Category Archives: Taekwondo

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.

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.

Martial Arts Book Deal and Merry Christmas to You!

Got a great Martial Arts Book Offer for you.

It’s my way of wishing Merry Christmas to every Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist, Scientologist, or whatever religion you happen to be. This is a special day for somebody somewhere, so we should all party, we should all be glad that somebody has found an excuse to be kind on this war torn, economically deprived, stupid planet.

It’s not your particular special day? Tough. Party anyway, and pray, chant, light a candle for world peace.

Screw the politicians…let’s have fun!

Click here to see the special  martial arts book offer!

Simple Exercise to Increase (Decrease) Reaction Time in Karate

I always surprised when I don’t see exercises like the one I am about to tell you about used freely in Karate training. The following exercise cuts your reaction time down to nothing, and it does it with just an hour or two of training. Check out the video, and then I’ll tell you more.

Where I came up with this one was in feeding people punches to help them block. Being a bit insane, looking for more punches to block, wanting to do the exercise faster and more so i would get to the end of it, I decided to have two people feed the defender.
So two people would stand, shoulder to shoulder, in front of the blocker, and they would throw slow strikes.
Not fast. You can overwhelm easily, and there is no gain then. And, you don’t want to create bruises. You want the guy to input data, not refuse the data because he is getting hurt.
But feed the strikes slowly. Left or right, doesn’t matter. Just keep feeding them slowly.
Now, the two feeders should be looking for the edge. They should be trying to find the point of overload, and stay just below it. You don’t want to go so fast the blocker can’t block, you just want him to get used to it all. After a short while, you’ll find that you can bump up the speed of your strikes, and the blocker learns faster.
Now, one thing to be careful of.
The blocker will overload, and this might manifest in a number of ways, maybe just missing the blocks all of the sudden, making too many mistakes, that sort of thing. But usually the blocker will want to strike back. He’ll snap. He won’t hit hard, but he’ll be unable to stop himself from hitting back.
Well, of course. He is overloaded, filled to the top, and he needs to relieve the pressure. That’s okay.
Try to catch it before it happens, and simply rotate one of the strikers into the blocking position. Round and round we go.
Now, this works wonders. Do it during class, five or ten minutes at a time, and within a month the students will get very relaxed, their blocks will hurt more (tell them to go softer), and they won’t be overwhelmed when the fists start flying fast and thick.
If you like this training tool, check out Monster Martial Arts. I have all sorts of drills like this one embedded in the courses. I especially recommend Matrix Karate. Do a matrix of blocks and you will learn ten times faster, and know ten times as much. And make sure you pick up a free martial arts book on the homepage while you’re there.

Beat up the World with Karate and Make Peace Now!

Good Karate Throwing Technique

I usually talk about Karate forms and applications here, or other stuff that is juicily violent, but let me move to an area that explains why we must be so violent.
We must be violent so that we won’t be violent.
Get it out in the dojo, and what’s left is peace in your soul when you walk around.
But, it’s deeper than that. Let me go whole hog here, and explain the actual process that is working here.
You have heard me say before: control the body to control the mind, control the mind to control the spirit. It’s true. But this is actually a condensation of the five circles surrounding a human being.
You perceive, but what is it that perceives? It is the ‘I am,’ the awareness of awareness unit that is you.
And you have dressed yourself with mind, emotion, body, and chaos.
Chaos is fighting, that’s the outermost circle, that is the world. A buunch of idiots running around and threatening and shaking their fist and getting in trouble.
Train the body and you instantly move out of chaos. You have a plan, an idea, and you are no longer subject to, or perhaps I should say victim to, the violence of a world gone amok.
But, as you train the body you begin to gain control over emotions. You stop getting angry, you lose fear, and you start being happy most of the time. And when you aren’t happy you simply move through and get happy.
Controlling the emotions is the start of controlling the mind, and now you are on the verge of controlling the world. The world, you see, will adhere to somebody who has control of their mind. Simply, the people who can’t control their mind look for some way to get their mind back under control, so they rub up against the sane.
From the mind we move into spirit, and I’m going to stop explaining now, because once you get there you won’t need any explanations.
The point here is that that is why you study the martial arts, not to beat people up, but to get rid of the desire to beat people up, and this has far reaching effects. Think about it, world peace by practicing your karate forms and elf defense moves. Now we’re talking. Drop by Monster Martial Arts if you want to dig into your sanity and learn the truth about the Martial Arts.

Blood Everywhere in a Karate Class!

I started thinking bout the worst martial arts injuries I have ever seen in a Karate class, and one came to the front of my mind.
Mind you, I almost never have injuries in my classes, and this because I follow the Injury Formula: Speed + Ignorance = Injury. Follow this, make your students follow this, and you won’t have injuries either.
Check out this vid of some knife disarms, then I’ll tell you about it.

Anyway, outside of a cut lip or bloody nose, and one cracked rib, injuries don’t occur in my classes. One of my instructors, however, wasn’t so fortunate. He insisted on doing a knife disarm technique with a real knife. He was fast, quick, and one of the best martial artists i have ever seen. But he decided he was going to teach this technique using a real knife.
The guy came in, he moved, and the knife cut all the way up the fleshy part of his forearm.
Man, talk about blood. It didn’t spurt, which was fortunate, and it didn’t cut any tendons. So it was shallow, and it was long, and it bled like a stuck pig.
So, because of that one experience, didn’t even happen to me, I never use real knives in class. I encourage people to handle and train with knives, but not with each other.
I tell them to use rubber knives, which are cheap and who cares if they break, or wooden knives, but never real steel. That’s what I learned because of that karate class, and that’s the recommendation I use when I teach people Blinding Steel, which is the fastest and most efficient knife training course int he world. Check it out at Monster Martial Arts. And make sure you pick up a free martial arts book while you’re there. Actually, I’m giving away two books, though I don’t mention it on the website. Got to change that. Have a great work out.

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.

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.

The Secret Behind the Hardest Punch in the World!

Within the Karate Punch is Great Spirit

I remember reading that Chuck Norris had 600 pounds per square in in his kicks. I always use this kind fo data when trying to figure out the secret behind the hardest punch in the world, or the hardest kick, or whatever.
You see, the idea is to get more weight in a smaller area.
If you swing a mallet with a big head, maybe three inches across, you are putting weight to nine square inches. So if you put ninety pounds into your swing, and you get ten pounds per square inch. This dissipates the force, spreads it out, and weakens it. You swing a screw driver, and maybe put only thirty pounds in it, but the force is into an eighth inch square. That means 64 times 30 pounds, and you are striking with 1920 pounds per square inch!
That’s why a screw driver penetrates, while a mallet flattens.
Now, you think there would be more to it than this, and, you’d be right. You see, time also enters into the equation, and you’ll find that this has a lot to do with a punch.
The longer the amount of time a fist is in contact with a target, the more some of that weight will go back up the arm.
So, if you punch somebody and the punch is a thrust, and travels through, and is in contact with the striking surface (his face) for a long time–let’s say a full second, which is not real, but it is a good number to illustrate what is happening–then one second times 60 pounds of weight equals sixty pounds of impact.
That’s cool.
But if you are in contact for 1/2 second, 1/2 times 60 = 120 pounds of impact! And if you get down to 1/8 of a second, then you have 1/8 times 60, which equals 480 pounds of impact! The force of the punch, you see, has less time to travel back up the arm, and more weight is left in your poor opponent’s ugly face!
Now, that is the physics, and that is the secret of the hardest punch in the world. All you have to do is understand these physics, and then do the exercises in The Punch (a book I wrote) and your punch is going to be able to knock down a freakin’ elephant! The physics are the secret, you see, but they are just the start. There is so much more to them, and so much you can do with them, once you understand them and what you are trying to really do with your punch. So check out The Punch at Monster Martial Arts. You’ll be glad you did.