► PART 1: DON’T USE THUMBS

► Using your thumb slows down strikes and reactivity. Use a “Bear Paw” instead.

► Bear Paw can still redirect, control, etc., but transitions to a strike far faster.

► By “cupping” with a Bear Paw instead of grabbing using the thumb, you won’t get your thumb torn off.

► Bear Paw has more stealth. Using your thumb telegraphs exactly where you are.

► Using your thumb creates structure.

► Bear Paw makes you use your body more, which is good.

► We don’t need the thumb because in GC, unlike other arts, we’re not trying to throw you. We’re trying to penetrate the enemy devastatingly, so we can survive real (not movie) violence.

► Bear Paw allows you to throw an elbow strike more easily.

► NOTE that in GC, when we chop, the thumb is extended (not tucked or squeezed against the hand) which provides more chop rigidity, speed, and power when timed with dropping. See the GC Combatives dvd/streaming vid for complete details.

► PART 2: John demos in great detail how dropping provides your instantaneous root/stance which is immediately abandoned for the next drop/root, and the next, and the next, and so on.

► Again, GC doesn’t have a “stance.” Your stance is created and abandoned instantaneously as needed so you have a “root that can’t be found.”

► If you had a “stance” you could be thrown. We create an ever-changing “Fluid Wall.”

► When we unbalance, we never send people far, because then they can just attack again.

► If you throw, you throw them from a crushed windpipe strike, not a big push like is found in many arts.

► John demos multi-drop punching, as opposed to just typical thrust or waist-turn punching.

► The drop-punching initiates a rebound/spring-loading and redirection scenario where each punch sets up the next at a different target and angle.

► For example, your punch can then flow into several unusual elbow strikes, such as spearing, scraping (up or down), etc.

► Every step is a “Descending Parabola” / drop and each step, no matter how tiny, is a new root to hit from and for them to deal with.

► The GC drop facilitates the GC “no inch” punch which is almost impossible to detect or stop…and which easily flows into other strikes.

► The elbow also becomes a reference point for “pivot strikes” like backfists, hammerfists, etc. at every angle.

► Again, John emphasizes we need to control the “over-travel” – which is common in most arts as the “essential” follow-through. This is nuts because it just opens you up to further attacks. You want to devastate them right where they stand.