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Thursday, November 17, 2011

One-arm Contact Flow Training

The importance of one-arm Contact Flow training: you should develop the ability to attack and defend with one arm to the extent that you can deal with both of your opponent's arms with one arm. In motion he thinks he's in contact with both of yours when in reality you've got a spare. This training affords so many points of sensitive contact (elbow, hand, forearm, bicep, triceps, shoulder, etc.) that eventually when you mix it all together the opponent will feel like he's fighting an octopus with sledge hammers

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Doing Contact Flow right: we get a lot of questions from remote students about correct CF practice, revealing self-defeating approaches. Some simple tips:

1-Go slow. You both need to creatively discover positional, directional, energetic and balance-related subtleties. Speeding up creates panic, cheating and ego issues.

2-Use the same amount of force. Your defense and offense must develop independent of strength--useful against monsters.

3-Stay close. All real mayhem occurs nose-to-nose. If you have enough room to spar you should have run in the first place. Questions?

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

YOUR QUESTIONS...


SOLO DRILLS


Q: In the NY class you were teaching me about how to isolate from my root so that I was utilizing less arm movement and moving to more advantageous positions using my body so I wouldn’t get stuck in grabs and be able to continue the flow. All I was wondering was if there are any drills you could explain to me where I could practice isolating from my root and any type of things I could do with the training partners down here so I could continue to cultivate this ability?

A: Two solo drill recommendations:

1) Psycho Tango. See the second edition Attack Proof book.

2) Something with no name that Al showed me a while back: Find a very non-resistant object at around head/shoulder/chest height. The traditional object is a leaf on a tree, preferably at the end of a long, thin branch. In my old apartment I used a string hanging from the ceiling. The object should move in response to the slightest pressure.

Here's how to get started: touch the object with your fingers, being careful not to make it move. Now, while staying in contact with the object with your fingers but not disturbing it at all, start moving and stepping all over the place with the rest of your body. This forces you to isolate the body part in contact with the object while maintaining freedom of motion with the rest of your body. This is a tough drill, it's not easy to keep constant contact while not disturbing the object at all, so don't expect perfection at first. As you get the hang of it, touch the object with other contact points, e.g. your elbow, and isolate around that. Vary the height of the object and the angle at which you touch it. Get as crazy as you can with the movement of the rest of your body. Use TWO objects (e.g. two leaves with various distances between them) and touch one with each hand, and isolate from there. If you find yourself with nothing to do, you can do this with any object you can touch (e.g. a wall), you just won't have the feedback regarding whether you've given any pressure. You can also do it very small and slow if you're out in public, i.e. moving so small/slow that to outside observers it looks like you're just touching a wall or table and standing there, nothing unusual.

In contact flow, what worked for me was playing with the idea of not letting the other person feel where I'm going. This forced me to isolate, either with no pressure or with constant/equal light pressure. Also, letting people grab me hard and just letting them have whatever they're grabbing while I step into position to end it.

--Ari Kandel

Q: It’s been many months since I was last able to
visit you in New York. Am I on the right track with the following:
Practicing Washing the Wall, later reviewing GCC Combatives eBook;
concepts started to click in place, not just individually but as a whole.
I was practicing Washing the walls, then thinking about Sphere of
Influence, I finally understood –“NOT JUST KNEW”— why you remain close to
your opponent until you escape. Besides not giving your opponent a better
chance to attack (which was demonstrated to me multiple times during my
visits), my Sphere of Influence is quite small. To strike back I need to
be close. Combining this revelation with the Box step, other footwork,
moving the “Sphere of Influence”, and remaining unavailable; staying close
to your opponent “FEELS” safer than creating distance. The opposite of
what I demonstrated in the workouts. If I’m off on a tangent I’d like to
know and correct it.

A: Great questions; we love it when people are so enthused they're training
on their own, making discoveries!

First off, the drills you're referencing are called Polishing the Sphere
and Washing the Body. With Polishing, you're envisioning you're inside a
giant glass sphere wiping off steam. the "sphere" is as far away as
whatever tool (weapon) you are using to polish. The movements are all
outward oriented.

Washing is the opposite; you're literally attacking yourself and getting
out of the way at the same time. Washing develops sensitivity, polishing
does not.

Your revelation is important: it's only when you are in "sensitivity
range" (direct contact) that real mayhem (and practical defense) takes
place. Everything else is sparring and thus B.S. Your Sphere of influence
is anything within reach. You need to be comfortable with all weapons,
offense and defense, within this range. Most people, because of stiffness
and over commitment, are ineffective at close range, where GC trained
sensitivity tells you what you need to do without thought or even vision.
So in summary, you are on the right track!

Remember, the closer you are, the lighter, more sensitive and more
unavailable you need to be (the opposite of most people).
--Matt Kovsky 

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Facebook, Blog, or Forum?

Facebook, Blog, or Forum? Hey all--wondering how people prefer to communicate and get GC news: our facebook, Blog, or Forum pages. Let us know!
http://attackproof.blogspot.com/ http://groups.google.com/group/guided-chaos-forum?hl=en
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Guided-Chaos/133839683360276

Monday, June 13, 2011

LESSONS LEARNED FROM A FOILED ABDUCTION

A Guided Chaos Student's Close Call...

THE SETUP:

"It was a normal Tuesday commute to work. I got off the bus and was walking
along Lexington Avenue when a man in his late 20's, about 5'5" and about 150
lbs. caught me off guard and stopped me for directions. As many of you may
know, I'm 5'0" and weigh about 108. He told me he couldn't speak English and
he needed help looking for an address.

In his hand, he had a piece of paper with an address on it. I looked at the
paper and noticed the building he was looking for was right in front of us.
I pointed to the building and told him, "It's right here". He looked blankly
at me. At that point, I felt a warning in my gut and bladed myself from him.

I began to walk away when he grabbed me by the arm and started screaming
over and over, "Come with me! Come with me!" He pulled me into him and I
loosely went with his pull. I then Dropped into him with my elbow and he
fell flat on the ground. While he was on the ground, both he and I were
stunned. I stood over him (not proud to say) waiting for him to get up so I
could gouge his eyes out. What was I thinking? He could have had a knife or
a gun!

Adrenaline is a crazy thing! He ran away and I still stood in the middle of
23rd and Lexington wondering what the hell just happened. I got to work and
I had such mixed feelings. Maybe he really couldn't speak English and needed
directions and I dropped the poor guy to the ground! I felt horrible. Then I
remembered the feeling I got in my gut while I unconsciously bladed myself
from him. Never ignore your gut or the potential of what you can do under
duress with the applications of this art. Thank you Master Perkins, the
Masters, and all of the the other wonderful, skilled men and women I train
with in the art." --Jeanine

LESSONS LEARNED:

Many brutal rapes and murders start out the same way: A classic "interview'
question to get your attention, followed by forcible abduction to Crime
Scene #2 where the horror begins and escape is impossible. You need to fight
back RIGHT NOW without a moment of second guessing.

Jeanine's GC training kicked in because instead of pulling against her
larger attacker (Jeanine is 5'0") she flowed with his energy and drove her
elbow into him (classic yin/yang sensitivity). This maneuver dropped him
instantly. That's the good part, and thank heavens he ran off. But we need
to examine what happened because Jeanine encountered additional risks that
could have been avoided. These are all from Guided Chaos Combatives:

1) Always maintain a Personal Comfort Zone that no stranger (or hostile
relation) is allowed to enter. You need to train yourself to break the
hypnotic tunnel vision that occurs when your regular attention is hijacked
by a criminal. This may consist of subtle psychological subterfuge
(the"Interview") or overt shock. GCC Scenario Training covers this in depth.
The instant Jeanine was addressed by the stranger, it would've been safer if
she had moved off-line sideways, quickly scanned for accomplices, and either
blown him off completely or maintained a 5 foot PCZ. The point of
establishing the PCZ immediately is so that he must actually take a step
towards you to close the gap to hit or grab you. It's probably lucky for the
stranger because if Jeanine had done this and he suddenly entered her PCZ
she would've ripped his eyes out at the get-go (we know her well!).



2) You fight to escape and survive, not to win a duel or fight for some
contrived notion of retribution. This is the most important part. You never,
ever know what the enemy is capable of. Any of you who've read Attack Proof
know the story of "The Battered Kickboxer" who knocked her attacker to the
ground but bent near him, only to be stabbed with a knife. You fight to
escape, not to win or seek retribution. You can lay somebody out, only to
have them turn over and pop you with a semi-automatic or be gang-attacked by
their buddies. This point goes double for women who on average have a higher
empathy factor than men. They may want to help their attacker after
incapacitating him. As GM Perkins emphasizes: "Ladies, get over it! Hit and
RUN!"

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Wheelchair Self-defense by John Perkins

I have worked with wheelchair bound men a few times in the past. I am presently working on a program for the son of a friend of mine who is wheelchair bound. For decades I taught people how to perform contact flow and combat flow from a seated position. This eliminated them from stepping away and forced them to use flexibility to a high degree to make them unavailable and later unavoidable....It is a great methodology and has a lot of merit for standing folk training. I remember some who did not like to do it but after experiencing their progress loved it.


Presently I am training Tina and Patrick to work with wheelchair bound people. I have done much seated work with myself seated to deal with their height and it works out well and keeps me on the ball when it comes to maintaining upper body looseness and I found that I can drop from a seated position just by internally relaxing and suddenly catching my upper bodies weight with my abdominals doing most of the work. I have a small round stool that I use for much of this training but I have done it from any type of chair.


When my brother was in the hospital for prolonged cancer treatments I used to sit in his wheelchair and work as if I had no lower control moving the chair with one hand while using the other to fend off an imaginary attacker.


I know a little of how loss of lower control feels because I had a number of operations where the doctor used a needle to cut off the nerve impulse and feeling to my lower body. The effect usually lasted up to 4 to 5 hours after the procedures/operations and while stuck in bed I would force myself to rise to a sitting position for half an hour or so and imagine how it would be to be in this condition indefinitely....Very sobering to say the least....I count my blessings often that I have the use of my legs...I have recurrent kidney stone problems and can't take the regular anesthesia for these procedures....


To train someone to perform contact flow and combat flow from a wheelchair is not so easy but very rewarding. It gives a true sense of accomplishment to both persons....This is not sportive training but realistic self defense training....I have also worked with blind persons as well....I am developing a workable training regimen for a couple of our student/instructors in this....Hope this helps.....Anyone who wishes to train with me in this methodology is welcome...No charge for these classes....JP