Is Classical Martial Arts Better Than MMA?
Now, obviously, we are going to have a difference of opinion, the main thing is can we come up with some facts, or at least opinions so well grounded, that belief in one system is superior to another? I believe it is possible.
First, there is sport v art. In a sport one fights an opponent. In an art, one is in conflict, and thus attempting to resolve conflict, with oneself.
Second, there is the question of control. In a classical art one is attempting to control ones body, ones opponent, and ones own spirit. In MMA one is all too often just attempting to knock somebody’s face in.
Thus far, the edge seems to be headed in the classical direction. In attempting to control ones own self there is a high ground, after all. This is not to say, however, that the MMA school of thought does not have considerable attributes and qualities.
The main consideration, UFC stylists would argue, is whether an art works in the dark alley, and in this they would appear to posssess an edge. After all, the face smashing, body twisting, leg breaks that one perceives in the octagon is definitely useful for self defence. This writer, however, is not completely convinced of the argument.
In the ring rules are present. No fingers to the eyes, strikes to the coconuts, small joint twisting, punching the back of the skull, and so on. These are the techniques that a classical practitioner might veer towards in a street encounter.
Thus, in the final tally, while experience with violence, such as one might find in the MMA ring, has a definite edge, this writer is still going to stick with the classical. After all, in traditional martial arts one learns how to fight without getting mugged, and there are lessons to be learned outside of violence, and which can actually de-escalate conflicts. Choose which you wish, be true to your choice, both classical martial arts and MMA have much to offer.
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Where Did The Martial Arts Come From?
As one might expect, I was quite surprised by my co-workers viewpoint, the Philippines were famous for their martial arts, and so I tracked him down and queried him further. “Why do you think the martial arts are so bad?” I asked. This is the anecdote he told me.
“One day I decide I need know martial arts, so I go outside and hit tree. I chop like so (he did a downward chop, as if hammering down on somebody’s forehead), and a I chop and I chop. I do this karate two hour a day for two year.
“One weekend my neighbor have crazy party, and three in morning I go ask him to turn music down. He laugh at me, so I karate him. I chop his face and he turn upside down, so I go home and worry I kill him…that why Karate bad!”
I didn’t l reveal my grin, because he was serious, he really thought that karate was bad, and didn’t understand that his bizarre method of training, and his own lack of control, might have something to do with the art ‘being bad.’ But his story led me to wonder where and how the martial arts had been invented. I mean, the fighting disciplines are as old as the world’s second oldest profession, so how did they come about?
They came into being because somebody wanted to take something away from somebody, and they came from somebody wanting to stop somebody from taking something away from him. This is the same as lawyerism, but applied to the actual hit and punch that occurs when politics breaks down. Eventually, the idea of taking something away from somebody, or protecting your property from somebody reached the levels of armies and weapons of mass destruction.
The idea that what you have belongs to me, and I don’t have to pay you no stinkin’ money…that is where the martial arts came from. And people train to war, and steal money and property and wives and whatever else they covet. And, oddly, as my previous words indicate, the solution to this avarice and misbegotten art is…in the study of the true art.
You practice the art to be able to protect yourself, and in that practice you discover the truth of yourself…you realize your self worth, and the idea that you are honorable and suddenly you don’t have to fear others, or that they might take from you. On the day that every person on earth practices the martial arts immorality and war stop, and on that day everybody will know why the martial arts were invented. They come from inside, from the spirit within, from the honor that pulses with every beat of your heart and every breath you expel.
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A Very Intriguing Method For Making Martial Arts Chi
So we have a two part question here: how do you make chi, and how do you use it? Interestingly, the second is the answer to the first. Unfortunately, this results in a catch 22…how do you use it if you can’t make it, how do you make it if you can’t use it?
To solve this mystery let me give you an internal exercise and a drill, and see if you can solve the problem. The exercise is an old Bagua exercise named ‘Stroking the beard.’ The drill is based on the old ‘Catch hands’ game we used to play as children.
To Stroke the beard simply move the hands in medium circles, coming together at the chin and moving downward as if stroking a beard to your navel. To do this effectively you must relax your muscles, let your weight drop, breath low, and do it until you can do it with no distraction. Doing with no distraction means concentrating on only the exercise, and this is very crucial to your success.
Once you have stroked the beard for a couple of hours, find a friend and practice ‘Catch Hands.’ To do Catch Hands simply face your partner at handshake distance and let your hands relax at your sides. Your partner places his palms together and extends them in front of his body.
The object of this drill is to take your time, create lots of silence, and then catch his hands. Don’t slap at them, just catch them, like catching birds without breaking their wings, and do it gently. This simple move is the same motion needed to block or a strike, and is well worth practicing.
As you practice, over time you will become more adept at the exercise, and you will find yourself becoming calmer, jerking less, and that is when the benefits of stroking the beard are going to appear. You will find that energy flows down the center of your body and gathers at your center. It will be like a fountain that is bubbling backwards, and it will be as if energy is entering into your tan tien with every breath.
Eventually, you will be able to catch your partner’s hands easily and there will be nothing he can do about it. The important thing, though, is that you will feel the ‘universal energy’ that is chi. Keep practicing this exercise and you will experience some fascinating results, and it will be proof positive that you can create and use Martial Arts Chi.
Al Case has written a fascinating book on how to Create Chi. You can find it at Monster Martial Arts.
Quicker Reaction Time Through Traditional Martial Arts Practice
But to have a body is to have reaction time. If you conduct your self defense through a body then you have to have the time it takes to make that body work. It’s going to exist no matter what you do.
Unless, of course, you see what is happening before it happens and move with it. Or, better yet, move before it can even occur. You simply watch what is going to happen and insert your body into the desired place and time.
Training in Martial Arts techniques is going to help you do this. You create a plan, and you carry out the plan. Eventually, all actions can be predicted, eventually this carries into life, and life becomes something you can predict.
Of course, those that don’t believe this have there own way. A boxer or MMA specialist trains his body to react, but the other guy is also training his body to react, so what you have is two virtual robots bashing their bodies together, and less awareness. This is not shortening reaction time, it is increasing it, once you have been bashed enough times.
You have to be willing to face yourself and ask the question, what is reaction time, if you are going to to undo it. You are acting after something. But what?
Well, after reality has already occurred. That’s right, you are making your body do something because of something that has already happened, and thus you are already late, and thus you are a victim. You have to be a victim if you follow this path of muscle memorization, acting after something has happened means you are moving after somebody has already acted.
If you don’t want to be the victim, you have to seek out methods which do not have muscle memorization, and which short circuit reaction time. While classical martial arts practice (if you can find a pure school, and an instructor who knows what he is doing) doesn’t provide the glory, and sometimes seem a bit confusing, the fact of the matter is that they have been expressly designed to get rid of reaction times. Reality fighting methods may draw in the crowds, you will gain faster reaction time through traditional Martial Arts training.
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When It Comes To A Martial Arts Bible Several Books Have To Be Considered
The first book to be considered would be Karate Do Kyohan: The Master Text, by Gichin Funakoshi. The reason this book has to be considered is because it was the first to really offer a comprehensive look at the eastern fighting disciplines. Of course, it is slanted towards Karate, and it offers techniques and forms without real explanation, but it is a good book.
The next book to land in America with impact was the George Mattson book on Uechi Ryu. This was a huge read, offered hows and whys, and even went into some of the legends and real possibilities of the arts. While it was of more depth than Funakoshi’s epic, again, it didn’t cover grappling or throwing potentials.
Filling the space left by the first two books, and through the use of some of the most beautiful martial arts concepts ever inked, is Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere. While it goes too far in the opposite direction, not being concerned with any of the force arts, it is still a work head and shoulders above nearly all others. The book was scribbled and inked by Oliver Ratti and Adele Westbrook.
The next book on our list is Yang Family Secret Transmissions. This book is weak on form and technique, but absolutely amazing on presentation of concept. The trick is to be able to extrapolate these concepts to all arts and make them work.
One of the lesser known Martial Arts books is Taiki-ken. While the title translates as Japanese for Tai Chi Chuan, it deals more with Hsing I. Interestingly, while this book says little, it imparts huge, and it is one of those rare gems that a student must be ready for, or it will likely make no sense.
Last on the list, and the one that resides in relative obscurity, is The Master Instructor Course. It is a book, and it is accompanied by two videos which detail exactly what the author is saying. Hard or soft, intrinsic or external, striking or throwing, the author explains all, and it is an enlightenment for any who read it.
In summation, there will likely be some discussion as to what is necessary for a book to be considered a martial arts bible. Still, the writings on this list are crucial to the eastern fighting arts, and well worth the read. Of course, bible or not, all are of little value in the hands of studetns who are not willing to read, to think, and to put to work through diligent training.
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How The Various Martial Arts Create Power
The secret of Fah jing is to drop the weight into the earth, which causes a charge of energy to go up the legs and into the tan tien. This energy enters the tan tien, which causes an explosion of power to emanate from that point. The energy coursing out from this energy center can be directed and controlled into the arms, and into various martial arts techniques.
To ground one’s weight is not just jumping off a rock and landing on the earth. It is a method that will not work if one does not actually put his awareness into the action. Putting weight into the ground without awareness is like dropping an egg on the sidewalk…it just splats.
When you direct your awareness into the earth–and this is an actual perception apart from such things as eyes, ears, and so on–you will actually feel the pulse of energy in the lower body. It will feel like plasma, and you will suddenly feel a vast space and power inside your lower body. You will also become capable of motion that people only dream of.
Oddly, though the energy enters the tan tien, the whole body that becomes the storage center for the energy. The body will become a tool through which you can direct the energy coming out of from the tan tien. This is the point at which your training really starts to accelerate, because you have to analyze what geometric path the energy has to follow if you are going to put it into your martial arts techniques.
Do you generate an edge on vertical circle on one half of the body? Do you transfigure the chi from the vertical to the horizontal, then pulse it out the arm? Do you spiral it through the limbs, as would a Baqua master?
Obviously there are going to be many ways of utilizing this manifestation of energy, once you become able to make it and control it. The real point is to make your technique able to manifest the chi power easily and naturally. This is a two edged sword of physics that, to be truthful, not many martial artists teachers have been able to master.
What we are really saying, you see, is that the body is a motor, and this is a datum new to this planet and to our culture and to our martial arts. But if you can understand this data, which I call flux theory, then you will be able to do things with your chi that have, up to this point, been the stuff of legends. The golden age is on the rise, you see, and it is possible through understanding such things as martial arts fa jing.
You can find out more about fa jing and neutronics theory in Matrixing Chi by Al Case, which is available at Monster Martial Arts. 3e
Three Martial Arts Dirty Tricks You Can Win A Life And Death Street Fight With
It’s not really much of a dirty tactic in these times, at least not as much as when I was in high school, but a good, swift kick to the peaches can win a back alley brawl quicker than fast. It doesn’t require a lot of martial arts training to do this, and it will distract the thug, and maybe even end the fight. When he rushes towards you do a front kick, or simply bring the leg up and let him run into your foot, and the fight is completed.
One important item you should understand, dirty fight or not, is to not take your eyes off his. If you launch a snap kick to his silly sacks, watch his eyes, and be willing to change tactics as you must. You will find that this eyeball thing can really change the fight.
For example, as you run at him throw something in his eyes. Heck, you can even spit at his eyes, and if you can make those lids flicker, you have just increased the odds of you living and him going down for the count. Even a quick flick of the fingers, an intention to make him think you are going for the eyes, might turn the tide in your favor.
Now, let’s say the fight is hot and heavy, and you have to do something or you are going to lose. Something you won’t learn in a polite training hall, and especially not in the MMA arena, or the UFC octagon, is to go after his fingers. One of the first things we were taught, back when I was first learning freestyle, was to use a snappy backfist to his open fingers as you close the distance.
If you can make him say ow, or even damage his fingers, you’ve got an edge. Make him blink, or make it so he can’t close a fist, or use his hands to grab, and you’ve essentially destroyed his weapons. The idea here is to win the fight, to walk away from the mugging, and to leave him with a better idea of how to behave in polite society.
Now, in closing, I know these tricks aren’t much, but they are an edge. If you want more than an edge, if you want a fighting chance, you really should find and concentrate on learning Martial Arts Techniques. Heck, a little time having a blast in the dojo, and you’re going to have Karate power, or Kung Fu power, or Kenpo Power, or Taekwondo Power, or whatever kind of power you want, and whether you use martial arts dirty tricks or not, you’re going to win the street fight.
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Learning The Martial Arts Forms Art By Art
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 kata to study would be the Taeguks as taught in Tae kwon do. These are basic patterns, more advanced than the kebons, but not as advanced as the Japanese Heians (Pinans). Though they take a few moves from the Heian forms, they serve them up as straight hand to hand techniques, no secret throws or weapons disarms, and no real generation of intrinsic energy.
After the taeguk patterns one should learn the Pinan forms from the Shotokan system, the Kyokushinkai system, and other Japanese martial styles. The Pinan kata are actually designed more for weapons defenses, though not many people know this. The idea here is that one learns the Taeguks for hand to hand combat, then moves into the Pinans for a basic understanding of weapons defenses, and the beginnings of chi eneergy generation.
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 is designed to teach a student to bolt the motor down to the ground. There are not a lot of moves in it, but the moves are geometrically unique and 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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Getting A Martial Arts Black Belt In Less Than Two Years
Most systems hold to eight belt levels to black belt ranking, though a few junior belts are often added into the mix. Actually, this is too many belts, for people are kept on the runway too long. This became extremely obvious when I started teaching matrixing, for people started learning at faster rates, which upset the whole rate of learning martial arts systems.
The correct number of belt rankings should be four. This is usually a white belt, a green belt, a brown belt, and a black belt, which equates to beginner, intermediate, advanced, expert. Past that one would deal with assistant instructors and instructors.
The white belt student should learn basic forms. This would be the equivalent of kebon kata, and these kata teach nothing but basic blocks, stances, punches, and kicks. Time for learning would be 3-6 months.
The green belt should learn Pinan 1-5 (Heian 1-5). This a good mix of intermediate forms, and one will find all manner of grab arts, different and odd ways of developing blocks, more advanced kicks, and so on. Time to learn would be about a year.
A brown belt student should learn advanced patterns depending on the size and shape of his body. A larger student might consider learning sanchin, seisan and sanseirui. A smaller, more nimble student might might consider learning umbe, botsai and the Horse Kata.
The time necessary to get from brown belt to black belt would be 6 months, though, I have to admit, I often teach faster than that. I teach at a faster rate of speed because I coordinate the number of techniques to the forms, and this gives a better reality to the movements. The real trick, however, is matrixing, for that procedure tends to uncover all the hidden mysteries, and to arrange the material in a logical and much easier to learn format.
Whether you know matrixing or not, however, you should arrange your classes so that they are a couple of hours long, and you teach at least three times a week. One of the reasons martial arts schools have failed is because schools have become polite and ordered and there is no sense of urgency to learning. Quite seriously, your life could well depend on how fast you can get to a Martial Arts Black Belt.
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The Martial Arts As A Pathway To The God Concept
If one examines the writings of martial artists over the ages, one can see that there is a distinct and pervading spirituality that evolves as one studies the martial arts. This spirituality has been achieved by such luminaries as Morihei Ueshiba, and is available to all who are willing to follow a set series of steps. Following are the distinct steps that one must follow.
The doing of martial arts patterns and technique provide a discipline beyond what is experienced in the work a day world. This discipline reaches far beyond the same old same old world of public education, and right into the spirit motivating the body. This discipline, if followed, will liberate the spirit quite effectively.
Knowing that one has a body points to there existing something in the universe other than a body. ‘Who drives the auto’ is the question, and one stops being a passenger in this universe and begins the journey to controlling the vehicle. Thus, the body becomes a car, and the car is a mechanism to hold the spirit, and the martial artist stops looking at the body as a body and starts considering it as a temple motivated by the spirit.
To speed up this procedure one should matrix the martial art they are engaged in. This is the applying of common sense and physics to the apparently random motions that the sequencing of favored martial arts moves has become. Thus, ones progress is not measured by endless sit ups to God, which can, quite truthfully, take a little longer than forever, but rather through the ordered thrust of awareness through the body.
This mechanism is my body, and it does what I want. This covering is my skin, and to go through and beyond the boundary of skin is possible through kata and the cultivation of extra senses, and if I unlimit myself in this fashion I will experience directly a universe where spirituality is the dominant ‘force.’ This is possible through studying the martial arts, and enhanced through the technology known as Matrixing.
Utilizing Matrixing in the Martial Arts, one quickly discovers this other universe. And one discovers the superiority of this other universe, and that this other universe imposes over the commonly excepted and sense proven universe. Indeed, one discovers that this superior universe has always been there, in conjunction with the sense proven universe, and, in actuality, it has only been through the actuation of the Divine Universe that the sensory universe been made to work at all.
Ultimately, as one forays into and tames this other and more superior universe of the spirit, one discovers that his nature, unlimited from body, is Neutronic: that he is a Neutronic Being. The universe follows certain rules, and these rules are defined through a study and application of Neutronics. Thus, through an awareness of first Matrixing, and then Neutronics, the Martial Arts become valid as one of the four paths to the God Concept.
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