Seminar Reviews

This weekends two day seminar in Dallas was another life changing experience. We began with breathing exercises embedded in jogging, pushups, squats, situps and leg raises. It is amazing how these simple exercises can be tweaked and turned to provide a seemingly infinite way of studying the breath and its relation to movement and tension. The material presented was holding releases and striking and they were presented with all the variety that Systema is known for. The demonstrations were amazing, Yuri and Sonny and other participants were tough enough to handle some amazing striking demos from Vlad and walk away smiling, hats off (cowboy hats of course) to these tough guys :) The most amazing thing to me personally was Vlad himself. His teaching speaks on so many different levels that everyone in attendence gets exactly as much as they can handle and a little more to grow on. Watching Vlad at first is incredible because of the physical things he can do, later I could see how much fun he was having and later still I could just see an amazing being. It seems as if he remembers everyone and always has something instructive and encouraging to say. Systema is a revolutionary way of training and approaching life and martial endeavors. Vlad himself is beyond my capacity to descibe.

The opportunity to train under the instruction and guidance of Vladimir was a great experience. I encourage everyone in the martial arts community to attend a seminar presented by Vladimir for self development and continuing education. The knowledge that he shares is precise and effective. Solutions to challenges provides security. Negotiating challenges provides confidence.....attend and train in Systema and you have both ..no matter what the conditions what you learn works all the time.

Speechless!!! This is the word which best describes what attendees felt after Vladimir demonstrated an amazing performance of blind knife evasion. Frankie Fileti deftly attacked Vladimir at all conceivable angles(front and rear) with various broken timing and Vladimir defended himself effortlessly... with completely shut eyes! I don't think many fully realized the extent of mastery it required and how rare and unique such a sight is to behold in this world. We were shown advanced breath techniques and some very torturous pushups drills which Vladimir joked about never having tried himself (which meant he could probably do 50 to our 1). Pat and Andre were terrific hosts at a beautiful school and the seminar energy was enthusiastic, harmonious and safe. An incredible amount of content was packed into 1 day. Thank you Vladimir and all participants for this privilege. Thong

I came to Delaware seminar with 4 of my students and 3 of them never seen Vladimir’s live and his work at all. It was one day seminar, but it was well organized and thought through event. Thank you very much to Patrick and Andre for organizing this even and their hospitality. There were about 90-120 people on the beginning of event and we trained for about 6 hours. We were introduced new warm ups: breathing exercises with different tensions in a different parts of the body as a progression of the tensions holds during set up, pushups and squads. Then Vladimir asked to do the same exercises without engaging any muscular system, it was easy and hard at the same time, but it was very useful for everybody to know, how to use your body if you are injured, very tired or if you are wounded and you are still need to move. The seminar topics were: holds and releases and work against knife. Vladimir was amazing again, you think that you already watched him on the video, youtube, and seminars and nothing could surprise you, but he surprises you every time when he does the work. Yes, we did holds and releases, and knife work, but it was non-stop action: Soft work, hard work, pressure points, punches against holds and knife, different positions standing, sitting, laying down, and using only body, only legs, only one arm for defense and attack. Vladimir covered a lot of material and we had real fun during practice. I asked my students after seminar, what was most the memorial experience for them in this seminar? They answered that they were overwhelmed with a material presented by Vladimir, but the two demonstration events stuck in their memory such as: The first event-Vladimir’s works against a knife with closed eyes; he moved out from knife attacks and used different defenses with closed eyes for about 10 minutes, keeping the opponent( my friend Franki) on the mid-distance, and it is seems, he could escape or predict the next knife or attacker’s move, even the attacker was a foot away. It was a special scene to watch, I hope, I could see it again on a video or DVD. The second event-Vladimir demonstrated on me the work of punches against knife and attacker, he started short, fast and shocking quick punches to my face and body, which confused my brain and the sight picture, and I was losing him out of my sight all the time, progressing to deep painful punching , which forced me to forget where the knife was, and to the unloading mass of the strikes and kicks toward me ( attacker), which I forgot about knife at all and I had only one wish to get out and survive. It is fast, shocking–painful feelings, which you should move and breath trough. My students told me that people smiled when we started that work, but closed to the end, they started worry if I would be able to get up from the floor after that punishment. I was 6 3’, 240 lbs person with a knife and wish to get my opponent, but I was forced to move and look for the escape from Systema punching defenses, it was so unpredictable. However, it was a little rough and brutal, but I felt great and light after that work, even like a lark bird ready to fly again and upon arriving home I did not discover any bruises after about 10 minutes of abusing my body with the punches. Indeed, my student’s and I would like to thank you Vladimir and his family and all seminar participants with whom we worked out that day. We are grateful to Vladimir for opening new horizons for us that we will try to reach in the future.

Many Thanks to Vladimir and to all the guys who made this seminar possible. This was a great experience for me: nice people, nice environment. If you are coming to Systema from a different martial style it really changes the way you think about martial art in general. It helps to remove some artificial boundaries of the particular style, opens up the wide range of possibilities in different situations. Vladimir's work against multiple attackers is amazing. I really like how calm, relaxed and effective he is. Looking forward to attending more Systema events. Thanks again, Alex

The Seminar was a great experience. It was my first time seeing Vladimir and he is amazing, one of the few masters I have had the pleasure of meeting. Along with his amazing ability, I was equally impressed with his warm humility, and willingness to help and teach and train with everyone. The seminar itself consisted of a lot of excellent breathing and warm-up exercises, challenging drills, and realistic, useful applications. So much to learn and take home and study! It was a real pleasure to meet and train with the the other attendees. Many thanks to Mark Jakabcsin and Palmetto Systema for hosting us and bringing Vladimir and Kwan Lee to share their knowledge and experience.

This wonderful seminar was hosted by Mark Jakabsin and presented by Vladimir and Kwan Lee. Kwan opened Friday night with excellent warm ups which previewed the work to come. Vladimir presented unique breathing and conditioning drills to prepare the body for dealing with multiple attackers armed/unarmed. It was fascinating to see new possibilities in extracting ourselves out of seemingly impossible situations. The attendees were fabulous in their openness and sincerity. The work was harmonious, vigorous and challenging. Everyone left with more wisdom and less tension. Thank you Vladimir, Kwan and Mark for giving us this incredible seminar!

A giant thanks to Vladimir, Kwan and all those that attended the seminar this weekend in Charlotte. While I have helped in a small way in some of the previous seminars this was the first time I was host. I greatly appreciate the support and hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did. Vladimir's awesome teaching, willingness to share his vast knowledge and amazing demonstration were once again witnessed throughout the weekend. During the weekend many people told me how fortunate they feel for having the opportunity to train and be around Vladimir and I concur completely. Thank you Vladimir. The luck 40 or so folks that were able to make it to Kwan's Friday evening class had the perfect warm up for the rest of the weekend. Great class Kwan and thank you for sharing your knowledge and skill. It is always a pleasure to work (and drink) with you. On Saturday we had around 100 people present. The room was a little tight but everyone worked together with good spirit and camaraderie. This type of esprit de corps is what makes Systema such a joy to train. On Sunday in the grand ball room we had loads of space and were again awed by Vladimir’s teaching. Thank you to all that attended, each of you contributed to a fantastic week. I also want to send a special thanks to Valerie, Brian King, Brad Scornavacco and Pat Caputo. These were the behind the scenes folks that helped me plan the weekend by answering a never ending list of questions and giving me valuable suggestions. I have no doubt that without each of them I would not have been able to pull this event off. Thanks again. Take care, Mark J.

If you find yourself lying on the floor and four people smile and simultaneously kick you when the fifth guy (smiling too) gives you advise to relax and breathe then there is a good chance that you are in Charlotte, NC and the guy's name is Vladimir :) To be relaxed under very stressful situation is very hard and the only way to achieve it is to simulate the situation over and over. This is what the seminar for me was all about.

The seminar was amazing! Vladimir's explainations and drills on multiple attackers make facing three people as easy as if you were facing only one. I learned a lot of great drills and met great people there. I can't wait till his next one.