Hi All never posted in this forum before. there is a systema club near me but i know nothing about the art at all. is it legit/real/ of good quality or not. I'm due to pop in soon but thought i would draw on the MAPers great experience? cheers all
Systema has got a mixed reputation. I know a very good eskrima player who had a systema background, but if you look on Youtube, you will find lots of the 'mystical' elements. That has done a lot of damage to the reputation - almost to the levels of chi-fighting, knocking people down without touching them etc. At the heart of it, the art should work - it is closely linked with Soviet/Russian military and includes a lot that looks practical. As with similar styles (Krav etc.) I would be wary of various disarms etc. Maybe the guy with 10 years of military experience and lots of boxing/wrestling can do it because it has become second nature, but it doesn't mean it couldn't get you killed. Then there is a question of how good the particular instructor is. If you're interested, I'd say go check it out. It probably won't give you magic powers, but it might teach you how to make best use of a heavy ashtray.
What I have seen has left me either "meh" or (as more often happens) "What the hell is this crap?!?!" As Martial Novice has identified there is a lot of highly doubtful material attached to it, and a lot of it when tested externally comes up short. That said, give it a go because you might enjoy it - which is 90% of the reason for doing an art anyway!
With a bit of drunken boxing and aikido mixed into it. It looks interesting. Keep in mind that anybody can put anything on the window, and try to learn how to measure the lineage and purity of the art. For example, out here "combat aikido" is advertised at a lot of TKD and karate schools. From talking to the school owners (because I'm attracted to aikido) I have come to learn it just means, "Somebody here picked up some Japanese jujitsu, and mixed it into our strikes." They ain't teaching aikido. I'm not saying that the school you found isn't teaching Systema. I'm saying, like Hannibal says, Systema quality varies wildly on YouTube, so go in with your eyes open.
