I had the pleasure to sit down this week and talk with one of the most legendary, revolutionary to the art, and skilled, yet under reported martial arts master Al Case. The following is that interview which I trust you will enjoy as much as I did.
The Hollywood Sentinel – Bruce Edwin: Who is Al Case?
Al Case: A baby boomer from a nuclear family who went zen. It’s odd, it’s not like I live life, it’s like life lives me, tells me what to do, sends me places and sets me up. Really, for whatever reason, my life is utterly and totally blessed.
I use logic to teach the spiritual side of the martial arts. I call this logic ‘Matrixing,’ and it is an actual science based on the Truth Table from Boolean Algebra. But don’t let the algebra scare you, it’s an exercise in simplicity, and how to make things easy and intuitive.
Hollywood Sentinel: Wow, that’s very interesting. When did you start doing this?
Al Case: I began martial arts in 1967, and right form the start I started arranging the martial arts to fit the way I thought. Oddly, I thought everybody thought the way I thought, I was sort of shocked to find out that I was doing things differently from the classical, or from anybody else.
Hollywood Sentinel: Where did you get your experience and training?
Al Case: I’ve studied most every martial art that’s come along in the last forty years, but my main thrust was from a fellow name of Bab Babich who taught the Kang Duk Won (House for Espousing Virtue). He was a phenomenal teacher who rarely spoke, and in the silence I learned to listen; I learned to look inside myself for the answers.
Hollywood Sentinel: Interesting. Why do you get started in this?
Al Case: I can’t tell you. I don’t know. It’s not like I even do it, it’s more like it does me.
Hollywood Sentinel: Why should people learn martial arts?
To control the body, mind and spirit. To develop the discipline to express themselves. To be competent in life. To have fun. To be a bigger person. To learn compassion. To find out what truth is hiding in the nooks and crannies of your big, old spirit.
Hollywood Sentinel: That sounds great. What is the biggest misunderstanding people have about martial arts?
Al Case: They think it is to beat people up. Beating people up is easy, learning to control the self, to manifest oneself spiritually, that is difficult.
Hollywood Sentinel: Where can people find out more about you?
AL Case: My blogsite is www.AlCase.wordpress.com.
I explain matrixing and the martial arts, people can ask me anything they want, and you can find out about other things that I do.
Hollywood Sentinel: O.K., how can people order your work?
That is the site for martial arts. I’ve also written some thirty novels, and a few of them are available at that site which is; www.AlCasebooks.com
I am also looking to start a monastery of the Martial Arts; www.Churchofmartialarts.com
Hollywood Sentinel: That is pretty amazing. How can people train with you?
Al Case: They have to know somebody and get recommended, or start a dialogue with me over the net and convince me that they are a serious martial artists. Right now it’s hard to get accepted.