Category Archives: kyokushin

Karate, Kung Fu and How to Handle Zombies!

Posted on July 16, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Using Karate and Kung Fu to handle Zombies, sounds like I’m getting ready to rib you, doesn’t it? Well, glad to disappoint, but there’s some s traight goods coming at you. I’m going to tell you about one of the best books on tactics for handling large crowds of people, call ’em zombies if you wish. Before I do so, check out the video, I’m using all sorts of different arts to handle a couple of guys. I’m controlling the distance, locking and block and…taking names. Watch, and then I’ll tell you about a book that might be better than the Book of Five Rings, or The Art of War.

The Book is called The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. It is written tongue in cheek, many would say over the top, but it is the best and most concise overview of battle tactics I have seen. Look let me give you a scenario.
Food shortages are happening all over the world, some people say they will come to a city you live in. When that happens a couple of weeks and people will be out of food. At that point they will start wandering the streets, breaking into houses, looking desperately for a crumb.
Isn’t that how a so called ‘zombie’ works? Wanders the street looking for brains? Brains being a code word for people who have had the smarts to store up and hoard food.
So, when the starved come calling, do you know how to fortify your house so it can withstand attack? Do you know the tactics for not letting the zombies know when you are cooking? Do you know how to set the sombies up when you want to wipe out a bunch of them?
Now, this book goes everywhere, for every eventuallity, and it is better than any military manual I have ever read for straight forward urban survival.
I know it may be mean (politically incorrect?) to call hungry people zombies, let alone treat them like an enemy, but when the mob is at your door, you’ll be glad you read this book.
And, that said, there is one mistake that nearly all people who have read this book make…they don’t study the martial arts. They are reading it for a hoot, they are stuck in fantasy land and don’t know the way out.
If you really want to survive food shortages, riots, even attacks by the police (you think they won’t be hungry?) then this is the book for you.
This book, and karate or kung fu, or some other martial art, will help you handle any zombies. So get the book, and head on over to Learn Karate Online and get some absolutely FREE Karate Training. A zombie attack might be right around the calender, and Karate is the art of choice for laying waste to hordes of the undead!!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Uncovering The Mysteries Of The Iron Horse Karate Kata

Posted on June 6, 2011 by | Leave a comment


Tekki Kata, also known as Haihanchi, is one of the best forms in all the martial arts. Many people refer to it as The Iron Horse. As this name indicates, it is a horse stance form, and the karateka moves from side to side while performing it.

The power generated by this Okinawan Karate form is absolutely awesome. The deep stance works the legs, and the tan tien starts to pump up, and one feels the chi power course through the frame almost from the get go. It is usually taught around black belt level in systems such as Kyokushinkai.

When I first learned Naihanchi I would practice while facing a partner and having ‘kata races.’ We would mirror each other, and go back and forth, building our speed and perfecting our moves. Eventually, we would find a harmony of motion that one will not see in many martial art patterns.

When I asked my instructor about it, he said it was designed for fighting in rice paddies. The footwork enabled one to grip the ground no matter how muddy. The sideways motion paralleled the earthwork in the rice paddies, where other foot patterns would result in loss of footing.

As my studies continued I came across the concept that the form was designed for riding a horse. Even if a warrior lost his weapons while riding a horse, he could keep fighting while gripping the horse with the leg strength built up by the form. I found this a fascinating notion, but it didn’t ring quite true.

In time, I happened across the book ‘Shotokan’s Secrets,’ written by Dr. Bruce Clayton. The good doctor claimed that the kata were actually designed for actual fighting in the Imperial throne room of old Okinawa. This theory at first seemed odd, but the more I thought about it the more sense it made.

Imagine the scene: invading troops attempt to capture the king of Okinawa, and the front row troops use the movements from the Pinan forms (Heian katas) to create confusion. Meanwhile, the advanced bodyguards move sideways across the back of the room while the king is hustled through a rear door and to safety. This theory not only made sense when analyzing the specific movements, but in the historical and psychological sense, too.

What the truth is will be debated as long as Karate is taught. Of course, it doesn’t matter as long as that fabulous form generates good, old fashioned ‘chi power’ by the bushel. Call it Naihanchi, Tekki, or just the Iron Horse, this is one Karate Kata that is good for the ages.

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Tekki One…Kima Chodan…the Iron Horse…They are the Same!

Posted on June 6, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Karate Power

Karate Secrets...hidden for all to see!


On of my favorite kata was Kima Chodan. It has several other names, Tekki, the Iron Horse, and so on. It was also the favorite of Giochin Funakoshi, he spent ten years playing with it.
The reason it is so great is that it is a power form. Getting low in the horse, stepping back and forth, just powers up the tan tien like nobody’s business.
One of my favorite things was to face a partner and mirror the form. We would race, find harmony, critique each other endlessly. A mirror that actually talked…how cool was that, eh?
For those who would like to go extreme, it’s fun to put a heavy weight vest and go crazy, or to hold dumbells and go crazy.
After a while the power jacks up, you start feeling like nobody in the world could stop you, and man, ain’t life a hoot!
Anyway, here’s my version of it. I learned it forty years ago, and I haven’t tweaked it much, so it’s a pretty pure version. Comes not through the Japanese lineage, but direct to the Okinawa Masters who taught Gichin Funakoshi. If you want to learn more about the old Karate forms surrounding Kima Chodan, or Tekki or the Iron Horse or whatever you call it, check out Temple Karate at Monster Martial Arts.

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Exploring Karate Chi Power Through a Variety of Arts

Posted on June 5, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I just wrote a post for one of my other blogs about energy. The post is at…
http://alcase.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/the-different-chi-power-manifestations-of-the-martial-arts/
I was sort of loose in that post, so let me nail it down for your progress.
Oh, check out the video first, then I’ll tell you.

Karate is one of the best places to start energy manifestation (chi power and all that), because it starts with a simple explosion. Once you can explode, however, you need to figure out what to do with the energy that you have exploded.
Shaolin might turn and roll it, Pa Kua might spiral it, Tai Chi will suspend it, and so on. Every system has specific things they do with energy. Even the same systems will emphasize different progressions of this thing called Chi power.
That said, it can take too long to develop chi without Karate. And it can take too long to develop chi power even in Karate unless you have proper matrixing. Matrixing is logical and will enhance all progress and speed of progress.
The most important thing,however, is to change courses when you learn how to explode. You must ‘go backwards,’ learn how to empty yourself, and try different manipulations of the body if you want to find different manifestations of energy.
A Karate student who just keeps doing the same old same old will tend to stagnate. You know a lot of people drop out of Karate after getting their black belt in that hard art? They know, intuitively, that karate, once so wild and wooley and invigorating, has become a stop point. They know that they must seek elsewhere to continue their upward progress.
Anyway, that all said, stop by LearnKarateOnline (dot)net if you want to start your journey in that basic and yet most advanced art, or if you want to revitalize the things that you learned long ago, but which you need to pick up again in order to progress onward.

not all systems explode

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Karate Kata: The Translation from Pinan to Heian

Posted on June 5, 2011 by | Leave a comment


What does a Karate Kata mean? It’s a dance, it’s a book of techniques, it’s a method for controlling and teaching large numbers of people without the need for data. It’s zen, it’s one thing at a time, it’s a belt arrangement system.
It’s a recent invention that dates back two thousand years…and it shows you exactly and precisely and where to place them clodhoppers you call feets. It’s data arranged out of order in a set sequence. Whatever they are, do them long enough and you will know Karate.
Well, maybe. Maybe not. After all if Gichin Funakoshi is to be believed, Karate is changing and changing…here is his direct quote.
“Hoping to see Karate included in the universal physical education taught in our public schools, I set about revising the kata so as to make them as simple as possible. Times change, the world changes, and obviously the martial arts must change too. The Karate that high school students practice today is not the same Karate that was practiced even as recently as ten years ago [this book was written in 1956], and it is a long way indeed from the Karate I learned when I was a child in Okinawa.”
The classical Kata attributed to Gichin Funakoshi are called Heian. This writer learned, from a lineage other than the Japanese, Karate forms called Pinan. And there were distinct and stark differences between the two.
The Heian are violent, forward stancing, explosive, in your face, one punch one kill. The Pinan have focus in the fist, work out of the more defensive back stance, modify the explosion exactly to the work being performed, are subtle and polite, and believe in getting along with your fellow man.
Of course, my bias holds, the Pinans are better. They were created before the young turks of the Japanese college system altered them for tournaments and power and fighting and power and glory and power and…well, power. The Pinans were created before lust was in vogue.
Of course, that said, this writer’s bias taken into account, one can modify the forms back to the way they were. All one has to do is adjust the angles and modify the mind. Ahh, modify the mind…perhaps it is not possible…but one can hope.
If you would like to view the original Pinans, maybe even take a free Karate lesson, try Learn Karate Online.

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How Violent Should Karate Be?

Posted on May 20, 2011 by | Leave a comment

How Violent Should Karate Be? It’s an interesting question, you know? Check out the video, then I’ll give you an answer that’ll sizzle your pants!

Two things brought me to this question this blog.
One, I was teaching a fellow this past week, and he hesitated, and I suddenly snapped…’Kill him! What the F do you think this is about?’
The look in his eyes, I knew I had tweaked him.
His parents tell him to be polite, society tells him to hug trees, Rodney King says we got to get along…excuse my French, but…BS!
One, my parents weren’t always right,
Two, we can grow more trees, so cuts the F-ers down.
Three, Rodney King said what he said because he didn’t know the martial arts and he suffered a bad beat down.
Look, get up in the morning, swagger, get in an argument with somebody….don’t compromise…win it! There is nothing wrong with winning, especially if the other guy is an idiot. And if you lose, then you were an idiot for getting in an argument when you didn’t know what you were talking about.
That brings us to the second point. I came across this quote…
“Where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.”
Who do you think said it?
Ghengis Khan? John Wayne? John Wayne Gacy?
Who said it was…Ghandi.
that’s right, Mr. Peacenik himself.
My, peel the onion and there’s no end to the tears.
So, I believe in peace, I believe in fat babies and happy mothers. But I don’t believe in getting along at all costs, compromising my ideals and values, and living a life of S*** just because somebody says…’we all get to get along!’
Remember that when you practice your martial arts, and I hope that answers all questions as to how violent Karate should be. Check out my new website, Learn Karate Online. It’s got the most kick ass course you could imagine!

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