Effortless Power – Part 4

[Note: This is part Four of Five in this series on Effortless Power by Yosef Susskind, 4th Degree Instructor GUIDED CHAOS. Once again I want to thank Yosef for allowing me to post this to my blog. For Parts - 1, 2  and 3 go here: https://protectyourself.mykajabi.com/blog/effortless-power-part-1-2

here,  https://protectyourself.mykajabi.com/blog/2

and here https://protectyourself.mykajabi.com/blog/effortless-power-part-3] 

By Yosef Susskind

In “Effortless Power” parts 1-3, we set our covetous gaze on the unique ability of masters and champions to exercise effortless power with insurmountable creativity.  We asserted that Guided Chaos delineates governing principles of body mechanics, which manifest in athletic and martial excellence.  These principles are: Balance, Looseness, Sensitivity, Body Unity, and Freedom of Action.

Balance

Without balance, there can be no power.  Imagine two climbers of similar body mass suspended in harnesses, hanging freely from a rocky ledge.  The one on the right says, “bro, that harness is totally giving you a muffin-top,” and a fight ensues.  No matter how much they paw at each other, they will inflict limited damage.  Without a surface to brace against, they can only deliver limited force.  As soon as one of their strikes delivers sufficient force to overcome both bodies’ inertia, the strike will push them apart—swinging in mid-air—and cease to do damage. 

Isaac Newton’s 3rd law of motion states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  When one climber’s fist exerts force on the other’s body, the body pushes back.  Both climbers are pushed, and swing apart in opposite directions.  The force of the strike does not penetrate, but dissipates as it moves the climbers.   

Try striking a heavy-bag while standing on a balance board.  You may stand on one leg or two.  If your balance is centered, you can hit every bit as hard as you would on steady ground.  If your balance falters, the force of your strike will send you backwards, and likely take you off of your feet.  You push the bag—the bag pushes back.  As soon as your strike generates enough force to push you off balance, you can no longer exert force on the bag.  The bag wins.

Whether you are standing on a balance board or on the ground, to exert force and penetrate an enemy you must be able to exert at least the same amount of force with your feet as they brace against the ground.  The moment you project more force onto the target than your feet can match against the ground, the force of the strike ceases to penetrate the enemy and instead pushes you backwards, and possibly off your feet.  Your strikes are only as strong as your balance. 

Cultivating combat balance means learning to control your equilibrium under combat conditions.  There is no limit to the number of ever-changing factors we may have to adapt to in the melee.  We may have to yield and strike and step all at once, attacking in multiple directions while evading in others.  These feats can only be executed with equilibrium control. 

Imagine being surrounded by enemies (as LtCol Al would say, “Don’t let that shit happen in the first place”).  All of those surrounding enemies, each of their weapons, and every striking surface of their limbs, are a constellation of danger.  Your body must conform to their orbit, and move through the spaces in between the danger.  You must adapt to their positions and harmonize with their movement:  Penetrate the stars’ orbit and start smoking planets. 

To achieve this, how creative would you want your body’s movement to be?  Wouldn’t you want to have the full range of possible human motion at your disposal?  Mastery of balance, or “equilibrium control,” is a prerequisite for this paradigm of dynamic movement.  Balance not only allows you to move gracefully even at the limits of your body’s full range of motion, it allows you to move there powerfully, so that there is no position from which you cannot assault or ambush your enemies.  No matter how uncanny your body position, if you are in control of you equilibrium your leg can flex against the ground, creating the footing from which your body can deliver its full power onto the enemy. 

In the coming newsletter, we will continue to examine the role of balance in effortless power.

Copyright 12/23/17

Yosef Susskind a 4th Degree Black Belt Instructor in Guided Chaos, who has trained with Grandmaster John Perkins and Senior Master Al Ridenhour since 2003. He is the editor of the Guided Chaos Instructors Guide, and writes newsletters on the mental and technical aspects of the art. He holds a bachelor of arts in literature from Columbia University and a master of arts in philosophy from Duquesne, and has lectured on Nietzsche, Plato, existentialism, and symbolic logic. As a security consultant with a background in executive protection and event security, he has protected prime-time network TV hosts, Fortune 500 executives, and Israeli dignitaries, and provided security at some of the most high-risk nightlife venues in New York City.

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