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| | KNOW YOUR ENEMY--KNOW YOURSELF
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| The Required Mindset for Continual Advancement and the Proper Context for Viewing Adversaries
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By Yosef Susskind, GC 4th degree
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| The Summer Reading Series
The
Summer Reading Series is a conversation between students of Guided
Chaos and major texts on martial arts, close combat, and the warrior
mindset. The reading list will be pulled from Colonel Al’s private
collection. “Summer reading” is something we did in grade school; it
doesn’t evoke images of Orde Wingate reading Plato on his way through
Burma. A more appealing title might have been “The Professional
Development Series,” or “Conversations with Seminal Martial Arts Texts.”
In fact, both of these titles contain a mistaken assumption that can
infect the way we approach the art, which will be explained below. |
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Our Love/Hate Relationship with the World of Martial Arts
Before
we were students of Guided Chaos, we were all martial arts enthusiasts
in one way or another. Something inside us gravitated to martial arts,
otherwise we would never have sought out GC. Once we began
understanding the principles of GC, we realized that most of the martial
arts that we thought were cool, that once filled us with awe and
wonder, were mostly showmanship—all “art” and no “martial.” At that
moment, our relationship to the world of martial arts became one of
love/hate.
We disdain the dog and pony shows of scripted
demonstrations, the broken concrete parlor tricks, and the ultimate
contest of two ‘bros’ fervently mounting each other to establish
dominance. And yet, many of us still watch UFC; many of our youtube
histories would reveal searches for all manner of martial arts videos,
and many of us are still intrigued by the idea of touching hands with a
Tai Chi master or one of the top Systema practitioners—just for the
experience. |
| Principles vs Styles; Guided Chaos and the Study of Other Arts
The
problem arises when students of Guided Chaos start to believe that
delving into other arts will add to the sum of their Guided Chaos
training. It will not. The reason is simple. Any true art or science
is made up of principles, and is not merely a compilation of instances
or techniques. Guided Chaos is a set of principles, and those
principles are either true to physics, human physiology, and the
dynamics of violence, or they are not. An encyclopedic knowledge of the
techniques practiced in other arts cannot add to or take away from the
principles of GC.
Students who have not cultivated a fundamental
understanding of the principles think that studying other “styles” will
increase their skill. They fail to see that most arts are just that:
styles. They are a set of instances, of techniques and flourishes.
Their teaching reveals no new principles, nor any significant refinement
of old ones. Even more substantive arts are often plagued by one
misconception or another, making them incongruous with real life combat
(something combat martial artists are well aware of). Seeing the
techniques of other arts can stimulate our martial imagination and lead
to creativity; we may try out a movement or come up with ways to defeat
it, but all these are mere instances, and subservient to the principles.
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| Guided Chaos and Classic Martial Arts Texts
Again, the principles of Guided Chaos are either true to physics, human physiology, and the dynamics of violence, or they are not. The texts we will be covering will address the principles of warfare. We will draw parallels between the principles of our art and their explanations. Their explanations will be a useful mirror for GC students working to understand the principles of our own art. These texts will not introduce new principles. If GC was missing a fundamental principle of warfare, the art would be fundamentally flawed, and ineffective in combat.
Because these texts do not add to the principles of Guided Chaos, I merely call them “summer reading.” This is to prevent people from taking them too seriously, and believing that these or other texts contain some untold secrets that are missing from GC. We will examine the explanations and imagery that the authors use, and apply them to the principles that we contend with daily.
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Miyamoto Musashi’s Book of Five Rings
In the introduction to The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi writes:
"From
youth my heart has been inclined toward the Way of strategy. My first
duel was when I was thirteen, I struck down a strategist of the Shinto
school, one Arima Kihei. When I was sixteen I struck down an able
strategist Tadashima Akiyama. When I was twenty-one I went up to the
capital and met all manner of strategists, never once failing to win in
many contests.
After that I went from province to province dueling
with strategists of various schools, and not once failed to win even
though I had as many as sixty encounters. This was between the ages of
thirteen and twenty-eight or twenty-nine.
When I reached thirty
I looked back on my past. The previous victories were not due to my
having mastered strategy. Perhaps it was natural ability, or the order
of heaven, or that other schools' strategy was inferior. After that I
studied morning and evening searching for the principle, and came to
realize the Way of strategy when I was fifty."
This passage
speaks to the profound humility and introspection that was required of
Miyamoto Musashi to gain a true understanding of the governing
principles of strategy. By the time he started shaving he had made a
lifestyle out of slaying prestigious swordsmen. He made a hobby of
killing them in spectacular fashion, including crushing their skulls
with a wooden training sword rather than meeting steel with steel. At
thirty he had known nothing but victory. In his place, any one of us
would have assumed that we knew all there was to know about sword
fighting—which is to say we would never have begun to discover “the way
of strategy.”
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Searching for the Principle
Musashi
realized that despite his victories, he had no deeper understanding of
the principles of swordsmanship than many of the masters he killed.
Without this level of insight and reflection, his growth as a martial
artist would have been finished. He would have remained a simple, if
talented cut-throat. It took him twenty more years, studying “morning
and evening,” “searching for the principle,” to “realize the way of
strategy.” In the Book of Wind, Musashi lists the misconceptions that
are the warped foundation of other schools of swordsmanship. He
concludes that none of them are the “true way.” If he had not spent the
years between thirty and fifty discerning the principles of combat, he
would have been nothing more than the best sword-swinger in a group of
guys who didn’t understand what sword fighting really was.
It
is essential that students of Guided Chaos develop a fundamental
understanding of the principles early in their training. This knowledge
will act as their guide during the countless training challenges to
come (those of us who have worked to advance in the art know these
challenges well). While we may grasp the fundamentals, our
understanding of the art will never be complete. Anyone who thinks they
understand the art in its entirety is lost in a twisting rabbit hole of
delusion. There are depths upon depths to the art. I know this
because Senior Master Al still gets his mind blown when he picks the
Grand Master’s brain. If Al can be awed by what he doesn’t know about
the art, then the art is a far deeper well than we can begin to
appreciate.
The Required Mindset for Continual Development in Guided Chaos
In
order to continue to advance in the art, we must be able to have our
minds blown time and again, and to put the pieces back together into an
increasingly nuanced whole. The moment someone thinks their conception
of the art is complete, their understanding becomes ossified. No new
teaching or experience can shatter their preconceptions; instead, all
teaching and experience is either forced into the old mold, or
disregarded. Until their mindset changes, their development in the art
is done. All of their assumptions, bad habits, and idiosyncrasies,
which might have been polished away with deeper development, become
codified into what they think the art is. They may be able to whup ass,
but they are just a sword swinger, and not a student of the way.
Let
us take a lesson from Miyamoto Musashi and practice the art with deep
reflection. When we realize that our understanding and mastery of the
art is, and always will be, a work in progress, we can continually
reform our conception of the art with greater subtlety, and practice the
art with greater creativity. We must retain the ability to have our
minds blown.
Victory without Principle; The Young Miyamoto Musashi
Since
the victories of Musashi’s youth cannot be attributed to understanding
the principles of combat, he must attribute them to natural ability, the
order of heaven (forces which he has no knowledge of and no control
over—what we would call “luck”), or that his enemies were trained in the
wrong strategy. As students of Guided Chaos, we are beneficiaries
Grand Master John’s experience and reflection, and are trained in the
principles of combat. We can and must trust the principles to see us
through the moment of truth. I do not fear the mistaken teachings of
other schools. I do not fear my enemy’s supposed accomplishments, or
whatever story he tells that makes him a badass. That being said, I
recognize that regardless of my enemy’s knowledge of principle, I may be
contending with the young Miyamoto Musashi.
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|  |
The Virtues of My Enemies
I
never discount my enemy’s natural ability. The principles of Guided
Chaos are a measure against those of greater natural ability, and thus
they implicitly recognize that natural ability—size, strength, speed,
dexterity, and a taste for blood—cannot be discounted. Miyamoto Musashi
was uncommonly large in medieval Japan, and uncommonly strong. He
wielded two swords as easily as his own two hands. An enemy like that
must be treated as an existential threat, regardless of their training.
I
never discount that luck is a factor, meaning that given the right
circumstances, anyone can kill anyone—especially when they mean to kill.
An untrained enemy can still do the right thing. They may do it out
of sheer instinct, or simply by accident. My enemy may get lucky. I
may get unlucky. If I catch a flying bottle to the back of the head, or
get shot through the eye socket with a .22 short, if my knee goes out
or I get pushed into my own blade, that’s the “order of heaven,” and I
have to deal with it. Thus any enemy is an existential threat. While I
do not fear the black belts on his wall, the medals on his chest, or
the felonies on his rap sheet, I never forget that my enemy can kill me.
The
last reason Musashi proposes for the death of his rivals is inferior
strategy. If I have greater mastery of the principles of combat than my
enemy, I will likely kill him. The moment I deviate from those
principles, I will be consumed by them. If I am off my game, whatever
the reason, even for an instant, my enemy may seize on it and kill me.
Thus any enemy can kill me if I am not ‘on my game.’
This
brings us back to the subject of other martial arts. Like Musashi’s
Book of Wind, we assert that many schools suffer from fundamental
misconceptions. This is not to say that their students cannot be
dangerous individuals, with enough natural ability to make their
techniques work, especially on less talented opponents. Like Musashi’s
early duels, their victories are not the result of principle. We reject
their strategy, without forgetting that they can be dangerous—if they
are gifted, if they get lucky, or if we deviate from the principles.
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| In Conclusion
We
have addressed two elements of the proper mindset for GC students
through the lens of Musashi’s introductory passage—one point on how we
approach our art, and one point on how we view our enemies. Firstly, in
order to continually develop in the art, we must never believe that our
understanding of the principles is complete, so that we remain open to
having ‘our minds blown.’ Secondly, we must never buy in to our enemy’s
backstory. No matter what their training or experience, the principles
of combat remain the same. At the same time, we never forget that
anyone can kill anyone, so anyone who means to hurt us is an existential
threat. This concludes the first entry in our Summer Reading Series.
Copyright 6/23/2017
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After a solid week of training in NY, our GC ambassador from Sao Paolo Brazil demonstrated rapid, continued growth in his skills. Visit him at his dojo:
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"After experiencing Contact Flow hands-on with the experts, I consider it to be the 'piece de resistance' of martial arts."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--Dr. Jan Bloem, one of Europe's leading authorities teaching special police and military special operation units, www.datmovement.nl |
|
"Guided
Chaos should be required training for anyone interested in push hands
and the self-defense aspects of the internal arts."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--Sifu Ken Gullette, certified as an instructor with the U.S.
Chen Family, connected directly to the
Chen Village tai chi school through Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing. http://www.internalarts.typepad.com/ |
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| | | WHICH DVD OR DOWNLOAD SHOULD I GET?
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| GC Headquarters, Elmsford NY - Combatives: Max speed and power development
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FREE 1/2 Hour Private Intro Lesson with GC Master Lt Col Al Ridenhour USMC (Required for new students only who have never attended a GC class.)
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| | "From the teachers to the attitude to the style of the art itself, this is the best school I've ever attended."
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| "From the teachers to the attitude to the style of the art itself, this is the best school I've ever attended.
At
36, I've moved often and so had a chance to sample but never master a
number of styles from kung fu to tai chi, aikido, brazilian jiu-jitsu,
shotokan and tae kwon do; hands down this has been the best experience. I
don't feel the need to ever study another style.
In eight
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life-threatening attack than I've ever been. And yet, I could easily and
happily spend the next ten years studying Guided Chaos, working to
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Also, everyone I've worked
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If you're into martial arts - especially real-life applications, this is worth every second of the time it takes to check out."
--Devon White |
| "This art is everything you always wanted to know to survive. Realistic and straight to the point! This is life changing!"
--Mike McNulty
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| "This school offers a
unique, effective and fun martial art with more weekend hours for
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Or just drop in for a one hour class as your schedule allows (weekdays
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The
instructors coauthored the book “Attack Proof” and have a history of
teaching people of various ages and physical abilities to defend
themselves and avoid dangerous situations in the shortest time possible.
They teach only what is practical and avoid techniques that look good,
but can’t be utilized under chaotic conditions. That may sound like
common sense, but it is rare because many martial artists get distracted
by learning endless variations on flashy moves that look cool, but are
of questionable practical value- you won’t find those here.
This
is a great group of people teaching/learning a great art. What they
teach is immediately useful, but the principals can be further developed
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--Brian Crowley
|
| "Guided Chaos was
created by John Perkins, who, as a law enforcement officer, crime scene
expert and unsanctioned pit fighter, combined his involvement in over
100 deadly fights with his lifetime of study of different martial arts
styles. The result is a fighting system that is exceptionally effective
in real-world situations because every move has its basis in subduing a
real opponent or opponents, and not in following a stylized form, kata,
or scripted attack. I learned more about defending myself in my first
month with Guided Chaos than I had in my many years of training with any
other style."
--David Teich
|
| "This is the stuff
you want to know for that moment you hope you never have. I've read
about, observed, and analyzed a lot of different "styles" in the hope of
finding the real deal when it comes to self-defense. Well I found it in
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And
Elmsford is the Headquarters for this. Everything is taught here from
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(which is frighteningly effective and deadly) and combat "dirty" boxing
with occasionally some practical weapons (stick, knife) for good
measure. The Conditioning drills are taught with attention to detail and
application to real fighting.
The class sizes are small at
present, which makes for a lot of individual attention from Masters Lt.
Col. Al Ridenhour and Matt Kovsky. Grandmaster John Perkins also shows
up regularly to reinforce what the Masters have taught.
I am
taking advantage of the small classes because this won't last long. I
would strongly recommend that anyone interested in having a fighting
chance to survive the unthinkable come check out what the Elmsford
Guided Chaos Training Center has to offer. It truly is priceless."
--Roberto Casanova
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| "Guided Chaos is the only training in my 15 plus years of Corrections that translates into real world application, period."
"Guided
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And even if you are that big and strong, there is always someone
bigger and stronger and there may be a lot of them. Nothing like dealing
with one guy and it turns into a free for all with all his buddies.
This is where you literally need to 'adapt or die' and Guided Chaos is
the only training in my 15 plus years of Corrections that translates
into real world application, period."
---Bob Miller, GC Instructor, Corrections Officer at the largest facility in Oregon |
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