Whap, bam and ka-zowie! We watch the silver screen, and we see kung fu flips in the Matrix movies and sword standing and eye gouging in Kill Bill and we know we have seen the real masters! Wake up, dude, that's a a bunch of actors, and what the real masters have done would put those cinema heroes to shame.
Gichin Funakoshi is considered to be one of the more significant of the karate masters. He brought karate to all Japan, and then spread it to the whole world. If that isn't considered enough to be considered a real, live master, why don't you go stand on a house during a typhoon 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 not think the intelligence to figure out how to best a bull without bashing him is not much of a deal. So try something that doesn't take much intelligence, like grabbing the beams of a ceiling, not hooking the fingers over, but just grabbing them, and hand walking across the ceiling. This is something that people were doing in old Okinawa just for kicks!
One of the toughest of the old karate masters was Mas Oyama. Mas was famous for chopping the horns off of charging bulls, and he ended up killing three of the poor beasts. Now, cruelty to animals is not what we are about, and this was a while ago, but think about the muscle, the intelligence, the brute strength, and the sheer artism required to kill a bull with your bare hands. It's not something I would try if I were you.
Okay, you've heard my spiel on the old legends, so let me give you a simple trick to do, and you can start becoming a karate master all on your own. Learn one of the forms of Karate, maybe Bassai, or something like it, or maybe you might want to start off with a simpler form like Pinan One. Now, let the garden hose run for an hour on that bare patch of ground behind your house.
Now, the ground is wet and soft and mushy and messy. So it is time to practice that karate form you just learned, heh heh. Whap, bam and Yippee!
Your fanny flies over your face and you look like a plant hiding in the mud. Up on your feet you lazy wanna be karate master! Did you think the legends of old would whine just because they got a little muddy? - 31373
Gichin Funakoshi is considered to be one of the more significant of the karate masters. He brought karate to all Japan, and then spread it to the whole world. If that isn't considered enough to be considered a real, live master, why don't you go stand on a house during a typhoon 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 not think the intelligence to figure out how to best a bull without bashing him is not much of a deal. So try something that doesn't take much intelligence, like grabbing the beams of a ceiling, not hooking the fingers over, but just grabbing them, and hand walking across the ceiling. This is something that people were doing in old Okinawa just for kicks!
One of the toughest of the old karate masters was Mas Oyama. Mas was famous for chopping the horns off of charging bulls, and he ended up killing three of the poor beasts. Now, cruelty to animals is not what we are about, and this was a while ago, but think about the muscle, the intelligence, the brute strength, and the sheer artism required to kill a bull with your bare hands. It's not something I would try if I were you.
Okay, you've heard my spiel on the old legends, so let me give you a simple trick to do, and you can start becoming a karate master all on your own. Learn one of the forms of Karate, maybe Bassai, or something like it, or maybe you might want to start off with a simpler form like Pinan One. Now, let the garden hose run for an hour on that bare patch of ground behind your house.
Now, the ground is wet and soft and mushy and messy. So it is time to practice that karate form you just learned, heh heh. Whap, bam and Yippee!
Your fanny flies over your face and you look like a plant hiding in the mud. Up on your feet you lazy wanna be karate master! Did you think the legends of old would whine just because they got a little muddy? - 31373
About the Author:
Al Case has studied Karate, and shaolin 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!
