Lower Providence Aikido

There are many ways to learn martial arts, to learn Karate or Taekwondo or Kenpo, or to learn any martial art. Unfortunately, most training methods work in limited ways. There is one training tool, however, that can be used in any martial art, and drives the learning curve straight up the wall.

Most training methods, you see, depend on monkey see monkey do, which is pretty much the oldest, and most inefficient, martial arts method in existence. The best and most up to date method for learning a martial art is matrixing. No offense, but if you live in some backwoods place and haven't come across matrixing, you could probably do a quick google search on matrix karate, or matrix kung fu, and find out what it is.

At any rate, there are some rather simple methods one can use if one decides to learn kung fu online, or learn karate at home, or whatever. The first method, though it is basically monkey see monkey do, is simply to memorize a form. The real education starts, however, when one realizes that they can practice the form facing in any direction.

One faces in a certain direction when learning a form, gets used to the direction, even uses key things in the environment to orient oneself. So to start facing east instead of west is actually a good thing. One quickly outgrows the need for environmental cues and starts inputting the form without need for external reference.

A second way to learn forms and self defense techniques is to simply do them on both the right and the left side. Everybody figures this one out pretty quickly in their training. To do Karate forms, or Kenpo techniques on both the right side and the left side of the body tends to 'wake up the brain,' and the student quickly considers martial arts moves in new ways.

The third way of doing martial arts forms is to do them backwards. Do your Karate form backwards-not just the sequence of blocks and strikes backward, but to reverse motion the moves themselves-and you will find the cranial capacity expanding exponentially. Not many people know this one, it is difficult to do, but man...does it work!

Now, we have actually left most martial artists behind with the last trick, and that's too bad, because it is about to get even better. Once one learns how to write a matrix on a martial art-be it karate or taekwondo or whatever-they think they have opened up wide new vistas of martial arts techniques. They have only scratched the hide of the beast, however, for there are two other methods that one can explore that are simple and easy and yet have profound effect.

First, one can put matrixes together; just as the matrixes use basic techniques, one can use the techniques of one matrix to lead into another matrix. Second, one can actually flip matrixes, and this one uncorks the brain and causes stellar explosions of understanding. Of course, one has to learn how to write a matrix in the martial arts first, and then do a few of them, but once they have done this they will be able to flip the matrix and learn martial arts faster; they will be able to learn Kung Fu or Kenpo or any martial art they want faster than Neo can read a cook book.