stevewildash.com - Systema Training Blog

Systema Stevenage…

2013-04-23T18:34:00.001+01:00

Systema article in this month's Martial Arts Illustrated…

2013-04-12T19:34:00.001+01:00

Get it here

Tempsford Workshop…

2013-03-29T08:43:00.001Z

Full details at
http://www.cuttingedgeshop.com/proddetail.asp?prod=BD001

Tempsford Systema Class Work 2012-13

2013-02-09T21:36:00.001Z

East Midlands Systema: Water Workshop…

2013-02-09T21:25:00.001Z

Stevenage Systema…

2013-02-09T21:18:00.001Z

Rob Poyton’s Video Blog Jan 2013 Part 2…

2013-01-27T13:06:00.001Z

Fear and its effects…

2012-11-18T10:28:00.001Z

You think you have fear under control until something new or unexpected in your life comes along and for what ever reason it can cause periods of low level anxiety that eats away at you without you really noticing it, or perhaps you’re in some sort of denial of what's really going on, before you know it things within you feel a lot worse. I've had a pretty stressful couple of weeks, so was glad to get down to Tempsford to train and by chance Rob said he was going to go over some old ground and wanted to cover aspects of fear management, and the work covered that day helped me to understand where I went wrong during the last week or so, pointing me in the right direction, to spot the early signs of stress creeping on. Fear is something we create ourselves and can manifest itself in a number of different ways, but for me usually starts in the mind as a thought, creating uncertainty about something or other and then it starts to work into the bodies systems, finally working its way down the body showing itself more visibly, trapping itself in different areas depending upon the situation I’m facing.. at the moment my stress or fear has trapped itself in the stomach knotting my muscles causing a lot of discomfort… so why does this happen to me when placed under higher than normal anxious / stressful situations? I have a pretty good idea why, I tend to place excessive pressure on my self in all things, to do the best I can both in work and in play, knowing perfectly well it really isn't necessary.. So Rob was going to show the class this week how the use of breathing can be a useful tool to not only introduce fear, so that we are able to recognise it and then cope with it, but as a method of reducing fear and anxiety as well. Although fear is a good thing, as it helps us recognise danger, the down side is that too much and we fail to operate efficiently, or in some cases will shut us down altogether. Rob explained briefly about the five levels or areas where fear can manifest itself and true enough I’ve probably experienced most of these at some point and these as I pointed out earlier start in the mind then works its way down.

Five levels of fear:

Head – Thoughts and imagination, anticipation of events, an endless movie reel of what might happen, but rarely does..

Heart and Lungs – Rapid breathing, panic attacks, fast heart rate, palpitations.

Stomach – Griping, churning pains or discomfort, knotting of muscles.

Bowels – The need to use the toilet.

Knees – Legs like jelly.

Rob showed how we can take simple exercises like the press up, sit up and squat and just apply a breath hold to create simple low level fear and then went on to show how the use of breath can help us to cope with it, using breathing methods to restore yourself back to a normal state. Rob demonstrated this by holding his breath while doing press ups then when he’d reached a point where he really needed to breath, changed over to sit ups and used breathing to restore; it’s interesting to see how its possible to use another exercise straight after a breath hold exercise to restore yourself and how you can work like this for a longer period than you might think.

Having recently been diagnosed as having osteoarthritis of the hip and sacroiliac joint and all the pain that goes with it, I’ve been struggling with the idea of getting back to falling and rolling, and was very apprehensive about getting back down to the floor, as the previous weeks take downs were pretty painful. At the moment the pain is still there but less so, I needed some help over this barrier, Mark helped me out here by forcing me to roll during a knife flow drill, I had to relax and deal with it, which pushed me over that fear barrier and as I was relaxed, also kept the pain level down substantially. Now that the first one is out of the way and the the fear has subsided quite a bit, I can now move on.. Unfortunately I have to modify the way I do things now, but that's life I guess, things are always constantly changing as time goes by, although the “flow motion” is still a little sticky at the moment, with some perseverance hopefully I’ll get it back soon enough...

Steve

Systema therapy..‏.

2012-11-09T13:49:00.000Z

To say I was a bit apprehensive in training last Saturday, the first time in weeks was an understatement, finally got myself down to Tempsford for what proved to be an enjoyable yet very challenging session for me, still only about 50% fit, cabin fever forced me out of the house at long last and I’m glad I made the move, the fear of further damage was high in my mind, but like Systema teaches you “face your fears”…. My greatest fear at the moment is being thrown, so I kept to my feet for pretty much the whole of the first session (little steps for now).. It was good to see Rob and the others again and to have the usual warm welcome, things you definitely miss as a regular.. When you remove certain things from your life that are important too you, even for a short while, it becomes very hard not to miss it. Systema classes are very therapeutic, just leave your troubles at the door for a couple of hours, enjoy the banter and a few laughs with your mates and things don’t seem half as bad.. although some of the movement was difficult, I could still participate in most things, but lessons learnt from a couple of months ago tell me I need to move and train differently, certainly differently until my body recovers and hopefully Ill be able to move more freely again over the next few months… You need your mates sometimes to show you the right way to look at things and their continual support through what can seem difficult times, not just injury, but all of life's little troubles, as they say 'A problem shared is a problem halved'

Thanks Guys

Steve

December Course at Tempsford…

2012-11-04T20:08:00.001Z

Seminar with Vladimir Vasiliev at Eton College (UK) 20 & 21/10/2012…

2012-11-01T08:42:00.001Z

Write-up courtesy of Gareth Ashby – Systema Stevenage

One of the first things you notice about Vladimir is how relaxed, content, calm and genuine he is, with a quiet and understated confidence. Despite being one of the principal teachers of Systema, Vladimir remains down to earth, approachable and friendly to all, regardless of their level of skill/understanding, readily sharing his vast knowledge of Systema. When Vladimir starts to work the deep level of his skill it becomes instantly apparent, the smoothness, precision and economy of movement, doing exactly what he needs to do, no more, no less. It is one thing to see Vladimir in action in videos and clips on YouTube, but to really appreciate what he is doing you need to see it in person or better still feel it!
I’m not going to write up drill for drill what was covered at the seminar, there’s already a great write up by Garry Hodgins of Systema Dublin on the recent Russian Martial Art – Systema HQ newsletter (and also available on Garry’s website), so instead I will provide a general outline and a couple of my thoughts & experiences.

The seminar mainly covered; breathing, developing awareness of fear/tension, noticing when this starts to manifest and the use of breathing to remove the excess fear & tension, we looked at short work and work against and with the knife. Vladimir explained that in order to work successfully against someone with a knife your work must be calm, you must not excite the other person, your work needs to be short and hidden any large or tense movements you make only serve to give the knife wielder the opportunity to cut you.

We covered various exercises (mainly variations of breath holds) to see where the feeling of fear starts within our bodies and then looked at how by using our breathing correctly we can work to remove it – it highlighted to me once again just how important correct breathing is. Vladimir said that when we breathe it should be like drinking a good drink - for me because Systema as taught by Mikhail Ryabko and Vladimir Vasiliev is far more concerned with feeling rather than thinking, analogies like this provide a valuable guide, I’m sure that this line is in the Let Every Breath book, but for some reason when you hear Vladimir say it in context it makes even more sense. A mistake I used to make in the not so distant past was to actually add to my tension with my breathing, my breathing (both inhale & exhale) was forced/contrived. Our breathing just like our movement which it guides should be appropriate, it should fit the situation. On the first day we also covered moving and striking and making our work short, direct and more precise but at the same time calm.

The second day we concentrated mainly on the knife, working both against and with it. I really made an effort in all of the drills to notice when & where I felt any fear come. Even small things had a small effect, for example we did one drill where our partner stood on the spot and made slashing movements with the knife, we were to get a sense of how our partner was moving and calmly move with their slashes so that we could move in and past them, getting behind them without being caught by the knife. There were a lot of people at the seminar and I noticed that every time a person from another group moved past quite close by to me I felt a small amount of fear/tension creep in, which of course if I ignored affected my movement, using my breath I was able to rid myself of this additional fear/tension and move more calmly and normally.

It really was a great seminar and great to see Vladimir in the UK again, the first time in about 6 years. The event was well organised and facilitated by David Flaherty MBE (and his guys from Systema GB) and it was good to see and train with people from all over the UK & Ireland and some from other parts of Europe.

Thank you to Vladimir, Systema GB and everyone I trained with!

Gareth Ashby

Review - TechBands…

2012-10-31T09:46:00.000Z

I’ve always been a fan of resistance training, even in the early days of my Martial Arts training, the concept was known to me back then as Dynamic Tension, this was a great method for developing strength either with or without a partner. Having experimented with most forms of weight training, either down the gym or free weights at home, including kettle bells, have found them less forgiving if used incorrectly and at times small injuries result, so I was looking for something that gave me similar benefits to the old Dynamic Tension exercises, with the added input from weight training drills. While browsing on the TV the other day ended up on one of the fitness channels where resistance bands were being demonstrated and thought they could be what I’m looking for, so ordered up a reasonably price set from Amazon. A few days later I received the package containing five bands plus accessories; I have to say I was quite impressed with the build quality and all held within a nice storage bag. My immediate thoughts were nice kit and could well work as my own portable gym.. It didn’t take long to start figuring out what to do, having seen some simple exercises on TV and YouTube, I was soon up and running. The thing I liked most about this bit of kit was the feel safe factor, as long as I followed the safety guidelines supplied, I’d be safe from injury; unlike with weights when things don't go to plan, you might well have falling metal weights to contend with, where as with the bands you just stop what you’re doing. By my second day working with the bands I was linking exercises together and thinking of new ones too. Thinking about how you might operate various gym machines, I wanted to figure out a similar alternative and then apply to the bands, most but not all were surprisingly transferable, all this for under twenty quid, I thought it was a real bargain and something I’m now trying to build into my injury rehabilitation workout, as I lot of movement with my lower body is limited at the moment due to the pain factor, so am having to find lots of work arounds. When using the bands I’m able to get the heart rate up sufficiently to get a sweat on, I’m also finding that using this great bit of kit has helped me to keep my spirits up until I return to Systema classes hopefully sometime soon.

YouTube Links

In case you’re interested in a set here’s the link

TechBands on Amazon

Guest Blogger - Jamie Robson, Founder & Instructor, Systema Scotland…

2012-10-29T18:03:00.001Z

First of all, I'd like to thank Steve Wildash for inviting me to write on his excellent blog. Steve's articles are rich in useful information and well worth reading.

So, my theme for this article is 'Freedom'. Those that know me will have heard this term countless times, as I use it frequently when trying to teach or train my students. I believe we live for freedom and that life is about freedom. We all consciously or subconsciously want to be free, of pain, worry, stress, sickness, burdens and the list goes on. We simply want to be free of what stops us feeling free.

This innate thirst for freedom has driven man throughout history. We may ask ourselves why do we pray or meditate? Why do some people take drugs or drink excessively? Perhaps one reason is the need to escape the things that prevent us from feeling free. Why do we often take a nap when plagued with a headache? To escape of course. However, this is where the issue of semantics raises it's troublesome head. Escape, is not really the same as Freedom. It is my opinion that many of us are confused between Escape and Freedom.

From a Health perspective, people often replace one shackle for another; they are distracted by thoughts so they replace it with another that they perceive as being prettier or more 'spiritual'. It's like replacing water with fruit juice, you have a more pleasant experience, but you are still thirsty! It is the thirst that binds you, not the flavour.

From a Combat perspective, people learn new ways to move, unnatural and unusual methods of fighting in many martial arts. Then they must try to move in this contrived manner while their life is in danger! How restrictive! How laborious! There is no liberation or freedom here!

If we use an analogy, let's imagine a river. The river represents all of the issues that may impinge on our holistic freedom. Some methods would have you wade into the middle of this river, some methods would have you trying to swim upstream. Instead, let's consider standing on the river bank, watching it go by 'impartially'.

What I'm trying to explain, is that relying on anything to escape is not going to result in freedom. If you 'need' this method or that method, if you 'need' to escape this or that, you are certainly a long way from freedom.

Instead, how about holding natures hand, flowing along in perfect harmony, not judging or analysing but rather understanding you are 'not' these issues that others try to escape. You are simply the impartial viewer of this natural pantomime. You can then improvise along the way, making the most of each situation.

People try to escape the sound of traffic to hear the singing of birds. They build prison walls around them by deciding not to like this and instead, wanting that. Who are we to judge? Everything is natural! Let it all pass by, don't wade into the river. Let it all pass through, don't struggle swimming upstream. You are already Free. When you don't touch a single thing, when you stop engrossing yourself in these so-called distractions, who is left? What remains? Freedom.

If you try to force a technique in a fight, you are swimming upstream. Instead, go with and keep an eye open for ripe opportunities to pluck naturally. If you try to sleep, you might struggle. Instead, just rest without goals or aims, just enjoy the comfort of your bed and nature will soon take over as you fall asleep naturally.

In my classes, we try to liberate the students with experience rather than weigh them down with knowledge, freedom means being free. This is why I believe Systema to be a superior vehicle for physical, emotional, mental and spiritual freedom. It makes use of natural methods, natural instincts and natural forces, helping us towards freedom, naturally.

Thank You,

Jamie Robson
Founder & Instructor
---
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Long road to recovery…

2012-10-18T08:53:00.001+01:00

You may have wondered why there’s been a lack of blog posts recently, well long story short it’s because any sort of training at class has been out of the question, the reason being another injury has kept me at home trying my best to recover. Certain injuries you can work around, but when one restricts movement to such an extent, you have to think to yourself hold on this feels a bit more serious than anything else I’ve had to deal with before, perhaps I should take a look at what I’m doing to myself... Rob had recently explained to me that perhaps it’s my attitude towards training that’s causing the injury problems I’m facing.. and as I’ve had time to reflect on this, can only agree with him. The problem is that over many years the body has been exposed to many hours of strenuous repetitions, falls, strains, forced locks, causing over the many years a variety of long term injuries all sustained over a thirty seven year period and the attitude I’ve developed to training was built up over the same period.. when all’s said and done though the ol body has done remarkably well considering, but like all things, one day the body decides to say enough’s enough and gives it to you big style and recovery from this I know is going to be a long haul.. I think it was initially caused by some sort of impact / trauma to my hip during training, either being thrown or taken down to the floor in a hurry.. but who knows, bumps and knocks are picked up all the time and you often forget during the heat of the moment how you got them.. but as I well know I’m not twenty anymore and something now has to give, if I am at all able to return to class at some point in the near future, I need to find a new way to train that keeps me safer from injury, but also keeps me interested enough to keep on going, I don’t really want to walk away from it, as I like the training and the guy’s too much.. Rob has pointed out to me “don't think about stopping training but think about how you train” and pointed out on more than one occasion that “There's nothing to prove”, and has said to me that “I know it's great to get "realistic" as much as possible, but at the end of the day none of it is real, it’s training - and if training is busting you up you need to ask why”. “it's training the way you like that got you here (busted up)...sometimes it has to be training that we need and not always what we’d like”.. you can’t really argue with that, and having felt the pain of the last few weeks, it’s going to be a case of coming to terms with what I should be doing, not how I feel I should be training or performing. My problem is that I feel if I don’t “keep it real” so to speak it isn't “real training”, and anything less won’t be as effective, but yes I know now that a balance has to be struck somewhere between keeping in shape and feeling what you’re doing is something worthwhile and yes most importantly without the destruction to your body. Hard and fast is clearly less controllable, by slowing things down a bit, I may be able to prevent further problems before they happen, obviously I can’t prevent things happening to me 100% of the time, but should significantly reduce unnecessary injuries that are keeping me away from class and more importantly the Vlad course this weekend… The reality is twenty I’m not, fifty I am, not that I want to act my age you understand, but like all things becoming sensible about training and being able to train has to be the order of the day….

Steve

Summer Training 2012 Tempsford Systema class

2012-10-01T19:40:00.001+01:00

How do you drive…?

2012-09-29T13:53:00.001+01:00

Sometimes without pressure testing whatever you do makes what ever you do a bit of an unknown quantity, without taking yourself out of the comfort zone you will never know anything about yourself and in my view should be a regular occurrence, otherwise you’re just fooling yourself.

Self belief or a focused mind-set is something that can be learned and something I had to work at, it was always about putting myself up against the good guys to find out what I was made of, even if it meant that they continually beat me down.. hopefully though through self discovery I worked a few things out that helped me to say on my feet for a bit longer.., sussing out methods that best work for you is always going to be favourite, for someone to tell you this is the way it should be isn't going to help you to problem solve. Rob refers to the training session as a kind of laboratory, so your experimentation should be in class where you test and retest your drills. I suppose if you only tend to copy other peoples experiments you’re just reworking existing knowledge that might not fit you as well as the original experimenter, to find things out for yourself you need to have good imagination and a feel for what works and what doesn’t, it’s also a bonus to have like minded training partners to work with, who also wish to learn through experimentation.

One of the things that made some sense to me was when Don my partner for todays class said, in your training you should be able to go through the gear box, taking it from low to high gears and back down again as things get more challenging, in other words know when to mix it and when not to, and how far you need to go when dealing with a situation.. It was fair to say that I spent most of the session yesterday in high gear, which in some respects was a mistake, as I’m not as young as I used to be and modifications to the mind-set that I tend to work in most of the time, needs some attention, alterations are required most definitely.. perhaps if I could see the over revving before it happens, I should easily then be able to reselect a gear and slow things down a tad, unfortunately I do like to go at it now and then, its as though I need to cleans my body of too much slow work, thrash about for a bit, only then can I reset and then go back to slowing things back down, back to the learning speed of slow drilling, perhaps I'm looking for a more balanced regime in my training that gives me more intensity to offset the slow work… who knows.

Occasionally I see my Systema training as an automatic gear box, it doesn’t always give you the flexibility that I need, sometimes the lag between gears doesn’t fit all my driving conditions and circumstances.. sometimes in training automatic responses feel the wrong way to me, sometimes feel I’m waiting for responses before I can act, sometimes feeling that I’m always holding back, I don’t always want to wait to react to someone else's actions, in fighting terms, sometimes I feel the need to override automation and pursue a direct course of action, perhaps this is viewed as a mistake by some, but at times I need to feel the need to be more direct and deal with the problem straight away... Don also said to me today that its not about the art you do, its all about the individual whether things work or not, which I have learnt over the years to be so true, how you are, how you fight is very personal and yes at times I just want to say F@#k it and just go forward, you won’t find this attitude in everyone in class and yes that's a good thing, as the more level headed ones soon explain your short comings. Sometimes when you think about what survival is though, you have to except that when threatened anything goes and it has to be about how much as an individual you want to survive, if you don’t believe in yourself no one else will, and only you will fight your battles because no one else will, and this is probably why sometimes I tend to take the more direct approach, well that’s just me isn’t it lol….

Steve

Peripheral Vision…

2012-09-25T16:48:00.000+01:00

So how important is what we see at the periphery of our vision, well unless you're doing something very specific that requires close attention, which I imagine is a smaller percentage of your time spent on doing things, for the rest of the tasks carried out during your day, I would say pretty important. Observation while carrying out general tasks, perhaps walking from place to place is something that requires a balance of concentration and awareness. Assuming your eyesight is in good condition, it’s possible to see an incredible amount of space around you, it’s not all about what's directly in front of your nose, its much more than that... A simple test of your peripheral vision is quite easy to do, just take your index finger and hold it vertically in front of your nose and then move your hand from one side of your head to the other, and see how far you can move it before the finger disappears from view.. my own vision seems to be reasonable and side vision is about 90' from the front to each side, the lower vision is about a foot in front of my feet and upper vision is about 6 to 8 inches in front of my face at the top of my head, which seems pretty good on the whole.. so what's the point in looking more closely at peripheral vision? well, a good example of what I’m getting at happened while I was writing this blog post, I had to pop over to the corner store to buy some provisions, I saw in the distance my son Jack on his way home from school, he was walking on the other side of the road to where I was, I made a beeline straight towards him across the road, as a fast as I could walk; Jack was in conversation with his mate and heavily concentrating on his Blackberry mobile, texting or messaging I guess, he didn’t see my approach crossing the road towards him, even though I was moving quickly, not until I was literally on top of him did he look up, and as he did so I spooked him pretty bad with big arm movements, which needless to say got a fairly fearful reaction and could see this in his face as I walked past him. I said to him once I’d been to the shop and caught up with him that his peripheral vision was somewhat lacking and that focusing on one thing isn't always the best thing to do when walking… anyhow it just goes to show how focusing on one thing without being aware of your surroundings could put you in a bit of a precarious position if in the wrong place; if Jack was paying attention to his walk home he would have seen me a lot earlier, he could still use the phone, but would have made more sense to every now and then look up to see what's going on.

Rob worked us through some stick drills last weekend and there were a couple of drills that worked the peripheral vision, the first involved the class forming a tight circle, one stick was introduced first, it was thrown vertically across the circle to be caught in one hand by someone else, then in turn passed onto someone else quickly, then again passed on… as things got more comfortable, another stick was introduced to the group until three sticks in total were being passed around the circle at a reasonable pace which, certainly kept you on your toes, so awareness was essential and made easier by using peripheral vision, especially in this type of drill, as one of the guys said the stick is always going to be honest, it wont suddenly change direction if you don’t see it, it will hit you . The next drill involved getting into groups of 5 or 6, one guy stood in front of the others as they made an arc in front of him, a similar idea to the first drill except this time the man in front started the drill by throwing the stick to one of the others in the arced line up, they in turn passed it straight back to him, he then had to pass it to someone else without withdrawing his catching hand too much, almost bouncing it onto the next man. Again as the catchers got comfortable with this, another stick was added, moving up to up to three sticks and again at a fair pace.. I found that peripheral vision was important here, as the sticks were coming from all directions, if you concentrated on one thrower to catch their stick, you would miss the others being thrown at you, causing chaos and all your sticks would end up on the floor or bounce off you instead of being caught, you needed as much awareness of where the sticks were especially if you needed to catch and throw two sticks at the same time, some managed to catch three sticks, but returning them proved a bit more difficult…. There are of course many drills used for developing awareness, helping to enhance your early detection systems, one of these other drills involves using tennis balls and using each other as target practice, look for the balls aimed at you and they will almost certainly hit you, open up your peripheral vision and your reaction time is so much sharper and avoidance is easier, as your peripheral vision picks up on the smallest of movement.

Peripheral vision comes into its own when up against multiple opponents, time isn’t available to fight one at a time, you have to treat the multiple as one whole moving thing and use your peripheral vision to pick up on the small movements as they head towards you, opening up in this way will help you to register the attacks early enough to either move out of the way or counter attack, or indeed both…. peripheral vision isn't something to disregard, we should all have this capability, perhaps with varying degrees depending on the condition of our eyesight, even so there really isn't an excuse not to try to develop this skill of extended observation and awareness.. by improving this sense you are able to apply it to all sorts of every day situations... it might just possibly give you the edge you need one day....

Steve

Your clothing will do nicely sir…

2012-09-01T20:50:00.001+01:00

When it comes down to it you have to be able to take advantage of everything that’s given to you, anything that will make the job a little easier to accomplish.. One of the things we tend to overlook is how useful your opponents clothing is, a useful tool in which to control him, as well as a method to choke, disorientate and restrain.
Last Saturdays class looked at some of the possibilities using clothing and how we could alter structure to assist in take downs, throws, as well as how to escape from your own clothing if restricted in some way; how to slip out of a coat or hoody as efficiently as possible. It’s very easy to work against someone in the training hall, as most of us are dressed in some sort of Tee shirt, light trousers and a variety of soft soled shoes, which does enable closer physical proximity to your partner than if they were wearing heavier clothes, light clothes generally means more sensitive work is possible, however if your partner is wearing heavy clothes, possibly a thick heavy coat, heavy boots etc, working in the same way isn't necessarily going to feel the same or possible, so looking for alternative methods should be looked at. You can see in the pictures to the left young Mark using his partners jacket as a means to choke him out and to throw him, as well as to disorientate by covering the face.. Mark obviously decided at some point that the light jacket was easier option to use against Martin on this occasion, but you can also see here how easy your opponent can slip out of his clothing if not controlled correctly.
Using the clothing to alter structure to aid either a take down or open up for short strikes to the body is probably going to be favourite. Perhaps you have managed to grab at the jackets sleeve with one hand, its then possible to transfer the sleeve to your other hand, which can introduce a whipping movement or an extended movement of your opponents body which will then give you greater leverage in your work against him, this also creates more momentum in his movement that helps to break his structure and helps to effect a take down with greater force and speed, I found this worked very well indeed. Combining hand holds on a jacket and trousers together, gives you even greater leverage and can introduce further options when throwing and controlling. I imagine that like all things in Systema the use of clothing in defence or attack is limited by your own imagination, I guess some items of clothing make for good improvised weapons too like hats, belts etc and others used as possible defensive protection against edged weapons, who knows, the list must be long, but for the guys at Tempsford last weekend it was a good introduction to further work on this subject.. this type of training is a good reminder that although we might separate out drills like this specifically aimed at using clothing, you mustn’t forget that it should be integrated as a part of all your work and used whenever available to you…

Steve

The Cycle of Fear and Tension…

2012-08-28T18:00:00.000+01:00

Tension can be created through an infinite amount of problematic / challenging situations, but usually starts with fear of some kind, creating psychological tensions or mental stress, high levels of tension and instability in the mind cause in some irrational behaviour or decision making, if left unresolved convert to physical tension, fatigue as well as many other symptoms. Gareth mentioned in class that it's easy to get into a cycle of Psychological - Physical – Psychological tension; this is so very true, as a young teenager I had to deal with bullying at school although not through physical abuse, just lots of psychological torment, this was dished out on a regular basis, for a few years in fact… which when combined with low self esteem produced a variety of psychological problems, which in turn produced physical problems, that lasted for some time, so I can see how fear creates tensions throughout the body via the nervous system, effecting the bodies thought processes and muscular control.

Fear to me is an illusion.. perhaps created in the mind to protect the body from some situations it perceives as harmful or difficult to deal with, but as it’s an illusion of sorts, it prevents you from dealing with solvable problems and dilemmas that occur in everyday life. A fear that is faced is soon forgotten and allows us to get on with life until the next fearful situation, but if we remember previous fears and how we overcame them, the next fear is dealt with in a more pragmatic and objective way, lessening the pressures on our mind and body, thereby reducing the tensions that are harmful to us.. sometimes fear itself can be as great as any tangible opponent; even fear of an opponent can be put into perspective and to a degree also disregarded. Fear is probably the most challenging of all things we have to deal with and to be brave is equally as hard for most of us, almost as hard as being fearful of something or someone.. you might say bravery and fearfulness go hand in hand, you can’t have one without the other, facing fear is bravery, being brave confronts your fears, all of us will deal with fear because we have to, if someone we care for depends on us, we have to be brave to conquer our fears in order to help them. Breaking the cycle of fear and tension is why I train in Systema, through correct breathing and relaxation helps to diminish my own fears of daily life, certainly to a more manageable level.

Steve

Adding Difficulty…

2012-08-19T10:46:00.001+01:00

Experimenting with different exercises certainly makes things more interesting and definitely more challenging. One such exercise is a version of the press up that’s almost like floating in mid air... In a group of five, four become mobile supports for the fifth guy, whose job it is to perform press up’s while staying in a relaxed and mobile state. Maintaining the press up’s flow while the others are changing their position of support is all that’s required. The four guys take up positions at the four corners of the body and join both their hands together to form a cup shape, the fifth man places fists and balls of his feet in all four cups and then the fun begins. Pushing out as many press ups as you are capable of while you are lifted up into mid-air, the object is not to be distracted by the changes in your position or the support given to you by the others, the hands and feet are just simply attached to mobile platforms, you just have breathe and stay relaxed, pushing up and lowering down in a smooth controlled way, keeping nice form where possible, that’s all you have to do…. A great tension / relaxation exercise that works the whole of the body... I particularly enjoyed this one as it pushed the difficulty level of a normal press up still further up the scale…

Steve

Some other work at Tempsford this summer

Positioning…

2012-08-12T12:07:00.000+01:00

Ordinarily when opponents square off the position of their posturing is more often than not at a safe distance from each other, at some point this closes and off we go.. the braver of the two making the first move, but not necessarily the right one, as the opponent may well reposition themselves at the last moment to throw a spanner in the works, and unless you are free enough to adapt, it may well all go Pete Tong. Mobility = good positioning in my view, as continual movement allows for the change of tack while in the flow. I think at some point though tactical positioning to create more options has to be thought about and some sort of method of moving to positions that might give the edge is necessary, this is one of the things I tend to think about... When sparring or grappling I tend to try and work to get right in close and behind my opponent if possible, for better control, and helps to close them down, it also helps to keep better body contact, which helps me to work better and safer. The key to this is to keep the feet moving no matter what, if things start to get tricky when stand-up grappling for example, chances are the feet have stopped working, moving the feet creates options that perhaps weren’t there a moment ago.. if the feet are fixed you are open to being controlled and subdued, getting yourself stuck in a situation that needn't have been so… footwork with the upper body in motion creates space and offers escapes, as I said earlier having an ultimate goal or objective may not be the correct concept for Systema, but I've found to have a simple objective doesn’t cloud the mind too much, still allows you to be adaptable, but gives you a point to aim for which helps me to keep moving in the right direction and conceal my strikes.

Yesterday we looked at some short work and multi striking within a confined space in front of your partner, creating a cage with his arms about you, made you work in tight, using all body parts available. Having the ability to multi-strike from such a close proximity, gives you some element of surprise and keeps the tension out of your upper body. Once inside, structure breaking is much easier than standing off, its important to realise what an advantage a hidden carefully placed initial strike gives to the work that follows, a penetrating strike that is designed to get inside your opponents head as well as his body can be a game changer; an explosive charge to the body will collapse it making it more pliable and easier to deal with.. but one of the problems you can encounter is striking far to early causing your partner to react before you would like him too, yes you might feel you are in range to strike, but holding back the strike until he closes in just a little more will give your strike more surprise, holding off just enough so he doesn't see the strike coming... Not being able to make the first strike count and effect your partner straight away has the tendency to stall your progress.. and was one of the things that one of my partners became aware of yesterday.. it soon became clear it was a problem.. not being able to deliver this initial blow even when among friends who have even given him the permission to carry out the strikes still was very hard for him to deal with.. he must of felt that there was an invisible line created in his own mind that he wouldn't cross, a real feeling that there was a possibility he might hurt us, he wouldn't be able to flow into further work until he over come this and was for him a real problem, a mental block had stopped his work from progressing onwards.. One of the contributing factors in my opinion was that he was unable to position himself correctly or allow me or his other partner (as we were in threes) close enough, creating an immediate barrier, using his hands to parry us away as the first line of defence instead of just moving.. unable to deliver an undetected stopping shot, or flinch movement, there was little to affect us. The same was true when using the push punching drill or grabbing, at some point you have to let your opponent through, only then are you able to take advantage of what's presented to you, what he gives you you are then able to find something to work back against him, helping you to then work in a more controlled and effective way. Perhaps this is all down to confidence and time served, I don’t know, maybe its all about just letting go... This letting go is also a problem for me during the massage given at the end of the class, when someone massages my calf's the pain can be quite intense, which in turn makes the whole of my body tense, if I could only just let go to the pain, surrender to it, I would be so much more relaxed, which would help other areas of my work too, at the end of the day it’s only pain :) but there seems to be a line I just can’t cross at the moment and let go to what evers holding me back, very similar to my training partner in that he can't cross the line when striking someone else, a small problem that with more practice should diminish. I think we must all have lines of acceptance lurking in our minds that restrict us some how, learning how to free yourself is the biggest challenge.

Steve

Mind Games…

2012-07-23T09:08:00.001+01:00

Mind games happen all the time and most of us get caught up in them on a daily basis. Mind games are played out in many situations, at the work place, in the family and of course in the Martial Arts. So what’s the point of mind games, well I think generally speaking they are designed and instigated by someone who wants something of or off someone else, either power or control, or possibly something of value.. The expert “Mind Gamer” influences their prey’s behaviour by their own subtle behaviours and will prey on people who in their mind seem weak or perhaps less in control of themselves, perhaps recognise their poor judgement also, and step in to take advantage for their own gain. You must have all been prey to these controllers at some stage, I know I have.. perhaps the wife managed to get you to do something that you really didn't want to, but yes you somehow find yourself doing it just for a quiet life, or perhaps a work colleague manages to palm off some of their work onto you without you realising it, I know I’ve fallen victim to that one on many occasion, thinking I was being of help, but in reality suckered in to doing exactly what the other person wanted; how many of you have been convinced that by signing up to that charity thing by that chugger in the high street or buying that junk on your door step was a good thing at the time, but wondered later WTF was I doing there, how did they manage to sell that pile of **** to me…??. The Martial Arts and fighting are no different, there are people out there that control and manipulate you, whether its to sign you up for the twelve week introductory course, including free Gi or Tee shirt, or perhaps manipulation during the fight itself.. so what am I getting at here, well it’s about getting right inside someone’s head, Rob mentioned a bit about this on Saturday, he said yes, let the body yield to a strike, but don’t let it effect you emotionally or psychologically have the mind to respond, basically don’t let the other person take control of your thought processes. This is the kind of thinking I tend to adopt, and feel that its like when your body feels its under attack it wants to move to a better position, so should your mind.. move to a better place that is, so not to accept mind control; but the skill of the “mind gamer” is to wheedle their way into your psyche and remotely control you.. in sparing for example the good fighters were expert in cornering you, closing you down by their superior footwork and body control, again convincing you of the best position for you to stand in relation to them, but of course it was a mind game all along and the next thing you knew you were on your arse picking yourself up, wondering what the hell happened there, and then it quickly dawns on you how you were being played. Developing a strong mind or will that isn’t easily controlled is difficult, as we can’t possibly keep our guard up 100 % of the time, for me at least, the decision to be a little sceptical in life was the way to go, perhaps a non-believer, never fully converted to one thing or another, this way I tend to sense something is on it’s way, not too accepting of anything someone says as being gospel, some might not agree with this, but I feel a little wariness isn't a bad thing, not a 100 % reliable of course, as my wife knows, she still has the upper hand on most things in our house and I still end up doing things I didn't expect to, but hey that’s love isn't it… isn't it?…Making someone do something that they shouldn’t be doing in a split second is one of the strengths of Systema in my view, whether it’s by affecting their movement, structure, tension, breathing, to gain the upper hand, when one of these things are interrupted, it’s like a short circuit to their emotions or their psychological strength, controlling at the very heart of their System.

Steve

Shades of grey…

2012-07-16T19:04:00.001+01:00

Before you say anything, no the title isn't referring to the hugely popular erotic fairy tale for frustrated housewives, certainly not even referring to 50 shades, but just a few.. After Saturdays session with Rob, I was thinking about movement and how varied it is, I was visualising to myself how I see the differences of application of movement, or should I say appropriate movement to the situation and thought of it as almost a spectrum of movement, visualising something like the image shown here, extremes of movement at both ends, with varying degrees of subtle and not so subtle movement in between.

We probably all agree that movement comes in all shapes and forms, to define what is good or bad movement isn't the objective here, just to say that the extremes in either direction aren’t probably always the best, but in some situations might be appropriate. The thing that highlighted it for me was in Saturdays class when we were working in twos and threes and it occurred to me that the movement used when working against one person isn't necessarily going to be the same as when working against multiples. When working against one person the main criteria is to move and strike, to then either escape or control the other person; when up against say three people in a drill, yes the same criteria can apply to an extent, but the restraining and controlling is less important, the main consideration is to maintain constant movement, but of course letting strikes and kicks develop as you move. You might think that sounds the same in both examples, but the subtle differences are definitely there, the time frames to me are quite different, moving around three people that are punching and kicking at you could last significantly longer than a “one punch wonder”, so your requirements in movement become slightly different, to survive against a larger group you must be so much cleaner, softer and smoother. I noticed that during a three on one scenario, it’s also possible to alter speed / timings of movement, moving through the spectrum of grey depending on how the interaction between you and the group develops; sometimes it seems correct to be soft and yielding, but also at times to be sharp and dynamic, appropriate movement to the threat your body feels against it…

Steve

Measuring Distance…

2012-07-04T09:56:00.001+01:00

There were certain things that set fighters apart when I was learning the fundamentals of karate, the foremost was timing the other was that ability to judge ranges and efficiently combine the two. One of the most important things I use to teach my karate students was know your body... The length of your own arms and legs, your step, and understand how quick you as an individual can move, to know how quickly you can get from A to B. Knowing the distance of travel of your arms and legs improved the chances of striking the target rather than thin air, always conscious of the distance of both feet from your opponent, an important measurement that needed to be understood for that quick jab or reverse punch; if you were a kicker leg length and distance from the target were calculations carried out at a subconscious level, a requirement to be able to connect with a moving target that was also trying to make contact with you. Without this understanding it was always going to be a lot harder.

In Systema guys talk about opportunity when striking and in my own mind I kind of think that correct Range = Opportunity, if you’re out of range there aren’t going to be that many opportunity's to take advantage of. Recently we’ve been looking at figure of eight work in striking and through this work I’ve noticed that the figure of eight not only appears in striking but how your body want’s to move in general, as a whole unit, in a stationary position, as well as how you move around others, especially when involved with multiple opponents. When I think of figure eight, I try not to think too literally about a figure eight, its more of an idea, a shape, a symbol that enables me to work in a more fluid way, using the body to generate curves in one direction and then changing into another, maybe moving away from a strike one way, then perhaps turning back on yourself towards the target, always moving around in this figure 8 created in your minds eye.. while training I think of this image in an exaggerated way applying the exaggeration to my movement, this helps me understand the flow I need for my movements… Last night Gareth compared me to a matador, as the guys were moving towards me and like any bull fight you may have seen, moving out the way splendidly, like a true god of movement.., its a good job I know when someone's taking the piss, but yes I did look a bit of a plum, but as I see it exaggerated movements can be brought in, downsized to make a more compacted size movement, but includes the same underling figure 8; working the other way round i.e starting with small movements doesn't let you feel the movement you’re after, and that's where I feel you come unstuck. All this talk of figure 8 work is fine, but until you understand how your body works as a unit and knowing how long your arms and legs are, it won’t connect together in your understanding of Range, Distance and Movement, not only when striking or kicking off the figure eight, but when trying to escape an opponents strikes or kicks, applying the same movements will work wherever you find yourself. In Karate we use to test and tease the opponent to get them to strike out or kick out to figure out their punching and kicking strengths / weaknesses; once we understood their dimensions the fight was somewhat easier, knowing their reach was a valuable aid, but this was of course in a sporting environment, in Iaido, Jodo or Kenjutstu, another example, the sword length was concealed behind you purposely to confuse the opponent, you didn't want them to know the length of your sword, as it would give them an advantage to anticipate your cuts length... So in Systema’s figure of 8 work, range does equal opportunity, as when used correctly the figure 8 will bring you into range creating the devastating opportunity..…

Steve

It’s Eye to Eye Contact …

2012-06-22T10:39:00.001+01:00

The eyes are a powerful tool, they can show various emotions, a window to your very soul.. you can tell so much about someone when you look into their eyes, lies or truth, whether strong or weak, confident or shy. When used correctly the eyes can be very intimidating, aggressive, provoking all sorts of emotional responses in others. For most of my life people have said I have a look about me that they find uncomfortable, especially when I'm not in the best of moods, ask my wife.., my kids have always said that they knew when I wasn't best pleased, they said I just used “the look”.. and as a result I've never had to lift a finger to resolve that side of family life, which I feel is a good thing, but it must also have a down side in that people might find me a bit disconcerting at times, until they know me that is.

In the Martial arts this eye business can be associated with concentration, awareness, focus, but as I've learned in Systema averting your gaze can also be a useful tool, if your opponent isn't aware of your gaze upon him, it will make him less guarded when around you, certainly less aggressive towards you, therefore making him and easier target to deal with.

At some point in your life you must of had to deal with someone right in your face, the first thing they want to do is make eye contact, especially if the want to provoke a response that will enable them to justify a violent counter response, also they might want to identify fear in you, which in turn will bolster their own confidence and possibly they hope reduce yours. Intimidation is mainly created with the eyes, but of course backed up with animated body language. Most bullies I came in contact with at school had developed this skill at a very early age and grown up bully's use the same skill set in business, as well as all sorts of social settings. Learning how to cope with this takes another type of skill for you to master.

At the Thursday class last night, Nick Padgett was walking around me as I was warming up with some light rolling and I sensed he was trying to do the walking drill through me while I rolled, so I continued.. While rolling I was watching Nicks movement towards and away from me, avoiding his steps and a possible collision.. afterwards Nick said if while you're rolling try and avoid making eye contact, as it will make me less obvious to him, almost blurring me out of his vision, almost a non-distraction, using just my peripheral vision, awareness, and slow movement would be somewhat better; Rob has also spoken of this and Nick reminded me that it also keeps your opponent calmer and less jittery if they don’t make eye contact with you, which makes a lot of sense for situations where you want to work calmly and not aggravate a situation that needs dealing with, or perhaps you need to blend in with your surroundings becoming Mr invisible to others, quietly working in the background.

Making eye contact can also make others aware of how serious you are about the situation and aren't frightened to take it up a level if required, eye contact also can make a temporary barrier in order to make quick assessments and help you to look for options, a method of stalling your opponent for the briefest of moments, working against their mental weaknesses too..
In Iaido a long time ago now, one of my teachers always spoke about capturing your opponent with your gaze, “Metsuke”, but this was more about capturing the whole body with your eyes.. it was explained to me that it was possible to stop someone in their tracks with your gaze, almost daring them to draw their sword, indicating it could well be their last.., you hear of old stories about warriors coming together to fight and one gives way before the fight begins, suggesting that the weaker warrior conceded to the powerful presence of the other swordsman, in this situation eye contact must of played its part in the fighting without fighting scenario or perhaps it was just a battle of wills who knows, but for me it’s the eyes every time...

(Here Paul strikes Andy while eye contact is straight ahead not directly at Andy, resulting in more of a surprise strike..)

With this idea of not being focused on any one thing or another, but at the same time taking in all of your surroundings, is probably the most effective mode to be in.. always keeping your opponents off guard while you work quietly, choose the timing of your next attack against them, less obvious and completely concealed making for a cleaner quicker result…

Steve