Category Archives: kenpo karate

Establishing the Perfect Karate Body!

Posted on July 18, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Use Your Perfect Body to Find Enlightenment!


Here is what Leo DaVinci said (from his notebooks) about the perfect shape. This would be the ‘Vitruvian Man.’ In looking over these figures I find myself less than perfect, and some things can’t be corrected. At any rate, it does some wonderful food for thought as to what type of karate you should study, what your ideal shape is for the martial arts, and so on.

‘The length of a man’s outspread arms is equal to his height.
From the roots of his hair to the bottom of his chin is the tenth of a man’s height; from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head is one eighth of his height; from the top of the breast to the roots of the hair will be the seventh part of the whole man. From the nipples to the top of the head will be the fourth part of man. The greatest width of the shoulders contains in itself the fourth part of man. From the elbow to the tip of the hand will be the fifth part of a man; and from the elbow to the angle of the armpit will be the eighth part of man. The whole hand will be the tenth part of the man. The distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose and from the roots of the hair to the eyebrows is, in each case the same, and like the ear, a third of the face.’

This descirption does give me some problems. the main one is that I’m balding, so I either need to grow my body, or shrink my head. Hmmm.

Anyway, here is a further breakdown:
You should be
seven heads high
three heads shoulder to shoulder
four heads hips to toes
one head from tips of fingers to wrist
one head top to bottom of buttocks
two heads tips of fingers to elbow.

So, get out the measuring stick, measure your head, and find out if you are in perfect shape. Don’t be worried if you aren’t exactly in shape, Leo is said to have altered his measurements to suit his sculptures.
If you really want a perfect body, lean in muscle and able to move like lightening, you might want to check out Yogata (The Yoga Kata), it is Yoga designed by a martial artist for Martial Artists. Pick up a free book on the home page of the site.

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Free Karate Lessons Are A Fantastic Way To Learn Martial Arts!

Posted on July 11, 2011 by | Leave a comment

My official beginning in the study of the martial arts was back in the late sixties. I walked into an Ed Parker Chinese Kenpo Dojo, signed a contract, and began to learn Martial Arts. The truth, however, is that I had been getting free Karate Lessons for a long time before I walked into that school. Check out the video, then I’ll tell you about it.

They weren’t much, as far as martial arts lessons went, but they did the trick. They kept my attention, and they kept me happy. After all, they were the best type of physical and mental conditioning, they were a good way to learn I could handle the bullies, and they were fun.

The first thing that caught my interest was knuckle conditioning. We used to knock our knuckles on walls and fences and boxes and anything that got in our way. That resulted in a lifelong interest in good conditioning, different types of punches, and a desire to have the hardest punch I could have.

The second thing I learned was simple arm bars. This was good, as simple things always work the best. To this day I take the most complex of fighting techniques and look for the simplest method of making them work.

The third thing I gleaned had to do with learning how the different parts of the body worked. I examined feet, hands, arms, legs, how the joints worked, the back, everything I could. I even read medical books trying to understand how the body worked.

Fourth, I engaged in a rudimentary sort of grappling. This was good because I took away from that experience the lesson that grappling wasn’t handy for fighting. You grapple, and you are tied up, and somebody else runs up and kicks the back of your head, and there might be weapons involved, and…no thanks.

The main thing I discovered from reading books, working with friends, and just having fun pretending we were big and tough, was that sweat worked. The hours we spent lifting iron, running, wrestling, and trying those techniques from out of old Bruce Tegner books and the like…they were golden hours. It was a youth that built strength, character, and the desire to go forward.

The point I am making in this article is that the martial arts aren’t for everybody. So look around on the web, Google Free Karate lessons, (I always recommend Karate as a great art to start your martial arts with) or some other like term, and see what comes up. Do a few tricks, see if they work on friends, and find out if you have the character and kind of mind to be a student of Karate.

Get a Free Karate Lesson, head on over to Learn Karate Online!

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Ninja Jump Spin Kick as Solution to Straight Karate Punch

Posted on July 11, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Within the Karate Punch is Great Spirit


The attack is a straight Karate Punch, from the ready position, one foot away. The defense is a Ninja jump into the air with a complete 360 spin with a heel kick on the end of it.
Hello?
Is anybody home?
I actually saw this self defense technique offered in a basic ninjitsu course. Guy was serious, too. And, he actually made it work.
Of course, he had trained it specifically for ten years, and he was working with his own man.
But, hey…why wouldn’t it work for a newbie with no athletic experience? Eh?
So, to explain the problems here, in the real world a straight karate punch, driven from the ready position, and not back from the hip, only has a foot to go before it impacts.
And the ninja student is expected to raise his body three feet in the air, spin it in a complete circle, and drive a heel against the side of the attacker’s head.
Let’s see, move one foot, one a straight line, with everything perfectly in line and ready to go, or do a circus trick with an advanced kick on the end.
The correct thing to do would be to move back with the hands up in the ready position. Even better if you put the palms out like you want no fight.
Then, even if he starts close, you are moving your body in the same direction as the punch, thus going with the punch, thus robbing the punch of impact.
And, having the hands up you might be able to move an arm in the way, deflect the punch, or at least mush it up so you don’t take the full force.
And, finally, that leaves you in a position to counter attack.
Look, I’m not saying ninjitsu is bad, I have the utmost respect for that fine art. But I do have a problem with martial arts instructors who don’t look at the realities of what they are teaching, or, worse, are just teaching the razzle dazzle so they can make some money.
It’s great to make money, but you better offer the real goods, and the martial arts aren’t about leaching bucks out of newbies with a sincere desire to learn, they are about delivering the goods. Remember that when somebody sets up to throw a karate punch to your person, and stay away from Ninja Jump Spin Kick Solutions. If you want more good martial arts, head on over to Learn Karate Online. You can get free Karate lessons there, and you’ll be on the right path.

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The Karate Black Belt…What You Have to do to Get There!

Posted on July 10, 2011 by | Leave a comment

A lot of people try, and a lot of people fail. To be precise, out of a thousand people that start the journey to a Karate Black Belt, only 1 or 2 will make it. Check out the video, and then I’ll tell you how to be sure that you make it!

So, how do you make sure you are going to make it?
First, pick a good school. Not a make money trophies in the windows school, but a long time hole in the wall that has a record of good, solid martial arts, and the students to prove it.
Second, dedicate yourself. Put a picture of Bruce Lee (or some other martial artist that you admire) on your front door, and bow to it every time you go out. Make it a reminder that you will make every single class. And, if ever you feel like not heading out to the dojo, pick yourself up by the scruff of the neck, and GO!
Now, that is really all there is to it. Dedicated school, dedicated student, and the martial arts will seep into your soul like chicken soup into the belly of an invalid.
Of course, there are a few more things you can do.
One, read everything you can, and not just on Karate. Read about every martial art, think about how they will fit together. Bring the techniques to your school and ask others about them. You will get an education far beyond your wildest dreams. It’s creative thought, man, and that is what an art is about.
Two, haunt the internet. Don’t buy the bushwah, don’t get involved in the internet hype, just learn how to tell when a fellow is serious, and when he is just an internet marketer trying to grab your bucks. The more you look at, the more educated you become, the easier this will be. Once you know the difference, examine what other legitimate artists are doing. Learn their moves, see how you can use those moves in your own art.
Finally, work out, work out, work out. Be at school early, and stay late. Help beginners, and you will find the advanced students will help you. That’s just the way the universe works in a real karate school.
Now, if you do what I have told you here, you will make it. The only thing you have to understand is that rewards go to the sincere, the dedicated, the honest and hard working. All others quit and go to the movies and think about how great it would be to be a karate black belt. They will wonder about what you know. Now go for it, and may all the skill on earth be yours. Go to Learn Karate Online if you want some free lessons to get you started!

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Martial Arts Cross Training is The Way To Get Good!

Posted on June 8, 2011 by | Leave a comment


Okay, I do a lot of cross training in the martial arts. When I was doing Karate I did some weights, some running, basics calisthenics type of stuff.
When I did Kung Fu I did running and swimming and yoga type stuff.
And, as I went through arts, I was always looking from some new game to play, some way to wake up my muscles and find better ways to control them.
Baseball, loved baseball. Ping pong, billiards, skating, even pogo sticking and stilting.
Simply anything and everything was fair game. Wake the body up, have fun, relate it to martial arts.
But martial arts was the mainstay, this because the martial arts exercises every single muscle in the body.
And, there is a point to it all. Survival.
Now, I have to tell you I feel sorry for people who do exercises, but not martial arts. They play for a while, then they get old. I always come across old people who talk about how they loved to dance, but no longer do it. Or they loved to hike, but they no longer do it.
Do you see it? There is not only the whole body approach, but the purpose, and the desire to survive right through your old age.
Anyway, I know this is meandering, but if you aren’t doing the martial arts, start doing them. Find an art, any art, that appeals to your desire to live and love and play games and…survive. That’s what Martial Arts Cross Training is all about. Pick up a free book at Learn Karate Online. Best way to start.

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Exploring Karate Chi Power Through a Variety of Arts

Posted on June 5, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I just wrote a post for one of my other blogs about energy. The post is at…
http://alcase.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/the-different-chi-power-manifestations-of-the-martial-arts/
I was sort of loose in that post, so let me nail it down for your progress.
Oh, check out the video first, then I’ll tell you.

Karate is one of the best places to start energy manifestation (chi power and all that), because it starts with a simple explosion. Once you can explode, however, you need to figure out what to do with the energy that you have exploded.
Shaolin might turn and roll it, Pa Kua might spiral it, Tai Chi will suspend it, and so on. Every system has specific things they do with energy. Even the same systems will emphasize different progressions of this thing called Chi power.
That said, it can take too long to develop chi without Karate. And it can take too long to develop chi power even in Karate unless you have proper matrixing. Matrixing is logical and will enhance all progress and speed of progress.
The most important thing,however, is to change courses when you learn how to explode. You must ‘go backwards,’ learn how to empty yourself, and try different manipulations of the body if you want to find different manifestations of energy.
A Karate student who just keeps doing the same old same old will tend to stagnate. You know a lot of people drop out of Karate after getting their black belt in that hard art? They know, intuitively, that karate, once so wild and wooley and invigorating, has become a stop point. They know that they must seek elsewhere to continue their upward progress.
Anyway, that all said, stop by LearnKarateOnline (dot)net if you want to start your journey in that basic and yet most advanced art, or if you want to revitalize the things that you learned long ago, but which you need to pick up again in order to progress onward.

not all systems explode

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The Importance of Pinan Five (Heian Five) Karate Kata

Posted on June 3, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Perfection of Body...Perfection of Character!


Back in 1967, when I was studying Kenpo Karate, I used to drive my instructors crazy. I kept coming in with books and doing forms out of them. Specifically, from the Best Karate Series by Nakayma, I found first Heian Two Karate Kata, then Heian Five, and I was in heaven.
I loved the power of those stances, I loved the feeling in the air when I did those whole body movements.
And, of particular interest to me was the art of the jump. I figured out how to swing the leg and rock the body into a launch. I figured out how to pull those legs high up under me, and then land low. The idea was to jump over a low sword swing, and then land under a high sword swing.
These are things that you don’t learn in MMA. I have nothing against MMA, I just don’t study it because it is sport instead of art.
The intent of sport is to beat another person, the intent of art is refine the self (achieve perfection).
I don’t mean to speak ill of other physical disciplines, because there is something to be learned from all, and darn, there is a part of me that just loves a good competition. But when it comes to my personal evolution, I prefer the art, and to this day, near forty-five years later, I still practice the Karate Kata known as Heian Five, or as it was called in the traditional martial arts school I later went to…Pinan Two. Check out my site for Evolution of an Art, it has three complete classical martial arts, dozens of forms, hundreds of techniques, and all sorts of things that will aid you evolution as a martial artist.

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Posted in ed parker, free karate online, Isshin Ryu, karate bunkai, karate forms, karate kata, kenpo karate, Korean Karate, learn karate free, Shotokan

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Top Three Karate Tricks of All Time…and Boy are They Nasty!

Posted on May 22, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Check out the video, then I’ll tell you my favorite three Nasty Karate Tricks. They’ll help you end any fight.

The first one is to break the fingers. Somebody grabs you, you grab their finger and bend it back and break it. Nothing fancy about this…just break it. What? You want to control politely? What if the guy has a friend? What if he jumps back and pulls out a gun? When push comes to shove and a real fight is about to pop, snap his finger and then do number two.
Number two…kick him in the apples. Short, sweet, and to the point, a kick in the cojones will bend the largest mugger at the knees, and, got to admit it, there is nothing more sweet than watching some bad ass doofus puke his pudding.
Now, that all said, save this trick for when your life is truly in danger, you can’t use it on the mat, or to control your drunk Uncle Bob…poke him in the eye. I mean, stick your finger in his eye up to the knuckle.
You can see why I say hold back on this one until your life is truly at stake. Crippling, maiming, putting some guy in the dark for his life…it is cruel punishment.
Anyway, those are my three tried and true favorite Karate tricks, and they will work every time. Check out Learn Karate Online if you want some great training tips, strong punches, and…hey, there’s even a free ‘mini-lesson’ on the site!

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Real Karate, Real Freestyle, Putting Aside Fighting

Posted on May 15, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Back in the sixties real karate instructors differed in their opinions towards freestyle. Yes, it was necessary to keep students in the door, but there was freestyle, and there was fighting. Check out the video, my student is really trying to stab me, and I use control instead of fighting to manage him. I’ll tell you about one of the wildest tournaments ever right below that.

My school went to a big tournament in San Francisco.

During one of the matches one of the brown belts jammed his finger, and the second bone on one of his fingers actually came out of the socket and slid over the third bone. The refs looked at it, said he had to go to a hospital and have somebody straighten it out. He wanted to fight, however, so he pulled it out himself and kept fighting.

Interestingly, in spite of this type of die hard enthusiasm, my instructor pulled the entire school out and went home. Well, he didn’t pull them out. He just gathered everybody together and said fighting had little to do with learning how to control an opponent through kumite. He said we were free to remain, and then he left. Everybody followed him.

He was right. Fighting is for people who don’t know the martial arts. A person who knows the martial arts controls his opponent. He predicts him, manipulates him, and does what he will with him.

That’s the difference, of course, between real karate and somebody who likes to fight, and that’s the difference between sport and a real martial art. Check out the variety of different Karate programs at Monster Martial Arts.

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Real Karate Techniques Don’t Use Muscle Memory!

Posted on May 10, 2011 by | Leave a comment

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.

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