Tag Archives: pan gai noon

Win #23–Karate as a First Martial Art

I like Karate as a first art because it is solid in the basics. Later, when you have experience, it’s fun to twist the basics, create different types of energy, learn sneaky ways of bashing somebody. But, in the beginning, Karate is the best. Straightforward power that can out kick a donkey, out slam a gorilla, and is just plain fun!

If I had not learned this as my first art, I would not be where am today. The basics, the foundation; a solid point upon which to stand, was essential to me as a martial artist. Few people truly understand what the basics are, let alone how important they are. Karate taught me all of this and I finished the program with confidence that I could apply what I had learned.

It’s true that people don’t understand what basics are. Take a look at the Pan Gai Noon Sanchin form. Goku does it for breathing, Shotokan does it for technique, uechi does it for dynamic tension…and they all are only partially right. Ground the weight, turn on the tan tien, and put the energy in the hands. The other theories are all right, but they miss the boat if they don’t concentrate on these three principles, and just these three principles.

Here’s a vid snip of me teaching Sanchin to my son many years ago. Karate was his first martial art, and it saved his life. Literally. Take a look at the columns at Monster Martial Arts and you’ll come across the tale.

Talk to you later.

Al

Win #10 A Great Win From The Old Master Instructor Course

The joy of this win is that it talks about concepts being at the heart of the matter. Learn a concept, and all the techniques come rolling out.

INSTRUCTOR WIN–The course has truly polished my existing approach to teaching. It’s helped balance some theory with application of instruction. Some specifics of keeping discipline in, but with emphasis on humor and politeness did tweak my train of thought a tad. This has already improved the discipline of the class, but yet maintains that fun pleasant atmosphere that I like to be part of. Also, the concept of getting a student to complete something gives a much more specific goal as an instructor. This way of thinking can be applied easily with a drill, or a belt, or even particular aspects of my life and the students. Generally, when something is true, it’s rather a simple concept and can be applied in different points in life. This is true with the information in this course.?WG The idea of concepts is core to learning any art, and to teaching any art. It is the heart of matrixing, but, oddly, I didn’t learn this through learning concepts, I learned it through cross filing techniques until the core concepts came out. It actually surprised me when I discovered that nobody else in the history of the world had done what I did with this matrixing thing.

You can find out more about Matrixing, and about core concepts and being a bona fide master instructor at Monster Martial Arts.