James, What are your thoughts on Systema?

Yeah right..

That said I submitted come poor sod using my shoulder last night.

OK so behind it was 18 stone of funk ;-)

Plus I nearly got blinded last night! lol
Now I look like I have nome interesting facial condition with red cuts and blotches under my eye.

What a bitch! He could have cut his nails.

Lucky you, I got stabbed twice at training in multiple contact knife defence.


Thank god the blade's point is blunted and the edge has been dulled down, it could have been very nasty. Still have a nice cut that I am proudly displaying.

Al was the 18 stone of "funk" the smell from your armpits or your torso that you are referring to?

lol paul - we must sound like utter loons!

too bad on the cuts dude - remember the proverb - every time u get hit u get a little bit smarter (unless you get hit in the head - then you're screwed!)...
Your stuff does sound interesting!
Actually - a wierd phenomenon is that my sweat does not smell of anything discernible - and I've field tested this!

There is funky smell coming from the Polish 'bears' I train with however... The classic was I had one of their asses in my face during some rolling, and he farted right in my face!
lol
I was like "Oh Maaaaan!"

He just grunted - Sorry - New Supplements I am using."

Classic.

Well, I have many thoughts on Systema! Here are some:

Systema, I reckon, is awesome. It teaches people how to organise their natural movement into something that works for them in a broad range of fighting/self defence contexts. At its core is the idea of total sensory awareness and flexibility - being in the moment and responding to what is happening.

My experience is that people develop functional skills quickly with Systema. I recall one 15 year old lad who had been training a few months running rings around an experienced metropolitan police defence trainer. The poor guy could't make head nor tail of it, and he never came back.

I still teach privately, and my NLP stuff has fed into my Systema and I continue to improve.

There are no techniques in systema, only lots and lots of drills. Systema instructors develop the flexibility to be able to create the drills that their students need to achieve whatever the outcome may be. Systema sets up drills to develop skills across many contexts: many onto one, many onto many, moving on the ground against standing opponents, ground grappling, ground striking, escaping from holds, blindfold work, unarmed against knife, and on and on.

The system is based only on principles of moving and breathing - the rest (peoples individual style and technique) all comes from experementation and modelling. The movement is relaxed, fluid and coordinated and power comes from how movement is organised rather than brute strength.

Some of the non physical stuff looks weird on youtube, and this creates a bad rep for the system. But think about it like this - hit someone so they feel real discomfort, now what is your fist an anchor for? Notice how they respond to your fist as present it agsain. Pattern interrupts are also used - you use your peripheral vision to match you opponents movement and flow, then lock yourself up with a sudden inbreath. Pattern interrupt or pace and lead? A bit of both I guess.

A lot of people say "if systema is so good, why don't these guys enter ufc?" Well, aside from such things as lack of interest, Systema is a generalist approach, and cage fighting is a specialism. That said, I did have one ex cage fighter and qualified sombo instructor in my last class who loved it. There are a few other MMA guys that have trained with Michael and Vlad when they have been over. Also Oleg Taktarov, I believe, trained a little Systema with Vladimir Vasiliev.

People can say systema is shit, just as they can say judo or sambo or BJJ or whatever is shit. I've trained a few different arts and Systema is geuinely different in its approach, and also did more for me to develop general skills than any other I've trained in.

I could go on but why? Go train it with someone who knows the stuff (Val 'the bastard' Riaznov, or Rob Poyton in the UK, Vlad in Canada, Mikhael in Moscow, Martin Wheeler in the US, probably loads of other great guys in those places and others) and see what it does for you.

All the very best

J

And Paul, If you pay for my flight to Oz, I'll be happy to show you some stuff personally

J

Cheers for this James....

Thanks for your input James.

The more I learn about Systema the more I am falling in love with it. I have trained numerous arts in the past. Al has called me a Martial Art slut in private and he would be right.

However, with Systema I think I may found what I have been searching for. I don't know whether I would have had as much appreciation for it, had I not trained in NLP with James Tsakalos.

There seems to be lots of "NLP" like drills. One we did the other day was implicit modelling of an aggressive attacker, pacing their physiology up until the point they attacked then completely relaxing and evading at the last minute. There was some very interesting effects for both the person being attacked and the the one doing the attacking. Relaxing at the point of being attacked was very liberating and freeing for me and I seemed to have numerous options available to me as to how I could respond. When doing the attacking and coming into contact with someone who just simply relaxed and evaded was unique. It was as if my aggression and force was left behind at the spot the person used to be and now I was in a different more relaxed state. A very interesting experience of pacing and leading in a conflict situation.

James, should you wish to fly me to the UK, I would be more than happy to learn from you personally.

We don't sound like loons we are loons!!!!

The whole arse in the face thing reminded me of that scene in Borat with the big guy on top of him. If you haven't seen it you might not want to check it out.

I've seen it - utterly horrid - guys asses jkust don't do it for me!

i am still wowed by my last sparring partner and his ultimately simple tech. hand over nose and mouth causing suffocation. classic!
the systema sounds awesome!

I wondered if "funk" was some new sort of kata,how tall are you anyway Al?

6'4" Dude

And I have the skull scar to prove that wee little 1920's door ways and the top of my bonce have occasional conflict.

I know, Al, it sucks to be normal sized in a miniature world...

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Al is this how it goes down?

YouTube - Big guy gets worked over by littler guy

To add my experience, last weekend during a university accommodation party, while the guys were on the beach volleyball court, and playing "who can rugby tackle the other guy, one on one"

Then I started to grapple the guys, and won most of the time, until one bloke got me into a leg triangle choke hold, my neck has been sore for two days, I was in it for about 20 seconds, slipped out eventually, and got him with a reat naked choke, until the group of guys told us to stop, but he still wanted more!!!

I gotta tell you I now know what makes these warriors hug and respect each other so much (mostly) after their contests, you really get to know someone in those periods of struggle, at such an intimate proximity.

Also, I am 6ft 90kg, and bench 65kg for reps, and he would have been 6ft 1in but 70kg. LOVE IT!!!

Hell no it ain't!

Hey they looked a little too gay for my liking dude - I'd hate to see your You Tube favorites!

Rob, agreed - naked rear choke kicks ass! ;-)