ISSUE #177       GUIDED CHAOS NEWS

UPCOMING SEMINARS:     • LOS ANGELES February 26-27. Early order discount ENDS 2/1/11   • SYDNEY AUSTRALIA March 26-27. Early order discount ENDS 3/1/11    Additional discount for law enforcement and military personnel The Ugly Question Virtually No Self Defense System Will Answer: EVERYBODY KNOWS you have to disable your attacker. No news there! The TRICK is HOW do you get your strikes IN when he won't LET you? No one is going to just stand there and LET you hit them with your super-secret strikes. And no one is going to LET you hit them without hitting you in return. So how do you STOP their attacks with a super-secret technique if you don't even KNOW what they're going to throw next? The answer? ADAPT TO CHAOS.   Come to a seminar and start learning HOW. As far as we know, NO ONE teaches you how to improvise WHAT you need, WHERE and WHEN you need it. And isn't that what you really need to know when the spit hits the fan? SEMINAR REVIEWS  BUY NOW   MORE INFO

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QUESTION: Hello, I have noticed that many of the reality-based self defense instructors completely dismiss internal energy as an illusion. What is the Guided Chaos view of 'chi' energy. Is it real or just an ancient superstition ? ANSWER: That is a great question and goes right to the heart of how we're different. Let's get the "mystical" chi issue out of the way first. We've had our people search in China with a $5,000 reward for an actual demonstration of "lightning bolts from hand" chi--and every one was bogus. John Perkins himself trained with temple-trained tai chi master Waysun Liao and he confirmed that chi is pure mechanics and rootedness and "hitting without contact" is a myth. That said, chi is defined in the classic Tai Chi Boxing Chronicle as "the circulating point of finesse within the body." In other words, grace, balance, alignment and economy of motion and energy. All essential qualities for saving your life against bigger, stronger, faster attackers. Chi also has the potential for creating sensitivity and the ability to adapt to changing attacks and defenses. We say the "potential" because since the Communist Revolution most internal art schools in the West (and East) haven't the slightest idea how to train these concepts in a combative, free-form manner that resembles true violence. Most of the "combat tai chi" websites you'll find still train patterned, choreographed motion despite showing tai chi techniques "working" against simulated attacks. RBSD and CQC styles approach violence from the opposite direction: they are simple, effective and brutal (provided that they are authentic and not watered down politically correct versions which now predominate). The problem is: how does the RBSD and CQC work against someone bigger, stronger, faster or possessed of similar skills? What if the attacker successfully defends against your simplified CQC strikes? This is where John Perkins was an innovator--combining the efficency and sensitivity of internal training with "anything goes" Native American fighting with simple deadly CQC striking. "Internal energy" training really is utter nonsense--unless you actually know what it is and how to train it combatively, adaptively and spontaneously. There is a complete explanation in our book Attack Proof 2nd edition. QUESTION: I worked out with the Combat Conditioning dvd. Cool music...thought I was training in the mountains somewhere. 1. Anywhere Striking- It looks like your striking on the lines of the numbers on a clock. I noticed the fist wasn't used as much. I guess I'm right? ANSWER: You can use any striking tool/ridge. The "clock" thing is just the beginning step to get you comfy with hitting from a lot of angles. You need to work up quickly to hitting completely freely, with no planning, no tension, everything coming from the interaction of the feet with the ground (i.e. no impetus originating from the hip, shoulder, arm, etc.). The strikes just flow and bounce over the target like raindrops. QUESTION: 2. Body Striking- Are you hitting the arms/body with any strike on specific targets, or are you just making the body hard like in hard chi gung? ANSWER: This has NOTHING to do with body hardening. You don't need to hit hard. The purpose is to gain some sensitivity re: how it feels to hit different parts of a human body in different ways. The best way to gain this is through contact flow with another person, but this drill can be useful when you don't have others available. As you gain sensitivity, you will naturally intuitively hit different parts of human bodies in qualitatively different ways in order to cause maximum effect. It's not about hitting hard, it's about hitting to get the results you want (e.g. damage, penetration, movement, disruption of balance, etc.) in the moment. This requires sensitivity within your loose hitting. Do this exercise with that in mind, not with any idea of hitting hard or hardening your body. QUESTION: 3. TV cut drill- If a person strikes out when the channel changes...Can't they close their eyes and do the same thing only responding to sound? I found out if your standing in line and you can't see behind you.  However, if a person moves the clothes makes a flash of noise. Today I went into CVS, and this person stood behind me. I tried  to keep them in my view, but they were standing between 5 and 6. All of a sudden they reach out to touch me so I could move, because they wanted to step by me. I heard their clothing and move out the way as their arm just stayed in mid air trying to reach me. ANSWER: You strike when the scene changes (e.g. a change in camera angle), not when the channel changes. Sure, you can close your eyes and use sound (e.g. hit every time a person starts to talk). Sensitivity gathers info from all senses into the "sixth sense" of subconscious intuition. QUESTION: 4. Unity Striking- To see someone do all those strikes while standing on one leg was crazy. I'm developing that now. Can a person just kick the shins? I noticed the guy doing  the drill was kicking higher. ANSWER: For the drills, see how crazy you can get with the kicks (direction/angle/speed/height/combinations) in order to challenge your balance. In application, kick for max effectiveness in ways that don't compromise your balance. A good kick to the shin with a steel toe can certainly turn the tide. QUESTION: 5. Native Arts- It seems like the art was lost, but there are gatherings in each state of Native Americans. How come they don't train or promote their own arts? ANSWER: a) Yes, the info is mostly lost, b) those that know it aren't interested in sharing, c) none of it was ever formal or systematized, but more just tips/tricks/methods passed on within families. What John learned was what some of his older relatives called "Injun Wrasslin'". What John teaches now is developed far beyond what those folks were doing. If your father gave you a few pointers when you were young about how to win fights, did you proceed to advertise to the world that you knew some special rare [insert ethnic background of choice]-American martial arts? No? Well, it was a similar situation for most Native Americans who knew this knowledge, as far as I know. . . . To them, it may not have seemed to be anything special or anything people would be interested in learning. John and some of his friends did in fact "exchange notes" with some Mohawks back in the day who knew of similar methods, I believe. QUESTION: 6. Guns- I'm going to get that dvd soon. However, I wanted to ask what's the difference from this gun information from the other info out there like in systema. I'm just getting into all the gun stuff. Just like with all the knife info out there that stinks...Is it the same with the gun info? ANSWER: Similar situation. A lot of the Systema gun stuff is highly questionable in my opinion (and John's). If you need to compare, the "basic" gun stuff John teaches is similar to the more "traditional"/WWII-era point shooting, although John teaches it better (different instructional methods). Beyond that, GC gunfighting uses all the same physical and especially mental concepts and training methods of GC, and is way deeper and potentially way more effective--and I've only had two lessons, so I barely know what I'm talking about here. Ask me in a couple years. . . . QUESTION: 7. Contact flow- I noticed on the dvd you had a stick you were holding, and you were kicking a stick for targeting. I thought of tieing two sticks (two arms)  tieing a rope in the middle of it, and then I could suspend it in the air from the ceiling to practice some sensitivity. I noticed the stick moves almost on it's own forcing me to adapt to it, and if I press too hard the other end comes swinging at me. In contact flow...you are not just simply moving to be moving...Aren't you throwing out the basic strikes? To do so...wouldn't you have to detach your hands or are you still throwing the strikes while remaining in contact? ANSWER: Fine idea for a training method (similar to the "sticks of death" drill in the book), but won't do much to train your sensitivity compared to contact flow. Multiple swinging heavy bags are better because they challenge your balance and looseness. Regarding the rest of your question, yes and no--I could easily show you in person but it would take forever to write and wouldn't be very clear. Remember to ask me the next time you're in class. QUESTION: 8. Dog Dig- I studied and am still studying the blade dvd's. Al stated if there's room to dog dig (gaining distance)...and then run. I watch a few videos where some folks were stabbed in real situation. They had the opportunity to run, and they tried most of the time. However, a few videos stood out. The attacker stabbed multiple times, the victim started to run, but the attackers chased the victim. I have the ability to do this thing called Parkour. I thought...what if I did what Al said to do, but I'm chased. I can fall on the ground, but if I got a head start on them...why fall...keep running. I noticed in Keech you have to adapt to the flow of your opponent. Doesn't the person have to adapt also to the enviroment? If they are unware of certain things or can't adapt to it...it could be bad. I found a video on youtube where these guys are trying to kill this guy in a highrise.  I thought what if these guys had knives...etc.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPIw3cv8Zls&feature=related ANSWER: You absolutely have to adapt to your environment, which is why GC includes stuff like fighting in the Hellevator, stair fighting, gauntlets, etc. As you become more sensitive, you'll become sensitive to the environment as well. In many of John's fights on the job, he made good use of the environment (e.g. furniture, structural layout, etc.) to keep himself safe and to hurt the bad guys. He once showed us outside at night how he's even sensitive to the abient light (direction, shadows, etc.) to move more deceptively against multiple attackers. Don't know much about Parkour except what I've seen in movies (e.g. District B13, that newer James Bond flick, etc.) and on YouTube. Impressive stuff, but not sure how useful it might be beyond the basic speed and efficiency around obstacles and the athleticism it obviously requires. The guys in the movies obviously know exactly where they're going and when. Also note that if you try some of the riskier stuff while being pursued, you may wind up too injured to effectively defend yourself when they catch up. The point of the dog-dig-and-run is to prevent them from stabbing you up during those first few steps as you accellerate. Beyond that, who knows? If he's faster than you are, better to surprise him from the ground or on your feet than to have your back turned when he reaches you. If the dog dig and a short run allow you to access or pick up a weapon, all the better. If you CAN'T escape and you can't get more space, the dog dig can also be used to enter and attack while staying away from the blade as best you can. Again, easier to show in person. [Thanks to Ari for the great answering.] GOT A QUESTION? 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