How To Do Simple Poses: Yoga For Beginners

By Thaya Kareeson

You have heard about the health benefits that doing yoga has, but you just cannot see how you are going to get your stiff old body to work like a human contortionist. But, yoga does not necessarily mean you have to be a human contortionist. Those people have been doing yoga for years and years. You are just learning to do some yoga for beginners. Are you ready to learn some very simple poses?

Sukasana is translated as Easy Yoga Pose. You may be doing this pose already and not even know it is yoga! Start by sitting on your bottom with your legs crossed and bent at the knee, not straight out in front of you. Then move one leg toward your body. The other leg can lie on the floor. Sit up straight and tall with your head parallel to the floor. Be sure your shoulders are relaxed.

Vrksasana is known in English as the Tree Pose. The Tree Pose is started from a standing position with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Your hands should be in prayer position with your fingertips pointing upward. Keeping your pelvis level, bring your right foot and leg up the inside of your left leg, stopping when you get to the inside of your thigh (or until you cannot go any higher without pain). Balance. Repeat the pose with your other leg starting from the beginning position.

Adho Mukha Svansana, otherwise known as Downward-Facing Dog, will stretch your entire body. Start by getting down on all fours, hands and knees aligned with your shoulders and hips. Your back is flat. Next, bring your hands back towards your feet, raising your backside up towards the ceiling and straightening out your legs. You will look like a triangle (inverted). Hang your head, take your shoulders out of your ears and relax them (beginners tend to scrunch their shoulders towards their ears). Do not invert yourself farther than you can go without pain.

A very restful pose is the Child's Pose. Start from the Downward-Facing Dog position on your hands and knees. Then, slowly bring your bottom down towards your calves, folding your body up so that your stomach is near the floor. Hands can be out in front of you or at your sides.

The Cat and Cow Pose also starts from the Downward-Facing Dog Pose. Bend your toes under. Relax your shoulders and drop your stomach toward the ground. Your back will be concave. Hands and knees need to stay aligned with your shoulders and hips. Then stretch your back like a cat, arching upwards. Return to starting position.

From a standing position with your hands in prayer position and your feet apart, go slowly into a squatting position. Your elbows will be at the inside of your knees slightly pressing outward. Keep your shoulders relaxed. Spine should be straight, no hunching. Remain like this for five breaths.

You have just gone through five different poses of yoga for beginners. No doubt, you feel stretched out and relaxed. Continue practicing yoga poses every day and you will see yourself getting more flexible and stronger over time. You may even decide to join other yoga practitioners at a local yoga class.

About the Author:

Looking for ways how to lose weight as well as how to lose belly fat. Yoga is popular way to boost health, relieve stress, boost coordination, balance as well as overall fitness, both mental as well as physical.

Power Of The Mind - What Can It Really Do?

By Janice Stokes

Not all people realize that mind power can actually help bring positive changes to one's life. You may not realize it but you are actually using it in your everyday life. The power of the mind influences all aspects of your life. While it commands you body to function, it may also command positive energies to bring positive changes in your life.

Whenever you dream and desire for things in your life, if you wanted it so bad, it just seem to magically happen. As you go to bed and fall asleep hoping for things like salary increase or recovery from a disease to happen, you often find yourself waking up with that thought in your mind actually happening in your life. This is a classic example of your subconscious mind power at work.

In fact the more scientists research quantum physics it seems that our whole reality is in fact merely a product of our own mind. That our mind power is in fact reality.

Even with eastern religions, the power of the mind has demonstrated its influences to reality. They believed that the concept of being real exists because it is the manifestations of our imaginations.

It seems rather ironic that in this so called 'enlightened' age of ours, our scientists are looking at historical scrolls and texts to find out the true nature of reality!

Reality is then believed to be a product of our minds. Then it is only logical to think that if we need to make changes with our reality, we needs to start working with our thoughts first. To be able to change things, we need to first appeal to the power of the mind.

But how do we do this? The real first place to start is by mental conditioning. In order to unlock your power of the mind, it is important that you clear out unnecessary thoughts, and start fresh. One of these methods is by meditation, which while there are many different techniques, there are a few simple exercises that you can do yourself.

To meditate, try sitting on a comfortable chair in a dark room. Close your eyes and start breathing deeply and slowly; breathing in through your nose and breathing out through your mouth. Take a few minutes doing this. Eventually, you will notice feeling a little light headed. This is actually a normal reaction to increasing the oxygen in your system.

Visualize yourself in front on a tranquil pond with pebbles in it. The pebbles symbolize your random thoughts and ideas, your every day confusions. Imagine getting those pebbles out of the pond. Once you are done, you are now ready to unlock the power of the mind. Clearing out the pond is clearing out your mind with random thoughts that constantly goes in and out of your mind. This way, you will be able to separate your random thoughts from your wishes and wants.

Don't have wishes for impossible things like world peace; these are relatively unreachable by one person alone. You can wish that you can help the planet by recycling or other things. For example, you can wish to find a dream job, one that you will enjoy, but be specific about what you want.

If you happen to be experiencing troubles in your relationship, you can hope to be a better communicator so all your issues will be settled. But although mind power can never bring your partner communicate with you, you can use it to influence his thoughts and improve yourself.

You need to understand that although the power of the mind can bring positive changes in your life, it might not happen right away. Some things like relationship troubles take time. Unlocking the power of the mind is not something that you can work out in one sitting, but you can start with simple things like positive thinking to make progress.

Remember that you still have to do your part. If you wish for better communication with your partner, you have to start talking to them about things that bother you, in a respectful manner. If you wish for that dream job, you still have to look through the classified ads and such.

About the Author:

The author Janice Stokes writes for the popular http://www.mindpower-info.com site. You can enjoy the incredible experience of using mind power and you can try it yourself when you get 29 Free power of the mind Audios and Videos when you visit here.

Alternative Way To Relieve Stress

By Johnson Star

Stress is a bodily response to some things that we consider as threats. In the workplace, the workload we receive can be considered threats; especially when we tell ourselves "Oh my God! There's no way I can do all of this today!". The body responds by releasing adrenalin. The adrenalin helps us do more things in a shorter time-frame. By the end of the day, we are pleased with ourselves for being able to do all that work; but we also feel exhausted - a sign that the adrenalin has started to wear off.

Stress is a healthy response. When our body responds to stress, we can perform better. We can do more than what we are normally capable of. Stress helps us solve problems. It helps us go through a tough time. With stress, we improve. But what happens when stress becomes a routine? The stress response is supposed to be a simple emergency switch where our body pushes itself to the limits for a short period of time. When this emergency button is pushed to often, the body will not be able to take it. When our body breaks down, we are exposed to a wide variety of physical, emotional, and mental problems.

There are a few kinds of stress relief practices. There are those that involve distraction. There are those that involve relaxation. There are also those that involve developing optimism so as to reduce the effects of stress. These natural stress relief practices has gained more popularity over the tradition practice of visiting a doctor and being prescribed a super pill that leaves us feeling even worse if it's not a placebo. There are also alternative forms of these prescription drugs that can be found in herbal medicine. Herbal teas such as chamomile can do wonders for some people. Some can get relaxed with coffee.

Natural stress relief practices are often associated with relaxation with an added element of promoting overall wellbeing. Yoga's meditative practices relax and promote wellbeing. Some Chinese herbal potions beneficial to your wellbeing may function as downers; thereby giving a relaxing effect. If you don't want to ingest anything you don't really understand, then there are other practices out there such as acupuncture; which have been used by the Chinese in healing various kinds of illnesses.

While those stress relief practices may seem a little over the top, we do agree that they don't have to be complicated. Deep breathing is by far the simplest and easiest natural stress relief technique you can do. If you can get a massage from your spouse, partner, sibling, or anyone else, it can de-stress you just as well.

About the Author:

Looking for excellent tips on natural stress relief which could be help you to cure stress quick? Be sure to visit http://www.managingstresssecrets.com and get your free 10-day mini-ecourse immediately. Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory

Exercises for Tendonitis

By Tom Nicholson

As you may well already know, tendons are strong fibrous tissues which connect the muscles to the bones of the body. In many cases, when the muscles and tendons are overworked it results in the tendons becoming inflamed. For example, a tennis player who uses his or her arm to perform repetitive movements may end up experiencing severe shoulder pain due to the tendons in the shoulder becoming injured. Fortunately, there are certain tendonitis exercises which one can do in order to prevent tendon injuries.

Essentially, if you suddenly begin feeling acute pain and tenderness in the vicinity of a joint, and your usual movements become restricted, especially those associated with your neck, shoulder, elbow, and knees, then you may be suffering from one or other form of tendonitis. Bear in mind however that even though these areas tend to be the most susceptible, tendonitis can affect many other areas of your body. Furthermore, even if you do regular tendonitis exercises before you begin playing sport, your tendons can get injured injured.

Amazingly enough, tendons are present in 24 different locations around the body, all of which can become affected by tendonitis. However, it seems as though the rotator cuff which is in the shoulder area is the most susceptible to the condition. Should you experience rotator cuff tendonitis then you should consider doing a good tendonitis exercise in order to strengthen the area. The most common form of exercise for this type of injury includes standing up straight with your arms placed by your side. Slowly lift the right arm as high as you can or at least until the 45 degree mark. Once you've done that you can then start lowering the arm back down and repeat the exercise until the arm becomes tired, at which point you can begin with the left arm. Ideally, you should continue alternating between the two arms for approximately ten minutes at least. In order to get some relief, you may want to consider applying an ice pack to the affected area for about fifteen to twenty minutes once you've finished with the exercise.

Because tennis players tend to be extremely vulnerable to tendonitis in the elbow, the condition has in fact become commonly known as tennis elbow. However, one should not be misled by the name, in that it is not only tennis players who are susceptible to the condition. In fact it can strike a number of people involved in various sports and/or occupations such as carpentry for example. Also, even though it's commonly known as tennis elbow, the resultant pain usually tends to spread down the arm and into the wrists and fingers. While an elbow brace can offer a certain amount of relief, it is none the less advisable that you should make a point of doing tendonitis exercises if you suspect you have this condition. Over and above the lifting exercises mentioned above, you should also consider doing a few strengthening exercises, bearing in mind that if you do, you should always make sure that your palms are facing to you when you lift any weight.

The good news is that tennis elbow can more often than not be treated at home, but if after doing tendonitis exercises, the pain persists then you should consider making an appointment to see a doctor. Bear in mind however that irrespective of how severe your tendonitis may be, X-rays will be unable to show any signs of damage. One last word of caution with regards to tendonitis exercises is that unless you feel comfortable doing them, you should avoid them just in case you end up causing further harm.

About the Author:

Tom Nicholson spends his time helping sufferers of carpal tunnel syndrome. You can click here to learn more about having asore wrist.

Matrix Martial Arts Evolves an Extreme Learning Method

By Al Case

It is an unfortunate truth that the martial arts are taught by what I call the Stringular Method. This method is one of the base methods of learning, and actually not much more than Monkey see monkey do. This method is so slow that it takes years to transmit data from teacher to student, yet it is used in every martial arts, from karate to kung fu.

To understand the impact of the paragraph just past, we must define the types of learning, and put them in a proper order. To do this will enhance a students ability to learn. Ultimately, there are other factors, but this factor, the methodology employed is of crucial importance.

The first method I call The Simple Datum Method. An animal is hungry, sees a peach, eats the peach, inputs data as to the future and proper dispensation of peaches. Sadly, many people are held to this level throughout the third world countries of the world.

The second method I have labeled the Stringular Method, and it is the memorization of random strings of data. This is the method by which children are taught to learn in countries lacking adequate methods of education. This is the method used in the martial arts, and, truth be told, it is nothing more than Monkey See Monkey Do.

The third method is mosaic, and this is the method used to achieve enlightenment, such as it is. Simply, a person memorizes enough random strings of data to get a picture. The picture may be slanted, skewed, tainted, but it has been filled in enough for the person to envision, and thus he learns.

The fourth method is a modern method, and I have labeled it The Linear Method. The Linear Method entails the memorization of strings of logical data, and it was used to teach children in modern society up to recent times. Unfortunately, the method, even when it was used to good effect, ended with children, and advanced methods of learning were not cultivated.

The fifth method I call Matrixing. In this method the data is linear, and the linearity is held to until a mosaic, unslanted, skewed or tainted, is arrived at. This is an amazingly efficient method of teaching, and people, once they experience Matrixing, begin to input by strings of logical mosaics, or matrices.

Animal to child to adult, thinking about to intuition, the learning methods evolve. There are many ways to consider the far reaching effects of what I have discovered in the field of education. The most important thing to be considered, however, is that the effects of Matrixing, profound and enlightening. are best achieved through a practice of the martial arts, specifically of Matrix Martial Arts.

About the Author:

Al Case has studied martial arts 4O++ years. A writer for the martial arts magazines, he wrote the column Case Histories in Inside Karate. He is the originator of Matrixing Technology, which method increases speed of learning in the martial arts. You will start to learn faster just by reading his free ebook, which is available at Monster Martial Arts.

Five Karate Freestyle Concepts that Win Every Battle!

By Al Case

Freestyle, whether it is the brute force of the UFC fighter, or the well guided darts of traditional karate, is a staple of martial arts training. A black belt is not a black belt, after all, unless he can defend himself using techniques of freestyle. Even in the MMA, a good base of classical karate freestyle goes a long way towards educating a fighter to basic ring concepts.

That all said, I should caution the reader that one should be well versed in form if he wishes to make the following techniques work. I know many people have put form aside in these modern times, but form teaches control of the body, and of the mind, on an intimate level. And while the purpose of freestyle is to destroy somebody, it is of a much higher level to control them.

The first thing one must understand is how to prepare the body to enter the fight. This is the position one puts the body in when facing another fighter. The idea is to understand and adjust the structure of the body so that one has proper angle of the leg and therefore pushing muscles, max traction with the feet, and the correct turn of the hip so that max weight can be moved with minimum effort.

Another thing that should be done is to keep your eyes on your opponent. Simply, you are not going to be able to fight what you cannot face. Don't look at the whole body, or generally focus the eyes, look at the eyes of your opponent and know that you are looking through the windows to a mans soul, and therefore will be able to see the moment of thought, if not the whole thought, and what the intended technique is going to be.

Lift the arms and point them towards the shoulders of your opponent. Your opponent will have to confront the arms if he wishes to close with you, and that means he no longer has a straight line potential. If he goes around your arms, that results in you having the straight line potential.

If you wish to make your attacker entirely predictable, spread the hands slightly and give him access, or tighten them slightly so he will have to go around. You may give up a slight advantage, but now you know exactly what he will do. Knowing what an opponent is going to do before he does it is the majority of the game.

Balance the body so that he doesn't know if you are going to attack right or left, or high or low. Turning the shoulders so he can't predict which side you will come in on gives you a tremendous advantage. Not letting the opponent know which foot you are standing on, and which is free will stop him from knowing which foot you will kick him with.

Now, admitted, the techniques and strategy I have presented here are of the gunfighter variety. Still, whether you are facing Matt Hughes in the UFC, or the rival school in a friendly neighborhood tournament, or the rabid mugger on the street, these techniques will hold true, and will open the door to further exploration and awareness. Whether you are fighting in the ring or on the street, whether you are practicing classical karate, like shotokan, or an eclectic style like Kenpo, or a rare version of Shaolin or Wudan, these tactics will hold you in good stead.

About the Author:

Al Case has taught martial arts for over 40 years. He has written for the magazines since 1981, is the originator of Matrixing Technology, and has written the ultimate work on making a punch that will knock out your opponent every single time.

The Natural Progression from Shaolin to Wudan

By Al Case

The concepts of hard to soft, Shaolin to Wudan, striking to grappling have been with us a long time. Many people have likened the concepts to the yin yang, turning them over and over. In the end, however, there is no argument, merely a progression, an evolution if you will, of art within individual.

A child starts out with a hard art like karate. Heads out to the strip mall dojo and has fantastic contest with the other kids. Pecking orders are established, and the lad is set upon the martial path.

As the child grows, he might come across a Wudan style art, like tai chi chuan or pa kua chang. He begins to understand that all is not bashing, and that there might actually be something to learn here. He begins to look at concepts, principles, and apply them life.

As the child further matures, his youthful vigor wanes, and he begins looking for easier ways to do things. Maybe he is beset by injury, maybe the muscles are just not working as well as they can, whatever, he starts relying on technique as opposed to brute force. And, he has started the endless journey into the True Art.

The True Art is based upon intelligence, and intelligence is had by looking at things and comparing and contrasting those things. A punch is a punch, can he look at guiding with flow, manipulating with intelligence? Or is he just going to be stuck where he is, a grown man relying only on force?

Thus, he begins searching for a softer way to do the art, a way to move that won't tax the frame and rely upon the muscles so much. He explores Wudan based arts seriously now, searching for the key to effortless motion. And, the unfortunate result of age and injury, he will eventually fall into those effortless methods.

Yet, wouldn't it be smarter for him to just search for the softer arts in the beginning? The answer, surprisingly, is no. For a man to truly learn the soft he must learn the hard, he must have something to gauge it against, to compare and contrast it against, so that he might truly think and learn.

Yet, how much hard must a man experience before he becomes intelligent? I would recommend three or four years of karate, or at least a year of matrix karate, or, if he doesn't like Karate, then a matrix influenced art like Shaolin Kung Fu, preferably the Shaolin Butterfly. To make the leap to Wudan, or soft, or flowing, or, at the very least, intelligent art, one must see both sides of the spectrum, this is the only way for the frog to hop across the pond.

About the Author:

Al Case has delved into martial arts for 4O+ years. A writer for the mags since 1981, he is the originator of Matrixing technology. You can pick up a free ebook which will explain matrixing at Monster Martial Arts.

The True Secret of the Dim Mak Killing Strike

By Al Case

When I was starting my training in the martial arts, it was a brand of karate much like shotokan, I was fascinated by the tales of one punch one kill. The idea that you could end a fight with one punch was absolutely fabulous! And that you could actually kill somebody with a karate strike, well, that was more than just a comic book, you know?

Then, along came kung fu and the concept of dim mak, the idea of killing with a simple touch of the fingers. Man, now this was something, and I know it doesn't speak well of my maturity, but, man! To actually just touch someone, with a fingertip, and have them drop dead, cowabunga!

We trained hard in our desire to attain these killing philosophies. We did kata and handstands and techniques and spent endless hours punching the makiwara. Oddly, the more violent we got in the training hall, the more peaceful we were outside of the dojo.

Finally, age caught up with me, over forty years in the arts, and, finally, I began to understand some of this one punch, or even one touch, kill ability. I discovered that it wasn't in the fiber of muscularity. No matter how hard, strong and fast my body became, you see, there was something missing.

The missing something was this thing called Intention. Intention is the will, the desire, to do something. Consider it the so called invisible line between the thought of an action, and the accomplishment of that action.

Watch a fight between two MMA fighters, they bash each other for a few rounds, and nobody falls down. The moment one hits the canvas, however, you have seen the first real punch of the fight. The other punches were just trying but not achieving. They were generated by thought, but they never had sufficient oomph to reach completion, reality, actuality.

So, how do you gain the ability of the dim mak death strike of karate legend and kung fu mysticism? Don't make your arm tight when you strike, for tense muscles slow the intention, lock it up, stop it from reaching the reality. Forget that the opponent is real and in front of you, and thrust your fist, or place your finger, through the space of his body.

Now, this is the truth, what I have told you here, and perhaps you can find training methods that will help you implement this truth. The odd thing is that when you finally gain the ability of this strike, you will not have the lack of compassion to use it, and you will find that the ability you earned translates into methods of living that are far superior than just killing. In the martial arts it is the knowledge behind the technique that is valuable, the technique is merely a part of the journey to your true self.

About the Author:

Al Case has taught martial arts for 4O++ years. A writer for the magazines, he has his own column in Inside Karate. You can find out about Intention and death punches at Punch Em Out, and a free ebook is available at Monster Martial Arts.

Tips To Make Martial Arts Stretching More Efficient

By Donald Borah

Each of the many different types of martial arts has a different set of effective flexibility stretches. For example, taekwondo, northern shaolin or savate practitioners should concentrate on flexibility stretches for high kicks, whereas those who practice grappling arts should focus on stretching the core body and arms. Overall general flexibility is of even greater importance to a beginner and with experience will work on a more specialized martial arts stretching routine.

There are basic rules that should apply to any martial arts stretching program. Here are some pointers to make your flexibility stretches efficient and make you less prone to injury.

1. Stretching in the Morning.

A daily morning routine of martial arts stretching can really help you accomplish the requirements of your martial arts program and advance within it. It is best to do the morning stretching routine before breakfast, and fifteen to thirty minutes should be devoted to it. It is important to include a warm-up and cool down for safety, as well as custom stretches designed to help you accomplish the requirements of your martial arts program. Static, isometric and PNF stretches are hard on the muscular system, have a long recovery time and should be left for the main stretching work-out. It is a challenge to begin, and maintain, a morning stretching routine, but the benefits are well worth the efforts.

2. Begin with a Warm-Up

A dual warm-up procedure is an important part of a martial arts stretching workout. Begin with general calisthenics to increase blood flow and body temperature. Next, the specific warm-up has dynamic, more specific flexibility stretches that mimic your martial art. In order to loosen up and prevent injury, an appropriate warm-up is especially critical in the morning. Next, it's time for the primary stretching routine, focusing on the flexibility needs of your particular style.

3. Cooling Down

After the main martial arts stretching routine, it's time to cool down. This segment should mirror the basic warm-up, which assists with blood flow and recovery.

4. Safety

Martial arts stretching is meant to keep your body limber and safe as you improve your skills in your specific martial art. If you don't stretch properly, you could damage your skeletal system, muscles, or connective tissues, permanently delaying your progress. If you want to make your flexibility stretches safer, be sure to:

* Be sure to check with your doctor before you start this or any other fitness program. Getting clearance from your doctor will help you make greater and faster progress.

* Flexibility stretches should never cause pain at any time. As the muscles lengthen you may feel warmth, or a slight burning, but it is important to know that you should never feel pain. Even slight pain serves as a warning that you may be stressing your body, and ignoring the pain can result in micro-tearing of muscles and connective tissues, will leave scar tissue and can actually decrease your flexibility. If you ever feel pain while stretching, be it mild or severe, it is important that you consult with your doctor.

* When you start stretching, don't ever bob or bounce in the exercises. Ballistic stretching is the name of this method, and you are much more likely to get injured if you use this manner of exercise.

You are encouraged to incorporate this martial arts stretching knowledge into your own stretching routine and thereby increase your body's functional flexibility.

About the Author:

Do you want to increase the effectiveness of your art of sport by learning even more cutting edge routines, effective flexibility stretches, and modern martial arts stretching techniques? Then you should visit www.MartialArtsStretching.com today.

How to Use Yoga to Master the True Martial Art

By Al Case

There are two paths in the martial arts. The directions are sport, and art. One of these leads to decay, the other leads to enlightenment.

If one studies the martial arts solely as a sport, he engages in contest, and that actually defines the difference between sport and art. If one practices the martial arts as art, he is attempting to conquer the part of him which resists and fights. Subdue the self, or subdue another, it is easy to see the difference.

If one is attempting to subdue another, he is holding the world responsible for his problems, fighting the world, not taking responsibility for what he does. Whether the accumulation of wealth, or just trying to beat somebody through a violent contest, the student is not using the art the way it was designed, as a mirror for the soul. It is the soul, the individual, the spirit, the I AM that is what the martial arts are all about, not the smacking down of somebody else.

When one is doing the art as sport, he is making a strong body, and then risking that body to destruction. When one is doing the art as art, he is obsessed with finding out the truth about himself. He is engaged in defining what impulse is behind the muscle and quiver of fighting.

This all said, the True Martial Way can be defined by the degree of motion within the art. A young man indulges in the large motion of Karate and Shaolin and that type of art. As the student ages, he practices tai chi, slowing his motion down, looking at it, trying to take responsibility for his every action.

Eventually, man becomes old, runs down, and begins to think about what it all means. He aspires to motionlessness, he is a person who watches the movement of the universe, and this is where he finds the truth. In motionlessness, he sees the truth of motion and who creates it.

When one does Yoga one is exercising, making the body strong, but not through mock fighting. This does create a weakness, as the universe is motion, and we should study motion to understand life. That one weakness aside, yoga does encourage progression to the heart of the matter.

Putting the body through slow exercises, breathing, watching, we slowly become aware of who is doing the watching, who is making the motion. We find the I AM that is behind all the motion of the universe, and thus we transform into souls, individuals unique and creative and filled with passion. We could wait, and grow old without any discipline, or we could pursue violence through the martial arts until violence is exhausted, or, we could just accelerate the process with yoga, through posture and slow breathing, and find out who we really are.

About the Author:

Al Case has studied the martial arts for forty+ years. He has written for the magazines,, including his own column, Case Histories. He is the developer of Matrixing Technology and Neutronics. You can get a free ebook at his website, Monster Martial Arts.

Putting Wing Chun together with Aikido

By Al Case

Most times arts don't fit together. You take the circular hands of kenpo and try to put them atop the linear stances of shotokan, and you are going to get an uncoordinated mish mash. Or, the jabs of boxing might fit with wing chun, but the round house power punches don't fit at all.

And, of course, there are exceptions to the rule. You can put aikido together with pa kua chang, but it is going to take logic and discipline to categorize individual techniques. And, this leaves the developer with a problem of how do you teach the beast without confusing.

That all said, I was taking an Aikido class one day, I was a mere beginner in that art, though I had seven years of kenpo and karate and a bit of wing chun. So they asked me to partake in randori, which is the freestyle aikido employs to train students. It was a sad experience, at best.

I didn't want to give them my punches, karate had taught me to lock my stance down and become immoveable, and the result was that nobody could throw me, and the give and take of the randori exercise wasn't working. I blame no one, it was mixing watermelons and peanuts, and one could argue they should have been able to make their art work, but I should have been able to work with them. Interestingly, it was what happened after class that became interesting.

Paul, one of the higher ranked black belts came up to me and wondered where the breakdown had been. Lower black belts stayed away from me like I hadn't washed. Paul, on the other hand, wanted to learn, and that was the mark of a higher level belt.

So I explained about l how I had been taught to lock down my stance, and we looked at that in conjunction with aikido techniques, and how things could have been different. Nothing was really making sense, until I asked him if he had ever heard of sticky hands. When I showed it to him the lights began to go on.

Wing Chun, you see, doesn't lock the stances down, and we spent hours figuring out how to get the feet to go fast enough to keep up with the aikido centrifugal action. Slowly, we figured out how the feet were supposed to cross or circle with the slip of the hand. We began to go into advanced techniques, Paul excited because of the lights going on, myself grinning, because I was getting a lesson in Aikido that the other fellows in the school, the lower black belts, would have died for.

It takes logic to put arts together, and very few people are successful at the endeavor. I succeeded wildly, and this because I always seem to run into people that are willing to look a little deeper, and willing to share what they learn. If you think you know it all, if you're proud, if you look down on other students, then you will never open your mind and be able to ingest all the wonderful truth that flows so freely in the universe.

About the Author:

Al Case has researched martial arts for 4O+ years. A writer for the martial arts magazines, he is the originator of Matrixing Technology. You can learn about Matrixing, and how to successfully combine arts, at Monster Martial Arts.

The Secret of How to Build Chi Through the Martial Arts!

By Al Case

I am going to tell you the truth about this thing called Chi in this article. It is an easy truth, but you are going to have to give up all your mysticism. No matter if you study wudan or Shaolin, you are going to have to think logically and actually change the way you have been thinking.

First off, this thing called chi is a catch basket. It is a real thing, chi exists and can be used, but everybody confuses it by calling whatever they don't understand chi. If somebody puts out a candle with a fist at ten feet, it is the chi, but if somebody makes all the green lights, it is also the chi, so the subject of chi has been thrown around and totally confused.

To create this thing called chi one must discipline their body so it acts as a coordinated unit, I call this Coordinated Body Motion. In olden times instructors would tell their students to use the body as one unit, but that doesn't really tell the story of what one is actually doing. One must break the body down and understand all the pieces, if he is going to use it as a whole unit.

All motion of the body must start at the same instant in time. The fist and the foot move forward together, as one. There must be no push backward to give movement forward, the movement is only forward, and it must be done at the same moment.

All motion of the body must halt at the same instant in time. The fist and the foot end all motion at the same, exact moment. There is no staggering or swaying of the body, the weight simply drives into the ground at the point of focus.

All of the parts of the body must move relative to their size and weight. The hips, weighing more than the foot, must still achieve a smooth arc of motion that begins and ends simultaneous with the foot. The fist having a longer arc than an elbow, or a shoulder, must still start motion and stop motion at the same time as the elbow or shoulder.

When the body starts and stops at the same time, and all the body parts are properly calibrated for the length of distance they must move and the amount of weight that must be moved, then you will achieve CBM. Coordinated Body Motion is the secret of this thing called Chi. CBM will release Chi.

When you move with CBM your attention will be off the body and on the target, and then intention will flow. It is Intention that is Chi. Intention will fill up the body with energy, and enable you to have those amazing abilities that true martial arts possess. Of course, this is just the first step, a simple little step, and to make your way to the end of the Martial Arts, and to find the True Martial Art, no matter whether you study Aikido or Karate or whatever, you must find the remaining steps of the Martial Arts.

About the Author:

Al Case has analyzed martial arts for 40 years. A writer for the magazines, he wrote the column 'Case Histories' in Inside Karate. He is the originator of Matrix Martial Arts, which you can find out about by getting his free ebook at Monster Martial Arts.