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Vladimir Vasiliev in Tampa, Florida ( by David Orman, 116 words ) CFLSystema.wordpress.com

Dear Vlad, On behalf of everyone here at the Central FL Systema school, I want to thank you so very much for coming to Tampa and for your exceptional seminar. I absolutely loved the weekend, although it went by too quickly. Great things always do. I was thinking about it of course on my drive home and realized that aside from the spectacular information that you present, you also bring a lot of happiness to those of us who are participating. Everyone learning and everyone is having a great time in the process. Thank you very much and I look forward to seeing you again. My best to you and your family. With deep appreciation. David


Rating: 5 of 5 Stars! [5 of 5 Stars!]
Date Added: 2012-05-07 08:52:49
Vladimir Vasiliev in Tampa, Florida ( by Rick Solveson, 178 words )

<P>Thank you Vladimir, you allowed me to recognize that you were able to effortlessly navigate the pathway to initiate purpose through sensitivity with what I can only describe as a deep caring and compassion. You immediately identified and tried to help me relax and eliminate the tension I was holding and the fear of succeeding or failing. So refreshing was your sense of genuine caring and lack of forced dominance and ego so prevalent throughout the arts today, that you rekindled my enthusiasm. </P> <P>We worked hard and through those efforts we are rewarded with becoming more and more aware of all of the mistakes&nbsp;and the tensions, and how little we really know. We realize that the only thing holding us back are our own selves, induced obstacles and expectations manifested in your own mind. They express themselves by impeding energy flows in physical movement, preventing you from working effectively in the flow of continuously unfolding events. </P> <P>You have renewed my enthusiasm to continue exploring the depths of the world as it unfolds around us. With all my best.</P>


Rating: 5 of 5 Stars! [5 of 5 Stars!]
Date Added: 2012-05-08 21:51:32
Vladimir Vasiliev in Tampa, Florida ( by Ayhan Kaya, 27 words )

A great seminar for 3 days. The use of breathing techniques with fluency so impressive ... Vladimir Vasiliev and Systema are very nice to know people! Greetings from Turkey ...


Rating: 5 of 5 Stars! [5 of 5 Stars!]
Date Added: 2012-05-09 14:56:44
Vladimir Vasiliev in Tampa, Florida ( by Frank Fileti, 1175 words )

Where do I begin besides saying another truly amazing life experience? From the moment I stepped off the plane, the seminar host and long time friend, Kenny Gonzalez, was there to greet me with open arms and a smiling face, accompanied by new found friends Olivia from Austin TX, and Anthony a police officer from Aruba who was visiting Systema for the first time, a very warm welcoming crew to say the least. But the Journey did not begin there. It was when Vladimir and Valerie contacted me a few months before and asked if I would teach the Tampa seminar participants on the Friday night preparation day. I froze for a moment, with the thought of wow, really me? Without hesitation I said of course, I would love too. What an honor to stand with Vladimir as one of his instructors at a seminar. The first thing I did was sit down and think about what I had just been asked to do. How will I do this the best way I can, will I start to write out an entire seminar itinerary and follow it step by step? Then I thought about what Vladimir said to me about teaching. Systema is Alive, it is an inspiration moment to moment, and if you teach off of a paper, there is no life to it; yet don’t get me wrong, it is always good to work off of ideas that you may have written down, but then let them come to life and see where the art takes you. So, here we go, let the inspirations begin. It is the Friday night seminar, moments before we start and people begin flowing in to the training area of the hotel, a lot of new faces, and a lot of familiar ones, including some very close friends. I decide to leave and go for a walk around the pool and tropical grounds, just to breathe, relax, analyze myself, make sure my pride and ego were in check and my thoughts and intentions were in the right place, and to remember to truly care about each and every person in that room I was about to walk into. Soon it is time to begin. I quietly enter the room, and begin making my way around to every person, greeting him or her with a smile, and a handshake. The first thing I noticed was everyone was very tense and fatigued; after all it was a travel day, lot of stress and racing thoughts, excitement, anxiety, etc. Thus, that’s where we began, with breath work, relaxation, tension release, and recognition, simple exercises to clean the body and mind to prepare and begin the training. From there it all came to life, without thought just by feel. I said to myself just help these people prepare themselves to work and understand what Vladimir will be teaching them. What I can show them is nothing compared to Vladimir’s expertise, experience and Mastery, but I can help them to understand what they will be looking at, and expected to do. I began to work on building blocks of structure, fluidity of movement, ideas on proper footwork and balance, tension vs. relaxation, with many demonstrations. It included ways to work with your partners to get the most out of the training, not to fight them or yourself, to have the proper thought process and clarity of mind while working, so you are not thinking, but feeling. That’s when you begin to learn, working without exhaustion; after all, we had a long weekend ahead of us. As an instructor and a person, I learned so much working with every person in that room, it was truly a humbling experience, and from what I heard from everyone else, they enjoyed it too. Now for the Main Event: Vladimir Vasiliev. I have to say; just being in the presence of this man is a seminar in itself, filled with joy, understanding, patience, and most of all humility. The facility for the weekend training was a huge gym with wooden floors at a local university in Tampa, prepared and set up by Kenny. There had to be about 120 people awaiting Vladimir’s arrival. As we walked into the gymnasium of course all heads turn, and right away you can feel the tension drop right out of the room, just by his kind demeanor and humble Mastery. There was a great presence of Systema Instructors from all over Colorado, N.C, S.C, Philadelphia, New York, especially from Florida, as well as very experienced practitioners of Systema and other arts as well, such as Aikido, as well as other countries, Turkey, Aruba, Brazil to name a few. We began with warm up and breathwork for preparation and relaxation. The first day was an amazing display of striking work and instruction from Vladimir with unbelievable explanation and breathtaking demonstrations with many great drills that were so helpful to understand the work. It always blows my mind watching Vladimir teach. It’s more the way he does it than anything, always going deeper into the work, showing the evolution of Systema, and how it is ever so changing and growing, but with such simplicity. One can see how the people react to his work, and how they change from the moment they start to every moment after, always being more humbled and understanding themselves more and more. A true journey of exploration of oneself, because the hardest part of doing Systema is dealing with you. It is always nice to take a step back and appreciate what we have in front of us. Systema is not a secret, it’s a gift, and that gift is you. The second seminar day was filled with more movement and fluidity, more subtle, work on the internal state of movement. The focus was on mind and body in motion together. Once again another display of true Mastery from Vladimir Vasiliev, working in groups against multiple opponents, striking with movement, and understanding structure, working from the ground up, dealing with fear, and tension, followed by knife work. It was a different kind of knife work than usual, very sensitive but combined with a lot of aggressive realistic tension that will show up in people naturally. Yet all my words can hardly come close to the enlightenment you get from being there. Of course I would not forget to mention Saturday night’s celebration, hosted by Kenny Gonzalez, who by the way did an unbelievable job of hosting and organizing a great seminar, always making sure everyone was happy and had what they needed. There was also a very nice sit down dinner at a Spanish restaurant, a good time had by all that were there, good food, wine, friends, everyone getting to talk and get to know each other. A truly amazing life experience. Thank you to all that were there, to my new friends. Thank you Kenny for all your good work and efforts in helping to spread the art of Systema, and thank you to Vladimir and Valerie, for all your help, patience, guidance, teachings and Love.


Rating: 5 of 5 Stars! [5 of 5 Stars!]
Date Added: 2012-05-22 20:40:02
Vladimir Vasiliev in Bern, Switzerland ( by Jamie Robson, 73 words ) www.SystemaScotland.com

I attended all 3 days in Bern, Switzerland. We started by exploring our Breathing, Movement, Relaxation and Structure in progressively more demanding ways. This lay the foundation for the next 2 days where we developed our Striking and Knife skills. The teaching by Vladimir was excellent, he built us up gradually and systematically. I left with a perfect balance of humility and motivation. Thanks to everyone involved in this excellent seminar. Best Wishes, Jamie Robson


Rating: 5 of 5 Stars! [5 of 5 Stars!]
Date Added: 2012-04-03 21:33:30
Strikes by Vladimir Vasiliev - Sunday February 19th ( by John Vince, 119 words )

My friend and I attended the Strikes seminar on Sunday and we had a great time. The progression of instruction was perfect. Simple and logical so that a beginner like me did not get lost. Thank you to Max for spotting that we had come together and encouraged us to move around and work with other people; very beneficial for learning (getting struck by the same person for three hours could strain a friendship). All the instructors were great. All the Systema students made me feel very welcomed and showed patience as I worked through the drills. Overall an excellent experience. My only complaint is that it went by too fast. All the best and hope to attend again.


Rating: 5 of 5 Stars! [5 of 5 Stars!]
Date Added: 2012-02-22 23:30:34
Strikes by Vladimir Vasiliev - Sunday February 19th ( by Achille, 320 words )

I have to thank not only Vladimir for such a fantastic seminar but Max, Valerie and the person who cancelled on the Sunday in order to open a spot for me to attend the second day. I originally only signed up for the Saturday event thinking that the Sunday seminar would be redundant... I was totally wrong. Both days were filled with so much amazing information on how to deliver and take strikes, I was left in a state of awe. I have attended many systema seminars over the past 10 years and I can honestly say that this seminar was by far the most comprehensive strike seminar I have ever had the pleasure to attend. The amazing thing is that both days were totally different in material but equal in scope and depth of information. I know when thinking of attending a striking seminar, especially one where Vlad may be the one hitting you, it can bring up a lot of fear and negative emotions. Especially the thoughts that deal with talking yourself out of going. After attending the seminar I not only felt alive but was energized and actually healed in many ways. Another interesting point is that although over the two days we spent over 6 hours dealing with strikes, it was quite evident that Vlad was only scratching the surface when it comes to his vast knowledge of the subject. I would love to be able to speak more of what was covered but if there was ever a topic in Systema where one needs to actually feel rather than pontificate about , it would be any seminar that deals with Systema striking. The amount of growth that the seminar aroused in the participants was simply astonishing. I want to again thank Vladimir for putting on such a fantastic seminar and I hope there is another one in the near future. God Bless.


Rating: 5 of 5 Stars! [5 of 5 Stars!]
Date Added: 2012-02-24 07:09:05
Strikes by Vladimir Vasiliev - Saturday February 18th ( by Achille, 320 words )

I have to thank not only Vladimir for such a fantastic seminar but Max, Valerie and the person who cancelled on the Sunday in order to open a spot for me to attend the second day. I originally only signed up for the Saturday event thinking that the Sunday seminar would be redundant... I was totally wrong. Both days were filled with so much amazing information on how to deliver and take strikes, I was left in a state of awe. I have attended many systema seminars over the past 10 years and I can honestly say that this seminar was by far the most comprehensive strike seminar I have ever had the pleasure to attend. The amazing thing is that both days were totally different in material but equal in scope and depth of information. I know when thinking of attending a striking seminar, especially one where Vlad may be the one hitting you, it can bring up a lot of fear and negative emotions. Especially the thoughts that deal with talking yourself out of going. After attending the seminar I not only felt alive but was energized and actually healed in many ways. Another interesting point is that although over the two days we spent over 6 hours dealing with strikes, it was quite evident that Vlad was only scratching the surface when it comes to his vast knowledge of the subject. I would love to be able to speak more of what was covered but if there was ever a topic in Systema where one needs to actually feel rather than pontificate about , it would be any seminar that deals with Systema striking. The amount of growth that the seminar aroused in the participants was simply astonishing. I want to again thank Vladimir for putting on such a fantastic seminar and I hope there is another one in the near future. God Bless.


Rating: 5 of 5 Stars! [5 of 5 Stars!]
Date Added: 2012-02-24 07:08:16
Vladimir Vasiliev in Mexico City, Mexico ( by Alberto Nacif, 89 words )

Seminar began with 1 day with Kwan Lee, terrific progression of exercises which led to taking rank beginners all the way to doing mass fighting well! Pretty impressive! The two days with Vladimir were really great, his warmth, humor and expertise enlightened and were easily understood by beginners and experienced practitioners. The discussion about delivering of stikes, along with the demonstrations were superb. Kudos to Inkoga of Mexico, Josafath, Erika and their warm welcome to sunny Mexico made this another unforgettable and deeply effective seminar.


Rating: 5 of 5 Stars! [5 of 5 Stars!]
Date Added: 2012-02-08 10:04:27
CLOTHING AS A WEAPON - Seminar by Vladimir Vasiliev ( by Steven Cash Nickerson, 117 words ) www.bigdsystema.com

This was an exceptional seminar containing information that is unavailable anywhere else to my knowledge. Participants from all over the world and many senior instructors present like Martin Wheeler, Kwan Lee, Max Franz, Gene Smithson, Big Sergey and Edgar from NY. All the moving and breath work except now with the added variable of your clothing or an attacker's clothing. Great lessons on chokes, knife defenses and plenty of groundwork. Thank you so much Vlad for sharing this incredible and practical work and thank you to all the senior instructors and Toronto school regulars - your assistance and training support was much appreciated. And thank you to Valerie for all you do.


Rating: 5 of 5 Stars! [5 of 5 Stars!]
Date Added: 2011-11-22 15:42:44
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