Sports News

Posts Tagged ‘kenpo’

The very first move of Karate, as taken from the first Heian or Pinan form, is a step to the side with a low block. But Karate was not designed for blocking. Yes, there are blocks in the art, and it can be adapted to blocking and striking modes, but it was not designed for blocking except by the way.

Karate was designed to guard the ruler of the island of Okinawa. The Imperial bodyguards trained to use their art in a room filled with a variety of different warriors. Soldiers with different weapons and ways of fighting, while the Okinawans had no arms to rely on.

Thus, would you really block a samurai sword with a high block? Would you try to deflect a bullet with a shuto? Because these were the real weapons that the Imperial bodyguards had to confront.

Consider also that the first order given troops in such a situation, if they were to attempt to kidnap the king of Okinawa, would be to restrain the bodyguards. This means that samurai would step forward and grab wrists, perhaps preparatory to tying the hands of the bodyguards, or merely moving them from the throne room, or otherwise controlling them. And this means that the first defense of the bodyguards, as described by the first technique in karate training, would be to step in, dropping the weight and arm, thus escaping from the technique, and possibly head butting those who tried to grab them.  Read more...

There are times in life when it seems as if you have read someones mind. Maybe you just blurt out the same sentence at the same time, or have the same thought on a place to eat. Sometimes, however, it is as if you have looked into somebodys actual thought process and know what they are thinking.

The martial arts enhance this procedure, and a good martial art does it fast. Indeed, if you aren’t effectively reading minds after a year or two, there is probably something wrong with your martial art. At the very least, you should look into applying some principles from Matrix Martial Arts and straightening it out.

The first time you realize that you can look into somebody elses mind is usually during freestyle. You intuitively know what technique your opponent is considering using, and, as time goes on, you begin fitting intuitive responses to whatever he does. Many people think this is because of the freestyle, but it is really because of the forms that you have been perfecting in your martial arts.  Read more...

If you are studying a well established martial art, especially karate based, and often Shaolin based, then you are probably removing yourself from your body. The odd thing is that many artists don’t know that they are actually removing themselves from their body. They shift their viewpoint to outside the body, and they don’t know that their experience is unique and different from other people.

By getting out of your body I don’t mean floating intelligence wafting through the universe. I merely mean that you are a little behind your head, not quite sure where your viewpoint is, but know that it is not from your eyes or in your skull. This often leads to increased intensity and abilities in your day to day living.

The surest way to make this happen is to just keep doing your forms. Like a truck driver who lets his mind wander while doing a long drive, the karateka, or kung fu stylist, just gets comfortable, and slowly starts looking at the world in a different way. He starts looking at his body and realizing that he is not his body, that his arms are a little longer.  Read more...

If you are into the Martial Arts just to beat people up, to beer over the latest UFC results, this article is not for you. If, however, you think the martial arts are a vehicle to become not just physically and mentally stronger, but maybe even enable you to evolve as a human being, then this is the article for you. This is a straightforward and logical look at the three major steps necessary to evolution through the martial arts.

The first step of Karate, or whatever martial art you study, is the level of the body. This is nothing more than making sure your body parts are in relative working condition. To get started on the first level of the martial arts one need merely know that, on a body level, the martial arts are rather fantastic calisthenics.

To make if from the first level to the second level, however, one needs to accomplish a concept which I have taken the liberty of labeling CBM. In the past masters would refer to this concept as utilizing the body as one unit, which was correct, but not always accurate in description. CBM means Coordinated Body Motion, and it is when the body parts all work together in synchronized fashion.  Read more...

We all want to have the hardest punch it is possible to have. We want to know that, in the event of muggery, thuggery or downright nasty behaviour, we can get the job done. What we don’t want is to be on the receiving end of a world class face smacker.

The fellow who delivered this dastardly strike, it was actually a kick, was my friend and fellow karate classmate. His name was Gary, and we were freestyling, and I threw a kick, he parried, and he side kicked me in the ribs. It was a powerful, classic strike, and I could feel my ribs bending, and it was the hardest strike I had ever experienced in the martial arts.

Truth, to this day, I have no idea why my ribs didn’t break. But I couldn’t breath, couldn’t talk, and I should have stopped and taken a breather, told Gary to kick with less force, seen to my protection. Being young, dumb, and full of…vigor, I continued.

Cleverly, I turned to the other side and continued with my freestyle. I kept my range, circled around Gary, used good strategy, and after a minute I could breath. Then I did something that wasn’t too bright, I attacked.  Read more...

I can put out a candle with a martial arts power at about two feet now. This article is about the techniques I have been working with. I’m hoping other people out there will want to share their methods, and we can all start putting out candles from across the room.

Now, just to be clear, it is a trick, but it does have valuable benefits. Concentration improves, and you learn different things about how the body can be used. The body and the mind, after all, are tools that we have barely begun to understand how to use.

First things first, there is a very cheap shot way of putting out a candle. If you flick the finger in front of the flame, the flick is enough to disrupt the oxygen and make the flame die. Try it, just hold the hand a few inches back of the candle, then flick the finger as if you are merely snapping the fingers, as if you are flicking off water, and do it on the flame.  Read more...

It makes no sense to let an attacker get close enough to punch. If he’s got a knife or club, or just a fist that is fast, the best strategy is to kick low and hard and keep him out of range. The problem is that many Tae Kwon Do schools do not teach the right way to use the legs.

A couple of things to remember before we get into making your kicks into powerful tools of destruction. Practice kicking high so you have strength and flexibility, but keep your kicks low in a real fight so you don’t get a leg grabbed and tossed. And, the best strategy is to avoid the fight altogether.

Practice kicking over a chair or object of similar height. This will train you to raise your knee high for the proper execution of the kick. When your knee is high your foot can go straight in and deliver the goods, and rise in an arc up the side of the body.

Turn your hips so they go into the action of the kick. Always turn, or tilt, your hips so that the weight of the hips is fully utilized. This will also give you a little more reach, and it will help commit the whole weight of the body into any technique.  Read more...

Everybody wants power! They want to be strong, able to jump in the mixed martial arts ring and toss around an attacker like a rag doll. The problem is that nobody knows what power really is.

Everybody confuses the idea of power with the size of their muscles, or strength, or other things. But power has nothing to do with strength or muscles. The actual truth is that Power has to do with stabilizing the motor that is your body.

A motor is two terminals between which there is tension. Whether it is a push or a pull, the tension between two poles creates a motor. Push on another body and you have a motor, love somebody and you have a motor, and so on from the smallest to the largest objects in this universe.

In the world of physics as we know it on this planet, a motor, unless held in place, will move as result of the forces it is creating and using. A car motor has motor mounts, brackets, which hold the machine in place, lest it flip over and fall on the ground. A helicopter has a tail rotor to hold it in place and stop it from spinning around.  Read more...

The martial arts have long been held up as a means to achieve enlightenment. Indeed, this is the goal at the end of the road for every True Martial Artist. This article is about why this is so, and to enable the reader to reach the end of that road this lifetime.

Enlightenment is when light emanates from the individual. In that light the enlightened sees the world in a different light. His perceptions are different, and he has a superior viewpoint, an enlightened viewpoint.

If enlightenment happened because of motion, then all motion would result in enlightenment. Gymnastics, ballet, swimming, all would result in an enlightened individual, but they don’t, so one must ask oneself, What is different about the Martial Arts that they result in enlightenment?

What is different is that there is fighting, and when one understands what fighting truly is, one becomes enlightened. What is the essence of this thing called fighting? One could sum up the subject by saying that when one finally understands that when he is fighting he is only fighting himself, he becomes enlightened, and a study of the martial arts does result in this realization.  Read more...

There are two paths to take in the martial arts. The directions of which I speak are sport, and art. One of these methods leads to decay, the other leads to enlightenment.

If one studies the martial arts simply as a sport, he engages in the fact of contest, and that actually defines the difference between sport and art. If one studies the martial arts as an artistic form, he is attempting to conquer the part of him which resists and fights. Subdue the self, or subdue another, these are the differences between sport and art.

If one is attempting to subdue another, he is holding the world responsible for his problems, fighting the world, not taking responsibility for what he does. Wether the accumulation of wealth, or just trying to beat somebody through a violent contest, the student is not using the art the way it was designed, as a mirror for the soul. It is the soul, the individual, the spirit, the I AM that is what the martial arts are all about, not the smacking down of somebody else.  Read more...