Category Archives: learn karate free

What You don’t Want to Do to A Karate Black Belt!

Posted on May 31, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Karate Black Belt is Looking Good!

I earned my karate black belt in 1974. Back then we didn’t have all the karate equipment and martial arts supplies and stuff.

I was in Chinese Kenpo Karate at first, and we received neat, new belts with each promotion. I had an Orange Belt and a Blue Belt and Green Belt and all the other rank symbols.

karate black belt

Peter Urban properly dressed

 


Then I went to the Kang Duk Won, and belts weren’t the issue there. Knowledge was the point of it all.

I had gotten a white belt with my uniform, and my sensei told me, when I got my first promotion at the Kang Duk Won I was told to dye it.

So I put it in a pot, added dye, and the thing shrank a litte, but it was still workable.

For some belts we had to go into ladies fabric shops (blush) and get iron on strips of cloth.

By the time I reached Black Belt I had a beaten up short strip of belt that looked like it had been through the ringer.

So, I admit it, I bought my first real belt. It was long enough, it looked good, but it was…stiff.

Well, I had done enough already, actually buying a belt was a bit proud, so I just worked out hard and hoped nobody noticed the overly prideful guy with the NEW belt.

And it eventually work it’s way into a comfortable rag.

Speaking of rags, I should tell you about the artificial aging of belts. Some guys bought belts, and to make them look old, they would take a razor blade and shred the edges of the belts. They would have half a dozen belts, all artificially aged and cool looking.

Unfortunately, the karate these guys practiced wasnt’ aged, and it looked artificial.

And there were guys who would drag their belts in the dirt, scuff them by walking on them, and so on, just to look cool and official and aged.

I actually don’t wear a belt anymore. And my classes are so small that I don’t need to have people wear belts. So we actually practice in street clothes, which is what we would wear if we were attacked on the street.

Still, I remember my bouts with pride, and my first karate black belt, and the honor it was to wear it.

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The Lost Karate Kicking Technique

Posted on May 9, 2012 by | Leave a comment

This ‘lost Karate Kicking Technique’ was the first bit of real Karate I ever saw.

I was working in a fast food restaurant at the time, and spending my spare time teaching Chinese Kenpo, when I saw a Karate Kicking Technique that I had never seen before. Oh, I was a Kenpo True Believer. Best stuff that ever walked the universe, if you get my drift. But I hadn’t seen this karate kick.

karate kicking technique

Lost Karate Kicking Technique

 


Then, one day, a dweeb went to work for the restaurant. He was an idjit. A know nothing, and I looked down on him.

Silly me.

I was standing at the register, looking into the backroom, and this kid, thinking nobody is watching him, gives a hop and a kick, and the whole wall began shaking. It was a karate kick I had never seen, and it is the lost karate kickign technique that I am referring to in this article.

He backed off quick, and it was obvious that he hadn’t meant to kick the wall that hard. But it was too late, I had seen him.

“What was that? What did you do?” Yet, I knew it was Karate. It was a karate like I had never seen. An instructor in Chinese Kenpo for a couple of years, and I had never seen real Karate.

“Oh, uh….nothing.”

“No, that was Karate. What kind of karate do you study?”

“Well, uh…I don’t really know it. I just…”

He blathered on, but it was too late. I had seen, and I wanted.

He studied an obscure style of Karate known as Kang Duk Won, and, unbeknownst to me, it was a direct line to the Karate that Funakoshi studied. Not Funakoshi himself…but before Funakoshi. This was the real stuff. BEfore tournament and college power groups and all that sort of thing.

And the kick he had done? It was a simple shuffle kick. Start in a back stance, and move both feet at the same time. The rear foot lands where the front foot was, and, at the exact same moment, the front foot impacts on the target.

Two things happen when you kick like this. One, you sink your weight at the point of the kick, which stabilizes and increases the amount of power in the kick. Two, you move the body as one unit.

Interestingly, I have never seen anybody in the mixed martial arts scene do this kind of kick. It is a fight ender, a massive blast that crunches anything before it. That can knock down a wall if you get a little too quick with it.

Well, that is real Karate, and it is too bad, but there aren’t any martial arts schools today that do this lost karate kicking technique.

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The Progression of Technique in the Heian Karate Form (Pinan Karate Form)

Posted on May 8, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Heian Karate Form…Pinan Karate Form

I noticed something very interesting when I was learning the Heian Karate Formsequence. And I was taught them when they were still known as Pinans.

heian karate form

Mobility is its own power



Pinan one was just a basic form. But Pinan two and four seemed to be a progressive variation. The first move with the hands mid level and high level, the technique used on the return steps of the form, these seemed like interpretations of the same concept.

And, if you compare pinan three and Pinan five, you have the same thing occurring.

But it was many years before i actually started to see the similarity of technique, and to understand the basic concept the creator of this form used.

The concept is a back stance concept.

Now, the form is called Heian these days, and it is the Japanese who have deviated from this concept.

When  Japanese karate students do these forms they tend to widen the back stance, making it a half a horse stance. This immobilizes the stance, and splits the intention; which way are you setting up to go? To the side…or to the front? And there is no way to do a front kick with the front leg off a stance arranged this way.

When the Heians were Pinans, however, the back stance was narrower, which enabled one to set up the legs so they would both contribute to the forward motion. This also allowed for more traction on the launch. And, one could kick effectively with the front leg out of a back stance.

These three reasons make for a superior art. Launch faster and be quicker by using more body, more leg, more traction. This would enable one to shuffle forward to throw the whole body into a technique. The Japanese, in this specific, prefer shifting into a forward stance. But a forward stance has very little ability to kick with the front leg, or either leg, and the stance is too rooted to be mobile.

For these reasons I have always kept to the ancient stance set up in the heian Karate Forms, or, as I like to call them the Pinan Karate Forms.

 

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High School Punch Outs and Learning Karate

Posted on May 6, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Learning Karate made a HUGE Difference!

I was in a wrestling class once, and this one guy got pissed off.  I don’t recall why, some sort of frustration. He was a big guy, won a lot, but suddenly he was mad and shouting, and I, silly fool, said, “Relax, there’s no fight here.”

learning karate

Learning Karate Changes Even Bullies

 


“And I’m going to beat the **** out of you once I finish with him!” He was staring at me and almost foaming at the mouth.

Well, the coach put him up against the wall, talked into his fight, and he never bothered me. But he used to glare at me all the time. Really wanted to mess with me.

Then I start karate. Studied hard. Became an instructor. And one day this wrestling class bully boy walks into the dojo.

Interestingly, he had started karate at another school. And, there was no glare in his eyes.

One, he had had the hate weaned out of him.

Two, one look at me and he knew there was no victim.

There was still some anger in him, he wouldn’t talk to me. Buthe wouldn’t mess with me, and I didn’t need any high school wrestling coach to put him up the wall and put a bit of fear in him.

That’s Karate for you. It works you out so hard you get over the anger. You get on the mat and realize that you have no reason to be scared, or bullyish, or whatever.

I always chuckle when I hear about people and guns and the old Colt ‘Equalizer.’ It was a gun that made all people equal…anybody could pick it up and be deadly.

Well, anybody can pick up karate and be deadly. But, they might find out that they have more friends than enemies.

I mean, it’s all in the mind, whether we be bullies and problems, or be liked and have friends. It’s all in the mind, and the mind can be changed by learning karate.

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When Bruce Lee Killed Karate!

Posted on April 30, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Yes, Bruce Lee Killed Karate!

It’s funny, Bruce Lee came to the martial arts publics attention when he wrote the article ‘The Classical Mess,’ and common opinion was that Bruce Lee killed Karate.

bruce lee workouts

Bruce Lee Killed Karate!


At the time, everybody thought it was a death blow to Karate. It was an attack upon the forms method of teaching. It was the deathblow. It was predicted that karate schools everywhere would pack up and fade away and whimper.

Actually, he drove people into the karate schools at an astounding pace. I don’t believe there has ever been a surge into the martial arts schools like the one he started.

Now, what was the classical mess thing? He was merely in favor of more reality based training.

And, his ideas weren’t bad. Karate guys everywhere read them, liked them, and karate changed.

One of his ideas included less technique and more drilling. I remember learning sticky hands and seeing what he meant. It was great.

Another of his ideas had to do with kicking heavier bags, because people weighed more than the bags that were out there at the time. That was another fine idea. And, today we have heavier bags.

The main thing, however, was for the student to wake up, to be aware in the moment, not to be bound by the things he was learning, and by the limitations of practicing a static technique. In this one, he was right, and he was wrong.

He was right, the Karate student does have to wake up. He has to be in the moment. But, the idea that form training doesn’t lead there is in correct. When one does forms one is building a circuit in the body and mind. Eventually, once one has practiced the circuit long enough, it suddenly disappears.

It’s true, practicing a technique until it is a circuit, and then further, and the circuit just disappears, and the student is left with…open eyes.

Now, one could argue that Bruce didn’t understand this, but he had practiced in Wing Chun long enough that he should have.

Personally, I think he was just so excited by all the arts he studied, and he was seeing how they all connect together, that he spoke a little too quickly. Considering how much he gave us all, he can be forgiven.

At any rate, as I pointed out, though he disagreed with certain karate training methods, he offered enlightenment that we could change such methods as we needed to. And, in the end,  it’s not true that Bruce Lee Killed Karate…he helped it become better.

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It was Unique Karate Back Then

Posted on April 28, 2012 by | Leave a comment

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

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A Guy Who Knows Karate Kung Fu-ed (Not)

Posted on April 14, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Karate Kung Fu is Cool!

I got my Karate Kung Fu-ed the day this kung fu guy came to work for my company.

karate kung fu

Karate Freestyle is a special type of discipline


This was back in the seventies, and martial arts were all the craze. Chop sockies were hitting the drive ins, and stores were popping up with ‘Karate Kung Fu’ written on their faces.

Now, to be sure, I had been doing Karate for six or seven years, and all these new guys were coming in off the Bruce Lee craze. Some of them would stick, some of them would drift.

Anyway, I walked up to where this new guy was talking to the boss. This was a factory and we were all young and loose guys, just working and having fun.

Now, in fairness, I was exuberant. When I placed my hand on the kung fu guy’s shoulder there was a message there. It was friendly, it was silent, but he and I, even though he hadn’t seen me physically he knew who it was, knew it was a friendly ‘what ya got’ type of thing.

He spun, his arms outstretched. It was a windmill sort of kung fu double chop, one hand to my arm, and one arm to my neck.

I realized what he was doing, it was very different than how I had been trained, and I stepped back.

He managed to get my arm, and missed the neck, but he took it was a win. And it was. It was Karate Kung Fu-ed, and that was okay with me.

Heck, if I hadn’t been trained I would have been dead meat.

As it was, I had more experience, I could figure things out, I didn’t have that momentary gap of thinking when figuring out things, but he displayed good kung fu form, good kung fu technique.

So we grinned, I knew he would go back and tell his sifu how well his martial art worked, and that was fine.

And, as for me, I was struck by the difference of kung fu to karate. Over the years I would study kung fu, lots of it. Shaolin, pa kua, tai chi, exotic styles one nevers about. But I would always hold to Karate as a base art. As a fighting art it was superior. It is more explosive, straighter, and more efficient. There are other things to be gleaneed form Kung fu, and these things can’t be found in Karate, the way energy works, odd technqiues that make a difference.

Still, I hold to karate for basic self defense and fighting. That first experience, me, my karate kung fu-ed (not), has proven true over the decades.

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What The Well Trained Mind Truly Observes In Karate Freestyle

Posted on March 26, 2012 by | 1 Comment

With all the excitement of the UFC MMA type of fighting, most people have not seen the incredible qualities of Karate freestyle. When one undertakes training in traditional Karate or one of the old Kung Fu methods, certain things happen that are beyond human understanding. This article will go into what actually occurs when one trains enough to gain a ‘zen mind’ in combat.

karate freestyle

Karate Freestyle is a special type of discipline


First, it should be known that fighting is fighting. If one is training to learn just by fighting, they will not come into the qualities I will be talking about here. There is a difference, you see, between training oneself to enjoy combat and beat an opponent, and gaining the ability to stay aware, and grow even more aware, in the middle of combat.

Thus, one should study classical forms, learn the subtleties of body motion, and calm the mind down. Further, one should learn how to do karate freestyle through the taking of progressive steps. This is the only way to get to the zen state of mind I am talking about here.

When ones training takes effect and they start to appreciate a calm mind in combat they will observe that freestyle is not a matter of frantic reaction, but of reflection. One sees what is occurring, and a plan pops into the mind. This plan is often an image, of what is happening, and what is to be done.

The trick is to be able to recognize this picture when it occurs and to pay attention to it, rather than to thrust it away. The picture might be a quick snippet of an image, almost too quick to see, or it could be an actual cartoon overlaying reality. One must then focus on relaxing, no matter what is about to occur.

Many people, especially when first seeing a vision before a fight happens want to do something. They want to make a response before the action has happened. But if you move before the action has happened, the opponent may not do the action.

So one has to be patient, and this frequently involves ‘pushing down’ an energy building in the chest. The body wants to get going, but the mind must stay sane. The key is for the person to tell the mind to sit still, and to tell the body to wait.

So when does one go? If they are relaxed and secure in their vision, if they have a calm mind, they will move in accord with the action, and not before and not after. This takes some practice, but that is what training the mind in karate freestyle is all about.

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

Posted on March 20, 2012 by | Leave a comment

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.

 

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Learn Monster Karate Now and Live Through the Coming End of Days!

Posted on March 20, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Monster Karate and the Coming Apocalypse!

I just know that if I started a Monster Karate martial arts school I would get incredibly rich. I could teach all the secret martial arts techniques that the lmonsters use to rip the beating and dripping heart out of some fool who can’t run very fast. I could teach people the secret monster karate techniques that…maybe I should tell you where I am going with all this?

monster karate

The True Power of Karate!

My wife just knew that I was totally destroying my sons’ fragile, eggshell mentalities. We would perch on the sofa for hours and eat popcorn and watch monster movies. And then I would show them the secrets of the martial arts.

What she didn’t know was that we were learning several things which were vital to learning the martial arts. Specifically, we were looking at the use of wires and make up. Analyze these two things and it will change the way you look at the martial arts, and it will even educate you as to the less than beneficial effects of Hollywood movie makers.

First, we would spend long hours dissecting the methods by which Hollywood creates its special effects. How did that vampire soar across the rooftops? The answer, we would find, would be wirework, or a blue screen, a trampoline, and invisible platforms pasted onto the background.

This led to attempts to do certain stunts, with me holding onto the back of the pants, assisting the flip, or otherwise seeing if something could be done. This led to the boys understanding the need for people who actually knew how to spot (grin) and proper instruction before trying to do those things they do on television and tell you not to do.

The second special effects factor was makeup, and while we didn’t start roaming the streets dressed in monster drag at midnight, we did get in an educational analysis of how make up could be used to enhance death. If you bent the head just right, put a metal plate against the neck, you could set off a small charge and make it look like a throat was being exploded. Cool!

And, the method for inserting knives, bullets, spears, or whatever the weapon of your choice into the body part of your choice was quite educational. This led to analysis of how the body might really react when various weapons hit it. Nice!

I know this is a strange bit of writing, and I know that people may not like the way I raised my children. But my kids are not taken in by Hollywood special effects, don’t get bothered by a little fake blood, appreciate good movie making, know that no actors were harmed during the making of this movie, and understand better how reality functions. So maybe you should think about learning a little Monster Karate, that way maybe you’ll stand a chance of surviving when zombies rule the streets.

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