Lessons from My Masters 37: Observations The Grandmaster Chronicles - Part IX

“Although this may be a most difficult thing, if one will do it, it can be done. There is nothing that one should suppose cannot be done.”

― Tsunetomo Yamamoto, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

In my last Blog Post, I delved into different aspects of the art of Guided Chaos as I understand them from my Masters. I discussed how you practice some different things that people generally are not familiar with nor taught because they take time to develop.

Since folks keep asking me about this stuff I thought I’d discuss a little more on the thing folks really want more information about.  

On Training

“It is spiritless to think that you cannot attain to that which you have seen and heard the masters attain. The masters are men. You are also a man. If you think that you will be inferior in doing something, you will be on that road very soon.”

― Tsunetomo Yamamoto, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

This is probably the thing that I get the most questions about when speaking with other instructors and students alike regarding some of the things I have written. Probably no other subject is more discussed than how to either train oneself or train their students. I can tell you right now it is also the most controversial aspect of the art as well because there are all different sorts of “methods”, “theories” and “schools of thought” as to how to train people within the art of Guided Chaos. So what I’m going to do here is go about explaining rather than just what to do but also where your mindset should be when you train people.

Understand these are my own interpretations and perceptions based on what I have learned from my Masters and others over the years so you just need to look at these things through that lenses. Once again the reason I have to put in these disclaimers if because every time I write about this sort of thing, things that I know for sure after nearly 30 years of training and teaching this art. People get all bent out of shape as if I’m challenging their “Kung Fu” or some other childish nonsense. Mind you much of their tantrums are the result of them having the wrong idea about how the universe works or even more fundamental their own lack of insight on these matters. Again, I believe this is because for some of them they’ve either never understood these things before or they have never heard them which is precisely why I write about this stuff.

I’ve said this sort of thing before but it always bears repeating because in truth it can never be said enough but I’m going to tackle it from a little different perspective.

September 10^th, 1989, Infantry Officer Course Quantico, VA

“Is there anyone here who really doesn’t want to do this? Is there anyone here having any doubts? Because if so we need to know right now so we can either get you another MOS or out of the Marine Corps if you really don’t want to do this. So I’ll ask again is there anyone here who really doesn’t want to do this?”

• Joseph Osterman, USMC Class Advisor Delta Co, 89

I remember that speech like it was yesterday, it would later be reiterated by Major John Kelly, Officer in Charge (OIC), Infantry Officer Course. I would run into now Lieutenant General Osterman a number of times throughout my Marine Corps career and would work for him as his Operations Officer when he was my Regimental Commander. The last time I saw him he was a Major General Commanding 2D Marine Division Forward in Afghanistan.

It’s funny because I literally ran into him as I was preparing to head out to see some of his Marines in Musa Qala right on the steps of the Hindu Kush. I was on my way to observe and evaluate one of our contractors who was training the Sniper Platoon out of 1^st Bn, 2^nd Marines on the new enhanced optics we were fielding.  He laughed when I told him where I was going because we had both served together in 1^st Bn, 2^nd Marines. He was the Battalion Operations Officer and I was the Executive Officer of Weapons Company. Talk about small world.

Anyway, he tells me to stop by before I leave because he has some things he wants me to look at while I was up there regarding how the enemy was changing their tactics on emplacing IEDs.

When I stopped by after we did the normal reminiscing he got to talking about training and how things have changed over the last few years on how we approached some of our training. Finally, he got around to asking me what he really wanted to know, how well had he trained us when we were Lieutenants when he was our advisor at Infantry Officer Course.

Now think about this, here you have a guy who is a General Officer in the Marine Corps who’s been there and done that yet still concerned about how well he trained his boys. So he asked me,

“If there was one thing that you could point to that we did back then what would you say was the most important thing we taught you, Lieutenants?”

I thought about it for a moment and said, “You taught us how to think”.

He looked at me a little surprised and asked, “How so?”

I said something like,

“Well Sir, the one thing that stood out for us was how no matter what we did you and the other instructors were always challenging us and always forcing us to challenge our assumptions or the status quo, and not just accept things just because that’s the way things have always been done or what the manual said. I can remember you tearing me apart in some of my evaluations after a field op. Hell, you tore us all apart. I can remember Captain Smith telling us how we wouldn’t graduate the program until you were satisfied we knew what we were doing. You know how it is Sir, as Lieutenant we thought we knew it all but in truth, we didn’t know. What you were preparing us for was the fact that combat leadership is about making the tough decisions, I mean nobody brings easy problems to the boss and it’s only until you’re in a situation where the gravity of what you do can cost people their lives does it hit home.”

He said,

“You know as an instructor you’re always wondering after people leave knowing that some of you are going to die wearing the uniform. If you did all that you could to prepare them for combat.”

This is a sentiment that would be reinforced throughout my Marine Corps career and something that I would never forget and on a personal level has shaped how I approach self-defense training. When you become an instructor on a certain level the very lives of those you train are in your hands. They are counting on you that the things you teach them are taught to the best of your ability. That they are taught with honesty and the level of seriousness that the training deserves because someday their very lives may depend on that “one thing” that you taught them that could save their lives. That’s all people are asking for.

“In war, there is no substitute for victory!”

• General Douglas Mc Arthur

I can remember in the Marine Corps when we use to take tests at the Basic Officer Course, even if you scored 99% out of 100% on the test they would go over every answer on the test because their attitude was if they didn’t want you to know it they wouldn’t put it on the test. Because to let you leave there not knowing the 1%, 5% or 10% that you missed on the test could be the very gap in your knowledge that can get your Marines killed. Make no mistake about it, there is no second place in war!

The same could be said about a fight for your life, there is no consolation prize for second place in battle. If you are an instructor or just a student desiring one day to become one, I don’t care what you teach and I’ve stated this before in previous Blog Posts…

The Big “If’s”

If your mind isn’t focused on training people to fight for their lives and win!

If your mind isn’t focused on training them to the best of your abilities.

If your mind isn’t focused on training them in a logically progressive manner commensurate with their abilities, to take them at some point to the edge and not beyond it, to help them overcome fear, to be able to stand in that space, to learn how to neutralize an attacker and get ahead of their movement and not let things happen in the first place, to see the situation with “perfect clarity”, to act with “moral certainty”, to have “the will” crush their enemies with utter “Ruthless Intent”.

If your mind “ain’t” there, you need to find something else to do because you are a curse upon them.

My friends, “…there’s no substitute for victory”. Period.

Additionally, and this is a hard one, you need to learn how to challenge your own assumptions and apply a little “introspection”. Look in the mirror and ask yourself the hard questions to ensure you’re not drinking your own bath water and calling it good. All too often I see stuff presented on YouTube based on the most outlandish assumptions. It’s not that the things that are taught are bad techniques but that the context in which they are presented make them unworkable. They frame things outside of the known laws of physics as if somehow by “magic” things are going to happen. Or they frame the training around their own personal idiosyncrasies that maybe they’ll work for them because they are a good athlete but probably won’t work for the average person. I was just telling a student the other day that even in my own training one of the most difficult things to do as an instructor is to separate your own physical talents from what is a “technique” or “attribute”. To say that physical talent, size, speed, strength, etc. doesn’t have something to do with it is not honest. And as an instructor especially in arts where you are constantly placing your hands on people you need to differentiate as best as possible what is a physical talent versus an attribute.

Trust me this level of discernment is not easy but if you don’t develop it as an instructor, in my opinion, you will screw your students up by teaching them things that no way in Hell they are going to be able to do it especially in a pinch.  That’s why as a general rule I only try to teach people 1) through principles of universal movement first; 2) based on what I feel their body can do and; 3) to understand that sometimes when I strike them the reason I was able to was because I was either fast enough to do it or I have some physical advantage such as reach or strength that they need to take into consideration when moving with me. So they can develop effective measures to counter those advantages. Otherwise, they’re going to spend all of their time trying to pound a square peg in a round hole doing what cannot be done.

A Little Candor

 “Without training, they lacked knowledge. Without knowledge, they lacked confidence. Without confidence, they lacked victory.”

• Julius Caesar

Now, I have to be honest here, while we all have the “ability” to use violence not everyone has the natural propensity for violence or the ability to naturally escalate to violence but I do believe it can be trained "to a point". For most people, the idea of going to that place where they would be willing to kill is a far stretch. Most people have a worldly sense of civilized decency about them so the idea of taking another life even if justified is not even something in their wheelhouse. I get it. 

In any event, this to me is the biggest challenge when teaching self-defense and the one area that many instructors regardless of style or ability “fail” at. And that is in their ability to instill some level of "Ruthless Intent" in their students. Or, even worse, they mistake/abuse their role as an instructor and think that it is their job to kick their student's asses to let them "feel" what it's like. But this way of training, while there's value in it, only works if you have the skill to “close the loop” on the training and by showing them the light at the end of the tunnel and actually teach them how to not let it happen in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong there’s a time to “kick that ass” however, once they have an idea of what it's like to get punched in the face, they can now psychologically process it and realize that it's not the worst thing that can happen in the world and that there are ways to avoid it or at least minimize its effects but most important of all. That they can get hit in the face and muscle through it and still carry on the battle. That to me is worth its weight in gold!

When You Lay On Hands

Okay, this is something that is near and dear to people’s hearts because as an instructor this is the one area where when you first interact with a new student in the early part of their training you can either make or break them. Many an instructor has literally “destroyed” their students because of the way in which they interact with them in the beginning. It really doesn’t matter what art it is. You see this in martial arts all of the time because there are some fundamental things that people as instructors constantly need to reinforce in their own minds if they are to be successful.

“Each time you touch someone there is information going back and forth between you and that person sort of a subconscious communication. When you train you must work on becoming so sensitive that even in shades of gray you can distinguish between the specks of black and white. You must learn to ‘feel everything’ with every part of your body and not just your hands and understand what it means. This, in turn, will drive your actions and your Body Unity…”

• Grandmaster John C. Perkins

Just as the mental aspect of talent cannot be underestimated your “touch” must be developed in order to apply your skills to the fullest. Probably the best explanation of this as illustrated in the quote above that Grandmaster Perkins once said to me with regard to Sensitivity development.

When you lay hands with people I’m telling you if you push them without a reason to do so, if you pulse them or do things beyond what they are capable of handling. They will learn to move in the same fashion right or wrong based on the way you “first interacted” with them. So, because they don’t know what they don’t know they “in the body” will mimic your actions.

To put it bluntly, and trust me on this because I correct this sort of thing all-of-the-time, many a student have been “fucked up” in their movement by people doing this to them in the beginning, and then when I get my hands on them it takes me like 6 months to undo the damage done to their central nervous system. There are some folks who have been so damaged because of this type of training over the years that in my view they are beyond repair because those pathways are “myelinated” in their central nervous system. It is so deeply ingrained that they would require an entire overhaul of their central nervous system in the same way a doctor will re-break a bone in order to set it right. Knowing what I know I personally feel for these folks because they really don’t know how some folks have done them a disservice.

Now part of this is because every man thinks he’s right in his own eyes and let’s face it we’re only human. It’s very difficult to not teach things through your own personal idiosyncrasies. I get it. As I was reiterating to some students recently often when teaching I find that the hardest things to do as an instructor is to separate out what is my natural ability versus what I should be teaching a person based on the principles to help them learn through their body. In other words, there are the principles of the art, sub-principles, and context in which to frame things and then there is just some stuff I can just do. So while the things that I can “just do” are still predicated on the principles of physics they are particular to me and my body type and will not work from someone that is smaller, slower or weaker than I, it’s just a fact.  

So I have to be very careful to separate them out otherwise I will screw them up because there is no doubt that my physical ability is a part of my ability. So I have to be careful that I do not try to make people do things that their body is just not going to do. If they can’t do it, they can’t do it, and if you focus on trying to make them do things they can’t do (as I’ve seen), in my view, you are not doing the art but something else and you’re definitely not helping them. Forcing a square peg into a round hole even if you can muscle it in still doesn’t make it right. It just means you ‘ain’t” smart enough to know any better and not do it. If anything you are “hobbling” their ability by sending them down the wrong path. At some point, they’re just not going to get better. Sort of like something Sigmund Freud once said,

“Maybe if my patients stop seeing me they might get better”.

How they employ their skills through the principles is relative to how their body on a functional level moves and how you employ the principles of the art are based on a functional level how your body moves. And how they interact with your body is relative to how your body moves in relation to how they are moving their body and so on. It is always in a state of flux because you are both always playing off of each other’s body and movement like the “mongoose” fighting the “Cobra” in the game that I call “5^th Dimensional Chess”. When you interact with another person, you cannot “not” feel what their body is doing and they cannot, not feel what your body is doing. This is that communication that the Grandmaster was talking about. Back and forth over and over, yin/yang, unavailable/unavoidable.

A word to the wise, if you’re an instructor and you’re reading this, here’s a piece of advice, don’t do this shit! No really don’t do this because if you do, you not only fuck up the student but you also reinforce the wrong thing in your own movement. Just because you’re skilled enough to get away with it doesn’t mean you should do it. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should because if you keep it up you are going to reinforce bad habits in yourself and only reinforce your own bullshit in your mind. In other words, at some point, you’re just drinking your own bath water.

Again, just focus on teaching them through the principles to the best of your ability, get over yourself and be done with it. Remember the better you are at applying the principles the more efficient and proficient that you become at it the more effortless you are able to bring your power to bare and wage righteous battle and crush the bad guys.  Those who understand the subtle differences and how to use their physical attributes within their own bodies (i.e., Body Unity) will have an advantage over a more physically developed adversary because like the matador in the bullfight you learn how to neutralize your attacker in the body before it even starts. The matador neutralizes the bulls size, speed and strength because, a) he has a bigger brain and; b) he’s learned to “move sooner” which is a different thing than being able to move faster, trust me the two are not the same (I’ll let you brain marinate on that one). Once again this is the reason why in Guided Chaos we continue to emphasize the development of the various attributes through the principles of the art so as I explained in my last Blog Post to “Bend Spoons”, “Stop Time”, etc. "...it is not the spoon that I bend it is you that is bent".

 “You see Sir these are the concepts in my martial arts training that have always eluded me…”

• Sergeant Schwartzberg, USMC, Marine Corps Martial Arts Instructor

Okay, I’m going to go off here a little because it needs to be said and I want to put the final nail (for now) in this coffin.

I don’t know why…

I really don’t…

But for whatever reason as I’ve discussed above people make this so hard on themselves. I do not understand it. I mean I understand it, yet I don’t get it with folks. If that makes sense?

Yet here in the quote above, I have a Marine Sgt., though a novice in Guided Chaos at the time who had over 20 years of prior martial arts training, and after a brief session with him he “got it”!

As I said in a previous Blog Post, we teach an art where we actually say that it is based on physics and human physiology. That cuts through the mumbo jumbo of the martial arts and shows that there really are things to the martial arts. That while they may seem like magic actually are based on sound principles of physics.

We say it!

Yet, even when some people are exposed to concepts about the art that are rooted in hard science of how the “Known Universe” works, and how we know how the human body works for real. They have an aversion to it... shun it... deny it… want to find a way to either ignore it or to “disprove” it…

Or,

They want to discount it because maybe they really don’t understand it?

Maybe it’s because they are incapable of explaining it themselves?

Incapable of teaching it?

Maybe it’s because it removes the mask of mysticism?

That at the end of the day it shows that there really is no magic to it?

That in the end, it’s not anymore complex than when pulling the curtain back only to find as I’ve said before in previous posts, it’s just a man behind a curtain with a microphone turning knobs?

That the “Great Oz”, is just like us...

Whatever it is they bring dishonor on themselves and their lack of progress or that of their students is their reward.  To me, the fact that there is a science to the art John has created we should be happy. We should be happy that there is a method to how it really all comes together and works because by removing it from the world of the “mystical” and “magical thinking”. We are able to understand it, study it free of prejudice and develop it to some degree within the body we have.

This is why the whole concept of teaching things from the perspective of “principles” and subprinciples is “pure genius” because it removes much of the nonsense that has probably destroyed many great martial arts systems throughout history. 

It is because we can understand it from a scientific standpoint we can only improve on it, manipulate it, control it within our body but only if we have the right mindset to go with it.

To me, this is the true gift of the art.

Now with that said I’m going to cover just as few things as it relates to training just so folks can think about how they go about training themselves and their students from a different perspective. A word of caution, all of the concepts that I present here are relative in other words they are general concepts or sub-principles if you will. Do not create absolutes! The only absolutes here are the laws of physics and how human beings interact with them.

The point is when training, practicing, teaching people, whatever, do not become overly fixated on this to the point where you place “form” over “function”, otherwise both your movement and their movements may become rigid or mechanical, robbing you the ability to move naturally. Thus taking away from the suppleness and freedom of action available to us as humans.

Starting Out

“Whatever you do in life, if you want to be creative and intelligent, and develop your brain, you must do everything with the awareness that everything, in some way, connects to everything else.”

• Leonardo da Vinci

Okay, here are a few “Heloise” tips of the day to help you.

Teaching is a skill and an art - When I start out with a new student or even when I approach one of my students where I’m going to teach them a new concept. I start from the perspective that on whatever I am teaching that they know nothing of the subject. Not to denigrate them but to ensure that “I” don’t naively make the mistake that what I am showing is as intuitive to them as it is to me. This is a huge mistake that people make in all sorts of endeavors and is one of the reasons that often the best athletes, shooters, painters, artists, musicians or whatever don’t make the best coaches or teachers. Teaching is a skill every bit as much a skill as knowing how to throw a baseball, change a tire or put in stitches. It’s a skill and if you want to become good at it you have to work at it every bit as much as you worked at developing other skills. There are no exceptions.

Additionally, there are things that I don’t do and things that I do, here are some key things to think about.

“Each time you touch someone there is information going back and forth between you and that person sort of a subconscious communication…”

Learn to lead them to the right place - this needs to be burned into your consciousness and permeate the marrow of your bones. When working with someone if you are an instructor one way you can help them develop is by moving in a way where you guide them without telling them specifically where the openings are. In this way, you cannot only guide them without their knowledge to the right place but build into their body the things they need to do naturally. I can remember on numerous occasions the John saying to me and I’m just paraphrasing here,

“Always remember when I’m working with you I’m always working 2 to 3 levels deeper, so I’m getting you to do things with your body without you having to think about it. I’m guiding you in a way where you can feel yourself do it where it feels natural… See what I’m doing here? You can feel that right, well this is information you should already be moving. Remember, when you move I move when you change I change it’s never static. Remember I’m not as fast or strong as you and your arms are too long for me to stand in front of. Notice I’m always out of the way, I’m always moving before it becomes a problem so I’m trying to get you to do that in your body. Don’t always think you’re going to be fast enough to get out of the way of everything you need to feel is sooner and move sooner… Now as you get better I close off the openings so you learn how to continually adjust and learn to do it within the movement without speeding up. Remember if you have to speed up on me to do it then you’re really not doing it because you should have already been out of the way. The more openings I close off the more you have to be able to adjust until it smooths out and just becomes the way you can move. I just keep doing it building that up in you… Now understand I’m guiding you here so if I can guide you to be able to do something I can also cut it off when I want because I’m working just enough above your ability to make you do what you need to do.”

Folks, I have to tell you this is gold and as I’ve told before you I’m all about free gold. What John was teaching me all these years was a way to not only move but through this form of subconscious behavior if you will, how to “think in the body”, how to think without thinking, how to know without knowing. This is the level of adumbration, that foreshadowing over moment you want because it allows you to get ahead of things even if you are dealing with someone much faster than you but you have to develop it in the body well enough to do it automatically allowing you to get ahead of movement and cut things off before they become a problem. All too often in the martial arts and including in Guide Chaos, people get caught up into technique and form over function. They want the silver bullet they chase the shiny object and yet find nothing but frustration.  

This is not an easy skill to learn how to do because as an instructor you have to be able to allow the person you are working with on some level to win. If you do not let them naturally feel their body find the openings they never learn to develop the natural feel to do it. There is a timing to everything and when you allow them to find these openings and allow them to follow through and make contact. You can then adjust their movement if need be in order to ensure they are striking with the proper timing and focus. I’ll tell you right now there are a lot of people can’t do this the reason is that they lack the patience to work with people on this level. As well as have the humility to throttle back their own ability just a little to allow people to develop this. Because they do this they miss an enormous opportuning to learn something else about movement…

Learn to understand the Inverse Relationship of Movement (Or How the Universe Works part 8,220) - “if” you’ll recall a long time ago I discussed that there is an “Inverse Relationship” to movement that cannot be ignored.

“To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.”

      ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

This is something that for a lot of reason escapes people. Now, much of this is because this is a hard concept to understand especially when trying to describe it in words. You’ve heard me quote Grandmaster Perkins where he said to me under The Wisdom Tree,

“Your push is my pull, your pull my push, your pocket my entry …your attempt to strike my opening because anywhere your fist is not is an opening for me…”

Well in the same vain when you are training someone in the fashion that I described above in order for you to help them learn you not only have to see the possibilities first but you have to be far enough ahead in the future in your movement to guide them “smoothly” to the right place without telling them. Whether you’re an instructor or not, this skill is not only doable when working with someone to help them develop but essential to your own development. However, most people cannot do this because when working with folks instead of helping people of lesser skill learn how to move in the body better, they’re more focused on kicking their ass than bringing their game up and thus bringing up their own game. So the training is lost on both of them.

I got to tell you, folks, I see this happening all-of-the-time. I’ll set up a drill where I want people to work with each other and learn to move in a certain fashion. So that they can start to learn how to see these things by listening in the body to learn to get ahead of things and instead of doing the drill as my Master taught me the way he worked it with me they do their own thing. And then they wonder why neither they nor their students’ progress. Just the blind leading the blind.  

Anyway, I’m going to cut it off here and I’ll cover more of this in my next installment trust me there "so much more" that I could say but life is short so until next time…

Once again thanks or all the support.

Thanks.

LtCol Al Ridenhour

Senior Master Instructor

GUIDED CHAOS

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