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Rest In Peace, Grandmaster Tim Carron

11/29/2014

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On Thanksgiving morning, 2014, Tim Carron passed away. He was 66 years old. The Guided Chaos family lost a superlative practitioner, teacher and friend. The world lost one of its greatest artists, martial and otherwise. Guided Chaos creator John Perkins lost a very close friend and student of nearly 35 years. I personally lost a unique role model, teacher and friend of 8 years, whose influence far exceeded the fairly limited frequency of our interactions.

Many of my early lessons from Tim are chronicled in the first few years' posts of the Attack Proof blog, http://attackproof.blogspot.com/. I had to stop writing about my lessons with Tim when they started to get too deep and amazing to do justice to in words. After I learned to relax, flow with and observe what was going on, without speeding up, judging or trying to accomplish anything in particular (especially trying to impress Tim), the learning floodgates opened up. I was more and more amazed in each session by the effortless precision, attention to detail and limitless lethal elegance of Tim's movement. As I improved in Guided Chaos (ever so slightly, by Tim's uncompromising standards), I was able to perceive more and more of what Tim was doing to render me helpless, right up until my last lesson with him in November of 2014. The tiniest details of his movement (placement of a finger, synchronization of his body with my hand, and much more), when broken down in explanation, were so simple and logical, yet so powerful and seamless in execution. In each and every lesson, Tim exposed me to a new level of effortless simplicity and sensitivity.

Uncompromising is an apt word to describe Tim. He was uncompromising in his learning, execution and teaching of Guided Chaos, as well as in his other major area of artistic expression, photography. His devotion to John and his teachings was absolute, and he pursued excellence in Guided Chaos with a single-minded passion that cost him dearly in other areas of his life but resulted in unmatched speed of progress and depth of knowledge, even though John was just starting to figure out how best to teach Guided Chaos when Tim first started working with him. Indeed, while training with John and practicing John's recommended exercises helped Tim learn Guided Chaos, working with Tim helped John learn how to teach it. Once John started to force Tim to teach as well (Tim was quite reluctant at first, being naturally shy of the limelight), the gifts spread even faster to the Guided Chaos family. Tim never strayed from unforgiving REALITY in his teaching, making sure to impart the importance of mastering the Guided Chaos principles in efficient movement, lest the student risk death in combat. I did not know Tim well enough to write with any authority about his combative experiences in Vietnam and elsewhere, but suffice to say that those experiences certainly informed the seriousness he brought to his learning, practice and teaching of Guided Chaos, and his lack of patience for anything that he felt moved the practice of the art away from combative reality.

Tim was uncompromising not only in his martial and photographic arts (as well as other arts such as gunsmithing, metalwork, Chinese medicine and calligraphy), but in his friendship as well. Forthright and honest in his thoughts, teachings and assessments, a friend could always count on Tim for REAL advice and help. Tim's extreme sensitivity extended far beyond his hands into his listening and all his interactions with people. Tim's advice could often be subtle, a product of its nuanced truth and Tim's efficiency with words as with physical effort. The long and short conversations on a variety of topics that usually accompanied his Guided Chaos lessons imparted at least as much wisdom as his hands physically did.

Tim's passing leaves a gaping hole in the hearts and training of many Guided Chaos practitioners. Those who never got to train with him will never understand the experience of those who did. They'll never feel the baffled, helpless, confused feeling in themselves that accompanied the sometimes amused, sometimes concerned, always caring, penetrating stare of Tim's pale blue eyes. It can be frustrating for his friends to realize that Tim's unique abilities, personality and generosity will never be widely known or appreciated, as Tim eschewed the spotlight (it took John's insistence to convince him to be filmed for the Guided Chaos Contact Flow Workshop DVD) and never sought fame or fortune from his art. Indeed, this was one aspect of his refusal to compromise its purity and reality. All we can do is simply our best to ensure that his and John's teachings get passed along. We may not be able to replicate what he could do physically and psychologically, but we can try to recall and transmit his lessons as precisely as possible. In the classes I teach, I don't believe a class goes by in which I don't mention at least one thing Tim said or did to me once upon a time. Though our sessions and conversations were far less frequent than I would have liked, the body of lessons and knowledge I amassed from Tim is vast and deep, as it is for all of Tim's students and friends. 

We miss you terribly, our friend and teacher, and will do our inadequate best to pass along your wisdom. Your positive influence on countless lives will echo far into the future. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your lessons and friendship.


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Southern CA, you're on notice!

11/27/2014

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I will be in Southern California December 25, 2014 - January 3, 2015. Please contact me if you're in the area and interested in training. Thanks!
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Kicking Chaos

11/26/2014

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Kicking in Guided Chaos is quite different from kicking in most martial arts/self-defense systems.

Guided Chaos kicking, like everything else, is based on balance.If you do not have a good one-legged root, you cannot kick effectively. Your balance cannot be committed to or depend on the kick or its result. Whether you miss completely or connect perfectly with a charging aggressor, you cannot lose balance. Recoil from the impact of the kick is channeled into the ground via the root leg, such that it actually INCREASES your stability and the depth of your root. You drop into your root as you kick to maximize your balance and connection from the ground through your target.

Kicking is analogous to striking with your arms. Just as you do not "throw" your balance at the target when striking with your arm, you do not "throw" your balance into the kick as many martial artists do. You keep control of your root and the kick merely emanates from it.

There should be practically no muscular exertion in your arm as you strike. The power of a movement that contacts the target via your arm comes from the cumulative motion and alignment of your entire skeleton and its pressure against the ground, enhanced by dropping. The arm itself is loose. All the same applies to the leg.

Once you get a feel for Guided Chaos kicking, you're not whipping or throwing your leg at the target via muscular exertion. Rather, feeling your body to be in the right place relative to your target, you're placing your foot or leg on the target in a relaxed and nonchalant way, knowing that your balance, body unity and dropping will be there to supply the penetration and explosion once you connect. This does a lot to "hide" your kick and prevent the telegraphing that most martial artists do when they prepare to kick. Accuracy is key, as is feeling where the enemy's center of gravity is such that you can penetrate him in an unavoidable way, which makes you unavailable to him. It's much easier to be accurate when you're loose and on balance and merely "placing" your foot on the target, rather than effortfully swinging your leg in the general direction of the bad guy, hoping to hit something that will help support your compromised balance! Your retained balance and looseness also allows you continue to use your arms (or anything else) effectively even as you kick. Most people can't do this due to lack of balance and/or imagination.

As you develop in Guided Chaos, you get the feeling that anywhere you can touch with your hand, you can apply destruction if need be, because you're always on balance and moving loosely with body unity, guided by your sensitivity.Hence the practice of "counting koo" or merely touching the available targets while remaining unavailable yourself, as part of the training (not ALL of the training). A Guided Chaos master can do the same, and more, with his or her legs. For an obvious example, note how Master Michael Watson frequently uses his leg like a third arm in contact flow, moving it just as precisely, slowly and unavoidably. The other masters and grand masters can do this too, it's just very visible when Michael does it slowly with his long legs.

Also remember that in his experience and forensic research, Grand Master John Perkins identified many cases of effective kicking in the confined space that many attacks go down in, both from the ground and while standing and bracing against solid objects like walls. This is an integral part of the training, and indeed is one way to introduce kicking to students without much or any experience using their legs as weapons. Free-standing kicking may at first produce tension (physical and mental) and loss of balance. Starting out kicking while bracing against something with the hands or body can help the student's body and mind get comfortable with the idea. I once saw John take a complete beginner in martial arts (albeit a decent athlete) from zero to seriously combat effective kicking in one lesson, and he used a progression that started with leaning against a wall and culminated in the student's effectively stopping charging attackers with kicks from a free standing position, not realizing anything special was going on! Note that some martial artists who have been kicking "experts" for DECADES cannot do this, as they never understood the connection between balance and effective kicking. (Witness the "auto-retreat" feature some sparring competitors have when they kick--which may actually HELP THEM in their particular sports while preventing them from achieving serious stopping power with their kicks.)

Kicking from the ground, as in groundfighting, seems very different but can actually teach good lessons about and enhance your standing kicking. See the blog post from a couple weeks ago about groundfighting.

As different as Guided Chaos is in general from most martial arts, the kicking methods are especially different from those of the most popular martial arts. Learn them the right way and you'll see how useful effective kicking can be in a variety of situations. 

Happy Kicking!!!


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Training Partners: Good, Bad, Ugly???

11/18/2014

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Grandmaster Tim Carron once told me that there is no such thing as a "bad" training partner in contact flow, except perhaps one who really wants to hurt you. Outside of that, anyone can help you learn, if you have the right attitude about it.

In order for someone to be a training partner, you have to trust that s/he does not really want to hurt you. Accidents happen, but real intent to injure takes things out of the realm of training and into actual self-defense. If you're unsure about someone, simply don't work with that person. Remember, "that person" can vary day to day, depending on what's going on in that person's head and life. In training and in life, we never truly know whom we're dealing with. Be relaxed, but ready.

So, assuming you can trust your training partner to not want to hurt you (while remaining on guard to the possibility that he might), here's the deal:

You can learn from anyone given the right attitude towards training.

If someone is using a lot of brute strength and pressure, use this as an opportunity to defeat your own urge to push back against him. Remember to observe the principles within yourself, stay light and loose, don't resist, and enjoy. You might get hit a lot if you have not yet developed enough sensitivity, balance, looseness, body unity and freedom of action to remain unavailable yet unavoidable in the face of such pressure, but that's okay, your body will learn from it. You're unlikely to get hurt if your training partner means you no ill will. Remember that the person using less strength and resistance gains more from the training, regardless of who's getting hit more or less.

If someone is speeding up, always strive to move just a little slower, maximizing your efficiency. You'll gain from this training, unlike the person who tries to go faster--even if you're getting hit more. Again, attitude. As long as he isn't really injuring you, getting hit doesn't matter in this context. Stay loose and balanced and move with it. It's helping you learn.

If your training partner is much bigger than you, the potential benefits are obvious. Even if it feels overwhelming at first, you're learning how to deal with bigger and stronger people--and odds are, those are the people you'll have to deal with if you're ever attacked! Breathe, relax, and resist the urge to panic. Resist the urge to fight back directly against his strength. That is sure to immobilize you and get you crushed.

If your training partner is much smaller than you, there are also big benefits to be gained. Feel how that person moves. Feel how he deals with--or how he SHOULD deal with--your superior size. Develop empathy to feel what it's like to be this smaller person faced with a bigger one--because one day, for you, the tables might be turned. Pretend the person is much stronger than you are and move accordingly.

Working with a person with far more experience than you have is of course great. Suppress any urge within yourself to impress, please, or "beat" him. Accept all physical and verbal input and enjoy. Of course you'll get hit--that's when you learn! Key is for you to feel as comfortable as possible no matter what's happening--as balanced, relaxed and nonresistant as you can get.

Working with a person with far LESS experience than you is great because it usually offers more unpredictability to adapt to, as well as the opportunity to teach and help someone. One taught, thrice learned. Most of the time when I teach, I'm coming up with explanations and advice on the fly, and I often learn from it. In Guided Chaos, not only does movement come from the subconscious, but teaching can as well. Developing empathy to understand what your training partner is feeling is a huge boost to your sensitivity.

The best way to screw up your own training is to assign emotional attributions to what's going on. Angry that you got hit, either at your training partner or at yourself? You just cut off your learning. Elated or sorrowful that you hit your training partner? You just cut off your learning. Ego-based emotions block learning and make the whole endeavor largely fruitless. The best state of mind to learn in is, in most cases, a state of carefree play, where you're enjoying the entire experience and not caring one way or the other about what happens. Incidentally, Tim related that he had a major breakthrough in his training with John when he one day realized and said out loud, "You know what? I don't care. It doesn't matter." John was pleased.

Another way to screw up your training is to consciously think about and judge what your training partner is doing. If during contact flow you keep thinking, "He's speeding up," "He's using too much force," "Why is he doing that?" etc., you're focused on all the wrong things. Relax and accept your partner's movement for what it is: HUMAN MOVEMENT for you to use for your own benefit. Contact flow is like the solo Guided Chaos exercises, only you have additional input from another person to supercharge your learning. So focus on your learning, not whatever the heck your partner is doing. Tim has a great saying: "It's just movement. It's not personal."

Guided Chaos learning requires a balanced and relaxed mind as well as body. If you disturb and unbalance your mind with distracting thoughts and judgments about yourself and others, you're messing up your own training. YOU are the one who's messing it up, NOT your training partner who may be going a little fast or who may not be experienced enough to verbally "teach" you anything. So long as you maintain a good attitude about your training, you can learn from anyone you can trust not to try to hurt you.

And frankly, once you get some skill and experience under your belt to keep things relatively safe, even those who try to hurt you can offer great learning experiences. . . .

So, train in state of carefree play, remember it's just movement and it doesn't matter, work on yourself and don't worry about others, and enjoy! You'll learn quickly.




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Hang Yourself. . . .

11/14/2014

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To achieve efficient positioning and movement in contact flow, try the following:

1) Put your feet in an L, front foot pointed towards your training partner. Note that this is an L and not a T: your legs should not be crossed, and your rear leg should be able to kick straight forward past your front leg with no interference. Distribute your weight 50/50 to start. 

2) Imagine the top of your head is suspended from the ceiling by a string, and everything hangs from that. Picture a life size model skeleton in a high school biology classroom. It hangs limply from the hook on the top of its skull. 

3) Imagine a heavy weight is suspended on a string from the bottom of your pelvis. It's constantly pulling your center of gravity down against the string your head is hanging from. 

4) Now imagine two strings attached to your wrists pull your wrists up and forward, towards your training partner. Your shoulders and elbows remain relaxed and hang loose. 

As your legs work like hydraulic pistons to push differentially against the ground, changing the location of your center of gravity and turning your body left and right, you maintain these feelings of head suspended from a string, weight suspended from your pelvis, and wrists (not arms or shoulders!) held up by strings. 

This should help you maintain the feeling of full feet and empty body that you want in contact flow. You feel like all your strength, vitality and energy has flushed down out of your upper body and into the bottoms of your feet, leaving your upper body like an empty plastic bag, weak and almost sickly feeling--while still suspended from a string on top of your skull. 

Give it a try and report how it goes!
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If you're a human being moving, you're in my element. If I'm doing anything besides the movement patterns you've trained to deal with, you're in trouble.

11/8/2014

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These two sentences summarize free-form (or "form-free") training, as in Guided Chaos, compared to most training out there that uses prescribed positions and movements to deal with assumed actions of adversaries.

Pattern recognition is an insidious trap that anyone, even Guided Chaos students, can fall into. A Guided Chaos student must be sure to work with a variety of people moving in a variety of ways. It is important to not ALWAYS do "super-efficient" contact flow, where both training partners move minimally to deal with whatever the other is doing. While this is great for developing efficiency and internal skill, it can set up erroneous expectations if done exclusively. Vary it up with "Long Keech," the contact flow variation where both partners intentionally use big movements and move creatively rather than efficiently, putting themselves in all sorts of weird positions--though still working the five basic principles (balance, looseness, sensitivity, body unity, freedom of action). Forget about combat effectiveness or efficiency when doing Long Keech, just move and have fun and be creative, never clashing nor stopping the flow. It's like doing Polishing the Sphere and Washing the Body but with another person within your sphere whom you must adapt to and move with. Likewise, sometimes flow only at long range, or only at medium range (where most contact flow tends to end up), or only belly to belly, literally maintaining torso contact the entire time. This last variation especially can teach a lot of good lessons that might not be learned otherwise.

This applies as much to weapons training, including gunfighting, as it does to unarmed training. Do NOT train to expect a weapon wielding attacker to move just in certain ways (whether prescribed attacks or even in the "style" of a particular martial art), and do not expect particular movements of your own to apply to every situation. This is especially rampant in the firearms training community, where many trainers are preaching and many students are trying to practically turn into robots with ONE perfect draw stroke, ONE perfect stance and grip, and one way of moving while shooting. This kind of training, while applicable to most styles of competition and certain proactive combat scenarios, is NOT easily adaptable to the realities of close quarters reactive violence, with its attendant movement dynamics and physiological changes.

Train well, and make ALL human movement your element!




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Practice Groundfighting Not Just For Groundfighting

11/5/2014

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I've found that many GC students do not practice groundfighting as much as they should. I suspect the reasons for this include:
  1. Especially in the beginning, groundfighting is not easy. The basic exercises challenge you to use the muscles of your body in ways you don't normally use them to achieve balance in positions and movements you don't normally find yourself in. We walk around on our legs all day (well, when we're not sitting on our asses), so the standing exercises are more familiar and easier to adapt to. The groundfighting exercises, however, put some folks into a world they haven't visited seriously since they were infants, and it's uncomfortable and straining at first for many.
  2. They believe that either they'll never need it ("I don't want to go to the ground!"), or they'll never get good enough at it ("Look at how Masters Michael and Al move on the ground--I could never do that, I'm not agile enough").

Not only do I think the above excuses are erroneous, but they prevent the student from making great strides in their self-defense capability and internal development, both on the ground AND standing up.

Consider this:

If you think about it, groundfighting was actually the first element of GC that Grandmaster John Perkins developed. As he has related, his official training began at five years old when his father and uncles would punt him across the linoleum floor of the kitchen and challenge him to not allow them to catch him. Over time they taught him some "Injun wrasslin'" and other tricks, but mostly his training was experiential, figuring out how to avoid and counter the attacks of much larger, older men after being knocked down (sometimes "armed" with a rubber knife and sink plunger "tomahawk"). Also, after an older boy viciously stomped John while John was wrestling with friends for fun, John made the decision to never be taken down. This is what led to his discovery that staying loose and uncooperative and balanced made it impossible for even top level Judoka and wrestlers to take him down--and enabled him to strike them effectively during the process. So you can see that groundfighting and countering grappling with looseness have always been integral parts of GC and key factors in its development.

Regarding the difficulty of the exercises, the key, as with all the exercises, it to practice them until your muscles adapt and the exercises become less physically taxing, allowing you to relax with the movement and improve your proprioception, balance and body unity in all positions. For a fairly healthy adult, it's actually a fairly quick process as you're really "waking up" dormant movement and muscle use, not necessarily introducing something brand new.

Regarding the erroneous beliefs, ANYONE can end up on the ground or in a "grounded" position in a self-defense situation. One of John's first major fights as a cop began when he entered an establishment where a huge fight had broken out, slipped on blood and fell flat on his back, with a huge bruiser jumping on top of him. We have had students who went to the ground in self-defense situations, either by accident or intentionally to get their heads and vital organs away from multiple weapons, and to get to cover and escape. Way back when (before I started GC), I was attacked with a baseball bat while I was lying on a bed (long story--fortunately no injuries). You never know what's going to happen and you never know whom you'll have to deal with or in what position. So practice your groundfighting so that you have a chance.

Note that the crazy, fast, wide, continuous breakdancing moves you see Al and Mike perform in demonstrations, while cool and desirable if you can do them, are in most cases NOT necessary for self-defense. Given the confined spaces where attacks typically occur, and given the actual effects of well executed GC groundfighting, you are quite UNLIKELY to have to flip, roll and helicopter kick all over the place to protect yourself. Being able to stay loose and free mid-fall and on the ground will usually enable you to end things or at least turn the tables within seconds, and with far less movement. Even the most basic "roll down and kick like a crazed mule" skills can create a lot of damage quickly, enabling you to roll away, get up and escape. When John demonstrates groundfighting, the simplest, smallest, laziest movements create devastating results--not because of his agility or athletic prowess, but because of the Balance, Looseness, Sensitivity, Body Unity and Freedom of Action (and experience) he possesses both on his feet and on the ground. So don't let lack of athleticism or a perceived inability to emulate the more athletic masters discourage you. Efficient movement on the ground is all about the five principles and getting comfortable with making them work on the ground as well as on your feet.

I find that one big benefit of consistent groundfighting training is that it helps me discover new levels of looseness and efficient movement. On the ground, your available space for movement is cut down a lot by the presence of the planet right up against you. It forces you to do what you need to do in less space and with less resistance. If you resist on the ground you can effectively freeze and even injure yourself very easily as you end up fighting directly against the enemy's full weight and strength. This forces your body to find another way. If you train on uneven and unforgiving surfaces, you quickly learn to keep your body soft and adaptable, otherwise you'll be going home with LOTS of bruises or worse! 

Once you get more comfy and relaxed on the ground, you can begin to fine tune your sensitivity and precision. Some exercises I have done at home include slowly "rolling over Legos" (anyone with kids will understand this one) and "blind ground navigation". (Hey I can make up silly names for exercises too!) In your home, set out some furniture (chairs, tables, etc.) randomly, then close your eyes and slowly roll around the room, feeling your way around and past the furniture without impact or pressure. Put debris (including those deadly Legos) on the ground for more challenge. Do it all slowly, rolling and contorting as needed. Remember to keep breathing deeply. This will improve not only your looseness, sensitivity and balance on the ground, but also hone what John calls your "internal gyroscope," giving you better awareness of where you are in space at all times, no matter how crazy things get. Training like this, in addition of course to various groundfighting contact flow variations and other exercises (see Attack Proof, Second Edition), has improved my basic attributes on the ground as well as standing.

Practice your groundfighting!!!

 
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Beginnings and Endings

11/1/2014

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People often ask whether it's possible or advisable to "add" Guided Chaos (GC) training to whatever other martial arts/combatives training they currently do.

Politically correct answer: Sure, keep practicing what you like, adding the GC will just make it work better. . . .
 
Problem with that answer: It will never allow you to discover your own full potential.
 
My personal story:
 
After doing the kiddie Karate and then Tae Kwon Do black belt thing, I realized after some close calls in my mid teens that I hadn't really learned anything practical. I started researching and found Jeet Kune Do (JKD). I picked up a bunch of videos and went nuts with friends, beating on each other wearing motorcycle helmets. Prophetically, one of my training partners took off his helmet after a clash and said, "Jeez, was that as CHAOTIC as it felt???"
 
Couldn't find a JKD school in New York City at that time, but managed to make a couple seminars in Connecticut and New Jersey. Good times. Then I walked into a Wing Tsun class, thinking I'd stay a few months and pick up some Chi Sao (sticking hands) skillz. . . . Got completely controlled the first night, completely knocked out the second. Seven years later, I was the second most senior instructor in NYC, and I also taught Escrima (Filipino martial arts that trains primarily with sticks and knives) with the same organization. Neither the Wing Tsun nor the Escrima were anything like what I'd been led to expect while I was involved in JKD.
 
Although the Wing Tsun training saved my ass several times, I began to feel uncomfortable about it. Reality never went the way I expected it to go, the way it had gone in training--even though I was successful. I started to look around. Got involved in Russian Systema, both regular classes and a few seminars with master instructors. See Attack Proof Newsletter #90 for the story there. A chance meeting with some long time students of Charlie Nelson (WWII Marine and self-defense instructor), during which I was soundly smashed for asking stupid questions, got me involved in the close combat community, in particular Carl Cestari's crew. I also began practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts, after a few months of Judo.
 
Things were rather nebulous. Some Wing Tsun students were complaining about the close combat attitude I was bringing into the classes (although some loved it). The Wing Tsun and Escrima classes I had been teaching at Columbia University had morphed into close combat/self-defense classes. The BJJ/MMA was keeping me in great shape, although I felt it was a bit limited in terms of real-life practicality. Carl Cestari's crew had only occasional sessions in Jersey, and I wanted to get some quality hands-on close combat training on a regular basis closer to home. . . . That's what got me into a GC class for the first time--the close combat aspect. I discovered there was a lot more to it though. Much of that journey is documented in the first few years of the Attack Proof blog.
 
Regarding GC and other martial arts:
 
Besides Systema and GC, all martial arts that I know of attempt to train certain movement patterns, structures and habits into the student, claiming that such patterns, structures and habits are the "best" for dealing with violence. This includes JKD, except that the exact patterns, structures and habits each particular JKD teacher teaches vary widely (Original JKD, JKD Concepts, instructors' and students' preferences, etc.). They're still, however, teaching movements and then attempting to apply them.
 
GC is different in that it acknowledges that violence is so chaotic and human movement so variable that there cannot be any "best" moves or patterns independent of the complete context of each unique moment of each unique situation. To attempt to deal with the fluid chaos of real violence with a reductionist set of trained movements and habits will result in one's never really perceiving nor being able to move effectively with the reality of a given situation. All one can do in such a case is hope that one's superior attributes will allow him to force his round and square pegs (his trained movements and habits) into the jagged, irregular holes (real violence), regardless of the resistance and friction.
 
Once I decided for sure that GC was for me (after attending the Nanuet class with John, following a few months of other classes and a few private lessons with Al), I dropped all my other training, as this was the only way to rid myself of patterns and habits that stopped me from perceiving and moving with REALITY. This was no small thing to me, as my Wing Tsun and Escrima teachers and fellow students had become like an extended family, and I got ex-communicated by some of Carl's guys for even suggesting that Perkins is legit. (Notably, the guy who originally introduced me to Carl, one of the longest-term and smartest of his students/friends, is now John's student.) After I devoted myself to Guided Chaos training exclusively, most of those movement habits and patterns that I had been forcing into myself for years dissipated within a few months. Why so quickly? Because they were not natural (no matter what my instructors had said), and once Guided Chaos gave me permission to yield to reality rather than blindly fight it, and then constantly exposed me to reality, my subconscious mind and body quickly ditched what they knew were useless habits. Of course, I'm still trying to break certain habits of mental and physical tension that may or may not be related to my previous training, but the overt stuff dissolved quickly. Now it's mostly a matter of improving my ability to perceive and act on reality with maximum accuracy and celerity.
 
I find it impossible to practice other martial arts while practicing true Guided Chaos, because while the point of Guided Chaos is to free your mind and body up to adapt spontaneously and efficiently to all violent motion, the point of other martial arts (besides Systema, which I commented on in Newsletter #90) is to restrict your mind and body to those motions, positions and ideas that the arts dictate are optimal for their limited paradigms of combat. The two endeavors actually work against each other! It IS possible to practice any martial art while also practicing the Guided Chaos exercises. However, simply practicing the exercises is not the same thing as practicing Guided Chaos.
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