►John flows with an advanced student: you need to watch this repeatedly and notice his moves – too many to put into words; watch also how the student improves as the flow continues under John’s guidance.

►Note how John is able to track all his movements yet never stick continuously to any point of contact. This allows him to avoid and attack simultaneously while never clashing. This “Ghosting” quality is gone into later in the same lesson.

►THen John ups the ante by stepping more, Ricocheting more, and adding in destructions (Combat Boxing).

►John really emphasizes that AS you’re attacking, you’re always anticipating and moving to escape. This underscores 2 critical GC principles:
1. Always hit from where you’re going to be, NOT from where you are.
2. Always move off-line (and in) as you attack. These 2 principles result in becoming Unavailable and Unavoidable.

►John then outlines a very simple drill (but very easy to screw up) for developing these attributes. Watch repeatedly to get the full benefit.

►Notice how John sticks with any part of his arm (or body), not just his hands, which affords many more striking opportunities.

►John: “If you’re not afraid to hit, then you’re not afraid of getting hit.” So it’s important to really experiment with hitting as you flow.

►By hitting from where he’s going to be, John maintains a whisper-like contact to avoid clashing and fully sense his opponent’s intentions. This involves continuous Skimming and Sliding movements.
►To define again: SKIMMING is gliding over the attacker’s defenses. SLIDING is letting them slide along your contact reference point. Both of these allow you to ENTER as well as AVOID. Both of these can be happening simultaneously. (You should be getting offline also.) Failure to do either is why you see less experienced GC students sticking with just their hands, pushing, blocking -- and getting hit easily.

►John: “When you do all of these, it makes your attacker seem like he’s moving in slow motion.” Which allows you to do whatever you want (of course this is how we – and assailants from his past – appeared to JOHN). That is something to aspire to!
►He says this in passing and you almost can’t catch it but in essence it’s “stick to the heat of their body” not their actual skin. This concept would help you to develop your Ghosting quality.

►All of this stuff feeds your subconscious if you practice according to GC principles so that all your reactions will flow from your subconscious eventually. Which is why practicing patterned moves and techniques is a recipe for disaster.

►John got inspiration for this approach from Miyamoto Musashi.
►John applied all this to his groundbreaking system of self-defense.

►John outlines a novel philosophical approach: let your ego grow so big so that you will be softer, more “Yin” and “ghost-ier” than everyone else….and then your ego will be so big that it eventually just dissolves into “no-mind”….and you’re “back in the center again.”

►John repeats, as you do the above exercise, that you’re always moving in (but offline).

►John points out that the best boxers (Sugar Ray Leonard, Duran) are unconsciously doing all this.