Systema - Martial Arts

[auggie]

I started doing a new martial arts here at the Fighthouse in NYC. It is designed to offer defense aginst all kinds of attack including kicks, punches, chokes and holds; multiple attackers at once, and fighting sitting, lying down and blindfolded and attacks with weapons, including knives, axes and baseball bats.

I am curious to hear what the military men on MMS think about this.

Introduction
Systema - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Articles
Russian Martial Art. The System.
Systema Fighthouse - Articles
Systema California Russian Martial Arts | Articles

Videos Collection
Russian Martial Art. The System.

Russian special forces in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuq50...eature=related

Training Drills (slow moving)
YouTube - Systema pre-emptive work 1

[auggie]

I have been doing this for about 6 or 7 weeks now. Am starting to feel comfortable with it. The classes typically start up with push ups on your knuckes and then proceed to stretches, abs, leg lifts and other caslisthenics. We spend about 50% of the class learning how to take hits, absorb them or step out of them. The final piece of the class is sparring, but usually with some kind of restriction on the allowed technique.

Benefits so far I can speak of are as follows

- increased strength, weight lifting is easier
- improved flexibility, wider range of motion
- better coordination, hand eye, shoulder . . .
- confidence
- sense of camraderie, priceless!

[jthorn9]

I've never done martial arts, although, one day, I'd love to learn something, I can "fight" but only basically speaking of course, and prefer not too.

Personally I have:

Modest Strength - fairly strong, but not overly impressive or anything, not very good with endurance on push ups, but I can do 20 straight push ups, and 5 straight one handed push ups, and 10 or so straight push claps. On sit ups I'm limited to about 25 before I need to stop for a sec and then I'm good for another 25.

Excellent Flexiblity - always been very flexible

Excellent Coordinatin - due typically to me being on a drum line for 9 years and the coordination required is fairly extended once you get into college drum lines, the personal stamina and conditioning needed to perform in parades is also fairly extended, serriously, those drums weigh around 40lbs, and add that to the fact you're playing for 95% of the time during a parade, while carring a drum on the front side of your body (not as easy as the back) takes some stamina

Confidence - well that's something I have, but I'm not overly extensive in showing it in that I have a more silent hidden confidence as not to make me look too cocky or self obsorbed.

Camraderi - I build that fairly well wherever I'm at

[Combatvet66]

Systema is a very well balanced and in my oppinion amazing fighting form. It's been adapted as the Marines, Rangers. and other Sepc Op's groups fighting style of instruction. It's been around for some time in one form or another somone just finally made it into a recognized style. I most assuredly wouldn't ever want to get into a mix up with someone well versed in it (not that I'm runing around looking to fight someone well versed in kung fu or anything). The endurance strength and flexibility are to be expected in any fighing form but next to MMA the only form that I can think of other than systema that would require as much physical conditioning would be Muy Thai. All in all I think that you have made a very good choice in your selection of this fighting style.

[auggie]

Hi CombatVet, thank you for the compliment! I am very happy with my choice after many years of wondering which direction to go. There are so many martial arts styles I found it bewildering. I hadnt realized that some of our US armed services had adopted Systema.

Went to class yesterday and ended up with a couple of small bruises. I think its better to suffer in simulated fighting than to get totally hammered and sent to the hospital or worse on the street in a life or death situation. We did knife fighting training yesterday and in the last lesson they set us loose for a free style sparring session with one unarmed man (or woman, there were women in the class but they sat this one out) against two knife wielding opponents. The knives we used are metal with blunt 6" in blades, but some of the blades were awfully sharp . . . We were constantly in motion (think boxer on steroids) and used techniques we had learned for blocking and deflecting. They taught us a really cool way to disarm the knife attacker by snaking your arm around their wrist and taking the knife away. By the end of the class I was totally winded, but happy and looking forward to my next traning session.