both the right side and the left side tends to ‘wake up the brain,’ and to make the student consider martial arts moves in new lights.

learn karate onlineThe third way of studying martial arts forms is to do the moves in reverse. Do your Karate kata backwards-not just the order of blocks and kicks and such in reverse order, but reverse motion the moves themselves-and the martial arts are quickly going to open up. Not many people have experienced this little trick, it is hard to do, but man…does it work!

Now, we have actually left most martial artists behind with the last thing we did, and that’s too bad, because things are about to come undone. Once one learns how to write a matrix on a martial art-be it karate or kung fu or whatever martial art they practice-they think they have opened up wide new horizons of martial arts. They have only scratched the hide of the monster, however, for there are two other things that one can do that are simple and yet have profound results.

First, one can put matrixes together; just as the matrixes use basic techniques to open up other techniques, one can use whole matrixes to open up other matrixes. Second, one can actually flip, or reverse, matrixes, and this one opens up the mind and causes massive amounts of data to unfold. Of course, one has to learn how to write a matrix first, and then do a few of them, but once they have done this they will be able to reverse the matrix and learn martial arts faster; they will be able to learn Karate or taekwondo or any martial art they want faster than Neo can play hop scotch.

Learn Martial Arts, learn Karate or Kenpo or whatever, by learning the fastest and most efficient training method in existence. Mouse to Monster Martial Arts.

This page has been about how to learn karate through the fastest and easiest methods known to man.