Category Archives: kenpo

Secrets of the Horse Stance; Secrets of Real Karate Power

Posted on July 12, 2011 by | Leave a comment

A Horse Stance is a funny thing. You see it in forms, but you don’t see it in the ring. You train for hours in it, yet you don’t use it in freestyle. You love it, but you don’t know why, and yet people say it is the secret of real karate power.
A horse stance is also called Mabu (Chinese) and Kiba Dachi (Japanese). Check out the video, then I’ll tall you the real secret behind true karate power.

It is sometimes called the ‘horse riding stance,’ and there are many legends behind it.
Some say it is used to train in close combat while riding an actual horse.
Some say it is used to fight sideways in rice paddies.
Neither theory, while romantic, is true.
The true use of the horse stance is simply to grow a ‘rooting’ power. In Matrix Martial Arts we call this ‘grounding.’
The fact of the matter is that a machine must be bolted down, the body is a machine, and the stance is used to bolt the body to the earth. This enables it to have, grow, and use power.
When you do the horse stance you should have the feet parallel, and the hips should be tucked. You should be able to sit in the horse stance for long periods of time. You should feel a glow of energy happening in the belly as a result of horse stance training.
Now, you may not use the actual and official horse stance in your freestyle, or in the ring, but the power you have built you will use. In fact, the use of this power is what makes a real martial artist.
People who use muscles, and don’t know how to use the power of the tan tien, are not really doing the martial arts. It may be fighting, but it is not the art.
But, when you learn how to use that power in the spot an inch or two below the navel, then you are tapping into the real martial art. You learn to explode, to sustain, to grind, to use geometric figures in your art. Guaranteed: you learn the secrets of the Horse Stance, and the you will be tapping into the Secrets of Real Karate Power. There’s more information on the True Power of Karate at Learn Karate Online. Take a Free lesson while you’re there.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in free karate, free karate online, Goju Ryu, Isshin Ryu, karate forms, karate kata, karate lessons, karate techniques, kenpo, kyokushin, learn karate at home, Shotokan, Taekwondo

Tagged , , , ,

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!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in ed parker, free karate, free karate online, Karate, karate DVD, karate lessons, karate techniques, kenpo, kenpo karate, learn karate at home, learn karate free, Taekwondo

Tagged , , ,

Friends in the Martial Arts

Posted on June 22, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Analyze Everything...Leave Nothing to Chance!


How odd.
There are billions of people on this planet…how many do you know?
You probably become acquaintances with a couple of thousand during your life.
You probably know a couple of hundred by name.
You probably have about ten or twenty that you can call friends.

Here’s the interesting thing, through the martial arts I have far more than ten or twenty that I can call friends. There are people that I studied with, and we’re talking back over fortry years, that, met again, the friendship is as solid as ever.
There is just something about sharing combat with a fellow that bonds you closer than ever.
The good news is that this is the type of combat where you don’t kill people, you just fatasize and plan and strategize until you have no desire to kill, and all you are left with is friends.
How odd.

Check out Learn Karate Online. It’s a good site with lots of tips and things. Make sure you get the free ebook on the home page.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in ed parker, free karate, free karate online, karate forms, karate techniques, kenpo, kyokushin, learn karate at home, learn karate free, Taekwondo, Wado Ryu

Tagged , , , , ,

The Hardest Thing to Overcome in Karate Training

Posted on June 9, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Karate Traininng Will Make a Man Out of You!


I’m speaking as a martial arts teacher here, but I trust you will be able to use my data concerning the hardest thing to overcome in Karate training, or any martial arts training.
I’ve had people come in my school and tell me what I was supposed to teach them. They would lay out their curriculum, and then disappear.
And, if you think this is an oddity, consider the old Japanese zen parable (made famous by Bruce Lee), you can’t put more tea in a cup that is full…you must empty your cup.
One guy came into my school and all he wanted to do was find a temple on the mountain and kneel at the feet of the master and learn all the really secret things. It was obvious that he had been reading too many comic books; he just wasn’t connected to reality. Heck, if I had told him to do a horse stance for five minutes he would have cried and wailed like a baby.
The main thing these days is the youtube martial artist. This is a guy who has poured over youtube, looked at all the martial arts, done what he saw on the screen. He actually isn’t toobad, except that he has no idea what he is doing. The snippets on youtube, no matter how extensive, are not instruction, they are advertising clips designed to lure the unwary and easily excitable.
What? You thought you were going to find the secret of the universe on the internet? that you could just google ‘Secrets of the Universe’ and they would just flash onto the scree…instant enlightenment and all the martial arts downloaded into your brain like Neo?
Empty your cup, grasshopper, then learn how to sweat. The best things in life are not necessarily free…they have to be earned with sweat and bruises and a humble attitude.
Pickup a Free Martial Arts Book ar Learn Karate Online. In Karate training, or with any martial arts, it’s best to start at the beginning and dedicate yourself.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in ed parker, free karate, free karate online, karate bunkai, karate forms, karate techniques, kenpo, kyokushin, learn karate at home, Shotokan, Tae Kwon Do, Taekwondo

Tagged , , ,

Most Powerful Punch Karate Training Methods!

Posted on June 7, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Good Karate Training will Give You the Most Powerful Punch!


I always liked the karate training methods for making the most powerful punch. Some of them worked…and some of them resulted in injury to the student. Here’s a quick rundown on them.
Bashing the fist against a tree. Damages the fist, sometimes badly, requiring even years to heal.
Punching a Makiwara. Okay, long as you don’t over do it. Fifty punches per hand is recommended by some.
Thrusting fingers into cauldrons of heated iron pellets. Right out of the kung fu movies. The real sequence is to thrust spear hands into sand, build up to pellets (over months and even years), and finally thrust them into iron pellets.
We used to spear hand the sand, and it worked, but it took time. I haven’t met anybody who has reached the iron pellet stage of training, but hey, go for it! Just make sure you use plenty of dit da jow hand curing herbal solutions.
Push ups on palms, then fists, then half fists, then outstretched fingers, then thumbs, then two fingers, then one finger. Fantstic training method. Works lke a charm. Takes the brute out of force and teaches that the secret of true muscularity is in balance.
And, there are others, but this should hold you for now. Gonna take a while to get on top of that single finger, right? Happy work outs to you, but this karate training method is guaranteed to give you the most powerful punch. BTW, pick up a free book while you’re on my site.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in free karate, free karate online, Goju Ryu, Isshin Ryu, Karate, karate DVD, karate kata, karate techniques, kenpo, kwon bup, learn karate at home, learn karate free, Shito Ryu, Shotokan, Taekwondo

Tagged , , ,

How Long Does It Take To Get A Black Belt In Karate Is A Good Question!

Posted on June 2, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Learn Karate Online!


The thing to be understood, in this question of how long does it take to get a black belt in Karate (or in any martial art), is that the answer is coming from someone who wants to take your money. Thus, the dojo owner, without blinking, says four or five years. This is an incorrect answer, an inflated answer, and the real answer is quite different.

There are two prime factors you should take into account when it comes to black belt certification. First, the longer an art is, the harder it is to learn. Second, the more complex an art is, the more difficult it is to apply.

Obviously, if you have to commit large numbers of forms and techniques and such to memory, it will take time. But what happens when somebody is jumped on the street? A well placed kick to the apples is the solution, or a punch in the throat saves your life, or something equally simple.

And, if you memorize hundreds of techniques, you have to select from hundreds of techniques, and who has the time for that? After all, most attacks are simple…a grab or a punch. And most defenses should be equally simple if they are going to stand a chance of working.

One should immerse themselves in basics, for basics are the key to everything. And one should have a good knowledge of the body, for it is the body you are using, and it a body that you are working your martial arts on. Thus, while I recommend reducing systems to a few core techniques, I don’t recommend putting aside Karate (or Taekwondo or Aikido or whatever); I do recommend finding a system that is condensed and efficient and has simplicity as its catchword.

Really, to get the best out of karate training or Kung Fu training, or any fighting method, one should look to the original moves of the system before it was added to. Pan Gai Noon, an early karate style, had three kata, and Tai Chi Chuan has one (yes, it is long) form. Thus, find the basic moves that work in a real fight, find a few tricks to handle any ‘what if’ possibilities, and practice those until they come out of your ears.

The point is that if you wish to earn black belt certification, in Karate or any martial art, go back through the history of your style and find out what the basic kata were. Isolate the techniques that worked before anything else was added. See if there is a core concept from which the system is constructed, and work on that.

How long does it take to get a Black Belt in Karate? Honestly, if you dedicate yourself to focusing on the basic concepts of an art, it should only take a few months. There may be a few who object to this, but they are arguing only because they wish to make money off you, or because they bought into the four or five year program and don’t want to admit the truth of my words here.

Learn Karate fast! Head on over over to Learn Karate Online and get started now! Take a free sample lesson!

→ 1 Comment

Posted in free karate, free karate online, Karate, karate DVD, karate kata, karate techniques, kenpo, learn karate at home, learn karate free, Martial Arts, Tae Kwon Do, Taekwondo

Tagged , , ,

The Real Truth About Goju Ryu Karate and Chojun Miyagi

Posted on May 17, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Goju Ryu Karate is the invention of Chojun Miyagi. That’s right, all you Karate Kid Aficionados, there really was a Mr. Miyagi. Interestingly, however, the real Mr. Miyagi was not a Karate purist.

I’ll tell you about this after the video.

Most people think of the founder of an art as pure, he studied only one style, and never dabbled. This is because of the true believer mentality inherent in many people who learn one thing, and hold to it as the most important thing ever learned in the history of mankind. The founders of martial arts systems, however, are a varied bunch; Aikido, Kung Fu, Taekwondo or whatever, the founders invariably studied many arts before settling on the method they thought was best.

Miyagi’s initial training in the martial arts was under Ryuko Aragaki. a neighbor of his, who was considered quite the fighter. Miyagi must have done well, for Aragaki introduced him to his teacher Kanryo Higashionna. Miyagi had 3-5 years of martial arts training at the time.

For thirteen years Miyagi studied with Higashionna. Higashionna was considered to be one of the foremost Karate men of the time, and he was renowned for his Sanchin Kata. He was fond of standing and letting up to four men push on him, and holding his ground.

After thirteen years Higashionna died, and Miyagi decided that to move on in the martial arts, he would have to study with the people who trained his teacher. Thus, he made the pilgrimage to Fujian province in China, where he studied Shaolin and Pa Kua Chang.

Now Miyagi was accomplished in both hard and soft style martial arts. He returned to Okinawa and taught his system, eventually choosing a name from the bible of Karate, the Bubishi. The name was goju–’hard/soft.’

The Gojo system is thus based on hard karate, but illustrates a development of hard to soft. There are hard blocks, and yet there are drills and concepts which take the student into the softer aspects of the martial arts. Being a full bodied martial art, the style became one of the few Karate styles to rival the mainstream karate of Funakoshi.

In the final assessment, Goju is a strong system. It has resulted in the systems of Jundokan, Meibukan, Shorei kan and isshinryu. But the strength of the system lies not solely in Karate, but in the strivings of a man to understand both the hard and the soft, and who then formulated the Goju Ryu Karate System. If you want to learn the truth about Karate, check out Matrix Karate at Monster Martial Arts.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in free karate, Goju Ryu, Isshin Ryu, karate DVD, karate forms, karate lessons, kenpo, Okinawan Karate, Shotokan

Tagged , , , ,

Posted on May 5, 2011 by | Leave a comment

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.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in ed parker, free karate, Isshin Ryu, Karate, karate forms, karate instructor, karate kata, karate lessons, kenpo, kenpo karate, learn karate at home, Shito Ryu, Shotokan, Taekwondo

Tagged , , ,

Growing Internal Power Karate Style

Posted on March 24, 2011 by | Leave a comment

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.

 

→ Leave a comment

Posted in free karate, Karate, karate DVD, karate instructor, karate lessons, kenpo, learn karate at home, Shito Ryu, Shotokan, Taekwondo

Tagged , , ,

Here’s a Xmas Gift for Karate Students!

Posted on December 20, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Karate people are the best peoplein the world. Really love ’em. So here’s the deal.

On my site (Monster Martial Arts)  pick out any course you want.

Let’s say the price is $29.95. You go to paypal and send me (aganzul@gmail.com) $24.95. Then email me as to which course you want.

Any course you want. Actually, you could do this for a bunch of courses. It’s that kind of Xmas, you know?

And, now that I’m talking, I want to explain what hanakwanmass is.

Hannukah/Kwanza/Christmas.

I don’t care what religion you are, or what color skin you’re wearing, or whatever. We’re all human beings under the flesh, and if you have a holiday, I share your joy. No matter what holiday. That’s the meaning of hanakwanmass.

So head over to Monster Martial Arts, pick up the free ebook, find a course to save five bucks on, and…

Hanakwanmass!

Al

→ Leave a comment

Posted in free karate, karate bunkai, karate forms, karate instructor, karate techniques, kenpo, learn karate at home, Okinawan Karate

Tagged , , , , ,