LtCol Al here, and I want to talk to you about a very hot topic that has reared its head in recent years causing all sorts of confusion.
It’s interesting...
With all of the various martial arts systems that exist it is amazing that even to this day folks don’t get it. While there are a number of systems that try to create a more comprehensive system of fighting, the main problem is that they virtually all fall short for various reasons.
The problem is that while many systems have some of the basics, they tend to go off on a tangent and down the rabbit hole. Now some of this (in my observation) is that they all tend to focus on only one aspect of human movement or another.
I believe much of this is because generally the systems tend to play to the strengths and idiosyncrasies of the art’s creator.
Some focus on striking, some focus on pure ground-grappling, others on forms and others, while making a good attempt at a more comprehensive system, tend to focus on what has been referred to as “scientific methods” of fighting.
Now in fairness there are a lot of systems that do teach many valid techniques or have sound concepts. The problem is that for the most part they are also cluttered with lots of nonsense. So the question is: How do you separate the wheat from the chaff?
Additionally, there are a number of systems that do get some things right but the problem is that because their focus is in the wrong place they simply can’t get there from here. A perfect example of this is the art of Tai Chi.
Now as far as movement is concerned and physical exercise, Tai Chi is fine and there’s nothing wrong with it. But the same could be said for boxing and Jujitsu. For what they are designed to do, they are fine. The problem is Tai Chi (as well as many other internal arts) train for a reality of fighting that does not exist.
TAI CHI FOR FIGHTING AND SELF DEFENSE--DOES IT STILL EXIST?
According to Wang Chiao Yu, there were two branches of T'ai Chi boxing. One was called Kuang P'ing and the other Pei Ching. For political purposes, the Pei Ching school only taught the soft aspects of the art, essentially neutering it for combat.
This training endured and spread. But that was nothing compared to what happened many, many years later.
During the Communist Revolution, all the top combat tai chi fighters and masters were seen as threats to the government and were either harassed, jailed, expelled or killed. The lucky ones emigrated or went into hiding. Combat Tai chi for self-defense almost completely disappeared.
In the modern era, with the softening of the Chinese government, tai chi was re-purposed as a form of gentle exercise for the masses. The end result is that it is now nearly impossible to find teachers who can actually use tai chi for real street self-defense. Not school sparring or sportive push hands competition but real, violent, life and death self-defense.
From my own personal observations, I believe the reason they do “push hands” is because they don’t want to get hurt and really don’t want to fight.
It’s simple to me: if you can push someone then you could have hit them. However, if neither you nor your training partner can learn how to strike under dynamic stress or avoid the same then you have no chance of learning how to make it all work in a real confrontation.
Ironically, even the ones who profess to teach “Combat Tai Chi” often resort to sportive methods to teach what they believe is real fighting.
I can tell you that we’ve had students who in the past studied at schools where they'd been instructed in forms for decades--and yet when it came time to “mix it up” they’d be made to wear boxing gloves for "sparring" purposes.
What?
What happened to all the internal principles? Where is the live, free-form training and what happened to the varied open hand strikes from their forms and why can't they be trained without the deadening, sportive effect of boxing gloves?
"In the Art of War there are no fixed rules." --Li Chuan, Sun Tzu, “The Art Of War”
Folks, I have to level with you: a real attack is basically an assassination attempt on your life. An assailant is free to attack with impunity, since his tactics are not limited. He is not bound to any "rules" of combat, and you shouldn’t be either. Yes, the best self-defense is Awareness--BUT--if you must fight, you need methods that will give you the best chance to win and live to tell about it.
The movement dynamics of a real fight have nothing to do with the way most martial arts are trained, and everything to do with how humans naturally move.
Think carefully on this. Combat is ugly, nasty, and most of all--Chaotic. Whereas “Classical" training is very often beautiful, cooperative, and predictable. What does this all mean? If you train in this fashion, the ability to “adapt”, “improvise” and “overcome” an attacker’s movement and win the fight is not possible.
Training to deal with the random chaotic movement of a real fight to the best of your abilities is the only realistic way to train. You need to learn how to guide and bring the chaos. Period.
Similar Does Not Mean the Same
A big reason for this treatise is because unfortunately the art of Guided Chaos has in the past been confused as being some sort of an “offshoot” of Tai Chi.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
Now you’ll get no argument from me that there are similarities but the same could be said of the strikes we use where there are similarities to Karate or Kung Fu. But similar doesn’t mean they are the same.
Here’s the deal, the human body is the human body and it doesn’t matter what you do--everyone’s body generally moves in a similar fashion, and the laws of physics and human physiology do not change no matter what you do.
This is important because many martial arts practitioners (especially those who are involved in the internal arts) often act as if the things they do are imbued with some form of “magic”.
Nonsense!
Let me be clear, the American art of Guided Chaos is NOT tai chi, Bagua, Hsing- I or anything else. It is what it is and it speaks for itself.
Guided Chaos focuses on principles that govern movement and we define them as BALANCE, LOOSENESS, SENSITIVITY, BODY UNITY and ADAPTIVITY which transcend mere techniques or anything else.
The reason Guided Chaos is so effective and eclipses these arts is simple: we do not train people away from how the human body functions within the laws of physics and how our bodies work.
I can tell you from personal observation: most internal arts and the way they are practiced, while well-meaning, mess up your body for real fighting on a neurological level in the same way many external arts do.
“Internal principles”, “external principles”--it’s all the same to us. As far as we’re concerned, the difference is one you can see (external techniques) and one you can barely discern (internal techniques).
It really doesn’t matter because at the end of the day if you want to fight for real you need both--and this is where we feel most arts, the way they are practiced, fail.
Guided Chaos is a “complete system” that trains people for real combat using a methodology that allows for movement in a free-form, dynamic way that many high-level tai chi instructors have said is closer to what they believe would be true "combat tai chi" than any other tai chi fight training available.
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