One of the big points of understanding matrixing is understanding how the martial arts came to be a mess. While there have been brilliant advances in this mess, there have also been some disastrous developments. Let’s talk about White Crane Kung Fu.

Legend has it that White Crane was invented by Fang Qiniang, a young lady whose father taught her Shaolin kung fu. Fang was supposedly in a field one day when she saw a crane battling a snake, and was inspired.

Maybe, maybe not, makes a great story, and…why not? Even today that image has power.

BUT!

White Crane developed, over the decades, into Karate. So let me ask the question? How did something developed by a soft, fragile girl become a hard core, impact oriented type of martial art?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying ladies aren’t capable of becoming hard core brutes (they are the more vicious of the species, after all), or that they can’t embrace brutal training methods.

I’m asking how an art that relied on guiding the attack, misdirecting the opponent, undoing balance and finding workable striking spots became an art that relies on power, power, and then more power?

How did an art developed by a gurl, with a ‘lesser’ frame and all her delicate, inner sensibilities, became a ‘You bash me, I bash you, Grrr!’ type of martial art?

And while there are styles of Karate that are softer, more liquid, and not so brutal, consider arts like Kyokushin, or Uechi Ryu.

Somebody had a bright idea. And that bright idea was tempered by young Turks who were inordinately proud of their muscles and swagger.

When I developed Matrixing, which is the application of logic to the martial arts, I was struck by how, with slight adjustment, the need for power could be subverted into unbalancing an opponent, re-angling an attack so no impact was needed.

Was I approaching Karate’s roots? Was I onto some of the concepts discovered by some (choke) sissy girl? Oh, my suffering manhood!

I’ve included a snippet from the Monkey Boxing course offered on my substack channel/newsletter (monstermartialarts.substack.com). In it I want you to see how instead of relying on a hard block, a block practiced by millions and yet is rarely seen in a real fight, has been replaced by a simple slap, and a substitute for a block.

Heck, this slap/grab concept is in every art, yet almost nobody practices it, let alone understands how a hard art could be grown from the soft.

Check it out, consider if your art has gone over to the ‘hard side,’ and then consider whether 8 bucks a month (less than a meal at MickeyD’s) is too much to pay for a whole new different look at the martial arts.

All right kiddies, It’s the end of summer, winter is around the corner, and it’s time to make yourself strong enough to last through those cold, winter months!

Work out! Darn it! And make yourself a new person! One who is kind, considerate, and able to beat up bullies with a smirk and a laugh.

May the Matrix be with you.

Have a great work out!

Al

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Have you read Insanica?

Hi guys, thanks for taking the course. Now that we’ve started, let me explain a couple of things…

This next set of six videos was actually filmed out of sequence.

I was teaching Rick (my student) as the system progressed, but then changed some of the sequences to adapt to how he was absorbing the data. That will explain why there is a certain ‘haphazard’ element to the sequence of my teaching.

In other words, I teach the system in a certain order, but adjust it to this particular student.

I filmed these videos later because I was seeing the whole system on video finally, and realized that I wanted to emphasize the Slap/Grab, but they actually belong earlier.

If you actually look at my system, it starts with the Slap Grab, goes into the Monkey Boxing (sticks and stuff), and finally into a more combat ready version of Tai Chi.

It is a complete system, so you’ll get the basic circle of blocks, the monkey blast, and so on as we proceed.

But the heart of any self defense system is whether it works, and that is dependent upon the first strike and how you handle it. Everything grows from there.

I hope this explains things, but if you are confused at any time you know you can query me as to what and why and all that through a simple email (aganzul@gmail.com).

Now, here we go…

SD 1 ~ Slap Grab

SD 2 ~ Slap Grab Drill.mp4

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I want to talk about the single experience that enabled me to blend hard martial arts with soft, and which opened my eyes severely.

I was a black belt in Kang Duk Won, and my teacher had retired. I always had an interest in Aikido, so I went down to Robert Nadeau’s school and signed up. For a month I attended classes, learned interesting things about rolls and break falls, and one day a few of the more advanced students were doing freestyle in a corner of the dojo.

“Hey, Al. Come on, we need one more.”

Man, I was jazzed. It was like I was going to walk through the sacred doors, you know?

They asked me to throw a strike at the man in the center. I did, and he matched motion, then almost fell down as he tried to guide me.

“No, man. You got to give a little. Go with the flow.”

But I couldn’t. Years of hard core karate and I knew how to punch. My frame was solid, my stance was grounded, and nobody could move me.

I was told to go sit down while they continued.

Man, I felt like that gooey stuff on the bottom of clodhoppers everywhere!

That had been my chance, and I had blown it! But what could I do? I couldn’t undo seven years of hard karate! It was in my bones! They couldn’t get me to give up what I had strived so hard to learn.

Then Paul came over to me. Paul was a second black, and we talked about what had happened. Lights dawned as we figured out what the problem was. But…there was still no way for me to undo what I had learned. That would take time, and, let’s face, I didn’t want to give up my abilities.

Then, keying off what he had been telling me, I blurted, “Do you know Sticky Hands?”

He didn’t and I showed him the drill. We stood face to face, and the stance was such that I couldn’t effectively sink my weight, not like in Karate.

BINGO! Lights went on all around. Suddenly he could work his techniques on me, and I began to gain insight into Aikido. He didn’t just throw me around, he stopped and explained fine points, showed me, and suddenly I was getting one of the most advanced lessons on the planet.

I walked away from that half hour lesson with a profound knowledge, and a borning ability. I suddenly understood Aikido, and with just a little practice I was able to make it work in Karate.

It was simple, when the punch comes get before it, help it, and if a person locks his stance down, just move in and joint lock him. You rushing into him when he already thinks he is close enough totally discombobulates him.

Now, where do I teach this? All over the place. You’ll notice that I almost always do the block, then I start shifting through the joints.

Wrist, elbow, shoulder…neck, back, hips, knee, ankle…when somebody expects me to continue the punch I am too close to punch, and I don’t want to play patty cakes, so I just move in, folding his body into pretzels as I enter.

The golden course on this is Matrix Kung Fu, available at MonsterMartialArts.com, which is not so much Kung Fu as a master guide to folding each joint in the human body.

But, like I say, I do it in everything.

And…Monkey Boxing is designed around this procedure of folding joints. If I strike I’m going to throw, or fold, or project, or slip, trip and flip whoever is the author of that punch.

Anyway, that’s how I learned how to go from Karate to Aikido, using Wing Chun. From strike to absorb to circle to…eject (or crumple), that’s the skinny, Minnie.

May the Matrix be with you.

Have a great work out!

Al

Write me at aganzul@gmail.com if you need help with subscribing, downloading purchases, or whatever.

If you opt to become a paid subscriber ($8 a month) you get the Monkey Boxing course. I’ve included a snippet from one of the lessons.

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A warning: All my videos are on Youtube. Should stay up there forever. EXCEPT, sometimes Youtube says ‘This video is no longer there!’ But it is.

If a link doesn’t work, try copy and paste.

If C and P doesn’t work, try a different browser.

If a different browser doesn’t work, try a different computer.

If a different computer doesn’t work, just try loading it a few times. (This is the method that worked best for me.)

If all else fails, write me at aganzul@gmail.com.

Have you read Insanica?

A little bit of history about a fantastic martial artist who is pretty much forgotten.

Byung In-Yoon fell in a fire and uglified his hand. For the rest of his life he wore a white glove on that hand because it was so ugly.

He wanted to learn martial arts in the worst possible way, so he peeked in the window of a local kung fu school. The master chased him away. This was in Manchuria and the master didn’t want to teach a Korean.

Byung hatched a plan. He lined up the student’s shoes on the porch every class. This got the master’s attention, and he finally accepted Byung as a student.

After some years of study, Byung had to go away to school. He did so, and kept up his solo martial arts practice. In particular he practiced striking a tree, and to this day people say he is the reason the tree developed a severe slant.

One day another Korean ran up to Byung. “Save me! I signed up for a karate class, but know I have a girlfriend and I don’t want to go to class! My classmates want to beat me up!”

Byung defended his country mate, but without injuring any of the karate students. The students were amazed, and reported this strange occurrence to their master, Kanken Toyama. Master Toyama met with Byung, and they decided to exchange knowledge. Byung became the leader of the university team, and was awarded a certificate of mastery and a fourth degree black belt.

Byung returned to Korea where he established a school of the martial arts. This school (Kwon Bop Kong Soo Do ~ fist art empty hand way) became one of the most important influences on the nine schools, or kwans, of Korean martial arts. This spearhead the development of karate in Korea, which eventually found expression as Taekwondo.

When the Korean war started Byung’s brother, Yoon Byung-du, made him join the North Korean army.

After the war he was prevented from returning home. He taught martial arts to the People’s Army for a time, but was eventually assigned to work in a cement factory. He died of lung cancer in 1983.

That’s the story of the lone man who brought Karate to Korea. He did not travel through the Funakoshi period, but taught a very pure form of martial arts.

My interest in this story is that I learned Kang Duk Won, which had a direct line back to Byung. We learned a type of Karate which avoided certain unfavorable aspects of Japanese Karate, and which had some interesting drills and exercises which were kung fu-ish in nature.

Was my karate more pure? I’d like to think so, but the answer is…nah. Every generation creates the martial arts anew. They pick and choose, analyze and hybridize, and…that is the talent of any true martial artist. We are not ‘monkey see monkey do,’ we are creators. We are true artists.

Check out my ‘Create Your Own Art’ course at: monstermartialarts.com

I hope you enjoyed this story, and do yourself a favor and do some research on Byung. He was an important martial artist, and if we don’t learn from the past we won’t create for the future.

May the Matrix be with you.

Have a great work out!

Al

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If you opt to become a paid subscriber ($8 a month) you get the Monkey Boxing course. I’ve included a snippet from one of the lessons.

A warning: All my videos are on Youtube. Should stay up there forever. EXCEPT, sometimes Youtube says ‘This video is no longer there!’ But it is.

If a link doesn’t work, try copy and paste.

If C and P doesn’t work, try a different browser.

If a different browser doesn’t work, try a different computer.

If a different computer doesn’t work, just try loading it a few times. (This is the method that worked best for me.)

If all else fails, write me at aganzul@gmail.com.

Have you read Insanica?

If I’m late again you can always nudge me at aganzul@gmail.com

MB 6 light kicks ~ in depth analysis of front snap kick, along with the incredible data on how to put ‘light kung fu’ into your kicks.

There’s three more lessons below this line…

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Substack seems to be working, so unless I get any complaints, I’ll probably be letting Mailchimp go.

Now, things you should know…

You are a free subscriber. No need to do anything, you get the newsletter as usual.

Write me at aganzul@gmail.com if there is any confusion!

If you opt to become a paid subscriber ($8 a month) you get the Monkey Boxing course. I’ve included a snippet from one of the lessons.

So what is Monkey Boxing and why should you care?

If you’re a long time reader, you will remember that I went from karate to kung fu (Kang Duk Won to Fut ga…which I rewrote as Matrixing to Butterfly Kung Fu. You’ll see big differences as I developed forms, grab arts, all sorts of things that were more realistic, easier to learn, and shifted into Tai Chi takedowns, and so on.

Monkey Boxing is what Butterfly Kung Fu developed into. Here’s the thing about Monkey Boxing: there are almost no forms. Yes, I include some forms on the course, but the essence of Monkey Boxing is in two man drills. This enables me to teach the things I figured out on Butterfly Kung Fu, but without forms, which is to say with direct application to fighting.

Furthermore, Monkey boxing develops into weapons, so it is a version of escrima…which develops into throws that are somewhat Tai Chi, and somewhat Silat.

Check out the sample clip. Extremely combat useful, and it’s just one of many drills. Small, combat related drills which make a BIG martial art.

So, the conclusion about Monkey Boxing…

It has the power of Karate

which becomes enhanced by the circularity of Kung Fu

and includes tai chi style throws

and it all becomes a hands to weapons to takedowns method as in escrima/Silat.

I know, that’s a lot, that’s a mouthful, but the amazing thing is that, because of matrixing it is logical, one step to the next, without any wrong turns.

Over a hundred video lessons. You’ll see my student make mistakes, and how we fix them.

Lessons come out four a week on every Sunday. Lessons go from 5 to 15 minutes.

And eight dollars a month (a price that Substack recommended) is less than a trip to McDonald’s. Compare that to the cost of going to a dojo in these modern times.

I’m going to finish with advice on downloading videos. Youtube should be up forever, but they are getting twitchy. The following advice usually makes downloading easy.

A warning: All my videos are on Youtube. Should stay up there forever. EXCEPT, sometimes Youtube says ‘This video is no longer there!’ But it is.

If a link doesn’t work, try copy and paste.

If C and P doesn’t work, try a different browser.

If a different browser doesn’t work, try a different computer.

If a different computer doesn’t work, just try loading it a few times. (This is the method that worked best for me.)

If all else fails, write me at aganzul@gmail.com.

There we go, I’ve explained how substack works, and about Monkey Boxing. We’ll talk good martial arts next time, until then…thanks for being martial artists, and may the Matrix be with you.

Have a great work out!

Al

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Have you read Insanica?

I’ve migrated the newsletter to Substack, so let me know if you experience any problems. (aganzul@gmail.com)

AND…I sent this newsletter out yesterday but I don’t think it got through. So here it is again. There is also some confusion as to subscribing. I’ll talk about that next time, but…you should be enrolled as a free subscriber.

I’m offering the Monkey Boxing course (225 videos) to anybody who signs up to be a paid subscriber. Everybody should be a free subscriber already, so let me know if there is any confusion about becoming a paid subscriber.

I’m preparing the Shaolin Butterfly course for release as a video course book.

A video book will have have all the links to the course videos in the book.

The course has a half a dozen short two man forms. Work hard on these, because if you don’t get those basics you won’t be able to do the advanced techniques.

Here’s a sample of the advanced techniques. There are four 12 minutes self defense segments, and this is one.

9 Square Monkey Form Applications ~ 15:52

Some Butterfly Kung Fu techniques

A warning: All my videos are on Youtube. Should stay up there forever. EXCEPT, sometimes Youtube says ‘This video is no longer there!’ But it is.

If a link doesn’t work, try copy and paste.

If C and P doesn’t work, try a different browser.

If a different browser doesn’t work, try a different computer.

If a diff computer doesn’t work, just try loading it a few times. (This is the method that worked best for me.)

If all else fails, write me at aganzul@gmail.com.

Thanks for being martial artists, and may the Matrix be with you.

Have a great work out!

Al

Have you read Insanica