World Of Swords

Okay, I've been doing the martial arts since mid last century. I've lived through judo in the fifties, karate in the sixties, kung fu in the seventies, and stick fighting and shadow warriors and the UFC, and I've analyzed durn near every art there is. I've made up a list of things that I should have known before I started.

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 that pain hurts, and if I had known the truth about pain it wouldn't have hurt so darn much. The pain of a block, for instance, can go either go into the blocker or into the striker, depending upon which person has more intention. It's not a matter of tough, its a matter of which way you want the energy to go, and the energy will go in the direction of the superior mind.

I wish somebody would have told me what the purpose of my body parts was for. Why it matters how you angle your bones and structure, and why it matters which side of the bone the muscle is on. For that matter, maybe somebody should have 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 harmony, if somebody had explained that it was not just harmony within your body, but harmony that was outside your body, then I would have had a ten times easier life. Heck, getting along with your fellow man takes all the tussle out of life. And the truth of love your enemy wold 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 were so great, but, at last I know them. Even more important, you know them, so you don't have to be slow or stupid or lazy or things like that! Unless, of course, you want to pretend that I didn't say anything.

Al Case has learned the martial arts 40 years. He began writing for the magazines in'81 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.