Whap, bam and pow! We watch TV and the movies, and we see kung fu flips in the Matrix and sword standing and eye gouging in Kill Bill and we know we have seen the real masters! Wake up, dude, that's a movie, and what the real masters do is a lot different than what you see on TV!
Gichin Funakoshi is considered to be one of the more important karate masters. He taught karate to Japan, and then to the whole world. If that isn't considered feat enough to be considered a master, why don't you go stand on a rooftop during a hurricane and hold a 3 by 6 sheet of plywood?
That's right, to perfect his stance, he battled the elements, and word has it he never sailed off to Oz. And, if you want somebody a little more ancient, try Bushi Matsumuri, who made a bull run away just by glaring at the bull. The trick was that he went to the bull every night and glared at him, and stuck a pin in the bulls nose.
Of course you may think intelligence is cheating, and that to figure out how to beat a bull without bashing him is not much of a deal. So try something simple, try grabbing the beams of a ceiling, not hooking the fingers over the beams, but just grabbing them with your gnarly, old fingers, and hand walking across the ceiling. This is something that the karateka in old Okinawa were doing just for kicks and grins!
My favorite old karate master is Mas Oyama. Mas had this little trick of chopping the horns off bulls, and he ended up killing three of the poor brutes. Now, that was a while ago, and we certainly don't want to talk about killing poor animals, but the muscle, the intelligence, the brute strength, and the sheer artism required to kill a bull with your bare hands! I wouldn't try it if I were you.
Okay, you've heard enough of the tales, so let me give you a simple trick to do, and you can start being your own legend making master of Karate. Learn a karate form, something like Bassai would be great, but you might want to start off with a simpler form like Pinan One. Now, take the garden hose and run it for an hour on that bare patch of earth in the backyard.
Now, the ground is nice and gooey, yucky and pukey. So it is time to do your form, heh heh. Whap, bam and pow!
Your feet fly up in the air and your butt slaps the wet goo. Up on your feet you lazy bum! Did you think the old masters would whine just because they got a little mud on them? - 31497
Gichin Funakoshi is considered to be one of the more important karate masters. He taught karate to Japan, and then to the whole world. If that isn't considered feat enough to be considered a master, why don't you go stand on a rooftop during a hurricane and hold a 3 by 6 sheet of plywood?
That's right, to perfect his stance, he battled the elements, and word has it he never sailed off to Oz. And, if you want somebody a little more ancient, try Bushi Matsumuri, who made a bull run away just by glaring at the bull. The trick was that he went to the bull every night and glared at him, and stuck a pin in the bulls nose.
Of course you may think intelligence is cheating, and that to figure out how to beat a bull without bashing him is not much of a deal. So try something simple, try grabbing the beams of a ceiling, not hooking the fingers over the beams, but just grabbing them with your gnarly, old fingers, and hand walking across the ceiling. This is something that the karateka in old Okinawa were doing just for kicks and grins!
My favorite old karate master is Mas Oyama. Mas had this little trick of chopping the horns off bulls, and he ended up killing three of the poor brutes. Now, that was a while ago, and we certainly don't want to talk about killing poor animals, but the muscle, the intelligence, the brute strength, and the sheer artism required to kill a bull with your bare hands! I wouldn't try it if I were you.
Okay, you've heard enough of the tales, so let me give you a simple trick to do, and you can start being your own legend making master of Karate. Learn a karate form, something like Bassai would be great, but you might want to start off with a simpler form like Pinan One. Now, take the garden hose and run it for an hour on that bare patch of earth in the backyard.
Now, the ground is nice and gooey, yucky and pukey. So it is time to do your form, heh heh. Whap, bam and pow!
Your feet fly up in the air and your butt slaps the wet goo. Up on your feet you lazy bum! Did you think the old masters would whine just because they got a little mud on them? - 31497
About the Author:
Al Case has studied Karate, and aikido and a lot of other arts, for 40 years. A writer for the mags since'81, he is the originator of Matrix Martial Arts. You can find out about his training methods, and even get a free ebook at Monster Martial Arts!
