Lessons from My Masters 23: Observations – Ruthless Intent Part VII

“Punchers are made not born…”

                   --Jack Dempsey

In the next few installments of “Lessons from My Masters” I’m going to try to tie everything together that I’ve been discussing regarding "Ruthless Intent". It is my intent to hopefully create a clear path of understanding to help you focus you on how you should think about training and to provide a methodical way to organize your thoughts as you develop your warrior skills.

Bruce Lee

I can remember the first time I saw it. I guess I was in high school and I was over a friend’s house who like I was a Bruce Lee fanatic. We were watching some Bruce Lee special about his life and it was interesting because I had never seen Bruce Lee move outside of say the movies, and it was the infamous film of him demonstrating the “one-inch punch” which has become legend among martial artist. This is the one I believe at the 1964 Ed Parker Tournament where he hits the volunteer in the chest and knocks him back into a chair about six feet away. When you’re a 16-year old Bruce Lee fan this was like looking at magic. I was sold.

The problem was over the years as I began my martial arts studies I never saw anyone duplicate this feat. Sure I’d seen guys who could punch your face in but they were power punchers such as boxers, which to young eyes is not as impressive as some guy who couldn’t have weighed more than 140-lbs knocking some guy back into an awaiting chair. It wouldn’t be until a decade later I would be introduced to Grandmaster Perkins through a mutual friend that I would actually see this in the flesh. I can still remember the conversations that went on off and on for several years before I would finally have a chance to “check out” what my friend was talking about. The conversations would usually go something like this,

Me: "Come on Dennis, no way!"

Dennis: "Dude you can’t believe how these people can move."

I’ll cut to the chase and let’s just say on my first meeting with Grandmaster Perkins, not only could I not lay a glove on him but when he introduced me to the “no inch punch” after that there was really nothing else that needed to be said. 

He says, “You’ve probably heard of Bruce Lee’s famous one-inch punch?“

I’m like, “Sure”.

He says, “Well I do thing I call the no inch punch. Here I'll show you.”

Rut-row..

Now you have to understand, at this point this is where my BS meter was going off. You see, by this point in my life I’d been doing the pugilistic arts since I was a kid and studying Karate formally since I was 19 years old. I’d been to the Do Jo’s on Okinawa, seen martial arts in South Korea and “authentic” Okinawan Karate and Tae Kwon Do. So to say I was little skeptical would have been an understatement. Let’s just say that after he “shared knowledge” with me and drop hit me back at least ten feet into the wall practically knocking the wind out of me. I was like, “I’m in!”

This would be the beginning of my descent, “down the Rabbit Hole”.

As an aside, I would later discover through my studies with my Master’s that the Bruce Lee one-inch punch was more of a "trick" than an actual display of what we call "Drop Striking". No disrespect to Bruce Lee, but if you go back and look at that old demo he did you actually see that what he does is more of a "push", where he actually winds up from several inches away and “pushes” the guy back into the chair. Still a pretty impressive feat for a small guy. However, I’m only pointing this out because what he was doing is a far cry from the techniques and skills that Grandmaster Perkins has developed. In other words, we “ain’t” talking about the same thing.

I only highlight this to draw a distinction from the technique he used from what we call “Drop Striking”.   

The Way of "The Way"...

“In my school, no consideration is given to anything unreasonable; the heart of the matter is to use the power of the knowledge of martial arts to gain victory any way you can.”

                       ― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

This is what you want to be able to do…

This is what it’s all about…

The Ruthless Intent and ability to bring it!

The ability to bring forth the fire.

To summon your will and focus it, without thought, without effort.

To be able to strike at supernatural speed.

To strike with the force of a lightning bolt.

The ability to crush…

To move in a way that even the weapon you wield feels like a feather in your hand.

Where you and your weapon become one.

Where your weapon ends and where your body begins, feels “indistinguishable”.

Where you move in a way where you can’t imagine ever moving any other way.

It is just what you do...

To me this is why you train, this is why you do what you do, the way you do it in training.

To me this is the whole reason for training in the first place.

But in order to be able to get to that place your mind has to be in the right place for how you think influences how you move, and how you move reinforces how you think about how you move. And through a million observations, through trial and error, through a million adumbration's of dealing with another person’s motion you just "know".

Of bringing everything you have learned in the body together at the same time. You arrive at a place of "pure flow” of the warrior state of “Mushin” mind, the place where you “know without knowing”. Where through all of the training and preparation, because you have built it up through thousands of hours of proper training and through perhaps millions of touches, millions of impressions of moving with people’s bodies. You arrive at a place where your ability to gain the Shadow Impression is not even a thought.  It just “is”.

The ability to Drop Strike and deliver without thought, with utter ruthlessness, to crush with one stroke, from everywhere and any position, where every movement is lethal to your opponent, where every part of their body is a target. Because, when everything on their body is a target they are safe nowhere. This is the end state of what you want to be able to do and what you wish to become.

It's Just You

“You should not have any special fondness for a particular weapon, or anything else, for that matter. Too much is the same as not enough. Without imitating anyone else, you should have as much weaponry as suits you.”

                           ― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

As we say in the Marine Corps, “It’s not the dope on the gun but the dope behind the dope”. It is not about what type of weapon you wield, or what you own, these things are but extensions of your body, of your will. Like those signs you see at times in convenience stores, “FORGET THE DOG - BEWARE OF THE OWNER”. It is about how you develop yourself, train yourself, shape yourself, shape your mind and spirit, it is about you becoming the weapon. It is because at the end of the day it is only about you and how you develop yourself. The key understanding here is it’s always been about you and how you perceive yourself and your ability to bring it.

I was recently discussing some of this with some students and as usual there were some very good questions being asked and one question I was asked is,

“What should I be focused on when I’m training in order to develop all this stuff you keep talking about?”

I simply responded, “You need to focus on killing bad guys”.

Going back to things I have said in the past the question each person who trains in a martial art has to ask themselves at the end of the day is,

“Why do they train in a martial art and what is it they are looking to develop?

As Musashi stated over 400 years ago,

“The primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy's cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him.”

                                   ― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

Now, as I channel a little von Clausewitz so to speak, in all of your training and learning on the fighting arts, your focus needs to be on winning in combat! Period! There should be no ambiguity in your mind about this. This mindset is the essence of Ruthless Intent. This is not a debate where you can think you can get a little pregnant on this issue.

Over the years during my training session with my Masters there was never any doubt at least in my mind, that the intent of what they were teaching was about destroying people who needed destroying. Drop Striking is but a tool in your kit to achieve this. 

Now for some folks training in the martial arts is all about the discipline, for some as Master Martarano would say it’s about the “romance”. For some it’s all about getting in shape, for others it’s a sport and for others is more about attaining some higher level of self-actualization. Whatever your reason is your business, but I’ll tell you this, if at the root of your reasoning you’re not training to deal with the bad guys and sending them to the afterlife, you’re wasting your precious time that you don’t get back.

“The Way of the Samurai is found in death.”

                    --Hagakure

So my point is whatever you’re doing, if it is not about training to win in real life and death battle. Then it is not a martial art in its purest form but something else, and if it’s something else then you need to just say so and be done with it.

I do not say this lightly because even within my own art I have seen a number of mindsets play out. For some it’s all about who they can best in class, for others Guided Chaos is just a higher form of “push hands”. For others it’s not about learning to fight for their lives but some other bogus reason that only they can fathom that only makes sense in to them.

They delude themselves...

This is why the understanding of Ruthless Intent is so vital to your development regardless of what you study. I don’t care of all you know how to do is lead with your left hand and step and punch with your right hand. “If” as I like to say you don’t “mean that shit”. It’s probably not going to happen for you.  This is not just a physical thing although the physical ability to do it instills the confidence and courage to bring it, but about developing the moral will from day one in your training and in all that you do. 

Anyway…

 “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.”

                                    --Anonymous

I know I’ve discussed this before in the past but one thing that I have never done and that is tied these concepts together and how it relates to Ruthless Intent. Let's be honest, Drop Hitting is one of, if not the "coolest" techniques we teach and until you've felt it for yourself you just would not believe how devastating a strike it is but, before I get into this.

I want to share something because many people think that Drop Hitting is some sort of parlor trick, which is understandable since the martial arts is full of all sorts of mystical nonsense. So I’m going to expend some electrons providing some historical background on this because this concept is not new. It’s just that very, very few people know how to teach it let alone it’s deeper development and application of what we call “Internal Dropping” (I'll cover this in another Blog Post).

As a part of developing Ruthless Intent, when I discussed in the last installment about being able to do something about it when you arrive this is what you want to be able to do. This is what I mean about having the skill to do something about it. This is what gives you that bone crushing power. The ability to slap the "Hell" out of people with little to no effort.

When Grandmaster Perkins strikes you like this it’s like getting hit with a stone. It goes right to the core of your being. You feel like you’re being "stoned to death". Everywhere he touches you just “hurts”. I can remember when Grandmaster Carron had struck me on the back while doing this, it literally felt like getting hit with an iron skillet and I’m not talking about that non-stick pan bullshit you see on late night infomercials, I’m talking about “iron”. When they hit you, your ass stayed hit!

Oh yeah… like I said this is what you want to know how to do.

Origins of Dropping

“Efficiency and smooth progress, prudence in all matters, recognizing true courage, recognizing different levels of morale, instilling confidence, and realizing what can and cannot be reasonably expected—such are the matters on the mind of the master carpenter. The principle of martial arts is like this.”

                    ― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

While other martial arts systems in the past have alluded to this concept it’s been my personal experience that while they talk about it. None of them can do it outside of parlor tricks where they set up all of the variables to make it work.  

Since Guided Chaos is an American system we’re going to give credit where credit is due. While the method of Drop Striking as developed by Grandmaster Perkins is unique to Guided Chaos, if you read our book “Attack Proof: The Ultimate Guided to Personal Protection” we actually give credit to drop striking to the legendary boxer Jack Dempsey. (As an aside, Grandmaster Perkins was also personal friends with Shihan William Dempsey, nephew of the legendary boxer himself. So he was able to confirm a lot of the stories about his uncles incredible hitting power.)

"In a boxing match you can win by points, in a real fight you have to knock people out."

                      -- Jack Dempsey

From his book, “Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense” (which is an awesome book by the way if you can find a copy, sorry you can't have mine).  Legendary boxer Jack Dempsey discusses not only the importance of learning how to properly punch but also the epiphany he had as he began to train fighters. 

“Louis retired as undefeated heavyweight champion in 1949. And I'll bet that, as he retired, Joe considered himself a natural-born puncher. I know that's probably true because I had the same mistaken idea about myself during my career and for a time after I hung up my gloves. If you're a punching champion it's natural for you to get the wrong appreciation of yourself. Hundreds of admirers pat you on the back and tell you what a "natural-born" fighter you are. And when you're swept along toward seventh heaven by the roar of the crowd in your magnificent moments of triumph, it's easy to forget the painstaking labor with which you and your instructors and trainers and sparring partners fashioned each step in your stairway to the throne… In your heyday as champion, you can't ‘see the forest for the trees.’ As an historian might express it, you're too close to your career to get the proper perspective of highlights and background. It was only after I had retired and had begun trying to teach others how to fight that I investigated the steps in my stairway-analyzed my own technique. And that was a tough job. You see: by the time a fellow becomes a successful professional fighter, nearly all his moves are so instinctive, through long practice, that it's difficult for him to sort out the details of each move…”

Dempsey goes on to explain that more often what is mistaken for natural talent when striking was actually a part of a process that brought him to the results he had in the ring.

“When I began breaking down my moves for the purpose of instruction. It hit me right on the chin with the booming fact that since I was six years old, I'd had the opportunity to learn punching from a long parade of guys who had studied it. I had absorbed their instructions, their pointers, their theories, in Manassa, Montrose, Provo, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Goldfield, Tonopah, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, St. Paul, and many other cities-before I met Willard at Toledo. And let me emphasize that in the days when I was drinking in all that information, the fighters, trainers and managers knew much more about punching than they generally know today. Now, it is over thirty years since the day I fought Willard. During those years fighting became "big business"; but in the scramble for money in the cauliflower patch, the punching technique of the old masters-Sullivan, Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons, Tommy Ryan, Joe Gans, Terry McGovern, and others- seems to have been forgotten…”

     --Jack Dempsey, Championship Fighting Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense

In Guided Chaos, Drop Hitting is sometimes referred to as the “Dempsey Drop” this is because as I said the original drop puncher for all intents in the modern era was Jack Dempsey. The point is as Dempsey came to his conclusions it was through proper training that anyone can learn to become a good puncher and that it had less to do with physical talent and more to do with proper training and hard work. This, I find to be a fascinating insight and to think he said all this nearly 70 years ago. While the method we employ to develop this is slightly different and in my opinion it is much faster to learn the principle behind how it works and how to develop it as Dempsey described above is not new just misunderstood as he stated,

“The punching technique of the old masters-Sullivan, Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons, Tommy Ryan, Joe Gans, Terry McGovern, and others - seems to have been forgotten…”

Now, in the internal marital arts this technique is called "Cold Power".  All Cold Power is, is the ability to suddenly bring all of your body into the strike at the right moment with complete relaxation and all of the physics behind it. Much of what Jack Dempsey stated above could probably be said about today’s martial artist and sport fighters in that this concept is a lost art and totally misunderstood today.

The explosiveness of dropping is the same effect as a football player blasting someone into the next world with a devastating hit, a hockey player checking someone into the boards or hitting a slap shot. The difference is in sports they are allowed to over commit on their movement or as in the case of football give up their entire body, whereas in a fight this is unacceptable since it makes you vulnerable to possible counter-strikes.

When striking people, the Drop Punch when done correctly it should feel like hitting a baseball on the sweet spot of the bat, or hitting a golf ball on the right spot of the club. In other words, when all of the physics and body unity come together upon contact the strike feels “effortless” yet the effect is extremely potent. In essence this is the purest application of the Tai Chi concept "Fa Jing" and chi or as some books on the internal arts describe it "...the circulating point of finesse in the body."

What is Dropping Energy?

Rather than just talking through this I’m going to cover some of this with a few diagrams because as I have seen over the year’s people screw this up “all-of-the-time”.  Jack Dempsey’s book covers this in a similar fashion however, I’m going to present it in a different manner because our methodology for developing it is different and can be learned in minutes rather than days or weeks.

Dropping Energy refers to an accelerated lowering of the entire body weight into a current or new root. Whatever your body weight is, it becomes a formidable weapon when you get it moving all at once in accordance with gravity.

The sensation of dropping is similar to stumbling off a curb and catching yourself, or falling asleep at the wheel of your car and then jerking awake. It resembles the effect when you sneeze or cough: your diaphragm contracts violently and your whole body spasms and drops.

The energy when sneezing or coughing is explosive but involuntary the key is you want to be able to control it at will, directing it to any weapon, this is the essence of what you are trying to accomplish.

Dropping consists of two parts that happen simultaneously:

1. Stand with your knees slightly bent next try to bend them so quickly that for a split second your whole body becomes weightless, so that a slip of paper could actually be inserted between your feet and the ground. Most beginners make the mistake of actually jumping up first, which entirely misses the point. If you are a skier or play hockey, the sensation is similar to downward un-weighting (the fastest way to change edges in a turn).

2. Halt the drop with a snap to start the shock wave of energy. You don't want to drop more than a couple of inches at most. Think of it as snapping a wet dishtowel or cracking a whip; you're essentially trying to "catch the bounce" your body makes as it's stopped. Your momentum bounces off the floor through your feet and back up your body to be channeled into whatever weapon you're using, provided all your joints are properly aligned for maximum power generation from your foot all the way through your weapon. Think of it this way: a whip will generate zero power if a) it's grabbed in the middle just as it's snapped or b) the timing is wrong gathering the entire length of the whip for a wave-like crack or c) the whip itself is dipped in water and rigidly frozen (this is akin to fighting in an external style using pure grunting muscular exertion).

When you drop properly, in a relaxed manner all the loose flesh on your body shakes violently in the same way as cracking a whip from there you can drop situation depending into one or both legs or from leg to leg, it doesn't matter.

Advantages of Dropping as a Source of Power:
    * It requires no continuous muscle tension or great strength
    * It requires no windup or chamber
    * It's perfect for fighting nose-to-nose, where the most mayhem occurs and where there's no room to pull back and chamber a strike
    * It delivers more energy in less time
    * You can deliver it at any angle, including upward
    * It causes far more internal damage to the enemy
    * It doesn't disrupt your relaxation, sensitivity, or balance; instead, it augments them 

Oh, One More Thing…

“Where does the Master Swordsman Strike? Nowhere.”

                  --Takuan Soho, The Unfettered Mind

In order to get to where you want to get to you have to be able to properly train yourself to go to that place. The place where your mind goes on autopilot and everything is just a “State of Flow”. Drop Striking like anything else needs to become like this for you. 

If you’ve ever seen the Warren Miller documentaries where he delves into the world of some of the most elite extreme athletes it’s really worth your while. Shows like, “Step into Liquid” and “Warren Millers Flow State”. Are really great and even if you know little about the sports he presents they are put together in a way that anyone can enjoy them. Basically the premise is he seeks out some of these elite athletes and lets them tell their stories and then films them doing some of the most extreme things as they travel the world seeking thrills and adventure. 

Aside from the action my favorite parts are the back stories or the human interest parts of his documentaries where he asks the athletes questions and they tell their stories. If you listen very carefully no matter what the sport, there is a pattern to all of their stories and the pattern goes as follows:

“Ever since I was a kid where I was introduced to (pick your sport, skiing, snowboarding, surfing etc.) I knew that’s what I wanted to do. So I would practice every day on whatever I wanted to get good at. I even as I got older I sought out the best coaches I could find to teach me and then I would practice all of the time refining my skill because I wanted to be the best. Now whenever I (ski, snowboard or whatever) I’m not even thinking about it, I just do it.”

As they “all” attest over and over, whenever they’re doing what it is they do even on some of the most challenging ski courses or waves as with the surfers, they all say something along the lines of,

“Now when I’m doing (X), I don’t even think about it I just focus on doing my run and enjoy (X). I’m only thinking about that thing I’m doing at the time, or I only focus on (X).”

Over and over you hear this consistent refrain it is because these folks at the highest levels have done it so much that they no longer have to think about how to ski or surf or snowboard. They just do it. The key here is in understanding that no matter what they all started off where they first had to figure out what it was they wanted to do, then they had to learn how to do it, then they had to practice it over and over refining what they did until finally they reached the state where they didn’t have to think about what it was they did because they had reached the level of “Unconscious Competence” that everything they did within their sport, like properly developing "Ruthless Intent" was simply a “focus of their will”.

There was no conscious thought to what they did because everything they did became a part of them, and they became that thing which they did. In other words, it became “who they were”. But in order to achieve the things they did they had to focus on those things at each stage of their development, that they were required to do if they were to develop it. This is the problem that most people have they don’t want to practice a thing long enough until it reaches that level of Unconscious Competence because they don’t want to expend the mental energy necessary to develop it. In order to get to the state of Mushin or the Flow State you have to practice and focus on those things to allow you to get to the Flow State one step at time.

Basically if you will recall when I discussed the four stages of learning this is exactly what they are talking about.

• Unconscious Incompetence (you don’t know what you don’t know).
• Conscious Incompetence (you know what you don’t know and you want to learn it).
• Conscious Competence (you know what you know and you now have but to merely practice it and refine it through trial and error until you can do it. But at this stage you still have to think about it).
• Finally reaching Unconscious Competence (where you know, what and how to do what you do, without having to think about it. You just as Nike would say, “Do It”).

Folks, this is the way you and I learn and have learned everything that we know from learning how to walk, to doing math, throwing a baseball, to driving a car. Sometimes it takes years or even decades, sometimes months or weeks, hours and in some cases depending on how much we’ve developed over time we only need to have someone clarify something for us at a point and we have an “Ah-ha movement”. That epiphany where all of the light bulbs come on at the same time. Where in a micro second our brain makes all of the right connections and that one piece to the puzzle that was missing falls into place.

We do this constantly and even if we are not consciously thinking about these things either intuitively or through general observation, but in any event we are always doing it. Also the quality of what they practice and the mindset and understanding or context is important. Just because folks do something doesn’t mean they are doing it right. You can be sincere in what you do and be sincerely wrong!

Like I say when I’m training and these are just my thoughts but I’ve been doing this long enough both in and out of the military to know this for a fact. When training people I like to; 1) show them, 2) tell them what it is, 3) explain to them how it works so they can practice it, 4) then have them practice it until they forget about having to think about it.

Show them, tell them, make them do it, make them forget…

Next!

Folks, I don’t happen any other way…

Seven Step Drop Program (it’s about damn time!)

I’ve covered this before but I’m going to cover it again because you need to know how to do this if you are to eventually develop the ability to do Internal Dropping later on. There is a complete Dropping Energy Training Regimen on the Attackproof Companion Part 1 (available as a DVD or On Demand Download) and a full description and explanation of the 5 different Drop Steps on the Guided Chaos Combatives DVD or On Demand Download.

For now, here's a series of progressive exercises that you can practice on your own. Please note: In order to develop the ability to drop on your strikes the most important thing you must develop or focus on is your balance. Without balance you can do nothing, for you need to be able to "catch" and control your body as you strike, since the power emanates from your root through your center of gravity. As you drop you must land with your foot flat with your center of gravity rooted over the foot you drop on.

STEP ONE - stand with your hands out in front of your arms, shoulder height and slightly bent with your wrists relaxed. This position looks exactly like the first move in the Tai Chi form. As you drop and catch yourself, perform a palm heel strike, focusing on timing your strike with your drop. Your arms should feel the contraction of the muscles with the hands "snapping" into the palm heel strike. Your hands should strike outward in front of you with no more than three to four inches of movement.

Start off slow, focusing on developing the timing and then gradually pick up the speed. “Resist” the temptation to "launch" with your legs by jumping up in the air first. This is a common mistake and will not add one iota of power to your strikes.

Upon dropping, ensure that all motion in your body ceases and hold your position for two full seconds. You should feel yourself rooting to the ground with each drop, knees bent, ensuring that you do not hop forward or lean in any one direction dropping straight down. This will ensure that as you strike you are able to do so with maximum contraction of the muscles and balance. Make sure as you recover for your next drop that, as you return to the original position, you are totally "relaxed" between each drop. Repeat this over and over for two minutes or until the point of fatigue.

STEP TWO - repeating all of the steps in step one, upon dropping, ensure that all motion in your body ceases and hold your position for one full second. In doing so you will now begin to cut down on the amount of time it takes between your strikes while ensuring that as you strike you are able to do so with maximum contraction and balance. Repeat this over and over for one minute or until the point of fatigue.

STEP THREE - upon dropping, ensure that all motion in your body ceases and hold your position for one half a second cutting down even more on the amount of time it takes between your strikes to gather yourself, again focusing on striking with maximum contraction and balance.

STEP FOUR - stand with your hands out in front of your arms, shoulder height and slightly bent with your wrists relaxed. As you drop and catch yourself, you can perform a palm strike or side chop focusing on timing your strike with your drop. Your arms should feel the contraction of the muscles with the hands "snapping" into the strike. Again your hands should strike outward in front of you with no more than three to four inches of movement.

Ensure that the hands are already in the proper position to make the strike work as if you were striking for real, focusing on hitting with the side of the hand, not the fingers. Now, you want to drop and strike as fast as you can, making sure you remain balanced as you strike and relaxed in between strikes.

Again do not lean forward or hop as you strike. Make sure that you are striking as you catch yourself when dropping.

STEP FIVE - repeat step four only now, drop on one leg, alternating the feet, and begin to develop the dropping on one leg. Do not lean forward or to the side and do not hop as you strike. Make sure that you are striking as you catch yourself when dropping, ensuring that your center of gravity is directly over the rooted leg. Once you gain proficiency at this, begin dropping employing various strikes, hitting within your sphere of influence with every possible weapon you can imagine.

STEP SIX - repeat step five, striking and moving in every possible direction, striking with every possible weapon within your sphere of influence. Ensure that as you step you maintain your body unity. Then begin the Guided Chaos Exercise Polishing the Sphere (see Attackproof: the Ultimate Guide to Personal Protection), intermixing it with drop hitting.

STEP SEVEN - drop until you can't drop anymore and repeat several times a week until it is infused into every fiber of your being. You should mostly feel this in your legs, later you will want to do this against a heavy bag, then on the wobble board, then on the board against the heavy bag, on one leg etc...

These are simply beginner drills. There are many more advanced drills to develop Dropping Energy and apply it to dynamic combat under chaotic conditions.

Okay I’m going to cut it off right here because this is getting way too long. In the next installment I’m going to share with you how to develop "Internal Dropping" and how to harness it. More importantly how to develop it in others.

Thank you.

LtCol Al Ridenhour

Senior Master Instructor

GUIDED CHAOS

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