Al Case

Five Things I Wish I Would have Known About the Martial Arts!



Posted: Friday, November 27, 2009

by Al Case
http://www.alcasebooks.com/

Okay, I've been doing the martial arts since 1967. I've lived through judo in the fifties, karate in the sixties, kung fu in the seventies, and Arnis and Ninjitsu and MMA, and I've analyzed durn near every art there is. I've made up a list of things which I wish people would have told me when I first started out. The point here is that classes were where you worked out, and not where you talked. However, and it was years before I realized it, the reason a lot of people didn't talk was because they didn't know anything. So are you ready for things you should know before you start the martial arts.

I wish people would have told me how painful pain was, and if I had known the truth about why things hurt then they wouldn't have hurt so darn much. The pain of a block, for instance, can go either go into the block or into the strike, depending upon which person has more strength of will. It's not a matter of how tough somebody is, it is a matter of which way you want the energy to go. and being the stronger in intention. I wish somebody would have sat down and told me what all the body parts are for, or at least told me that learning would have been ten times easier if I had figured out the purposes of the body parts are. What does it matter how you turn the bones, and why does it matter which side of the bone the muscle is on.

A very important point could have been made if somebody had just told me I had a head and I could think with it! This matter of how a body works could have made my progress thought the martial arts ten times easier and quicker if somebody had explained that all the parts had to work as one unit. This is a thing called harmony, and when the body parts all work harmoniously then intention can flow through the body and make it ten times more efficient. What is the ratio of muscle to body part, how much does each part weigh, how far does each body part have to move, how much effort is required for each body part. Speaking of this thing called harmony, if somebody had explained that it was not just harmony within your body, but harmony in your life, then I would have had a ten times easier life. Heck, getting along with your fellow man makes life so much easier. If somebody had just told me to love my enemy that would have made me a real martial artist of quality and magnitude.

Probably the most important thing somebody could have told me would have been to work harder. Heck, if I had worked harder I would have gotten to the end faster, maybe even gotten further, maybe even learned more! The point here is that I could have learned all the things that I eventually figured out faster, and then I wouldn't be griping about all the things that I should have been told. Ah, the things I didn't know, they sure worked against me, but, at last I know them. Even more important, now that I have told you about them, you aren't going to be held up in your martial progress! Unless, of course, you want to be so smart you ignore me.

Al Case has analyzed the martial arts 40 years. He began writing for the magazines in 1981 and has written hundreds of articles, and had a column in Inside Karate. He is the originator of Matrixing Technology and Neutronics. He is giving away a free ebook which explains all about Matrixing at Monster Martial Arts .
Al Case loves the martial arts and writing. He is a good enough natured fellow, unless you start talking about the government (grrr). He has a 115 pound chocolate lab that sits on him, and his website is AlCaseBooks.com.

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