Systema in New Zealand - workshop report

[Tony Wolf]

Hi all,

the first public Systema workshop to be held in New Zealand took place over the past weekend, organised by myself and featuring instruction from Owen Stade. The following is a quick run-down of the event for
posterity.

On day 1, after introductions, Owen led us through a series of exercises focussing on the basic principles of form, posture, breathing and relaxation. The progression of these abstract exercises into combat/self defence applications was a very "organic" process, with a great deal of emphasis placed on improvisation, allowing your body to move naturally and spontaneously.

From various knife-throwing and catching drills to loosen up and develop some of these basic attributes, we moved into pushing and receiving drills and some very interesting body isolation exercises. It quickly became obvious that Systema was much more concerned with movement itself than with "learning moves" or codified techniques.

We then did some scenario-based work; you're up against a wall, your assailant has a knife to your throat, what do you do? Throughout, the emphasis remained on finding creative and efficient ways to defend
yourself and control your attacker through the application of form, breathing, movement and relaxation.

After lunch, Owen (who is a student at the Porirua Police College) took us step-by-step through the legal definition of self defence and touched on the Systema philosophy of "being a good person" as that applied to various self defence situations in both the moral and legal senses. We also watched a series of Systema demonstrations on DVD, with Owen explaining some technical points, and we discussed some of the "Systema myths" that often pop up in Internet debates about the art.

We finished off day 1 with some interesting kicking and counter-kicking drills, again developing quite naturally from the skills and tactics developed during the earlier exercises.

Day 2 kicked off with a series of competitive balance exercises (great fun and good training) and then a progression of ground defence exercises, concentrating on evasion skills that developed into counter-attacks. Again, great emphasis was placed upon natural, efficient movement and on the ability to improvise rather than falling back on pre-rehearsed techniques.

The rest of the morning was devoted to the unusual Systema striking method, developing combinations of relaxed, whip-like strikes with the hands, forearms and elbows to various (often unexpected) targets.

After lunch we went outside and practiced a series of knife throwing drills, and then the remainder of the afternoon was largely devoted to drills in spatial awareness and movement, leading up to multiple-attacker slow-motion sparring exercises. These were hugely enjoyable and provided a great chance to test our skills in a relatively safe but challenging way.

Finally, we had a special session in how to train in Systema based on the DVDs. Acknowledging that for most New Zealanders this was the most practical way to gain an understanding of the art, Owen analysed the key points of several hold-breaking defences based on Vladimir Vasiliev's demonstrations and we practiced them on the mats.

Overall, the seminar was a great success and I hope that it will be the genesis of an active Systema community in New Zealand. I will post again as and when I have news of other Systema events here.

My best,

Tony

[RachelKlingberg]

Awesome write-up, Tony! Sounds like you guys got the full Systema experience for the first NZ seminar. I'm curious about these "competitive balance exercises" you mentioned - do you mean, both partners standing on one leg and pushing each other? (I'm just wondering because you mentioned it was "great fun and good training" )

[Tony Wolf]

Hi Rachel,

[RachelKlingberg]

Thanks for the clarification, Tony. Those balance exercises are fun, very good for relaxation, too, as it's hard to stay balanced on one leg if you're too rigid. I remember Jim King leading us through these the last time he was in NYC - one partner stood on both legs and pushed the other, who stood on one leg. Pretty soon all the one-legged people were hitting the floor, getting up again, standing on one leg, getting pushed down again.... Jim stopped us to make sure we understood the purpose of the exercise. I remember he said, "C'mon guys, if you can't knock over a guy standing on one leg...." it stuck in my mind because I realized the short-term goals (knocking your partner over, or preventing yourself from being knocked over) were not furthering the long-term goals of improving balance, even though it seemed as if "maintaining balance while standing on one leg" was no different than "staying off the floor," turned out to be not quite the same. (A swaybacked old axiom about teaching a man to fish springs to mind but I'll spare you).
Thanks again for your excellent review.
*Vsego nailuchshego* (best wishes),
Rachel
_________________
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact. - Sherlock Holmes

[owenstade]

Hi guys,
Firstly, just wanted to emphasise that this wasn't an official Systema seminar, and was just me sharing what I've picked up as an ethusiast from Training regularly off the Vids, putting it into practise in other training, and the brief training I did over in Detroit, Toronto, Moscow, and London.

It was great to see so many NZ'ers together with an interest in Systema. It's great to see how many people now have heard of Systema, and many have brought some of the Vids.

Thanks heaps to Tony for organising everything, and for inspiring your family and friends to come along.

Rachel, the pushing exercise we did was a follow on from the pushing and relaxing drills, where you let each body part move out of the way when pushed without it effecting the body too much. We progressed on to the competitive exercises with the rules that first person to step loses.
I think this was on one of the TRS vids, or may have been in class in Toronto - I use it a lot for a fun way to incorporate the principles into a more dynamic environment. We didn't progress on too much with this, but I'll often go on to 1 arm vs. 2, or 1 leg vs. 2 like you mentioned.

Was good to go over the Legal & Moral aspects too - the idea of hitting someone in a caring way is usually something new & strange to most people.

Cheers,
Owen

[John Elliott]

Good to see you still hanging in there, Owen.
_________________
aka jellyman, TheTypenator

Matthew 25:31-46

"The easiest way to get hurt is to stand in the middle of the road. " - Furman