► Use every surface of your arms, shoulders and back to flow with, staying as soft as possible.

► John demonstrates how GC sensitivity and adaptivity actually allows you to do Chin Na (locking) successfully during the utter chaos of real violence -- when it almost always fails as trained in traditional arts, because their practice is regimented and choreographed, whereas GC is always free-form so you learn to feel and Catch-As-Catch-Can even when the shit hits the fan. THAT SAID -- in a life or death fight, why lock, when you should be hitting? However, there are times when Chin Na could be used as a springboard for hitting, but NEVER for immobilization. NEVER GET ENTANGLED, intentionally, or otherwise. Static = Suicide.

► Speaking of static, NEVER take a stance. Always keep moving, even if subtly. DO NOT confuse a micro-second DROP with a “stance”. The micro-second of a Drop may for a split second LOOK like a stance, but shares none of its properties. DROPS are plyometric, gravity-assisted springboards for power, balance, and devastating striking.

► Really look at how John uses the surface of his entire arm + shoulder to stick to 2 attackers.

► AGAIN: we use dropping force for penetrating blows, not to uplift and throw the enemy (unless it’s into an oncoming train).

► AGAIN: you don’t have to draw back or “chamber” a punch to hit with power when you use Dropping.

► When you take a person’s balance – even a little – they usually stiffen, which is the perfect opportunity to shatter them, springboard off them to another strike, or unbalance them further at a different angle.

► It’s important to train to move, soften, unbalance, and hit simultaneously.

► When you go faster, fight the urge to go stiffer.

► Important: Your balance is NOT locked to your movement – they are independent of each other. In other words, your balance provides for isolated, independent, free-form movement. Balance always has a direction. But if your movement is always in that same direction, your movement becomes predictable and easily disrupted. So how do you move indecipherably with power? Practice, powered by dropping.

► AGAIN, do NOT grab with your thumb, it will get snapped off at high speed. In fact, DON’T GRAB AT ALL. If you watch carefully, you’ll see John achieves free-form, micro-second “locks” (that are instantly abandoned) with the curl of his hand or the crook of his elbow, etc. to deliver quick breaks that are spring boarded off of into strikes.

► Be on the lookout for John’s “corkscrew” strikes, where he alters the trajectory of a strike MID-FLIGHT to hit a different, unguarded target!

► Train to unbalance with one arm. When you use 2, you tie up both and not only give up the chance to hit simultaneously, but also leave yourself open. As John says, you want to deliver “constantly recurring fists”.

► As John shows magnificently, a real key difference between tai chi push hands and GC Contact Flow is that tai chi emphasizes following the opponent’s hands/arms – often with lots of pressure and commitment -- whereas GC merely “tracks” them without ever allowing solid purchase so that you can spiral around them and hit at will. THIS IS CRITICAL. This is the essence of “Unavailable<>Unavoidable.”

► Also, do not just track their hands – track their entire arms.

► NOTE: you are always moving with the above, changing your root, dropping, dropping, dropping, so that you develop “A Root That Can’t Be Found.”

► All this leads to unstoppable barrages using Skimming, Sliding, Corkscrewing and Ricocheting energy, as well as every kind of destruction (i.e. punch or elbow strike to arm, ricocheting to face, etc.).

► This non-committed “following” that GC does, allows you to enter on longer-limbed attackers because you are tracking/sticking/hitting with your whole body (not just your hands), allowing you to move IN on the enemy, thus negating their longer reach.

► Note again how when you can stick with your elbow/shoulder/upper arm, etc., it allows you to hit SIMULTANEOUSLY with the hand of the SAME arm…often in fact while sticking to BOTH of the enemy’s arms with your SINGLE arm, leaving you an extra arm to hit with!

► NOW, if you add the feet and kicking with all this, you multiply your devastation exponentially.

► John ends the lesson with a reminder that in a real fight for your life, ANYTHING GOES, and that if you’re fighting a grappler (or anyone trying to kill you) you rip out their eyes, smash their trachea, crush their nuts, bite, scratch, whatever it takes to survive. All the GC principles play into this.