Author: Al Case

I read stories of the old Karate masters, and I wondered why I was totally flattened out, why I was in a plateau that never ended.

Eventually, I started getting migraines with every punch I threw. I'd throw a gentle punch so I could work out, but if I ever threw a hard punch...whamo! Instant migraine.

Don't get me wrong, I was learning, learning incrediblef stuff, but I wasn't making the big break through that the masters of legends made.

Finally, having had enough of the headache punches, I thought of my instructor. He had made the breakthrough, yet he wasn't a huge blast of energy, he was gentle, and polite, and modest, and humble, and...hmmm.

So I thought about the art of Karate, and something my instructor said...A tight fist is a heavy fist.

And the light went on in my skull.

I had been striking with all my energy, tensing my whole body, exploding massive amounts of power. He was like a noodle, flicking little jolts that incapacitated.

So I started putting my whole body in position, but tightening only the fist. Whole billboards of lights went on in my skull.

By tensing the whole body it was like I was crashing a car into a wall, again and again. But one doesn't break down the wall of the mind, one slips through the chinks.

Mind you, it wasn't the pop of kenpo punches, it was the whole body power of karate, but the body didn't tense, it just lined up behind the fist.

The idea that Karate, or any martial art, is nothing more than a blast of energy and power and all that...is totally and utterly wrong.

My headaches went away, I discovered ways of rolling power through my tan tien and snapping it. It was more shaolin than karate, but it was really just true karate, the karate that the masters of old, who had had more direct connection to the Shaolin Temple, had practiced.

It was more tai chi chuan than karate, but it was really just nothing more than true Karate.

It was so many things. It was energy made liquid, plasma, energy pulsed, energy gentle...there was so much potential here it is almost overwhelming.

It was more than body...it was an energy body that I lived in.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/martial-arts-articles/a-tight-fist-is-a-heavy-fist-the-key-to-developing-true-karate-power-4953732.html

About the Author

Drop on by http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Matrix_Karate.html">Monster Martial Arts. Pick up a free martial arts book on the home page. Step on to the road toTrue Karate, and make your art more than a car crash.