GUIDED CHAOS NEWS #153

FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE: REALITY-BASED CLOSE COMBAT TRAINING FOR SELF-DEFENSE AND STREET SURVIVAL   ...is the title of the forthcoming Guided Chaos Combatives eBOOK. It should be available to the public by the end of May (hopefully, but probably more like early June). Sorry for the delay, we're making it bigger and better! It will be available as a stand-alone eBook, a paperback and as a Premium Package with key GC Balance and Footwork video download lessons at a higher price. Details coming...   THE GCC SELF-DEFENSE AND STREET SURVIVAL eBOOK: --IS QUICK, EASY-TO-LEARN AND DEVASTATING --DOESN'T TAKE YEARS TO MASTER --HAS TONS OF PHOTOS AND DRILLS --HELPS YOU DEVELOP THE SURVIVAL MINDSET, STRIKES AND     STRATEGIES FOR SAVING YOUR LIFE WHEN THE SPIT HITS THE FAN. --HAS OVER 50 "STREET SMART" AWARENESS TIPS    THAT DON'T EVEN INVOLVE FIGHTING! GUIDED CHAOS HITS THE ROAD IN 2010  We've got a heavy away seminar schedule developing later this year. Organize a group of 20 or more people and we'll bring our crew to you. GCC INSTRUCTOR CERTIFICATION TESTING HAS BEGUN   Congratulations to Ari Kandel, 3rd degree GC, who is the first non-master to gain GCC certification! All GC black belts who want to test, please place your name on Patrick's schedule.   Stay in touch--check out the official Guided Chaos Facebook page.

HOW TO HAVE A CONTACT FLOW BREAKTHROUGH  By Ari Kandel, GC 3rd degree

Learning vs. Competing It seems that a big challenge for many in contact flow is the idea of MOVING WITH your training partner, rather than AGAINST him.   While there are many ways to do contact flow, with many respective benefits, moving slowly WITH your training partners pays big dividends in terms of sensitivity and subconscious knowledge. Don't try to thwart, oppose or stymie your training partner, simply move along with him, allowing his movement to move your body with no resistance. To the greatest extent you can, do not judge, anticipate or look back on motion. Remain passively in the moment. Don't worry about "hitting" him or not being "hit" yourself. You already know how to hit people, this is about subconsciously absorbing the subtleties of human motion. If you keep trying to stop or thwart that motion, how will you ever feel it and learn about it? The Rewards of Patience Lots of people seem to want to jump the gun and impose their own will on training partners without ever understanding what the training partner is doing. In combat, this can work IF you always manage to get the jump on the bad guys, if you're never surprised (by e.g. hidden weapons, unseen bad guys, etc.) and if you're bigger, stronger, faster, meaner, etc. than all bad guys combined. . . . If you're lacking in any of these, you'll need to learn how to adapt, and in order to learn to adapt, you need to MOVE WITH your training partners, rather than AGAINST them.   Power Through Visualization Here's yet another mental image that might help you to advance in GC. I'll write it the way I'd explain it in person:   Yank on my arm, nice and hard. See what happens? My arm gets yanked, and it affects my body a bit in that my shoulder is pulled forward and I get a little off-balance. That's normal, and that's how most people respond if they're being "loose." (If I were to tighten up and resist the yank, I'd get tossed and/or injured.) Now, I'm going to imagine that my body has almost no mass--it's nearly weightless, like a small feather floating on the wind. If you touch one part of that feather, the whole feather is moved. Yank on my arm now. See how my whole body is now slammed into you??? Try pushing straight back on my arm. See how my whole body whirls around, steps in and cracks you with my other arm? I'm like that floating feather. If you give me the slightest impetus, I can't HELP but be moved, as I can't resist even the slightest pressure. My whole body gets launched into motion. Now, the fact remains that I actually DO have mass, which drops with a lot of impact as I come to "rest" from the motion you caused. And my motion always tends to bring my center of gravity closer to yours than it was before you moved me, as if there's some gravity between our centers. In this way, I can be completely passive, but ANY impetus from my training partner launches my entire body into loose, united motion. The launching and movement are very "light," as if I were weightless, but the landing is HEAVY (but still loose) as all my actual mass comes down in the new location. In this way, I always move WITH what's going on, not against it, as I have no "mass" with which to resist my partner's motion. His motion simply moves me. No need for the motion to be large, just responsive and effective.   Play with it, see if it helps. Periodically review other such mental tricks in this blog and in the newsletters, as different ideas can help different people at different stages of development.   Some other recent discoveries/observations:   Play with objects that could be used as weapons, e.g. sticks/canes. Yes, practice the basic combative movements with them (e.g. strikes and thrusts with all parts of the objects), but also just toss and twirl them around to get a subconscious feel for their balance, inertia, etc. John "plays" with the cane free-form very creatively, NOT with an eye towards intentionally DOING any fancy flips or twirls in combat, but just to have a better feel for the cane and how it moves. This improves his facility with the cane in any combative situation.   Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously A sense of humor in training, not taking yourself too seriously, seems to be an essential ingredient for advancing in GC. You should certainly take the ART and the TRAINING (and safety) seriously, but have fun with it and don't be afraid of looking foolish. I've noticed that ALL of the higher level GC black belts are a riot to hang out with outside of class, and are often nearly as funny during training, when appropriate. Some may be quieter and more reserved than others, but all have a great sense of humor about themselves and about life in general. John models this himself. He's very down to earth to the point of being the goofy "class clown," even while behind the facade it's obvious to those who know him that the gears are turning and he takes self-defense and survival VERY seriously. (It's too bad John's sense of humor doesn't usually come through on video.) I've seen folks who take themselves more seriously come through class, and they usually don't hang around for long. Maybe some people confuse the militaristic outward demonstrations of "discipline" common to conventional martial arts with real inner discipline, or warm bawdiness and self-effacement with foolishness. It's their loss. Remember not to take yourself too seriously and to HAVE FUN in your training. Not only is the mind most receptive to learning when it's in a state of "play," but the fact is that life is too short to spend too much time doing things that are no fun.   In other news, "on the road" seminar scheduling should heat up starting late summer, so make sure to get in touch if you think your area can provide enough bodies to support a GCC/GC seminar.   Finally, thanks for all the congrats regarding my becoming a certified GCC instructor. Be sure to extend at least as many congrats to all those who will soon do the same, especially seeing as it'll be a tougher test for them as they did not get "sneak previews" of the instructor manual by assisting with the editing! CONTACT FLOW ...Is the Best Method for Developing Combat Adaptability. What's the Best Video Tool for Developing Contact Flow? IN THE EYE OF THE STORM: THE ATTACKPROOF COMPANION PART 3 The DVD Companion to Our Best-selling Book It's all led up to this... In 2000 we came out with a book that did what many said couldn't be done: explain a formless "internal-art" system that truly has "no way as way," that maximizes adaptation yet has no rigid responses. Over 30,000 copies later and endorsements from professionals around the globe have shown what's possible. But putting it all down on video was a far greater challenge. In 2004 and 2005 we laid down the essential foundation of Guided Chaos with the Attackproof Companion Series Parts 1 and 2. Now with the release of Part 3: "In the Eye of the Storm" (the original name of our book before our publisher changed it) we believe we have finally accomplished our goal: provide an unbelievably detailed method of self-development that can take you as far as your genetics will allow--and keep on developing you--for a lifetime. Now that you have the essential foundation and have understood and practiced the major principles and tools in Parts 1 and 2, it's time to put it all together. In Part 3, East meets West and the result is a non-mystical, hard-core training system that produces a no-mind "Mushin" state allowing spontaneous reactions in life-threatening situations.    FINALLY...  •  For internal arts practitioners, a no-nonsense, physics-based  approach that delivers on all the promises made for using tai chi-like  principles in actual combat. That's right: put teeth in your tai chi.  •   For the non-Olympians among us, a way to maximize your body's mechanics against stronger attackers that are using only muscle power.  •   For the already physically gifted, a method for going beyond what  was previously possible. In the Eye of the Storm is jam-packed with a tremendously detailed exploration into Contact Flow, the free-form energy drill that integrates all aspects of Guided Chaos training into a completely adaptive fighting system. Master Perkins and Lt. Col. Ridenhour take you through what amounts to almost a private lesson as they instruct various students one-on-one in the subtleties of the art. Rather than showing rigid techniques on the order of "this is what you do against this, and this is what you do against that" they show you how to develop your own ability to change, create and modify your defense moment-by-moment to deal with violence the way it is--not the way we would like it to be. SAVE 15% ON THE COMPLETE COMPANION SERIES DVD DISCOUNT COMBO PACK PARTS 1, 2 AND 3 ("IN THE EYE OF THE STORM") SEE ALL DISCOUNT COMBO PACKS HERE

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