I attended two systema classes while I was in DC. The classes where taught by Vasiliev’s students. Here is my current understanding of some of the basic systema principles: (1) The body has to be freed from the physical tension; the mind has to be freed from fear (2) The one who is being attacked: the body never physically resists the attack – no blocks, no crude force, if punch does lend on your body, body has to be flexible enough to merge/go with the punch, not resist it. (3) The attacker: the body is free-flowing, free of tension, punches land on partners body without tension, the punches are directed at the tense areas of partner’s body. А как достигаетя высвобожденность от напряжений и страха в практике Сиситемы?: I am not sure that I have a complete answer to that question yet. Vasiliev kept saying during the seminar that body has to become free from tension, but did not quite elaborate on how to achieve this aside from a number of stretching exercises and internal massage which aims to remove tension in the muscles surrounding internal organs. In terms of fear – there were a number of exercises whereby a student would be put under a physiological/psychological pressure and then physical stress would be applied; for example one exercise involved inhaling, exhaling, holding a breath until you are almost out of breath and then the partners starts punching, kicking and/or slapping you on the face. They also punch each other a lot and learn to maintain body free from tension while they are being punched. While many systema exercises are quite similar to polyanka training, two systema practices appeared particularly interesting to me: (1) Working with the mechanical structure of the opponent. Partner’s body can be collapsed by applying minimal force to: head/neck, elbows/wrists, hips, rotation/pressure of knees, ankles. As a result the opponent’s body literally collapses. Чем это отличается от того что мы называем “программированием партнера”? It is in a way similar to polyanka “programming”, but they seem to consistently work with the mechanical structure. This can be seen from Vasiliev’s youtube clips; and maybe when I come back to Boston, I can explain better what I mean. (2) Taking the punches by ‘merging/yielding’ to it; not resisting it. Каким образом? Прокачка, волна, создание пространства? I do not know how they do it on a deeper level, they didn’t cover this on the seminar – but there were a number of exercises where we practiced to ‘yield’ to the punch. (3) Massage of internal organs Как? I can show this when I come back (4) Working with a knife I felt quite comfortable during the classes in terms of physical conditioning and flexibility, however I tended to tense up during massage of internal organs; the experience of a partner walking on my legs/hips/hands was very painful (which indicates muscle tension according to the instructors) and I had almost non-existent skills of working with a knife. Below is a shorts description of the exercises. Saturday Class Static exercises: 1. Standing on both feasts – about 3 mins 2. Sitting on the floor and leaning back - about 2 mins 3. Lying on the floor, legs up – about 2 mins 4. Semi-horse stance – about 2 mins Practice: 5. Rolling around – first completely relaxed and free, then tensing a part of the body at a time 6. Grappling: (a) A lies on the back, B lies on top. A tries to roll around get from under B. (b) Now guy C kicks the guy on the floor, so that A works with two people. 7. A punches B, fairly mild punching to see how partner’s physical structure collapses (aims: head, neck, shoulders, hips, thighs). B reacts to punches by moving together with the punch. 8. Aikido type of take downs (a) B stands; A explores how to collapse B’s physical structure (b) B walks up to A, A does the same as above but dynamically 9. Slow sparring with pushing, then punching; then simultaneous punching 10. A stands with the back against the wall, B puts the knife at A’s throat. И что? A removes the knight by working with B’s joints. 11. A stands with the back against the wall, B puts the fist on A’s stomach/chest and applies continuous pressure, A tries to wiggle around the fist to avoid the pressure from the fist. 12. Push up on the count of 30 Sunday class Running + Breathing – about 20 mins: (a) Breath in/out on the count of s, s = 1,2,4,6,…,10 Какое дыхание? As far as I understood lower abdomen breathing (nizhnee). (b) Breath into one part of the body, breath out from another (hands, legs, stomach, back, liver, kidney) Что это значит, где стопы, где руки и т.п.? We were doing this while we were running, possibly I can clarify when I come back. (c) Piggy ride while concentrating on the surroundings and a potential sniper Это как? The same as we do on polyanka – A sits on the shoulders of B, but A concentrates awareness on the outside world. (d) Backwards running Stairs: (a) Rolling down from the stairs (about 60 stairs) (b) Getting up the stairs back first Static/Warm up: (a) Standing on one fist – 3 mins, keeps breathing into and out of the fist (b) A lies down, B walks on top of A – legs, thighs, stomach (c) A lies down, B does push ups on the A’s face, upper body, legs (d) Sit ups on the count of 30 (e) Push ups on the count of 30 (f) A punches B, B is relaxed and yields/merges with the punches Knife work: (a) A takes the knife, touches B with the blade and applies pressure, B ‘yields’ to the knife/pressure and wiggles around the knife/pressure (b) A has the knife, slowly attacks B, B walks around A to avoid the knife without using hands (c) A has the knife, slowly attacks B, B uses hands to work around the attack (d) Same as above but now B works with A’s mechanical structure to collapse it (take down) (e) Same as above, but now A lies on the ground Massage: A lies on the ground, B applies pressure on A’s stomach with a fist, A first resists with muscles, and then gradually yields to the pressure. Были ли сильные студенты? At Vasilievs seminar it was hard to see who was his student and who was not. There were a number of people there who practice all sorts of styles of martial arts and many have their own school (there was even one guy from Bahamas). Both classes in DC where taught by students of his students. Both guys were quite impressive, both have done and are still practicing other styles - especially Brazilian jiujitsu. One was much calmer and happier inside, showed us punches from closes distance with some sort of internal wave, another has been competing in mixed martial arts. Впечатление от Васильева? While I can not say that I felt deep sympathy towards all Vasiliev’s students and instructors, my inmpression about Vasiliev is very much positive. He is very calm, lacks aggression, works very softly, but effectively . Получилось ли с ним поработать? I didn’t work with him directly, but asked him to do systema punches on me at the end of the class. He punched me about 5-6 times increasing intensity each time; last several punches penetrated into my external muscles and spread throughout the body. The last punch was especially intense – he punched in the stomach, the vibrations/pain traveled up the body towards my face. Какова интенсивность занятий? I would say similar to polyanka. I had no physical difficulty to do most of the exercises, aside from the couple that were unusual and painful that I described above. Была ли работа на реальной скорости? No – He encouraged to work slowly to learn the concepts. Есть ли явные отличия от Полянки? Что ты получил от этого семинара? Есть ли специфика в технике бросков и ударов руками и ногами. I am not quite sure that I can answer these questions now. One seminar and two classes is not really enough to understand what systema actually represents. I picked a couple of differences that I described in the beginning of this report – and these things are different. This is what I got from seminars. Seminars are opportunity to meet and work with new people while practicing style that is in spirit quite similar to polyanka. I felt that working with new people is important because I tend to develop stereotypes with my friends on polyanka. For example, when I came to polyanka, there were quite a few people who already had been studying for 4-5 years. I experienced fear while working with them. Now after 5 years, I think the difference in our physical abilities has unsurprisingly reduced, but my mental attitude and the pattern of fear oftentimes tends to remain albeit to a lesser degree. When I start working with a new partner, I don’t have this background fear that comes from the past. There are also new exercises that again have similar spirit to polyanka, and it always cool to learn new exercises. Чувствовал ли ты себя уверенно в парной работе? I was quite confident when I was working with most people. This was actually quite a cool experience – could I ever imagine before I started polyanka that I would go to a martial arts seminar, feel comfortable and lack fear. A couple of people were really intense however, one guy kept punching me in the arm/wrist while I was trying to cut him with a knife, he worked really hard/stiff and by the end of 10 mins, my arm became red and I started wondering if he is trying to break it. Otherwise I was quite confident. One thing that I did notice though when I attended the two systema classes in DC that I really lack grappling skills – this was especially clear because both guys who taught the class were also practicing Brazilian jujitsu.
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