Weaponising Natural Movement with Systema Sydney

The following is footage from our Monday night Class in Surry Hill. The theme of the class is WEAPONISING NATURAL MOVEMENT, which we will explore over 6 video clips detailing our work.

I hope this is of use.

Part 1: Familiarising the Body with Different Attacks

Part 2: Accessing Natural Movement

Part 3: "Surfing" Your Body's Need to Survive

Part 4: Working from Physical Contact


Part 5: Feeling and Working from the Push Before it has Made Physical Contact


Part 6: Working Offensively

In Conclusion,

Before you can weaponise natural movement you first must be able to access natural movement. But REAL natural movement. This is what your body will do instinctively to keep itself intact, with minimal interference from your conscious mind. The opposite of this is contrived movement which stems from excess fear and tension. Natural movement is not so much something that you do, as much as it is something that you give permission to occur.

Once you have acquired natural movement as an ATTRIBUTE, progress to developing it as a SKILL, then APPLY it proactively.

Best of luck,

Justin Ho
Principal Instructor
Systema Sydney Russian Martial Art
www.systemasydney.com 

"Using What Destroys You to Restore You" - More Exploration of this Theme in Class

Study how to use what destroys you, to restore you instead. In this way learn to keep your energy, and to use it wisely. Study to the very best of your ability to make what is your extreme begin to feel like your normal. Don't just become good at suffering.

  - From the previous post "Use what destroys you to restore 

you" on 8 August 2011

It was a fun class in North Sydney this evening. The above theme or concept is ever present in Systema training. Whatever drill or exercise that is performed keeping this idea in mind is always an interesting way to learn about yourself. Tonight I decided to play with this, with emphasis on restoring yourself whilst you are still under duress.

The Work

1. We walked with our hands in the air and our breaths held (30% remaining in the lungs or diaphram) until we could not take it any more. When we started breathing again we ran with burst breathing until we had returned to our normal state. Breathing and walking was not permitted for the purpose of this exercise. Breathing while running only. After restoring ourselves, we would then exhale all the air in our lungs until only 30% remained, put our arms up in the air and started walking again with our breaths held. This process was repeated several times.

2. We did exactly the same work as above but instead of running to recover, we used a combination of push ups, squats and sit ups. We would alternate between these core exercises when one of them got too tiring, but once again, when we had restored ourselves we would stop and begin to walk with our arms in the air and our breaths held, repeating this process several times.

3. The next drill this evening was a real treat. We would hold our breaths with 30% breath left in our lungs then do 10 push ups slowly and smoothly with no breathing. Upon commencement of breathing again, we would burst breathe to restore ourselves, whilst we went to ground and played some grab escape drill with a partner (who also did the push ups with the breath held). This essentially turned into wrestling for movement, however with the main aim being to restore ourselves to a normal state again whilst we kept wrestling without a rest. Once both partners were restored and still wrestling, we would then stop. This process was repeated again but instead of push ups with no breathing; with squats, then sit ups and then leg raisers. 

Note: Grab Escape Drill - When you and a partner try to grab each other without being grabbed yourself or locking yourselves up in the process.

One of the main aims of this particular work on this particular night was to develop the ability to restore ourselves whilst we continued to operate under duress. 

To illustrate this point, on occasion stop the work and rest. Breathe and restore yourself using burst breathing to match the heart beat, then slow the breath down to slow the heart beat down. With this particular work aim to be able to perform this same type of restoration while engaging in a task of duress, when under pressure, or when working with another person (in this case wrestling). 

Until next time,


Justin Ho
Principal Instructor
Systema Sydney Russian Martial Art
www.systemasydney.com 
jho_systema@hotmail.com 

A Very Interesting Facebook Exchange

The following is an online conversation that took place on my Facebook wall between myself and Systema Instructor Stephane Beaudin of Club Nagaika (http://nagaika.org) in Montreal.



Justin Ho
To be able to recognise your area's of weakness without judging them and turning your awareness into a burden. This is a skill in itself. It is also a prerequisite to improving without restricting yourself.

 

Stephane Beaudin

It is also a key to make your practice of any skill quality practice. Many talk of the 10 000 hour rule, where it takes 10 000 hours to master a skill, what is often not understood is that these hours must be quality practice, and that demands the the activity be difficult enough that you will make mistakes, but not so difficult that you cannot understand how the mistakes are happening. The awareness you describe allows us to ride this subtle line on the way to mastery.

Justin Ho

It's funny. Emmanuel was talking to me only yesterday about the 10 000 hour rule. He has also mentioned the importance of establishing good base training, where you are comfortable and able to maintain your level of activity for longer periods, which is a much more sustainable option then just running your self ragged for less hours.

Stephane Beaudin
Combat capacity is all about being able to contrast bursts of super intense physical work with very complex cognitive and fine motor skills. How fast you will be able to switch from one to the other, how strong you can make the contrast between the two is the key. In self defense, think of running with Parcour jumps, using your phone to call for help, fighting multiple armed attackers, then pulling off shoelaces and belts to tie them up. In the military, think of sprint and dive with 40 pounds of kit repeatedly, then shoot a head sized target at 200 meters, then carry large containers of ammunition over obstacles, then set up a theodolite (a delicate precision device used in surveying that is also used to set up machineguns and mortars for indirect fire) perfectly.

Justin Ho

‎...At this risk of sounding daft, simple things like run because you breathe, restore yourself while running, and speed up then slow down with breathing suddenly start to seem VERY VERY IMPORTANT

  

 

Stephane Beaudin

Of course, that is what will allow speed of transition and strength of contrast between the gross and fine motor activities! It's what can make a Systema practitioner almost superhuman, it's one thing to shoot a head sized target, it's quite another to do it after running an obstacle course, it's one thing to quietly survey a landscape for signs of the enemy, but much different after a 20 mile forced march and on your 50th hour with no sleep. It's that ability to do the intense stuff in the same state as the subtle stuff that makes what we do so powerful for combat, everyone else is targeting the fighting and the conditioning as though combative success did not also depend on the fine cognitive and motor skill tasks, and how fast and precisely you can do them between the bursts.

Justin Ho

Dude, you mind if I share this on my Blog? 

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Stephane Beaudin is a certified Systema instructor. He has served in the Canadian military, worked in the security field and has been actively training and teaching Systema in Montreal, Canada since 2004. Stephane’s school “Club Nagaika” has recently moved to a new expanded gym space, customized specifically for Systema practice!

For more information go to: http://nagaika.org

Justin Ho

Principal Instructor

Systema Sydney Russian Martial Art

www.systemasydney.com

Heaviness and Lightness in the Body

Relaxation creates heaviness. But relaxation also creates lightness. Through relaxation you can choose either, for whatever purpose. Control your own density. Move it to where you need it. Be heavy like a hammer or light as a feather. Perhaps even at the same time. Do this with the breath and by paying attention to yourself.