ISSUE #208  GUIDED CHAOS NEWS         follow us @GuidedChaos    ENDORSEMENTS

Check out the latest Youtube video in our new series showing what works and what doesn't in the martial arts: Gun Defense #1 vs. Execution Style Murder Popular and allegedly effective self defense technique against an "execution" style gun murder. Supposedly the attacker's own panic will "lift" you to your feet, allowing you to control the weapon for an extended period of time while you kick him repeatedly in the groin. Attacker will of course do nothing while allowing you to do this. A safer alternative is shown. Other issues: How did you get to this position in the first place? Will the attacker be nice enough to place the gun against your head within easy reach? What do you do if you're kneeling and he's out of reach? Subjects for later youtube videos, or, if interested, see "Guided Chaos Weapons Series Part 4: Bare Hands to Hand Guns" for answers. See all of our Martial Myths videos

Something Big is Coming to Guided Chaos...

NOW ON LINE! READ THE BLITZ MAGAZINE EXCLUSIVE ARTICLE ON THE 2011 GUIDED CHAOS AUSTRALIA SEMINAR: "Let me start by saying I thought I'd seen all that the world of 'reality-based self defence' had to offer, so for the easily bored out there, I'll cut to the chase. What I witnessed on the weekend of 26 and 27 March is the closest thing I've come across that resembles a modern-day, reality-based martial art and not just another 'combatives system'. Does it work? Hell, yeah! I got my arse well and truly kicked and at times felt like I was in the middle of a Jason Bourne fight scene....over the period of about 15 minutes I noticed a massive change in the ability of the attendees to deliver a wide variety of combative style-strikes." "...The focus on the first 3 principles [Balance, Looseness, Sensitivity] is what differentiates Guided Chaos from everything else I have seen or practiced... Guided chaos teaches the development and use of balance beyond anything I've seen outside of gymnastics." ---Clive Girdham, former Senshido and Geoff Thompson instructor.   READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE ONLINE AT BLITZMAG.NET

Congrats to Derick Miller who was promoted to 2nd degree GC!

MARCH 24TH NEW YORK SEMINAR AT PREMIER FITNESS:  Mar. 24th: Tomahawk Fighting Principles 11 AM to 3 PM $95/person --The first of it's kind --Open to all GC practitioners Premier Fitness [MAP] The area’s finest gym/health club! 430 Nanuet Mall South Nanuet, NY. (845) 920-0501. http://www.premierfitnessny.com/       NEW: GUIDED CHAOS GROUND-FIGHTING CLASS   First Saturday of every month at Premier Fitness --Mobility, core strength, destructions, kicking --Mat work and contact flow on the ground --Completely different from MMA

BOOT CAMP FOCUS:       DAY 4: WEAPONS (MAY 6TH)      PERHAPS THE MOST CONCENTRATED, INTENSE AND COST-EFFICIENT DAY OF THE ENTIRE BOOT CAMP! 1. Knife offense 2. Knife defense (including disarms, muggings) 3. Cane vs. Knife 4. Bare Hands to Hand Guns   Any one of the above would qualify for a day-long seminar on its own. GET IT ALL IN ONE FOCUSED DAY OF TRAINING. Day 4 of the GC Boot Camp teaches knife offense, defense, cane fighting vs. knives and gun defenses that are radically different from many of the popular, fake, flowery and inherently dangerous systems out there that could potentially get you killed or take risks that border on the suicidal. The Guided Chaos 4 Day Boot Camp, May 3-6, with a special additional 5th day of live Combat Shooting for permit holders only (separate fee applies) May 2nd. Buy 1,2,3 or all 4 days.   GROUP DISCOUNTS: Save $100 per person (for 3 or more people purchasing the full 4 or 5 day Boot Camp in one credit card order). $100/person will be rebated via Paypal within 48 hours after purchase). Offer good til May 1st 2012.  Full info here

HEY--UNITED KINGDOM GUIDED CHAOS FANS...     DID YOU KNOW WE HAVE A CERTIFIED GC SCHOOL IN SLOUGH? Well then...get yourself over to UNITY MARTIAL ARTS and take some classes with GC 1st degree Michael James. Mick is the only authorised Guided Chaos teacher in Europe and runs twice weekly classes. He also has many years Wing Tsun experience, is a Black Sash Tai Chi Chuan, 1st Dan Kenjitsu Kia, and a CSSD basic instructor. The Unity class offers a friendly and safe environment in which to train. Beginners mix in with the more advanced students right from the start ensuring your progress is fast and fun. Your first lesson is completely free and we cater for all age groups and abilities. You can pay as you go or save money by paying for a month in advance. Group lessons are currently on Saturdays 1200-1300 and Wednesdays 2000-2100 at Unity but please call Mick on 0788 307 3930 before visiting for the first time. NEW! for 2012 Guided Chaos classes on Mondays 7 to 8pm at Windsor Leisure Centre,  Clewer Mead, Stovell Road, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 5JB.  Click here for a map. Call Mick on 0788 307 3930 for further details.

FOCUS: HOW CONTACT FLOW FEELS DIFFERENT FROM PUSH HANDS  A big disadvantage for distance learners is that it can be very difficult to develop the correct "feel" of GC Contact Flow. NY students have the benefit of access to upper belts and masters (not to mention GM Perkins himself) but even here sometimes the ultimate goal of what high-level GC "feels" like can be elusive. Many have assumed (mostly incorrectly) that Contact Flow "looks" or feels like tai chi push hands and/or wing chun chi sao. You might expect this from those who have never felt it but this error in interpretation crops up even in those who have felt GC. If you have an external MA background (shotokan, etc.), the differences between push hands and Contact Flow may be indistinguishable but in order to really get it and progress to an upper belt, you need to see that the differences are in, in practice, immense. Now granted, the internal principles as applied by any given individual can vary greatly but in my (and other GC masters') experience, some general patterns have become evident (so if this personally doesn't apply to your application, more power to you, but all we can go by is what we've actually felt). By and large, every wing chun instructor I've flowed with has felt far more yang than those in GC. There is more over-commitment, more pushing and pulling within a constant hi-level of pressure. Again, this may not be the rule but this is what I have experienced--with people who were no slouches. I've also done contact flow with many tai chi instructors, including one who was a national push hands champion. Despite being very sensitive and sticky (meaning they maintained contact well) they all had a heavy, gluey feel and a firm root. The push hands champion, in particular, felt like a sumo wrestler or NFL lineman. The only tai chi practitioner I've worked with who felt almost invisible while still able to maintain contact was a senior student of Master Wayson Liao's, but he was the exception. I have also felt in people who have changed over to GC from tai chi, a feeling sort of like a progressive shock absorber, where they were light within the first 3 inches of absorbtion and then progressively more squishy until at close range they felt like you were moving them through rapidly drying chewing gum. So--is this the way you want to feel in Guided Chaos? Absolutely not. I assume that you have followed your interest in GC this far because you thought something was different about it. There is. I will descibe to you what doing Contact Flow with Lt Col Al, Grandmaster Carron and Grandmaster Perkins feels like to me. That "feel" is what I aspire to at all times and if it's something that perhaps you cannot feel yet, at least the analogies may be helpful in guiding your development. All 3 of the above masters feel different, yet they are all more alike to each other than any of them are to any other internal stylists I've ever worked with, especially tai chi-ists. Imagine being thrown into a pin ball machine where all the bumpers are made of hammers and knives instead of rubber...or a high speed washing machine filled with rocks and razor blades. You can't get out of the pinball machine or washer even though to you it feels like you're not being constantly pressed, like you might in a trash compactor. The key point here is that even though they feel nightmarishly loose, they never, ever lose contact with you. In fact, their contact is often invisible (hence, the old GC name "Ghostfist"). To me, they are all increasing degrees of the same scary formidability: Al is light as a butterfly and hits like a jack hammer...with a few whips thrown in for good measure. Tim feels like you're being torn limb from limb yet you cannot locate the source of the abuse even though he never breaks contact--even for a microsecond. And John...well...John feels like you're in a haunted house being pounded by angry ghosts. He is invisible yet all over you. Read these descriptions over and over and try to understand the principles they embody: they do not absorb your energy; they reflect it instantaneously. There is no suppression, pushing, or drag on your own movement. Do you feel a beam of light as it reflects instantly off the mirrors in a funhouse? Are they slowed at all? Despite never losing contact with your partner, you never want your Contact Flow feeling like you're moving in a vat of molasses. As we describe in Attack Proof, your body should move like a well-oiled mannequin, with all joints free of restriction. An energy input here means an instant blow to the face there. Your careless push is instantly translated into your arm being pulled out of its socket. Your naive pull is instantly translated into a punch to the liver. In tai chi, the principle is more passive, one of receiving and countering. GC is more about "block me or I'll take your head off". And if you do block me, I'll ricochet, skim, slide, fold, turn or tool replace into another strike with your reflected energy amplified. The other main difference in feel I've experienced between tai chi practitioners and John or Al is the sense of their root. A high level tai chi man will have a root like a tree that cannot be easily moved. This takes many years of skill development. But understand this well: when you work with John, it feels like he has no root. This does not mean that he doesn't have one--it just means that you can't find it. This is because he changes his root in a microsecond in response to whatever energy he senses from you--and realigns himself to reflect your power back at you from a superior angle. This may manifest in anything from a minor pressure change in his feet, to a one inch readjustment, to a box step that has him suddenly behind you pulling your throat out with one hand and punching your liver in with the other. Note: all of this is covered in detail in the 6 hour Eye of the Storm DVD.  Hope this helps. Questions? Please comment on our Forum.   --Matt Kovsky

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DEFEND AGAINST A GUN? MORE IMPORTANTLY-- DO YOU KNOW WHEN--AND WHEN NOT TO? BARE HANDS TO HAND GUNS PART 4 OF THE GUIDED CHAOS WEAPONS SERIES DVDS You can be the best target shooter in the world but if you can't fight HAND-TO-HAND at CLOSE RANGE you will never even GET to your gun. Worse, you could be shot with your own weapon! And if you get the microsecond to draw, traditional Isosceles or Weaver stances could get you killed. MORE INFO    PART 1: KNIFE OFFENSE | PART 2: KNIFE DEFENSE PART 3: CANE VS. KNIFE | PART 4: BARE HANDS TO HAND GUNS

How Would You Like a 6 Hour Contact Flow Private Lesson? Well, here's the next best thing: The Attack Proof Companion Part 3: IN THE EYE OF THE STORM "Quite simply, this is the best self defence/martial art/ internal-external arts training experience I have ever had..." --Alistair Horscroft, former amateur MMA full contact fighter

"Dirty boxing" self-defense using conventional and illegal closed-hand strikes augmented by Guided Chaos principles. The best of 2 previous Combat Boxing seminars plus new material. Destruction Methodology and Close-in Fighting Combat Boxing vs. Grappling Attack Wrist, Hand and Tendon Development Heavy Bag Drills Entries Contact Flow Balance Training Entry vs. Knife Attack Multiple Attacker Bag Drills Keeping the Body Sof Putting It All Together...and much, much more! NOW ON SALE

STAY INFORMED:  "LIKE US" on Facebook to get the latest GC News and follow us on Twitter           follow us @GuidedChaos

THE BEST DVD FOR LEARNING KEY GUIDED CHAOS DRILLS AND PRINCIPLES: THE ATTACK PROOF COMPANION PART 2 YOUR GUIDED CHAOS FOUNDATION Contains highly detailed demonstrations of all the drills that are most vital to your development in GC (including some that are NOT in our book). It also has detailed explanations and applications of the 4 unique principles of Guided Chaos: Balance, Body Unity, Looseness and Sensitivity, including many important sub-principles. The stepping sequences alone are invaluable. MORE INFO

SIMPLE AWARENESS TOOLS FOR SAFEGUARDING YOUR LIFE,   YOUR HOME AND YOUR FAMILY:

1. BEST INTRO BOOK FOR LEARNING GUIDED CHAOS COMBATIVES (THE FIRST PART OF GUIDED CHAOS) FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE The GC Combatives Manual Available in 3 Formats: (Paperback / Kindle / eBook) GC COMBATIVES: COMBAT PROVEN / EASY-TO-LEARN THE PERFECT "HOW TO" MANUAL FOR: AVERAGE PEOPLE / SECURITY PROFESSIONALS / LAW ENFORCEMENT ANYONE WHO DOESN'T HAVE YEARS TO BECOME A GUIDED CHAOS "MASTER"!     2. DVDS, and especially the no-nonsense GC WEAPONS SERIES: Kill The Enemy, Companion Part 1, Military/Police Tactics, Guided Chaos Weapons Series      DOES COMBAT TAI CHI ACTUALLY EXIST?      READ MORE... PUT YOUR TAI CHI ON STEROIDS... with Guided Chaos internal principles    Adapt / Improvise / Survive       THE ATTACKPROOF COMPANION PART TWO (2 DVD SET) - $75.00 All the principles, in depth, with drills. THE ATTACKPROOF COMPANION PART THREE: IN THE EYE OF THE STORM (3 DVD SET-6 HOURS TOTAL) - $125.00 Applying the principles to free-form combat with Contact Flow. BUY BOTH AT 15% OFF THE REGULAR PRICE OF $200. SAVE $30! 15% OFF--THE ATTACKPROOF COMPANION PARTS TWO & THREE COMBO PACK - $170.00      HOW DO I PRACTICE ON MY OWN?  TRAIN ALL THE GC DRILLS SOLO... ...SET TO NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC.  COMBAT CONDITIONING All the Guided Chaos drills back-to-back and non-stop on one DVD. No theory or extended explanations. Put it on, blast your stereo, follow along and work out--5 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour or longer--whatever you want-you decide! Also, many chapters end with a quick application demo of the skill just trained. Talk about practical!

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ENDORSEMENTS:


"Let me start by saying I thought I'd seen all that the world of 'reality-based self defence' had to offer, so for the easily bored out there, I'll cut to the chase. What I witnessed on the weekend of 26 and 27 March is the closest thing I've come across that resembles a modern-day, reality-based martial art and not just another 'combatives system'. Does it work? Hell, yeah! I got my arse well and truly kicked and at times felt like I was in the middle of a Jason Bourne fight scene."
--Clive Girdham, former Senshido and Geoff Thompson instructor [excerpted from the exclusive review of the Guided Chaos Australia Seminar in the Aug. print edition of BLITZ MAGAZINE: Australia's #1 Martial Arts magazine volume 25, issue 6

"Guided Chaos is the only training in my 15 plus years of Corrections that translates into real world application, period."
---Bob Miller, Corrections Officer at the largest facility in Oregon

"Guided Chaos is the only thing that has worked for me in real life situations. Unless you are 6'3" and 285 lbs of muscle, most of the Defensive Tactics stuff (ok all of the Defensive Tactics stuff) will get you hurt. And even if you are that big and strong, there is always someone bigger and stronger and there may be a lot of them. Nothing like dealing with one guy and it turns into a free for all with all his buddies. This is where you literally need to 'adapt or die' and Guided Chaos is the only training in my 15 plus years of Corrections that translates into real world application, period.

"If I had to pick only one martial arts system in the world it would be Guided Chaos..."
--Dr. Robert L. O'Block founder and publisher of the American College of Forensic Examiners International, American Board for Certification in Homeland Security
 

"...through watching videos put out by attackproof.com, and by
reading Attackproof, the book, I have learned real survival skills.
These skills have been learned...at an exponentially higher practical
yield-per-hour training rate than any other martial art classes or
seminar I've ever attended, or ever even heard rumor of."
--Matthew Shoener, Police Officer, Scranton, PA 

"The Companion Video Part One is stupendous!
A godsend of detail for out-of-state practitioners."
--Mark from Chicago

SEE ALL ENDORSEMENTS

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