GUIDED CHAOS NEWS #142

ANNOUNCEMENTS: GUIDED CHAOS CODE OF CONDUCT Effective immediately, Grandmaster John Perkins and his partners have instituted a Code of Conduct that is mandatory reading for all instructors and students. Instructors and students can read the Code here. NYC--GUIDED CHAOS COMBATIVES SEMINAR, SUNDAY 1/31/10 Instructed by Al Ridenhour, 7thh degree Master. Simple, effective self defense that can easily be practiced on your own or with a partner. Originally derived from World War II hand-to-hand methods designed to be taught to our troops in 8 hours before shipping out for jungle warfare in the Pacific. Super-charged by John Perkins' Guided Chaos principles for even more power and balance under extreme duress. Chelsea Studios 151 West 26th Street, Room 507 (5th floor) 10am-1pm. Cost: $20 Cash per person at the door. This is a special student seminar so take advantage of the low cost!

YOUR QUESTIONS: "HOW DID YOU GET STARTED WITH GUIDED CHAOS?" QUESTION: "Thank you for the brush up on the stepping drills. I've been doing them religiously and I've been coupling them with the washing the body exercise, so I move my feet first as I pocket and move my upper body. I've seen them in The Companion DVD Series Part 2, but didn't pay as much attention to them as I should have because they seemed so simple. Looks like this is a case of the simplest things really being the most important... Did have a question or two not related to training specifics... How did you get into Guided Chaos?  My understanding is that you were a decorated Marine with boxing, wrestling, and traditional martial arts experience?  How did you wind up getting involved in a decidedly non-traditional art without a "well established" lineage?  What was it like for you getting your first taste of GC and what did you have to do to jettison previous baggage from other training?" ANSWER: Glad to see you're still doing the step drills. Very important skill to have when stepping to a new root or developing a root that no one can find. The Companion DVD Series Part 2 teaches a very important learning method that really makes all the other DVDs more understandable. It's something you can refer back to again and again because it will reinforce everything else you ever learn in Guided Chaos. As far as being a decorated Marine--truth is I'm just a guy doing my job, that's all. The real credit belongs to my Marines. I'm just a guy who happens to be in the right places in history at the right times. Go figure. Anyway the person who got me into the art was a mutual friend of mine along with Matt Kovsky and Uncle Larry Granto. His name was Dennis and he was already a peerless practitioner of Go Ju Ryu, Tai Chi and Kali. When he said to me "Al you have to see the way these people fight, especially how they fight with their bodies..." The look on his face when he described John Perkins and the other instructors said it all. Having seen Dennis destroy his fair share of so called Black Belts I knew that if it came from him there had to be something to it, and that it was not the normal hocus pocus "tricks" of board breaking. Been there done that. To make a long story short, my first visit involved being beaten up by two women as well as being bounced off a wall by John with what he called the "no-inch punch". Once I felt it I knew it was for real and I never looked back. Oh by the way be leery of anyone who tells you to "do whatever you want to them". It's a set up. That was the other thing that intrigued me when I first met John: I was free to attempt to do "anything" to him, which is what got me bounced into the wall. Looking back I realized that anyone that confident in their abilities to say such a thing probably has "just a little skill". The other thing that I realized over the years, especially having said the same thing to pretty much every new student I've come in contact with,  is that had I gone totally ape wild on him he just would have folded me over backward and gave me a very nasty spinal adjustment. Ouch!!! More importantly I knew that getting bested by two women half my size while fighting in close should have never happened, but it did, and I'm a better man for it. Oh yeah, by the way, I was set up there as well, so here's another warning: if someone in Guided Chaos tells you to beat up some women just to "give them a little work" be very leery or they may end up mounting your family jewels on their mantles over the fire place. Getting pummeled by them confirmed much for me "in a good way" and that is that there really is a knowledge to fighting that goes beyond physical ability, but in order to achieve it you have to train with a completely different training modality as well as mind set.  For me the choice was very simple once I felt it. You see there really is something to karate, jujitsu and Kung fu. However in order to make the skills / tools work you have  to train in the principles of human body movement dynamics that are rooted in the laws of physics and not the martial mumbo jumbo that passes for training in most arts. You also have to know the difference between sport techniques and real fighting. Once you figure it out you can quickly develop a few basic yet effective techniques. It is the raw essence of how I enter on people and cut them in half. You either deal with it or get cut down. It's that simple. This is what the Guided Chaos Combatives is really all about. The material, which we used to call "Close Combat," can be found on the Kill the Enemy, Police & Military Tactics and Companion Part 1 DVDs. Picking which of these is right for you can be aided by reading our DVD Guide. Unfortunately most martial arts systems teach tools (i.e., punches, kicks, blocks, throws etc...) but they generally don't teach you how to use them during the chaos of a real fight. You're just somehow supposed to "get it" by osmosis through repetition of forms or cooperative static drills.  As I say to students all of the time: "just because you own a hammer doesn't make you a carpenter". Guided Chaos resolves this dilemma by providing you with a methodology right from the beginning. What do I mean by that? Here's a secret, everything that I teach my students regardless of body type is exactly the things that I do. All the drills I have them do are the same drills that I do in my own training. There's really nothing to my own personal workouts. I try not to fix what isn't broken and just try to improve on what I have, refining my movements through the principles, polishing my skills to become more subtle, economical in my movements and deadlier in the delivery with my weapons. The methodology created out by John Perkins is literally the grease that makes all of those other skills work. That's it! Anything beyond that is folly and an utter waste of time, something we all possess in finite amounts. Thanks for your questions. --Lt Col Al Ridenhour

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REAL FIGHTS ARE NEVER CHOREOGRAPHED...
YOUR SELF-DEFENSE SHOULDN'T BE EITHER.
Guided Chaos DVDs for the Spontaneous Edge
What your current training may be missing...
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