Didn’t know that Johnny Cash could fix Martial Arts systems, did you? Well, actually, his advice is for fixing cars, sort of, but it translates directly to the fighting disciplines. And it is sound advice indeed.

Johnny sang a song back in the seventies called ‘One Piece at a Time.’ In the song he has a factory worker, who will never be able to afford a Cadillac, sneak one off the assembly line ‘one piece at a time.’ Unfortunately, the pieces were smuggled out over a 20 year time period, and the assembled vehicle was quite the mess.

I see ads for a Martial Arts Bible every once in a while, and it’s a clever ad. I mean, the concept for a book that answers all questions, it’s a good one, and it’s needed. Here are a list of books which I think are close, with the last one really hitting the button.

The first book to be considered would be Karate Do Kyohan: The Master Text, by Gichin Funakoshi. The reason this book has to be considered is because it was the first to really offer a comprehensive look at the eastern fighting disciplines. Of course, it is slanted towards Karate, and it offers techniques and forms without real explanation, but it is a good book.

I almost feel guilty, giving out a few martial arts dirty tricks, when such things as Karate and Kung Fu really stand for honor and virtue. The sordid news, however, is that if you have to use your martial skill outside the training hall, fighting dirty may save your life. That said, here’s a few nasty, little things I’ve learned over the years that will help you walk away, and make him cry.

When it come to martial arts explosive power one has to consider the concept of Fa Jing. This is the simple gut oomph that makes such arts as Karate, Shaolin, Tai Chi, and other traditional martial arts superior to sports such as boxing. This is not to speak ill pugilism, this is just to say that there is a theory that, if followed, will make an art out of a sport, and will create a superior human being.

When we consider the best martial arts forms we are considering those martial arts kata that give the most benefit to the student. I usually recommend learning as many patterns and arts as possible, then working on the ones that the student prefers, although there can be oddities in this method. I also hold that one should learn entire arts, first taekwondo, then karate, then kung fu.

The kebons are good, basic forms, and are common to both karate systems and taekwondo systems. Though there are three to five of these, I don’t usually count them as forms because they are learning the important but easy ABCs of the martial arts.

Eight forms is all that is really necessary to earn a Martial Arts Black Belt, and this is in karate, or taekwondo, or kenpo, or even the many shaolin systems and other fighting arts. Of course the kata must be of the correct kind to be effective. A good example of this is found in Karate, which descended from Kung Fu, and from which developed both Kenpo and Taekwondo.

Black Belt rankings were begun by Judo Master Jigoro Kano. Master Kano is supposed to have based his system on rankings used by swimming clubs. Karate clubs in Japanese Universities borrowed this ranking system.

The original karate system is supposed to have been based on only two belts, white belt and black belt. As more and more people came to study, two more belts were added, green belt and brown belt. Eventually Chinese American Kenpo was devised by Karate pioneer Ed Parker, and the number of colored belts grew greatly.