Category Archives: Martial Arts

The Secret of Light Kung Fu and How to Walk on Water

Light Kung Fu is one of those ancient myths that has a lot of substantiation. There are directions in old textbooks concerning the discipline, and every once in a while you see something really astounding that makes people think that such things are possible. This article is going to be concerned with directions for reaching that high Kung Fu ability.


light kung fu

Creating the Sphere of Chi Eneregy

Basic instructions for learning light kung fu, and being able to do martial arts techniques like jumping six feet straight up, are usually childish, or esoteric. The childish are usually consist of directions like, ‘dig a hole and jump out of it one thousand times. Take one cup of dirt out of the hole every morning, and in ten years you will be able to jump out of a twelve foot pit.

Let’s see: one inch a day, 365 days times ten years, 3650 inches divided by twelve…guy should be able to leap over 300 feet vertically. Maybe it was a cup of dirt every week? But that would still be over near 30 feet vertical.

The more esoteric directions consisted of things like breath to the tan tien while you do the dragon farts move. The second chakra must be engaged on year three, and the sixth chakra will awaken on year eight. Meditate to Mohammad constantly while you do this.

The childish and the esoteric out of the way, more confusion is often introduced by scientists. I came across the following directions for light kung fu on a karate forum. Gigong is just the ability of transition of body weight between the two feet in such a way that the body weight never gets enough time to rest its fullness on to any of the legs in any period of time…and the paragraph goes on to analyze shortening the cycle of stepping.

This last description is most interesting, but there is always a problem when somebody tries to describe something that is beyond physics with…physics. What I mean by this is that physics describes how the universe works, but it doesn’t really tell you how the mind can manipulate it. I know scientists will argue with what I have just said, and try to inflict their reasoning on the phenomena, but science can’t define the supernatural, such as light kung fu, raising the dead, or, say, walking on water.

I had a student who managed to walk on water. His method was to run across the corner of a swimming pool. He would get a running start, do a couple of things with his mind, and run over the surface of the water without dropping into the drink.

What is of interest is what he was doing with his mind. Gravity can be measured, of course; it can be described by science, but it is still an idea that you must believe in for it to function. We are raised up to make physics work (trained by schools slanted towards the scientific method), but the secret of light kung fu is to untrain your mind, to overcome the idea of gravity, and that takes a lot of kung fu discipline.

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.

Martial Arts Quiz to Find your Martial Smarts!

Take the Martial Arts Quiz now!

This Martial Arts Quiz will let you know how much you know in the martial arts. The questions cover a range of martial arts, and instructions for grading are at the bottom. Begin now and write down the answer to each question.

karate quizWho was the Chinese movie star named ‘The Little Dragon?’  What was the significant Samurai martial art learned by the founder of Aikido? What was the name of the brothers who built a national chain of Chinese Kenpo Karate studios?

Who was the founder of the Chinese martial art wherein the practitioner spends his time ‘walking the circle?’ Who was the first American President to take Judo instruction? What was the title of the movie that Bruce Lee didn’t finish before his death?

Which Karate system received the official blessing of Master Gichin Funakoshi to spread his style of karate (it was not Shotokan)? What is the name of the World Taekwondo Headquarters in Seoul? Who was the Taekwondo instructor behind the martial arts in ‘Billie Jack?’

What is the title of the book penned by the Samurai who killed sixty people and lived the last years of his life in a cave? What martial art trains one in the use of the weapon called a Parang? Who was the first owner of Black Belt magazine?

What length of time did it take Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace to achieve the rank of black belt? Which athlete did Bruce Lee watch the movies of in a mirror to make sure he got the movements of on both the right and the left sides? What was the title of the first book the founder of Chinese Kenpo wrote on the martial arts (listed in wiki)?

Who was the ‘spy’ who wrote the first book on Shaolin to receive widespread attention in the US, and what was the name of the book that he wrote? What was the name of the first chop sockie flick to really make it big in the United States? Who was the Chinese actor to kill a villain in a Chinese movie made in the late 70s, and then play that same villain in the movie ‘Kill Bill?’

To find any answers you don’t know do a google search. To figure out your score take the number of questions you answered correctly and divide by 18. Don’t worry if you didn’t score high, for now you know all the answers to this martial arts quiz and are a smarter person.

martial arts quiz

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.

The Secret of Real Karate Power is Fanaticism!

I chuckle when I see these young kids train. They look so good in their karate uniforms, they are so proud, yet I wonder how many of them can be crazy enough to really learn the real martial art, and actually get some real karate power.
Check out the vid, then I’ll tell you more.

Look, if you want to saw a piece of wood, you don’t take a half a dozen cuts and then stop, you watch the cut, make sure it is happening right, and you continue, no matter how sore you get, until the wood separates.
Now, if you want to break a brick, a simple trick, you simply set it up and start hitting it. And you hit it and hit it, and you focus on it until you don’t even see the rest of the world, and the brick eventually separates.
Now, there is more to it, you want to be able to break that brick with one chop, but the message here is that you have to give yourself over to a fanatical mindset.
You have to dedicate yourself, and do it and do it and do it, and have the firm knowledge that you will not quit, that you will squash any ideas of quit, that you will get where you are going.
It’s funny, I see some martial artists from other countries, and they are actually a little more rabid than USers. Well, there mommie didn’t let them stay home from school if it was raining. She didn’t bring them milk and cookies and console them if the homework was tough…she told them to dry up and get the durned job done.
That’s how it used to be in America, and thats why we achieved greatness.
We can have greatness again, even if you were coddled as a school child.
Simply dedicate yourself, be a fanatic. Tell yourself you are going to do that form a hundred times a day every day for one year,a nd then do it. Belive me, you will understand that Kata, and you will have abilities that you never even dreamed of when you were a lazy school kid. It’s up to you, but you have to give yourself over to fanaticism, and that is the secret of real karate power. If you want to learn more about this mindset, pop over to Monster Martial Arts and pick up a free book. It’ll tell you how to arrange your martial arts so the fanatical mindset can really bite.

The Big Thing Wrong with Classical Karate Training

You know, Karate sometimes gets a bad rap these days. You see all the MMA guys trashing their opponents, and you wonder why, if Karate is so good, you don’t see it in the octagon. The reason, of course, is the problem with Classical Karate training methods.

In traditional karate classes students are lined up in a mass, and they kick and punch and do everything as one unit. This is fine, for beginners. The sad fact, however, is that one rapidly travels through being a beginner, and then needs to have a different teaching method.

Class exercises are fine to warm up, but there is no real exchange of information going on between teacher and student. Oh, you think that everything is in the forms, that you just need to do the forms and enlightenment will burst upon you? Well, true to a certain extent, but there is also the fact that if you hold to this opinion too hard you are saying that karate is for stupid people.

Oh, I’m serious. Look, Karate, be it goju or shotokan or uechi ryu or whatever, depends on physics. And, once a person has mastered the first set of physics, there is a second set of physics pertinent to the mind and the spirit. But, because of antiquated training methods, methods that were used to control unruly children (not teach them) nobody in the martial arts really knows what the second set of physics is.

Let me take one point and blow it up a bit. I had a student who had the most terrible form, and he had taken a year of classical martial arts training. He was terrible, but-smile in the eyes of his teachers-he was rigid.

So his shoulders overextended, his body was always turned the wrong way, his punches wouldn’t hurt a six year old girl, but he was deemed good because he was rigid. All his muscles locked into place at the execution of technique. And, you can see this same tendency on any number of youtube Karate videos.

Now, one of the first rules of combat is, ‘a sitting duck is a dead duck.’ Heck, the reason that bully told you to stand still and face him was because he wanted a stationary target. And this goes against the real karate somebody would learn if they could get past the rigid, no information instruction that is offered in nearly every karate class in the world.

Real Karate is liquid, and the focus points are so short they can’t be perceived, and the karateka is able to move in any direction without preparation or telegraphing. True Karate is like a whip, and only the fist tightens, and that momentarily when it smacks through some fool’s face. Karate is a study in motion, not in rigidity, and that is just one of the problems with Classical Karate Training.

If you want to see some excellent karate, check out my Temple Karate DVDs. I’m old, I’ve been doing classical karate for over forty years, but I’ve still got some liquid left in me. There are eleven forms, with TONS of self defense applications.

Making the Right Karate Form

I was watching Karate on the youtube last night, and I was struck by how little people know about the correct form of the martial arts. Check out the vid snip right below, This is how I explain how you get good form, then continue with the article.

They turn their feet out at the wrong time, they separate their body into pieces, they do so many things that dissipate energy and lessen intention.
And I am not talking beginners here, I am talking about people with decades of experience.
Now, it wasn’t always that way. When I started the martial arts were fresh to the shores, and we bought everything we could, read everything we could, and were thirsty for day.
And, we thought about what we were learning.
What has happened that has destroyed the martial arts is the fanatic desire to have ritual.
If I do what teacher says, I don’t have to think, and then I will learn.
Do you see the corruption of logic here?
How can you learn if you don’t have to think?
Why do you think colleges are turning out people who can’t learn?
Because they memorize in ritual, instead of learning how to think.
Question, man, you have to have a question.
And not a questino as to the next piece of the sequence of the kata, but a question as to how it works, why it works, what’s the best (better) way to make it work.
Argh!
That’s all I can say, Argh!
Frustration for a society that prefers to go blind.
Well, the way to not go blind is to ask questions, demand answers, and not be satisfied with what you are taught.
I tell you this,
your teachers have already bought into it,
so be careful of your teachers.
If they can’t give you good reasons for what you are doing,
good scientific, sound, logical, technical reasons for why the form is constructed the way it is, the best way to make a technique work,
all the secondary techniques off the first technique, and so on,
then you are following the blind.
And, don’t believe me.
Check out my sites, see if I make sense, and then you will know whether my words here can be believed.
Monster Martial Arts is one site. Got oodles of stuff on it. Articles, courses, everything.
Or, check out Learn Karate Online. Got an actual free lesson or two on it.
Go on, see if I make sense.
I understand why people are leery of the net, there’s so much crap out there. It’s the same old same old. Well, I tell you, this is the brand new brand new, but you aren’t going to see it if you don’t take a look, and you won’t get it if you just shut your mind up and stop asking questions.

How to Train in the Iron Horse Form in Karate

Analyzing the Iron Horse Stance in Karate!

The Iron Horse Form is one of the best katas in Karate, and in all the Martial Arts. IT gives strength, power, energy, focus, and really makes you feel like you’re getting to the heart of the art. Here’s my version of it. Check it out, and then I’ll tell you more.

To practice this you should loop it and do it in sequence maybe ten times. Don’t do it just once, keep doing it.
Concentrate on the moment of focusing energy down, and letting yourself float sideways to the next position. Have the differences between these two things firmly in your mind.
Have a partner and mirror each other. Critique each other, and get lower and longer and more explosive. Be twins in motion and structure.
Practice just standing in the horse stance (called Kiba Dachi in Japanese). This is called Horse Meditation, and if you can hold the pose for just five minutes, you will have an immensely strong stance, and you will be generating tons of pure, raw power.
Above all, do it every day.
And, most important, look for applications,a nd practice those applications until you can make them work against anybody, and in situation or environment.
Remember, when you do the horse stance you are gripping the ground, enabling yourself to move over slick surfaces, and this could mean on wet grass, oily cement, or even through puddles of blood, and yet still hold your balance and footwork.
Drop by my site, Monster Martial Arts, and check out Temple Karate. I’ve got ten forms plus the one you see on this page, fully broken down and set for combat.

Half a Year of Karate!

Do you know how much you can get done in Karate in a half a year?
The reason I say this is because the year is half over. So if you can remember what you were doing at Christmas, or New Years, and any resolutions or things, then you could have made a lot of things happen since them.

If you are studying a classical art, you could have gone through a belt rank or two. You could have a couple of martial arts forms, had a ball doing lots of kumite, and generally be fit and healthy, and your mind would be calm.
Now, if you had been studying my Matrixing program, you could actusally have your black belt by now. Serious. It’s a three month program, but it takes a lot of work. But six months is enough time to do a lot of work. So you could actually be there.
And, here’s something interesting, if you slacked off a little the last few months, maybe been distracted by the news or something, you can realize that every moment you live and don’t do what you love is a moment wasted.
Hey, if it’s not Karate, then what is it? Kung Fu? Yoga? Ballet? If you love it, then why aren’t you doing it?
Got a dream? You’ve had six months to pursue it. Didn’t do it? It’s not too late, so get yer fanny in gear and get going!
Don’t you understand? I’m telling you to ignore everything that gets in your way, everybody that slows you down or distracts you. I’m telling you that you should pick a goal, and having a black belt is an absolutely incredible goal, and GO FOR IT!
Now, do you want to go waste another night drinking beer, or do you want to be somebody? Do you want to be strong and fit and quick in the mind?
Okay, I’ve enjoyed this rant, and especially because I know it is so right and valuable. So spend the time between now and the end of the year working out and finding the real you. If I can help you reach your goals in Karate, if I can help you get to Black Belt, drop by my site, Monster Martial Arts. My email is there, and I answer all emails. See ya.

Three Types of Flux Motion in the Martial Arts

Analyze Everything...Leave Nothing to Chance!


There are three specific types of motion in the martial arts. Mind you, I am not describing energy manifestation, merely the flux of the body itself.
The first type of motion is fast motion. Karate, Taekwondo,Kenpo, these are explosive and fast. Not much middle ground here, just move fast and beat the other guy to the punch. The trick is, of course, to expand your awareness so you can see the other fellow coming. By going slower you can increase awareness.
I used to do my karate forms slow, I could see them and learn from them. Then I found Tai Chi Chuan and things really made sense.
The second type of motion is the slower motion. In this type of flux you inspect the changing of your body position, checking out the angles and making sure the energy flows just right. This causes much awareness, and this awareness will reverse engineer back into the harder arts. The softer (slower arts) are such as Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Kua Chang, and so on. Mind you, any art can be slowed and awareness inserted, and you will find amazing amounts of perception, which will grow amazing amounts of energy.
The third type of motion is no motion. Stopped. A held position. This is the gold mine from which all else comes. To take that posture and just look at it, to concentrate not on the motion, but the awareness, that is the key.
There is something people should understand about all this…life is motion, but awareness is no motion. And only by exploring all three motions with this in mind will the being awake, will the martial art come to fruition, will the martial arts enter the golden age of which they are on the cusp of. Check out my site, Learn Karate Online, and see if the free lesson makes sense. It is crafted with concepts such as you will find in this blog, and it is designed to lead you to other motions.