The Martial Arts Freestyle Method

From Al Case at Matrix Martial Arts…

Technically,

you should probably say,

‘The Al Case Martial Arts Freestyle (or fighting) Method.’

I don’t know of anybody else who teaches freestyle like this.

Yet it is a complete method that

leads to competence in fighting in the shortest possible time.

The problem with karate,

and with people,

and all of mankind,

is that they think the only solution is force.

somebody comes at you and the solution is to hit him.

And, of course,

we know that Tai Chi and Aikido and such,

they aren’t really arts,

they don’t work!

Poopycock to you!

Those arts work fine!

They work better than the hard arts!

The problem is that people don’t make them work.

And the problem behind that is…

they don’t know how to make them work.

They are stuck with the idea of force only.

So let’s talk.

The first rule of a soft art,

Aikido, or Tai Chi especially,

is get out of the way.

simple dimple.

Guy punches,

step aside.

After a while,

learn a few tricks,

starting to get an inkling,

you figure out the second rule.

Empty.

In Sticky Hands you empty the arms.

In Pushing Hands you empty the body.

In Aikido you empty the body while in motion.

Easy peasy.

And, after a while,

you figure out the third rule.

Help him punch you.

Now,

while you’re thinking about that,

I figured all three rules out

on my first couple of lessons in Sticky Hands.

The guy is hitting me,

I’m not fast enough,

Totally confused.

But,

as time went on,

and the punches accumulated,

I realized what sticky hands was trying to teach me.

Don’t reach out and create a barrier, a block, a ridge.

If you do that you’re pushing him away,

and he’ll just come back and hit you again.

A ridge draws in force.

But if you reach out as he reaches out,

then pull back as he passes the halfway mark

and you help him with his strike,

you can guide it using almost no force.

Don’t fight him,

agree with him.

I structure my freestyle method like this:

FIRST

Rhythmic Freestyle

A slow block and counter drill.

Back and forth,

slowly blocking,

speeding up ONLY when competence appears.

SECOND

Lop Sau, or ‘Rolling Fists’

Mind you I do this one totally different than any other art.

I’ve figured out all the parts,

all the missing pieces,

so it is a complete method of freestyle,

not just a wing chun drill with limits.

The point is the student is introduced to

‘pulling the attacker’s punch.’

Only two techniques in a method that has six techniques,

but it works.

I’m the only person in the world that teaches the complete lop sau drill.

THIRD

Sticky Hands.

I drill the student on emptying his arms..

He pulls the arm,

twists the hips slightly,

and deflects the punch

without moving in place.

I actually skip this drill a lot.

It just isn’t as useful as some might think.

FOURTH

Pushing Hands.

Not just emptying the arms,

but emptying the whole body.

Absorbing the punch while moving in place.

I usually drill Lop Sau and Pushing Hands together,

(after the student is able to do all the attacks in Lop Sau)

making the student appreciate the difference

in distances in the two drills.

FIFTH

I do ‘flowstyle,’

It’s like Rhythmic freestyle,

back and forth,

except we can only flow punches into locks and throws.

I’ve outlined this method in lots of places,

I believe it is in the Matrix Combat course,

but I wrote that a long time ago

and there might be a couple of missing points.

You’ll find individual freestyle drills in the various courses,

but you have to go through them and see where they are,

then compile them.

There aren’t going to be any missing pieces,

however,

and this is the most thorough explanation of the method.

You can also find it in some of my books,

especially the later ones.

But,

again,

you have to check it all out.

So there it is,

first, realize that you must…

get out of the way

empty your body

help him punch (attack)

Second,

Rhythmic freestyle

lop sau (complete method develped by me)

Sticky Hands

Pushing Hands

Flowstyle (aiki method of back and forth throws/locks.

Have fun,

and don’t forget to give me five stars

when you purchase

The Last Martial Arts Book

(There is a version with five hours of video

but you have to hunt for it on Amazon)

Have a great work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 11 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find that useful

find the book/course that is right for you,

and matrix your own martial arts.

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