The Effect of Science Fiction on Martial Arts

A lot of the martial arts, like karate, are fiction. Hit a guy up 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 hogwash, 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 wrapped in a universe where weapons created geometries of force. If a death ray was a rod like beam, it could be deflected by a shield. And if a shield could deflect, then a shield sheared sideways could slice into the first shield.

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, having finished the series of books, I began extending those outer space alien mind warfare strategies to my chosen field of the martial arts. I sank my weight into deep horse stances so I would not fly away from the projection of my own force. I described cones with the movements of my limbs, and went after globes of fists as they flew out of space at me.

When I tell people about what has inspired me they generally think I am a bit crazy, or they realize I am a genius. Reading sci fi for inspiration in the martial arts, who would have thought? Yet, it is all art, and should not art be filled with creativity and expression and beams of force and mind to mind conflicts?

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

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