BODYBUILDING NUTRITION BASICS

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.

If you want to go crazy through the martial arts…drop on by Punch ‘Em Out. If you want to go sane through the martial arts…try Monster Martial Arts. 2

Al Case Fitness aikido, Fitness, gung fu, hung gar, isshin ryu, karate, kenpo, kung fu, okinawan karate, self defense, shito ryu, shotokan, sil lum, wudan

For a punch to be effective there are several necessary items. There must be sufficientfocus to a precise spot in space. It must be void of energy.

You heard me right, a punch must be empty. Most people know that the word Karate means ‘Empty Hands.’ Most people have assumed, from this, that you won’t be using weapons, but they are wrong. What the phrase really means is that the hand has no mass, that it is actually empty in a physics sense.

It is an interesting sensation to strike with no mass. Taken to its highest and purest altitude, it means that you do not feel the strike, and this is possible. This would mean that you are not really inside the body, and you are throwing the body like a big freakin’ ghost would throw a chair.

On lesser levels it means that you don’t experience the sensation of weight. Why can a child bend his legs and run under a table with no effort, when if you bent your legs and did the same thing it would take tremendous effort? Because the child hasn’t absorbed the concept of weight, yet.

So how do you learn the concept of having no weight? You do it by training yourself mentally. You train the mind to have the body follow directions, and this is done easily through the simple fact of forms.

People who don’t think much of of forms haven’t done them sufficient to see what happens at the end. You become lightly removed from your body when you master a form, and you experience different perceptions when it comes to motion. It is very interesting feel the whistling sensation of being an object thrown through space when you do a form.

The good news is that this is a pleasant sensation, and yet, when done in a strike, it results in the most unimaginable damage to an opponent you…never imagined. Simply, he doesn’t have a defense for something that is apart from the body, and the body of the universe, and seems to slip between time and perception. This, incidentally, is the feeling of Mushin no shin, mind of no mind.

When you practice doing your art with no weight, your body is still going to weigh the same, and then some, when impacted upon an opponent. Taking your mind away from considering weight doesn’t mean that the weight isn’t there. Actually, it is even more there, because when you think weightless, and move weightless, you move faster, and he will anticipate accordingly.

Al Case Fitness break boards, break bricks, break coconuts, exercise, Fitness, goju ryu, iron palm, karate, kung fu, shaolin, shito ryu, uechi ryu, wado ryu

One of my favorite books is Zen and the Art of Archery, by Eugene Herrigel. In this book, Mr, Herrigel goes to Japan in search of zen enlightenment. He is guided into the practice of archery in this seeking.

The reason he is guided into archery is because, according to the people who teach zen, zen is too difficult for a westerner. Not being of the Japanese culture, it would be to difficult for him to understand the concepts. Through the practice of archery, however, he might be able to make some headway with zen concepts.

Mr. Herrigel practices archery diligently. He stands with a tall bow, calms himself, and experiences nothing but frustration. Heck, he can’t even hit the target, let alone find his own soul.

The sensei, understanding his frustration, takes pity, and invites him over to his house for some personal instruction. The teacher is a font of wisdom and zen, but Mr. Herrigel, is still ensconced in his frustration. The sensei, realizing drastic measures are called for, takes Mr. Herrigel out to his personal archery range.

They stand on a range that is about a hundred feet, and the teacher instructs Mr. Herrigel to light a candle between the firing line and the target. The candle lit, Mr. Herrigel is instructed to turn off the lights. In the deep darkness, with only a single candle glowing fifty feet away, the teacher fires an arrow and puts out the candle.

Mr. Herrigel, standing in darkness, is astonished. Never has he seen such a magnificent display of archery, to put out a candle at fifty feet! Good Lord!

The teacher merely says to turn on the lights, and then has Mr. Herrigel retrieve his arrow. Mr. Herrigel runs down to the end of the range to look for the arrow. He finds it…in the center of the target.

To put out a candle and hit a target, using only the light of the candle. To master a martial art and plumb the depths of soul. To find the brilliance of yourself on a darkened night, this is zen, and this is what is at the heart of the Martial Arts.

Al Case Fitness aikido, Fitness, goju ryu, ishin ryu, karate, kenpo, kung fu, ninja, self defense, shito ryu, shotokai, shotokan, uechi ryu, wado ryu