ISSUE #198  GUIDED CHAOS NEWS         follow us @GuidedChaos    ENDORSEMENTS

THE FASTEST WAY TO LEARN SURVIVAL SELF-DEFENSE...  THE TOTAL IMMERSION EXPERIENCE, MAY 2012 • Combatives • Guided Chaos • Combat Boxing • Groundfighting • Weapons • Shooting   --EARLY ORDER DISCOUNT: SAVE $100 PER PERSON --GROUP DISCOUNT: SAVE $100 PER PERSON For 3 or more people purchasing the full 4 or 5 day Boot Camp in one credit card order ($100 will be rebated to each person in group via Paypal within 48 hours after purchase). Offer good til May 1st 2012. May be applied on top of Early Order discount (ending Jan 1st) for a total savings of $200 per person.    Boot Camp will be held May 2-6 2012 at the Hilton Pearl River Hotel in Pearl River, New York. To book your discounted room ($130/night) right at the Hilton you can either: 1) Call the hotel directly and use the promo code "GUIDED" when booking. Or 2) Reserve online using our Hilton-Guided Chaos Boot Camp hotel reservation website. Book early as these rooms are limited. See full details. There are other hotels within 10 miles of the Boot Camp venue but considering the discounted rate is $130/night, you would be hard-pressed to find a better value anywhere.    • Indoor pool, gym, restaurant/bar; adjoins Blue Hill Golf Course • Easy highway access (40 min. drive to Manhattan) • 5 min. drive to NJ Transit railroad (65 min. train to Manhattan)                   EARLY ORDER DISCOUNT:      • 4 days of intense, personalized GC training for $700 (except Combat Shooting day--see below). That's $175/Day until 1/1/2012; $200/day thereafter)  • $250 for COMBAT SHOOTING DAY (Wed May 2nd) • Come for 1 or all 5 days and experience the fastest way to learn survival self-defense.   Full info here   ADDITIONAL $25/DAY REBATE FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT AND MILITARY PERSONNEL WITH ID

GREAT Q AND A ON SOLO TRAINING AND CONTACT FLOW...

FOLOWING IS A DETAILED BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN ONE OF OUR STUDENTS AND 4TH DEGREE ARI KANDEL. WE'D RECOMMEND STUDYING IT CLOSELY... IT BEGINS WITH A QUESTION ASKED IN A PREVIOUS NEWSLETTER WHICH WE HAVE INCLUDED. Q: In the NY class you were teaching me about how to isolate from my root so that I was utilizing less arm movement and moving to more advantageous positions using my body so I wouldn’t get stuck in grabs and be able to continue the flow. All I was wondering was if there are any drills you could explain to me where I could practice isolating from my root and any type of things I could do with the training partners down here so I could continue to cultivate this ability? A: Two solo drill recommendations: 1) Psycho Tango. See the second edition Attack Proof book. 2) Something with no name that Al showed me a while back: Find a very non-resistant object at around head/shoulder/chest height. The traditional object is a leaf on a tree, preferably at the end of a long, thin branch. In my old apartment I used a string hanging from the ceiling. The object should move in response to the slightest pressure. Here's how to get started: touch the object with your fingers, being careful not to make it move. Now, while staying in contact with the object with your fingers but not disturbing it at all, start moving and stepping all over the place with the rest of your body. This forces you to isolate the body part in contact with the object while maintaining freedom of motion with the rest of your body. This is a tough drill, it's not easy to keep constant contact while not disturbing the object at all, so don't expect perfection at first. As you get the hang of it, touch the object with other contact points, e.g. your elbow, and isolate around that. Vary the height of the object and the angle at which you touch it. Get as crazy as you can with the movement of the rest of your body. Use TWO objects (e.g. two leaves with various distances between them) and touch one with each hand, and isolate from there. If you find yourself with nothing to do, you can do this with any object you can touch (e.g. a wall), you just won't have the feedback regarding whether you've given any pressure. You can also do it very small and slow if you're out in public, i.e. moving so small/slow that to outside observers it looks like you're just touching a wall or table and standing there, nothing unusual. In contact flow, what worked for me was playing with the idea of not letting the other person feel where I'm going. This forced me to isolate, either with no pressure or with constant/equal light pressure. Also, letting people grab me hard and just letting them have whatever they're grabbing while I step into position to end it. --Ari Kandel  Q: I began doing the drill but then i got confused about a couple things. I think this might be a case of me overthinking it so if it is feel free to tell me lol. I began doing the drill with the cord hanging from an iron because you said you used a string and  it was right there so i just began lol. Then i tripped myself up because i was thinking in which ways do the fingers stay connected to the object. The cord is not wide enough for me to stick to it with all five fingers if my palm is facing it in the home position. So does that mean that i can only stick to it with the back of my fingers facing the object? Will all five fingers really be touching the cord or string? I can understand for the leaf because it's wider but not for the string or cord if you could just clarify that for me. Then i have one more question, when is it a good time to actually isolate? I understand a couple reasons like if you meet the immovable object it allows for more efficiency to end it then simply trying to move your arm around the person. Also it's been alowing me to get out of the way or strikes more because it eliminates any type of pushing that i may desire to do. I was just wondering if you could explain if there's anymore reasons for this sub-principle? So I could better understand what it is im trying to do? Like i said though if this is just a case of me overthinking go right ahead and just say "just touch the cord and move" lol and ill be fine with that. Looking forward to you response till then be safe A:1) Just touch the cord and move!!! ;) 2) Yup, you're overthinking it. Contact with the cord can be anywhere, or even nowhere (John demonstrated moving with and staying in contact with a string with just the hairs on his arm). 3) Isolation and other benefits of this exercise permeate everything.   John recently wrote the below:   One point on the isolation exercise is try not to look at the string or leaf directly but feel it as you move...Or feel the "essence" of the string or leaf...Maybe that will enhance your understanding of what I developed it for...It is not so much that you are invisible to the attacker's touch but you should be able to get a 3 dimensional picture of where he is along with the dynamics involved...So do the string exercise by "feel"...As far as working with non advanced students it is IMPERATIVE that you both move and feel as light as the string...Of course this is far easier described than performed but just meditating on this concept helps too... Q: Hope I'm not bothering you with all these questions lol. Through training here some recent questions have come about that have just been lingering in my head. Do you think you could explain on a basic level how to make the person miss in contact flow? I hear it over and over but im a little confused on when to just turn, when to step, how to step. Alot of the times i try to step out of the way but i get hit anyway? Is this just one of those things where i gotta get hit and my body will just learn to positon itself? Also when you start to devolp the ability to get lighter on ppl do you get hit more because your body is so use to pushing to avoid strikes rather then moving your body? Also if you percieve that my next question is from ego, feel free not to answer but i guess i am kind of wondering where my skills are and if im in the right direction? As a first degree what should i be able to do? What should i try to improve? Also if you can remember, with my skill level that i currently have now am i beginning to get to the point where I could defend myself in a serious self-defense situation? I just want to have an understanding of where I am in my devolpment, Im truly not trying to boast my ego as i know that can truly stifle improvement. I just want to make sure I'm on the right track. Looking forward to your response as always Ari thanks alot! A: No bother at all, I welcome the questions. The following are all going to be simplifications to a degree, and the fact is no matter what your thinking brain "knows," your subconscious simply needs the flight time in contact flow to learn everything for itself. So while it can be helpful to think about this stuff and what it all means, don't get too "into your head" during contact flow, trying to "do" all that you "think" you know. Make a person miss: Some examples: Most basic: as you feel something happen, move such that your body (i.e. your spine and/or center of gravity) is in a different place than where he expects it to be, without letting him know that you've moved. You remove your targets from where he expects them to be, while remaining in range (unavailable yet unavoidable), and (this is critical) while being light and/or deceptive enough (e.g. via equal pressure or minimal pressure) such that he can't feel your change, or at least he can't feel exactly where you're changing to. Make sense? You can also "make him miss" by affecting his balance. John does this all the time, e.g. giving the guy's torso just the right light push to throw his alignment and balance off such that any strikes he's throwing go off-course. But this takes deeper skill in most cases (although I'm sure you could do it to less skilled training partners on a gross level). You can make your body (spine/center of gravity) move by shifting your weight (i.e. moving some weight from one leg to the other) and by stepping (small and efficient). What you do depends on relative positioning, where you need to get to, and timing. It usually takes more time to step than to just shift weight a couple inches, but it allows you to make a more drastic change of position. Hence, stepping needs to commence earlier relative to your training partner's actions vs. just shifting weight. Depending on what you're working on, you might try to move as little as you need to (hence favoring weight shifts to make him miss, reserving stepping for closing distance and penetrating), or you might want to work on feeling things early enough to step offline at angles, as this is often preferable or necessary, e.g. if there may be multiple attackers and you want to keep changing your position and moving around people. Remember to step at the same speed as everything else in the flow, not faster.   Of course, dropping can allow you to change weight distribution and foot position very quickly, but that application doesn't come into play in slow contact flow. Sometimes merely pocketing, or moving such that a strike doesn't connect solidly, can be enough to make him miss. Remember than an advantage of making him miss, as opposed to stopping or blocking him, is that it usually allows you to take advantage of his overcommitment, both in terms of balance and positioning. It also doesn't require matching strength and size. While "just turning" can sometimes be appropriate, note that "just turning" as I understand it implies that your spine and center of gravity remain in one place as your skeleton rotates around them. If your training partner already has a "bead" on your center, i.e. s/he knows and understands where you are, just turning without changing your center of gravity will likely not help you. Imagine you're playing football and a guy is about to tackle you. No matter how much you turn or wiggle, if you don't change where you're standing in an effective and sufficient way, you're going down. When you step out of the way and get hit anyway, are you getting hit by the same strike your training partner was throwing when you initiated the step? If so, is your training partner speeding up to "score" before you have a chance to evade? If there's no speed-up, are you simply not getting out of the way soon enough? (Not a speed thing, but a timing thing--are you beginning to move before it's too late?) Are you pushing against or leaning on the incoming strike, creating tension that actually prevents you from moving out of the way, even if you think you're moving? Are you actually getting out of the way but the strike is following you, or you're getting hit by a follow-up? That could mean that you're giving your training partner too much information re: where you're going, via pressure/pushing or via moving too much. If you move TOO far offline it becomes obvious and easy to read. The idea is to make them miss by as little as possible, not as far as possible. If you're getting hit by follow-up shots, I'd guess you didn't attack and take his space simultaneous with making him miss. Yes, getting hit helps, as long as you don't react emotionally to the hits and you MOVE WITH the hits, not deny them or shrug them off. Tim said something to me that I try to remind myself of whenever I catch myself reacting emotionally to hits: "It's just movement, it's not personal." As you work on getting lighter, yes, you may get hit more, due to any/all of the following (and more): --You overdo the lightness to the point where you lose awareness of where everything is (especially your training partner's hands!). Your desire for lightness outstrips your current level of sensitivity. However, this can also stimulate your sensitivity to improve. --As you get lighter, training partners tend to speed up to "chase" the mental security of a heavier connection, especially if their sensitivity (and all other principles) are inferior to yours. This can result in your getting hit. --You focus on lightness to the exclusion of all else and you get sloppy. You still need body unity, moving behind the guard, etc. in order to stay safe, no matter how light you get. Remember, it's not necessarily a bad thing to get hit more. Tim implored me more than once to always try to move a little slower than my training partner in order to become more efficient--even if it meant taking more hits in practice, even from "less skilled" people who "shouldn't" be hitting me so much (emotion/ego!). Which brings us to your "ego" question, which I don't think in your case really stems from ego so much as from a desire to stay on the right track, considering you don't have John around to keep you there anymore. For some people, a frustrating aspect of GC is that there are no universal, set written standards for different belt levels. Everyone is different, John sees different things in each person. One thing I can say though: Lt. Col. Al has mentioned many times that by the time someone reaches black belt level, Al's no longer that concerned about whether the person "can" defend himself or not. The skills are there. From that point forward it's a matter of self-mastery, artistry, etc.--with concurrent gains in self-defense ability. Another thing Al has said is that folks around 1st/2nd degree level can be the most "dangerous" in training, as they have the ability to do real damage but not yet necessarily the self-control/calmness to reliably avoid dishing out "accidental" panic hits etc. Their reactions are reliable enough to protect themselves, but they may not yet be able to control/suppress those reactions in higher speed/intensity training. Regarding self-defense, remember the "chaos" part: Anyone can take out anyone at any time, depending on circumstances, regardless of level of mastery. If some schmuck manages to sneak up behind Al or Michael and shoots him in the back of the head, what does it matter that the corpse once belonged to a GC master? Awareness, avoidance, self-control, reading people and situations, MINDSET, giving yourself permission to kill to save your life, etc. are all bigger aspects of self-defense than e.g. getting really light, mastering equal pressure, and all the other ideas that cumulatively make you a more physically effective fighter, but may never come into play if a bad guy gets the drop on you without your knowledge, or if your ego prevents you from leaving a situation with bad odds that you might have avoided. Also, regardless of your level of skill, a weapon in the bad guy's hand can always help him, and a weapon in your hand can always help you. Don't neglect such tools and the skills to use them and deal with them if you're serious about self-defense. [Additional editor's note: do not neglect practicing the basic GC Combatives full power on pads, bags and dummies. Even some of our blackbelts make this mistake. GC Combatives are simple and devastating and in all likelihood may be all you ever need to save your life--Matt Kovsky]. My personal opinion, for whatever it's worth: I wouldn't want to mess with ya! Given that you're a really nice, relaxed guy, if I were an asshole, I might assume that I COULD mess with ya. However, I'm pretty sure that if it got serious, as in SERIOUS danger to you and/or your family, you'd be a force to be reckoned with. But my opinion doesn't matter, you gotta find these answers within yourself. As unpleasant as it might be, imagine a monster or group of monsters is about to do unspeakably horrible things to your mom, dad, etc., and you're the only hope your loved ones have to survive. What would you do? What COULD you do? Better question: What would you NOT do to save them? How could the bad guys possibly stop you from saving your family? Find that in yourself and remember it, it could possibly save you in a really bad place. For myself, I KNOW that there is nothing I won't do to protect my kids, and there's really nothing anyone could do to stop me from protecting them. For what it's worth, it was shortly after my first child was born that I became much more serious about weapons training. In my mind, it wasn't just playing around anymore. It's no longer about "fighting" or "self-defense," it's about DESTROYING anyone and anything that would harm my kids or take me away from them... ...There are lots of guys who are bigger, stronger, faster, tougher, more experienced, more street savvy, etc. than you are. But if you don't run afoul of them, it doesn't matter. If your awareness is good and you keep your ego in check, you'll hopefully avoid such folks, or if you can't avoid them, get the jump on them. Listening to and absorbing all the war stories John and the other cops in the Yonkers class always tell is VERY important, especially for guys like us who lack that kind of experience. (I'm assuming here that you've never really had to fight for your life.) That stuff goes into your subconscious data bank and can really come out to help you if you ever get in a bad situation. Not as good as real experience, but way better than nothing, and I'd say better than reading about it or anything like that. "Serious self-defense situation?" Well, you might get jumped by five guys by surprise and reflexively fight them off and escape. (The Fright Reaction can indeed be a life-saver!) Or, one little twerp could be talking trash to you, and you start  thinking bad thoughts ("If it hit him, will I get in trouble? Is he serious?") that make you hesitate, and he sucker-punches you, and as you fall you crack your skull on a wall. Game over. You never really know whom or what you're dealing with. Mindset is paramount. Physically, in "most" cases (and what does that really mean?), I think you'd be fine. But again, that's only one piece of the entire chaotic equation. Regarding training, there's not really a list of things you "should" be able to "do," as the training by definition is free-flowing and chaotic, and changes with each training partner, regardless of skill level/experience. Remember that the more COMFORTABLE you feel in contact flow, at all different speeds and across all different people, most likely the "better" you're doing. It's not a matter of how many times you're hitting or being hit, but of how well you're flowing with what's going on, with fewer and fewer moments of discomfort, tightness, loss of balance, feeling "stuck," etc. How Would You Like a 6 Hour Contact Flow Private Lesson? Well, here's the next best thing: The Attack Proof Companion Part 3: IN THE EYE OF THE STORM "Quite simply, this is the best self defence/martial art/ internal-external arts training experience I have ever had..." --Alistair Horscroft, former amateur MMA full contact fighter

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ENDORSEMENTS:


"Let me start by saying I thought I'd seen all that the world of 'reality-based self defence' had to offer, so for the easily bored out there, I'll cut to the chase. What I witnessed on the weekend of 26 and 27 March is the closest thing I've come across that resembles a modern-day, reality-based martial art and not just another 'combatives system'. Does it work? Hell, yeah! I got my arse well and truly kicked and at times felt like I was in the middle of a Jason Bourne fight scene."
--Clive Girdham, former Senshido and Geoff Thompson instructor [excerpted from the exclusive review of the Guided Chaos Australia Seminar in the Aug. print edition of BLITZ MAGAZINE: Australia's #1 Martial Arts magazine volume 25, issue 6

"...through watching videos put out by attackproof.com, and by
reading Attackproof, the book, I have learned real survival skills.
These skills have been learned...at an exponentially higher practical
yield-per-hour training rate than any other martial art classes or
seminar I've ever attended, or ever even heard rumor of."
--Matthew Shoener, Police Officer, Scranton, PA 

"The Companion Video Part One is stupendous!
A godsend of detail for out-of-state practitioners."
--Mark from Chicago

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