The Effect of Spectacular Science Fiction on Martial Arts , Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 3:29 AM, in

Many of the martial arts, like karate are fiction. Slam somebody on the nose with a palm and bone shards will spear into his brain and kill him, except there isn't any bone in the nose, its all cartilage. And all those old legends, a lot of them are good for washing the hog, if you have a willing hog.
But, there is a certain science that has proven true in the martial arts. This is the science of how to use geometrical energy potentials. I discovered this field while reading a series of books called the Lensmen Series.
I suppose the first time it hit me was when E. E. Smith, the author, described spacemen fighting on the hull of a space ship. They were hooking their feet under hand grips so they would not fly into space when they hit somebody. They were anchoring themselves so they could apply force, and not have the force dislodge them.
Soon I was swallowed by a universe where weapons created incredible geometries of force. A death ray was a beam, and it could be deflected by a well built shield. And if a shield could deflect, then a shield thrust sideways could slice the first shield apart.
Soon I was enraptured by images of fleets of space ships creating their own particular brand of strategy. Fleets of space ships would form globes around other fleets, and cones of spaceships would swallow globes of fleets. Each time a geometry was described, my mind struggled to keep up with the wash of new concepts.




Then, shock of shocks, fleets of spaceships gave way to mental powers. Those same rods and globes and cones and shields, made real in the extreme of space combat, became the stuff of mind to mind encounters. How do you slide your awareness through the grid of another but alien mentality?
And, ultimately, done with the books, I began extending these outer space alien mind combat strategies to the martial arts. I sank my weight and planted my stance so I would not fly back from my own force. I described cones with my arms, and engulfed globular fists as they flew out of space at me.
When I tell people about this they generally think I am a bit crazy, or they know me a genius. Reading sci fi for inspiration, who would have thought. Yet, isn't the martial arts an art, and shouldn't it be filled with creativity and expression and beams of force and mind to mind conflicts?

Al Case has researched martial arts for 40 years. A writer for the magazines, he is the originator of Matrixing Technology. You can find out about Matrixing by getting his free ebook at Monster Martial Arts.