"I'm a Woman..."

• What do I really need to learn to protect myself?   Three stories.

Many women who are attracted to the superb conditioning promised by Taebo, kickboxing, "boxercise" and the like have the false confidence that they are also learning realistic self-defense. This is a dangerous assumption that has the potential for greater injury than if the individual knew nothing and relied purely on instinct to survive and run like hell.

Many women, realizing this, go in for traditional martial arts training, spending many years on kata (forms practice), sparring, and highly choreographed self-defense techniques. This type of training creates it's own share of problems:

• Violence is not a game. Always remember that the best self-defense is Awareness and Avoidance with Escape the Number One objective. If you must fight to escape, you need methods that will give you the best chance to survive even if you're not an Olympic athlete.

• Forms are precisely executed techniques linked in a dance-like format that reflect the style of martial art they are part of. They provide a physical "dictionary" of specific responses to specific attacks. Unfortunately, no assault in real life looks like this. Ask any cop or soldier: real violence is ugly, random and chaotic.

• Pattern Recognition: If you can't run and you've been programmed by training a specific response to a specific attack, your defense will FAIL if the attack changes by even one inch from the way you've trained.

• Sparring is a controlled sport with rules to prevent serious injury. Boxing restricts you to arm strikes and further restricts these to closed hand forward punches with padded gloves. Close-in fighting (where most real damage occurs) is limited by clinching, which is further restricted if it goes on to long. Kick-boxing adds leg strikes. "Ultimate" style fighting adds grappling.

The way you train is the way you fight.

The most efficient method of training self defense would stress:

1. Awareness of your surroundings and avoidance of threatening situations.

2. Familiarity and cultivation of fear-driven, adrenaline-based motion and becoming comfortable with channeling your primitive fight or flight instincts to maximize whatever physical potential you have.

You'd like a self-defense school with a relaxed, informal and non-intimidating atmosphere.

Ex-cop and former forensic homicide investigator John Perkins is a jovial, sensitive, non-conformist and he uses that approach to teach you a deadly serious art that involves training both your nervous system and physical responses...and have fun doing it. Classes are always open for newcomers to watch or participate in.

Guided Chaos was designed to be effective even if you can't bench press 300 pounds or kick above your head. Of course, size and strength DO matter and we're not talking about learning mystical nonsense that will transform you instantly into a Navy SEAL. But by maximizing whatever physical potential you already have, you can give yourself the best possible chance of defending your life or a loved one's in a vicious assault.

It can be argued that women stand to benefit more from the methodologies within Guided Chaos than from virtually any other system. Any large, well muscled male can mount some kind of defense once sheer terror and adrenaline kick in. Women can’t afford to play nice, and can’t rely on “fast-food” self-defense, sport karate, “box-ercise” or any watered down form of Tai Chi.

Get Real.

Make no mistake, size and strength DO matter. After Awareness and Avoidance, running is your best first response. With many smaller and weaker individuals, hand-to-hand training may be of limited help, although some training is still better than none. For these individuals, personal weapons training may be the answer (although everyone can benefit from it). 

GUIDED CHAOS             IS THE GREASE THAT MAKES    ALL YOUR OTHER TRAINING                          WORK BETTER.
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