Systema Endorsed by Inosanto, Denny and Machado

It sounds like you have created a unique new system designed for parents
All you need now is endorsement and a load of marketing

 

That's priceless

Doesn't Van Zandt have a story about seeing a Systema demo where a guy doing live blade knife defences tried to hide the fact he was bleeding profusely by the end of it?

 

I'd love to hear it if he does.

Travess

 

I've sent him a PM asking if I've remembered that correctly.

 

Sorry for the late reply.

I think you mean the "Seni incident" with Karl Tanswell, where he called out a Systema instructor for showing BS knife defence drills?

A few years ago I was getting into Krav a bit more seriously. At a seminar, the head instructor was trying to prove the effectiveness of the defences he was teaching. He thought using a live blade was a good idea but ended up getting cut. He waved it off like it was nothing, but he disappeared and one of his deputies took over the rest of the seminar. Heard later on that his disappearing act was because he went to hospital to get stitched up. I gave up Krav not long after that. This might be the incident I talked about in the past?

 

Ah! It was the Krav thing, not Systema!

I do remember reading about the "Seni incident" though.

Thanks for getting back!

 

I coined that phrase

True story

 

About what 8 or 9 years ago Leicester shoot shared gym space with a number of Ma schools.

one evening the systema class was doing live sword defense work and asking for volunteers to attack the teacher as he could defend anything.

unfortunately shoots pro fighter class was walking past at the time...there was multiple offers to attack the coach who decided that was enough sword work for the day

 

Don't you think you overdid the "show him the door" part?

 

Systema side control escapes!

 

I'm trying my hardest not to over judge this as the drill doesn't seem to be given any context on what it's teaching.

Is that is meant to be side control, or a variation of it? I always was taught the weight on the chest, limbs in close to the body (not splayed out like a board).

What's with the hitting thing? The initial demo seems to show a hit repelling the attacker as they came into side control in a theoretical manner.

 

Wow.

That might be the worst I've ever seen.

 

So if I can get very in depth and technical for second what I think they are doing in the Wheeler-dealer systema clip is technically called...'dicking about'. I'm no expert though...it could be 'playing silly buggers'. But as I say that may be too technical for some to understand.

 

As I understood it, it was basically some kind of massage warmup. The person putting weight on you is sensing tension and the person on the ground is using that and doing some simulated strikes to feel and release tension.

I don't think it was any kind of practical application. That was the impression I got from the clips of instruction anyway, I might be wrong.

 

They appear to be doing some sort of flow rolling without actually any BJJ or grappling knowledge to inform it.

 

There's probobly no BJJ class for miles..... (Looks at gym walls) ....... Nevermind!

 

Many of the arts that seem to stress flow and being relaxed (systema and bujinkan ninjutsu being the prime examples) seem to be going all back to front when it comes to achieving that state.
A state of flow, IMHO, comes when someone has overcome the beginner stages when they most certainly didn't flow and achieved some level of mastery.
They don't learn to "flow" from day one. They learn how to suffer, they learn how to overcome, get better by increments. The hard becomes easier, easier becomes familiar and familiar becomes second nature.
Flow comes from hard work basically not by practicing "flow" itself.
When Floyd Mayweather flows a right hand punch with a shoulder roll and right hand counter he learnt that flow the hard way. He got hit with the right hand at first. He trained and sparred until his body recognises that right hand. THEN he can flow.
When someone like a Rafa Mendes seems to flow past someone's guard you don't see all the times he DIDN'T flow past someone's guard in training. He worked for that flow. That familiarity.
And yet in systema they seem to go for flow right from the get go and I don't think it works like that.

 

I knew I'd seen something similar before! The Martin Wheeler exercise above looks like a more dynamic version of this: