He Was Crazy…And He Studied Korean Karate With Me.
[I:http://www.aikido-judo-karate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/AlCase7.gif]I doubt whether most schools, be they Kung Fu or Wudan or Aikido or whatever, have ever had a crazy guy in their school like Mud Car. We called him Mud Car because that’s what it said on the license plate on his car.That car, more than anything else, summed up Mud Car.
He had tied parachute webbing across the insides of his car because he felt that that material was best for holding his car together on the inside. He had fire extinguishers fastened to every surface on the inside of his car. He had a dial on his dashboard to give extra power to his tail lights, and he turned it whenever he faced away from the sun so that drivers behind him could see when he braked.
This was just the surface of Mud Car, though. The most impressive thing that Mud Car did was commit to memory the times of all the stop lights in the whole town of San Jose. He could travel across that large town without ever having to stop for a light.
Unfortunately, when it came to the karate, he was just as crazy. He couldn’t stretch his limbs, couldn’t control what his body was going to do, and, because of this lack of control, it hurt to work out with him. Just being in his presence you could feel the firecrackers in his mind exploding into the universe.
One day he interrupted the instructor to complain about a pain in his leg. “It doesn’t hurt me that much, but it keeps nagging at me, do you know how to make the pain in my leg go away?” My instructor looked at me with murder in his eyes, I suppose he didn’t want to look at Mud Car because he would kill him, and he blurted, “Hit your leg with a lead pipe…that’ll make the pain go away.”
I suppose the ability to drive other people insane is the deciding point in this matter of whether a person is goofy or not. Because of this Mud Car never made it to Black Belt. He just didn’t have the mental maturity that is the mark of a black belt.
One day, however, a new instructor came to the school, and Mud Car was promoted to Black Belt within a month…and then he left the school. He had achieved his goal, and that was all he wanted, and the new instructor knew that was the best and most efficient way to get rid of Mud Car. Yet, I missed Mud Car.
He was crazy, but so is the guy who attacks you on the street, so if you could last a session with Mud Car without getting injured, you knew your art was effective. Furthermore, there was a shift of standard here, for Mud Car was promoted because he could drive people nuts, not because he was good. Finally, I think that is where the True Art started disappearing…schools, even schools like Tae Kwon Do or Kenpo or classical karate, did not administer soothing discipline to the insane, they just promoted them to get rid of them.
If you want to go crazy through the martial arts…drop on by Punch ‘Em Out. If you want to go sane through the martial arts…try Monster Martial Arts. 2
Making Aikido Into A Combat Art
[I:http://www.aikido-judo-karate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/AlCase14.jpg]One of the most astounding facts in all the martial arts is that Aikido does not work well in combat. The reason this is astounding is because it is derived, to large degree, from Daito Ryu Aiki Jujitsu, which is one of the most combat ready arts in existence. Interestingly, it doesn’t take much to make Aikido into a formidable combat ready art.
To understand why the aiki art is not street ready one must understand the founder’s purpose. Morihei Uyeshiba, the founder of the art, designed the art around his enlightenment. This is to say that he designed it for brotherhood, world peace, and love thy neighbor.
Of course Morihei had the ability to destroy that neighbor, so he was safe in loving him. The modern Aikidoka, however, studying an art distilled for ‘getting along,’ does not have that ability, and so the art becomes unworkable. Thus, one has to tailor the art, explore it specifically for techniques that do not enter and present themselves as ‘get along’ techniques.
In traditional aiki classes the attack is exactly prescribed, and they are designed to feed the flow, and therefore the ‘spirituality’ of the defender. What one should do is, after delivering a flowing attack designed to fit the technique, is apply an attack in a more ragged manner, that is not designed to fit the flow. Thus, the defender must solve the problem of being attacked in more real terms.
If an attack is offered, say a lapel grab, with the arms extended straight, one must explore that attack with the elbows bent. Further, the attack must be explored with the motion of the attack to the sides, or in conjunction with the movement of feet in any possible direction. Thus, the defender learns to not just go with the direction of the technique, but to make the flow work no matter which way the technique goes.
The procedure I am describing here is nothing more than exploring all the potentials of motion, and not just the politely described entry techniques of a zen shaped art. This is the procedure we used in rough and tumble karate schools, and we managed to stay polite, and yet became aware to anything and everything that could happen in a real fight.
I have meant many Aikidokas over the years, and the better ones have always subscribed to some variation of this procedure. Many a night I stayed late, after class, after the polite ones had gone home, and explored the nuances and deviations necessary to survival in a real fight. And for any Aikido practitioners out there who object to my opinions on this matter, I suggest they research the Hell Dojo of Ushigome, and other practices of the founder.
In reality, with the attention to detail, Aikido can be one of the most street wise arts in the world. It does take an enlightened mind, however, to embrace not just love and kindness, but the reality of violence. These, however, are the principles we embrace in the art of Matrix Aikido.
Al Case has forty years experience in the martial arts. To find out about Matrix Aikido visit Monster Martial Arts. Pick up a free ebook while you are there.
I Shudder When I See Modern Martial Arts Schools
[I:http://www.aikido-judo-karate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/AlCase32.jpg]I look around at the classy dojos these days and I shudder at what I see. I see the wall length mirrors and the immaculate rows of bags, and pillowy punching gloves, and I shudder. These places are nothing like what I experienced when I learned martial arts at the Kang Duk Won.
The Kang Duk Won was born of a classmate of Gichin Funakoshi’s, and therefore it is one of the purest representations of Karate in existence. It was taken to Korea, and treated to that countries harsh winters and boiling summers, all of which made it an art for men to study. Eventually it came to the United States, and I studied it under the tutelage of Bob Babich in San Jose.
Next to the Kang Duk Won was the Towne Theater, which immoral cinema had the glory of showing a movie starring a gal name of Linda Lovelace for over two years. Other businesses included sweat shops and bars. In front of the Kang Duk Won, like as not, you would see a score of Harley Davidsons, courtesy of the Hells Angels, Gypsy Jokers, and just about any other Outlaw Biker gang who wanted to learn the real thing.
The front window was cracked and held together by duc tape. Visitors sat on a picnic bench under the window to watch class. Bob’s office was a cubbyhole just big enough for a desk and two chairs, just don’t try to open the chairs.
The mat was sailboat canvas, and a big seam ran along the left side of the mat. It was a dirty, filthy thing, and where students turned their forms strips of duc tape were thick. And it wasn’t large, maybe 15 by 25, but classes of 20 and more would work work out like maniacs.
In the back room a bag hung from the ceiling, and Bob filled it himself, made it extra heavy. He was always taking it to the cobbler to get it repaired, the darned thing looked like Frankenstein’s manhood. We used to kick that thing till it bounced, and the whole building would shiver like a kicked dog.
Now, you might wonder why and how such a place deserves my eternal admiration, and the answer is simple. No excuses, no whining, no bottles of designer water left at the sides of the mat. Just men working, sweating, giving their all, and building an energy indescribable.
I look at modern schools today, with all their frills, and I shudder, for I don’t feel the manic energy, I don’t feel the intensity and the comradeship. I don’t think I am being old, I am just terrified that when I drop this body, when I come back in another body, I won’t find a group of people that are willing to suffer their all for the True Art. I won’t find something, dirty, ragged, gasping for breath, and yet willing to fill my soul with the true spirit of the martial arts, I won’t find something as beautiful as the Kang Duk Won.
Al Case has studied martial arts for forty plus plus+ years. His CD/DVD course, Evolution of an Art, has Kang Duk Won and two other arts. Or just pick up a free ebook at his site, Monster Martial Arts.
