ATTACK PROOF: Guided Chaos Self Defense

One-arm Contact Flow Training

2011-11-17T09:22:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-16T13:47:00.001-05:00

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?

YOUR QUESTIONS...

2011-09-27T13:17:00.002-05:00

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

Facebook, Blog, or Forum?

2011-08-03T15:28:00.001-05:00

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

LESSONS LEARNED FROM A FOILED ABDUCTION

2011-06-13T13:08:00.000-05:00

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!"

Wheelchair Self-defense by John Perkins

2011-05-31T14:12:00.002-05:00

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

What Is Your Primary Objective When Training Self-defense?

2010-08-04T19:56:00.001-05:00

There are new, heavily marketed self defense styles out there that have "revolutionary" advice to offer the public: that you need to "injure the attacker."

New? You could get a 1960's-era Bruce Tegner book that says the same thing. Since before World War II, Col. Rex Applegate, Fairbairn & Sykes and Brad Steiner have stated in one form or another that life-and-death combat is about nothing less than "Kill Or Be Killed."

The trick: how to AVOID being penetrated as well as DELIVER your weapons against a non-compliant aggressor who is ALSO trying to defend himself. It is all about adaptation and improvisation. Train only to hit and you can't adapt to a changing defense. Train only specific defenses and you will be overwhelmed. Train primarily to blend, flow, improvise and adapt--and you will be able to adapt.

That is the key to surviving violent chaos and that is the gift GM Perkins offers.

GCC Manual available now in 2 versions

2010-07-13T13:42:00.000-05:00

Full color pdf with enhanced formatting plus a 40 minute chunk of the Companion 2 DVD http://guidedchaoscombatives.com/

Amazon Kindle version in black and white with simplified Kindle formatting: http://www.amazon.com/Fight-Your-Life-Reality-Based-ebook/dp/B003U6ZI...

2 Florida Officers Die After Traffic-stop Shooting

2010-07-12T14:54:00.003-05:00

"EXPECTING" TROUBLE:
2 Florida Officers Die After Traffic-stop Shooting
[Sent courtesy Bradley J. Steiner, President International Combat Martial Arts Federation http://www.seattlecombatives.com/]

Tragedies such as the one reported below can only be prevented by EXPECTING TROUBLE whenever a suspect is being interfaced with. NO EXCEPTIONS. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A "ROUTINE" STOP. Please study and consider the implications of this catastrophe so — God willing — future events like this will be avoided by other officers. You should scrutinize the teletype sent to your department.
--Brad

By the CNN Wire StaffJune 29, 2010 10:10 a.m. EDT(CNN)

-- A second Tampa, Florida, police officer shot during an early-morning traffic stop Tuesday has died, authorities said, as a massive manhunt was under way for two suspects.

"Doctors have pronounced Officer David Curtis deceased," Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said in a statement. "His family has chosen to harvest his organs so he will remain on life support for the next couple of hours while that takes place.

"Officer Jeffrey Kocab was pronounced dead at a Tampa hospital after the incident about 2:15 a.m. ET Tuesday. Both officers were 31, according to the department.

Kocab's wife was due to give birth next week, while Curtis leaves behind his wife and four sons, ages 9, 6, 5 and 8 months.

Curtis had pulled over a vehicle and found its male passenger had an outstanding warrant for "minor violations," Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor told reporters Tuesday. Kocab responded to back Curtis up, and "as they put their hands on the suspect, the suspect spun around, pulled a firearm and shot both police officers," she said.

Curtis pulled the car over because it had no license plate, authorities said in a statement. "Officer Curtis determined the passenger was wanted on a worthless check warrant" out of Jacksonville, Florida, the statement said. He called for backup and Kocab arrived. Both officers approached the vehicle on the passenger side.

Officers responding to a 9-1-1 call from a witness found both officers on the ground and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation, police said. Both were taken to Tampa General Hospital. Kocab was pronounced dead shortly after arrival, while Curtis was put on life support and later pronounced dead.

Both Curtis and Kocab were shot in the upper body, Castor said. They were shot at close range, she told reporters, and body armor would not have helped them avoid injury.

Police dogs had tracked the suspect to a location, she said, and door-to-door searches were under way.

"We haven't positively Identified a suspect, but we have a very good suspect in this situation, and there's probably a great deal more to it than just that misdemeanor warrant," Castor said.

"This is an unbelievable tragedy for these families, and for the larger family of TPD, and for the larger family of the city of Tampa," Mayor Pam Iorio said. "Our hearts are just breaking."

Kocab had been with Tampa police for 14 months, police said, and moved through the TPD's training program at an accelerated pace "because of his outstanding police skills."

Castor said he previously was with the Plant City, Florida, police. Curtis has been with the department for three years and eight months, according to McElroy. He previously was a jail deputy with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Castor described both men as "solid police officers and outstanding individuals" who both worked the midnight shift. Kocab, she said, was "looking forward to being a father," and Curtis was devoted to his wife and sons.

Police were searching for a red 1994 Toyota Camry connected to the shooting and an African-American male and female, McElroy said. The male was described as being in his mid- to late 20s, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing about 150 to 170 pounds. He is thought to be wearing brown shorts, a white T-shirt, a black vest and white sneakers, police said. No detailed description was available on the woman.

The officers' deaths come nearly a year after Tampa police Cpl. Mike Roberts was killed in the line of duty last August, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said in a statement."

The safety of Tampa residents was the first priority for Officers Kocab and Curtis, and today they selflessly made the ultimate sacrifice to protect their city," the attorney general said. "They will certainly be missed not only by their loved ones, but also by the city they worked to keep safe."

Authorities set up a perimeter around the shooting scene and were conducting "an extensive search for evidence," police said. "The search for the suspects extends statewide. The suspects are considered armed and very dangerous."

Police were asking to be contacted by anyone who witnessed the incident, has information on the suspects or spots the vehicle.

GCC eBook

2010-07-07T20:37:00.006-05:00

Coming Tuesday...

Point Shooting IS Combat Shooting!

2010-07-07T20:28:00.005-05:00

by Bradley J. Steiner, President International Combat Martial Arts Federation
www.seatllecombatives.com

WEAPONS are and have always been integral to martial arts.
The weaponry of the time always dictates what will be included in a
realistic, practical program of training, and thus antiquated weapons
(i.e. sai, sword, tonfa, nunchucks, 9-foot poles, etc.) must be relegated
to classical/traditional studies, and abandoned when considering what
a combatant must learn in the 21st century. The premier self-defense
weapon of today is the handgun that has been designed and intended
for anti-personnel use.

While few rational individuals will dispute the handgun’s status as
the “ultimate weapon of self-protection”, there is some question —
unfortunately lingering from the halcyon years of that wrong turn-off
taken when the late Jeff Cooper introduced what he called “the new
technique of the pistol” — about what exactly constitutes the best technique
of employing the handgun in close quarters battle.

The proper technique for real world close range, quick reaction combat use
of the one-hand gun was developed and initially wrung out by the late
William E. Fairbairn when, as “Officer in Charge of Musketry” in the Shanghai
Municipal Police Department during the early years of the 20th century, this incredible
close combat master used actual gunfight experiences (plenty of which were
his own, and all of those of dozens of other officers, shopkeepers, and criminals,
who had engaged in handgun battles, and whose experiences were documented or
personally observed) to formulate doctrine. By actual record, William Fairbairn
personally participated in more than 600 violent encounters with lethally
dangerous felons! More than 200 of those encounters involved combat
use of his sidearm!

During the 1940’s, when Fairbairn was called out of retirement to train British
secret service personnel (SIS or MI6), commandos, and operatives of the
wartime Special Operations Executive (SOE), his methods of armed and unarmed
combat were further refined. Seconded to the American Office of Strategic Services
(OSS), Fairbairn became mentor to then Capt. Rex Applegate. Applegate, eventually
to become Fairbairn’s opposite number in the States, contributed his own research
and his terrific teaching acumen to train more than 10,000 fighting men in
the legendary Fairbairn methods of both armed and unarmed combat.

The Shanghai experience, the countless experiences of the second world war,
and post-war experiences with law enforcement, intelligence, and military service
organizations — all of whom received extensive training in POINT SHOOTING
(the Fairbairn/Applegate Method) proved beyond doubt or question that proper use
of the fighting pistol for close range engagements is UN-sighted, natural,
“instinctive” or POINT shooting.

The unfortunate advocacy of always concentrating on the front sight and always
using the handgun’s sights is the byproduct NOT of combat experience, but of
competition experience. And yes, certainly, as a sporting/competitive way to use
the pistol at a range, in competition, in events set up to require use of the sights
by establishing unrealistically long range targets, the newly introduced “technique”
of Cooper’s makes sense. BUT NOT IN CLOSE QUARTERS BATTLE PREDICAMENTS
WHEN ONE CONFRONTS AN ARMED KILLER!

We wrote about all of this in enormous detail and at great length for nearly
ten years, every month, in a Column that we contributed to a mainstream
gun magazine. And while many of that publication’s readers took issue
with that which we presented, 100% OF THOSE WHO READ OUR COLUMN WHO WERE
IN LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE MILITARY, AND OTHER CAREERS WHERE IT WAS
“DONE FOR REAL” , AND WHERE THESE READERS HAD BEEN ACTUALLY “DOING”
SOME OF IT, THEMSELVES, agreement was total, enthusiastic, and based upon
REAL WORLD EXPERIENCES!

Point shooting is not theoretical. It is a simple, basic method of utilizing
the handgun when the circumstances of actual combat impinge upon the shooter,
and when his ability to focus on sighted shooting becomes impossible. It is easy to
demonstrate the “superiority” of focusing on the front sight and hitting targets
conveniently set up at a shooting range. However, the shooting ranges that most
competitive shooting aficionados do their live firing at are wholly unrealistic.
Not only are the shooting distances generally ridiculous (more than 50% of
all encounters occur at distances of FIVE FEET OR LESS; and nearly 100% occur
well within a 20-foot range — usually no further away than about ten or twelve
FEET), but the range environment does not produce the stress of combat, and it never
triggers the involuntary psychophysical reactions in the shooter that a real battle
inevitably includes. IN A REAL CLOSE RANGE COMBAT SITUATION YOU CANNOT
FOCUS ON THE FRONT SIGHT! At the range — whether the target is three feet away
or thirty yards away, you always can use the sights — rather easily, too, if you’ve
spent time practicing the so-called “new technique”.

Sadly, the recent experiences of police officers, federal agents, and others
who have been trained in and who have attempted to rely upon the “new technique”
have all too often resulted tragically. The California Highway Patrol is only one
law enforcement agency that has abandoned the “new technique” and — wisely! —
gone back to point shooting for its officers.

We bring all of this up because we appreciate that our visitors will in many cases
wish to avail themselves of modern weapons in their quest for realistic and total
preparedness. Know this: it is point shooting that you want to learn and rely upon
for close range lethal emergencies in self, family, and home defense, if and when
you need to employ a pistol. Waste no time or money on competition methods.
If you ever need to use your pistol for real it will not be very sporting.

The fabulous Kimber Company (a weapons manufacturer that everyone considering
purchasing a sidearm for social use should check out!) has come up with another
classic winner! It is a concealment handgun without fixed sights.

Whether you select the new Kimber as your personal carry weapon or not, is a choice
that only you can make. We certainly think highly of Kimber’s products.

What we wish to stress is that, so long as your objective is learning how to employ
a pistol in actual combat, against living, armed, dangerous enemies, it is
POINT SHOOTING that you want to rely upon as your technique.

Two chapters in Applegate’s KILL OR GET KILLED will teach you the method. Or, you can check into SHOOTING TO LIVE, by Fairbairn, or the classic QUICK OR DEAD, by William Cassidy. There are other sources, as well as a few teachers who are fully qualified to train you in the method (without side-tracking you into competition shooting). Mark Bryans or our self can train you — or, if you can read and are disciplined — you can likely train yourself. We obviously caution that you obey all laws regarding firearms ownership and use, and that YOU GET PROPER INSTRUCTION IN SAFE GUN HANDLING AND THE FUNDAMENTALS of handgun use before you actually purchase any firearm. On the left is the terrific ULTRA RCP II by Kimber. The encouraging fact that — finally — the uselessness of sighted firing at close ranges is being acknowledged in a modern pistol made by a top, premier manufacturer, is very gratifying to us.

We hope that you have found this article helpful.

YOU NEVER KNOW...

2010-06-25T16:37:00.002-05:00

Courtesy John Farnam's DTI Quips
2010 by DTI, Inc. All rights reserved

8 June 10

Last Friday, an off-duty LAPD officer was washing his car
in his own driveway. Fortunately, he was armed with his G23 (concealed).

A van pulled up, and the driver exited. He had a pistol in hand as he
approached the officer. He said to the officer, "Where are you from?"
This LA street-slang loosely translates to, "What gang are you
affiliated with?" The officer was alert and plainly saw what was happening.
He knew that, after asking this question, the interrogator customarily
shoots the interrogatee. But, in this case, the suspect wasn't fast enough!

The officer quickly moved off the "X" as he drew his own pistol and fired
at the suspect, striking him multiple times. The astonished suspect fired
at least one round, but the officer was not hit. The badly-injured suspect
limped back to his van and drove away, but he didn't get far! He soon turned
up at a local hospital. He, and two additional suspects, were arrested.
Suspect's condition is currently listed as "stable." No one else was injured
in the incident.

Lesson: Any place! Any time! Any occasion! You're either ready,
or you're not. These VCAs are not playing games, and you won't get a second chance!

YOUR QUESTIONS: HEAVY BAGS AND HIP ROTATION

2010-06-23T13:02:00.001-05:00

"Two questions:
1) I have a duffle bag stuffed with rags in place of a heavy bag. I have no
place to hang it from where it can swing freely. It is hung up against a
wall. Will striking it when it has no place to swing backwards, hurt my
joints? If you strike a heavy bag properly, that swings freely, there
should be very little swing of the bag, anyway."

A. I can't tell you exactly without feeling the bag but probably not.
Remember that old time karate men would beat their fists on solid
makiwaras and wind up with calluses and lots of arthritis later in life (or earlier). As
long as you never feel you're hitting concrete you're probably ok. You
should try and save up to purchase a BOB; they're better than heavy bags
in many ways: no swing, greater realism, improved targeting, etc.--MK

"2) In the attackproof book, there seems to be
no emphasis with rotating your hips with the
strike and no emphasis on the sharp exhalation of breath with the strike.
Should'nt both of these techniques be used in conjunction with
dropping when you strike? Looking forward to getting the paperback of the
GC Combatives book when it comes out. Thanks for your time."

A. You do use your hips, it's just that it's only a PART of the chain of
power, not the whole enchilada, like in karate. That's why we stress body
unity. As we say in the book, the origin of your power is your feet which
is then threaded through all the joints, including the hips. Focusing on
just the hips (which are in the middle of the body) is akin to holding and
snapping a whip from its center instead of the handle: you won't get the
full benefit.

Exhaling on strikes is important, and we do stress it many of our drills
but again, it's only part of the formula.--MK

KRAV MAGA

"I have been practicing Guided Chaos for several years now, and even mixed
in the better aspects of Jeet Kune Do, a few Filipino Arts, TFT from Tim
Larkin, and Vladimir Vasiliev's Russian Systema. However one question
still remains in the back of my head. Most Krav Maga practicioners I meet
are closed minded and believe their system alone is the best on the
planet. While I know it's the fighter not the system that makes
effectiveness count, and I am never one to show what I know or "share my
secrets" I do wonder what is the difference in an overall perspective
between GC and Krav Maga? I have never had any interest in it, nor do I
plan to, so I do not know much about its tactics or methods, but I thought
I would consult you as an expert source and expert GC instructor."

A. Great question. The original Krav is actually derived from
American/British World War II Combatives. The first level of Guided Chaos
(Guided Chaos Combatives) is also derived from World War II Combatives.

From there though, there are many differences. Most Krav you will find now
is a mish-mosh of MMA, Muay Thai, JKD and whatever other TECHNIQUES
(specific-patterned movements) the school mixes in and may bear little
resemblance (or efficacy in some cases) to the original functional Krav
(but of course every Krav school is different).

GCC has the original simple striking tools of World War II Combatives but
with some Guided Chaos motion principles (not techniques) added for power
and balance improvement.

As far as Guided Chaos itself (the mother art) and Krav, they couldn't be
more different. GC in principle is much closer to tai chi and bagua but as
you probably know does not teach techniques. It focuses on free-form,
spontaneous, UN-choreographed adaptability using nothing but motion
principles. No one that we've ever come across (and believe me, we've
worked out with many practitioners, from MMA to Systema) trains the way we
do. GC has a unique feel that is different than Systema and must be
experienced first hand. Once you feel it, all questions fall away.
Nevertheless, we encourage our students to work out with everyone from
every style they can find to improve their adaptability and keep their
minds open to all forms of movement to enhance adaptation.
If you can, try to get to a class or
seminar on the road. Subscribe to our newsletter and forum to see if one
is coming to your area.
http://attackproof.com/FREE-self-defense-NEWSLETTER.html
http://attackproof.com/new-guided-chaos-self-defense-forum-entrance.html
--MK

Guided Chaos & Body Building: Do They Mix?

2010-06-16T10:03:00.000-05:00

Can You Do Both?

I'm often asked if Guided Chaos and Bodybuilding are compatible and if
developing large muscles interferes with GC development.

Body building and GC are not mutually exclusive in any way, shape or form.

As I have often said, weight training is a good adjunct to training for GC.
While stimulating the full gamut of muscular contraction during weight
training may, at first, get in the way of fluid, sensitive movement,
it does not have to remain that way.

By carefully stretching before and after body building or strength training
you can, in time, add the attribute of muscular weight to your arsenal.
It takes more time to control the extra muscle and strength but it can have
some possible advantages for some folks.

What's Your Body Type?

If you are an ecto-mesomorph (small bones/large muscles) like Bruce Lee,
then weight training is a plus right at the start.

If you are an ectomorph (skinny) then some form of strength training will help.

If you are a true Mesomorph (Hercules type) then you can do anything to
stimulate your muscular strength but may wish to hold back on too much
development.

An endomorph (naturally heavy) person will gain calorie burning potential by
weight training because the more muscle you have, the faster you burn calories.

When GC and Body Building Mix Right

As you can see in these photos, Mesomorphs look scary--and they are.
Michael (on the right in the top photo) displays an arm that most bodybuilders
would be envious of. He is a 6th degree Master of GC and has integrated both
disciplines into his everyday training with great results. Nick, the other highly
developed Mesomorph (bottom photo) came to me after decades of real street
fights, most of which he easily won. He wanted to get more efficient in his ability
to take out an adversary with far less energy than he expended in the past.

He now is far more efficient and if anyone got into a close combative situation
with him they would rue the day they crossed his path. But now Nick can do
what he must with more aplomb, making it far less necessary to hospitalize
an attacker.

Michael is a living legend among GC practitioners as well as his many patrons
who find it very safe to eat, drink and make merry at the various establishments
he protects as a nightclub security person. He is the epitome of what nature can
produce when a strong frame and especially strong muscles are combined with
natural athleticism. He is to me the Sir Lancelot of our round table, to coin a phrase.
A gentle giant. Not really as big as the 400 pound giant bouncers I've worked with
in the past but even more dangerous. No kidding. Many stories could be told of
Michael's exploits.

When GC and Body Building Mix Wrong

I want to point out though that one should not seek to use bodybuilding as a crutch
to cover for a shortcoming in Guided Chaos skill development. Although in my youth
I was athletic and an accomplished power-lifter, various medical ailments
as well as injuries from my years as a street cop have greatly reduced my physical
abilities. Yet because of my devotion to the art and superior Balance, Body Unity,
Looseness, Sensitivity and Adaptability, I can still easily hold my own with these
two Samsons. Everything else being equal, skill still trumps strength. Strength can
be an insidious trap that stifles your development of Sensitivity because you will

be tempted to block a strike with power instead of absorbing and eluding it while
simultaneously and efficiently bringing your own weapons online. Similarly, you may
try to bull your way through your opponent's defenses instead of "ghosting" around

them.

This "power" trap is not unique to bodybuilding and GC. Tai Chi is filled with
practitioners who have lost the essence of their art, reducing the game of push hands
to what essentially amounts to a Sumo contest. We have seen this scenario played
out even among National Champions. Is it any wonder that some Tai Chi schools will
teach push hands as a form of sensitivity drill but then turn around and put gloves on
to teach "boxing" as the art's combative component? Something got lost in the sauce.

To sum up, weight training is not a detriment to GC training. However, there ARE
other ways to develop strength via Guided Chaos exercises alone. We will explore
some of them in future Newsletter articles.

The Gun is Civilization

2010-06-08T12:33:00.002-05:00

--By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.

People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation... and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

By Maj. L. C audill USM C (Ret)

So the greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced.

CONTACT FLOW TIPS

2010-06-05T07:38:00.005-05:00

Learning vs. Competing

It seems that a big challenge for many in contact flow is the idea of MOVING WITH your training partner, rather than AGAINST him.

While there are many ways to do contact flow, with many respective benefits, moving slowly WITH your training partners pays big dividends in terms of sensitivity and subconscious knowledge. Don't try to thwart, oppose or stymie your training partner, simply move along with him, allowing his movement to move your body with no resistance. To the greatest extent you can, do not judge, anticipate or look back on motion. Remain passively in the moment. Don't worry about "hitting" him or not being "hit" yourself. You already know how to hit people, this is about subconsciously absorbing the subtleties of human motion. If you keep trying to stop or thwart that motion, how will you ever feel it and learn about it?

The Rewards of Patience

Lots of people seem to want to jump the gun and impose their own will on training partners without ever understanding what the training partner is doing. In combat, this can work IF you always manage to get the jump on the bad guys, if you're never surprised (by e.g. hidden weapons, unseen bad guys, etc.) and if you're bigger, stronger, faster, meaner, etc. than all bad guys combined. . . . If you're lacking in any of these, you'll need to learn how to adapt, and in order to learn to adapt, you need to MOVE WITH your training partners, rather than AGAINST them.

Power Through Visualization

Here's yet another mental image that might help you to advance in GC. I'll write it the way I'd explain it in person:

Yank on my arm, nice and hard. See what happens? My arm gets yanked, and it affects my body a bit in that my shoulder is pulled forward and I get a little off-balance. That's normal, and that's how most people respond if they're being "loose." (If I were to tighten up and resist the yank, I'd get tossed and/or injured.)

Now, I'm going to imagine that my body has almost no mass--it's nearly weightless, like a small feather floating on the wind. If you touch one part of that feather, the whole feather is moved.

Yank on my arm now. See how my whole body is now slammed into you???

Try pushing straight back on my arm. See how my whole body whirls around, steps in and cracks you with my other arm? I'm like that floating feather. If you give me the slightest impetus, I can't HELP but be moved, as I can't resist even the slightest pressure. My whole body gets launched into motion. Now, the fact remains that I actually DO have mass, which drops with a lot of impact as I come to "rest" from the motion you caused. And my motion always tends to bring my center of gravity closer to yours than it was before you moved me, as if there's some gravity between our centers. In this way, I can be completely passive, but ANY impetus from my training partner launches my entire body into loose, united motion. The launching and movement are very "light," as if I were weightless, but the landing is HEAVY (but still loose) as all my actual mass comes down in the new location. In this way, I always move WITH what's going on, not against it, as I have no "mass" with which to resist my partner's motion. His motion simply moves me. No need for the motion to be large, just responsive and effective.

Play with it, see if it helps. Periodically review other such mental tricks in this blog and in the newsletters, as different ideas can help different people at different stages of development.

Some other recent discoveries/observations:

Play with objects that could be used as weapons, e.g. sticks/canes. Yes, practice the basic combative movements with them (e.g. strikes and thrusts with all parts of the objects), but also just toss and twirl them around to get a subconscious feel for their balance, inertia, etc. John "plays" with the cane free-form very creatively, NOT with an eye towards intentionally DOING any fancy flips or twirls in combat, but just to have a better feel for the cane and how it moves. This improves his facility with the cane in any combative situation.

Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously

A sense of humor in training, not taking yourself too seriously, seems to be an essential ingredient for advancing in GC. You should certainly take the ART and the TRAINING (and safety) seriously, but have fun with it and don't be afraid of looking foolish. I've noticed that ALL of the higher level GC black belts are a riot to hang out with outside of class, and are often nearly as funny during training, when appropriate. Some may be quieter and more reserved than others, but all have a great sense of humor about themselves and about life in general. John models this himself. He's very down to earth to the point of being the goofy "class clown," even while behind the facade it's obvious to those who know him that the gears are turning and he takes self-defense and survival VERY seriously. (It's too bad John's sense of humor doesn't usually come through on video.) I've seen folks who take themselves more seriously come through class, and they usually don't hang around for long. Maybe some people confuse the militaristic outward demonstrations of "discipline" common to conventional martial arts with real inner discipline, or warm bawdiness and self-effacement with foolishness. It's their loss. Remember not to take yourself too seriously and to HAVE FUN in your training. Not only is the mind most receptive to learning when it's in a state of "play," but the fact is that life is too short to spend too much time doing things that are no fun.

In other news, "on the road" seminar scheduling should heat up starting late summer, so make sure to get in touch if you think your area can provide enough bodies to support a GCC/GC seminar.

Finally, thanks for all the congrats regarding my becoming a certified GCC instructor. Be sure to extend at least as many congrats to all those who will soon do the same, especially seeing as it'll be a tougher test for them as they did not get "sneak previews" of the instructor manual by assisting with the editing!
--Ari Kandel

WHEN TO ACT

2010-06-03T07:13:00.003-05:00

From the desk of ICMAF President Bradley Steiner

The following report from "out there".
The Officer shall remain anonymous. Apparently, our tactics work!
--Brad

During early-morning hours, in a hotel lobby in TN last week, a police officer who was armed, but not in uniform, was confronted by three masked, armed, robbery suspects.

The robbery was already in progress when the unsuspecting officer walked in on the scene!

At gunpoint, the officer was confronted and ordered to prone-out on the floor. All three suspects, although only in their 20s, were already multiply-convicted, violent, career criminals.

The officer, started to comply, but then suddenly drew his pistol and fired, striking all three astonished suspects. The injured trio immediately fled, but were apprehended shortly thereafter. Two are 'critical," one " stable." The officer was not injured, nor were any other innocent parties at the scene. Not one of the suspects ever fired a shot!

This question comes up often: When thus confronted at gunpoint, or, when a VCA is in the process of taking a family-member hostage, how long do I wait before taking unilateral action?

The answer is, as always: It's your call!

But, here are some things to consider:

Your attackers are at their weakest and most disorganized at the beginning of the ordeal. As the confrontation goes on, they will increase their control, as your options dry up, one by one. When you assume the posture they demand, allow them to search you, allow them to tie you up, et al, in the end you'll have no options. Likewise, when you allow them to escape with a family member under their control, you'll likely never see that family member alive again!

A student says, "... when someone has me at gunpoint, if I move, they'll likely shoot!"

There is no satisfactory, nor comfortable answer to that. All I can say in reply is, "You're dead anyway!"

When you act with precise, but overwhelming, force, you may yet prevail. When you dither, there is little hope for your survival.

Everyone wants the "no-risk" solution. This is fantasy! There is no such thing. "Doing nothing" is never risk-free, nor is any other solution you're contemplating.

The officer in the case dared boldly, and he snatched a stunning victory from the jaws of certain death.

Good show!

The rest of need to think about it. As I've made it a habit of saying, your Test is coming!

Who are not armed, trained, ready, and courageously prepared to act decisively, right now, have surrendered most of their options before the fight even starts!

Using and defending against a gun is even more important than target practice. A great source of info is the Bare Hands to Handguns DVD.
--Matt Kovsky

SOLO TRAINING DRILL FOR MULTIPLE ATTACKERS

2010-06-01T08:03:00.006-05:00

Developing Balance, Looseness, Body Unity and Sensitivity By Yourself

Think about how you might approach dealing with multiple assailants
and what you need to emphasize in your training. One suggestion is this:

Hang 3 small bean bags from a ceiling. Each bean bag should hang
at a different height. One could be at head height, the second could
be at shoulder height and the third at chest height. They should encircle you.

Next, push each one around with various hand weapons slowly and don't
let any one of them touch you.

Next, touch each one as they come into range lightly, causing them
to move even more erratically. Don't let any bag touch you. Step up
the speed very slowly and keep moving and ducking so as not to be hit
while simultaneously lightly striking the bags. Be conscious of where
all 3 are at all times. Remain very loose and pliable.

Next, repeat this while standing on a wobble board. Go very slowly.
Keeping a slow pace will develop your balance more than going fast.
Balance and body unity are the goals here as well as accuracy.
Speed up only for fun; don't thing negative if hit or if you lose balance.
Just say, "Oh well" and continue for a comfortable time. If you feel
frustrated stop and relax. Start again when relaxed. After a good while
we can add the feet to this. Hope you enjoy this exercise.
--Grandmaster Perkins

A Gun Fighting Learning Explosion! And Other Amazing Stuff

2010-04-27T07:11:00.010-05:00

First blog post in a while. . . .

Not that a lot hasn't been going on. Lessons with John, Tim, Al and others have yielded tips, tricks and breakthroughs too numerous and, in some cases, "deep" to enumerate and explain in a blog post. Suffice to say that the more experience you gain in GC, the more you realize you have left to learn, and then some.

Some recent random thoughts:

Knife "fighting" (i.e. using a knife to protect yourself):

While there are general guidelines, strategies and tactics that can help, it really comes down to Balance, Looseness, Sensitivity and all other standard GC principles and subprinciples, whether standing or on the ground. Plus, of course, being able to consistently access your knife while under attack and keep the damn thing in your hand no matter what happens!

Free-form or Sloppiness?

Attention to detail: Because GC places no emphasis on standard "form" for form's sake, some people assume that GC is "sloppy" and they need not pay attention to detail in movement. Well, this ain't the case! While GC shuns standardized fighting techniques and positions independent of combative context, precision WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE FIGHT is most certainly important! Moving precisely with what's going on will defeat moving "generally" or "approximately" with what's going on. I've often demonstrated this to students by taking a position during contact flow, then changing my center of gravity by just an inch or two, and showing how this completely changes the possibilities in the movement (spelling the difference between life and death for the student). Tim showed me this on a far more precise level when he took the time to break down and explain what his body was doing moment by moment during a contact flow session we had. The subtlety and deceptiveness were mind-boggling. Slight rotations of the forearm, tweaks of the fingers and complete loosening of the wrist (allowing the hand to drop), for example, at the precisely correct times and places, spelled the difference between deadlock and my losing my head (literally). Tim suggested increased use of the wobble board and wooden ladder during contact flow, as they force more concentration (conscious and subconscious) on exactly what's going on, and are less forgiving of bad movement. In regular contact flow, if your training partner is not skilled enough to punish every mistake (like Tim!), it's easy to ignore (due to ego) or miss mistakes and hence set back your training. With the wobble board, if you're not reasonably "on" in terms of the principles, you know it, because you fall off the board. Similarly, with firearms, you know when you're not spot on, because your shot misses its intended target. Firearms and wobble boards don't have complex emotional stuff going on and will not lie to you. They'll do what they're designed to do and if something messes up, it's on you, and you can't deny it. . . .

A Gun Fighting Learning Explosion

. . . Which brings us to a "new beginning." I recently had my first firearms training session with John. I had many years previously received a session of standard target handgun training from a range officer, and had done fairly well by his standards. Since then, though, I'd been able to practice only about once per year (average), and had never received any combat-applicable training. (Let's make it clear right now that "front sight focus, slow trigger squeeze, follow through, repeat" is NOT typically applicable to the split-second close quarters reactive combat that civilians interested in self-defense must deal with. Sorry to burst any bubbles. . . .) I had read a lot about training methods used by various trainers, including those with a lot of gunfight experience and including various point shooting and target focus systems. I expected, however, that John's approach would be different. . . . And I was right!

Can't go into too much detail in a public blog, but suffice to say that John has some ingenious methods for training a student's mind to "trust" its ability to shoot accurately by feel and subconscious peripheral visual weapon alignment. I consciously used my sights for only one shot during the whole session, yet in retrospect I consistently made very accurate shots, many at speed and all without conscious aiming. I don't think I realized how well I was doing during the session because I basically just did what John said, not concerning myself so much with the results. I think there may be a lesson here that transfers over to general GC training. . . . (Between the two of us, with John demonstrating the drills before I ran them, we went through 100 rounds of .40 and 100 of .22.) This from a guy who previously got frustrated at every annual self-directed "practice" session at his inability to shoot consistently no matter how hard he concentrated on the conventional fundamentals of shooting. I was getting far better results using John's combat-applicable point shooting methods, in my very first training session! Note that I'm NOT talking about mere "on the paper" accuracy. I'm talking about target areas ranging from six inches down to an inch across, just like what you need to hit to achieve reliable stopping power with a handgun. John mentioned that as with the GC unarmed training, with practice, combat shooting ability will absorb into the subconscious to the point where I'll be able to pick up any reasonable handgun and place bullets exactly where I need them without conscious effort, and with additional training, while moving dynamically and shooting dynamically moving targets (i.e. aggressive people). Looking forward to more training!
--Ari Kandel

WINNING A BARFIGHT...OR NOT? YOU MUST READ THIS...AND REMEMBER!

2010-04-14T09:04:00.008-05:00

In the 4/5 blog post "Winning a Bar Fight" we told you how moronic it can be to defend your ego in a drinking establishment.

Well, to REALLY drive the point home, we received this terrific but utterly tragic response from one of our readers. Read it and remember. [Thanks to David B.]

"Right ON re: stupidity of friends getting into bar fights!!! Very sad to say that I know someone who TRASHED a BRIGHT medical & military career (was a Captain in the US Army Reserve on active duty) lost their house, entire retirement package, family's entire future, his entire weapons collection, hunting/fishing gear-boat, etc. and is now doing a 12-13 year stretch in the state pen ALL because of a STUPID, IDIOT friend's BIG MOUTH, testosterone driven ego and TOTAL lack of judgment due to way too much booze (beer).

Had the chance to avoid (get away) from the situation but idiot friend just HAD to go back into it instead of getting out of there. Was attacked by assailant w/chukka sticks; penalized person went to rescue of said idiot friend, shot assailant who died later but was revived.

Worst part: IDIOT got free, NO penalties and rescuer (I know personally-close) essentially dumped his entire life, wife & kid's lives & future down the crapper!!! ALL for NOTHING!!!!

And if any of you readers think this can't happen to you, listen up!

He too thought he was in the right but the jury didn't!!"

UPDATE: Re: BAR FIGHT tragedy may I add: The penalized person I told you about just lost his 2nd appeal. BTW: I understand that the Bar Owner hid the chukka sticks from the Sheriff's investigators, at least that's what I was told.

DANGEROUS ADVICE ABOUT HITTING AND POWER

2010-04-08T07:02:00.005-05:00

There's a lot of bad information floating around the web recently about what it takes to hit hard and effectively in a fight for your life.

Some styles are advocating hitting with everything you've got and blasting through the target, even visualizing sticking to and coming out the other side.

Although this does emphasize the kind of destruction you need to cause to your attacker, and although it is better than playing the game of "scoring points" with so called "surface" strikes, it has a dangerous flaw: a little thing called "over-commitment."

Power generation is vital but when it sacrifices your balance in the super-high speed chaos of a real fight you can wind up on your ass if you miss by even one inch, or you slip on blood, or your attacker eludes you. In fact, you can hit dead-on, but because of the looseness, reactivity or defensive skills of your attacker, the expectation of impact and that his body will support your balance is a recipe for disaster.

The trick is to be rooted, balanced and hit with full body unity but to rely on YOUR OWN balance. If you assume the enemy will "be there" when your super-duper John Wayne haymaker connects, you're finished.

The way you do this is by developing Dropping Energy. Your target is the center of the mass you intend to hit (for example, approx 3-6 inches deep to the liver or kidneys, 2 inches to the neck, or 1-2 inches to the arms). Developing Dropping Energy allows you to develop power without chambering, winding up, over-committing your balance via over reliance on pure muscle but, most importantly, by "Containing the Over-travel" and redirecting your power back from the weapon to your root. You instantaneoulsy drop your body weight and then halt the drop, reflect it off your root and channel into whatever eapon you're using. This plyometric rebounding further reinforces your balance and reloads your weapons for further strikes with full body unity. It is the "mystical secret" behind the power of temple-trained tai chi masters (of which virtually none remain alive) that anyone can learn with practice--because it's really nothing but simple physics and body mechanics, made even simpler and more effective by John Perkins' Guided Chaos principles.

But can you really hit hard this way? Ask again after John Perkins has "tapped" you with a completely neutered Drop Punch.

You'll be the one who feels "neutered."

HOW TO WIN IN A BAR FIGHT? ALSO, BEST NON-GUN WEAPONS FOR THE HOME

2010-04-05T12:39:00.003-05:00

The Answer Is Not What You'd Think...

QUESTION: Bar fights
Here's a question that came from my past. I was at a bar with friends and one of my buddies got into a fight with one of the locals. Knowing that the confrontation had a very slight chance of inflicting deadly blows (I know that there's no certainty in a fight), if my buddy needed my help, either he was getting whooped or his buddies got into the fight, how would you respond with Guided Chaos without using deadly force?

ANSWER:
Don't let it happen in the first place! Experience shows that 99% of all fights that occur in "bars" are a result of sheer stupidity.

Don't go to bars, or don't go to questionable bars; leave when things begin to feel wrong (all judgment of which of course is impaired by alcohol).

That's the main principle in GC. Now if you have to fight to save your life or a loved one's (is a friend a "loved" one? Often it's the idiocy of a "friend" that sucks both of you in to senseless situations)your GC training allows you to pull back on "deadly" strikes. Using so called "less-than-lethal" techniques will only get you into more sh#t if it doesn't work and thesituation gets uglier (which it almost always does).

Q: Two questions for John Perkins:

1) What do you feel is the best non-firearm weapon for the home?

2) Do the skills of close combat and guided chaos require continual training or would they remain with you such as the ability to swim and ride a bike?

ANSWER:
For the home there are a number of OK weapons that are not firearms. I would have a spear gun or short compound bow of at least 45 lb draw weight. These pull at about 45 pounds at first and hold at about 25 lbs which helps keep you on target without much trembling. A spear gun is trigger activated much like a cross bow.

Back this up with a long handled tomahawk or 10-12 inch butcher knife. They are fast for follow up strikes or stabs or slashes. For less blood you can use a piece of steel tubing about 2 feet long heavy enough for you to wield quickly and heavy enough to break bone. A baseball bat made of aluminum and short like a kid would use is not bad either.

As far as combatives goes you need to practice combatives at least once a week to keep proficient. If you trained in Guided Chaos for a year you usually don't lose much at all and can get back to it in minutes.

U.S. Census SCAMS by Criminals

2010-03-30T15:51:00.004-05:00

The information provided by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) (Better Business Bureau website) while technically correct was not totally accurate when it came to the Census employees canvassing door to door. I contacted the US CensusBureau who stated that the Census Dept is not sending anyone out door to door until the period May 1, 2010 to July 10, 2010. If anyone approaches your door before May 1st, stating that they are representing the US Census Dept., my suggestion would be that you DONOT open your door but politely excuse yourself (by telling them astory like you are getting dressed and could they come back in about10 minutes and immediately report them to the police) hopefully, theywill still be in the area when the police arrive.

After May 1st, if you question the legitimacy of someone identifying themselves as a census worker and they present a Census ID (how many people actually know what a legitimate Census ID looks like???) you can ask them to show you another ID to make sure the names match up on each. All workers will have a census Dept ID and since most people will not know what a legit census badge looks like it may be prudent to ask for the 2nd ID.

The 3rd check is that the census worker at their door should have a telephone number with them to provide to the homeowner to verify that they actually work for the census. The verification numbers are based on where you live so they would be too numerous to place here but for those numbers and general census information call 1-866-872-6868.
[Thanks to Kevin for the info.--former Federal Law Enforcement Officer]

Jedi Mind Tricks for Guided Chaos Growth

2009-08-31T09:37:00.006-05:00

Here's another little "mind game" I've been using lately that seems to help some students.

Note that as in the "Art of Perception" section of the Attack Proof 2nd edition, a lot of the training tips I give in this blog are more mental tricks to get your body moving better than they are instructions to be taken literally. Don't get too caught up with them. Better movement and reactivity in line with the GC principles is a singular goal. However, different people will perceive, understand and feel this differently, and in many different ways along the journey. Hence, certain mental tricks and instructions may work well for certain people, while other people will require different ones. This is one reason why John teaches different individuals differently. And in the end, mental tricks or not, there's no getting around the requirement of hours upon hours of good contact flow practice, backed up by consistent practice of the supplemental exercises.

Just play along with me on this: Imagine that your arms and your body are extremely weak. They are so weak that they cannot offer any resistance against the ultra-powerful arms and body of your training partner.

When I consider my arms to be strong, it is easy for you to hit me or unbalance me as my arms strain to keep you away.

When I consider my arms weak but my body strong, it becomes less easy for you to unbalance me via my arms, because they offer no resistance for you to push against. They stick lightly but move before any pressure can build. The problem for me arises, however, when you pin my arms to my "strong" body (torso) or bypass my arms to get to my body. My strong body "thinks" it can resist or "take" whatever you have to offer, hence it offers resistance, and can be easily unbalanced and penetrated.

When I consider both my arms and my body too weak to offer any resistance, the only thing that can "resist" you is the ground, which my feet rest on. I cannot resist or absorb any of your motion with my arms or body. Any movement I feel from you must immediately be absorbed down into the feet, which are supported by the "strong" ground. Nothing in between my feet and you can resist or stop in the face of your motion. The feet must absorb any movement by shifting weight, sinking or otherwise adjusting immediately, NOT waiting for any slack to be taken out of the arms or body. This movement can be EXTREMELY small. As the motion is absorbed by the feet into the ground, it can naturally bounce back up through my weak body and arms into you.

A corollary to this is that because my arms and body are weak, I cannot use them to hit you. My arm is too weak to hurt you; it's even too weak to move in a "striking" fashion! Only the ground is strong, so my feet must push against it in order to make the bones of my weak body and arms hit you.

Big credit to Steve in San Fran for first pulling this idea out of me (by his having "strong" arms!). They have a good group beginning out there.

The idea was greatly inspired by the new Grandmaster Tim Carron Contact Flow Workshop DVD. Get it, and turn the sound way up so that you don't miss anything that Tim says. A lot of gold there, some of it quite funny.

A Tim-ism to close on (not from the DVD):
"Movement is just movement, it's not personal." Repeat this to yourself when you flow--it's very powerful.

Balance Secrets Revealed...

2009-06-25T16:58:00.002-05:00

A "eureka!" moment and subsequent musings born from recent semi-private sessions and advanced classes with John:

John showed how in multiple-attacker situations, he's able to "easily" (i.e. without significant muscular effort) move his body and the attackers' bodies such that the attackers get in each others' way and even hurt each other. The "aha!" moment for me was when he had me put my hand in between his hand and the body he was pushing. There was actually very little pressure! Certainly not enough to "push someone off-balance" in the conventional sense. John uses his sensitivity and body unity to position himself to push/pulse at just the right angle and location to control the bad guy's balance with very little actual pressure. As John explains, a person in motion can be on balance only at one particular point/angle at any given moment. John feels where this is and takes control of the person's balance from a different point/angle that requires very little pressure because some component of the person's balance is moving that way or close to it already. Here's the catch: If you're the person being pushed, it FEELS like John must be pushing very hard, with overwhelming force, because you can't catch your balance. That has been misleading me in my training up to this point. I always assumed that because it FELT like John was applying overwhelming force to take my balance, that must have been what was happening. I knew he wasn't applying brute muscular force, but I thought his body unity and alignment enabled him to push extremely hard to take my balance.

The reality, however, is something very different. Check out the next Guided Chaos Newsletter to find out how John is able to hit people anywhere at will with demolishing force and minimal energy...

My Lessons With the Masters: Stuff I'm Working On...

2009-05-04T17:23:00.003-05:00

--If someone drops on your arm, you must, with as little movement as possible, yield and then reattach in a different position, i.e. having moved your center.

--When doing slower contact flow, you have to remember to move with the same dynamics as a full-speed, full-power fight. Avoid the temptation to move only as little as the slow-speed energy level demands in order to get your strike in sooner. For example, a student will sometimes slightly pocket a slow aligned strike to his left chest, while striking back with the left arm. He thinks this is economical and efficient, minimizing movement and time to strike. At low speed with low energy, it seems as if this would be possible. All you have to do, though, is imagine that the slow strike is being throw full-speed, full-power, full-body by a big, angry guy, and you'll realize that the slight pocket without any other change in the body would not save you at all. You'd be whacked completely off-balance, and your counterstrike would never land. You'd realize that you have to pocket, sink, turn and move your center to avoid being bowled over by the strike. Your counterstrike then naturally comes from your right arm as you turn. Moving slowly, this might appear to take a lot of time and movement. Full-speed, however, this movement actually allows for the fastest and most devastating counterstrike, that hits with maximum balance and alignment while the aggressor is still extending and committing into the impact. You want this kind of movement to be reinforced by the slow training, not the "shorter" yet unrealistic movement described earlier. The benefits of slow contact flow are immense. Do not, however, lose sight of the true dynamics of a full-energy fight. To do so is to implant unrealistic expectations in the subconscious mind that could get you killed in reality. This is also a reason to practice contact flow at all speeds once enough balance, looseness, sensitivity, control and trust have been developed. Understanding the dynamics inherent in higher-speed flow enable you to keep things realistic at lower speeds.

--To break base legs, the force of your kick should penetrate and angle downwards to pin the target leg to the ground, leaving no way for the target leg to escape out into the air. Of course, just casually jabbing your steel toe into the ankle just above the foot can do great damage regardless.

--The downward intention of your body, no matter what direction it's actually going, creates the unstoppable "weight" of Guided Chaos striking and unbalancing from any position, without any actual commitment of balance.

--John knows so many devastatingly subtle and surprising ways of using all possible ridges of the body (e.g. fingertips, second knuckles, many others) to damage other bodies . . . it's just WRONG!!! And it's possible only through mastery of the principles and the GC training exercises. Without a ton of balance, looseness, body unity, sensitivity, and slam bag practice, none of these evil methods would even be possible.

--As your mastery of the GC principles progresses, your teachers can increasingly show you more and more possibilities and "tricks" regarding movement and tactics, and your subconscious will increasingly quickly absorb and integrate them into your spontaneous movement. John is able to simply show and explain various ideas to the GC masters, and they are then able to utilize them free-form with very little additional practice or thought. Great example: John had Tim show Michael Watson some subtle uses of the fingers and wrists for control and cutting angles (at least that's what it looks like from the outside). Minutes later, Michael was utterly befuddling the rest of us by using these methods. It's the mastery of the basic principles that allows this. (Of course, Michael's subconscious integration and use of these methods will improve even further with additional practice, as with anything.) If John were to show me or another lower-level student the same idea, it would likely be close to useless, as my body does not yet move well enough (i.e. in line with the principles) to understand and utilize the idea.

So, time to go work the principles. . . .
--Ari Kandel

My Lessons With The Masters--Really Deep Stuff!

2009-02-06T19:32:00.001-05:00

Here is some really deep stuff (and my interpretations of it) from my last couple months of training with John.

Incidentally, the reason why I have a lot more training tips on the blog from e.g. Lt. Col. Al than from John is that a greater percentage of John's training is completely subliminal and personal. Whatever John may be saying at the moment, most of the time the real lesson that he's teaching directly to your subconscious is contained in the contact, pressure and movement his body is giving you. Most of the time, you're not consciously aware of what your body and subconscious mind are being taught . . . but the improvement is evident when you subsequently work with other people.

--"New/old" exercise: flowing with the big foam cylinder. In John's youth, the ancestor to this drill was "fighting over a log." Using the big foam cylinder with a bit less "bad intention" makes for a more subtle drill that brings out very interesting feelings and movement. Through doing this drill with John, I had an "epiphany" regarding the CONSTANT rolling movement, NO STOPPING me or him, no seizing or muscling, just letting the cylinder roll and adjust. I must try to bring that same feeling to regular contact flow.

--More wet dishrag = more mushin. During contact flow with another student, John told me to feel more like a "wet dishrag". This allowed me to better release my looseness from the interference of conscious control. Rather than focusing on what was going on between me and my training partner, John's admonition made me focus more on my general internal feelings of looseness and heaviness (balance), disregarding (consciously) the actual movements, and hence making me far more dangerous.

--Balance can be in only one angle at a time. But if you keep it constantly moving and readjusting, it becomes difficult for your training partner or enemy to get a fix on it. Hence, the root that can't be found.

--Loosness can be in only one place at a time. If you loosen a part of your body, another part of your body must solidify. For example, if I loosen and pocket one side of my ribcage, the other side solidifies and is vulnerable. Therefore, I can't commit to or let my conscious focus go to a single loosening, but I must keep moving and flowing, loosening in any particular place only briefly with as little motion as is necessary, more trampoline-like than modeling clay-like.

--John makes me think/feel that something is coming in one place, which makes me loosen to absorb in that place, thereby solidifying in another place, which he then hits.

--I must have the PATIENCE to "ride" my training partner and feel where he's off-balancing himself and take advantage, rather than trying to force the issue and use muscular effort to disrupt his balance where it is strong.

--Natural athletes can pick stuff up quickly and "do" it (i.e.mimic kinds of motion), and can force things to happen through their superior athleticism (speed/strength/mass/coordination). We "non-naturals" (e.g. John, me) must understand the depth of the principles through experience, and be completely mushin, as we can't force anything to happen. Of course, the better we train the "naturals" to be like us (combining their natural attributes with deep understanding of the principles through experience), the better it forces us to become.

--Mushin, like most things, is present in degrees. It's not an all-or-nothing idea. You can have more or less conscious interference without being completely "no-mind" or completely "paralyzed by conscious analysis." Of course, all other things being equal, the "more Mushin" person has the advantage.

--The "Mind Like Water" analogy imagines the perceiving mind as a perfectly still, placid pond, perfectly reflecting the moon. The "moon" is REALITY, the reflection is the mind's perception of reality. Roil the waters with thought, emotion, etc., and the reflection gets distorted. The more roiled, the more distorted and distant from reality the perception becomes. Emotional attachment must be jettisoned. The opposite of hate is not love, but indifference--lack of any emotional attachment to the person or object. Love and hate of the enemy as well as love and hate of the self must not disturb the pond, or else you will not be able to accurately perceive and flow with reality.

Big shout-out to Bill in San Diego, and Marlon and Marc in Florida. They made the time and effort to get "hands-on" experience with Guided Chaos while I was visiting their towns, as I announced on the GC Forum. They've promised to post some impressions on the forum. I know that Bill has already gotten the opportunity to successfully apply the few hours of training he got (not to a life-and-death situation, but still, it clicked!). Also, shout-outs to Mike in L.A. and Evan and John in OH and KY. They got in touch with me and tried to hook up for training, but scheduling/circumstances prevented it. Hopefully soon guys! Props for making the effort. Good example for the other "fans" out there. Remember, reading/talking about GC/combat will not help you much. Training on your own is the critical first step. Getting instructor contact, either where you live or in NY, will multiply the benefits of your solo/group training exponentially. Just ask Bill, Marlon and Marc, or for that matter, Bob Miller in the Northwest and Ken Freeman in Chicago.

The new year is already one-twefth gone. Get on it!!!

My Lessons With The Masters

2008-10-25T16:56:00.000-05:00

I recently (finally!) began to take private lessons with David Randel (see his website, davidrandeljr.com), a 4th Degree Black Belt in Guided Chaos and one of the most active instructors in John Perkins' organization. Very glad that I did!

What stands out most about Dave is his surprising gentleness and patience as a teacher, given his initially intimidating presence and rough background. He's a big guy, and he's had lots of brutal fighting experience in the Bronx (where he grew up), overseas, and in his bouncing and security career in some rather unsavory places. When he teaches, however, he explains things very clearly and patiently, and keeps the violence all around your body, rather than inside it. There can be no doubt about the power he can generate as you see and feel him move (extremely fluidly), but he doesn't do any more to you than is necessary to give you the impression of how you can do it too. I get the feeling when taking a lesson from Dave that he really enjoys sharing the art he loves with people who appreciate it.

Here are just a few tips from the first two lessons:

--My shoulders and hips are not in synch. I allow my shoulders to move and yield without adjusting my hips to maintain alignment and balance. Key to this is moving the feet to the right place to allow the hips to maintain their alignment with the shoulders.

--This bad habit may have been brought on by allowing myself to get lazy while working with less experienced students who may not always force me to move properly. In such cases, my superior sensitivity and looseness, combined with their inability to feel and attack my center, allow me to "get away with" not moving the entire body in synch at all times. When Dave moves in on me, however, I have to either move everything together properly or get jammed up and lose balance. Solution: When working with less experienced students, even at slow speeds, try to move as if they are blasting in very powerfully. Keep the reality of violence in mind (i.e. sudden, powerful forces) so that contact flow doesn't degenerate into a game with the more experienced person "playing with" the less experienced in ways that would not be applicable if the less experienced student were more skillful and/or truly violent.

--Cool drill to "wake up" the feet: Stay on your tip-toes while doing contact flow, while your partner stands and moves normally. This forces you to adjust your feet to avoid giving any resistance that might jeopardize your own balance, rather than thinking you can stand your ground and resist something with your oak tree root. Far better to have a Root No One Can Find! Note that this is just a remedial drill to allow you to feel more precisely where and why you need to move your feet. Don't overdo it, or you may get into the bad habit of rising up as you move, which may leave you worse off than you were initially.

--A big part of Guided Chaos is simply GETTING OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY to allow yourself to continuously move in and attack. You can't always control what the enemy does--but you can control what you do and stay out of the way of your own attacks regardless of what he does.

--Use long stepping to "stand where he's standing" by stepping through his legs, thus effortlessly breaking his balance (and sometimes his legs) while retaining your balance and hitting.

--Hip strikes should be more downward with a drop to break things and secure your balance, rather than pushing the hip outward, which is just a push that does no real damage and jeopardizes your balance.

--USE WHAT YOU'VE GOT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE at all times. For example, if your elbow happens to be in contact with a non-lethal area, rather than simply moving to get it to a better target, why not use the contact to disrupt his balance on the way to moving to good targets? This can apply to practically any contact. Feel how you can get to his center through any contact.

--Don't make grabbing too much of a habit in contact flow, such that you start to depend on it as a crutch. At full speed, grabs can be tough to get unless you have the high skill to set them up--and if you have such skill, why bother grabbing much? Most grabs in slower speed contact flow between less skilled students are unrealistic increases in energy (speed and/or pressure), which would be impossible to pull off at full speed. However, some of the positive effects of grabbing can be realized simply through friction and angular hitting, without overcommitting or doing anything unrealistic. Very cool stuff.

Dave recently went full-time with his Guided Chaos teaching career. He teaches a Thursday evening class in Manhattan, a Sunday morning class in New Jersey, and private lessons by appointment. He's also working on some Web and other projects to promote the art (see www.martialrealists.com), and will be traveling a lot to teach seminars in the near future. I highly recommend you hook up with him for some training before the demand exceeds the supply! I'm glad I have!

"Are We There Yet?": Shoulder Surgery Update

2008-09-14T11:21:00.001-05:00

For all you achy middle-aged warriors out there wondering whether it's all worth it, here's my 4 month progress report on my double-row repair rotator cuff shoulder surgery:

To refresh your memories, I had 3 tendons torn (2 of them completely), 3 anchors and six screws set into my shoulder, as well as the top of my humerus shaved (nothing funny about it I can assure you). As such, your progress could be better or worse depending on how much work was done and whether you had open or arthroscopic surgery. For example, I met someone who had less work done and had twice the range of movement (ROM) I had in half the time. Dirt bag. (Do I sound impatient?) Shoulders apparently have more nerves and more planes of motion and so they really take awhile to get "better..." My surgeon told me that if you force too much in physical therapy and get too much ROM too early you actually potentially impair future joint stability, so it's dicey. Then I met another guy who had surgery a week before me and was back in the gym already. "Yeah, I can reach all the way up my back, lift weights, everything!" Frowning, I thought how I had just recently been able to reach far enough to my left armpit to put on deoderant. Dirtbag...

The thing is, I've broken a lot of bones and you always know that, barring any accidents or complications, you're gonna essentially be healed in 6-11 weeks. Anyone can put up with that. Nine months takes more patience. Then of course you've got soldiers blown up in Iraq or car accident victims that require years of healing and you've got to wonder how tough those people have to be!

Well it turns out my ROM (range of motion) improvement had ground to a halt. It was time for a change of tactics. No more play time in physical therapy; if I didn't start getting my ROM back now I might never fully recover. "This is fairly common," explained my surgeon, "the supporting muscles go into spasm and you must begin to tear up the scar tissue." "Tear?" I asked, "isn't that what prompted the surgery in the first place?"

This was different. My injuries were healed; now I had to fight the body's tendency to protect itself. "Make it hurt" my surgeon said. "How much?" I asked. "In your stretches, go to the point where the pain becomes unbearable. Then go further, hold for 20 seconds and repeat. You can do this 10 times a day," he told me cheerily.

And so I did. Tears would come to my eyes and the pain would make me dizzy. But suddenly I started making ROM progress again. I still have a long way to go, but I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And I keep meeting people who had shoulder surgery the same time I did who are almost fully recovered. I know what they're going through and I'm happy for them. Dirt bags.

Teaching Guided Chaos

2008-09-10T16:14:00.003-05:00

I am hereby "hanging up my shingle" for anyone interested in doing private or semi-private lessons with me.

My training availability is limited by family situation and time constraints to specific locations in the Edgewater, NJ area. I am therefore extending this invitation to anyone who would be willing and able to travel to me for private or semi-private lessons. Rates negotiable, discounted prepayment for a block of lessons negotiable.You can get to me easily via NJ Transit bus or light rail, NY Waterwayferry, or by car (free parking). Scheduling will vary, but will generally include weekday early evenings and weekends.

Topics, depending on student interest, can include basic self-protection, Perkins Close Combat, and Guided Chaos. For Guided Chaos, while solo exercises can be taught, focus will be primarily on contact flow and related exercises. It is recommended that students supplement their lessons with study of the Attack Proof book and DVDs, and at least occasional attendance of Guided Chaos classes.

Please E-mail me at arikandel2002ATyahoo.com if you are interested.

Recommendation:

"Ari Kandel is one of our finest trainers. He possesses a deep understanding of the principles of Guided Chaos and can be counted on to bring out the best in nearly any student. I have personally trained and tested him on many levels and Ari will satisfy any true search for martial ability that most seekers may possess."

--John Perkins, Founder, Guided Chaos

Student endorsements available by request.

Lessons With The Masters

2008-07-23T08:08:00.001-05:00

First blog post in a while.

I'd like to clear up a misconception regarding this blog: I'm the one who just had a baby. Matt Kovsky's the one who just had shoulder surgery. I've had several people congratulate me on the birth of my daughter, and in the same breath, ask how my shoulder's doing. My shoulder's fine! Matt's is messed up and slowly healing. So any posts on this blog regarding shoulders are from Matt. The others are from me. Capishe?

With that out of the way, the past few weeks have been very interesting Guided Chaos-wise (and in other ways too, but let's stick to the GC).

Here's an idea I've been mulling over the last few days and experimenting with on fellow students who have come by my place to train:

Do NOT confuse the exercise of Contact Flow with the application to real combat of the benefits you get from it. I believe many people do this, and thereby hinder their progress. Contact Flow is NOT simulated combat. Combat is combat, period, and cannot be exactly simulated. However, the benefits you get from Contact Flow can serve you very well in combat.

Beyond the often-discussed Guided Chaos principles of balance, looseness, body unity, sensitivity, freedom of action and subconsciously-driven spontaneous movement, perhaps THE major benefit of Contact Flow is INCREASED INTUITIVE/SUBCONSCIOUS UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN BODY. Contact Flow, trained in the right mindset, "downloads" knowledge about human body structure and movement (your own and others') to your subconscious mind faster than any other method I know of.

Tim once said to me something along the lines of: "This really comes down to understanding people--understanding yourself, understanding others. If everyone fully understood each other, things would probably be a lot better, don't you think?" At the time, I didn't really get what he was talking about, but I believe it may have had something to do with what I'm talking about now.

The PURPOSE of filling the subconscious mind with intuitive information about the human body and how it moves is to be able to do what John does. John has the uncanny ability to move his whole body to precisely the best place for himself and the worst place for his enemies, moment by moment, based on his perception of the enemies' movement and the rest of the environment. 30+ years of Contact Flow with all sorts of people, and 20+ years of Contact Flow's predecessors before that, have provided his subconscious mind with a wealth of data about how human beings move and what that movement feels like. This is what enables John to instantly, intuitively understand exactly what a person is going to do and how his body will move based on what it's currently doing, usually far better than that person himself understands it!

So, if the purpose of Contact Flow is to gather subconscious information about how people and their movement feel, with an eye towards using that information to intuitively adapt to people's movement in combat, how should we approach Contact Flow? What attitude should we have towards the contact?

I believe some people mess up their training by having incorrect attitudes toward the contact in Contact Flow. If in a person's mind Contact Flow is some sort of competitive activity or simulation of combat, then the person will have a judgemental attitude towards the contact (e.g. my palm contacting your chin is good, whereas your fist contacting my rib is bad). This will cause that person to miss all the subtle information available from each point and moment of contact. Often (not always), the people in class whose everyday lives are relatively sedate and safe, and for whom class is the biggest "adrenaline rush" of the week because it's about VIOLENCE and whatnot, have this problem. Some (not all) folks who deal with real violence and danger in their daily lives (e.g. cops, psych ward handlers, bouncers, construction workers and other experienced people), by contrast, view class as the most RELAXING part of the week, where they get to hang out and learn about themselves and others in a fun, relaxing, meditative environment (at least the Contact Flow part of class). These people often make faster progress because of their different attitude towards Contact Flow.

Think of it this way: If you wanted to gather maximum information about how e.g. a piece of fabric feels, how would you approach touching it? I actually did this experiment with a couple of students. Pointing to a folded blanket (this took place in the guest bedroom of my house, which I use for training), I said to the students, "Tell me how that feels. Describe it in as much detail as possible." Each student walked over to the blanket and casually ran his fingers lightly over the surface. I made the blanket move by running my hands back and forth underneath it, while asking each student to feel it again and describe everything about it--the texture, the wrinkles, how it moved, etc. Their answers weren't important. What mattered is how they touched the blanket in order to gain maximum information about it. They did not push it hard, use any particular "form," grab it, strike it or try to control it (even when it was moving). They did not stick stubbornly to any one point on it. Doing any of these things would have reduced the amount of information they could glean from the contact. Just for kicks, I told them to use their arms, shoulders and chests in the same way as their hands to feel how the blanket felt. Made them look pretty silly! However, the implications for Contact Flow were obvious.

If the goal is to get maximum information from the contact, why approach the contact in Contact Flow any differently?

Watch some of the scenes in the Attackproof Companion Video Part 3, where John is flowing at moderate speed with some of the more advanced students (e.g. Al), and observe whether his attitude varies greatly from how he'd approach feeling a fine hanging curtain for example. (Note that instructors don't always look like this when training with students, as often the instructors intentionally feed the students obvious pushes, strikes and other disruptions to deal with so that the students can develop. What I'm describing here is not ALL THERE IS to Contact Flow, but simply an important piece of it.)

Adopting this attitude of simply exploring how my training partner feels seems to be working well for me so far. I've received feedback that I feel more like Lt. Col. Al, more ghostly and unreadable and surprising, when I adopt this attitude.

We'll see where this goes. The journey continues. . . .

A tip from a recent lesson with Al (which focused more on application than on Contact Flow itself):

--If I drop to stop his motion, I must not stop my own motion with my own drop! When I drop against his arm or body, my body must continue to move in, taking immediate advantage of the space and time I created for myself via the drop. This is how I can get ahead of him. If we both stop at the moment of the drop, I give him time to recover and nail me. There is NO need to stop my whole body when dropping. It can move in behind my strikes and pulses just as the body can move in behind light contact or equal pressure in slower Contact Flow. Continuous contact and pulsing pressure in slower Contact Flow can become strikes and tool destructions in full-speed application, allowing the same levels of mobility and sensitivity--so long as the requisite looseness remains.

And a different way of thinking about looseness that has helped me in my recent quest to "use my looseness as a weapon" (per Al) and also to get some students to cut down their excess motion:

--Looseness is about FREEDOM IN ALL YOUR JOINTS. It's not about flexibility, contortion or "softness." If you're loose, each joint in your body is free to move however it must at any time, rather than being locked into a certain position or reduced range of motion. It is free to move whether the impetus to move comes from within the body or from outside the body.

Shoulder Surgery Rehabilitation--Don't Get Stupid!

2008-06-03T19:49:00.002-05:00

For all you rotator cuff fans I thought I'd pass on some advice I just received from my surgeon today (who also BTW is a long time aikido practitioner) in response to my questions about regaining my range of motion. All through my physical therapy and whenever I do rehab exercises on my own, I would constantly say to myself "push thru the pain! You're a warrior--use it to your advantage and get better faster!" On range of motion exercises I'd try to eke out another 1/2 inch, trying to get back to normal on every repetition. If the physical therapist said go to a pain level of 3, I'd go to 6...well, maybe even 7, what the hell.

Well today my surgeon checked my range of movement and said I'm right where I need to be and glad I wasn't doing better. "What?!?" I said, "what's wrong with better?!" He said what happens is he often gets martial artists as patients and that they stretch and stretch and scream and fight thru the pain and they come in to his office all proud of themselves because they've surpassed their expected progress points and exclaim "see? I can bend my shoulder all the way to here now!" Next thing happens, they wreck their surgery because the damn tendons won't stay attached to their bones. They don't exactly pop their screws but their rotator cuff never turns out a strong as it could have.

I work with a guy who tore his shoulder to shreds as a high school baseball player. Being a self-described "exercise fanatic," whatever the therapist said to do, he'd do 3, 5, heck, 10 times as much! If a little is good then a ton is better! Well his shoulder never healed perfectly and to this day makes strange noises and doesn't work completely normal. Would he be better if he didn't push it to the max? Who knows.

The lesson is that it's not the amount and intensity of the rehab that gets you better, it's TIME and consistency without strain. Can I do it? Check back in January...

My Lessons With the Masters (and Fatherhood) Part 2

2008-06-02T13:23:00.000-05:00

--From the two points of contact position (touching one of his arms with my hand, and his other arm with my elbow/forearm of the same arm as my touching hand), I have checkmate: I can isolate around the contact arm (hence ghosting) and hit with the free hand, and if he moves either of his hands or his body (without full isolation) to deal with it, either end of my contact arm can carry through the attack.

--I must use my looseness to hit powerfully, completely casually, with no apparent weapon or strike manifestation until the moment of impact. Don't "strike": just make you weapon appear on the target. Striking at this level becomes pure thought: I think, thereby it becomes.

--I must not move any more than is necessary. Rather than "completing" or "following through" motions (overextending/overcommitting), I must always "find the straight line in the circle," penetrate then strike again from there through the space my strike created, cut things off directly, strike repeatedly through the same line, and never make anything more complicated than it needs to be. I must pocket to clear my own line to strike, and to create space to draw my arm out to strike

--I can use my looseness to hit powerfully from nearly full extension of my arms via internal dropping.

--I can use my looseness and internal dropping to snap extremely hard, repeated tool destructions/checks with absolutely no wind-up or pretensioning, going straight from steam to ice and back again instantly, to economically clear lines to strike through. This can be practiced on the slam bag, striking very short, right in front of the chest, with no wind-up.

--This can be expanded to full, powerful "liquid/solid" heavy arm striking, contouring along the body with an arm as loose as water that nevertheless cuts like a knife through whatever gets in its way via internal dropping.

--I must Ride the Vortex: use extremely light tool replacement and minute body movement to let strikes BARELY miss me while taking space and maintaining control with NO overcommitment.

--This requires the PATIENCE and faith in sensitivity to NOT MOVE TOO EARLY, but to wait for the overcommitment and panic to penetrate. It's about TIMING, allowing him to run into things. Swinging for the baseball too early is just as bad as swinging too late!

--Kicking: The foot moves directly to the target with complete looseness ("release") and balance, with devastating effect. (My bad luck--I was wearing shorts!) Try out a few funky angles. . . .

I then watched as John worked with Al, and demonstrated the differences he feels between Al and me. I probably didn't get most of what was going on, as my head was already bursting from all the information Al had just downloaded to it!

--John feels how to disrupt the spine, allowing him to completely take Al's balance and crush his structure to deliver fight-ending blows, sometimes simultaneously.

--In addition, John "brings the chaos," creating sensory overload with multiple attacks to different locations.

--Compared to Al, my root feels more fixed (less elusive--NOT stronger) and much easier to pin down and disrupt. From any particular spot, John may have a couple things he could do to Al, but he feels dozens of things he could do to me.

Hopefully my subconscious mind will digest at least some of this powerful stuff while my conscious mind is preoccupied with feedings, diaper changes, playtime, and doing well at work to pay for it all! (Then again, if I could teach say 8 private lessons per day, 5 days per week, maybe I wouldn't have to work. . . . Oh well!)

My Lessons With the Masters (and Fatherhood) Part 1

2008-05-27T15:19:00.003-05:00

Mega blog post to make up for not posting for so long. (Thanks for taking up the slack, Matt! Happy healings!)

I was going to write an extensive post about Guided Chaos-related things I've learned from my new daughter, but a) there's just too much, b) I've only just begun the learning, and c) it seems a bit personal for this blog. Suffice to say that fatherhood is AWESOME and worth missing tons of class time for (although it would be best if I could do both!). Thanks very much for the congrats and good wishes.

That being said, the few classes and private lessons I've been able to make it to have been jam-packed with powerful stuff!

From a class with John:

--I'm "thinking about getting loose" while I flow. BAD!!! I must use my looseness to immediately bring weapons online, not to "be loose!" Reactive looseness vs. wimpy/sloppy looseness.

--In some cases, the arms should be less loose than I think they should be, in order to penetrate and move the guy. Very cool thing: how to curve the penetration in and downwards with different parts of the palm in order to make the penetration inescapable, while internally dropping.

From a private lesson with Al:

--I'm actually looser than Al. The difference is in how we each use our looseness.

--I must use my looseness as an offensive weapon, not as a defensive measure.

--Sensitivity: I can feel everything faster than you can move. Every minute change I feel, I should move to end it. This can be practiced in Washing the Body.

--If I can feel everything like that, I must assume the other guy can as well. Therefore, I need to completely ghost my movement, isolating with no pressure. I must be able to step in and tool replace to my chest, drawing my arm out to strike from close range, without giving any pressure or apparent change. [Do NOT ask Al to "walk like an Egyptian" to illustrate this point. Trust me, you DON'T wanna see it!]

Stay Tuned for more super secret training tips from John and Al in Part 2...........

Shoulder Surgery Rehabiltation and Training Update

2008-05-26T11:44:00.005-05:00

It seems there's a lot of us 40 and 50 year old aging warriors with shoulder problems because I've been getting asked lots of questions about the surgery, pain and rehab, so I thought I'd give monthly updates about what to expect (of course everyone's different but according to my physical therapist I'm slightly above average in my recovery).

There's no getting around it: the first week just sucks. The pain is relentless and you need vicodin, percoset and motrin simultaneously just maintain your sanity. You have to sleep upright in a chair or propped in bed with pillows because lying down is excrucitaing. After about a week, the vicodin begins to make you feel sick so you stop taking it and the percoset and survive on motrin (don't take more than 2400 mg of motrin a day or you'll be going back to surgery to have your liver taken out). If you have a good surgeon, he'll be getting you out of the sling after just a few days because the most important thing is to gently get back your range of motion (which isn't much cause you can't raise your arm more than 2 inches.)

After 2 weeks the pain subsides a bit but it's still there constantly at about a 3 or 4 level out of 10, going up to a 6 at night (just in time for bed). That's when you take your pain pills.

The good news is that I'm now at the 1 month mark and now the pain is down to about a constant 1-2 and it no longer goes up much at night. I can finally sleep in a bed again (but you have to watch your positions.) Rehab helps significantly (twice a week) and I can now just barely comb my own hair without propping my arm up on the mantlepiece.

It was driving me insane not to be able to do contact flow, not to mention missing the UK seminar. But I've finally started one-armed contact flow in class and that seems to (not surprisingly) help the other arm heal quicker. I'm trying to take advantage of the situation by improving my tool replacement skills (hand to forearm to tricep to shoulder) against partners using both arms. This is critical, as you will all notice how John can basically feel, defend and attack you with just one arm against your 2 easily, leaving the other hand in reserve to put your lights out. Al has also been working this with me. I'm also using my feet like a soccer player, trying to develop foot sensitivity and using all working weapons simultaneously and as creatively as I can.

Well that's it for now, hopefully new-daddy Ari gets a break long enough to pen his thoughts on mixing fatherhood with class time (Al has been kind enough to pummel him in private lessons however so I'm sure there's fodder there!)

Shoulder Surgery and the One armed bandit

2008-04-26T15:12:00.005-05:00

As some of you from class may know, I finally closed the book on 30 years of inadequate rehab, bit the bullet, and got arthroscopic surgery done on my right shoulder. Man, does this sucker hurt! The surgeon surprised me after I woke up because what we both assumed from the MRI was a simple tear and a 2 point reattachment...turned out to be three times more damage that required 2 more hours of surgery and 6 total reattachments once he got the scope in. So if you've been suffering like I have since college (30 years ago) with shoulder pain that comes and goes, thinking "I can fix this myself".... you may help yourself by getting that MRI you've been avoiding.

'Course now I'm looking at 9 months rehab til I can really go at it again but after that--watch out! I'll be tearing phone books in half and throwing big Mike thru the window (in my dreams!) In the meantime, good thing they invented Vicodin! Anybody else gone thru the shoulder 'scope ordeal? How'd it turn out? All I know is there's lots of one-armed contact flow in my future... I'm going to have to work on drills that don't screw up the surgery. One lesson I can take away from all this is the importance of warming up and not leaving your brains in your ass. The original injury was from lifting weights--and then going out and throwing 300 passes in a football game. Couldn't lift my arm for a week. That got better, but I kept re-injuring it. The final insult was 3 months ago when, after breaking my personal record in pull-ups, I decided to celebrate by immediately doing an hour of intense contact flow. Snap. After 30 years I think I finally learned my lesson. Maybe.

P.S. Just to put my whining in perspective, John needs double knee replacement and two shoulder surgeries and he's still devastating.
--Matt

New expanded 2nd edition of our book coming...

2008-04-20T15:38:00.002-05:00

Hey everybody--

This is Attack Proof co-author Matt Kovsky. You know how you can have an important face-to-face conversation with someone you don't see very often, and then, on your way home, you realize all the things you forgot to mention? Or you're on your cell phone in the car, trying to get directions before you hit that dead spot on the road ("can you hear me now??"). Well that's kind of what it was like when we put out the first edition of our book. The publisher had a deadline, a page limit, and their own ideas about what the book should be (and look like, and be titled, etc... an interesting story in itself...) 'Course now, since we sold 20,000 copies and are one of Human Kinetics best sellers, things are a little different! it's really exciting because the 2nd edition of Attack Proof is finally going to have everything we originally wanted in it...and more.

Without them saying "oh, you have to cut this, this is too long, you have to have a section that says things this way..." we can give you full, detailed explanations of this admittedly esoteric free-form art so that there's no question what we mean when we talk about Sensitivity, Sphere of Influence, Equilibrium, "Riding the Vortex"--all that stuff that you feel instantly when you're in class but hard to get from a book (though it seems we've been getting a lot of emails lately from people who've been practicing with nothing but the book and surprising their formerly superior teachers and training partners--and getting that look from them--you know, the kind that says "what the hell have you been doing??).

There's going to be a complete groundfighting training guide, footwork and balance regimen, jetliner hijacking survival guide, point-shooting drills, exhaustive contact flow variations, total Slambag training...it's gonna be packed.

It would've been nice if we could've finally called it "In The Eye of the Storm"... but people'd walk right past it...

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #36

2008-03-02T09:08:00.002-05:00

Recently had a private lesson with Tim, and one with Al.

From the lesson with Tim:

Frankly, I'm not sure what to say about this. It was a very interesting lesson, and I KNOW I learned something important subconsciously, but I'm not consciously sure what it was. I know there was SOMETHING, however, because when I worked with Al shortly after the lesson with Tim, things were definitely different--in a good way for me! It may have something to do with something Gary Abatelli has discussed with me in the past, regarding an attitude of "not caring." Maybe I'll figure out exactly what happened someday. . . . Then again, maybe it would be best if I NEVER consciously figure it out!

From a later lesson with Al:

Hit him with your skeleton.

I'd heard this before, but when Al brought it up in the middle of what we were working on, it took on a new meaning for me in the context of being looser and more fluid with my hitting. Simply by visualizing that I was just a skeleton, and I was just guiding my bones in to hit, I was able to get rid of some excess muscle that was hindering my hitting power and fluidity. Cool stuff!

Ride the vortex.

This idea is explained briefly in the book, but this was the first time I'd had the details pointed out to me in action. Al maintained very light contact on the outsides of my arms, allowing them to slip past him and positioning his body to always be out of the way without giving any pressure. To minimize the distance he had to move, he used lots of very light tool replacement. It almost looked like he was "polishing my sphere." However, every time he let something pass or tool replaced (actually, every time he moved his body into a superior position), he was able to penetrate in and begin hitting, contouring very lightly along my body, yet still moving along the outside of the "vortex" with his own body (even when very close) to avoid being in a position where I could penetrate him. When he let me experiment with this idea, I realized that it was an excellent way for me to work on cutting down my own vulnerability while being as ghostly as possible, which is something that I've struggled with. In the past, I've often found myself leaving myself too vulnerable when trying to be ghostly and unreadable, such that my training partner was able to hit me--even if he couldn't feel me at the moment. Not very useful! I'll have to play with Riding the Vortex, as it may present a solution to this problem.

Good stuff!!!

My Lessons With the Masters #35

2008-02-11T11:35:00.001-05:00

Had a great private lesson with Al this weekend. Afterwards, Al had a private lesson with Kevin. Because Al wanted to teach Kevin some multiple attacker stuff, I got to join in as attacker #2 and pick up some important tips.

From my lesson with Al:

--Maximize fluidity, in order to:

1) Make hitting continuous, no breaks or pauses or pulling back--advance in ONE MOVEMENT with all hits in it
2) Hide the hitting and movement--no apparent weapon until the moment of impact

--NO wind-up nor follow-through--hit through an inch and then return with the next hit

--Glide along the body while hitting such that you're always in "contact" with his intent

--Send your hitting arm through the same line as your contact arm (as in Stacking the Spears or hitting right over or under a Drac) to hide the motion and thread through the opening.

--Anticipate that he'll negate your initial hit--hence, it doesn't matter when he does!

Then with Kevin, multiple attackers:

--Stop motion with loose, heavy hits to anywhere and low drop kicks

--Dig fingers in and lift under jaw/windpipe to manipulate head in any direction you want (after hitting of course)--crack the coconuts (crash heads into other heads)!

--Drop hit (not push!) one guy into the other and immediately follow through with hit to the other

--Hit to unbalance then drop hit to send

--Ride the Lightning around them so that you're always hitting and penetrating--ALWAYS be hitting, first!

--Load your spring on one guy to hit the other guy--bounce a hit off one guy into the other guy

The New Combat Conditioning DVD...

2007-12-15T18:19:00.000-05:00

Just received the Combat Conditioning DVD. I've watched it straight through once, followed by lots of skipping around to different sections and exercises, the way it's intended to be used.

The DVD is just what it promises: Tons of solo exercises, each demonstrated for a long enough time that you can work out along with it, interspersed with some brief but interesting examples of the combat applications of the drills. The DVD actually contains several interesting drills I'd never seen before, which is an accomplishment after over three years of in-person training! I must admit that upon my first couch-bound viewing of the DVD, I didn't quite "get" the Native American soundtrack. A lot of it sounded hokey to my bland Top 20 ear. However, once I started actually moving along with the DVD (y'know, the way you're SUPPOSED to), I "felt" the music immediately. It really does enhance the workout by helping you get into the relaxed yet vibrant mushin state with your movement. I actually hope John starts playing Native American music in class again. (Allegedly he did this back in the day.)

"Be Careful, It Could Get Addictive..."

Here's the real crux of the matter: Since getting the DVD, I've gotten in some very productive Guided Chaos solo training every day. This has not always been the case. In fact, lately, with work being very busy and tons of other excuses popping up, my solo Guided Chaos workouts had fallen to maybe once per week, if that. Not good. The DVD provided the motivation, inspiration, freshness, whatever to get me going again. Be careful, it could get addictive: One night, I suddenly realized while working out with the DVD that it was after 1 a.m., and I had to wake up in less than six hours! The DVD should contain a warning: Use In Moderation. (It actually does contain lots of warnings, but I FF'd them.)

Sometimes I do some exercises along with the DVD, and sometimes I start with one exercise and branch off from there, letting the Native American rhythms carry my body into whatever it wants to do, experimenting with different drills and movement. It just makes you want to move.

Obviously I have an advantage in such training over raw beginners, as I already know most of the drills and have at least a basic understanding of what they're supposed to accomplish (although I'm deepening that understanding all the time, and have very far to go). (Sidebar: I realized while watching the DVD for the first time that I currently have an understanding of some of the exercises I demonstrate on the DVD different from what I had when the DVD was actually filmed! It still looks okay though--the differences are mostly internal, concerning feelings and perceptions. Go figure--internal martial arts!) It's suggested that beginners get the Companion DVDs along with the Combat Conditioning DVD for the explanations and teaching of the exercises that the Companion DVDs contain. While this would be optimal, I believe that a motivated student could get very far by using this DVD in conjunction with the book Attack Proof. The book contains the most critical explanations of most of the exercises, and you can read the book while watching the demonstrations on the Combat Conditioning DVD before giving it a whirl yourself.

Another valuable source of knowledge is the Combat Conditioning E-book you get free when you purchase the DVD. This E-book is worth WAY more than you pay for it! In it, Lt. Col. Al (with a sprinkling of Matt Kovsky) goes over the entire contents of the DVD, giving tips and advice about each drill and variations beyond those on the DVD, as well as broader instruction regarding topics like footwork, combat-applicable strength, upper and lower body development, use of equipment and pliability development. Lots of great information.

Use the Combat Conditioning DVD however you like. Follow along with it directly, use it as a starting point for experimentation, use it as motivation to get moving at all, or just use the sound track to enhance your movement. However you use the DVD, if it gets you moving and feeling your own body in action (i.e. improving your proprioception), it's enhancing your Guided Chaos, which is its purpose. For anyone interested in Guided Chaos or combat in general, it will accomplish this.

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #34

2007-12-05T17:20:00.000-05:00

The Guided Chaos Combat Handgun seminar was this past Saturday.

This is just a quick summary. A more thorough review will be available soon. . . .

This was a unique seminar for a variety of reasons.

John went into the seminar hoping to impart a few key ideas, rather than teaching a variety of skills that would be forgotten or lost without much additional practice.

Some people may not realize this, but for all of John's hand-to-hand and hand-to-weapon expertise, his combative skill and knowledge with firearms is perhaps even more exceptional. What stands out most is his understanding that the most operative part of the word "gunfight" is FIGHT. Many trainers today teach gunfighting as merely an extension of the "shooting" one might do on a target range. In most cases, unfortunately, reality does not conform to these trainers' assumptions.

The seminar began with work on the problem of someone holding you at gunpoint.

The students practiced drills that emphasized the wide variety of possibilities a hold-up could involve. Even when moving slower than full speed, the students quickly learned the importance of using dropping energy in offlining movements to avoid being shot. They also discovered that countering a gunman was not always as simple as some self-defense programs and magazine articles would have you believe! You never know how someone will hold the gun on you or how he'll move once the action begins. Of course, the probability of multiple armed attackers complicates the situation exponentially. . . .

After a break, the seminar transitioned to using your own handgun to defend yourself.

According to John, one of the biggest missing links in most armed citizens' and police officers' preparations is the ability to access, present and use the carry gun while under attack. It seems that many students and even trainers assume that they'll see any attack coming from far away, or perhaps that the violent criminal will announce his intentions from a distant stationary position, allowing time for the victim to execute his practiced stationary draw from concealment into a perfect shooting stance and obtain perfect sight alignment. Reality, unfortunately, often doesn't happen that way!

The drill used to illustrate this was fairly simple. The student was given an electric airsoft pistol and waistband concealment holster. Lt. Col. Al, in a role that must have been lots of fun for him, was given a face mask (to protect against the Airsoft pellets) and a rubber training knife, later to be replaced by a padded stick simulating a baseball bat. Al stood 20+ feet away from the student. Beginning from Al's first movement towards him, the student's task was simply to draw and shoot Al without being stabbed/whacked. It quickly became clear that just trying to draw while standing in place was a recipe for disaster. No one was able to shoot Al using this method before getting stabbed up. The only method that offered a good chance of success was to immediately run (not side-step or shuffle or anything formal, but "move like the wind") offline with speed and balance while drawing and point shooting simultaneously.

Next, another possible response to this situation was explored: going to the ground. This could apply if the student simply tripped and fell while trying to get offline of the charge, or in situations where there is no space to get offline. Again, accessing the concealed gun while moving (in this case, while falling or while moving on the ground) proved essential, as all those who attempted to draw before moving got "killed" long before they could manage to shoot Al. It also became clear that just as balance and the ability to move swiftly and nimbly on the feet were the most critical components of the previous drill, Guided Chaos falling and groundfighting skill was the most critical factor in this drill.

(By the way, before you ask: Everyone wore eye protection during the parts of the seminar that utilized Airsoft. Those pellets bounce everywhere and can do real damage if they hit the eye.)

The next drill allowed the students to apply their new ground-gun-fighting skills in a more dynamic way. Joe M. (Guided Chaos instructor with a school in Kingston, NY) had rigged up a pulley system that allowed him to dynamically raise and lower a Paulie dummy above a floor mat. The student began the drill lying under the hanging dummy, gun holstered. A big guy (Rich, in this case) controlled the dummy from behind, swinging it and making it kick, strike and circle the student as Joe made it rise and fall via the pulley. On John's cue, the student had to fight off the attacking dummy and keep it away via explosive kicking and movement. After a few seconds of this, John shouted "DRAW!" and the student had to access his handgun and shoot the dummy while keeping the dummy away and protecting the gun from getting struck.

The last series of drills gave the students the opportunity to experiment with point shooting vs. sighted shooting against a dynamically moving human target.

Overall, a great seminar, where much was learned! Everyone learned the differences between mere shooting vs. gunfighting, and the different requirements to succeed in each. A firm foundation in the Guided Chaos principles of balance, looseness, sensitivity, body unity and freedom of action is as critical as ever when firearms are involved, no matter which side of the gun you're on. I hope to explore these ideas further in my future training, as well as getting some live-fire practice in using these principles.

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #33

2007-11-28T09:31:00.000-05:00

JUST HIT!

From a recent private lesson with Al:

Just hit naturally. Your body is already going to the right place, which is what makes everything possible. Don't worry about the limbs. Be completely casual, with no preconceived notions or "artfulness" about it.

Cut the angle and hit with everything available, then when you feel him start to panic, change and cut from the other direction. Then, you start to anticipate his panic and where he will try to go, so you just cut things off in advance. Don't back up or give any space--but be completely light and ghostly as well.

Do everything from the lightest of contact. No pushing! Pushing is Al's teaching game to force you to get loose and explore your movement. In reality and for your own training, just hit--everything is a light but solid tap, even to the body--so that you overcommit to nothing and can always move to the next hit, giving him the feeling that every move he makes is wrong.

In other news, Combat Handgun seminar coming up this Saturday. Should be awesome!

Also, Combat Conditioning DVD coming soon...

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #32

2007-11-19T10:15:00.000-05:00

MOTION INITIATION FROM THE FEET

The following training advice is my interpretation and compilation of a variety of tips and ideas I've gotten from John, Tim, Al and others. I've been working on it a lot lately, and teaching elements of it to other students in class. A lot of this will sound esoteric. It is simply my attempt to convey internal feelings through the written word. (This is how a lot of the mystic jargon that surrounds the Chinese internal arts probably came about.) As many students in Guided Chaos classes will testify, this is a lot easier to understand when you can feel it in person (although "easy" is a relative term in this case!).

This is a brief summary. A much more extensive explanation may appear in a future edition of the book "Attack Proof". . . .

All active motion should be initiated by a change in how the feet interact with the ground.

The looser your body is, the better it will carry through all the energy generated by each change of pressure of the feet against the ground. Any stiffness will stifle the energy transfer and the flow of movement.

All active intention should come from the feet, pushing against the ground. No intention should come from anywhere else.

Key to intention from the feet is staying low and rooted throughout all movement and stepping, letting all your vitality and strength sink into your feet so that your feet are full and heavy while the rest of your body is empty, loose and pliable.

If you move with intention solely from the feet while remaining rooted, it is practically impossible for the enemy to control your balance unless he controls your center directly.

Remember that a person can stop your motion, jam you up and off-balance you only if he has a direct line with his pressure to your center, no matter where he's pushing from.

Now, bear in mind that as far as I know, this is only a first step. Once you gain the proprioception and relaxation to move exclusively from your root, which results in body unity, you can start to "break the rules" and isolate movements of your limbs and body apart from your root.

Confused yet? Good. Come to class and it will all be made clear. ;)

P.S. Don't forget to hit him and escape.

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #31

2007-10-01T11:25:00.000-05:00

KEY POINTS ON SENSITIVITY AND DEFEATING THOSE WITH SUPERIOR TIMING

From a recent lesson with Al:

Use your sensitivity to create things--create the chaos for the other guy, manipulating it for yourself.

Move your body in behind momentary equal pressure.

Moving your body in puts him in checkmate no matter how he reacts to the pulse . . . unless he moves his whole body himself.

You can pulse and apply equal pressure with any part of the body, and while tool replacing.

From a recent class with John:

You must feel the state of your own body, you must feel the state of the other guy's body, AND you must feel what vulnerabilities you are exposing to the other guy at any given moment and move to eliminate them.

John can feel subconsciously what's open and move to close as many of the openings as possible, both by moving his own body and disrupting the other guy's balance and position and the relationship between the two bodies.

For example, John felt all the places I could possibly hit him and eliminated all of them by moving his body into mine in such a way that my balance was slightly thrown while he moved to a place where because of the state of my balance, I could not come close to damaging him.

His minimal movement prevented me from doing anything to him without significant readjustment. He used that readjustment time to destroy me while keeping me off-balance and continuously moving himself into a better position as the situation changes.

New saying: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of pain!

John pointed out the contrast between me, a 2nd Degree Guided Chaos Black Belt, and Andre, a 3rd Degree Guided Chaos Black Belt: Even though I'm relatively loose and can move pretty well in an evasive, reactive manner, occasionally even better than Andre who has more mass to control and move out of the way of things, Andre is far better at PREVENTING me from being able to damage him by cutting off his vulnerabilities. This is the "next level" of sensitivity that I have to work on. Unfortunately, as usual, it can't really be worked on consciously. Now that I have the general idea, consistent, proper contact flow practice will eventually bring the subconscious into line with this idea.

Also from John, from another class:

John told Andre to work on timing my motion to shoot in combat boxing punches to my body from outside of physical contact range. My task was simply to time HIS motion to get offline with a close combat entry as he shot in with his punch. This very quickly turned into a very frustrating drill! After a couple of unsuccessful tries at timing Andre's motion and getting around him, I started a slow "lawnmower" (as shown by Lt. Col. Al on the Attackproof Companion DVD Part 3), advancing with alternate low straight kicks and loose dog-dig-style close combat strikes. I felt that this made it much more difficult for Andre to get in, even though I wasn't actually kicking with any power, but just tapping his legs. John soon told me to go back to trying to get offline from a dead-still start. It again became a very frustrating drill, especially when Andre started to shoot in with his punches at angles that cut off where he knew I wanted to go, so that even if I DID get offline from where his straight punch would have been, he had already moved to hit me where I was going! I don't think I got around Andre cleanly even once. John then took my place in the drill, and showed how with his superior timing and subconscious reading of Andre's body, develped through decades of experience, he was able to get cleanly offline nearly 100% of the time (and the couple times it was less clean, it didn't matter, as John simply adapted and did other stuff).

After the training had ended, John explained that for me, that drill had been primarily a lesson in what NOT to do. Like raw speed and strength, timing is an attribute you can never be sure of being the best at. He said that as good as Andre's timing is, John knew many people, some even untrained, who had far better natural timing (like his brothers and Michael Watson). We shouldn't try to beat them at their own game. John told me that my switching to the lawnmower tactic early in the drill was actually the right idea. Done full-power and with full offensive commitment, that tactic would give me my best chance of disrupting a guy's superior timing to take him out or at least get to a place where tactile sensitivity could best be utilized. He likened it to what Bruce Lee used to say about sparring beginners vs. experienced fighters: A scrappy beginner was often more difficult to deal with in a sparring context because his timing and rhythm was completely unpredictable because of his awkwardness and lack of knowledge. It was easier for Bruce to time a more polished fighter who moved with more smoothness and a "learned" rhythm. John said his father often looked "awkward" going into action because he would intentionally move in a "strange" way that would similarly baffle the timing of experienced fighters, allowing him to get in and pounce.

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #30

2007-09-09T07:22:00.000-05:00

INCREASING SENSITIVITY AND CREATIVITY

My apologies for not posting in a while. Things have been really busy (mostly good-busy), and I've been working on another project you may see on news stands before the end of the year. . . .

But for now, some thoughts from a recent private lesson with Tim and a great class with John:

Tim explained that the strike itself that hit me wasn't the issue. The issue was all the little changes that happened in both our bodies that eventually culminated in that strike getting through. Tim may have started to move to say five different things, all of which were eliminated by subconscious changes in my body. However . . . did I feel all of those??? Those tiny changes are what I have to feel.

To improve your sensitivity, really feel the details in "normal" situations, e.g. holding your wife's hand.

From Tim's perspective, I'm really just placing him in good positions to hit me every time I move.

Tim's advice: work with women! They force you to be subtle and to feel their subtlety. After you work with women, men feel very obvious and heavy in their movement. (Compare this advice with recent discussions on the Guided Chaos forum.)

Tim demonstrated the same movements done "heavy" and then done "light." The "heavy" movements I could deal with and evade (barely) because of the excessive contact and motion. The "light" movement I could do NOTHING about. The tap to move my arm simply moved it just enough, and everything else slammed in with no excess contact or motion.

John taught a great class recently.

He explained that most who excel quickly in Guided Chaos are those with especially creative and artistic minds--generally, right-brain-oriented individuals. Those who tend to intuit the big picture rather than logically build up the details will pick up Guided Chaos the quickest. Besides citing examples of sucessful right-brain vs. left-brain thinking from his own experience, John also pointed out that Einstein initially "felt" relativity (intuition), as opposed to discovering it through a mathematical process (logical reasoning).

John then had us do an exercise to stimulate our creativity and intuitive learning, regardless of how creative and "outside the box" our thinking may normally be. We did Contact Flow with an eye towards maximum creativity and variety in our movement, regardless of our conscious perception of its effectiveness. John implored us to, while doing this drill, experiment with extremes of elevation and stepping, even turning completely around while flowing and moving as if to touch the training partner's leg and head simultaneously with each hand. He described it as doing "Polishing the Sphere" and "Washing the Body" as crazily as possible, but with another person. We moved through extremely strange positions, often discovering interesting opportunities along the way (e.g. massive multidirectional hits and neck breaks) while subconsciously learning to work from ANY position we could possibly find ourselves in amidst the chaos of real violence. Getting the most out of this drill requires that both training partners agree not to hit too hard and to pull shots to sensitive areas, as both partners WILL get hit during this drill, regardless of skill level. However, the benefits are immense, as the drill really challenges your looseness, balance, sensitivity and freedom of motion, even before you consider the more esoteric benefits (intuitive perception and action) that are the primary focus of the exercise. Whatever your range of motion based on your physical limitations, training like this will allow your subconscious to identify far more opportunities amidst the chaos of violence than you could otherwise perceive.

Watching John do this drill, I noticed that his hyper-balance and hyper-looseness enabled him to "insert" extremely effective, fully body-connected strikes and kicks amidst the chaotic flow of the exercise. While other people's bodies got carried along by the large, crazy and creative movements, John had complete control over his body through every inch of every movement even while "letting go" and allowing crazy things to happen spontaneously. Very interesting phenomenon!

John demonstrated how such drilling applies directly to combative skill. You focus all the intuitively driven, completely free motion towards immediately destroying the enemy in any way available. He demonstrated various brutal methods from Native American and Greek combat arts, how they can be applied via the Guided Chaos principles, and finally how "pure" Guided Chaos can easily prevent them from being used against you. Scary stuff!

An image John used recently to explain the reality of lethal violence resonated with me because of a funny coincidence. John was trying to relate to us the magnitude of the speed, power and sheer violence an otherwise average person is capable of in the midst of a fully adrenalized murderous rage. John then said in passing that we should imagine dealing with "28 Weeks Later" violence when considering how bad it can get.

Coincidentally, I caught some of that movie ("28 Weeks Later") on TV immediately after John mentioned it. It's the more violent sequel to the movie "28 Days Later". It's about a bioengineered virus called "Rage," that infects people instantly upon contact and turns the infected into seething, fully adrenalized killers who can do nothing except visit brutal violence against uninfected people. (The infected also periodically projectile vomit blood and look pretty scary.) The speed, power, brutality and pure rage exhibited by the infected (who are, remember, still fully human) give a good impression of what a violent psychopath, fueled by adrenaline and/or stimulants and completely oblivious to his/her own well-being, is capable of. The reactions of the normal people when they are attacked by the infected are also fairly representative of how most normal people really react when faced with such violence. They freeze up with terror, ineffectually try to push the attackers away, and generally succumb to the sheer violence of the attack. The violence of the infected is a good image to have for keeping in perspective what we're training to deal with . . . and unleash.

So, go rent that movie! And stay tuned, both here and at the news stand. . . .

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #29

2007-07-29T07:08:00.000-05:00

Review of
IN THE EYE OF THE STORM:
THE ATTACKPROOF COMPANION VIDEO PART 3
by Ari Kandel

Well, I just finished watching "In the Eye of the Storm" for the second time through. It took a while. Six solid hours of instruction and demonstration take a while to get through, no matter how great your interest!

As long as it may take to WATCH the DVD, there's enough material in here for at least a lifetime of exploration.

And that, in a nutshell, is what "In the Eye of the Storm" primarily is: An audiovisual library of ideas to explore and experiment with in your training. It's not all "just" about Contact Flow. The reality of homicidal combat, self-defense scenarios, fighting out of hostile crowds, dealing with various kinds of movement (e.g. from boxers and grapplers) and closing distance are just some of the topics addressed, both purposefully and in "golden nugget" tangents by John, Al and Matt.

Most of the video consists of private lessons, in-class demos and some for-the-camera explanations detailing dozens of Guided Chaos principles and ideas. I believe just about everything Guided Chaos in the book is touched on here (besides some weapons and groundfighting matters), plus additional concepts that are not in the book (e.g. "Oneness Hitting"). As usual, it's not a "step 1, step 2, here's how you do it" presentation. The point of Guided Chaos is that real combat is not like that. However, through their explanations and demonstrations, the masters convey an idea of certain "feelings" and "ways of perceiving" that you can experiment with and discover for your own development. While it's tough to say what's basic and what's advanced, as different people pick up different things at different times, the material runs the gamut from simple ways of easing a person into contact flow training (e.g. "fixed-step flow") to esoteric ideas that I've never seen anyone except the masters utilize, and which I certainly don't "get" yet--but which ironically make combat even more "simple" for those who DO get it. Repeated with some regularity throughout the video in otherwise disparate segments are the essential core ideas of Guided Chaos that you're lost without. This is a very good thing, as even in the future when you may be using the very well laid out video menu (with nearly 60 chapters) to re-watch a particular concept you're working on, the DVD won't let you forget to e.g. be 99% yin and unavailable even while you're experimenting with the deceptive idea of equal pressure.

Matt really outdid himself with the production and editing of this one. From the amazingly tightly edited introductory verbal and visual explanation of contact flow, to the extremely useful visualizations of everyday experiences to understand sensitivity, to the fact that he's integrated footage from the 1990's through literally a month ago (including footage from the often asked about "master classes"), well, it's easy to now see why for months Matt showed up late to class, eyes bleary from staring at video screens all weekend!

As with Guided Chaos itself, it's impossible to do justice to this DVD through mere words. So here are just a few reasons why you should get it:

--You want to get an idea of what contact flow can look and feel like at all different speeds and skill levels.

--You want to understand how contact flow is NOT combat, yet applies to combat.

--You want to know how to make your Guided Chaos sing against:

a) boxers,

b) grapplers,

c) kickers,

d) stronger people,

e) taller people,

f) faster people,

g) surprise attackers,

h) groups thereof.

--You want endless variations of the basic contact flow exercise to expand your attributes and training.

--You want to know exactly what Al means in his newsletters when he talks about stuff like "Ride the Lightning!"

--You want to see a man who looks like Santa Claus move like the wind, effortlessly demolishing bigger, younger, stronger fighters trying their best to "get" him.

--You want to see a man who looks like a Marine Corps recruiting poster brutalize mere mortals with terrifying efficiency.

--You want to see Santa Claus casually smack around the recruiting poster.

--You want to see how Guided Chaos masters work with various people of various skill levels in order to make them better--in other words, how to teach.

--You want to discover that the masters really mean what they say, for example when they discuss flowing so slowly that you can hardly see any motion--or so quickly that the human eye cannot follow even from a distance.

--You want to see how an experienced, natural martial athlete processes and quickly absorbs new information through interactive learning.

--You want to be privy to immensely educational scenes that even regular Guided Chaos students rarely witness: contact flow between the highest level masters of the art, complete with slow motion and commentary.

And finally:

--You want to take advantage of by far the best (non-human) Guided Chaos learning resource ever. By paying close attention to the lessons in the DVD, contemplating them, and exploring them in your ego-free partner training . . . you almost can't help but get better.

That's what I plan to do.

Ari's Posts #28: Teaching the Blind...

2007-07-17T11:54:00.000-05:00

Recently, a blind man came to class to learn Guided Chaos.

During his first visit, John gave him an introduction to what Guided Chaos is.

For his second class, after some warm-up exercises, John had me work with him on Contact Flow. While I've introduced plenty of beginners to the Contact Flow exercise, working with a blind person was a new experience for me.

His degree of sightlessness precluded me from demonstrating anything at all visually. He said that the most he could see was "shadows" of fast movement. He knew "something" was there if I stood in front of him and flailed my arms. However, he could not make out any details. Therefore, he would have to learn Guided Chaos exclusively by feel and verbal instruction.

One of the first hurdles for me was getting over my initial aversion to hitting a blind person. Let's face it--that's not something "nice" people typically do! However, he insisted that he could take whatever anyone else could (which he certainly could--he's a very sturdy guy) and he really wanted to learn, whatever it took. So soon I was whacking him around as I would any other beginner--in a non-injurious, educational manner.

As I would expect of a blind person, he started out with a decidedly higher level of tactile sensitivity than a typical beginner possesses. He also exhibited relatively good balance, likely a result of depending upon his proprioception for his balance and movement through the world, as opposed to the normal combination of proprioception and visual cues. (More on this later.) Afterall, Guided Chaos students often practice Contact Flow with eyes closed to enhance development of tactile sensitivity, and also do the solo exercises with eyes closed to further challenge and develop balance and proprioception. New to him, as to most people, were the ideas of looseness and relaxed body unity. The fact that he's a very well conditioned, strong athlete means that there's a lot of muscle to rid of tension before he can start feeling and moving to his full potential.

I took him through my "usual" introduction to contact flow, with some important variations. First of all, it was of course unnecessary to demonstrate to him the advantages subconscious tactile sensitivity has over conscious visual perception, as the latter was not an option for him anyway! Second, when introducing students to the great range of full-body motion a relaxed, rooted L-stance can give them, I usually "show" them how to stand and shift their weight. This, of course, would not work here. Through a combination of verbal instructions and my tightening my muscles to allow him to more easily feel the weight transfers of my body, he quickly picked up on the penetrative and evasive capabilities of full-body movement and weight transfer in an L-stance. In fact, he picked this up quicker than most, and despite his relative tightness, was soon evading my attacks and returning to take my balance.

I went on to flow with him in various "ways," giving him tastes of the effects of different levels of sensitivity and looseness and the possibilities of human movement. I did feel some pangs of conscience when demonstrating to him the effects of higher-level sensitivity and looseness--very light contact, approaching "ghostliness"--because I thought that for him, unable at his current level to perceive much besides the hits, it would seem like mere noneducational punishment. Most people experience ghostliness for the first time as something amazing and "fun," as they can SEE the Guided Chaos instructor moving yet can't feel where he's going or prevent the hits. However, I thought to myself that if he couldn't see me moving, and hence couldn't realize the paradox going on, the experience for him would basically be getting hit by surprise from different directions and not being able to do anything about it! He insisted, however, on experiencing and learning about everything, even it if was unpleasant. For most of the session, I made my sticking contact heavier so that he could feel most of what was going on, even as he was still too stiff to move with all of it.

He seemed to have a mental block going on as well: It was like pulling teeth to get him to hit towards my vital areas, even while moving slowly! He kept hitting my chest and shoulders. At times, I was physically pulling his arms into my throat and head, emphasizing that if someone were to try to take him out, he'd have to shut the attacker down as quickly as possible. He understood the idea, but I think he'll need to get some of his niceness drilled out of him to get him in the habit of moving to end it.

One thing I emphasized was that especially given his lack of sight, it was imperative that he close distance and prevent an attacker from regaining distance, lest he lose the tactile connection and with it most of his ability to perceive what's going on. So we drilled a lot of turning and yielding to pushes so as to retain balance and move in, as well as moving the feet well so as to maintain contact and chase down someone trying to gain distance to kick or draw a weapon. We worked this idea by flowing at higher speed (without strikes to vital areas), to the point where I was backpedaling, sidestepping and generally jinking around very quickly in attempts to get away.

Now, to set the scene: It was a nice day, so the class was being held outside the American Legion Hall in Hastings-On-Hudson. We were on the side of the hall where there is a descending gravel-covered hill. Between the gravel itself, the uneven ground and the patches of rocks and weeds, this is a difficult surface to balance and move on. We had spent most of the class training on the flat patch of concrete at the top of the hill, but as we started moving faster and I began to challenge his ability to stick with me as I tried to open distance, we ended up ranging all over the hill.

This is when everyone, including John, felt compelled to watch what was going on and how well he was doing.

Remember how I said before that he had good balance and proprioception? Well, this part of the session proved that! Not only did he not allow me to get away, but he was moving over the challenging terrain with extreme grace and athleticism, adapting to the ground better than most people who can actually see where they're going! And, whenever the gravel under his feet started to slide (which happened very frequently) . . . he was automatically dropping to instantly regain balance! Note that how to drop was NOT something I had taught him yet.

After a few minutes of this, he started to get a little winded because of his tension. However, John, I and everyone else there were VERY impressed by how he moved and handled himself. I stopped and pointed out how well he was naturally dropping and balancing. John came over and congratulated him, and he very graciously thanked me in front of John for teaching him. John pointed out quite correctly that with training, he will quickly become a force to be reckoned with, sightlessness be damned!

John also mentioned to me later that he was happy to see that my trained "empathetic sensitivity" enabled me to bring out such good work from the student. I realized upon thinking about this that he's right (as usual): Had I not been able to "feel what he was feeling," so to speak, and adapt appropriately during the training session, the training could have easily devolved into an exercise in frustration for both of us. John's statement also underscored an often-overlooked aspect of Guided Chaos sensitivity: You must feel your own body, you must feel the other guy, AND you must be aware of ("feel") what you're allowing HIM to feel. Frequently in class I'll find that a student will do the first two things well--feel where he is, feel where I am going, and begin to move appropriately--but will immediately give it all away by allowing me to feel exactly what he's doing, thereby allowing me to cut it off, rather than remaining subtle, preventing me from adapting until it's too late. Being "empathetically sensitive" must be a prerequisite to effectively utilizing concepts such as pulsing, equal pressure, etc.

The blind student's training from here, I believe, should focus primarily on looseness, aggression and using his limited visual perception combined with his acute hearing and "feeling" of the environment to immediately close distance and establish contact when necessary, enabling him to end things before someone can get the drop on him. I cannot think of any other self-defense training methodology that could even begin to give him the capability of escaping a violent confrontation intact that Guided Chaos will.

In other news, did I mention I got a sneak preview of the long-anticipated Attackproof Companion Video Part 3, "In the Eye of the Storm"??? Review coming soon. Stay tuned!!!

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #27

2007-07-04T09:04:00.000-05:00

Things to ponder on vacation...

I'm about to leave for vacation, and won't have time to put together a review of the Five-Second Fight seminar. So, those of you who were there, PLEASE post your impressions on the forum so that all the long-distance folks don't feel neglected. ;)

In the mean time, I just wanted to put a few recent training observations in writing, lest I forget them over vacation:

Contact flow is but a study of human movement. There is no pressure, speed, attack, defense, good stuff, bad stuff, etc., just movement to be studied. The lighter you stay, the move information the subconscious absorbs. So stay light no matter what, and study your partner's movement. There's nothing to be worried about, because it's just movement! No reason whatsoever to tense or push against anything, nor to accelerate to escape or "score".

With experience, you'll learn to instantly know exactly where your partner's body is going based on what you feel. All that's left for you to do then is to move your body to where you're safe and he's dead based on where he's going to be. The lighter you stay, the sooner and more precisely you'll be able to tell where his body's going. Therefore, you actually have more "control" the lighter you stay, because you feel things faster and have more opportunity to act on them. "Control" through heaviness, pushing and tension is an illusion (just like muscular "power," which feels powerful to YOU, but not to HIM), because you can't feel as quickly, you're too committed to instantly move with what you feel, and remember, it's impossible to actually physically control a person's body unless he's helping you with his tension.

Tension kicks in when your conscious mind says, "You can't do that" or "I don't see a way out of this situation" while your body is trying to just get on with it! The conscious mind doesn't understand everything the body can do, and so holds it back. Silence the mind and just get on with it! (John, Tim, Al and Matt have now all told me in different ways something to the effect of, "Your brain is messing you up! Shut it up!" I recall that old saying: "When three people say you're dead, lie down!")

Everything, including hitting, should be effortless!

To create more space, pocket while sinking deeper. Pure geometry dictates you'll get more space because of the increased vertical distance.

Pocketing to create needed space can and should be done in advance. Just as you can feel where he's going to be and move accordingly, you can feel what space you'll need to get there and to execute once you're there, so begin to make it now.

When using the "drac" or similar elbow maneuvers, allowing the hand to relax into a loose spearhand position can allow your whole body to slip through tighter spaces (e.g. through his grip on your drac forearm).

The essence of internal dropping is its suddenness.

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #26

2007-06-24T12:04:00.000-05:00

LOTS OF GREAT TIPS FROM JOHN, TIM AND AL!
--"Walking with weights" exercises--basically Gorilla Walk with small hand-held weights (1-10 pounds)--same-arm/same-leg walking straight, cross-arms/legs stepping offline--feel plyometric pendulum effect, do not muscle weights--use just enough muscular force to keep them from flying away

--Those exercises translate directly into loose sweeping motions in contact flow that negate both of his hands at once

--Switch feet (just like the "switch foot drill") in very little space to create more space and range of motion up top--in contact flow, don't hop, but place feet silently

--You don't need the contact--if you know where something is such that you can touch it, why bother touching it? Know where it is, and move to kill

--Lighter contact does not equal less control--Because you feel more when you're lighter and looser, you can get ahead of his motion better and take greater advantage of it

--Change in "thought process"--From the first touch or feeling (doesn't have to be tactile), the master "knows" (instinctively, through experience) exactly where your body is going, allowing him to simply place stuff for you to run into--Plus he "knows" several steps ahead of that, allowing him to set you up to run into multiple shots from multiple angles, seemingly out of nowhere

--In fighting, in which he has far more experience, he's always at least three steps ahead of me--If he were to challenge me in my business, where I have the experience advantage, I would be three steps ahead of him--Even if he's teaching me "all" he knows, he'll always have at least a step ahead of me, unless I learn from someone ahead of him

--I'm still doing a lot of movement that has nothing to do with what's really going on

--Don't lean back!

--Don't turn away from incoming strikes!

--I'm plenty loose when everything is okay--However, I tighten up when things get shitty--And by definition, if I'm getting attacked, things are already shitty! Stay loose!

***Five-Second Fight seminar coming up this weekend (6/30/07). This one will be awesome! See you there!

Groundfighting Seminar Review #25

2007-05-22T07:15:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday was the Groundfighting Seminar Part 2. For a variety of reasons, this may have been the best Guided Chaos seminar I've attended yet.

The plan was for Lt. Col. Al to do most of the teaching and demonstrating, as John had a bad back triggered recently by (of all things) bending to pick up his little dog. However, John still managed to get in some extremely enlightening and dynamic demonstrations and explanations. I don't think anyone in the audience could have perceived that John was injured, based on how he moved!

The seminar was, in my opinion, a perfect balance of review of material from the Groundfighting 1 seminar and material that hadn't been covered in the first seminar. This balance was critical, as there was a large number of students present who hadn't managed to attend Groundfighting 1 last year (including some out-of-state students and some experiencing Guided Chaos for the first time).

The seminar began with a short introduction by John, explaining the origins of what we'd be learning. Al then gave a short introduction, in which he emphasized that because no one could expect to completely master in a single day any of the ideas presented in the seminar, the goal was to give everyone the knowledge and drills necessary to go back home and continue to improve on what they had learned. He and John also made clear the distinction between the all-out survival groundfighting and ground avoidance we would be learning and the sportive grappling most people are familiar with. The two methods have completely different goals: demonstrably taking down and dominating the opponent for an extended period while unarmed and barefoot without causing serious injury in modern sportive grappling, vs. doing whatever is necessary while wearing shoes/boots and accessing weapons to avoid going to the ground and, if there, doing whatever is necessary to escape a lethal boot party in survival groundfighting.

I then took everyone through a warm-up consisting of some dynamic stretching and the basic Guided Chaos groundfighting exercises. These can be seen on the Guided Chaos Groundfighting DVD. We then reviewed the rolling and kicking drills from the first groundfighting seminar, where the student learns to spot and kick focus mitts while rolling across the ground. These skills would prove essential in the more dynamic drills to follow.

Al then taught a series of drills emphasizing the importance of dropping and drop-hitting in stopping any takedown attempt. We were very fortunate to have Steve, a relatively new Guided Chaos student and very talented and well-built wrestler (and a very nice guy), available to assist Al and John with the demonstrations. The distinction between the right way and the wrong way to execute the Guided Chaos methods was made very clear by the fact that every time Al demonstrated the "right" way, Steve was stopped cold, and every time Al showed the "wrong" way, Steve without hesitation slammed him to the ground or lifted him way up in the air with no discernible effort! It's a good thing for Al that the "wrong way" demonstrations took place on mats (and he still whispered to me later that he "hurt all over" from those "wrong way" demos).

Al showed the folly of the standard wrestling sprawl for real survival fighting, as it's easily countered by the wrestler who knows what he's doing (like Steve--it was scary how quickly and easily he could switch around Al's sprawl to slam him down from a different angle) and completely gives up your balance and striking and moving abilities. Assuming we were not able to attack and stop the shoot before it began, Al taught us to move forward and stuff the takedown attempt with a heavy, well-timed drop-strike. We drilled variations against a training partner using drop-strikes against the back of the head and neck, to the front and side of the head (leading into possible neck breaks), and while box-stepping offline in a single drop to gain a more advantageous position. John gave several dynamic and insightful demonstrations illustrating the importance of timing, alignment and body unity in making these ideas work. He also showed the importance of striking to penetrate and damage the attacker, as opposed to playing the grappler's game by merely pushing him away or grappling back. The key to everything John and Al were showing was not the actual strikes and kicks themselves (which by themselves have failed countless times against grappling attacks, e.g. in the first few Ultimate Fighting Championships), but the extreme balance, alignment and dropping energy behind them. This was reinforced to me as I was going around helping the less experienced students "get it" while they drilled with each other. To show Steve (the dangerous wrestler in the demonstrations) the difference that dropping and rooting makes, I hit his shoulders lightly as he moved in, first with the dropping and rooting, then without. He stated that moving into even my light drop-strike was like "running into a concrete wall," while my attempt to stop him without dropping didn't even slow him down (but did knock me off balance!). Fortunately, he didn't do to me what he did to Al when I showed him the "wrong" way!

Al then presented a series of drills using a heavy bag resting on the ground to improve full-power drop-striking ability. These were very useful drills I had not seen before. The drills with the bag resting upright on the floor improved the basic drop to stuff a takedown, the straight drop-knee and drop-kick, and the drop-knee and drop-kick while moving offline. The bag was then laid on its side on the ground to allow drilling of the knee drop to a recumbent adversary or to stop a very low shoot, and nasty dropping elbow strikes. The emphasis in these drills was on maintaining your own balance while delivering the full energy into the target, as opposed to simply falling on the target, which could get you into big trouble.

After much practice on the heavy bags by the students, Al called a 10-minute break. During the break, Matt Kovsky asked John and Brian (an extremely tall 2nd Degree Black Belt Guided Chaos student and law enforcement officer) to do a quick demonstration on video for the soon-to-be-released Attackproof Companion Video Part 3. The demonstration involved John explaining how to get in close against an adversary with a far superior reach without getting pulverized on the way in. One aspect of this demonstration captured the attention of several of the seminar students watching the filming: John's admonition NOT to key off of or wait for the adversary's punch or technique, but to simply move (forward and offline) at the initiation of any movement whatsoever. This was hard to grasp for several of the students, who were used to the conventional martial arts mindset of seeing and countering a specific technique, such as a jab. John demonstrated that if he waited for the jab to actually be launched, even when he knew it was coming, he had little chance, especially against the quick and far taller Brian. However, when John began to move immediately, not waiting for any specific attack to be launched, it was relatively simple for him to get offline and prevent Brian from landing anything before John took his balance and finished him off. This is referred to in the book I believe as "reaching out with your sensitivity" or "making contact with the opponent's intention." It involves the use of subcortical visual sensitivity or subconscious visual perception to drive your motion even before physical contact is established. It requires not only some level of sensitivity, developed during contact flow, but also a mindset shift away from consciously "defending against techniques" to subconsciously "dealing with movement." I explored these ideas further with a couple of seminars students, including how this relates to all the Guided Chaos principles. More on that in a near future blog post. . . .

After the break, we moved on to aggressive methods of going to the ground, both with and without a weapon. Al had the students practice several variations of rolling or falling to the ground while kicking and/or striking with a cane or other object against a standing heavy bag. Interestingly, a couple of students new to Guided Chaos but with extensive previous martial arts experience were immediately able to execute fast, picture-perfect rolls into kicks--but were at first unable to get them even close to the target! By contrast, some more experienced Guided Chaos students may not have looked as good in the roll, but were able to precisely and deeply fold the bag every time. With some practice, the new students will doubtless be doing the same very soon. Al and I pointed out the importance of falling loosely and adaptably to the ground rather than having some sort of braced or stiff position or fixed breakfall technique. Rather than treating the method as some sort of gymnastics routine that you must "set up" or concentrate on the appearance of, it's important to simply drop loosely to the ground while allowing the momentum to naturally power the strikes and kicks wherever they're needed.

Then next block of instruction focused on ideas that had been briefly demonstrated at the previous seminar and in the Groundfighting DVD, but not practiced extensively by the students. Al explained how to deal with an attacker who has gotten past your legs and is trying to hold you down in order to ground-and-pound, apply a submission hold, or keep you still for a stomping from his buddies. Al emphasized the danger in attempting to grapple back or do anything that similarly keeps you in one place for any amount of time. Because of the always present danger of multiple stomping attackers, it's essential for you to do something that gets you free and moving as quickly as possible. To that end, you must "bring the chaos" on the ground just like you would on your feet, going for vital targets (primarily the eyes, throat and groin) with looseness, sensitivity and body unity while moving to bring your feet back into the fight to finish him off. Al pointed out a couple examples of pocketing on the ground: pocketing the abdomen to create space to get to the groin of a mounted attacker, and expanding and pocketing the upper torso in order to slip out from under the pressure of an attacker trying to pin you. Al reiterated that we shouldn't be trying to grab and control the enemy, but we should move like ticked-off bobcats to damage the enemy as quickly and ruthlessly as possible. Also, Al and John pointed out that although we were practicing such things as getting out from under an attacker who has mounted us, a LOT must have already gone wrong in order for us to get into that situation in the first place.

While the students were drilling these ideas, I noticed that some were still so attached to conventional grappling methods that they were missing many opportunities to ensure their survival. For example, when working against an attacker mounted on them, many of the students resorted to reaching stiffly for the eyes, bumping with the hips and pushing on the attacker's torso in a futile attempt to throw him off. I even saw some attempts to grab the attacker's arm in order to create leverage to roll him off. I asked them why they would try such things against a bigger and heavier attacker. Rather than trying to heave his mass off of you, let him jump off himself when you crush his testicles! It's imperative that you continue to move quickly, loosely, sensitively, chaotically and ruthlessly with your whole body when on the ground, rather than getting locked into making a particular strength move work.

We then moved on to the part of the seminar that many were surely anticipating with excitement and maybe a little fear. Hung up on one side of the room was a tight triangle of "Paulies"--90-pound man-shaped striking dummies wearing boxing gloves and duct tape cervical collars (to keep the heads from being ripped off--a frequent problem with this crowd). After setting up mats underneath the triangle and assigning three big guys to aggressively manipulate the Paulies, Al explained that each student would have to fight like hell from a standing start in the middle of the triangle to keep the Paulies away as they tried to crush and punch him. After a few seconds, Al would call "DROP!" and the student would fall to the ground, kicking on the way down. He would then immediately kick out and move to avoid getting stomped and find a way to roll out of the triangle. This drill truly drilled home the importance of remaining disengaged, mobile and aggressive when on the ground in a real shitstorm--and it gave the students some not so subtle reminders to protect their heads while on the ground. For the second round, John added a crash mat underfoot and flashing lights to further challenge the students' balance and add to the disorientation.

Finally, after everyone was thoroughly tenderized by the Paulie drills, we got a taste of doing contact flow on the ground, with the legs as initial contact points. Here, all the same ideas apply as when you do contact flow on your feet with the arms as initial contact points. It was a new experience for some of the students to be fully sensitive and loose with the legs while keeping the speed constant, rooting through the hips, shoulders, back and other areas, and moving the whole body together so as to keep it behind all movements of the legs.

Some closing remarks, and the seminar was over. Everyone who made it through the whole thing (some came in late, and some sat out some drills) was satisfyingly exhausted.

I'm sure there's plenty I'm missing here--it was a seminar jam-packed with useful information. Check out the Attackproof forum for other people's responses and reviews.

Of course, Matt Kovsky was there, video taping the entire seminar for a possible future DVD release. I'm not sure whether it was Matt's idea of a joke or if he really needed additional shots, but he made Al repeat five or six times his demonstration of exactly how best to grab an attacker's balls. By the third or fourth take, Al's demonstration partner was beginning to insist that Al buy him a drink before he'd be allowed to go that way with him yet again!

An extra bonus for me and many others was having Bob Miller at the seminar. He's a corrections officer and Guided Chaos instructor from out west. Bob continues to train hard on his own and with his crew, and his efforts were evident in his great improvement since his last visit to NYC last year. It's always a pleasure to hang out and train with Bob.

For that matter, it's always a pleasure to see all the long-distance Guided Chaos students who come in for the seminars and other periodic visits. There were several first-timers at the seminar, and they certainly seemed satisfied and thrilled to finally experience Guided Chaos first-hand. I strongly encourage anyone interested to make it to NYC for one of the upcoming seminars, or even for any weekend class. If you're on the fence about it, don't worry. I can't imagine a more open and welcoming group.

Lucky for us, the next seminar is only a little more than a month away: The Five-Second Fight, June 30. I'm not sure exactly what it's going to be about, but if past experience is any indicator, these seminars just keep getting better and better. . . .

. . . See you there!!!

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #24

2007-05-10T13:39:00.000-05:00

Guided Chaos Close In
Sorry I haven't posted anything in a month. Been very busy--not much time for private lessons. However, I've still managed to make it to some regular classes, and as always, the learning continues. . . .

Here are some ideas I've been grappling (or Keeching) with lately:

John has mentioned in the past that one unique aspect of Guided Chaos is effective grappling-range striking, made possible by dropping, body unity and the ability to create space to strike in extremely close quarters via pocketing. A skilled Guided Chaos practitioner can be so close to an enemy that the enemy can't generate effective power, yet the Guided Chaos practitioner can destroy him. This is frequently illustrated to me when a) Matt Kovsky closes in and pulses to the point where I start tensing up and pushing to get space, giving him energy to work off of to smack me silly; b) Lt. Col. Al subtly moves in and drop-strikes with his torso, freezing and off-balancing me to allow his weapons to go to work; and c) John ghosts his entire body into the perfect close-range position to effortlessly take my balance and/or strike with finality.

Even when a Guided Chaos master is not actually at very close range (e.g. when I work with Tim, who rarely allows things to get very close), his body is usually still moving towards that position, however subtly. This is what allows him to take away space and cut off angles while bringing massive fully-body power to bear on the enemy. Even when Tim hits me from long range, toward the end of his reach and far from his body, his body is still moving as if to penetrate to close quarters. All the power of this body movement is condensed into his strike, the impact of which makes any further advance unnecessary.

Of course, one has to be able to do this while not getting impaled or stopped by the attacks of the enemy. This is where pocketing, turning, moving offline and subtle changes in the body come into play. The practitioner moves as little as s/he needs to in order to avoid obstacles to his/her body's forward-moving penetration. You cannot be stopped from closing in on the enemy if you give the enemy nothing solid to push or hit against to keep you away.

Your ability to feel the relative positions of your and your enemy's center of gravity also comes into play here. I was shown how subtle and powerful this can be when I got the opportunity to do ULTRA-slow contact flow with Lt. Col. Al, then watch Al do it with John. This is contact flow done so slowly that you can literally hardly see any movement at all. We started with the hands touching, then began slowly moving. The scary thing is, within very little time (maybe 10-15 seconds) and with very little overt movement (again, hardly observable), someone has already "won." "Winning" here means that one person, through subtle shifts in balance and alignment, has moved into a position whereby he can penetrate and take the other's balance before the other can readjust to survive without speeding up. Much of the movement could be considered "internal," in that it cannot be easily seen because it involves extremely small shifts in weight and the alignment of the joints in relation to the training partner. This has to be felt intuitively--it's too subtle and minute and involves too many variables for the conscious mind to completely control. John said that if in several minutes of this kind of practice, you're able to achieve even ten seconds of pure "mushin" or no-mindedness, you're off to a good start.

Beyond a basic level, so much of Guided Chaos really is mental. The key to functional looseness, for example, is not just the ability to free up your joints and move through your full range of motion without excess tension, but REACTIVE looseness: the ability to maintain your full freedom of movement in response to whatever other people are doing to you. I can be "loose as a goose" on my own, but when Matt pulses me, I suddenly feel hard as a rock. I need to jump that mental hurdle to allow myself to go with whatever comes, regardless of what it is--indeed, not to consciously attach to it and judge it to be anything in particular. There's nothing physically preventing me from getting reactively loose. It's just a mental block.

Likewise, you can never truly be "stopped" or hindered except by your own tension or attachment to whatever's "hindering" you. If you're blocked in your forward motion, it's because you're pushing against whatever's in your path, rather than going around it. Again, a mental thing: there's nothing physically forcing you to push against or remain attached to whatever's hindering you.

Anyway, enough ramblings for now. Hopefully I'll be able to do more private lessons soon. . . .

Stay tuned!

IN THE EYE OF THE STORM--update (Attackproof Companion DVD Part 3)

2007-04-20T16:57:00.000-05:00

IN THE EYE OF THE STORM (Attackproof Companion DVD Part 3)
Progress report: Looking at a late May release. Here's the Chapter Index for the video as it stands now:

Intro to Contact Flow
Looseness
Balance
Taking Balance
Balance, Kicking & Over-commitment
Body Unity
Sensitivity
How to Ruin Your Sensitivity
Applying the Principles While Changing Range In Contact Flow
Sub-principles: Move Behind A Guard, Always bring A Weapon On Line
Always Form Weapons
The Spike In the Sponge
Shadowing and Molding
The Closer You Get, The Looser You Get
Sliding and Skimming Energy
Blocking Is a Waste: The 3 Part Insurance Policy
Folding Energy
Weaseling Energy
Tool Replacement
One-ness Hitting
Blocking Is a Waste: Make Them Miss
Why We Flow Slow
Loading the Spring
Grabbing & Over-commitment
Suspend and Release
Pulsing: Directing and Exploiting Responses
Leg Pulsing
Vibrating Energy
Multi-Hitting
Multi-Hitting As a Function of Sensitivity and Balance
Applying the Sphere of Influence Against Larger Attackers
Using Box-stepping, Long Stepping and Drop-kicking
Close Combat to KCD: Taking Space on Larger Opponents
Training Lethal Blows with Dropping Power
Using Soft and Hard Energy While Avoiding Double-weightedness
99% Yin, 1% Yang
Ride the Lightning
Multiple Attackers
Fixed "Animal" Forms vs. Free Human Motion
How Do You Begin Contact Flow? With Chaos
Studies In Contrast: Boxing vs. KCD
Some Contact Flow Analyses
Specific Contact Flow Variations
"The Coin Dance" Flow
Super-Slow Flow
Fixed-Step Flow
"Stalker" and Multiple Attacker Flow
The "Melee" Flow
Set-up Attack Flows
Typical Contact Flow Errors

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #23

2007-04-10T17:43:00.000-05:00

Excellent lesson with Al last Monday...

Notable tips:

--MOVE IN around pocket! Staying in one place while pocketing allows Al to do whatever else he wants.

--Tool replace, penetrate and/or smother with shoulder while moving in, rather than staying out and trying to free arms if arms feel blocked.

--Don't second-guess yourself! Al punishes you (grabs arms, hits, etc.) primarily when you stop moving because you hesitate when things don't go as planned. Trust your sensitivity and keep moving!

--Allow arms to "fall" in when being suppressed (i.e. swing below obstruction) while using body to tool replace, penetrate and/or smother.

--Subtle pulsing: just a change in contact point from fingertips to palm (no pushing!) allows opponent to feel your structure. From there, no matter what he does (e.g. yield, push or go somewhere else), you're ready to take advantage.

Matt Kovsky, after watching part of the lesson, commented that I tend to stand too tall (i.e. straight-legged) when working with Al. Gotta remember that for next time!

Also, Matt implored me not to allow even much more experienced training partners to build pressure at the beginning of a contact flow engagement. Patrick, a fellow student, pointed out that he sees in me a bad habit that he deals with himself: When he begins contact flow with Al or Matt, he finds himself observing and thinking about what they're doing, as opposed to simply moving with the initial contact as he should. This allows the more experienced person to pulse or do whatever else he wants with the initial contact. The solution to this for the less experienced person is to simply not think about the fact that your training partner is more experienced, so that instead of watching/worrying about what he's going to do, you just trust your sensitivity and move normally. As it says in the book, you should be "reaching out" with your sensitivity in order to engage his intent and begin to move with him even before contact is made. Matt's and Patrick's diagnosis actually makes a lot of sense, and is something I'll work to correct--even if it may "feel" slightly disrespectful to do to people like Matt and Al. But hey, "respectful disrespect," according to John, is the way to go.

Looking forward to the Master Class with John this coming Sunday. . . .

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #22

2007-04-05T13:28:00.000-05:00

COMBAT KNIFE SEMINAR REVIEW...
This past Saturday was an excellent seminar about Guided Chaos Combat Knife methods. Far from being a "knife fighting" seminar where everyone would learn techniques for dueling, the seminar was focused on the real-world use of and defense against knives and similar weapons.

The seminar began with an introduction by John. He discussed different types of commonly carried knives (small straight blades, folders, push daggers, etc.), their advantages and disadvantages, carry and concealment methods and accessibility issues. Emphasis was placed on the carrier's ability to bring the knife into play amidst the chaos of physical violence. John also demonstrated various ways of using a closed folding knife in those cases where you may be able to unclip the knife from your pocket but don't have the time/space/stability to open it. This is very important information, as real-world fights involving knives rarely begin along the lines of the "West Side Story" dueling paradigm (he pulls a knife and shows it to you, you pull yours, then you circle and fight with graceful movements as people snap and dance around you).

John and Lt. Col. Al then covered the use of the Dog-Dig motion (described in the book "Attackproof") to gain distance and run when someone is attempting to stab you up at close range, or even if you've already been stabbed. This presentation began with a demonstration of why most martial arts methods advocated for use against dynamic knife attacks (e.g. X-blocks, wrist locks and throws, grabbing the knife-wielding limb and other grappling methods) fail miserably when attempted against real attacks with knives. When an attacker is moving unpredictably to cut and stab you up at maximum adrenaline speed, using all weapons at his disposal, it becomes almost impossible to man up and control his movement to the point of avoiding getting stabbed and cut in vital areas. The Dog-Dig method is intended to keep the knife away from your most vital organs long enough to allow you to build distance and momentum to escape. My right (knife-holding) arm got severely abused while helping Al and John demonstrate this, as their "dog-digs" pack a hefty wallop thanks to internal dropping and hand conditioning with the slam bag! It was demonstrated that attempting to simply run from a close-range knife attack is a recipe for failure. Everyone got to practice Dog-Digging and running from close-range attacks with foam rubber knives. John also touched on the importance of kicking if you have more distance but can't immediately escape. Despite the advocacy of kicking as an unarmed method of defending against a knife attack by such close combat experts as Fairbairn, Applegate and others, many martial artists seem to doubt its effectiveness (often while supporting clearly ineffective methods). John pointed out that in order to have any chance of success, you have to be able to thrust kick HARD and FAST while maintaining good balance, and footwear can make the difference.

The next drill involved using a knife to survive an attack by multiple people. The drill began with the participant, foam rubber knife already in hand, standing on a crash mat surrounded by three hanging man dummies controlled by big guys standing behind them. On John's cue, the guys controlling the dummies would make them "attack," closing in and swinging to crush and hit the student in the middle. The student had to keep moving, spinning and striking with the knife and anatomical weapons to maintain space and balance and destroy the attackers as quickly as possible, minimizing damage to himself. The crash mat forced the student to lift his knees and stomp to protect his groin and maintain balance. Rapid, full-body movement and dropping power were necessary to avoid being crushed and immobilized between the dummies. John emphasized effective, powerful, gross-motor use of all parts of the knife (point, edge, butt) in the melee, and the need to BUTCHER the attackers (rather than merely stabbing or cutting) in order to achieve adequate stopping power with the knife. This was an extremely chaotic, exhausting, screaming wild drill. The lesson was not lost on the students that the skills needed to survive such an attack are NOT necessarily those developed for dueling, and are in fact similar to those needed to survive such a situation unarmed (e.g. balance, dropping power, efficient mobility, looseness, and the ability to adapt to chaotic motion) plus the coordination and knowledge to effectively employ the knife (and not stab yourself in the process!).

After a short break, we moved onto demonstrations and drills in the Hellevator. Technically, this is the "Hellevator II," the portable second-generation version of the structure featured in a couple of the video clips on the www.attackproof.com website. The Hellevator II is slightly bigger and has three instead of four walls so that students can easily observe demonstrations performed inside it. (Big thanks to Wayne for designing, building, transporting and assembling the Hellevator II!) John, Al and Big Mike demonstrated how using the walls in a confined space to enhance your balance can increase the effectiveness of your kicks for keeping away and damaging a knifer. They also showed how confined space can hinder many grappling attacks, as there may not be sufficient space to allow the victim to fall or be overextended or driven off-balance. Each student had a go at keeping a knife-wielding Big Mike out of knife range in the Hellevator by kicking away at the kicking shield he was holding while balancing against the wall. An important point was to STAY against the wall, rather than allowing yourself to bounce off of it in between kicks.

Next, Lt. Col. Al demonstrated the usefulness of "knife sparring" with foam rubber knives simply as a reflex and movement exercise. He and John showed how Guided Chaos concepts such as drop-hitting, body unity and isolation can be applied to the blade. Everyone squared off and sparred for a little while, with John and Al going around to give advice and point out interesting situations. Al gave me an idea about how to integrate kicking with knife use. John pointed out the ultimate futility of standard "knife dueling" by making "clean" hits impossible simply by wiggling the knife around in a "silly" (albeit unpredictable) fashion and advancing. Several times, I ended up on the receiving end of Native American-style killing entries by Lt. Col. Al. Even with the foam rubber knives, these were VERY scary, as they involved Al's whole body diving in. They felt impossible to resist or escape.

We then drilled countering static knife threats from all different angles, using the method of simultaneously drop-hitting the knife arm, moving the body offline and attacking the attacker, all in one motion, while controlling the knife arm with sensitivity. John and Al were quick to point out, however, that the methods typically used by criminals to threaten with a knife made countering and escaping extremely difficult, if not impossible. For example, it's typically not a "static" threat at all, as the attacker will usually violently jerk the victim off-balance with a semi-choke from behind, and/or continuously move the knife unpredictably between different targets while shoving and/or pinning the victim from the front. Frequently, a second attacker severely complicates the situation.

This led into a discussion of the behavioral aspects of hold-up scenarios. Matt Kovsky wanted me to present this part because he'd seen me cover it fairly thoroughly before in class. I went through the possibilities of a real attacker's goals. An attacker who threatens you with a knife may want your property, in which case, give it to him and immediately run away. However, he may want to take you to a second location, in which case you're probably best off attacking him to get free and escape as soon as any possibility of success presents itself. With John's help, I went over how saying the right things and acting in certain ways can facilitate escape. This presentation went fine . . . except for the fact that my voice was still rather hoarse from all the screaming I'd done in the multiple attacker drill earlier. One attendee compared the sound of my voice to that of Peter Brady of the Brady Bunch when his voice started changing! Don't worry: for the DVD, we'll either re-shoot the scene or Matt will digitally modify my voice to be less distracting. This could be funny--Darth Vader teaching self-defense. . . .

Oh yeah, did I mention? Matt Kovsky filmed the whole seminar for a future DVD release.

The last tactic covered in the seminar was going to the ground in a last-ditch effort to gain distance between your vital organs and the blade, as seen on the Guided Chaos Groundfighting DVD. Everyone got the chance to try this against a fast, close-range attack. The idea was to fend away the knife with your hands as you fell back, simultaneously kicking out the knifer's legs. As the "attacker" for this drill, I can say that a few people got this down very well, as my legs were saved only by virtue of the fact that I knew what was happening and yielded to all the kicks.

John showed how extremely high-level Guided Chaos skill--being able to stick and flow around anything with complete freedom of motion while maintaining perfect balance, moving in and taking the attacker's balance while striking with killing power--can help in dealing with a knife attack. However, he reiterated that there are certainly no guarantees, and the slightest mistake can get you killed. Further, stating explicitly what had been increasingly evident throughout the seminar, John pointed out that real knife attacks by committed criminals are rarely as predictable and easy to defend against as those demonstrated and trained against by even realistic-minded martial artists. The frequent cooperation of multiple armed attackers and the fact that recidivists practice specifically to allow victims no warning and no wherewithal nor opportunity to escape expand the already great advantage armed attackers always hold. As ever, awareness and acting to escape as early as possible are the keys to surviving such attacks. Also, as an aid to defending one's self, a knife can certainly be a useful weapon, but it is far from being a magic self-defense wand. Knife selection, carry method and training for deployment and use under any circumstances are key, and unarmed combat skill and the attributes involved are still paramount.

Al capped off the conclusion of the seminar by demonstrating some ideas regarding the integration of knife combat into contact flow. While he demonstrated, a group of students gradually bunched up on one side of the room, blocking John's view of the door. As John observed Al's demonstration, a big birthday cake, sodas and snacks were brought into the room and set up on a table behind the human screen that blocked John's view. Yes, it was John's birthday! As soon as everything was set up, Al ended his demonstration, the human screen parted, and the room broke out into just about the sorriest rendition of "Happy Birthday" I've ever heard. A great time was had by all! A few people took the opportunity to work with Big Mike. I would have beaten him up had I not just eaten, of course.

Incidentally, the party was NOT filmed for the DVD.

Overall, great seminar and party! Again, Happy Birthday John!!!

Kicking yourself for missing this seminar??? Get thyself to the next one! See the "Seminars, Events and Announcements" section of the Attackproof.com website for details.

Next time, some excellent lessons from Al, taught during a private lesson the Monday following the seminar. . . . Stay tuned!

P.S. Very relevant info: http://attackproof.com/laws-regarding-knives.html

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #21

2007-03-27T15:18:00.000-05:00

Had another great lesson with Al on Saturday. A few tips:

--Move the body in so that the arms feel like they simply float in with no effort.
--For your own development, pulse minimally. Don't constantly counter-pulse or get too heavy with people who pulse a lot, even if it seems to work.
--Feel and work off of the skeletal structure.
--Penetrate when tool replacing or smothering with the torso so that he can't readjust in time. You have to shock the body to momentarily hinder movement.

Looking forward to the knife seminar this Saturday. . . .

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #20

2007-03-20T08:29:00.000-05:00

You've Got to Be In It to Win It.
In the Monday night class, John went over some important stuff for everyone to keep in mind.

He pointed out that as many people get lazy or complacent in their training, contact flow devolves into a medium-range hand-fighting game, with the training partners basically standing in front of each other while looking to hit and not be hit. Granted, it's fun, and Guided Chaos principles may be involved, but such training dangerously misses the point.

John showed that in order to deal with a bigger, stronger, faster enemy, you have to be able to close the distance and smother his movements while controlling his balance. Simply standing and trying to deal with his hands will get you killed quickly. Key skills to cultivate in contact flow, therefore, are getting offline, even if only a little, while closing the distance to smother his attacks and end things quickly. Instead of just hitting through an opening, you need to pour your entire loose, heavy body into it while feeling and adapting to his motion. This enables you to disrupt his balance and bring your whole body to strike with finality.

Further emphasizing why standing face to face while practicing contact flow is a bad mistake, John asked how often one can expect to be attacked head-on. The possibilities of getting blind-sided or being attacked from multiple directions simultaneously are too great and too dangerous to not keep them in mind while training. In such situations, the ability to slam the whole body into heavy dropping strikes that arrest motion and disrupt balance as well as do damage, while using these full-body steps and drops to keep yourself moving unpredictably, "bouncing" among and around assailants while staying loose enough to not get broken and covering your head, will do much more to save your hide than trying to play with incoming hands.

It was a very interesting class, replete with lots of high-impact demos with some of the biggest guys.

Lots of food for thought and training. . . .

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #19

2007-03-09T18:10:00.000-05:00

Recently, I've gotten to experience some of John Perkins' "Combat Boxing" method.

In my view, despite the title "Combat Boxing," the method really has very little to do with Western Boxing. It's basically Guided Chaos applied exclusively through clenched fists and impact, as opposed to the "regular" Guided Chaos that uses the whole body in any way possible to destroy the enemy via impact as well as other modes such as pushing, pulling, breaking, off-balancing, gouging, ripping, etc. In other words, the "delivery system" is Guided Chaos, but the tools are limited.

From being on the receiving end, I can tell you this: Combat Boxing HURTS!!! Every impact, be it on your arms, body or head (lightly in training), involves an internal drop delivered through any part of the fist, forearm or elbow. It's not slow nor particularly flowing. The body remains "yin" to evade and generate force from any position through a solid yet mobile root, but every instance of contact is "yang," causing pain, knocking guarding limbs out of the way, disrupting balance and blasting through jaws and ribs. Incoming limbs are destroyed with hammerfists, forearms and elbows. Especially when John is doing it, there is no typical boxing stance or lead, as the whole body drops instantly from one lead to the other to thread collosal shots into tiny openings. Often a fast series of short, chopping punches and hammerfists paves the way and sets up the opponent (getting him off-balance and knocking his guard wide open) for a huge head-busting punch or three. Virtually every shot delivered with the internal drop to any target (even the arms) effectively "freezes" the recipient's body for a split second, allowing the next shot (and many thereafter) to come in unopposed, unless the recipient can remain very loose and "bounce" off the impacts to maintain balance, protect himself and counterattack. Combat Boxing is not about long-distance sniping, sticking and moving, but about blasting in quickly for the knockout.

John has begun teaching this method to Andre, a very talented Guided Chaos 3rd degree black belt whose experience as a boxing instructor makes him a Combat Boxing natural. It's very frustrating for me when Andre transitions into Combat Boxing during contact flow, because at my present level of skill, I'm left with nothing to work with. Every contact hurts and sets me up to fail. John demonstrates that the only systematic way to "defeat Combat Boxing" is to use high-level Guided Chaos to immediately smother the Combat Boxer's movements, sticking so closely that he is unable to pull off even the shortest shots. From there, the Guided Chaos practitioner can disrupt the Combat Boxer's balance, move in and end it. (Of course, I usually don't have much luck dealing with Andre's "plain old" Guided Chaos during contact flow. Even so, at least then I'm not in CONSTANT pain!)

With Andre's help, John is working on training methods to teach Combat Boxing. The August 25 Combat Boxing seminar promises to be something very special. . . .

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #18

2007-02-25T14:42:00.000-05:00

Personal Reflections...
No training tips or lesson recaps this time around. Just some personal thoughts about martial arts, real-world-applicable training, and life. . . .

People often discuss the character-building and life-enhancing aspects of martial arts training. But I doubt that many of them have the same idea about it that I have.

Some may be referring to the discipline martial arts training is supposed to develop, particularly in children. But this has less to do with the martial arts themselves than it has to do with the traditional authoritarian Asian didactic system simulated in most mainstream martial arts schools. Similar sternness applied to all aspects of a child's life will produce the most effective results in that vein. Western children who would not normally accept such an atmosphere of authority due to the relative permissiveness with which they are raised are more prone to accept it in a martial arts school specifically because of the air of exoticness and excitement that surrounds the Western stereotype of the Asian martial arts. It is debatable whether this type of training for children develops true internally motivated discipline and work ethic, or a tendency towards obedience and a deep desire to please those in authority. For adult students (emotionally adult, that is), beyond the personal preferences of the individual, any improved discipline gained from martial arts study could be gained at least as well through the intensive study of any art form, such as calligraphy, dance, etc. In any case, for most adults, gains in discipline would likely remain specific to the chosen activity itself, overall work ethic and life habits having been ingrained earlier in life.

Some people emphasize the health aspects of martial arts training. However, Western-standard physical fitness, to include cardiovascular fitness, strength, strength endurance, flexibility and appearance, is better and more safely achieved through exercise methodologies not to be found in most martial arts training (e.g. aerobics, weight training, gymnastics, etc.). Most martial artists who are serious about physical fitness owe their physiques and high levels of conditioning to activities other than martial arts practice. Even the internal, Eastern-standard health often associated with Tai Chi practice can be achieved more directly through the practice of Chi Gung, Yoga, etc. In fact, most Tai Chi practitioners today practice Tai Chi exclusively as Chi Gung, not as a martial art, just as many today practice kickboxing exclusively as aerobics training.

Real martial arts training is MARTIAL, i.e. having to do with war or combat (Mars being the Roman god of warfare). To discount or relegate to secondary the martial aspect of "martial art" is to turn it into something else, such as an inefficient method of exercise or a way to get kids to listen to authority figures.

Only by studying and practicing the martial arts with the martial aspect foremost in mind can the life benefits unique to the study and practice of the martial arts (as distinct from any other art form or physical activity) be realized. Further, these benefits are most easily accessed by focusing martial arts training on the life-and-death dynamic of real all-out combat and protection of the self and loved ones, as distinct from a competitive or arrest-and-control focus. Brutal honesty and realism are key.

This is how it works for me:

Training with an awareness of the reality of all-out human violence, with instructors who know of this first-hand, and with a focus on keeping myself and my loved ones alive in the worst circumstances, ingrains in me an intimate understanding of my own fragile mortality and the fragility of all life. When you study the dynamics of real violence honestly, you realize that no matter how hard you train and no matter how good you get, virtually anyone and anything can still take you out at almost any time. A little bad luck can go a long way, as can the tiniest mistake in awareness or movement. We train to maximize our chances, but there are no guarantees. Working with instructors highly skilled in lethal violence allows you to feel your own life's fragility in a uniquely clear way—and the more skilled you become, the more clearly you understand this.

With such awareness comes a certain clarity of what is most important in life, and a heightened appreciation for the true gift each additional hour of life represents. This may sound fatalistic to some, but in my view, it is realistic and healthy. I never travel far from my wife without first telling her that I love her. I understand that I may not get another chance. I make a huge effort never to part with someone I care about on bad terms. Even if not every argument can be resolved before going to sleep, a truce must at least be reached, along with acknowledgement of true feelings and apology for any inflicted hurt. Treat those you care about as if each time you see them may be the last—because you understand that it might be. Granted, you can't control other people's emotions and thoughts, but you can do your best to shape their impressions of you through your words and actions. I'm not saying that I live only for the moment and neglect any planning for the future, but I try to remember while planning for the future that if it arrives, it's a gift, and appreciation of the present should not be completely sacrificed for it. All that's guaranteed is where you are right now. How will you be remembered by those who matter if this moment were your last? Live well, and enjoy it.

It may seem dumb to quote a Hollywood movie in reference to such a heavy subject, but The Last Samurai actually has a good line that pertains to this:

Katsumoto ("The Last Samurai"), trying to explain to Captain Algren the ideals and mindset of the samurai, says, "Like these blossoms, we are all dying. To know life in every breath . . . every cup of tea . . . every life we take--the way of the warrior. . . . That is Bushido."

Now, there is certainly more to Bushido than this. However, this quote captures much of what I'm getting at—only the samurai's understanding of such things came from actual experience of life-and-death battle combined with a philosophical prism through which to view it.

For us civilians who do not regularly go in harm's way, honest, realistic training for life-and-death combat is the best means I know by which to understand life in this way. I don't think one can so easily get there by training only for competition, health or entertainment.

It's one of the most important gifts that Guided Chaos has given me.

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #17

2007-02-19T08:05:00.000-05:00

If You Can do All This...
This post will be a training tips/notes bonanza--no narrative, just important stuff I've learned (or re-learned, or been reminded of) over the past couple months from Tim and Al. See if you can guess which tips came from whom--a prize for anyone who can get them all right! Enjoy!

--Never stop nor be stopped!

--No one can control you. He can control you only so far as you allow him to through your resistance.

--Be GHOSTLY with your torso so that your arms always have plenty of space to maneuver.

--Pocket your ribcage so that your elbows have space to slip by. He is able to pin your arms against you only if you give him the solid surface of your torso to pin against.

--Change your side-on L-stance to the outside while fading the upper body to the outside to create HUGE angles (for e.g. chops to the back of the neck) with little movement.

--Apply internal dropping to every contact. This involves subtle muscular control, requiring you to start with maximum Yin in order to apply maximum Yang at only the point of contact for only a split second. This freaking HURTS when done right, and you can't figure out why. Perhaps this is the beginning of that liquid/solid body John gets when he does "pure Keech.". . .

--"Balance on ankles"/"Put energy from upper body into feet" so that full range of motion with full body is available--this makes SUCH a difference!

--PURE KEECH--ridges, targets, what the other guy does, it just doesn't matter--everything comes from everywhere with internal dropping.

--Disrupt his legs with your steps to cut off angles and take balance.

--You can't try to deal with each individual punch, and you can't disconnect offense and defense or different parts of your body. When one thing moves or you feel one thing change, EVERYTHING changes! Deal with whole thing at once! Keep everything connected! (This is VERY powerful--must play with it more!)

--There's NOTHING WRONG with applying pressure or moving the other guy's limbs! Being loose means having complete freedom in all the joints, being unhindered by your own muscular contraction. It does NOT mean being wimpy!

--"Ghostliness" is the exact same thing as moving with contact, only at a far higher level of sensitivity.

--Box step: drop weight onto rear leg, keep hands up and forward, always keep head up (always).

--Beyond a certain point, advancing in Guided Chaos is all mental. You have to learn to "think differently."

Until next time . . . stay tuned!!!

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #16

2007-02-11T07:45:00.000-05:00

First Master Class...
Last Sunday morning, John taught the first of what will be a bimonthly series of "master classes," open to Guided Chaos 2nd degree black belts and above.

It gave all who attended the unique opportunity to work with a variety of people without ever having to fall back into "teaching mode." Everyone was able to work on what they had to work on for themselves with skilled training partners, never worrying about the possibility of bruised egos or what their training partners could handle.

John began with an introductory explanation and demonstration of the goal of the class: to get everyone on their way to being able to apply pure Guided Chaos like John does, having complete control over balance and generating colossal power with absolutely no stylization or preconceived motion. He then assigned us to practice a couple interesting variations on contact flow that necessitated the exploration of certain kinds of motion.

As we worked, John went around and gave each person important tips for improvement. He showed me how aspects of my training partner's build could put me at a disadvantage, and how I could negate that disadvantage by keeping my training partner consistently off-balance through deeper stepping. In turn, he showed my training partner how moving in a more "engulfing" manner could help him negate my natural advantages over him. Very insightful stuff!

Definitely looking forward to future sessions! All you 1st degree black belts out there: Kick yourself in the ass and get training so that you can someday soon attend these sessions!!!

Next time, more tips from Tim and Lt. Col. Al. . . . Stay tuned!!!

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #15

2007-02-07T07:49:00.000-05:00

Extreme Balance seminar...
Lt. Col. Al went over a bunch of different exercises that are not in the book, such as the Atomic Leg Crusher, the Indian Walk, the Hackey Sack, Puppeteering, Long Stepping, Advancing Kicks, and a heretofore unnamed drill that I'll take the liberty of dubbing the Relationship Of Body Movement And Rooting drill (ROBMAR). Also covered were advanced variations of the Ninja Walk, Vacuum Walk, Gorilla Walk, Rolling the Ball and Box Step using various forms of added weight (such as dumbbells, weighted bars and medicine balls), and various uses of the wobble board. Emphasis was placed on achieving what John calls "hydraulic legs," driving all motions of the body directly from the ground through a solid root.

But the seminar was definitely not just about solo drills. Al and John gave several high-impact demonstrations of the importance of balance and a mobile yet solid root in combat. We all got to experiment with doing contact flow on the flat sides of BOSUs, as well as a melee (free-for-all contact flow with everyone at once) on a field of round-side-up BOSUs with medicine balls being passed around. Then came a long session of "Long Keech," or contact flow emphasizing very long, low steps and big motions for the ultimate balance challenge. The seminar concluded with hands-on training in how to generate a powerful drop to either launch a person away or crush his insides, as well as how to use looseness and balance to prevent being launched.

As usual, the seminar was peppered with lots of personal insights and tips from John and the other instructors, as well as "side-lessons" by Lt. Col. Al about such subjects as moving against multiple attackers.

A great time was had by all, including a few new faces, one of whom came all the way from Texas just for the seminar and a private lesson with John!

As good as the Extreme Balance seminar was, I'm sure the one everybody is looking forward to most is the Combat Knife seminar coming up March 31. . . . THAT one promises to be awesome, with training in Guided Chaos knife use as well as dealing with a knife-armed attacker while unarmed, plus I'm sure plenty of other tidbits that always happen to pop up at Guided Chaos seminars. . . . Don't just "stay tuned," BE THERE!!!

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #14

2007-02-06T08:07:00.000-05:00

"Keechy" Close Combat Vs. Pure Guided Chaos...
Two Mondays ago right before the Hastings class began, John, perhaps responding to some of the questions that were coming up on the Attack Proof forum, presented a thorough explanation and demonstration of the difference in application between Guided Chaos Close Combat ("Keechy Close Combat") vs. pure Guided Chaos.

John explained that most of what you see in the current videos and demos is really Keechy Close Combat. He demonstrated that even when he gets very dynamic, gyrating and contorting to evade and land strikes from crazy angles, so long as the strikes he lands materialize as defined striking weapons hitting specific areas (e.g. a yielding motion leads to a chop that winds its way into the throat, or a palm strike targeting the jaw), it's still "Keechy Close Combat," not "Pure Guided Chaos."

He also showed that the dropping method he usually demonstrates, no matter how small he makes it, is still the "external" drop of Keechy Close Combat. This is the drop where you can see certain muscles tensing explosively for a split second, accelerating the striking weapon and bringing at least part of the body to an abrupt split-second stop before the flow continues.

As he demonstrated these ideas on me, I got the impression that everything he was doing that was "Keechy Close Combat" was in fact "evadable." I'm certainly not saying that I was good enough to actually evade his strikes, pulses and drops, but the pressures and impacts seemed linear and unidirectional, penetrating exactly where they hit. I felt that IF I were loose, sensitive and balanced enough to move in time, I could stay out of the way of the Keechy Close Combat movements and survive.

Pure Guided Chaos was a different feeling entirely!

I'd seen John briefly demonstrate "Pure Keech" before, but had never gotten the opportunity to observe and feel it for an extended period of time.

Quite frankly, it was pretty freaky!!!

John first showed that Pure Guided Chaos is non-specific and truly formless in weapons and targeting. When he moved on me (I can hardly say "attacked me" because it looked like he just slowly walked through me while raising his arm), his body and limbs did not assume any sort of form or position one would associate with striking, such as a fist or ax-hand. Nor did his limbs seek out any particular target. His whole body simply went forward loosely and made contact with whatever was there.

Here's where the really freaky part began. I remember in maybe sixth grade, in science class, we combined water and cornstarch to explore the simultaneous solid and liquid properties of magma. (Please don't take me to task here on the actual science involved--it was a while ago and I don't have time to do a lot of research! Suffice to say that the right mixture of water and cornstarch produces a "non-Newtonian" liquid that flows and pours like a typical viscous liquid but resists and breaks like a solid when and where agitated.) Seeing and feeling John move reminded me of this. John appeared to be moving completely freely and loosely, flowing like water with no strength or resistance. However, wherever I touched his arm or vice-versa, it felt solid and unyielding as a rock, even though he did not appear to be stopping or bracing against the contact at all! When he told me to try to evade his touch (which, again, LOOKED effortless and light as a feather but FELT extremely heavy, dense and irresistible), I found that I could not. Wherever and however I moved, the pressure from the contact followed with no delay and penetrated completely, immediately taking my balance.

When he hit me using Pure Keech, he did not go for any particular target with any particular striking surface. He just walked through me while raising his limbs. There was no sudden acceleration nor stopping as he hit. His limbs just seemed to penetrate right through me with no effort. The Keechy Close Combat strikes certainly hurt where they hit and felt like they could do real damage with additional depth, but the pure Guided Chaos hits (or more appropriately collisions--instances where John's relaxed limbs happened to intersect with my body) seemed to just cave in everything, collapsing my whole body and balance. Simple pocketing wouldn't help me, as I would still get penetrated. I felt like I had to move my whole body out of the way in order to survive--but this was impossible because my balance was completely thrown with the first contact, and the pulse followed my center perfectly through any point of contact no matter where I moved. The impacts came with absolutely no warning because they were all just part of John's loose movement through me. There was no detectable lining up nor acceleration as there is in Close Combat.

John showed how unimpressive pure Guided Chaos dropping looks when done without a target. His whole body just appeared to soften a bit and his hand went forward a few inches like a puff of air. There was no visible explosion, no sudden acceleration or stopping of the motion, no STOMP to shake the room. It became obvious why he normally demonstrates the more intimidating "external" drop, as the Guided Chaos internal drop really looks like nothing special. In fact, when you see its effect on a human target, the demonstration looks FAKE, because of the apparent lack of effort on John's part combined with the devastated reaction of the target person. All I can say is . . . FEEL it yourself before ye judge!

As John applied Pure Guided Chaos on me and on a few other people present, it looked impossibly simple. John simply walked toward me while lazily lifting his arms. Any punches, grabs or other arm attacks I tried were immediately slammed out of the way by his flaccid, slow-moving arms. With any speed added, I have no doubt my arms could have been broken, despite my moderate level of looseness. His limbs then continued to reach or fold in, his body following smoothly behind them, to slam any random part of my torso or head with knee-buckling shock. Often his arms would happen to slam, or unbalance and slam, my body in multiple directions simultaneously, calling the integrity of my neck and spine into question. He seemed to have no concern about the striking surface used, slamming with equal effectiveness with all sides of the shoulder, upper arm, elbow, forearm, wrist and open hand. Whenever I tried to lift my leg to kick outside of range of his arms, one of his legs would simply come forward in a slightly extended yet still perfectly balanced and controlled step, immediately throwing me way off-balance and into yet more effortless slams. As he advanced through me, his hips and knees created similarly devastating impacts.

When John demonstrated on one of the bigger and sturdier, albeit less experienced students, he commented that he actually had to hold back more when hitting the bigger student because he isn't as loose as I am and therefore couldn't safely absorb as much impact. This was clear as John rocked the student's whole body with what appeared to be little pats to his arms.

John pointed out that because it takes many years of proper training to produce and apply such devastating power, for self-defense purposes, he teaches his students to target particularly vulnerable areas of the body with the most suitable striking weapons, a la Keechy Close Combat.

The longer I study and practice this stuff, the more I realize how much further I have to go!

My next post will be on the recent Extreme Balance seminar. It was awesome!!!

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #13

2007-02-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

More Tim and Al Tips...
This blog post (and probably all future ones) will be more concise. Less background and filler, more training info. Hope you like.

This past Saturday, I had another lesson with Tim.

During the physical portion, I was generally too tense. Tim also pointed out where my excess movement was opening me up to his shots. He showed me how changes of less than an inch could completely turn the tables. Talk about economy of movement!

His advice during the physical portion of the lesson was as follows:

--I have to be one with what's going on.

--I have to think differently, not so logically and literally. Being intellectually "smart" is not an advantage with this stuff.

--I have to do away with the concept of an "enemy." Tim demonstrated that when he treated me as a "friend," it was easy for him to beat me up. With a broad smile and an advance towards me that at first looked to be a pat on the back, he loosely and easily destroyed me. I felt nothing at all threatening until the loose barrage of shots landed. He then "attacked" me as if I were an "enemy," with a glare and clear determination. I was able to feel his intentions a mile away and avoid almost everything. Very interesting!

--Tim commented, "You have to lower your energy into your legs. It's not just an elevation thing, it's not just bending your knees. You need to get all that energy out of your upper body and put it in your legs." As I did this, my upper body seemed to get looser and freer, and my balance was thus no longer as challenged. Tim said, "Good! You had about four good seconds in there. Good job, lesson's over."

I experimented more with this on my own the following day, putting all the energy, movement and pressure in the lower legs while moving and hitting, rather than moving from the waist or the upper body. It offers greater range of motion and looseness in the whole body, along with better balance. I found I hit harder, and with less effort, when I concentrate on this feeling. DEFINITELY something to work on! It goes along with John's comments about having "hydraulic legs," Gary Abatelli's comments about "balancing on your ankles," and indeed the instructions given in the book "Attack Proof" for many of the drills. Having Tim say it the way he said it helped me finally understand it in a new way. Go figure.

Now, as promised, some tips from my last lesson with Al:

--Al usually grabs your wrist when it stops moving. So . . . don't stop! Conversely, Al practically "dares" you to grab him, as it just sets you up for punishment . . . because it doesn't matter whether he's grabbing you or you're grabbing him, it's a connection he can exploit. Stop him from grabbing by a) being sensitive and moving with the whole body away from grab attempts, b) KEEP MOVING, c) HIT immediately!

--Drill during contact flow: Penetrate center with uprooting. Application: that's how Al takes up slack (penetrating to center through the arms) to get MEAN positions.

Coming next time: An extremely educational lesson from John about the differences between "Keechy Close Combat" and pure Guided Chaos! This one blew away everyone who was present! Stay tuned. . . .

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #12

2007-02-04T14:37:00.000-05:00

He Knows What You Need...
I wanted to post what it's like to train with John Perkins, the creator of the Guided Chaos concept and training method. One would think I've had more than enough exposure to write such a post, as I've taken at least a couple classes per week with John, as well as a few private and semi-private lessons, over more than two years. However, I've found it very difficult to put these experiences into writing.

First of all, it's impossible to say, "A class/lesson with John is like this or like that," because no two classes/lessons with John are ever the same. One semi-private lesson with John might consist of his silently observing the students' contact flow, then silently doing contact flow with each student himself. Another might involve doing endless footwork and kicking drills while John points out every little flaw. A class may consist of non-stop action in the form of close combat drills with dummies and striking pads or medium-speed contact flow, or most of the time may be spent standing and listening as John discusses a movement concept or explains the realities of violence through stories from his experience. (If you think the stories in the book are harrowing, you ain't heard nuthin' yet!) The course of events in a class depends largely on what's been on John's mind lately or what he feels are the greatest weaknesses of most of the students.

One thing that John is most certainly a master of (besides this fighting stuff, opera singing and general gregariousness) is intuitive teaching. While he can explain an idea as well as anyone (provided he doesn't get sidetracked by another interesting point), it is truly amazing how adeptly he can transfer information directly to students' subconscious minds, often without their even realizing they're learning! He does this visually (through modeling certain concepts of movement in various situations), aurally (through telling stories and repeating key points to inculcate proper mindset), and especially tactilely. During contact flow, he gives the student's body pressures and challenges that subtlely force correct reactions and build correct habits. He designs drills with equipment that force the student's body to learn to do things correctly in order to succeed in the drill. Examples of this include stopping a swinging heavy bag with strikes and kicks while standing on a wobble board, forcing the student to drop internally, and putting down thick crash mats for close combat scenario drills, forcing the student to stomp and lift the knees to maintain balance and mobility.

One of the most impressive examples of John's intuitive teaching ability I've seen was a private lesson he gave to a beginning student in which I and a couple other black belt students assisted. The private student had previously had only one private lesson, during which he learned self-defense strategy and tactics and a few basic close combat strikes. John intended in this second lesson to teach him some new skills, namely groundfighting and upright kicking, and to hone the skills he'd already learned. The student was reasonably athletic, but had no previous martial arts or fighting experience.

John had me take the student through the basic groundfighting exercises (as seen on the Guided Chaos Groundfighting DVD) as a warm-up. Then he had the student watch for a few minutes while I modeled (slowly at first, then faster) some groundfighting maneuvers against kicking shields and pads held at various positions and angles. No instruction was given as to "how" to perform the various kicks, rolls and other maneuvers. Then the student got down on the mat, John directed the pad holders where to go, and after just a little self-guided experimentation, the student was moving and hitting the targets like a pro! John suggested a couple things for the student to experiment with as he moved, prompting the student to get more creative and discover for himself faster and more efficient ways to move and hit the targets with maximum power as quickly as possible while keeping his head safe. It was by far the fastest I'd ever seen a student get proficient with anything combative.

John then presented the student with the scenario of being attacked by one or more knife-armed attackers in a confined space, such as an elevator. One useful tactic in such a scenario is to use the wall to enhance your balance and power to rapidly kick to damage the attackers and prevent them from getting close enough to use their knives to damage your vital organs. (An example of this tactic may be seen in one of the video clips on the Attackproof website.) John had me demonstrate for a few seconds. Holding one or both hands against the wall, I kicked out with rapid-fire front, side and back kicks to keep two other black belt students with kicking shields from closing the distance. Then, with no further instruction (not even pointing out the names of the different kicks or going into details about positioning or dropping), John had the private student give it a try, at first against only one attacker. After just a couple minutes and a couple simple tips from John, the student was successfully keeping away two pad holders with powerful, rapid-fire kicks. The student was then told to use just a light touch on John's arm for enhanced balance. He then progressed to stopping a charging shield holder with a kick from a free standing position. Again with little instruction, the student adapted quickly, dropping and adjusting his balance to compensate for the lack of external support.

The rest of the lesson consisted of improving the student's body mechanics for basic strikes and introducing him to contact flow. What was most impressive to me, however, was that John was able to make this individual with no previous martial arts or fighting experience fully functional with kicks from the ground and from his feet in less than an hour, with hardly any direct instruction. At first, I was actually flabbergasted at how little John explained to the student before making him try the drills! You couldn't argue with the results though. This is a testament to two things:

a) What John teaches is completely natural for the human body, thus enhanced under fight-or-flight stress rather than degraded.

b) No matter how natural the movements, John's intuitive teaching method is extremely effective.

The ease and speed with which he can coax a student to subconsciously teach himself or herself the best ways to move to deal with combat situations is uncanny. Unfortunately, this method cannot be simply laid out in a step-by-step syllabus for other instructors to use. It depends on John's vast experience, sensitivity and talent for reading people physically and psychologically and drawing out their strengths while compensating for their weaknesses. What John says and does and the situations he sets up to elicit responses vary greatly depending on the student. This is one reason why writing the "Attackproof" book was such a challenging undertaking. It was an effort to standardize, based on the root principles that do not change, a way of moving and a method of instruction that is in practice highly individualized. The success of distance learners who have made the effort to truly understand and internalize the basic principles of Guided Chaos as laid out in the book shows that the the authors did in fact accomplish their goal. A firm grounding in the basic principles of Guided Chaos combined with a bit of guidance and challenge from a master instructor (ideally in person, but even from a distance) can truly allow students to "teach themselves" subconsciously how to best utilize their own bodies to survive violence.

Thank you John!

Had an excellent private lesson with Lt. Col. Al this past weekend. Some great tips from that to come. . . .

Hopefully I'll have another private lesson with Tim within the next two weekends, so stay tuned!!!

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #11

2007-02-03T15:55:00.000-05:00

My Third Tim Tune-up, Part 2...
Tim started putting me in various awkward positions in contact flow, asking what I'd do. When I hit upon the most efficient and easy ways out, he'd say, "Okay, I'll buy that." Alternative solutions got me lightly struck, locked or off-balanced. Tim was critical of how quickly I moved my feet to get out of bad situations, so he had me stand against the wall so that I couldn't move back at all. As he started slowly attacking, I lost my balance a couple times, but finally got it right and managed to deflect his attack. At that point, he laughed and shook his head and said, "Good! Lesson's over, and I'll tell you why."

We pulled up chairs in the front office and proceeded to discuss a LOT. Here are some (not all--we covered a lot) highlights:

--Tim explained why he was amused by my final actions during the lesson. He said that I had ended up doing what he and John had been discussing the last time they worked out (a week or two previously). It had something to do with "bouncing" the energy Tim gave me. When he put me against the wall, I couldn't move back or out to dissipate the energy he was giving me, so my body channeled it in the only direction available: back into Tim. It has something to do with pulsing. I did not fully understand his explanation of what I had done--I must remember to ask him about it again next time. He pointed out that this phenomenon--a student's spontaneously doing something that John had discussed with Tim previously--happens often, for some reason. I suggested that there may be some weird chi floating around. . . .

--On the subject of chi, Tim showed me a small book about Cheng Man Ching (famous late Tai Chi master) that his wife had given him and that John had recently discussed with him. Tim admitted that such books usually turn him off within the first few pages, when they talk about chi and esoteric stuff to explain combative phenomena. According to Tim, it's all purely physical, having to do with subtleties of the nervous system. Then again, why name it a "nervous system"? Why is "red" red? Names are just labels people use to get on roughly the same page. "Nervous system" might as well be "chi."

--I pointed out that Tim was absolutely correct about my being distracted and preoccupied. The previous day, I'd had a business meeting and lunch with a client way out in Long Island (far from Manhattan, where I live and where my office is). The meeting and lunch went well . . . except that I got so involved in the conversation over lunch, I forgot my briefcase in the restaurant! I didn't realize I had forgotten it until I was already back in Manhattan, with no time to go get it before a dinner obligation with some of my wife's friends. Fortunately, when I called the restaurant, they said they had the briefcase and I could pick it up the next day. So, even during the lesson, in the back of my mind was the annoyance that right after the lesson, I'd have to drive out to the restaurant to pick up the briefcase. Were the directions I had accurate (I'd taken the train from Manhattan the previous day, never driven there from Yonkers)? Would I hit bad traffic? Would it take so long that it would kill the evening? How much gas and time was this costing me? Stupid--why did I even bring the briefcase into the restaurant in the first place?!? Tim pointed out that when you're troubled by something, you should 1) identify the problem, 2) identify the solution, 3) identify what you have to do, 4) identify what you're willing to do, and 5) LET IT GO. To dwell on problems and let them disrupt other areas of your life (like training!) is unhealthy and a waste of energy.

--I told him that I felt another thing that was messing me up during the first half of the lesson was that I was being too "controlled," trying too hard to do everything "right." I had been determined going into the lesson to try to "do" everything that Tim had told me to do previously (good L-stance, keeping safe arm positioning, moving body to evade and attack, shoulders low, not focus on single points, etc.). However, in TRYING to do all these things, I completely messed myself up. I was attempting to control my own movements (and therefore trying to control Tim's movements--good luck!) instead of simply allowing my body to react to whatever happened. This actually goes against the absolute basics of Guided Chaos theory, which I've written about--go figure, gotta remember my own advice! Certainly not the first time that has happened. The "control" thing was interesting though. The feeling I had midway through the lesson when Tim finally set me straight was one of "letting go" of any control over my body's motion. It felt like the weight of my arms and body, plus Tim's energy that moved them, were enough to accomplish everything, like a pendulum. I had to LET GO with the whole body, and just let the arms float and do what they will with the lightest of contact. Tim concurred with my observations about the dangers of "control." He pointed out that control was a frequent problem in training cops, which a lot of his students are. It is understandable that they have a tendency to be controlling, because of their occupation. However, it's their "control" that can get them killed!

--Work slowly, but train to cut time and distance in order to reduce the time it takes to accomplish things. Working with only one arm against your partner's two helps in this regard.

--When I mentioned that I find it difficult to keep things slow and trusting with some training partners, Tim pointed out that there's no such thing as a bad training partner. It's up to you to figure out what you can learn from each. He gave me examples of training situations from his experience that at first glance were bad or frustrating situations. However, he learned extremely important lessons from each of them by simply figuring out how to work around the problems. A couple of the skills he learned from these experiences are ones he is "infamous" for to this day. Always try to work a little slower than your training partner, to make you more efficient--accomplishing things faster at a slower speed by cutting time and distance. You may get hit more at first when you force yourself to remain slow, but the long-term benefits are worth it.

--Tim advised me to eliminate my habit of taking quick sidesteps to escape bad situations. He said there's nothing necessarily wrong with stepping, but that I tended to step with my feet faster than the pace the hands were setting. I must be sure to move my feet as slowly as my hands, lest they become uncoordinated and set up unrealistic situations in contact flow.

--Generally, most students' hands are not bad. They can use them with some skill. It's the body unity, the coordination between the hands and the feet and everything in between, that most students don't seem to get.

--Tim used a slightly off-color joke (that he learned from Bob Alexander) to make a point about learning. Sorry, can't repeat it here--the joke or the point!

It seemed like we might have gone on talking for hours had another student not come in for his lesson.

Immediately after the lesson, I felt a bit dismayed that I had "wasted" the first half of it being "not myself"--trying too hard and being too controlling. However, upon further reflection, the lesson I took away from that was very important, and I'll remember it well. I also have a LOT of new food for thought. So, great lesson!

And in case you were wondering. . . . I drove from Tim's place to the restaurant in Long Island, picked up the briefcase (contents intact), and got home without difficulty. The directions were good (Yahoo Maps--I think I like it better than MapQuest), traffic was on average reasonable, and I got home early enough to have an enjoyable evening. The day's travels, from Manhattan to Nanuet (10:15a - 1p Guided Chaos class) to Yonkers (Tim's studio) to Long Island and back to Manhattan, 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., used up less than half a tank of gas. Go 2000 Camry!

Next post will be about . . . well, you'll just have to wait and see (i.e. I have no idea yet)! Stay tuned!!!

P.S. The new Guided Chaos Slam Bags are great! Even though I have and use one of the old steel shot-filled bags, I bought one of the new tan bags on the spot. It's much better for extended workouts. You can drop on this thing full-power until the cows come home and never have your hands go numb. Highly recommended!

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #10

2007-02-02T08:22:00.000-05:00

My Third Tim Tune-up, Part 1...
A note about these lesson recaps:
My normal procedure after a lesson is to jot down some notes on the computer as soon as possible after I get home, before any important details leave my memory. (Of course, sometimes this must come after the execution of important husbandly duties, such a paying bills and making dinner plans.) I jot down the notes in the order in which I recall them, usually starting with the details of the lesson that made the greatest impression on me. The result is that once I'm done with the notes, most of the details have been captured, but the exact order of events has been lost and must be pieced back together. Therefore, please excuse any liberties taken with the order of events in these narratives. I'm doing the best that my memory allows.

I had my third lesson with Tim. While perhaps less action-packed than the first two, it was nonetheless extremely educational--and not just from a Guided Chaos perspective.

The lesson started out very relaxed and jovial. Tim vented good-naturedly about some of the tribulations of his photo business. In contact flow, he initially applied hardly any strikes at all, but continuously locked up my arms and chuckled at my misfortune as I cracked jokes about not wanting to get caught in a particular type of lock more than a dozen times this time. Not sure whether I was successful in this (lost count amidst several other types of locks), but I tried. After a few minutes of this cat-and-mouse fun, Tim started applying some light strikes to the body. I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to stay out of the way. I felt like all my movements were just a split-second too late. The jovial atmosphere continued until after I failed to get out of the way of several light shots in a row. Tim cut off my laughter by grabbing the back of my head and slamming a palm strike to my face (not injurious or painful--but it got my attention) as he said, "Just a reality check."

I took the hint, buckling down to get more serious about trying to stay out of the way. I asked Tim after a few minutes if I was stiffer than usual, as I felt . . . not right, like I was exerting lots of pressure against his arms even while trying not to. Tim said not to worry, to just do what I wanted. I continued to try to move properly, turning the body to stay out of the way while sticking with the arms in advantageous positions. He started giving occasional pushes and pulls to my arms and elbows, from my perspective coaxing me to react properly by letting the body turn loosely in response to his inputs and bring my weapons on line. However, it didn't feel right. My reactions felt jerky and uneven, and unconnected--like my arm would move in response to his push, then the body would try to catch up.

Tim commented that I wasn't myself today. I'd seemed pretty relaxed for the first two lessons, but today was different. He asked if I'd had a bad day, or a rough week, or if something was on my mind. He added that he didn't need to know what it was, but whatever it was, I had to separate it and leave it outside. He asked what I drank, and I told him mostly water and orange juice. He suggested I start drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes and cigars! I mentioned that I'd eaten an entire bag of potato chips in one sitting earlier in the week, and he approved. He then related his philosophy on nutrition: "They say 'you are what you eat,' right? And you want to live a long time, right? Well, how long do fruits and vegetables last? What's their shelf life? A few days! Now, what's the shelf life of potato chips and processed foods? Maybe 25 years??? Which would YOU rather be???" Now THAT's a different take on things! He did concede that his doctor had a reasonable rebuttal to this theory.

In an effort to get me back to my usual self, Tim slowed things down, had me hang my arms loosely from his, then he held my arm against his while slowly moving to strike. I suddenly felt how truly "easy" it should be to get out of the way of strikes, and at that moment, my movement completely changed. Everything suddenly felt effortless and nonchalant. I had no idea where my arms were going, but I wasn't getting hit and my body did not feel separated from my arms. Tim said, "Ah, HERE we go!" A minute later he added with a smile, "Ah, and now you're hitting me!" This actually surprised me, and I looked to see my chops and elbows slowly and lazily floating past his chest and neck. Go figure.

Now that I was "back," we got back to business. Tim said, "Okay, now fix your feet." This I did, refining my L-stance. We continued to flow for only a few minutes before a customer came in with a photo restoration project. Tim said that I could hang out until he was done with the customer. He said he would suggest that I go out for a coffee break, but I don't drink it! I hung around and learned something about photo restoration. Interesting stuff. Tim must have a LOT of patience!

After the customer left, we got back to the lesson. To be continued...

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #9

2007-02-01T08:09:00.000-05:00

Mixing With Mike...
If you've never met Big Michael Watson personally, you can see him in action in a couple of the video clips on the Attack Proof website, demonstrating groundfighting. You might notice on one clip that a lot of his demonstration partners seem very hesitant to close in and attack him hard. If you ever have the chance to work with him, you'll understand why. You just don't want to run into any part of Mike.

It's not that Mike is mean or brutal. Quite the opposite--he's one of the nicest, most low-key guys you'll ever meet. He also has extremely good control. The standard John Perkins set for him to achieve his Guided Chaos fifth degree black belt was the ability to flow full-speed with students without injuring them. For a guy built like Mike, that's a tall order.

Returning to that suspicion of mine mentioned in a previous post, if Lt. Col. Al is a government-built combat machine, physically speaking, Big Mike is the next-generation model: taller, broader, heavier, bigger (yet perfectly coordinated) muscles, and a skeleton made of depleted uranium (John says it's titanium but I suspect he's wrong--Mike's bones are too hard and heavy to be mere titanium). Many who have trained with him can recall the experience of watching a bruise form where one of his fingers lightly tapped. No funky chi stuff going on here, just the effect of a big, hard, heavy and relaxed hand.

Mike can put those hands (and elbows, feet, knees, shoulders, etc.) wherever he wants. John sometimes tells the story about the first thing he taught Mike. Logically, because of his imposing stature, no one is going to attack Mike unless that attacker is a) VERY big, b) VERY insane, c) armed (heavily), or d) with very reliable friends, or some combination thereof. In other words, what Mike would face in an attack would be particularly bad, requiring a very devastating response. Therefore, taking advantage of Mike's very long reach, John trained him to be able to get eye gouges anytime, from any position, on anyone. No matter what you do, Mike's fingers will find your eyes, his body loosely twisting and contorting around your attacks to find the available angles. This precise sensitivity extends to everything Mike does with any part of his body. He can use his chest literally like a jackhammer as his arms pull you into a series of rapid-fire dropping slams that he can use to either move you across a room or simply rattle you silly. He can use his long legs like arms, sliding them carefully and precisely past any obstacles to tap your root leg or, if he feels like it, your throat. (Incidentally, Mike was very accomplished in Tae Kwon Do / Hapkido before he found Guided Chaos. Lt. Col. Al relates the story of the first time he and John met Mike. Mike's response to a question about his previous martial arts experience was to jump up and gently kick a light fixture.)

While I've never had a formal private lesson with him, training with Mike in class is always a good and challenging experience. He's a very caring and careful teacher, as long as you're not trying to get your willies by "beating" him. (Don't ask me why some people try this.) John often "uses" him to push people just slightly beyond their limits in terms of sensitivity, looseness, speed, endurance and scrappiness. Mike is an expert at quickly feeling where such limits lie for each individual and adjusting accordingly. It takes a lot of mental focus (not to mention physical prowess) just to stay in with Mike for more than a minute and do what you know you should do despite the constant barrage of light (for Mike--heavy for you!) dropping strikes raining down on your arms and torso and pulling just short of your head and neck. In order to get his own work in, Mike will often flow while standing on one leg, using only one arm. A humorous and slightly annoying phenomenon occurs when you work with Mike in class: other students in the class feel compelled to give you great advice to help you out of your pathetic predicament. "Get to his side! Don't stand in front of him! Stay loose! Don't challenge his strength!" Oh, okay! So if I just wise up and do those things, I'll be A-OK, right??? Sheesh. The point is, if you can even begin to pull off good stuff against Mike (and rest assured, unless you're also a Guided Chaos master, he's letting you do it), you're making good progress.

I recall an incident relatively early in my Guided Chaos journey that led to a great training experience with Mike. I didn't have access to a car, so I had to take a 45-minute bus ride to the Nanuet class. It was winter, and the weather that night was horrible--cold, windy, wet snowstorm. The bus was late and slow, so when it pulled up to the Nanuet stop a half-hour late at 7:10 (the class starts at 7), I was already ticked off. In order to get to the gym where the class is held from the bus stop, you have to walk several hundred yards across a mall parking lot. It was one of the worst walks of my life--I was whipped by strong winds (of course blowing right into my face) and stinging snow, and chilled to the bone. I slipped on ice several times, but luckily didn't fall (thank you Guided Chaos balance training!). When I finally arrived at the gym (7:20-something) and went to the studio where class is held, I found a sign on the door saying that class that evening was canceled. Fuming, I took off my soaked coat and paced around the empty studio. I called my then-fiancee on my cell phone just to vent. As I began to explain the situation to her, in walked Big Mike. Maybe this will be good. . . . I ended up getting an impromptu half-hour private lesson with Mike, during which he introduced me to the concept of dropping on everything. Eventually a few other people showed up and Mike ran a great class. Up until then, I had seen Mike only as a sort of Guided Chaos regulator, there to give the big brutes a real challenge and show them why they had to get loose and sensitive just like the smaller guys. I found out that night what a good and patient teacher Mike can be when given the chance.

And now, as a SPECIAL BONUS, a few recent tips from Lt. Col. Al:

--Use Stacking the Spears with full body rotation, skimming in very small space. Impact includes pull-back like whipping towel.

--Reach-under to clear hand pushing on elbow: pocket deeply to ghost reaching hand as far up and back as possible, tool-replacing further up offending arm, thereby ghosting your body in to where he has no escape.

--Equal pressure to tool replacement further up arm: tool is replaced as whole body arrives to kill.

--Use downward-angled elbow strike to get in and around stuff.

--"Answer the Phone" (see book Attack Proof). Keep horizontal--not too high, with body turning to chop back of neck.

--Pop-check elbow with mini-drop to enter.

--The patented Al Tie-Up: catch one arm, catch the other, turn hips, close distance, kill.

--Anticipate the VICTORY, as well as the GIVING SOMETHING UP.

Remember, none of these are "techniques," but merely ideas about movements to experiment with in contact flow if the opportunity arises. For further clarification, ask questions here or in the forum.

Hopefully I'll be able to arrange another lesson with Tim soon . . . so stay tuned!

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #8

2007-01-31T08:50:00.000-05:00

The Matt Kovsky Chronicles...
My first experience training with Matt Kovsky was the first time I attended the Nanuet class.

I had been attending the weekly Manhattan class for a few months and had had a few private lessons with Lt. Col. Al. At the end of the class, Lt. Col. Al asked Matt to work with me. Little did I know that Al had asked Matt to really test me out, throwing everything including the kitchen sink at me. It started out gentle enough, but soon escalated to perhaps the toughest ten minutes I'd ever experienced up until then. (I've since had tougher ones--some at Matt's hands in other periodic "kitchen sink" sessions!) Once I realized after the first couple minutes that I'd be lucky to even brush Matt's torso with my finger, and in any case would be solidly hit at least a dozen times in the time it took to do so, I determined that I'd simply try my best to stay in there and not give up--no running away (although I was being moved backwards most of the time), no going fetal, no visible tears. Finally, Matt stopped and said, "Good job. Good fighting spirit." I think those were the first words he'd said to me besides "Hi."

We then began to chat and I found out that despite the uncharacteristic introduction (Matt revealed shortly that Al had asked him to give me hell--I had suspected as much), Matt is probably the most "normal" martial arts master I've ever met. He's extremely laid back and easy to talk with on an equal-feeling footing about anything (even when he DOES know far more about the topic at hand than I do). (A major topic lately for him: the horrors of home improvement.) Further, unlike the other Guided Chaos masters, he does not and never has had a high-risk profession, nor is he particularly genetically gifted for combat. Actually, I and most of the other Guided Chaos students "beat" him in height, weight and reach . . . yet he still has no trouble dealing with us. Anyone who has worked with Matt at anything beyond very slow speed can attest to the signature "sting" even his lightest hits carry, and to the frustration that can quickly build as you try in vain to even lay a hand on this "sticky" mongoose skittering around you.

Matt is constantly experimenting with and pondering the Guided Chaos concepts. A lesson with him often includes an illuminating discussion about what HE has been working on lately, not just what I should work on. To a great extent, what I feel while working with him depends on what's been on his mind. If he's been thinking about the way Tim typically operates, I may end up bouncing around between his pulses and strikes, completely off-balance and out of position, while he stands relatively still and experiments with my responses to his pressures and how he can take advantage of them. At other times, when he considers how John can move, I'll be lucky to feel him at all, save for the strikes that twist and ghost in from unexpected angles as his root constantly changes, impossible to find or pin down. Sometimes he'll experiment with the "long Keech" style that Al often uses, his arms swinging in wide, unpredictable arcs. Somehow Matt can make that work even though I outreach him. On the other hand, it's usually worst for me when he becomes "sticky" as glue and climbs in very close, where I feel cramped and begin to tense up against his pulses, thus sending his elbows and palms snapping into my face.

This brings up one of the elements that he most adamantly tells me to work on: getting out of the habit of "biting" on pulses. "Biting" on pulses or pressure refers to tensing against a push rather than just going with it. Beginners typically bite on everything, tensing up in response to any pressure, but people with some experience can still be made to "bite" by someone who knows what they're doing (like Matt!). Often the biting is caused by a deficiency in balance or some subconscious mental block against just letting the pressure go. (As Lt. Col. Al says, after a certain point, improvement in Guided Chaos is all mental.) In any case, biting against a pulse administered by Matt gives him all he needs to control my balance and/or bounce off the tension into a barrage of ricocheting strikes.

Matt's also brimming with analogies and metaphors to help people get their minds and bodies around the Guided Chaos principles. One of his latest is the "air hockey" analogy to help people get an idea of sticking combined with the disengagement principle. Other Matt Kovsky favorites include:

--"Move as if the enemy is covered with a foul-smelling slime [or something more explicit],"
--"Move like a pissed-off alleycat," and
--the "hot potato" analogy to explain the idea of being engaged yet disengaged.

He has a talent for identifying associations with students' previous experiences to shed some light on more obscure Guided Chaos concepts. Examples he's given me have included:

--certain skiing maneuvers compared to dropping,
--tennis footwork compared to root changing and aligning for strikes, and
--comparisons with aspects of various martial arts styles I have experience with (wing tsun, JKD, etc.).

It's always great to work with Matt, whatever's on his mind, not in the least because it reminds me that diligent cultivation of the Guided Chaos principles can make one extremely formidable even without a violent upbringing and career, mile-long arms, or titanium bone structure. . . .

. . . Speaking of mile-long arms and titanium bone structure, perhaps a post about training with Big Mike Watson is in order. . . . Stay tuned!

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #7

2007-01-30T08:30:00.000-05:00

Guided Chaos, Chicago Style...
Hey all, in this post, I'll take a brief break from the lesson recaps to discuss my Chicago trip, visiting family there. Great time all around.

While there, I set aside time to meet with Ken Freeman, the Guided Chaos training group leader and organizer there, and his training partner Chris. They had recently hosted Lt. Col. Al for an intensive day of training, and had trained with him once before previously. Aside from those contacts with Al, they had trained with each other and spent lots of time practicing the Guided Chaos solo exercises.

I must say that I am EXTREMELY impressed and almost embarrassed by the progress that these dedicated individuals (and others like Bob Miller in Oregon) make in the art despite little to no hands-on access to Guided Chaos instructors. I'm impressed because they've truly begun to internalize the principles and make Guided Chaos work for them just from reading the book, watching the videos, E-mailing with instructors and experimenting and practicing on their own. Of course there are certain elements or "refinements" that may be missing because they have no one to really challenge them on a regular basis, but these folks soak up every tidbit of information like a sponge and use it to improve themselves as much as possible.

My embarrassment stems from the fact that while these guys have worked so hard to squeeze every last bit of improvement from the resources available to them, viewing even a single day of access to a Guided Chaos master as a dream come true, I and others in NY take for granted how lucky we are to be able to train all the time with the masters. If we (and I certainly include myself in this "we") worked even HALF as hard as these out-of-state folks work to do what the master instructors tell us and absorb the teachings they give us every day, our progress in the art would be astronomical.

Ken's and Chris' development is a testament to the effectiveness of the Guided Chaos exercises laid out in the book "Attack Proof". For most of 2006, they've had little opportunity to practice Contact Flow (they practiced together more in 2005). However, they've kept up with the solo exercises, and it shows! Ken's balance while doing "Polishing the Sphere," for example, is phenomenal. And he can certainly apply it. He told me about how pleasantly surprised he was recently when a trained fighter "tried him out." Ken said, "I saw no trained technique," because Ken, using the Guided Chaos principles, was able to easily cut off anything the guy tried to do. That's how it's done!

Besides working with Ken and Chris, I also got to work with five acquaintances of theirs who are preparing to graduate from the police academy. Some of these guys already had a little exposure to Guided Chaos (video, book, a token beating from Al during his last visit to Chicago), but hadn't begun to train yet. We went over some concepts relevant to police work:

--Real-world gun retention
--Reactionary gap/sphere of influence
--Contact/cover
--Lethal-force and low-force close combat tactics related to the interview
--Fright reaction
--Dropping applied to striking, controlling a suspect's balance and escaping ambushes

After some demonstrations of the Guided Chaos exercises, we all did contact flow. Everyone got into it very quickly, amazed at how easily anything they tried was neutralized by Ken, Chris and me using the Guided Chaos principles. These guys will be the core of the Chicago training group, and they're off to a great start.

I HIGHLY recommend that anyone in or near Chicago contact Ken about training. He and his group are great guys to train with.

Stay tuned for the next post: "Experiences with Matt Kovsky."

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #6

2007-01-29T08:30:00.000-05:00

Combat Conditioning with Lt. Col. Al...
It's a little difficult for me to objectively describe private lessons with Lt. Col. Al, partly because they're my original standard of what Guided Chaos training is. My first experience with Guided Chaos, as I've mentioned previously, was a 25-minute thrashing from Al. After that, for a period of several months, I attended the weekly Manhattan class and took a private lesson with Al every couple weeks or so. During this time, I continued to attend the Mixed Martial Arts classes I was taking, as well as the occassional Wing Tsun and Escrima class, just to fill out the rest of each week (I was accustomed to training nearly every day). Al finally convinced me to take the time and trouble to make it up to the Nanuet classes (this was before I had access to a car). He even picked me up from the Tarrytown train station twice per week to drive me the rest of the way to Nanuet. After a couple of classes with him and John Perkins in Nanuet, my attendance of the other martial arts classes quickly tapered off, and the rest, as they say, is history.

For the first few months of my Guided Chaos education, Al was my only private instructor. During each private lesson, he gave me an exercise or two (or several) to practice. For the first few lessons, in fact, we did little contact flow, and instead spent most of the time perfecting exercises and discussing and demonstrating how they relate to combat. Al was very clear that if I wanted to make progress in Guided Chaos, I would practice the exercises, properly and regularly. Seemed logical to me.

The first exercise he had me practice took me a bit by surprise. Al told me to simply hit myself! To be more precise, he advised me to apply various strikes (chops, palm strikes, etc.) lightly to various parts of my body in order to begin to get a feel for hitting people with various anatomical weapons ("ridges"). This goes back to one of Al's favorite sayings, which he reminds me of frequently to this day: "Hitting is a part of sensistivity." It takes a precise "touch" to strike a specific part of the human body in such a way as to most efficiently create maximum damage.

Other exercises Al taught me during those first few months were variations of Anywhere Strikes on my BOB striking dummy, all the most basic and important balance and footwork exercises (Ninja Walk, Vacuum Walk, Box Step and related exercises), and some exercises for coordination and body unity (e.g. Puppeteering, Hackey Sack).

We also started spending more time on contact flow. . . .

It's impossible to say what it's like for me to do contact flow with Al, because what I experience depends entirely on what he wants me to feel and learn. He can be as solid and resistant as a rock or as ghostly as a . . . well, as a ghost! This relates to his refrain that once you've mastered sensitivity, you can be as soft or as hard as you want--at the same time. Sometimes he'll use pulsing and tiny changes in position to "take up the slack" until you're completely off-balance with nowhere to move (a feeling of extreme vulnerability), and then a minute later you'll be unable to lay a hand on him as he gyrates and pockets impossibly deeply and loosely to land extremely heavy, penetrating strikes from odd angles, using every possible ridge.

Some common experiences for anyone who's done contact flow with Al include:

--Getting your arms crossed and tied up in a variety of ways, allowing at least one of Al's arms to hit you at will;

--Feeling every bone in your body shake from his dropping chest slam (that's Al striking you from the side with his chest), which allows both of his arms to strike and manipulate your head and neck while you're helpless to do anything about it;

--Watching Al's fist do the "Sugar Ray Leonard" flourish behind his head before dropping through your solar plexus--and, strangely, not being able to get out of the way despite the obvious telegraphing.

Another important aspect of my education from Al has consisted of long conversations during car rides to and from train stations. I must say that my not having access to a car for over a year turned out to be a real benefit in this regard! The conversations ranged in topic from Guided Chaos and martial arts in general to real experiences with violence, child rearing, military strategy, married life (especially around the time of my engagement) and others. No matter what the topic, often the conversation would morph into a discussion of politics. You can get a partial sense of Al's thoughts on this subject by reading the "Letters from Iraq " section of the website. Sometimes the conversation would consist of my simply asking the right question, which would spark a 20-minute cross-disciplinary dissertation. There were times when I wondered whether Al was a human being or an advanced nanochip-based coffee-fueled multi-role uber-officer built by the Marine Corps to process information, train others and win wars. . . . I'm still not fully convinced that that's not the case. . . .

As I advanced in Guided Chaos, private lessons with Al became like trying to drink from a fire hose. I spent much of the lesson being bombarded with concepts, sayings, corrections and training tips as well as fists, chops, palms, fingers, elbows, shoulders, boots, knees, chest slams, hip checks and the occassional head butt. Oftentimes Al would say something very thought-provoking but would cut off my thought process within seconds with a palm strike. The experience for me would be, "Wow, interesting, I wonder what that--OOPH! Stop thinking and MOVE!!!" Much (but not all) of what Al says during a private lesson is intended as food for subconscious digestion. I started to realize this when I began having the experience of "getting" things physically months after a particular lesson, even though I'd consciously forgotten what Al had told me. I might be doing contact flow with another student, my body would do something good, and I'd have the sudden realization: "Aha! So THAT's what Al meant during our private lesson three months ago!"

I have received WAY too many lessons and tips from Al over the last couple years to recount even a fraction of them here. You can find many of them explained in writing in the E-newsletter archives. For now, though, here are a few recent highlights:

--Get BODY as GHOSTLY as HANDS.
--Turn completely to avoid crossing arms.
--Practice Washing the Body with as small movements as possible, making small adjustments with the whole body to escape pressure in very little space.
--When advancing to hit, MOLD body IN until in ideal position to STRIKE.
--Do NOT be tempted to speed up to exploit openings. Move whole body into perfect position to strike.
--Know when you've LOST (i.e. give up on a movement to avoid overcommitment), and know when you've WON (penetrate despite resistance when you have a definite mechanical advantage).
--Move in while "making them miss.
--Release shoulder-body connection to move body around or through arm grabs and pushes.
--Pocket to create space for multi-hits in ultra close range.
--COMPLETELY separate yin from yang (i.e. NO tension build-up) in order to apply pulsing (i.e. using tension purposefully).
--When you MUST stop his attack with a dropping strike, MAINTAIN the pressure (equal pressure--no overcommitment) on the stopped weapon to mask your movement.
--Pulsing: you must catch the exact TIMING, bouncing straight to hit AFTER he begins to "bite" but BEFORE he can recover or change.
--Turning and folding: you must POCKET to make room to bring weapons to bear.
--Slightest pressure . . . nay, mere STRUCTURE of enemy sends ENTIRE body swinging loosely into motion.

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #5

2007-01-28T11:17:00.000-05:00

My Second Tim Tune-up Continued...
Tim explained how his whole body is involved in every movement, even when it looks like just his hands are moving. For example, he showed me how the arm break he'd gotten me with a half-dozen (okay, maybe closer to a full dozen) times was powered by his shifting weight onto his rear leg, not by any increase of strength in his arms. Likewise, a strike he hit me with was created by the slight repositioning of one of his feet, not by the thrusting of his arm.Tim eventually ended the physical part of the lesson, but then had me sit down with him in the front office to discuss any questions I had. We discussed aspects of exercises, things I should concentrate on improving, and general concepts about Guided Chaos. Here are some highlights:

"Looseness" is not floppiness, and it's definitely not SLOPPINESS, but maintaining a "flow" throughout all movement so that you'll go around anything without being stopped.

To Tim, the opponent always feels rigid as a statue, whether Tim is applying no force or 100 pounds of force.

After asking my age, Tim pointed out that I've been using my hands for 27 years. He thinks they probably know how to work together without further guidance! (This was in response to a question I asked about the Tai Chi concept of yin hand and yang hand.)

It's all just balance, sensitivity, coordination between hands and feet . . . and art.

For correct body positioning, imagine how you would stand to push a big old Cadillac up a hill. You would align your body and dig from the legs. The elbows would be down, and the arms themselves would not do much of the work.

During our discussion, Tim got up and we went back into the studio so that he could demonstrate some things he was explaining:

He wanted me to start out in a "safe" position (the L-stance and arm position discussed in the previous lesson), then use the movement of my body and legs to stick with his arms, rather than moving my arms to follow his. If I moved my arms to follow his, my arms ended up out of position and my body ended up open, such that he was able to hit at will while tying up my arms. If I used only body and leg adjustments to stick with his arms (beyond simply turning the waist), my arms remained in a "safe" position, covering my body and connected to it. I noticed that this idea automatically had me moving behind a guard with good (or at least better) body unity. Powerful idea!

Tim also showed me that despite the non-stop barrage of powerful hits he dished out, he was actually playing almost all defense! He stuck to my arms and maintained a safe position for himself, penetrating and hitting only when I made a mistake (balance, tightness, alignment) and put myself in a position where I had no hope of hitting him. He said that to do otherwise was to risk trading punches, which he is not willing to do against someone who really means to hurt him. Furthering that idea, Tim admonished me not to rush my hits. I should hit only when I am in a good position to END it, hitting a good target with full body unity with no chance of being hit back. Anything else is simply asking to trade punches.

Finally, Tim showed me how he uses pulsing. If I have a good position that Tim cannot safely penetrate, he uses a slight addition of uncommitted pressure to force me to move somewhere, even if it's just pushing back to maintain my position. This increase in energy or movement away from a safe position on my part is all he needs to feel my mistakes and begin the slaughter.

By the time I left Tim's studio, my brain was so occupied with pondering everything I had learned that I completely forgot about the visit to the Baskin Robbins near the studio that I had promised myself before the lesson! (Two scoops of Jamoca Almond Fudge does wonders for your sensitivity and balance, by the way.)

For the next few blog posts, I'll discuss my experiences with Lt. Col. Al and Matt Kovsky. Plenty of interesting stuff. . . . Stay tuned!

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #4

2007-01-27T09:05:00.000-05:00

My Second Tim Tuneup...

Hey all, administrative note:
Please feel free to post any questions or comments about this blog on the Guided Chaos forum. Also any special requests. Please keep them considerate though--no "Have Lt. Col. Al break your ribs and drive them into your heart and then write about how it feels." I'll be sure to check the forum every few days. Now back to the races. . . .

My second lesson with Tim was less brutal and even more educational than the first.

In the three-week period between my first and second lesson, I concentrated on eliminating the bad shoulder-raising habit he had pointed out. I also worked on minimizing movement through the use of the ideas Tim had taught me in the first lesson: maintaining the L-stance and turning the waist to absorb pressure and counterattack. A bit of online research revealed the connection between these concepts and similar ones in Tai Chi (see "fa-jing") and gave me much to think about. A private lesson with Lt. Col. Al (more about that in a later post) also helped me get a clearer idea of what Tim had taught me.

Driving to Tim's studio the second time, I did not have Patrick to lead me . . . so of course I missed a turn, had to double back, and wound up almost fifteen minutes late. I called ahead and Tim didn't seem to mind much. Hey, at least I got there!

Very soon after we began contact flow, Tim commented, "Well, your shoulders have gotten better."

Cool!

The lesson continued, and I found it less scary than the first one. I took hardly any neck breaks or telling blows to the head, although the body shots proceeded at a healthy pace. I did my best to a) NOT speed up no matter what (which probably explains why I ran into far fewer shots), and b) respond to pressure by turning rather than by making inefficient arm movements.

Tim pointed out that while my shoulders were doing better, I still had little moments of tension to eliminate, and I seemed to have a habit of raising my far shoulder and elbow when turning. For example, when I would turn to the right, my right (backwards-moving) shoulder tended to rise and the right elbow would leave its relaxed position. Simply another example of habitual and useless (rather than responsive and purposeful) movement . . . and indeed, HARMFUL movement, as it got me hit or got my arm "broken" every time I did it!

This part was comical: At LEAST a half-dozen times (okay, probably closer to a full dozen) in a row, Tim gave me a little pressure that prompted me to turn to my left to let it go. Because of my rising left shoulder and other factors, every time this happened, Tim's hands (guided by my movement--all Tim was doing was applying a little pressure) ended up in perfect position to break my left arm. After at least a half-dozen (okay, probably closer to a full dozen) repetitions of this, each one of which left me dumbfounded, Tim must have concluded that I wasn't going to figure this one out for myself and proceded to explain something to me (after giving my left arm a slightly firmer final tweak, lest I forget the experience!):

Tim pointed out that I seemed to have fairly good awareness of my environment. He came to this conclusion because of my skill at avoiding knocking into the photo and lighting equipment that surrounded us in his studio, even as he backed me up and occassionally tossed me all over the room. (He did notice though that I seemed to have a problem with the vacuum cleaner in one corner. I bumped into and got tangled in this a couple times. I told him that I'm much better at avoiding what appeared to be expensive equipment, in contrast to an old vacuum--no offense to his vacuum.) He then explained that I have to be similarly aware of my whole body in relation to his whole body, not just particular parts under momentary pressure or movement. I shouldn't focus on any one limb, but use the entire body at once all the time. He showed me the consequences of having a narrow focus by drawing my attention to one place (e.g. pressure or an impending strike along one arm) and then hitting me somewhere entirely different with his other arm. This was weird--it seemed at times as if he couldn't be hitting me from the second angle based on where he was standing. He also showed me the difference between using the limbs sequentially as many people do (striking with one arm, then the other, one strike at a time) and using the whole body at once. First he attacked me sequentially, and I was able to evade most of his strikes (not that it was easy!). Then he attacked using everything at once, and . . . I have NO idea exactly what he did, but it SUCKED!!! He didn't actually hurt me, but I was immediately off-balance and immobile, being hit heavily in the torso in one direction while my body was being propelled in the opposite direction (not actually moving though). It looked as if he just stepped in. Point taken: use everything at once!
To be continued....

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #3

2007-01-22T10:07:00.000-05:00

Tim Tuneup Continued...
I should probably mention at this point that throughout this blog, I will be referring to ideas and principles explained most thoroughly in the book "Attackproof." You will understand the blog better if you've read the book. At the very least, in order to learn about the basic principles of Guided Chaos, you should subscribe to the free E-newsletter. The first newsletter you receive upon signing up will contain an article explaining the Guided Chaos concept and its four major principles. Note that you won't find this article in the Newsletter Archives (where you'll find loads of other valuable information)--you need to sign up for the newsletter to receive it.

Picking up where I left off in my last post, my first lesson with Tim:

As the initial beating calmed a bit, Tim started to give me tips about how to improve my movement.

The first tip was to stop raising my shoulders for no reason. I never before realized how much I did this. Tim pointed out how my shoulders frequently shrugged up when there was no need for them to. (Raising a shoulder could be warranted to protect the neck or head from an incoming strike or to gain new attack angles.) The effect of the randomly raised shoulders was to raise my elbows, decreasing protection of my torso, and reduce the reach and range of motion of the arms. It also introduced unnecessary tension into my arms, reducing my sensitivity. Well, the most basic effect was that every time I did it, I got hit! Point taken--I'll have to work to break that habit.

Another of my problems was failing to constantly stick to Tim's arms. In my effort to be light and not push or overcommit, or while moving to strike, I was often losing contact. I can get away with this against some people. Not against Tim! Every time I lost contact with one of his arms, it hit me. I have to work on getting that balance between sticking constantly yet not pushing (which is overcommitting), and not being lazy in cases where I can get away with not doing it right. That just brings on bad habits.

In general, Tim was ramming home to me that ANY superfluous or incorrect (i.e. not in line with the Guided Chaos principles) motion with any part of the body could get me killed. Also, he was critical of how I tried to strike the several times he asked me to hit him. He said that I used way too much arm effort and not enough body, resulting in weak strikes that exposed me to counters. I felt that he was breaking down everything I knew (or THOUGHT I knew!) in order to build it back up again in a more efficient manner. What follows is how he did that.

He had me stand in a good, rooted L-stance (not a T-stance, which would imply crossed legs), with the front foot pointed straight towards him and the rear foot pointed 90 degrees away. He told me to distribute my weight perfectly 50/50 initially, so that I could move it forward or back depending on what was dictated by my sensitivity (never remaining double-weighted once the action begins). He then had me grab his thumbs, which he was holding maybe 18 inches in front of my upper chest, and just let my arms hang limply from his thumbs. He pointed out the position this put my arms in: relaxed, shoulders down, elbows hanging low and naturally in front of my torso, the forearms covering most of my torso. He then had me add just enough tension to the arms to keep them in that position without actually resting on his arms. This would be the basic position I would use to stick to his arms during contact flow.

From here, settled in my 50/50 L-stance and sticking to his arms with mine in the basic relaxed position, I was shown how I could negate any advancing pressure or any attempt to penetrate my guard by simply turning my waist and shifting weight appropriately to maintain balance and space, while keeping my arms in the same basic position relative to my body. In this way, I was always sticking to his arms with my relaxed arms in-between his arms and my vital areas, never getting out of position or making superfluous movements ("moving behind a guard" in Attackproof). From there, I was able to use the natural rebound of the waist turning back to center and beyond to counterattack with body unity, using rocker-type motions of the arms to whip out chops, elbows and palm strikes powered by the turning of the whole body (driven from the legs) while keeping his arms far from my vital areas. This was a very efficient way of moving that brought all the Guided Chaos principles into play with minimal movement!

Tim gradually turned up the difficulty level for me as I tried to apply this simple way of moving while remaining loose, balanced, sensitive and unitized. The few times I did everything right (or right-ish), I received a "Good!" or something like it. The rest of the time, I got hit whenever I made a mistake.

Too soon, the physical part of the lesson was over. Tim and I talked for a few minutes, during which he gave me some additional advice and philosophy for my own practice:

--It all comes down to the BASICS, and the better practitioner is the one who makes fewer MISTAKES.

--EVERY time you get hit, it means you made one or more of the following mistakes: you were off-balance, you weren't loose somewhere (i.e. you tightened up and didn't move with something), and/or you didn't stick.

--Work very slowly; DON'T speed up, even to avoid hits; and work with your eyes closed.

After this first lesson, this was my interpretation of Tim's teaching style contrasted with John's, Al's and Matt's (keeping in mind that this is only how these guys teach ME--they may work very differently with others, based on the student's needs):

Whereas John, Al and Matt allow me to experiment in contact flow while subtly and gradually nudging me towards fuller and more efficient expression of the Guided Chaos principles, Tim immediately punishes any deviation from good movement according to the principles, conditioning my body to do nothing BUT good movement. It's an interesting contrast, and from my perspective, both methods are extremely useful. That's why I'll continue to take lessons from as many Guided Chaos masters as possible--and you'll get to read about them here!

I waited about three weeks before arranging another private lesson with Tim, because I wanted time to work with the advice he gave me and to try to eliminate the bad habits he pointed out. You'll find out in the next post how well I did, what Tim thought about it, and what else he decided to teach me. . . . Stay tuned!!!

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #2

2007-01-20T08:31:00.000-05:00

Time for a Tim Tune-up...
Before I went to Tim's photo studio in Yonkers for my first lesson with him, I received all sorts of advice from many people: "Whatever you do, DON'T SPEED UP!!!" "Do NOT try to kick!!!" "If he takes out a rusty screwdriver, MOVE!!!" "You'll DIE!!!" "You'll have your arms broken, THEN you'll DIE!!!" "Be sure to check your ego at the door and ask questions." (That last bit of advice was from Lt. Col. Al. It proved to be the most useful.) Many folks warned me that Tim has a much more brutal teaching style than Matt, Al or John. I wasn't especially nervous though, considering I'd never heard of Tim actually killing a student, and he has plenty of very skilled and devoted students. Heck, Al attributes a great deal of his progress in Guided Chaos to his year of weekly lessons with Tim. What concerned me most was the possibility of getting lost on the way to his studio. Fortunately, Patrick was nice enough to lead me there in his car.

I decided three things before the lesson began:
a) I would NOT attempt to strike Tim unless he told me to.
b) I would NOT kick, or even lift my legs, unless he told me to.
c) I would do my best to do exactly what he suggested to the best of my ability.

The lesson started with Tim feeling out what I could do. He was immediately very amused and a bit dismayed by how much I moved unnecessarily. I knew this was a problem for me: Lt. Col. Al's most frequent admonition during our last few lessons had been, "You're moving too much." Further, a key aspect of Tim's reputation is how he accomplishes so much destruction with so little movement. The first ten minutes or so of the lesson were indeed a bit brutal. Patrick, who was watching, told me later that while I was not speeding up to attempt strikes, I was unconsciously speeding up in attempts to avoid Tim's strikes, which necessitated Tim's accelerating slightly to maintain control--which he certainly did maintain!

Tim encouraged me to view contact flow differently from how many Guided Chaos students view it. As he explained, in a real violent confrontation, ANY successful attack from the enemy can mean your demise, either directly or because of what can follow. So, instead of treating contact flow like a fun exercise where both trainees will hit and be hit and learn from it, he demands from his student perfect movement and control of the situation at all times--and all mistakes are punished immediately. I felt right away that no matter how hard I tried (if I were indeed trying), I would never even come close to hitting him if he didn't want me to. His arms stuck to me lightly but consistently, like glue. His whole body moved subtly in response to any movement on my part, immediately cutting off tiny angles such that I'd have to move much further to get around. Any deviation on my part from good positioning and unitized motion allowed one or both of his arms to slip through and hit me or break one of my arms or disrupt my balance. All of Tim's strikes were incredibly loose and effortless--like they were "falling" horizontally--but every single one also had fully unitized body motion behind it. I felt that Tim was not hitting me hard, in that he was putting no effort into increasing the speed or power of his strikes. However, even at low speed with minimal motion, a loose, fully unitized body packs a lot of wallop! The only blood that was drawn (from my lip and a little bit from my nose) was the direct result of my running into his hands while unconsciously speeding up in attempts to squirm away from his strikes. Tim was very passive, never initiating anything (as far as I could consciously tell--more on that in the second lesson), but simply taking advantage of every mistake--and it seemed for the first ten minutes or more, every movement I made was a fatal mistake!

Some of the most memorable and frequent hits I took were neck and arm breaks. John and Al had done simulated neck breaks to me before, always stopping far short of doing any damage. The ones Tim did were different. He would drive the fingers of one hand into the hollow on the back of my head where the skull and spine join to secure my head for a split second, and WHACK with a straight palm strike with the other hand to the front of my head at just the right angle to send my head spinning. Every single time he did this, I felt a weird feeling in my neck--but no pain afterward. Also, my eyes seemed to vibrate back and forth horizontally for over a second after the WHACK. No doubts about the effectiveness of that one! This happened to me many times, and although it didn't really hurt or cause any damage, it was not a pleasant feeling. The best I accomplished in trying to prevent it at one point between the initial grab and the palm strike was to squirm my head so that Tim's palm accidentally hit my nose instead of the less painful areas he had been aiming at! That's where the nosebleed came from. And yes, it still felt like my neck would have been snapped. Tim's facility with arm breaks was amazing. I couldn't escape from them even when he put them on very slowly. He just made tiny adjustments to his body to prevent me from getting away. He never sought the arm breaks. He just picked them up whenever I overextended and put my arm into position for them. Good motivation not to overextend!

And while I suppose I didn't merit a rusty screwdriver, Tim's pocket knife did come out at one point to demonstrate the importance of getting out of the way and viewing all attacks in contact flow as potentially lethal. As he pointed the knife at me and slowly moved forward, he asked, "What would you do?" Without thinking about it, I stepped sideways and turned, giving the knife a wide berth. "Right," he said, "but you moved too far."

That's enough for this one. In my next post, I'll go over what specific things Tim suggested I do, and what specific lessons I took away from the lesson. Stay tuned. . .

"MY LESSONS WITH THE MASTERS..." Ari Kandel's personal training blog. #1

2007-01-19T16:11:00.000-05:00

Hi all--- This blog is going to discuss lessons I learn (or attempt to learn!) from Guided Chaos masters such as Tim Carron, Al Ridenhour, Matt Kovsky and of course, Guided Chaos Founder John Perkins.

A little background about me:
I'm currently a Guided Chaos 1st Degree Black Belt, having trained in Guided Chaos for about two and a half years. Prior to discovering Guided Chaos (through a 25-minute introductory beating by then-Major Al, during which I managed to hit him all of zero times while he pulverized me), I had trained in Wing Tsun, Escrima, Mixed Martial Arts and Close Combat, as well as dabbling in a couple other systems and doing the whole kiddie Karate and Tae Kwon Do thing earlier.

Since beginning my Guided Chaos training, I've had many private lessons with Lt. Col Al and Matt, and a few semi-private lessons with John, but up until about a month ago I had never trained with Tim, John's highest-level student. My first lesson with Tim will be the subject of my next post.
Stay tuned...