BODYBUILDING NUTRITION BASICS

When we consider the best martial arts forms we are speaking of those martial arts kata that result in a the most benefit to the student. To be honest, I usually recommend learning as many kata as possible, then working on the ones that the student prefers, although there can be oddities in this approach. I also hold that one should learn whole arts, first taekwondo, then karate, then kung fu, and so on.

The kebons are good, basic kata taught in both karate styles and taekwondo styles. Though there are three to five of these introductory patterns, I don’t usually count them as forms because they are actually the ABCs of the martial arts.

The next batch of forms to consider would be the Taekwondo Taeguks. These are basic forms, a bit more advanced than the kebons, but not as advanced as the Pinans (Heians). Though they take a few moves from the Pinans, they serve them up as straight block and counter moves, no inherent throws or weapons, and no real generation of internal energy.

After the taeguk patterns one should move directly into the Pinan forms from the Shotokan system, the shito ryu system, and other Japanese martial styles. The Pinan kata are actually designed more for weapons defenses and disarms, though not many people know that. The idea here is that one studies the Taeguk patterns for hand to hand combat, then moves into the Pinans for a basic understanding of weapons disarms, and the beginnings of chi building.

After the Pinans I recommend the three forms from Pan Gai Noon, which is the base art of Uechi ryu Karate, and which are actually three extremely hard core kung fu forms. These three forms are sanchin, seisan, and sanseirui, though sanseirui is considered more of a show form. These three unique kata are specifically designed to generate internal energy.

Sanchin teaches a student to bolt the body/motor down to the ground. There are not a lot of moves in it, but the moves are perfectly designed for adapting hard energy to excellent self defense moves.

Sanchin may be the power form, but seisan is the technique kata. This form takes the power of sanchin and transfigures it into (probably) 13 specific self defense moves. These are all based on one specific move called wa uke, which is a circle block with a flesh tearing grab on the end.

So, taekwondo to karate to kung fu; Kebons to Taeguk to Pinans to Sanchin and seisan. This arrangement of martial arts forms provides the student with the absolute best and most complete sequence of classical training there is. Other forms can and should be studied, but this is the heart of the art right here.

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Morihei Uyeshiba, O Sensei of Aikido Art, is the martial artist who attained enlightenment. It is he who codified his martial art, thus, the aikido Ueshiba originated is the actual Aikido. Uh, sort of.

This question, concerning the nature of the Real Aikido, is the question that confuses students of Japanese Aikido, budo aikido, and all the various offshoots. There are so many different schools, you see, and they can’t all be the truth, right? And this question, of there being many variations and interpretations, does itself question the validity of the Aikido of schools everywhere, for if the founder was right, then how could there be interpretation?

The question, of course, can be answered, if one considers the truth of the universe. Morihei Uyeshiba, you see, saw the truth of the universe from his viewpoint, and he did an amazing job of representing that truth with his art. But if one considers the truth of the universe as a pure datum one can approach the art from a personal viewpoint of enlightenment, and not just from one man’s viewpoint of enlightenment.

Just so you know, I mean no disrespect to the founder of Aikido, indeed, I have the highest regard, and I believe he would want me to question, and not just robot the techniques as the end all. He was not one to do aikido robotically, after all, he was an innovator of genius magnitude. I think he would want real students to duplicate him on that level, as well as the level of endless and intense practice.

That all said, the truth of the universe, as represented by the yin yang symbol, and stated Neutronically, is: for something to be true the opposite must also be true. We can take this statement and dissect it endlessly in the philosophical context. The art being one of action, and action ultimately revealing the true truth, we must consider the truth of the universe as it applies to techniques, from the aikido basics up.

When an attacker attacks, the defender must perceive the attack. To perceive the attack not as just an incoming line, though that is necessary, but as a completed technique in his own mind. Thus, the defender must see the entire picture of the attack, must have the entire sequence of pictures in his mind.

Once the image is complete, and at the same time as it is happening, the defender must mirror it. Right to right or right to left, the mirror of the aggressive technique will fit the attack as a tailored glove will fit a hand, and the defensive attack will envelope the actuality of the aggressive motion. If this is done correctly, then you are doing the Morihei Uyeshiba Aikido as perceived in his moment of enlightenment.

There is perfection in this visualization and realization, you see. Perfection of action, and of mind, and of art. The good news is that this procure can be applied to the art of Saito Aikido, Aikido Aikikai, or any other interpretation of the founder’s vision in existence, the founder’s viewpoint was that close to perfection.

The best DVD for exploring the concept presented in this article is Matrix Aikido, which is available at Monster Martial Arts. 4

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To find and develop Karate as a True Art, and this would include Shotokan, Goju, Uechi, or various other types of the art, one should always look to the techniques. The bunkai are the kata made real, they are concepts made to work. They are the heart of the monster that is The True Art.

The first step, in making your art work, is to stand firmly. The forms teach a variety of stances, and how to get into them from a variety of directions and previous postures. So one should practice the patterns until this concept of transitioning from stance to stance can be done without thought.

The second step, if you are going to make the karate forms real, is to make sure your limbs are in functional positions. There are many arm positions in the martial arts techniques where your limbs cannot support weight enough to make the technique work. You must examine your form and change arm positions until they become functional in real world situations.

The third step is to have proper body alignment between hand and foot. The body is a chain of muscles and bones from stance to impact, and you must make sure that every piece of the body is in the proper place. The old saying, a chain is as strong as its weakest link, comes to mind.

The fourth step if you are going to make karate moves become significant, is to work on your breathing. Breathing should be relaxed, but intent upon keeping the abdomen taut, especially upon striking, or getting struck. Breathing simply for the sake of breathing, as is done in the art of Goju Ryu Karate, must be inspected for real function, and possibly altered if you are going to have real martial arts self defense.

The fifth and final step, and ultimately the most important, is that you must have Coordinated Body Motion (CBM) when you move your body. You must synchronize all motion, taking into account the length and mass of every muscle and limb, and the entire body. You must understand how this all relates to timing, and you must make your body motions assume this harmonious timing.

One of the more fascinating facts is that martial arts fighting has very little to do with finding The True Art. As a matter of fact, fighting tends to disrupt the concentration that is necessary to put the pieces together that will resurrect your martial art. This piece of knowledge is something that the old masters knew, and not just because they were old.

Any art can be a great art, but it always requires a great sensei, and a great student. The purpose of this bit of writing has been to educate students to be their own great teachers. Ultimately, your progress is up to you, and if you understand that then it will be easy to use Karate techniques to find the True Art.

You can get a lot more information on how to make your art work through the use of application at Monster Martial Arts. Pick up a free ebook while you’re at Monster Martial Arts 4

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I doubt whether most martial arts training halls, be they Goju Ryu or Mixed Martial Arts or Jujitsu or whatever, have ever had a crazy guy in their school like Mud Car. We called him Mud Car because that’s what his license plates on his automobile stated. That vehicle, more than just about anything else, told the story of Mud Car.

He had tied parachute webbing across the insides of his car because he felt that that material was best for holding his car together on the inside. He had fire extinguishers fastened to every surface on the inside of his car. He had a dial on his dashboard to give extra power to his tail lights, and he turned it whenever he faced away from the sun so that drivers behind him could see when he braked.

This was just the surface of it all, though. The most impressive thing that Mud Car did was commit to memory the times of all the stop lights in San Jose. He could travel across that large town without ever hitting a stop light.

Unfortunately, when it came to Karate, he was just as crazy. He couldn’t stretch, couldn’t control his body, and, because he had no control, it hurt to work with him. Just being around him you could feel the sparks in his mind shooting into the cosmos.

One day, in class, he interrupted the instructor to complain about a pain in his shin. “It doesn’t hurt, but it keeps bothering me, do you know how to make the pain in my shin go away?” My instructor looked at me with rage in his eyes, I suppose he didn’t want to look at Mud Car because he would murder him, and he said, “Hit your leg with a lead pipe…that’ll make the pain go away.”

I suppose the ability to drive the people around oneself crazy is the deciding factor in this matter of whether a person is crazy or not. At any rate, Mud Car was never promoted to Black Belt. He just didn’t have the maturity.

One day, however, a new instructor came to the school, and Mud Car was promoted to Black Belt within a month…and then he left the school. He had achieved his goal, and that was all he wanted, and the new instructor knew that was the best and most efficient way to get rid of Mud Car. Yet, I missed Mud Car.

He was nuts, but so is the guy who goes after you on the mean streets, so if you could last a session with Mud Car without getting hurt, you knew your art was working. Furthermore, there was a shift of standard here, for Mud Car had been promoted to black belt because he could drive people nuts, not because he was a competent martial artist. Finally, I think that is where the True Art started disappearing from the martial arts training halls of America…schools, even dojos like classical hung gar or Parker Kenpo or classical Aikido, did not administer soothing discipline to the insane, they just promoted them to get rid of them.

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I learned this type of kick some forty years ago in Kwon Bup Korean Martial Arts. This was the forerunner of modern day Tae KwonDo, and the unfortunate truth is that these kicks aren’t practiced anymore. Why, I don’t know, because this type of kick is the hardest kick, the fastest kick you will ever see.

I call this move, doesn’t what martial art you do, the pop kick. Whether you do a snap, a side, or a wheel, the basic principle doesn’t change. You replace the left foot with the right foot, and kick with the left foot…this all has to occur at the same instant.

By same time I mean that the left foot and the right foot start together, and the right foot hits the ground at the same time the left foot impacts. By doing it in this fashion the whole body gets smaller at the same time, then the whole body explodes. This causes a very pure energy pop in the energy center, which is a point a couple of inches below the navel, which is also called the tan tien.

In addition to the purity of explosion you will feel in the energy center, which will tend to concentrate energy in the kick, you will experience a sudden weight on your standing leg at the same moment you experience weight in the leg you are kicking with. This sudden weight tends to make the explosion of energy very precise, even as it increases the violence. This will really increase the energy of your technique.

If you are executing this move with a snap kick, make sure you get the knee high up so that the foot doesn’t slide up the front of the target, but rather comes in straight. If you are doing a side kick, make sure that the weight of the hips really goes into the target. If you are doing a wheel kick, make sure you get the hips and kick up to a true horizontal plane.

The fourth technique would be a spin pop to the rear, and uses the side kick. You would practice all four kicks against a wall, learning how to lift legs simultaneously, and place the feet on the wall and the ground at the same time. You don’t have to hit the wall with power, save that for a bag, control will actually give you more power in the end.

We used to have all kinds of entry moves to make these kicks work. We would angle our stance as we slapped the attacker’s hands, and the we would do it subtle, and then be in the kick before the target knew what we were doing. As we invested time and sweat the explosion would get more pure and more full of energy.

Make sure you use this technique in a variety of stances, and you will have a much larger arsenal of martial arts weapons. This is a great technique to practice, and it is born of the successful merger of karate power and TKD kicks. Japanese martial arts or Korean martial arts, this is the hardest kick, and the fastest kick, and perhaps the most effective leg technique I know.

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This Korean Karate trick is one of the most powerful tricks you will ever find. As simple as it is, it requires perfect and exact timing, and a number of little bits and pieces I’m about to tell you about. Understanding these little points, and drilling the thing a bit, and you are going to have one of the most powerful tools in your martial arts arsenal.

I discovered the technique in the form Pinan Five, it happens right after you execute a crescent kick and low block. You are now standing in a horse stance, and you swing the right arm to cover the left side of the body with a weird, fingers pointed palm block. You then execute a left punch to the left, and that is your power punch.

You can do this move exactly as it is in the form, and it will work with plenty of power. But there are ways to adjust it to make even more power, and to make it even more functional. And we want more functional, because we want to understand this technique so well that we can use it in street situations.

Have your partner stand in front of you, handshake apart. Have him step forward with his right leg and punch to your face with his right hand. You step back with your left foot into a back stance as you do a palm block with your left hand, this causes your partner’s right hand to pass in front of you, and this sets up his body for the counterpunch.

To counter, turn the hips and feet into a horse stance as you execute a right punch to his body. Now, this has got to be snappy, and you have to sink your weight and snap those hips, and you are going to find that this technique, if executed correctly, is going to smash his ribs to splinters. In addition, if you happen to go precise, and this will happen naturally over time, you can stick your fingers into his armpit.

The point that must be remembered is that you must have perfect CBM, Coordinated Body Motion. This means that all parts of the body move at the same time and in harmony. Thus, you strike with a couple of hundred pounds of body weight (assuming you weigh a couple of hundred pounds), and not twenty pounds of arm weight.

In addition, you must set the stance at the exact and correct distance so that your arm is nearly straightened out, only has a couple of inches to extend, when you make contact. If you decide to use the fingers, go slower, and add fingertip push ups to your work outs. If you decide to go deep, you can set your legs so that your punched out arm can sweep him over your horse.

I always found this to be an intoxicating trick, quick and easy, and I love the feeling of moving in quick and light and then dropped the deep power into the last snap of the fist. The damage to that mugger is going to be wonderful, and it is very usable on the street, and can be adjusted or modified as one needs. The official monicker for this trick, in my system, which is a slight modification of Korean Karate, is The Power Punch, hope you like it.

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I want the kicks and punches of Jet Li, as athletic and accident resistant as Jackie Chan, and as humble as myself. Now, I’ve seen all the programs out there, I know all I have to do is work through a bone breaking sweat for a few years, and I will achieve my peak potential. Either that or join the spetznatz.

Well, maybe I have taken this a bit far, but there is good news to be had here. The good news is that your body, with a little work, is capable of incredible speed and power and athleticism. The trick is not changing it, but letting it unchange into original DNA structure.

First, you need to change the way you eat. Don’t go insane here, just cancel ALL fast foods, and start eating lots of veggies. When that sugar bowl starts calling, go get a watermelon or a smoothie or something like that. I don’t recommend tossing out all meat, just eating more moderate portions, and maybe ordering more turkey and fish and such instead of those big, juicy T bones.

Now the fun starts. A basic get in shape regimen starts with simple calisthenics, like walking, jumping jacks, a little rope jumping, and that sort of thing, and then progresses into deep squats, dive bomber push ups, and that sort of thing. Actually, I have come to believe in yoga as a very viable and gentle (at least in the beginning) way of putting the body in shape.

Now, the best calisthenic you can do, in this writer’s humble opinion, is the martial arts. The martial arts offer a complete variety of body motion, leaping, twisting, ducking, jumping, skipping, stepping, and so on. Furthermore, they bring you to an understanding of energy, as well as muscle, and this elevates the game to whole new levels.

The message that I am sending your way is that it takes very little work to make your body into what it is supposed to be, it just takes common sense and a modicum of gentle discipline. As you follow the principles I have outlined here, you will realize that you don’t need bulging muscles to get the job done, you just need to streamline your body and make it work the the way it is supposed to work. This concept–using the body in the correct manner–is the key to the matter.

The PE courses in school do not tell you how to use your body, they just get you to throw the ball to your friends, they help you socially. When you start to Matrix your body, which is usually through the principle of learning how the muscles are set up, what direction they are supposed to move in, and, most important, how to make them work together, that is when true efficiency begins, That is when you are going to realize that your body is just a tool, and you can hone that instrument as you wish.

The key, of course, whether you are studying Hapkido, Jujitsu, or any other art, is to apply Matrixing to it. Matrixing is nothing more than the process of studying and analyzing motion …physics. And, when you take apart the martial arts moves of people like Bruce Lee or Tonny Jaa, you are going to find that they are absolute students of physics, which is nothing more than rudimentary Matrixing.

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Power, in the Martial Arts, especially martial arts like Tae Kwon Do or Gung Fu is often measured by how hard you can hit. Thus, people strike the punching bag and the Makiwara, and they do push ups to strengthen their arms, and…and they are doing it all wrong. You see, there is one critical factor that they don’t understand, and so all their push ups and punches are having less effect than they would wish.

I want to emphasize something here…and I can only do that by asking you one specific question. Where, in your strike, do your arms bear the most weight? The answer is obvious, they bear it when the arm is nearly extended at the end of the strike.

So why do you need to work your limb across the whole range of motion from the floor? Being strong at the beginning or middle of the hit is not where you need the strength. Concentrating your work out through the whole range of motion is not putting energy into the exact part of the punch where you need it.

So, when you do a work out, make it gentle and general, and build up your body and your arms as a whole unit, then concentrate your efforts on the end of the punch where you need it. This is easy to do, you can do it for just about any exercise in existence. All you have to do the motion of the exercise where the arm is nearly extended, and concentrate your training on that part of the exercise.

Let’s say you’re doing a push up. Do the push up until your arms are nearly extended, then do go to town. Do as many six inch push ups with the arms nearly extended, as you can, fast, concentrating on keeping your belly tight.

Here’s the point of it all, you need to concentrate the work out, and feel the power, in your shoulders. When you punch something the jolt of impact is going to go up your arms and directly into the shoulders. Thus, it is the shoulders that must become strong and dense, it is the shoulders, as felt in the last six inches of the push up, that must be built up.

For a good punch you need thick and dense shoulders, so perform the six inch push up I have detailed here, and do it throughout the day, until the muscles of the shoulders become as dense and enduring as the leg muscles of a marathon runner. It’s odd that people have never thought of what I am telling you here, and I scratch my head at it. I suppose the problem is that people are taught how to exercise in one manner, and never actually look at the exact goal they are trying to accomplish.

So do those ‘end of the arm six inch push ups like they are going out of style. Do them and breath and put your awareness in your shoulders, letting your shoulders lightly bulk and become densely strong. This is the way you develop a punch that is stronger than the next fellow’s, this is how you have the most powerful punch in the world.

Al Case, The Doctor of the Punch, has studied martial arts 4O years. If you want the straight goods on how to build the most powerful punch in the world, pay him a visit at Punch ‘Em Out.

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Many people walk to the corner mall, walk into their Korean Martial Arts dojo, and train in nice, neat uniforms, watching themselves in wall sized mirrors, kick soft and well hung bags, and think that they are doing hard core Tae Kwon Do. These people should learn some beginnings of Korean Karate. They will find that that polite block and kick combo they are practicing was born in hell, perfected in hades, and then things got nasty.

Just to let you know, this bit of scribble is speaking of the history of the kwans from Korea of the fifties. This includes the nine major kwans, which are Sung Moo Kwan, Chang Moo Kwan, Chung Du Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Yun Moo Kwan, Han Moo Kwan, Oh Do Kwan, Kang Duk Won, Jung Do Kwan. There are other Kwans that grew from these nine, but these nine are the main ones.

Korea is a rugged, little spit of land, about half the size of California,sticking out from the Asian continent. It is a land equal in plains and eternal mountain ranges. It experiences extremes of typhoonal rains, siberian cold, and brain broiling heat.

Throughout its history, Korea has been embroiled in countless wars. The Japanese held sway during the first half of the last century, and in the early fifties Korea became the battleground between the free world and communist forces. Thus, this small bit of land came under the boot heel of million man armies, and the people were in constant flight, or killed outright.

The communist forces attacked first, causing a mass exodus the length of the peninsula. Peasants were made part of the vast communist army, given no weapons, and put into massive meat grinder attacks. If the peasants survived the exodus, or being forced to fight, they had to endure a winter with temperatures often at 30 degrees below zero.

Those that managed to survive the winters, and the spring offensive of the United Nations armies, continued with their study of the martial arts. That’s right, during all the death and disease, in spite of the weather and starvation, the nine kwans survived. Indeed, they thrived.

One tale that made me drop jaw in awe of these incredible people was that, when the war front approached, the students would pick up the planks of their dojos and head south. That’s right, they didn’t even nail the boards to the floor beams, because they knew they would have to flee, and they perfected their jumping, spinning kicks on unsecured, splintered, weathered boards. Got a splinter between your toes…pick it out and keep going, because that’s the martial arts.

So enjoy the fur lined bags and gaudy mirrors, and toast your designer water in appreciation. That Korean Karate you are studying was built by gods, and it is a legacy dripping with blood and death and tears. And when you bow…kow tow to the floor, your ancestors deserve it.

Al Case has delved into Korean martial arts 4O plus plus+ years. He has written a book and produced a video on the Kang Duk Won, and it is available at Monster Martial Arts.

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The first time I ever read someones mind was in San Francisco. My wife and I were wandering through the stores in Chinatown, and we entered a shop where a grumpy faced old Chinese lady sat on a stool in a corner. As we peered at the goods, the grumpy one snapped at her daughter, “Look, look, look, everybody just look!”

We left the store, and I asked my wife, “Did you hear what that old lady said?” “How could I,” answered my wife. “She was speaking in Chinese.”

The old lady had spoken in her old tongue, and I had heard her in English. In essence, I had peered into her mind and perceived her thoughts in my language. And I had this ability, I intuitively knew, because I had been studying the martial arts.

The mind is like a big radio transmitter, but it transmits, and picks up, thoughts. The sad fact, however, is that the mind is always full of static. Children can usually read minds, but they outgrow the ability and don’t even remember it when they are adults.

In the martial arts you use the discipline of the body to clear out the distractions and static. You do this by focusing on making the moves of your form perfect. Eventually, the distractive static goes away, and the original ability to read minds is once again unleashed.

The problem, of course, is that the martial arts are so messed up that it is difficult to find a form, or series of forms, that work well anymore. Oddly, almost any form can work in this manner, if it is properly analyzed, and tweaked so that it is scientific and true. This normally takes a tremendous amount of work, occurring over decades, but the process can be speeded up if one learns the proper science.

Interestingly, the old Taoist writings of such arts as Tai Chi and other Wudang arts, speak of being like a child in your approach to the world. I also saw mention of this concept in works of Zen Buddhism. Unfortunately, by the time one resurrects this ability one has become old.

At any rate, the old tales are true, the martial arts really do work, and in ways far removed from fighting. Indeed, though the martial arts teach people how to defend themselves, things like reading minds is the real start. And the start of this start, for most people, is simply walking through the doors of that neighborhood dojo and learning a little Karate or Tai Chi or Aikido.

Al Case, 4O years studying martial arts, has written a free ebook which explains the Martial Technology for fixing the martial arts. It is available at his website, Monster Martial Arts.

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