Rob Poyton

New Mindset DVD

2012-01-26T13:37:00.003Z

All the technical skill in the world is of no use without the correct mindset. One aspect of Systema training is the use of "survival" mindset - letting the body do what it needs to do in order to survive the situation. This mindset is beyond fear-based agression or pretending to be a predatory animal and taps into the body's primordial response to danger

This DVD shows some basic and practical methods to help you experience survival mindset and also shows how to incorporate it into your strikes, kicks and takedowns

The aim of any real encounter is to finish it as quickly and as safely as possible. Survival mindest, along with the approriate physical skills is the most efficient and healthy way to achieve this result.

We recommend a working knowledge of basic Systema breathing work before attempitng these drills

Now available at special pre-order price. DVD will be shipping early February

Close Range Workshop

2012-01-16T11:33:00.004Z

Booking details

How to Create Drills

2012-01-06T15:38:00.000Z

I spoke about the subject of drills in an earlier post. I've also noticed (perhaps it's a New Year thing?) a lot of posts in forums recently about people's favourite drills. So I thought it might be interesting to look at some principles and guidelines for creating your own drills - after all one of the cornerstones of Systema is creativity and adaptability in training.

As discussed in the previous article drills are useful to a point, once they become too comfortable they need to be modified in some way, in order to ensure we don't just get good at doing the drill. But how to adapt them? I go into this subject in more details in Systema Basics Vol 12, but there are some simple principles to bear in mind. As Systema is largely principle-based it makes sense that the approach to constructing drills should also be principle based too.

MODIFICATIONS

If you want to to modify an existing drill you need look no further than the four pillars - breathing, tension / relaxation, movement, posture. To keep things simple let's take an extremely basic drill

DRILL - partner A moves towards partner B, partner B moves out of the way

That's about as basic as it gets - so let's modify things

Breathing - have one or both partner's work with holding breath; have one or both partners inhale while still then exhale on movement ; add in square breathing

Tension / Relaxation - have one or both partners work from extreme relaxation (fall on floor at the approach) to extreme tension (lock the whole body up) and all shades in-between; have one or both partners work selective tension - eg just tense the arms or the legs

Movement - run the drill at different speeds, very slow to as fast as possible

Posture - one or both partners work at three levels - standing, squatting, on the floor

Already, with just the Systema basics, we have a number of variations. Now let's look at more modifiers

Numbers - increase the number of walkers or avoiders

Inhibitors - blindfold, hands-in-pockets, stick down trouser leg

Task - partner B has to add in a take-down while avoiding

Situation - work in a restricted space, around furniture, in a crowd

Time - add in time limits

These are just a few examples, I'm sure you can think of more. I think you can see there are already a large number of variations possible on a very basic drill. You can now apply this principle to any drill or even many of the exercises.

That takes care of existing drills, how do we come up with new ideas? The first thing to consider is the purpose of the drill. This may be very specific - (eg I want people to explore the amount of rotation in their right shoulder) to something more general (eg I want people to get warmed up and out of breath)

Quite often there will be more than one benefit from doing the drill - sometimes it may be something you hadn't even thought of!

Once you have the purpose of the drill look at the factors that will shape it.

Effective - is the drill effective in delivering the result?

Practical - is it practical to run the drill in your training environment; do you have the neccesary space, conditions, equipment, knowledge? Do you have sufficient people to run the drill?

Safety - what are the risks of injury and how can they be minimised whilst keeping the drill realistic?

Understandable - how easy is it for students to understand the purpose and boundaries of the drill? While it is good for students to discover some things for yourself it is also good that they at least some notion of why they are doing a particular drill. The only exception may be those drills that have a surprise element....

Adaptability - can the drill be tweaked as it goes along

Two way learning - is the drill beneficial for everyone involved, not just "attacker vs defender"

Progression - can the drill be expanded upon

Challenge - what is the level of challenge for students involved? Too much can be as bad as not enough. Can pressure be increased / decreased as necessary during the drill?

Supervision - will you be able to adequately supervise the drill, watch for people going outside of the boundaries, tweak on the fly, or stop it immediately if needed

CREATE

So - let's invent a drill!

Purpose - to increase students awareness of how knives are carried / hidden

Basic structure - group of 12 students. Three are carrying a hidden knife, nine are spotters. The students move normally around the training area, each has to spot / guess who is carrying a knife

Modifications - speed of movement; amount of space; low light levels; inhibitors - spotter is hampered by a partner holding arm / distracting (partner also needs to be protected); increase / decrease the number of knives available

Progression - knife holders draw knife and make a single attack at random which must be avoided or checked

Progression - as above but continuous attack from knife holder until subdued or target stabbed three or four times

Progression - as above but the spotters can work as a team when a knife come out to subdue the attacker

Hopefully this will serve as an example of how you can create a drill or easily modify existing ones. Freedom from a set syllabus gives you freedom to explore tangents and end up at places you might never have thought of. This approach encourages you to be creative and adaptable in your thinking - with the caveat that things must remain practical and realistic. That doesn't mean every drill has to involve a pseudo life-and-death struggle full of drama and tension, but that each drill must effectively deliver results beyond itself. We all have favourite drills, but don't hang on to them like a comfort blanket. Remember they are not the goal of the training, just something to use on the way to wherever you are going.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-12-30T12:53:00.001Z

I hope you are all having a happy holiday time and enjoying the festivities! It's been a quiet Christmas here, apart from playing a few gigs - including one in a barn (not a nice barn conversion, a barn! First time I've played with my coat on!)

2011 has been a good year for training - I was just looking at some of the group photos and clips from this time last year and it's pleasing to see all the same old faces are still around - plus a few new ones too! This is where depth in training comes from - regular graft with a group of good people. From a teaching point of view it is much more satisfying and challenging. It can be quite easy to teach purely out of seminars. It can be the case that people who go to seminars are looking for a couple of new tricks, or to collect a new form / kata, or to be entertained by some war stories, or maybe to have a point of view reinforced rather than challenged

Of course this isn't always the case, it's good where you can work with people who train in specific skills, such as the lads at Danny's workshop earlier this year

The real meat of training is in the regular work though, where you have the time and luxury to not only cover lots of different subjects, but also to go in depth and really work on the core essentials of body mechanics, breathing, psychology and so on.

The beauty of Systema is that we do both simultaneously. Whatever work you are doing, be it hard sparring, learning to read people and their intentions, practicing some ground work, or whatever, you are always working on the core principle - yourself

This is where some training methods fall down, in my view, it's about fitting you into a style-box. In a world that is box-shaped that may make sense. If doing something purely for the pleasure of it, that may make sense. But if we are talking about truly exploring our potential and opening up new ideas, new concepts and growth then training should only be restricted by safety concerns and practicalities.

Another danger in training is that people over-specialize. They get good at something and that becomes the sole focus of training. Anything that goes on in class becomes skewed around the teachers pet subject / skill - so now we have a box within a box! You have to take care as an instructor that you don't just teach people what you enjoy, you have to show them what you don't enjoy too!

There is another aspect of modern martial arts - the internet expert. It's telling though how often there is a considerable gap between a person's words and their video footage. I say video footage too because, also very often, you never get to meet these people. So I think one resolution for the New Year is to spend less time on people I will never meet or get to experience their fantastic knowledge and more on people who actually train. I think it's a good sign that the main Systema forums are fairly quiet compared to some. While it's good to share knowledge, and the internet can be a great tool for that, I think most of us prefer to do it in person in training rather than in extensive and often non-productive forum ramblings, arguments and counter-arguments. The music forums have their own ups and downs but for the most part if you come in with a strong point of view you better have a clip of yourself playing well! No-one cares who your music teacher was, if you can describe in minute detail the workings of piano, how the way everyone else lifts a finger to play a note is wrong, or whether or not you would win X-Factor.

So for 2012? Both Vladimir and Martin are in the UK next year, that's two great opportunities for anyone to experience Systema at its best. As far as regular training goes - more of the same, but different! We will be getting into some psychological testing work (the Leicester crew are finalising some challenging cold water training) . Hopefully we will get another Summer Camp organised this year. Plus we will be continuing all the regular training, covering whatever we can and bringing in outside knowledge for things we can't. Once again if anyone has any specifics they would like covered, in regular class or in workshops, just let me know.

Thanks again to everyone who has made training so enjoyable and challenging this year. The message for 2012? Ignore the false fear, live your life, stay safe, stay healthy and above all stay true to yourself

Happy New Year!

God bless

Rob

Systema Basics DVD Set Review

2011-12-30T11:35:00.000Z

Josh Nixon of the CSPS (Combative Self-Protection System) has kindly reviewed the Systema Basics set at his website. You can read the review here

Thanks Josh!

And just a reminder - our Christmas offers will be running for a few more days only!

Winter Training Clip 2011

2011-12-19T09:29:00.001Z

Inhale, exhale

2011-12-16T16:48:00.001Z

Andy asked a good question in class last week. "Why do we inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth?"I say good question because, apart from the fact that it's good to ask questions it also highlights the fact that we can take things for granted. Once something gets repeated a few times it can become assumed that it is the correct thing to do and that everyone knows why we are doing it.

So in answer to Andy's question here are a few points and ideas on inhale/nose exhale /mouth (of course this is a big subject, so the following is a quick skim!)

1. Inhaling through the nose warms the air making it less harsh to the lungs especially in cold weather

2. The nose has mucus and hairs that filter that air going into the lungs - this means less work for the immune system

3. Inhale through the nose means that we breathe less. That may sound odd, but it means there is a higher level of CO2 and our cells are more oxygenated. CO2 is responsible for determining when oxygen is released. When muscles are used more intensely, CO2 levels rise and more oxygen is sent to them. If there is insufficient CO2 in the blood, oxygen is not distributed as readily as it should be - which is why people can faint when hyperventilating. Some claim that most people actually inhale more air than their body needs (four to six litres a minute) to supply the blood with oxygen, which triggers the body's defence mechanisms

4. Nose inhale allows for regulation of the breathing

5. Mouth exhale allows for quick / larger release of breath

6. Exhaling through the nose can be uncomfortable (other than to clear blockages!)

7. Mouth inhale can dry the throat, particularly in cold weather

So should we always do things just one way? Well no, of course not, it is up to each of us to try things out for ourselves to increase understanding. I was training a group a few weeks back and asked them some questions during the session. Everyone seemed a bit surprised - the teacher is supposed to give answers, not ask questions! This highlights another aspect of training - your mindset in terms of taking in information.

Don't come to class just to be a sponge. That implies a very passive outlook on your behalf. Of course you need to be able to take in information, but of course that information comes in many forms, not just a teacher stood in front of the class lecturing. If the training is all in lines, follow-my-leader, no questions, do-as-you're-told...then it might be a nice hobby to get away from things for a bit, but the knowledge gained will be limited.

The important thing is to approach training with a curious, enquiring mind. Act on the information given, test it, if it works, file it away for future use. Be aware that in different circumstances it may need to be modified. To return to the breathing - you may not be able to nose inhale with a broken nose for example. Or if tired you yawn to take in more air quickly.

This is one reason why we rotate the inhale / exhale and breath hold cycles during drills and exercises. So try the same with nose/mouth, switch them round and see how it feels.

As I was explaining to the group, when you learn something this way you retain much more information because you have taught yourself. I know in my music, I remember a piece much easier if I have helped to write it rather than having to learn something by reading the sheet music. The sheet music becomes a crutch, the mind is lazy and will take the easiest route every time unless you tell it otherwise!

There are modern therapies such as Buteyko which are centred around breath control, particularly in the easing of asthma symptoms. Scientific / medical opinion seems divided as to its benefits. There are also much older traditions, be they Christian hesychastic or Eastern yogic which involve breath control - of course they also highlight the strong connection between breathing and state of mind. Sports science is starting to catch up too, with devices now available to train the breathing muscles.

And remember, the single most important thing with inhaling and exhaling....KEEP DOING IT!

Sensitivity Training

2011-11-17T14:48:00.001Z

Preview of latest DVD release - out on Nov 25th. Covers different types of sensitivity training and application

Available for pre-order at special price here

What's the Point?

2011-11-07T14:38:00.000Z

I don't think I've seen any kind of martial art or self defence training that didn't involve "drills" at some point. By drills I mean two (or more) person training - pad work, sparring, forms, sensitivity work, scenarios, taking strikes, evasion, etc. Given that in Systema there is no form / kata work and outside of core exercises all the work is with partners I'd say the typical Systema training session comprises mostly of drills.

The strength of this approach is that we are always working with another person - whatever the particular skill or attribute being developed it is be done with the input of a real body rather than fresh air. It also makes training flexible as drills can easily be adapted on the fly in a variety of ways.

However there is also a danger that training can become to "drill-centric". By this I mean that the point of the exercise becomes to get good at the drill rather than to extract the skills developed through the drill for actual use. The drill is the map, not the destination. A guy may be able to keep a football in the air and flick it onto the back of his neck - it doesn't make him a great football player.

It can also mean that the nature of the drill subtly changes in order to maintain our comfort / skill level in it, sometimes negating the whole point of the exercise. Let's take an extreme example - , a person feels very comfortable with working a jab and hook combo. So in a pad drill or some kinds of sparring they do well, dominate their partner and feel good.

Now the drill changes to kicking only - our man keeps closing in to jab and hook his training partner, in order to feel comfortable and maintain his dominance. So his partner has a dilemma - does he go along with the drill being changed to suit the other person or does he try and continue the original drill and get punched a lot?

It's actually not such an extreme example. Over the years I've seen similar examples in all the styles I've studied - from the guy who started punching wildly in a push hands drill to people who refused to close their eyes in a restricted sight drill. There may be different reasons for this and an instructor has to deal with each accordingly and appropriately. People may feel nervous or tense and this is how it comes out. People may feel they have a point to prove, or people may wish to challenge the teaching. Sometimes people shy away from any work that puts them in a perceived weaker position - yet this is a very important aspect of training. We don't have the luxury of knowing when and where and how we may have to call upon our skills, in fact it's generally best to assume it will be under the worst circumstances - so it makes sense to devote at least some time to exploring those circumstances. There is also the principle of strengthening each link in the chain and facing up to our shortcomings and fears - if nothing else it keeps the ego in check!

It's important then to understand the boundaries of any drill, the reasons for them and the attributes the drill is designed to develop. For example you could have your partner hold the pads and hit them for three minutes but what are you getting from it? If you understand that the drill is to develop a particular strike then the drill changes. If you understand that by working at speed you can be developing some cardio, it changes again. If the pad holder understands his job is to move around a little and not just stand like a dummy the drill changes again. The more understanding that each person has about what can be gained from the drill, the more useful the experience for both people.

That is an important consideration too - I always prefer drills where both people benefit in some way. Being a crash test dummy or static target is not so productive - in fact it can become a subtle form of conditioning leading to some of the abuses seen in the martial arts world. A partner should be able to learn something even from a demonstration, not just be a fall guy for the instructor. Some of the best lessons come when working with people like Vladimir and Mikhail as they demonstrate a principle or idea - nothing beats first hand experience! Again it is down to understanding the purpose and specifics of the situation.

It's a fantasy to imagine that there is such a thing as no-restriction all-out training - at least in our civilian context. There are always limits to any kind of drill, no matter how intense, as safety of participants is a major concern. The point is to understand restrictions, why they are they and how they can be altered in order to enrich the experience for all concerned. Drills should always be adaptable to in order to provide new challenges and to encourage growth.

Systema training is both wide and deep. It covers all aspects of movement, survival, psychology, health, fitness - self defence in the broadest terms. As such it has developed - and is still developing - a wide range of drills to develop and test skills for all types of situation. Across forums I often see questions about how to fall, how to breathe, how to hit with more power, how to channel aggression and so on. Systema drills provide a clear, structured and comprehensive answer in every case - because they exist outside of a style or construct of how things "should be" and deal directly with the one common factor of each and every situation you experience - you.

People become blinded by style or charismatic teacher - especially those who can perform a couple of party tricks under constructed circumstances. Progression in a drill becomes a measure of acheivement in that style - how many classmates can you dominate at your chosen drill? But can you extract that skill into a situation where your partner doesn't understand the rules or in fact give a toss about them? This is one reason there is often a random person in Systema class wandering around with a knife - just as you feel good about yourself you get that prod in the kidneys.... a gentle reminder that we are all strong and we are all vulnerable. How we deal with our own and others vulnerabilities is a measure of what sort of person we really are.

Class Work Autumn 2011

2011-10-14T16:36:00.000+01:00

Some recent class work footage, mostly of movement drills and exercises

Flow Motion

2011-09-27T16:05:00.001+01:00

If you can't move you can't fight - I can't imagine anyone would disagree with that. But what about the quality of your movement? How many people consider this in their training? Sure, you can learn lots of techniques, but without an efficient method of delivering the technique you are stuck.

The problem is that many people equate fighting with tense, jerky movement, often designed to look good and obvious for the camera. Movements need to look forceful and difficult to reinforce the fact that people are fighting, perhaps to create an emotional connection with the audience. However if we look to other physical disciplines, or indeed good fighters, we see a different type of movement - smooth, fluid, dynamic and functional.

This isn't a movement system that needs to be invented, it is pretty much what we are born with - or at least what naturally develops during our early years. In that respect we are the same as animals, they have that innate quality of movement that draws the eye, powerful but understated. It's one of those things, like fitness, that can't be faked. Your mind can instantly distinguish between a live tiger and an animatronics model. Or between a good dancer and the average Saturday night king of the disco.

The problem is that our natural movement system (for want of a better term) gets suppressed as we grow older. All sorts of fears, cultural factors, environmental factors and social demands get placed over and above the need for good movement. It wasn't that long ago even in the UK that left handed children were beaten in order to make them right handed.

One of the cornerstones of Systema is this natural movement - ie allowing the body to move freely and fluidly as the situation dictates. The last part is important - very important. There are martial art styles that seek to overlay natural movement with either stylised moves or with a different movement pattern (usually involving initiating all movement from the dan tien / hara). The problem can be that the needs of the situation are sublimated to the method. While training this can be fine, but in a real life, real speed situation it takes years of hour upon hour of repetitious practice to get anywhere near as good a response as the "natural" one. If you don't believe me have someone throw a tennis ball at your head from 6 feet away and tell me which part of you moves first.

Fluid movement (or "flow motion") is the subject I decided to explore on my latest DVD. It shows some ideas to develop flow in striking and in footwork, starting with one or two movements, then building up. Along the way it also shows the importance of spirals in natural movement, referencing the Fibonacci sequence I mentioned before. It also mentions how working this way has many positive benefits on the body and the psyche. Personally I believe that is because this is how we are built to operate - and people work best and most efficiently when doing something comfortable and familiar rather than trying to fit into a robotic or "un-natural" movement pattern.

There are lots of other benefits to developing good flow - it leaves less gaps for an opponent to take advantage of and makes your own movement much more unpredictable and difficult to counter. It also reduces the risk of injury as you are working with your body rather than against it. Conversely you understand how an opponent's body can be manipulated into damaging itself purely by the spirals and torque you subject it to. It also increases efficiency, meaning that more can be accomplished with less.

Of course fluid movement alone won't get results and it all needs to be pressure tested - but it is a vital aspect of training. To ignore it in pursuit of something more macho is a bit like putting water in your car because it's cheaper than petrol - you'll only get so far before you break down.

Time Gentlemen Please

2011-09-09T17:13:00.001+01:00

I once read a quote that said "Time exists in order that everything doesn't happen all at once…and space exists so that it doesn’t all happen to you."

It's obvious that we operate in three dimensions and that the primary requirement for any weapon to work is range - whether it's a fist or a missile. It's also apparent that any physical work is enhanced by a knowledge of levers, triangles, circles and spirals as they relate to the human form. But what consideration do you take of time in your training? We are just as bound to it as to the physical dimensions but time often goes unnoticed or unmentioned. In my experience Systema is one of the few arts to address this issue in depth and anyone who has worked with Mikhail or Vladimir will attest that they are masters of timing!

Good timing is crucial in any physical activity. The best punch in the world might as well be the worst if it's thrown too late. What is it that triggers the punch to be thrown? If we study the process can we work to make it more effective and efficient?

Systema has a wealth of drills to help. The most basic is the walking / zombie drill. A walks towards B, who moves aside when he/she feels the need to. Like any drill it can be developed in several ways - increase the speed, have more than one walker, add obstacles, add in kicks and punches, etc

The root of the drill remains the same though - you observe a movement, decide it is a threat and take action as necessary. Timing is integral - without it you will have little sense of when the threat will arrive, at which point to move and so on. You can explain the process involved in simple terms - "I see I move" - you can describe it using a model like the OODA Loop, you can also go into great depth about the inner workings of the brain. All of which is useful only if studied in conjunction with actually doing the drill - the knowledge needs to be "in the body" to be of practical use. Here are some more ideas to help develop this attribute

TAG
Stand just outside contact range of your partner. Your partner puts out a hand or foot, when you see them do so you take a step back. This should be easy, so now move into contact range and do the same

At first your partner makes the moves obvious. Don't watch for the move but for what precedes it - this is where the learning takes place! Over time your partner makes their movement less obvious - so it now becomes a two way drill, observation and reaction for one, learning not to telegraph movement for the other

Variations
Go faster or slower, change the range, use a weapon or object (stick, training knife etc), try different positions (sitting, on floor, etc). Change your response - instead of moving back, move to the side or forwards into your partner's space.

Once you've had a play around with this, work against two people. Now peripheral vision is even more important - tip, don't look directly at each person, fix a "soft" gaze somewhere over a shoulder. You should also of course add in movement at some point, singly or double.

This is the basic template of the drill, you can add in whatever
situational factors you wish. For example we sometimes run this as an "escape" drill. Person A is confronted by two or three others. As one of the gang moves Person A has to hit and escape, or at least put themselves in a stronger position.

TENNIS BALL
Person A stands with back to a wall, person B throws tennis balls at them. All you have to do is dodge. TB's are best as you can throw them hard and fast with no threat of injury, but are heavy enough to sting a bit if they hit (motivation).

Variations
Have a group of people dodging and a group of people throwing, again a good workout for peripheral vision. Have one or both groups moving for added chaos

So, two simple drills that can easily develop into more involved work. Awareness is key to each one, not only of what is going on around you but also the internal dialogue that determines when and how you react to a stimulus. Information about this is widely available and of course it's also covered on a number of our DVDs. When working try and pay attention to the internal dialogue and see what sort of things affect it (stress, tension, emotional factors) and also how it can be regulated (breathing, awareness, focus). Experiment with working the same drills with different mindsets - run the dial from 0-10 and see where you settle in most comfortably and efficiently.

Another aspect of studying time in training is to "slice" movements down in order to study them. It's not a novel concept - in most types of work people taking on something new will break it down into digestible chunks rather than try and take it on whole. Why should fighting be any different? You can go about it a couple of ways - work slow and study how you and your partner move. The difficulty here is in keeping everything slow and also keeping the same intensity as if you were moving fast. It has to be the same intensity as it is the fast movement you need to work against, so you need to recreate every aspect of that movement except the speed.

The second method is to freeze the action at given moments - either to give yourself time to decide what to do, or do examine the posture and position of your partner. We discuss this in details on the latest Self Defence Workshop DVD, applying the OODA Loop model to the decision making process.

It seems very slow and cumbersome at first (because it is!), but it's really no different from learning to drive or learning to play the guitar. With practice and mindfulness you'll be working at speed in no time. If once you speed up you find yourself getting caught or your work degenerating, then slow it down again to fix the problems. Once they are fixed, take the speed up again to test yourself.

Another aspect of time is how best to organise your training time, whether for solo training or running a group.

One method for solo training is to to set aside a fixed period each day. This may be especially useful if you have a lot of demands on your time or have to operate in a strict routine. On the plus side you can easily organise your areas of training to fit into the schedule. So if you have a half hour to train you might spend five minutes warming up, do rolls and ground movements for 10 minutes, spend 10 minutes on core exercises and five minutes stretching. On the downside it can become a bit routine and more about ticking boxes than training - just something you do for an hour a day

Another method is to train whenever possible. This can be as simple as doing some sit-ups in a spare moment (don't do it at the train station though, it worries other passengers), or monitoring breathing while walking or running. The plus side is that you can train throughout the day in a varied way. The downside is you might not be able to train as much as you like or need.

My preferred method is to see the training opportunity in everything. Many daily activities can become training with a little imagination. Breathing can be worked on almost constantly. Observation can be worked in all sorts of ways - whether externally or observing emotional reactions in stressful situations. Available time can be put to good use for longer or more focused sessions , but always with an eye to functionality and to being carried over into class work. In this way training becomes behaviourial and an integral part of us rather than a set of moves to be carried out under prescribed circumstances.

When it comes to teaching, methods again depend largely on aims and circumstances. However one thing that is vital is the need for strong basics. How you organise training for those is straightforward enough - if people need to learn rolling, then spend more time rolling! In general people need a reasonable understanding of how to fall, ground movement, wave movement, impact management,breathing and structure in order to develop. I find the best approach with beginners is to break everything down into those "slices" and work through step by step. It can also be useful to apply some of the work into basic drills so that beginning students get a chance to understand the applied function of the particular exercise.

Assuming everyone has a level of basic understanding you can broaden the work out. One method is to plan the training session minute by minute - so spend 10 minutes on running and breathing, 10 minutes hitting each other, apply and escape from locks for 30 minutes, etc. In this way classes can be planned out in advance. This can be useful for the person who is new to teaching.

You can alter this "structured" method in this way - think of a specific topic for the class, say striking. The warm up exercises relate to striking - shoulder rotations, press ups, arm tension. Then run some preliminary drills, for example moving away from strikes. Add in more detail - move and return strikes. Look at the strike itself in more detail - placement of fist, etc. Re-run the striking and moving drills, perhaps with groups of three or more. Add in a couple of more challenging exercises. Then finish the session with a period of freeplay drawing on all the work covered. This is quite a useful template that allows a little more freedom than the "clock watching" method

For more experienced students and instructors though I feel there should be a spontaneous element in class. In this way as questions arise during training (which they always should) you can take things off on a different tangent and explore things that you hadn't thought of before and which are more relevant to the group. Of course as an instructor that sometimes means saying "I don't know", or "let's try a few different things" but that is certainly no bad thing. It calls for extra observation and flexibility in class, not only from the instructor but also from the students. Having taught martial arts for 20 years now I personally find this approach (as exemplified by Mikhail and Vladimir) makes for a dynamic and fluid learning situation and allows more scope for development of the individual - which is then reflected throughout the group as a whole.

Self Defence Workshop Links and Graphics

2011-08-25T13:31:00.002+01:00

LINKS

OODA Loop

Dr Andres Bisaz Article

GRAPHICS

Please drop me an e-mail if you would like to see the other graphics and I will send you the files

Self Defence Workshop clip

2011-08-21T13:34:00.000+01:00

Here's some footage from last week's self defence workshop. Rather than give a lot of techniques for dealing with attacks (see our Street Defence DVD for that!) we took the approach of working on the decision making process (via the OODA Loop). Using the Loop as a blueprint we ran through various scenarios based on real life events and also discussed tactics used by criminals and preventative measures.

LIKE A CIRCLE IN A SPIRAL

2011-08-19T16:46:00.001+01:00

Recently in class we have been working on the concept of "flow" in movement (shortly to be released as a DVD "Flow Motion"). Part of the training involved students giving one strike, then two, then three, then five. I asked if anyone knew what the next number in the sequence was - 1,2,3,5.........?
Well the answer is eight - and the sequence should more properly be written 0,1,1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 etc It is know as the Fibonacci Sequence (FS) and is formed by adding the previous numbers together.

Fibonaccio (Leonardo of Pisa) was born in 1175 and, among other things, introduced the sequence to Western thought . As we have seen each succeeding number equals the sum of the two preceding it and in doing so we find some interesting relationships. For example when divided the numbers give us the "golden ratio" of 1.618...or PHI. This can then be developed into a logarithmic spiral which could be described as on of the fundamental shapes or building blocks in nature. It can be seen in everything from the structure of the cornea, to the formation of seashells, to the approach of a hawk to its prey, to the spirals of the Milky Way.

In other words it is a fundamental aspect of ourselves and the world around us. It finds expression in art, mysticism, architecture, industrial design, even finance. My old pal Anthony Walmsley began researching this concept in relation to Chinese martial arts some 10-15 years ago and has produced a book covering this topic in detail. Check out the links for further information as my space and mathematical ability are both restricted!
So what does all this have to do with training? In terms of flow and movement - well all will be revealed on the DVD! But in brief, if we look at the FS in bio-mechanical terms then this model (and remember it is just a model!) is a step on from two dimensional representations of the body. Of course we exist in four (known!) dimensions and our work has to take all of those four into account - so an understanding of three-dimensional spirals in both form and movement is vital. We could say with some measure of truth that the body is not capable of a straight line movement as everything involves spirals of some description.

Our striking work shows how a short twist or spiral can increase the penetration of a punch. We know from basic grappling work that twising a person in three directions dramatically increases the effect of a throw , lock or takedown. We understand from our health and fitness work the effects of twisting and spiralling the body in terms of improved flexiblity and overall tone.

These are all quite basic things that should quickly become apparent with a little thought. But does the FS have wider applications in our work? I believe it does - and again this will be covered in the DVD. But in brief I think this sequence resonates with my previous descripton of fractal Systema - each part can be separated off but remains a reflection of the whole. If that sounds a bit vague or too philosophical simply consider it this way - everything that you are is reflected in everything that you do. There is something of you in all your actions, however impersonal or unemotional you think you are being.Everything that you do will have some effect on who you are. This is an important thing to bear in mind when you are training - because how you train can and will affect what you do. It is easy to understand this on a superficial level. Train hyper-aggresively - how do you think that will affect you? Train with no intention, drive or pressure - what will the result be? The problem is that while it is easy to see these things at the extremes, they are more difficult to notice when we work at deeper levels. Often we do not notice these things ourselves, but those around us do. Funnily enough we usually then blame the people around us for those problems. No-one is immune, there are very few people capable of totally honest self -analysis and insight - but if one of the effects of your training is to diminish that capability I'd seriously call it into question.

Understanding this notion of spirals and structures in our own bodies I think leads to a greater appreciation of those structures in the world around - and perhaps give us insight into the natural world. It can change how you approach situations - from a principle point of view rather than a purely technical one. If you know the principles of how a bike works you don't need a different set of techniques for every new bike you sit on. Similarly if you grasp the underlying principles of movement, manipulation and body structure you can quickly get a handle on how to harm or help a person. Going further out still (or deeper in) still, understanding the dynamics and principles of social interaction will help develop your emotional intelligence and hopefully make you a more understanding and rounded person.

Outside of living history and re-enactment, does it make sense to try and slavishly emulate the way people trained in another culture 200 years ago? Does training solely for one type of situation or operational activity makes sense for people not in that line of work? Perhaps both approaches are a control / coping mechanism to ease the feeling that maybe the "real world" is just too chaotic to deal with?

However I believe that if you understand something of the Fibonacci Sequence and the related areas of sacred geometry, quantum physics and some of the latest medical research, not to forget the great spiritual teachings of course, you begin to see patterns beneath the chaos. That might lead to the conclusion that we are all inescapably linked together in ways we can sometimes barely imagine. Something to think about in these troubled times.......

Emotional Content

2011-08-03T17:10:00.000+01:00

I always find it humbling when people choose to share genuine emotion in class - it is also heartening to see the support of the group in such a situation. This happened at a recent training session, which prompted me to consider the role of emotion in training. Is there a place for emotion in training? To some extent it depends on what you are training for and on your views on what training is about. If you are training for a specific event or situation then the scope of your training is determined by the boundaries and requirements of that event. So in terms of a sports match the emotional focus is on winning the match - or perhaps, post-match, dealing with defeat.

If we turn to general self defence training the boundaries are wider. If you view fighting as a purely technical exercise, there would seem to be little room for "emotional content" - a lever is a lever is a lever. But we have to consider the environment in which any conflict takes place. I can't think of a single personal incident where emotion was not involved - mine or another person's. In this context it becomes important to address emotional issues in training - particularly fear, anger, rage, desire to dominate, pride or despair, pretty much the negative side of the coin! Also, even in Newtonian terms , you can get as much, if not more, done with an emotional lever as with a mechanical one....

How we address these negative emotions is important. One approach is to magnify the received emotion and turn it back on the aggressor - if he is mad, I'm gonna be wild... if he's a dog I'll be a ravening wolf! It's an approach that I think has the same appeal as that scene in action movies where the righteous hero finally snaps and kills 50 bad guys in a rage. In real life it may have it's place in some situations and is certainly worth exploring - but as a standard procedure for "everyday" work I find it limiting and perhaps even damaging

Another approach is to understand exactly where fear and anger come from and how they affect us psychologically and physically and act to control the effects rather than succumb to them. Systema gives us very simple but powerful tools in order to control the effects of fear and aggression on ourselves - and by extension others too. Simple in approach that is, but of course any tool must be forged in the fire and testing can be a challenging experience.

People sometimes question the viability of using such simple methods to control one's mental state under pressure. If they are viewed as "techniques" it probably is difficult. If they are simply part of what you do or who you are, it becomes a lot easier. I can think of numerous personal examples, including a recent road rage incident, where I didn't notice until after the event that I had gone into specific breathing patterns and remained in a controlled state throughout, able to deal with the situation in an appropriate and effective way.
Does this mean we should be emotionless in training and in life? Well yes - and no! I don't believe that repressing emotion is healthy. It may be necessary for a short amount of time, but it will always come back at some point. After a dangerous incident anyone who is mentally healthy will get a rush of emotions. In extreme cases this will manifest as post traumatic stress and can have long lasting and far reaching effects.

On the the internet it is not uncommon to find people who adopt the persona of the emotionless "warrior", concerned only with combat and destroying the enemy. Of course it's a construct, no-one lives their normal life like that, least of all the actual been-there-done-that professionals . It's usually a selling technique designed to appeal to that "action hero" part of our brain again.

Having said that - there may be certain circumstances in which we have to act without thought or emotion. In some occupations there are procedures to be followed and orders to be obeyed. It is interesting to speculate how far orders can be obeyed before emotion kicks in, but that is perhaps another debate. In general day-to-day life we may sometimes have to act out of survival, in which case feelings of fear and anger must be overcome or utilised in some way to enhance our actions (not control them!) If someone is intent on sticking you with a knife it is not the time to try and establish rapport and talk about his childhood. Five minutes before may have been.

So should we walk into class stony-faced and remain impassive "warriors" throughout a session. I don't believe so. For regular class training we should act as we do in regular life. So we crack a joke, get irritated when something doesn't go right, enjoy it when something works well, share a life experience, laugh at ourselves and occasionally others. The important thing is that everyone feels they can express themselves openly and honestly - something I've always felt in all the Systema sessions I've attended. I've no time for people who mumble in corners then go away and a week later say "oh yeah but...". Express it when you feel it - it's not good to lock things away. Emotions that are turned inwards often end up being expressed outwards in quite interesting ways, in much the same way that people sometimes project their inadequacies, desires or fears onto others.

I was recently reading The Mountain of Silence by Kyriacos C. Markides. In part of the book he questions the lifestyle of monks and hermits and how it must be unhealthy for them to repress their desires and emotions. The answer given is that far from being repressed, one of the aims of the isolation is to allow the monks to air these emotions, examine them in a rational way and understand how they work on the psyche. This then allows a person to control rather than be controlled and also to channel both negative and positive emotions into more productive endeavours. Now I'm sure that is no easy task and has to be carried out under close supervision as it is fraught with dangers. However it is a model that we can take for our own training. By studying and understanding our emotional response we develop emotional intelligence. We don't become slaves to our emotions, like a small child, but a fully developed adult capable of understanding, assessment and taking action. We may also come to view every incident as an opportunity to learn. Lessons can be extremely painful, they can be full of joy. That's life - and deep emotion is arguably a defining factor of being human. I would be wary of anyone who attempts to repress emotion in others, tries to turn people into machines or denies basic human feelings. Questioning is a natural expression of emotion and again a natural part of being human. To deny the opportunity to ask questions is to deny the opportunity to learn - and questioning is an important part in the development of true (rather than blind) faith.

The challenge in training is to gauge the level of pressure that each person needs to bring them to that emotional point. If you don't experience fear, anger or enjoyment in your training you will never truly understand them. Having someone explain the affects of adrenaline on the body is interesting and informative but until you feel your hands and knees shake you will not truly understand. If you never attain the feeling of "flow" and the joy of being in the moment, you will never understand it, however many books you read.

It's a challenge because we have to keep training safe - and the trick is to fool the brain / body into thinking "this is real!". Short, sharp shocks work well. Once you are beyond the instant of shock then we know we are "just training" and it's back to normal. That instant, however, can give us some valuable insight. An instructor has to tread a fine line between preparing people for real life and just brutalising them - I believe that doing the latter will cause students far more harm over the long term than getting into the odd scrap. Given that, it's vital not to overlolok the Systema methods for balancing out the body and easing the effects of tension and stress. This forms another aspect of emotional training, in that we learn to empathise and help people with their problems, an important counterpoint to being just a "good fighter".

Something else to consider is that it is important to stop classes from being "routine". Running the same training routine week in week out deadens us emotionally. Of course there is a part of us that thrives on routine and procedure, we all like a bit of shape and structure. But we have to remember that in the scheme of things these are constructs we make in order to give an illusion of control and order to our lives. Denial is a powerful state of mind, it is also a very damaging and dangerous one. Introducing even a small element of uncertainty into training proves a good antidote. A couple of simple ideas - have everyone start grappling in pairs then after a few minutes throw some knives on the floor. Suddenly the exercise changes. Run a paired sparring drill then suddenly introduce a third person.

These are basic ideas . The deeper the work gets the more interesting ideas you will come up with. This is important too as it means training becomes creative as well as emotional and mechanical. These are the three major components of being human - spirit, mind, body, - and it is important to involve all three in our training.

Class Work 2011

2011-07-20T14:46:00.000+01:00

Footage of some recent general classwork, plus the RSF London Groundwork Seminar

One Step Beyond.....

2011-07-11T14:21:00.000+01:00

Western music has, for the last 1000 years or so, been founded on a very simple principle - the octave and the standard music stave. This system has been used by everyone from Bach to Lady Gaga. It is at once clear in it's simplicity - it can be read and understood in an instant by any musician. Yet also profound in it's depth. It can convey a simple one line melody or the full glory of a Beethoven symphony for full orchestra and choir.

At it's heart, however, it remains simply an octave. From those single tones are developed chords and their inversions, different types of scale, harmonies, discords and melodies. They have the power to stir emotions, lift spirits or give us a nice tune to whistle.

Anyone who learns how to play music in the "traditional" sense begins with the octaves. Running up and down those 8 notes in their various keys and scales. Correct positioning to play the notes fluidly, correct technique for the particular instrument you are working with are the first steps. Then you start to learn something of the relationships between these tones, how thirds and fifths work, how chords are created.

Of course music is written to be performed, so at some point every musician will play in front of someone, even if it's just family. Now you begin to learn to cope with the pressures of actual performance as opposed to practice. Nerves, expression, ability, not to mention the fun and enjoyment performance brings.

This is within reach of anyone who takes up an instrument within 6 months or so. With good tuition and a little practice it should be easy to reach this level. But what lies beyond? Why do some stay at one point and others go much further? There are several factors of course, but for the sake of argument let's make it a level playing field and say all things - time, money, opportunity and desire -are equal. The variables then must be in the people themselves and how they view the playing of music.

We could say that music is a mathematical exercise. After all it was Pythagoras who "discovered" the laws of music. So if a person understood completely the mathematical relationships between all the notes in a piece of music, they would be an amazing composer, right? You could create a score based on tonal relationships and intervals that would be neat, tidy and rational

We could also say that music is an exercise in technique. The faster I can move my fingers, the better. The more notes I can cram in to a phrase, the better I am. People will be amazed at the speed and dexterity of my playing, the flashiness of my performance.

Then again, music is an exercise in theory. See how cleverly the chord in the first section is inverted in the second and a diminished fifth added, which relates to the the harmony of the string part in the fourth movement. The more elaborate and complex the piece the more people will appreciate my intellect and cleverness - I can discuss it endlessly on internet forums, I don't even have to play anything for people to appreciate my genius.

Perhaps music is all about learning things. If you go to a teacher who just gives you the eight basic notes and asks you to work with them, what use is that? Isn't it far better to have a teacher who has strict rules for everything and can take you step-by step through it all? That way I will never have to think for myself, everything is neatly laid out for me. My work will be exactly the same as my my teacher and can be replicated over and over again.

Music is a language. Through someone else's work or your own, music is a form of expressing a feeling, an emotion, a sharing of joy, pain, love, anger or just the desire to get up and dance. It touches something deep within us and connects us to something outside of ourselves. There are aspects of all those previous things I mentioned before in there of course. Understanding theory, technical ability and so on are all valuable - but not at the expense of the necessity of honest self expression.

This is what takes the student "one step beyond" playing simple scales and into the realm of understanding, performance and creativity. But only if the student is willing to take that step and has faith in the process. It's easy to look outside and blame others for not showing you things when in fact they are in plain sight. Of course if you want to keep someone as a student this is how you teach them - step-by-step, keep everything obvious and mechanical, drip feed "information".... But if you want someone to become a real musician, you encourage them to imitate... then innovate. A little guidance is necessary here and there but the information is all contained in those eight notes - you just have to open your eyes, ears and heart to see it.

Tactical Training Day

2011-06-28T12:00:00.000+01:00

The day was put together by Danny Lines of the Britannia Gym and K9 Security Services. The idea was to give some security professionals training in different aspects of their work.

The day started off with me showing some Systema close protection drills, including movement of people, movement around people and responding to low level threat. This was later expanded into some basic teamwork for takedown and restraint

Danny Lines showed some pressure point work from Aiki-jitsu and how it fits into pre-emptive striking as well as takedowns. Some verbal /psychological work was also covered

Simon Batty then took the group through Muay Thai striking techniques. Starting with the jab, Simon then moved on to kicks, finishing up with knees and elbows. The group covered pad work and some basic sparring methods

Sujay Bholak then introduced the group to the basics of working with dogs. Very few had experience in this field, so it was very interesting to see how the dogs responded so readily to the commands of the handler and how effective they were in bringing the bad guy to the floor! a few of the lads volunteered to put on the jacket and have a go and everyone also got the chance to work with the dogs on a hostage scenario

All in all a great day of training and it was good to work alongside some great instructors (especially a fellow Manor Park / Avenue boy lol). All the participants got stuck in with good attitude and spirit and all the different areas complemented each other nicely.

Fractal Systema

2011-06-20T15:26:00.001+01:00

I mentioned in a previous blog the idea of concious / subconcious learning. It's an important aspect of the way we train and perhaps needs a little explanation, especially for anyone new to the System

At his recent London workshop Martin Wheeler was recounting a recent sparring session with Vladimir. They were groundfighting and Martin, despite being no slouch when it comes to groundwork, said he found himself being effortlessly outclassed by Vladimir. When he asked how this could be - after all, Martin has considerable experience in BJJ and other grappling styles, Vladimir replied "you have good knowledge, but my body has more knowledge".

What does this mean? To my mind it means this - through his training Vladimir has arrived at a state where his body "knows" how to react to any stimulus applied to it. At this level technique becomes irrelevant, the work is pure instinct - not only that but the instinct itself is highly tuned to a state of survival. How to arrive at this state? I think by making your work geared to training your instinct to react in the appropriate way - and the main way to do that is through sub-concious training to aquire "body knowledge".

But can't we just rely on our natural instinct? After all, you touch something hot, you move faster than you will ever move in your life. Well yes...and no... the problem is that "natural instinct" can lead us to different reactions. In essence there are only three possible reactions to a stimulus - and this applies on a cellular level upward. Test carried out on cells have shown that they will move towards a source of nutrients and away from a source of poison. Something indeterminate - there is no movement.

So those are our three options when faced with a stimulus - we move towards it, away from it, or stay still. This happens on a subconcious level. We know from studying body language that a person talking to someone they don't really like will manifest that feeling in some way - their feet may point away, they may lean back or frequently glance away. We can be "repulsed" by something - think of something horrible, picture a big pile of dog crap on your desk - how does your body react? You moved back I'm guessing!

The other option is to move forwards. The stronger the bond the more demonstrative the movement. We hug family, shake hands with colleagues, nod and smile at acquaintances. But it is all "positive" forward movement. If we are not sure - we falter. We teeter, back and forward or side to side - indecision (which incidentally is the state in which we are most susceptible to suggestion)

To put this into a conflict / self defence terms we have the option of flight, fight or freeze. The first two are obvious - we try and escape the danger or we tackle it. The freeze option can come about through fear or indecision leading to tension. It might also come about through "if I don't move he won't see me"

These options work at a sub-concious level within us, but can be modified and tuned. For example someone experience in handling firearms is not likely to flinch when one is shot, whereas someone who has never fired a gun will. But how do we access this sub-concious level in order to work with it?

Breathing is the first step and the major link between what goes on outside and what goes on inside. As we know, regulating our breath plays a major role in controlling the psyche. This in itself is a concious act at first - or at least it is in adults, most of us lose the natural abilities of the child in this respect. Over time it becomes the natural reaction to adjust the psyche through the breath - something makes you jump and you are in burst breathing before you know it.

This also has to be translated into physical movement and the first level of this is simply moving away from the source of pain. It may be a stick, knife, chain or fist, but just the "simple" act of avoiding it is informing the body on a sub-concsious level when and were to move. What I mean by sub-concious level is this - when running the swinging the stick drill, for example, we don't sit down beforehand and discuss in detail the bio-mechanics involved in taking a step. Nor do we have people do the movements without a stick present, just pretending it is there. In both cases the body is not learning - in the first because the information is intellectual, in the second because the threat to the body is imaginary.

Now I am not suggesting there is anything wrong with intellectual learning in martial arts. There are many areas of training where studying the how's, why's or mechanics can be interesting and useful. But it should be should be used to back up the physical training, not replace it.

As for the types of practice that rely on imagination such as forms / kata - in my view they are far less useful. You can imagine all you like, at some level the body knows that there is no opponent in front of you. In fact I think they can be counter-productive, in that how you imagine something is rarely how it actually is - and your body will react to what actually is rather than what you imagine.

So we extend this idea out through all of our training. Whatever the drill is, just do it. Don't worry too much about getting it right or looking a certain way,. Iif the drill is to avoid the stick and you avoid it - job done. If you can avoid one stick well, great - then let's try two. Once you have this basic movement idea down and your body can move comfortably, we can add in other factors to the training.

Tactical factors for example - how do you avoid the stick, but move in and take the person down? Or technical factors - what is the best way to apply a lock to the arm? Even here though, the work can be largely "sub-concious" - you learn to do it by doing it, not by reading about it. In this respect the class should be seen as a laboratory where you are free to experiment and find what works best for you. Funnily enough - or not, given we are all basically the same - you will soon find that natural efficiency which characterises the best kind of Systema work. Through training and testing you begin to tune your instinct to the situation. This is where the faith is developed that your body can take care of itself when under threat.

I will admit that to people used to a more apparently "structured" approach this method can seem messy and "unscientific". Some people prefer the comfort of syllabus and grades, and that's fine. But once you look under the surface you find there is a whole lot of structure to Systema, not only that but it is very deep. Some talk about "steps" in training, you go up one level at a time. Some talk about "spirals", you go round in a circle but each time you go up a bit. I think of Systema as fractal - each aspect contains the whole. You can zoom in and see individual shapes, or zoom out and see the bigger picture. You can also zoom in and keep going and going and going......

And that is exactly what this approach allows you to do. I've trained in styles where you do basics, then at a certain level you don't do those things anymore. I find with Systema the basics are advanced and vice versa. This is because you are always working on yourself, not on replicating someone else's movement. Your work is always dynamic and in and of the moment - once it's happened, it's gone. It's a truly creative experience (even in a destructive situation) and this, I think is a one of the factors in the "cleansing" aspect of Systema - as one of our guys mentioned last class "I feel so much better after training"

So when training try and let your body learn - don't over-analyse during (post-drill reviewing is good), just breathe, move, enjoy the experience. Learn to take whatever is thrown at you with a breath and a smile, do whatever is neccesary in the situation then move on to the next challenge!

TACTICAL TRAINING DAY

2011-05-24T12:12:00.001+01:00

LONDON REGIONS PRESENTS

TACTICAL TRAINING DAY

Sat 25th June

Essex Sports Village Purfleet Rd

Averley RM15 4DT

9am - 5pm

£40 per person £5 spectators

MAT 1 : MASTER DAVE TURTON 10th DAN

SDF MODERN STREET COMBAT /

WEAPONS DEFENCE

MAT 2 : ROB POYTON

SYSTEMA CLOSE PROTECTION /

TEAM WORK

MAT 3 : SENSEI DANNY LINES

AIKI JUSTU / KICKBOXING STRIKING /

PRESSURE POINTS / LOCK AND HOLDS

AREA 4 :SUJAY BHOLAK

K9 PROTECTION

DANNY LINES MBIPDT/NTIPDU

GENERAL PURPOSE DOG PATROL WORK

This Seminar/Workshop is an attendence certificated one day training workshop

Limited places for a QUALITY days training

For booking details contact Danny

Competition or Co-operation?

2011-05-15T13:48:00.001+01:00

Martial arts training is usually associated with competition rather than co-operation. The only time I can think of a co-operative aspect in my pre-Systema training was in group form / kata work for the purpose of a demonstration - everyone moving in synch to create a nice display.

Outside of that all the training I have seen and experienced was either solo work or based around some form of competition, be it sports-based or the idea of defeating an attacker (invariably in a one-on-one situation)

Systema takes another approach. This may be a reflection of the arts modern military use - after all a military or bodyguard unit that can't act as a cohesive force is not going to be very effective.

In basic training terms this takes the form of learning to operate as part of a pair or as a member of a team. This involves learning new skills alongside existing ones. For example -

Communication - being able to relay information in a concise way is important, especially in the pressure of a dangerous situation. This can be verbal or non-verbal and involves not only the method of relaying the communication, but the awareness to receive it

Role - in a team everyone has a role to play. Understanding your role and sticking to it is important for the integrity of the team. However it is equally important to be able to change roles and to recognise circumstances that may require such a change

Accepting orders - when the rubber hits the road, there is no time for a conference. Team members must feel confident in and be able to follow instructions

Accepting suggestions - in training or prior to a situation, team members should have equal input into problem solving. Everyone has their own unique skills and viewpoint

Have a plan - every professional organisation I can think of has procedures for dealing with situations. A little forethought and planning goes a long way to mitigate the "wtf?" factor

Stick with the plan - if the plan or procedure works, then stick with it. Likewise, be prepared to adapt it if necessary and learn from the experience

Empathy - some identity with the team / group helps. This may range from being family members to professional units to just being a group of people who need to get out of a predicament

It's easy to think that this type of training is the preserve of LEOs, special operations units and similar professionals. In fact they are part of everyday life. How do you and your partner act when out with your kids? What happens if a friend in your group is threatened or attacked? How do you react in a situation where someone is injured? These are just a few examples where a measure of co-operation and teamwork can help.

This was the thinking behind our latest DVD release which lays the foundation for teamwork. It covers basic drills for movement, communication and practical work for pairs or more and will hopefully spur you on to create your own drills and training methods

Class Training Spring 2011

2011-05-06T10:52:00.001+01:00

Teacher Centred Learning....

2011-05-06T10:51:00.000+01:00

Here's a thought for all the instructors and students out there. Who is the primary focus of your training sessions? Or, to put it another way, is your approach teacher centered learning (TCL) or learning centered teaching (LCT)? OK I know it is the sort of nonsense-speak so beloved of "blue sky" thinkers and people who run it up the flag pole, but there is a serious point to consider

It strikes me that the majority of martial art training in the UK is centered around the teacher, style and school. People come to learn a "style" and are expected to conform to certain patterns of behaviour, to train in specific ways and to adapt themselves to the requirements of that style. It's similar to someone wanting to learn to "play music". They will typically have chosen an instrument in advance (unless we are talking pure theory) and will learn according to the requirements of the instrument. However once they have learned to play the instrument they can play any style of music, or even compose their own. The same cannot be said of martial arts training

The TCL approach may also involve putting the head teacher on a pedestal - in which case progression in the style depends on not only learning the syllabus but how close you can get to the head honcho. Can you become part of the "inner circle"? As you move up the gradings you no longer have to train with the beginners, you get access to the higher level students and become privy to the "secrets" of the style. Some point to tradition as the reason behind this approach, I'm not sure that's entirely valid or if it's just an excuse to exercise an unhealthy amount of control over students.

Systema takes more the LCT approach. The class is based around the individuals within it. Everyone works together, there is no formal hierarchy. Drills and exercises can be adapted on the fly according to the needs / abilities of the student. This means the same drill can be run across the group with differences in intensity to suit different capabilities.

Perhaps most importantly, the teacher is no longer the focal point of the training. There is no standing in rows following what the teacher does. The teacher is there to provide the conditions under which people can learn - in fact when done well the students virtually teach themselves. It's akin to a director working with actors - he provides the necessary motivation and settings for the actors to act.

Nor, in this approach, is the teacher a distant figure who sits and watches the class and may, if you are one of the chosen few, bestow some words of advice to you. The teacher in is as likely to be taking part in the drills as the students, stepping out in order to advise the individual or to change the drill. It's a much more hands-on approach to teaching

In order to make a more detailed explanation to the group the teacher may demonstrate something, highlighting specific points of movement, strategy or technique. The overall aim, however, is for the student to discover their own solution to the problem. Which brings us on to the question of problem-solving in training. This can be as simple as how to do a slow press-up with minimum tension through to a full blown outdoor scenario involving a dozen or more people. The job of the teacher is to construct and present the problem in a well thought out, practical and realistic way. By that I mean that the problem should bear some relation to events that the group might expect to be involved in.

Teachers have to take care with this approach that they do not construct problems that are only relevant to their own situations, likes and dis-likes, or are based on extremely unlikely situations. Of course there are some problem-solving exercises in which the end result of the exercise itself is almost irrelevant, they are constructed to provide a means of team building or similar. But it is more productive, I think, to keep things in a "realistic" context in order to relate skills and training experiences directly back to the outside world.

One other aspect of this approach is the free flow of information in any direction. In the TCL model, information only flows one way - from the top down. In the LCT model information flows from teacher to student, from student to student and from student to teacher. Nothing is beyond questioning, in fact an enquiring mind is encouraged. A student's real life experiences can be analyzed in class and used as the basis for work. A student may also have expertise in a particular area that the teacher doesn't, which can be tapped into for the benefit of the whole group. Training this way becomes an organic process, it develops naturally along the lines of the experience and skills of the group as a whole. This is why there is no "syllabus" - the people are the syllabus, in the same way that the people are the "system"

I know things are never quite so black and white, but I do feel you can broadly divide training into the TCL or LCT categories. When the two collide or combine things can get interesting! It can be confusing for a person to cross straight from one to the other, especially if there is a prior expectation. I find this sometimes when people come into our group expecting it to be typical "martial arts" - yet no-one is wearing a uniform, no-one lines up and bows and there is a degree of freedom not present in most schools. The vast majority find this a liberating experience - it's not uncommon to hear " at my last school we were never allowed to do that", "we were never shown this" or most common of all "you mean it is ok to move my shoulder / put my hand this way / move my feet?" (answer - if it works, yes!)

That is nice, but of course this approach is not for everyone and some do prefer a highly structured TCL approach. Having to find your own solution (albeit under guidance) does require a measure of self-awareness and self-responsibility from the student. No-one will do your thinking for you and that is not what everyone is looking for in their training.

It has been my experience that very few instructors who embrace the "free" approach go back to the TCL model, though there are always exceptions! While I find this difficult to understand from a self-development point of view, I can understand it much more readily from a marketing / business perspective. Selling self-awareness and self-reliance to the general public is not likely to make anyone rich! The public in general embrace certainty, a concrete syllabus, a snappy name, jargon and terminology (whether technical or foreign language), a measure of progress (such as grading) and a teacher who can be seen as the expert on every subject. The problem here, with the teacher who makes their own style up, is that they often themselves become the style. When they go, so does the style. Also, everything has roots, and you often find more nourishment from the root than from the distant branch or leaf.

The TCL approach speaks more as a method of learning with the conscious mind rather than the sub-conscious - but that is a subject I will talk about next time!

Preparing for the worst

2011-04-13T11:29:00.010+01:00

In one of those odd little examples of coincidence (synchronicity?) both the Tempsford and Leicester groups have recently been exploring the area of pressure testing / psychological work. Also this week, a poster on one of the (few!) forums I regularly read posed the question "I am interested to hear how people approach preparing for real life conflict in terms of drills and scenarios whist maintaining a safe learning environment"

So it seemed an opportune time to clarify and explain some of the work we do in this area, especially as, in my experience, much of it seems to be unique to the System

First off, let us split our training into three areas

1. Physical - developing functional strength, flexibility / freedom of movement, good posture, sound bio-mechanics, functional fitness, health

2. Technical - technique or principle based, developing skills of practical application, be it for general work or more specific areas, academic study

3. Psyche - understanding the mental and biological processes that underpin our physical actions, understanding interactions with other people, including cultural and other aspects, how to monitor and regulate our responses to various stimuli

Of course there is over-lap in these areas, any division is inherently false and made only for convenience. Having said that it can be interesting to isolate one particular area of training, in much the same way that we occasionally isolate a particular movement, or part of the body. This can be likened to strengthening the links of the chain, something I have written about previously

Every martial art / training method copes with the first two areas, indeed the sight of a person performing martial art movements (physical / technical) is the uppermost public perception of "martial arts". In combat sports the two are slightly more separated -vis the stereotypical training montage of bag work, running, pads, etc before the big fight. The third area is less clearly defined. There is certainly some overlap, as I mentioned, physical practice can sharpen mental focus, competing means you have to deal with pre-fight nerves and so on. Yet there seems to be little in the way of an in-depth approach to what, after all, is one of the most fundamental aspects of "self defence" - dealing with fear.

I would bet the the very first thing almost everyone does in their first Systema class is...breathe. I can't remember any Systema session where breathing wasn't mentioned at least once. If you think about it, we swim in air, yet most of the time that - and the fact that we breathe at all - is taken totally for granted. Already a fundamental aspect of our ability to operate is overlooked. There are numerous articles on Systema breathing, plus of course the excellent book and DVDs so I won't go any further into breathing here, suffice it to say that a decent understanding of breath work is the base for any further training.

The simple holding your breath exercise is also the first level of psychological work - I say simple not because it is easy, but because it is straightforward to practice and direct. You get cause, effect and result very quickly. Hold your breath for a minute or so and you soon discover your first "panic level". Until you experience it, you can't be aware of it. Once you are aware of it, you can do something about it. Incidentally, this exercise also illustrates the difference between knowledge and awareness. We all know the effect of holding the breath intellectually, but until you do it and actually have the experience, you don't have the awareness. This is a simple but profound truth that you should apply universally.

Breathwork becomes ingrained into the physical and technical aspects of training. After all, it is the same person doing them! By that I mean that whatever endeavour you are undertaking, be it high speed driving or painting a watercolour, you are the same person with the same psyche - in other words, you are the constant. It makes sense, then, to understand the constant, the one thing (maybe the only thing!) we have some measure of control over

So, already we are working on the psyche in our everyday practice and you can begin working directly on fear control with drills like those we show in the Fear Inoculation Training DVD

Steve wrote in his blog recently about control and this is a good place to start. We feel comfortable when in control - so take the control away and already we have scope for testing the psyche. A quick and easy way to accomplish this is blindfold work. It doesn't have to be full-on sparring, just wear the blindfold and walk or run around the training room. Like the breath holding, it gives you direct access to the fear centre of the brain and forces you to deal with it.

A simple method when training in a group is to lay down and have four people twist your arms and legs. This quickly teaches you to relax into the movements as attempting to fight them results only in more pain. Drills were we have no control also teach us something about acceptance. Not that we have to accept every bad thing that happens to us - but that we have to accept that it is happening. Denial is not an option, dealing with the here and now is!

Once you are experienced at this level you can begin to work at deeper levels of fear control. Once again these drills can take many forms, but often involve taking away a measure of control and/or putting the person into an unfamiliar situation. The key is introducing an element of real fear into the drill (whether the danger is real or imagined) but at the same time keeping things safe. It's very rare that I film such drills and you won't see them on our Youtube clips, this is for a few reasons -

Firstly as the drills become more involved, the work is very personal to the person concerned. It touches on fears and phobias and puts the person in a vulnerable state so to me it is off-limits to the public eye

Secondly such drills if not viewed in context can easily be misconstrued, misinterpreted or even misrepresented. Another aside - I heard recently of an instructor of another style who told a new student that he watched what I presume was our class as we "ran around a field with sticks pretending to dig trenches". The misrepresentation may be intentional or not, in either case it is interesting, let's hope it had the desired effect for him and he has a new student

Thirdly this type of work should only be carried out under supervision of suitably experienced people. We are putting people into a vulnerable position. Similar methods can be used to influence people in a very negative way and to exert forms of control over them - the absolute opposite of what we are looking to achieve in our work. So I wouldn't want anyone taking the outer form of a drill without understanding the underlying and often subtle aspects of it.

It is also important to stress this type of work is not about "toughing it out". Sure you need determination and fortitude but that aggressive type of macho external toughness is one of the things that needs to be cracked (Vladimir calls it "cracking the shell without damaging the egg inside"). External toughness is limited in scope and can be counter-productive a lot of the time. We are looking for something deeper and more practical.

It is interesting and rewarding to see how this training influences people and carries over to their daily life. Forget deadly hand-to-hand combat, with these methods we have had people overcome fear of flying, become much more assertive and confident in bullying situations at work, de-escalate situations that they previously would have flown headlong into and deal successfully both with a nasty situation and the aftermath. As I mentioned before it is you that is the constant in any situation, yet so much work in martial arts is about fitting you into a style or set of techniques with no thought as to how you operate under pressure. Endless repetition is not the answer, nor is mindless beasting. It is not uncommon to see people with years of training in stylised movement revert to scrappy boxing when under pressure. Why is that? Because they haven't addressed the underlying issue, in fact training can sometimes be used to cover it up and paper over the cracks.

Having undergone psychological training it is of course then important to feed it back in to your regular work. Drills can address any or all of the three areas of training. For example the humble press-up obviously falls into the category of physical work, but hold the static press-up for five, six, seven, eight minutes and we are firmly into psychological territory too. This is then fed into the technique area by realising how the structure and movement of the arm in the press-up relates to striking work. Start exchanging heavy hits and we are once again into breathing and fear control. It's a simple process when you look at it, but then the best things are. There is no confusing jargon, no terms to argue over or cultural niceties to consider - it's just fist meeting body and how you deal with it.

To take the work further into preparation for nastiness it is easy to set up scenarios to play through. I like to keep these simple as I feel anything too elaborate begins to become an acting class rather than self defence (though a measure of acting can be a useful skill!). The method I use the most is task-based sparring drills. For example one person has 60 seconds to get from A to B, the other person has to stop him. Or one person is told to walk through a doorway where another person is primed to do something to him (which might range from asking the time to pulling a knife). Putting a time limit on these drills helps give a sense of urgency and stops the degenerating into "bouncy bouncy" territory

This work can be further heightened by moving it into different environments. One of the lads commented on Saturday that even training outside onto fairly level grass changed the quality of his movement. So we will work inside in large rooms, small rooms, around furniture, outside in the open, in and around cars, in undergrowth, in an urban setting and so on. Training is really only restricted by your imagination and any constraints of your environment (don't practice gun disarming in the park!). It's also important to say that these drills don't always have to be about punching each other - that really is only one small (but important!) part of self defence. Drills can be based around observation, awareness, escape and evasion (instead of running on a treadmill get out and run around town or through the woods) and may involve climbing, hiding, problem solving, communication or anything else that is a factor in real life situations.

I'm not surprised that people who only ever work in a highly structured, hierarchical, clean and matted training room sometimes look at what we do and pronounce it "weird". But weirdness is in the eye of the beholder - and when you think about how things are in real life and how they can be in the martial arts dojo you have to wonder what environment people are truly being prepared for.

2011 Summer Camp

2011-04-05T16:44:00.000+01:00

Details have now been finalised for this year's Summer Camp

It runs from the afternoon of Friday 3rd through to afternoon of Sunday 5th of June. The campsite is on private land and you will need to bring a tent / tarpaulin, sleeping bag, drinks and snacks. Of course clothing should be suitable for outdoor training

This camp will include a wide variety of activites such as Systema training, stealth work, facing your fears, fitness training, survival applications and much more

People often ask what sort of training they can expect on the camps so I thought I'd outline a few of the ideas behind these weekends

The main aim is to assist you in discovering aspects of yourself. This is generally done by working in different environments, conditions and situations. A weekend camp gives us both time and scope to expand beyond normal class drills into more challenging and rewarding areas of training.

This may take the form of team-based problem solving, scenario work, learning and applying new skills and undergoing various forms of pressure testing. While the work can be physically demanding, this is not a boot camp where we run you ragged for an hour or two for the sake of it. Rather the physical training integrates into the training drills, so we hope you can see a continuity that runs throughout the training

Neither is it a camp where you have an hour for breakfast, do two hours training, then have two hours for lunch. Aside from time set aside for the Saturday night BBQ (and sleeping!), you will be immersed in the training for the whole weekend. We believe this gives a much richer and deeper experience than practicing standard "martial arts" whilst stood in a field

Nor is the camp about playing soldiers (though we do have the assistance of some members of HMF). The skills taught have a wide application as well as giving you an opportunity to think outside the box.

Previous Systema experience is an advantage as many aspects of training (eg breath control, good movement, etc) are taken as read. However if you have similar experience from another discipline that would be fine. If you have never done any type of training previously, you would be advised to get in at least a couple of months good class work in before attending camp.

People often ask about fitness levels and how intense the training will be. The answer to both is that while limits are tested, no-one is taken beyond a point they cannot handle. Every part of the training is strictly voluntary and closely supervised to ensure safety. Age of participants ranges from late teens to 50+

Another question is - what we will be doing? The short answer - Systema! Half of the fun is not knowing and learning to deal with whatever situations arise during the training. You will be told in advance of any neccesary equipment you will need, which brings me to:

The Ready Bag / Bug Out Bag

At some point during this camp you will be asked to to put together a Ready Bag. The concept behind these types of bag is that in the event of an emergency you have a bag that holds key equipment to your survival.

The bag that you put together should not be too bulky or uncomfortable to carry and should weigh around 8 - 12 kg. Remember you may need to run with this bag or be asked to climb, crawl or possibly go through water.

When putting together your bag ensure you have items, which will help and assist you sustain the key elements of survival.

Water
Fire
Food
Shelter
Clothing

Below is a list of key essentials that you will need in your bag, the rest of the space in the bag is yours to fill or not to fill. Use your own creativity and individualism to use the space wisely.

Sleeping Bag
Tarpaulin
Knife
2 Litres of Water
Fire Lighting Tools
Food
First Aid Pack
Personal Medication
Torch

I hope that gives you some ideas about our training camps. Of course if you have any questions feel free to get in touch In the meantime here is a clip from last year's camp - not a lot of the training makes it onto camera (it's dark and also not always easy to film!) but it gives you a taste of what to expect. You can book a place here

Above all the camp is about enjoying yourself, rising to a challenge, learning what it means to be a strong individual and also to be part of a team. We hope to see you there!

True Grit

2011-02-22T10:50:00.001Z

Tenacity and willpower are important attributes to have in any dangerous or survival situation. Not the cartoon toughness of popular culture but something deeper and in many ways less obvious. In fact I've found that obvious signs of toughness are often a form of armour and an indicator of insecurity. That comes in many forms - there was a guy turned up at my house once in an expensive, shiny sports car who made a play of revving his engine while parking. My elderly, unassuming lady neighbour was heard to remark "there's someone who's insecure about his manhood"... but I digress!

We should think of toughness as the will to endure, the thing that motivates us to get the job done whatever the circumstances. This can be as mundane as finishing that decorating job despite all the distractions or surviving some major event despite injury and hardship.

So how do we develop these qualities in our Systema training? There are a few ideas in our latest class clip, posted below. Static exercises (ie holding push ups, squats and sit ups) are a very simple way of developing some determination. If alone, you can time yourself and increase the span, with a group there is the element of peer pressure or shared hardship to assist you. For solo training, running is a great way to push yourself alongside the regular exercises.

Another method is to add extra touches into regular exercises. Throw sets of press-ups into pad work for example, with no break. Increase the speed of the exercise for a set period. In both cases people will have to dig a little deeper to complete the drill.

Taking strikes is a good way to develop some tenacity and also helps us get out of the comfort zone. Instead of starting a drill from a good position, take a couple of strikes and then start to work. There are numerous other handicaps you can incoporate, from blindfolds, to being locked or held, to restricting movement and restricting breathing. All provide a nice little hump to get over on top of the usual demands of the drill.

With all of these methods it is important to differentiate between toughness and desensitising or over-stimulation. There are methods of toughening limbs in some arts that carry a potential health risk, or which work by deadening the body. We train to make our bodies more alive, not to kill them. There is also a toughness that comes with adrenalin. This can easily be stimulated in training with loud music, shouting and competition, all of which may have a place, but can also have detrimental effects if not carefully monitored. They may also have a downside in that a person learns to function only when in an over-stimulated state, which leads to loss of motor control and negates clear thinking.

Negative effects are overcome by Systema breathing methods and adherence to the basic tenets of good posture and understanding tension/relaxation. There is always a balance to maintain between non-challenging training and being the toughest guy in casualty. If you are experiencing regular injuries through training I suggest you review your methods - I can speak from experience when I say that bad habits have a nasty habit of catching up with you!

This work is also wider in scope than our regular, physical training. Life throws all sorts of situations at you where it is easy to give up or give in to despair. Even with normal day-to-day living it is very easy to get stuck in a rut. I remember some years back a Karate school where part of the black belt test was to learn a new language and take up a new hobby, like a musical instrument or similar. I always though it was a nice idea, encouraging people to expand their horizons and move out of their comfort zone. There will always be that little voice saying "why are we doing this, we could be at home on the couch..." I still get it every time I go to an audition... but you learn to ignore it. It's the same voice that tells you "we've done enough press-ups now" or "ouch he hit us, let's just curl into a ball". Maybe it's also the same voice that says it's ok to have another donut... I'm still working on that one...

True toughness also helps us to recognise and pinpoint our weakness and recognising when it is time to ask for help. We all need help at some time and the sad irony is that those who need it the most are often the most resistant to asking. It is not a sign of weakness to admit you can't cope alone, in fact it is a sign of strength - as much as admitting to being afraid is, but going ahead anyway. Too often in martial arts "toughness" is used to paper over the cracks of fear. This doesn't address the issue, just covers it up so you don't have to think about it. In some ways it's like putting more and more elastoplasts on a broken leg - you can't see the problem any more, but try and run and it soon shows itself.

Konstantin Komarov once explained how people in serious survival situations are usually ok as long as they keep moving. He cited examples of people who had stopped, given up, sat down and died when they were just hours away from rescue. We all hope it will never happen to us, but with the right type of training and a measure of true grit, if it does we will be prepared.

"It is in the midst of difficulties that man develops his intelligence because, in order to overcome them, he must observe, think and become clear-sighted. Nature has put difficulties here and there in life to develop her children's intelligence, but the children do not develop: they waste their time and energy crying, complaining, getting angry and upset, instead of trying to understand and look for solutions. Obviously when they are exhausted they calm down, but the difficulties are still there; their energies are gone but their problems remain. What a weird method!"

Class work Jan-Feb 2011

2011-02-22T10:49:00.002Z

Health & Healing Workshop

2011-02-14T14:42:00.000Z

Saturday 12th March 10am-2pm Tempsford Beds

Many people strive to be effective fighters but give no consideration to the most important aspect of training - personal health

Yet with a few exercises and a little thought it is easy to maintain good overall health. Instructor Robert Poyton shares 30 years of experience in martial arts to show you some of the most practical health methods he has learnt and used

They are easy to learn but highy effective and no previous experience is required. The methods include:

- breathing and posture
- energy work
- Five Element Qigong
- massage and acupressure
- psychological health and training
- cold water dousing (optional)

Bokking details here

I Don't Want to Grow Up

2011-02-11T12:26:00.002Z

One of the benefits people have when training with me is not only hearing my wonderful jokes (did you know prawns never give anything to charity? Well basically, they are shellfish) but also having to endure occasional rants about some of the people and things I have to deal with (hey, training is supposed to be cathartic).

I was training with Chris (a fellow musician) the other day and was moaning about some of the musos I've had to deal with over the last year. Chris made a very astute point: "music is one of those industries where men don't have to grow up to do it". It's very true - as evidenced by the prima donna / adolescent /egotistical behaviour of even some very succesful musos, let alone us lot at the bottom of the pile. But Chris' comment got me thinking on a wider level and it is a point that can also be made about sports and the martial arts.

I think it's fair to say that the general structure of martial arts is prime ground for motivating and encouraging the adolescent mindset. I've already referenced this before in terms of marketing and over-competetiveness. . It's hard to think of a martial arts movie that doesn't have a revenge plot as it's central theme. It is also a strong factor in the cultural perception of traditional arts, where the young man finds the older, wiser father-figure/ guru to lead him on his journey

All well and good perhaps in the right circumstances, but older doesn't neccesarily mean wiser! The hierarchical structures in many arts can be both a trap for the unwary and a purpose-built control device for the egotistical. As corny as it was, the original Karate Kid (I've not seen the JC one yet!) illustrates this point perfectly - the wise teacher encourages his student in all aspects of life and to find his own path. The adolescent/ego-driven teacher demands blind obedience and destroys the health of his students. Hollywood film-fantasy of course, but with a touch of reality to it.

What do we mean by "grown up"? To me it's a person who can exercise a degree of control over their desires and emotions, has a certain amount of self-awareness and understands the consequences of actions. Or, to put it in shorthand, isn't an a-hole! Immature behaviour can be witnessed every Saturday night outside pubs, usually by young males trying to establish a place in the pecking order and all the other things associated with pack behaviour (ie the domain of the "middle brain" as opposed to the intellectual).

The same behaviour can be seen in less directly confrontational fashion in even the nicest social setting, where establishing status (measured by wealth, body-type, who you know, take your pick) is very important to some people. Or in martial arts by people who have a compulsion to put down what anyone else does, whose teachers are infallible super-men, or who feel the need to bite the hand that has fed them

In self defence terms, we have to recognise behaviour and where it comes from, both in ourselves and others. This is a very important part of training - and how you train will impact directly both on how you are viewed by others and how you react under pressure. Never being tested, physically or emotionally in training is like being raised as a spoilt child - everything is laid on a plate for you. The real world is not so forgiving. On the other hand constant agressive practice, with no balance, will usually lead to a constantly agressive person. In everyday life this is not a recipe for a good time - you will be in conflict with those all around you. To an adolescent mindset, particularly one raised on gangster-culture (old school or new), being a tough guy or top dog, this might seem like a good thing. At least in film, music and video games it comes across like that. The reality is the pain of broken relationships, probable run-ins with the law and a life spent looking over your shoulder.

So it does sadden me when we see gangster culture being portrayed as cool in the martial arts press, or guys posing with guns as though they are hardened-killers. You tend to find that people who have been through the mill of real life-and-death violence are very mature in their outlook, quiet and humble. They understand only too well the consequences of actions and the reality of strife.

We need to understand this in ourselves too (know yourself being the Systema motto). We all have our moments and tantrums, times when we need to take a breath, take stock of what is happening and adjust accordingly. That might be something not going right in training, so we bend the rules a little in order to "win". It might be in a domestic situation where, actually your partner could have a point about your behaviour. Or it could be a potentially dangerous situation where you have to make a decision about whether to go forward or back. In each case, being immature / adolescent won't be constructive

Men in our society are coddled more than ever before. We don't have to fight wars, we generally have comfortable jobs that don't involve long hours of hard labour, we have all kinds of gadgets and toys that mean we can extend our adolescence out for our whole lives (you can prise my Star Trek phaser from my dead, cold hand). There is even now a huge range of "product" to protect our delicate skin and condition our hair (don't get me started). But amongs all of that we have to take stock of some harsh realities at times and maintaining a "grown up" attitude in training can only help. I shall leave the last word to the marvellous Tom Waits

CLOSE QUARTER COMBAT Part 2

2011-02-01T12:41:00.000Z

Preview clip of our latest release. This DVD shows how to work in the clinch, targetting muscle groups , how to work with pressure points and ideas for pressure testing. It also includes information on the decision making process during a confrontation and the use of breathing for fear control

Competition and Conflict

2011-02-01T12:15:00.001Z

Competition/ combat sports vs "reality based" self defence is always a popular and hot topic on the forums. The extreme view on each side is either that nothing comes close to MMA for replicating a fight or that "dirty moves" can easily finish off any MMA fighter. Ironically such extreme views seems to generally held by what you might charitably call the "fan-boy". You know, the guy who has all the UFC DVDs, rash guard, tee shirts and beanie hat (but never trains). Or the guy who goes shopping with three folder knives and field rations stashed in his commando pants (but never trains). In other words the typical person who gets involved in protracted this vs that forum arguments!

I've yet to meet a decent exponent of either method who is so set in their views or who fails to recognise the strengths, weaknesses, compromises, purpose and goals in any training method.

In our latest DVD release on Close Quarter Combat I talk about some of the pitfalls of the sports approach in terms of "self defence". These are largely tactical / situational - in other words taking into account the surroundings, multiple attackers, possible use of weapons, etc. On the positive side sports arts provide a safe outlet to test skills trained in the gym. Likewise the purely self defence approach can fall into the trap of never pressure testing training methods and relying purely on second or third hand experience.

I read a post lately that said Systema needed to "prove itself" in competition to become recognised as a viable art. Of course that statement fails to recognise the background of the art - in fact even disregard it totally when pointed out. A follow up point was put forward that Special Forces training is in no way comparable to training for competition. It's an..... interesting..... view and one that, for me, points to the current cultural prevalance of MMA as the premier form of martial art entertainment. I don't doubt that a few years back the same thing would have been claimed for kung-fu, karate, ninjutsu, or whatever else was currently in vogue.

I also mention on the new DVD that we can become conditioned to expect a fight to look a certain way. In my day, if you asked someone to fight you could almost guarantee they would put their hands up in a boxing guard - even if they had never had a boxing lesson in their life. That was how men had a fight (and even some women!). Today I'm guessing it may be different. I've long said that martial arts are an expression of the culture they were formed in and that cultural influence may not be appropriate for another place or time. That applies to modern day as much as "traditional" styles. It's probably best to have no expectations about how a fight will go - you tend to get less surprises that way.

So this can be a downside to applying competition work outside of the ring - it may not be appropriate for the situation. And whatever anyone says, if you have trained intensively in something, it is likely to come out under pressure. We tend to go for something we feel confident with - so if my choke has worked well for me in training or competition that's probably what I'll go for in a fight. That is good if it is appropriate - and well trained sports guys will no doubt have strong technique. Some people say that a person would "obviously" understand the difference in situations, but that has not always been the case in my experience - I've seen a few examples of people struggling to shoe-horn in a technique oblivious to what is going on around them, this clip shows one such example

I think it is more productive to frame this argument in terms of studying competition vs studying conflict. The former is the study of that moment of contact and what happens when one person tries to dominate or subude another through a prescribed series of movements or techniques. That is precisely what sports combat arts have been developed for and is both their strength and weakness. Strength because training methods and techniques can be tested, refined, improved. The weakness comes when good methods that don't "fit the box" are rejected. For example one of our guys is currently in Thailand, he's had a few succesful matches. When he first started training at the camp he was using figure 8 strikes and was told "good power, but don't use!". We come back to that cultural influence again, or perhaps the fact that the crowd only want to see certain types of things in certain types of competition - and let's not forget that the fight game is about bums on seats as much as any other form of entertainment.

Study of conflict encompasses that moment of physical contact, but it is also much broader in scope. We deal with conflict every day, thankfully mostly at a small scale level. But it is conflict nonetheless, and for a balanced life we have to learn to negotiate, compromise, know when to be assertive and when to back down, understand body language, be mindful of different cultural values and all the other things involved in human interaction. I recently saw a great quote in Alex Kozma's book Warrior Guards the Mountain from one of his teachers "It is easier to be a monk...try and be married that is much more difficult!"

Understanding the dynamics of social and personal interaction is an important aspect of any true self defence training and is for me the defining factor in categorising an art as "sport" or "street". Competition ends only with a winner and a loser. Conflict ends with anything from death to both people shaking hands and making a deal. Conflict also encompasses co-operation, which is how we help and develop each other as part of a group. This is important to bear in mind when training. People can blur the line between doing their best and wanting to win all the time. The latter is not constructive in training. It's easy to win if you go outside the boundaries of a drill. We also have to bear in mind that co-operation doesn't mean letting what your partner does work all the time, but providing the right level of challenge for them. That may call for compliance to help a partner learn something particular or total non-compliance in order to help them gain understanding. There is no competition as such involved in either case, but a willingness to take part in a training process in which both parties can and should learn.

With the right mindset competition can develop humility alongside skill. I guess the "dark side" of competition is that it can build ego and pride - both of which can be a liability in self defence situations. If you think you are the best, it's important to remember that pride comes before a fall - and the bigger the pride, the greater the fall. I know a young man virtually destroyed after taking such a fall, I can only hope he learns from the experience, chooses the people around him with a little more care and can rebuild himself.

As I previously mentioned, the flipside of the coin is the person who occasionally trains a chin jab or eye gouge on their Bob dummy and lives a life of constant, low-level paranoia. It may be the case that windpipe crushes and similar "deadly moves" are physically quite easy to do (after all, you can crush a beer can, right?). However in "real time" they are not so easy and, perhaps more tellingly, psychologically they are not easy at all for the average, well-balanced person.

In extreme cases the results of an overly "combative" outlook can be as equally damaging as an unhealthy emphasis on winning at any cost. Training has to be balanced with lifestlye, it needs to be fit for purpose. Training for a specific event is different from general training. No boxer trains the same way after a big fight as before it. The requirements of a soldier or similar professional are different to a civilian. It's not to say that we can't dip into those training methods, we can, but at the same time recognising who and where we are and what we are training for.

The other aspect of competition rife on forums is "X vs Y". This can be anything from "Wing Chun vs Karate" to "open hand vs closed fist" to anything you can think of. These questions are generally so context-sensitive as to be nonsensical, but it is interesting to see how some people think in these black and white absolutist terms. I find it a particularly adolescent mindset - highlighting an overly competitive approach as opposed to a co-operative one - a mindset that I think is encouraged within certain parts of the martial arts industry. After all, it is much easier to sell a "winner" to the public than something more subtle and long term. Of course you need a supply of new "winners", which is why people and products (people as products?) are re-cycled and re-invented on a regular basis. Most of the good work in martial arts - or any other endeavour - takes place in small, quiet steps over weeks, months, years, with the occasional breakthrough. Competition can be a part of that process, if approached in a healthy way, particularly if people have little or no experience of fights.

So for me "competition" is just one aspect of "conflict", which makes the whole this vs that a bit redundant. Anyone who thinks a well-trained MMA athlete would be an easy proposition is naive. Anyone who thinks a gang of hostile 15 year olds would be an easy proposition is naive. There are no easy answers and the only answers come through good training, learning from your own and other's experience, applying lessons learned, good old-fashioned common sense and knowing when to compete and when to co-operate.

Close Quarter Combat Part One

2010-12-28T12:02:00.002Z

Just finished editing our newest DVD - part one in a series of two, preparation work for close quarter fighting. Exercises, movement drills, developing flow and strike placement - vital knowledge for surviving the January sales!

We are also doing a pre-order deal for Parts 1 and 2!

Happy New Year!
Rob

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 2010 and beyond

2010-12-22T15:55:00.000Z

I'd like to thank everyone whos helped make 2010 a great year for training! The groups have come on leaps and bounds and we've covered a lot of interesting work this year.

In terms of workshops we've covered form and structure, knife defence, groundfighting, body language and awareness and stretching. The regular classes have covered all the usual work which in itself is as varied and interesting as ever!

Training highlights for me include Martin Wheeler's visit to London. Martin is a great instructor and you always know it will be a good session! Another highlight was this year's Leicester training camp - some truly unique training, challenging on so many levels and beautifully organised and conducted by Ed, Rory and the rest of the crew

We've had some new faces through the door this year and I'd like to welcome you all! We have had people move away too - Steve "Bulldog" Williams, our very own shin-kicking backsword-wielding granite- jawed man of steel - is now in Somerset, home of cider! For those who are overseas at the moment I hope you are keeping safe and will soon be back with your families.

There has been a lot of interesting feedback from the regulars this year and this really helps in shaping the training sessions. It's been encouraging to see people make a suggestion during a drill which can then lead the group off on a whole new tangent. This is of prime importance to me as it shows that, even beyond any physical skill improvements, people are thinking, analysing and engaging in the process. As an instructor this is so much more rewarding than standing in front of rows of people who copy your moves or teaching through some artificial syllabus. At the same time it's also a challenge to keep the training fresh, relevant and realistic and I look forward to meeting that challenge in 2011

As Ed often says, we don't know what we are training for. By that he means if you are a boxer, you train for a boxing match. A soldier trains for whatever duties he is tasked to carry out. None of us is can see the future so in that respect we are training for the "unknown". This might be seen as a difficulty but in fact I think it is liberating. It means we aren't working under the confines of rulesets or an SOP but are free to explore any avenue. By the same token I think this approach - which as far as I can see is unique to Systema - totally encourages innovation, creativity and freedom of expression. This is important from a psychological point of view too and of course goes hand-in-hand with the whole "we are all students" ethos. In fact to a large extent I see my role almost entirely as a signpost, either to training methods or to people better qualified to teach than I am. In that sense I owe everything to Mikhail, Vladimir and all the other good people I have trained with over the years.

In the wider "martial arts community" 2010 has been a bit of a non-descript year I think. It is interesting, though, to observe subtle changes over the industry - for example there are a lot more people teaching "defence in cars" or "working in a confined space" and one can only wonder where they draw their inspiration from. It is also interesting to see the numerous questions on forums about fear control, fluid movement, integrating ground work etc etc which often tempt me to write JDS....Just Do Systema! But of course not everything is for everyone and despite the growing evidence to the contrary people do get taken in by some of the "misunderstandings" about what we do
It is disappointing though to see that even with the huge amount of information now available (not like when I was a boy!) people coming into martial arts still seem to search for one of three types:

"Qualified Guy" with a string of black belts, hall of fame inductee, 15 times world champion, list of certificates that no normal wall could display and face on every magazine cover

"The Guru" - a zen-like Monk figure with mysterious powers, wrapped in a blend of Eastern philosophies and Western consumerism

"The Tough Guy" - either some kind of street hard-man bouncer or a heavily-muscled steely-eyed ex Spec Forces type, who can teach you to end a fight in 6 seconds or kill a man with a mobile phone

There are plenty who's marketing strategy revolves around playing up to such stereotypes and why not - it's a free world (well actually it can work out quite expensive if you don't read the small print). Of course the media - even the mainstream martial arts media - does nothing to dispel the myths.

The reality is that teachers can come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes when you least expect them. There are of course 100s of good instructors out there who are honest about their abilities, don't inflate or invent their CVs and want only the best for their students. Overall I don't feel they are very well served by the "industry" who are more interested in mutual back-slapping and self-promotion than anything else (there goes my invite to next years "big event!)

So what does 2011 hold in store? On the DVD front the first release will be a (probably) two disk set on close quarter work. Part 1 is being edited now and will hopefully be ready at the start of January.

In terms of regular class training - more of the same, plus! There were a some good suggestions at the last session, so I'll take those on board, plus of course any specific areas that anyone wants to cover. I'm talking to an old pal of mine who currently does a lot of work with behaviourial patterns, so that may be the subject of a workhsop in the future. Hopefully there will be at least one training weekend this year and I also plan on getting the group out and about to train at a couple of different locations. There may also be the possibility of a training trip to Toronto (if Heathrow ever opens again!)

In closing I'd like to again thank everyone who's attended the classes and workshops this year, my teachers, friends and colleagues and everyone who has helped make this such an enjoyable year - most of all my wife who let's me out every Saturday morning to play for a couple of hours!

Merry Christmas and a peaceful, healthy and happy New Year to you all

God Bless

Rob

End of year class training clip

2010-12-20T12:56:00.000Z

December 2010 Workshop

2010-12-05T13:16:00.000Z

A big thanks to everyone who made the workshop yesterday - good to see people from all the different groups coming together and training with such good spirit!

For those who couldn't make it - the work centered around close-range fighting, so the drills were based around close contact with other people, developing short range strikes, takedowns, etc. We had fun with some different exercises and though time beat us as always (perhaps we will run through the remaining drills next session) we got plenty of work in. The highlight for me was seeing how intense the guys worked in the three man fight drill - without protective gear, yet thanks to good control and good self-protections skills there were no injuries. I'll be reviewing the video footage and if it's good will edit up for a DVD release. In the meantime here's a few pics

Thanks again

Rob

To Spar on not to Spar

2010-11-29T13:44:00.000Z

It's a perennial question in the martial arts world and one that continues to ignite debate. In some places it also seems to have become an indicator of whether your art is effective or not, if it is "alive" - ie you work against a "resisting opponent"

Sparring in the generally accepted sense means two people, usually with some form of protective gear, working within a sports-based ruleset over a set period of time or rounds. Adherents to this method point to benefits such as technique development, good stamina and working under pressure as the main benefits to be gained. But are there drawbacks to this kind of sparring as well? I think there are and, depending on your training goals they can have a negative influence on your development

First let me say that I'm not of the "too deadly to spar" school. This is often used as an excuse to never engage in any type of work outside of a fixed response pattern, which even at basic levels of training is of very limited value. On the other hand there are of course real safety factors to consider and no-one would suggest we regularly break each other in training in the name of "realism"

But if your goal is to study self-protection , sports-based sparring is of limited value. To begin with look at the range and set-up of sparring vs fight. Actual fight range is very close - I'm talking about a person intent on causing serious harm here rather than arguing or a pushing match. When a person is in the mindset of wanting to knock your block off they close in very quick. They want to punch, grab, bite, It's a very different experience from touching gloves then maintaining a safe distance while you feel each other out.

There is a psychological aspect to consider too. A highly agitated and aggressive person is acting off of primal instinct rather than a carefully though out strategy. That in itself can be overwhelming and needs to be prepared for.

We must also take into account environmental factors. Sparring takes place on mats or in a similar "safe" area. Real life incidents can happen anywhere at any time. As I write this outside it's dark, cold and icy. Not ideal conditions. You may be seated, on a bus, with family or friends. There is your own condition to consider too - you could be injured, tired, drunk (shurely not!) or feeling on top of the world

In short there are countless variable factors to any situation, and we haven't even mentioned weapons or groups yet. None of these factors are replicated in the conventional "sparring" situation. One more thing to think about is that the sparring experience replicates only a very specific moment of any situation - the actual physical hitting/grappling part. If we are serious about self-protection we need a wide range of awareness and observation skills, how to read people, good communication skills not to mention a reasonable understanding of legal and associated issues.

I feel that to just train in conventional sparring is not sufficient to develop good self-protection skills. But with a little work we can get the benefits of good sparring while avoiding the pitfalls. An easy way to do this is to run goal-based sparring sessions. These can be as simple or as involved as you like. On a simple level give one person two minutes to get through a door and the other person has to prevent them doing so. You can add in other conditions as neccesary to simulate different situations

This can develop into very sophisticated drills, such as the ones put together by Ed and Rory at this year's training camp, which put people through a range of physical and emotional challenges. As they ably demonstrated real self-protection work isn't all about being "tough" and charging through everything like a bear with a toothache, it is about having the skills to assess a situation and react accordingly. It's not often how self-defence is "sold" - people like an easy answer or a "no fail technique" that will get them out of trouble. The truth is unfortunately more involved than that, even the simple solution of giving someone a slap can have consequences way beyond the original situation.

So to spar? Yes - but with conditions. As with all training be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the drill. Having a good ground grappling session helps develop skills and is a good workout (probably the most real you can get without injury). Gloving up and having a spar is good for hitting and getting hit, movement and developing tenacity. For instructors who run these drills - every now and then throw something different into the mix. Three people boxing instead of two. Chuck a knife to one of the grapplers. At least that will keep your people on their toes and stop them getting too "sparring" fixated. To take it beyond that start working the type of drill mentioned earlier, keep it safe, keep it challenging and keep it grounded in reality and personal experience - then sparring becomes a useful tool

Man and Superman

2010-11-27T15:33:00.000Z

Admit it - I bet when you were a kid you were tempted to send off for a pair of those X-Ray Glasses in the comics. The desire for "super-human" powers is universal, old as time and is still an area ripe for entertainment, trickery, scientific study, pseudo-science, manipulation and marketing.

Sales of comic books and movie spin-offs are at an all time high, we all enjoy Spidermanm, the X-Men and co. Magicians and mentalists such as Derren Brown are doing very well too. Running parallel to that is the NLP / psychology industry which has made huge inroads into the corporate market.

The martial arts world has always been fertile ground for superhuman feats. Every culture has its myths and legends, from Achilles to Cuchulain to Mu Lan to King Arthur. Many martial art styles have roots in mystic practices - Shaolin temple, ninjitsu, Zen monks. They often talk about developing "superhuman" powers. Traditionally these might inlcude things such as - light body skills (the ability to jump high distances from a standing start), poison hand/ dim mak (the ability to kill with a touch), telekenesis (the ability to move people or objects with the power of the mind), telepathy (the ability to read others' thoughts) and so on. In popular culture martial arts masters are able to display any or all of the above thanks to years of rigorous training in their respective disciplines.

Given that it is no suprise to find that the promise of "superhuman powers" is often used to bait a commercial hook. A casual glance around the internet will bring you the secrets of the "no touch kockout", "iron shirt" to make you immune to blades, "short range telepathy" and similar claims

So do these things exist? Are there really people who can read your thoughts and kill you with a mere touch? In recent history both major superpowers obviously thought it was an area worth investigating. The USA set up groups like the Stargate Project, the Soviets had similar programs running (in fact the book Experiments in Mental Suggestion discusses research as far back as the 1920s). As you might expect from the Cold War era it is difficult to draw definite conclusion from amongst the fog of secrecy, competition, desire for funding and mis-information. However I can't help feeling that if anything truly substantial had been achieved we would have had some kind of trickle-down effect by now

On a more personal level over the past 30 years I've experienced a wide range of teachers, some of whom claimed "special powers". In fact some of whom built their whole persona around those powers. So I've seen most of the no-contact people, a few ninjas and various type of chi-power exponents. In 100% of cases where their powers were heavily promoted, I thought their work was totally explainable through mundane psychology. They were very good at leading, establishing rapport, cold reading and so on. In even less savoury cases they were very skilled at manipulating the psyche of their students through what could probably best be described as "grooming". Of course there are a few Youtube clips of what happens when these teachers try and work with someone who hasn't been through the process - with predictable results!

On the other hand I've met a few people who demonstrated interesting skills not so easily explainable. The big difference was these skills manifested in normal situations rather than as a show-piece. No attention was drawn to them, they weren't presented as anything special. No money changed hands either!

Now when I say not so easily explainable I'm not talking about a supernatural experience here - I've never seen anyone levitate, knock someone out with no contact or explode a chicken from 6 feet! The skills were more in the area of awareness and ability to interact on various levels with other people. This for me, points to the fact that some of these so-called "superhuman" powers are in fact very "human". They are simply outside the range of what we use everyday.

Let's take a simple example, the hunter who lives and works in the forest, the commuter who works in the city. Switch environments and both will struggle. The commuter in the forest will not be able to predict the coming change in weather, see animal tracks, pick up the distant scent of woodsmoke. To the city dweller these may appear to be "superhuman" abilities (Crocodile Dundee) when in fact they are the result of training, experience and finely honed natural senses.

You can apply the same thing to human interaction. Those of you who trained at our Body Language Workshop recently will now be able to pick out some good indicators of stressful behaviour. When you get good at this you can amaze people by telling them what they are thinking in some circumstances. It isn't telepathy - you aren't literally getting a word flash up in your mind - but you can "read" them through the physical indicators. Refine that skill to a higher level and you can understand how some people disappear from view, confuse you into forgetting your name and all the other things that a skilled operator or "mentalist" can achieve. That's not to say there isn't trickery involved in stage mentalism though, as anyone who has seen my "mind reading" routines will know!

So "superhuman" abilities are a fantasy. Either the wishful thinking of someone wanting to be a lot more than they are, or the bait on a hook to reel in the vulnerable and gullible. Developed human potential is something esle altogether - but even then this development takes part alongside regualr training, it grows alongside the "bread and butter" skills. To sell it as some sort of instant "add-on" is also misleading in my view. There is also an issue of potential harm for anyone undergoing some types of training without adequate qualified supervision, that applies equally for physical and psychological work

I guess the old adage applies at the end of the day "if it sounds too good to be true, it is"

I'll leave you with a story I heard about an instructor up in Manchester. There was a local Ninja who was offering to teach the "secrets of invisibility". Out of interest the instructor visited the class and the results were less than spectacular. A few weeks later the instructor was in a local pub and saw the nija talking to a girl. He went over to the table, ignored the ninja and started chatting up the girl. The ninja gave an indignant "oi mate!". The instructor turned and said "sorry mate, I didn't see you there!" Classic....

PS if anyone out there feels they can demonstrate powers of telepathy, non-contact work or the like please do get in touch - as long as I can film whatever goes on I'm happy to give it a try.

STRUCTURE AND FORM DVD

2010-11-10T13:52:00.000Z

To develop skills in martial arts or any sport you need a good understanding of your body's form and structure. Without this you will never develop true strength or efficient power and may even run the risk of short or long term injury
This DVD shows the importance of posture, how to develop good spinal alignment, the use of the hips for low impact running, how to maintain good form under pressure and more. There is also a bonus section from the 2010 Training Camp on the use of circles and lines in hand-to-hand work and how joint rotation assists in both absorbing and developing power

Running time 1 hour 45 min, available at our store

It's All in the Game

2010-10-22T17:10:00.001+01:00

It's not uncommon to hear martial artists talking about a "game plan". Most times this concept relates to combat sports - where, of course, it makes perfect sense. You study your opponent, figure out his strengths and weaknesses, compare them to your own and work out a strategy accordingly. The strategy will also take into account the ruleset - is striking allowed, kicks or not, gi or no gi and so on

However it is also a concept your hear in relation to fighting or self-defence in general. It tends to take a slighty different form in different cases. Sometimes it is a general style strategy - so styles will specialize in high kicks, or close-in striking, or throws, for example

In other cases it relates to technique and mindset. In the RBSD styles it might be that palm heel strikes and axe hands delivered with plenty of aggression and "forward drive" are the preferred strategy

There may be something to be said for such an approach. Perhaps all your work is very specific - you only ever fight on a narrow boat, or you are primarily concerned only with the specific 10 seconds of a particular kind of street encounter. But I also feel there is a concomitant drawback, along the lines of the old saying "if all you have is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail". so why not look at the broader picture? Everyone says "how you train is how you fight" so what happens when the circumstances aren't suited to your strategy?

One of the great strengths of Systema is that from day one the situation dictates the tactics. A new guy in class commented the other week how in a previous school he was constantly "corrected" when deflecting a punch (his hand was not quite in the right place apparently), despite the fact he was succeeding at not getting hit.

It's when you get the approach of form over function that problems begin. Not that form is unimportant - sound body mechanics can only improve efficiency and power. But if these principles of movement become frozen into some kind of ideal they become not just useless but potentially dangerous.

Another guy said to me this week that when he studied a previous art he was more concerned about getting all the postures and moves correct than anything else. So straight away you are introducing tension into the training - but not in a good way. It is tension purely related to how well you are "performing".

Systema is liberating - you learn to move and exist in the moment, not in someone else's idea of "perfection", not in an urban commando fantasy and certainly not by shoe-horning your favourite "skillz" into the situation. This manifests in training by all the work we do in different circumstances - restricted space, seated, in cars, outdoors etc. I've noticed an interesting recent trend of other styles starting to do this now. Once you understand the physical and psychological principles of any type of conflict you can learn to apply them to suit the current situation.

There is an important psychological aspect to this approach too. First, you have to stop worrying about what to do and just do it. Working slowly helps you to sort this out. It also gives you an opportunity to refine your work and make it "cleaner". For more on this please see Steve Wildash's excellent blog

Working under increasing levels of stress and pressure will help you understand your true reactions and how you operate from that point. You have to start from where you are! Again, with time, understanding and a bit of guidance you will refine your work.

You also have to understand the concept of acceptance. It sounds glaringly obvious, but you have to accept whatever is happening to you and be comfortable with it. I don't mean that you have to like it or that you do nothing to prevent it, but you have to accept the realities of the situation you are in.

It's not uncommon for people to mentally freeze in the face of danger - they simply can't process the information, or can't accept that it is happening to them. More than once I've heard someone say "Why did he hit me?" when it was quite apparent that the hit was coming to everyone watching.

So you have to learn to park your ego, this is what being comfortable means. It's all very well and quite natural to get angry and upset about what is happening, but unless you learn to channel that emotional response in a useful way it will do you no good. In fact a skilled manipulator can use emotional responses as a handle in all sorts of ways.

This is why it is important in training to undergo all the unpleasantness of being hit, locked, thrown, squashed, rolling through mud and all the rest of it. After the event you get up, brush yourself down and carry on. Some people see this type of training as brutalising - and done in a certain way it certainly can be. But the Systema approach is about understanding sensations, not deadening them. It is important to maintain awareness to truly learn.

As a side note, I mentioned in class last week that this concept applies both ways in training. In other words, in a drill you feed in the movement to your partner but not your response. In martial arts it's not uncommon to see "tori" feed in the punch a foot away from the head and then fall or stay perfectly still because he is "supposed to". We don't really have that notion of tori and uke in Systema, your reaction should be natural and appropriate to the drill. Once you get into free play you are responsible for your own safety - your partner should never feel the need to pull a strike. If it hits you then you need to move better! If your structure is severely compromised you can try and fight it (which may mean injury if working at speed) or you can roll or fall out. It's not "right or wrong" it's purely self protection.

Awareness also brings questioning - of ourselves and others - and again this is a very important aspect of Systema training. Some of the best sessions have come about as a result of people asking questions and sharing experiences in class. Nothing or no-one is beyond question and I've yet to meet anyone with all the answers (though I know a couple of guys with more than most!)

If you maintain this attitude you will find you can learn from anyone and everything. Some people feel they are victims and go through life suffering and struggling. In fact this became one of my biggest beefs with my previous training - it seemed to me to be all about suffering and bitterness. Systema is about problem solving and seeing the opportunities in hardships.

Of course it's all easy to write and talk about, much harder to constantly acheive. But that is why we practice! Not to be the "best", or the toughest, not to impress or dazzle people with our little tricks, but simply to make life's road a little easier to travel.

Autumn 2010 Class Clip

2010-10-15T10:28:00.000+01:00

I Have a Theory....

2010-09-23T15:13:00.003+01:00

In class recently and on the Summer Camp I have referenced the idea of three brains, or Triune Brain Theory (TBT). Before we get into that, just a quick word on theories in general.
I've observed that a theory is like getting new a coat. You buy a new coat and you want to wear it around town, show it off, let everyone see your nice new coat. A year later you are walking the dog in it. Two years later you are doing the gardening in it. So when we hear of a new theory we find ways to drop it into conversation, put it into training, it becomes a prism through which we view our activities. Over time the idea either fades or becomes so ingrained in our work we don't really notice it any more

Theories help us to understand intellectually how things work (for example the role of the amygdala in fear control). But it is even more important to have a physical understanding and then feed that into the survival response. A balance must be struck between the emotional / logical/ instinctive - that way a good theory will soak into our practice and become a natural part of our work.

OK, having got that out of the way, let's look at Triune Brain theory. It was developed by leading neuroscientist Dr Paul Maclean in the 1960s. According to TBT three distinct brains emerged successively in the course of evolution and now co-inhabit the human skull. These three parts of the brain have numerous neuro pathways through which they influence one another. This interplay of memory and emotion, thought and action is the foundation of a person’s individuality. Dr Maclean detailed the three brains as follows:

Reptilian Brain
The oldest of the three, comprising the brainstem and the cerebellum. It controls the body's vital functions such as heart rate, breathing, body temperature and balance. It is the repetitive, mechanical part of the brain, operating on instinctThere is nothing wrong with enthusiasm for something new - an enquiring mind is a healthy thing. But we should be aware of grabbing every new idea that comes along as the latest "big thing" then, in a few months time, gravitating to the next shiny idea.

Limbic System or Mammalian Brain
Emerged in the first mammals, comprising the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the hypothalamus. It records memories of behaviours and is the primary seat of emotion, attention, and affective (emotion-charged) memories.  The limbic brain is the seat of value judgments

Neocortex
First assumed importance in primates and culminated in the human brain with its two large cerebral hemispheres. MacLean refers to the cortex as "the mother of invention and father of abstract thought". In Man the neocortex takes up two thirds of the total brain mass. The cortex is divided into left and right hemispheres. The left half controls the right side of the body and the right side of the brain the left side of the body. Also, the right brain is more spatial, abstract, musical and artistic, the left more linear, rational, and verbal. The neocortex is flexible and has almost infinite learning capabilities

That, in a nutshell is Triune Brain Theory. Using it we can broadly think of three areas of the brain - the instinctive, the emotional and the logical. There is communication beween the three, but at any one time one mind can "take over" and submerge the other two.

Now the Bad News
TBT gained widespread acceptance amongst psychologists, psychiatrists and various other students of human behaviour. Neuro-biologists, however, have been less enamoured of the theory and there are various debates and discussions for, against, or somewhere in-between. Current theories still support the basic separation, however the models have come a long way since MacLean's time - an internet search will show the latest thoughts and research

For me the value of the theory is as a systemic way of thinking about the cause of behaviour. It may be a simplification of the mechanical processes going on in the brain (of which we still know so little), but TBT is very usable as a "map" for our purposes

Training and Reality
TBT fits nicely onto how we train, how we react to things in everyday life and our actions in a threatening situation. If, for the moment, we stick with the simplification of logic, emotion and instinct:

When learning something we are engaging our logical facilities. We are finding out what fits where, how does this move, what happens if I do that. The ideal conditions for this type of learning are to be comfortable, not rushed, low pressure. It's basic common sense and generally how we are taught any new skill, be it physical or mental

In everday life we tend to live in our emotional brain. We smile when we see friends, swear at the driver who overtakes us, think about what's for dinner, buy your wife some flowers (actually that's a survival tip...). In terms of training we become emotional when things aren't going our way (we get upset or give up), we want to show off, or we step outside the drill in order to "win"
Our instinct level is running under the surface all the time and gives you the occasional nudge (feel hungry, need to pee, feel tired). Under real pressure it can override the other two - usually in the guise of fight or flight. In severe cases it triggers survival instinct which can lead to people acheiving feats they would never normally consider possible. For example the trapped climber who amputated his own arm to escape certain death - a perfect fusion of survival and logic.

In our training  each "mind" has a role to play, but the two that we should focus on the most are the logical and the survival. The first for learning, the second for testing. When engaged in testing work we should neither be too focussed on the "hows and whys" nor should we be working with anger or pride, but just letting the work develop. Just like touching the hot kettle - no thought, no emotion, just pure instinct to protect

There has to be balance though. I first became aware of TBT around 15 years ago during my researches into the Chinese Internal styles of fighting. Teachers like Erle Montaigue tied TBT in with the shamanistic aspects of those styles. In other cases it was there but couched in traditional / cultural terms. There are several intense practices that teach you to quickly access the so-called "killer" mindset. They mostly involve  people putting themselves into trance-like states in order activate the "reptilian" predatory aspect of the brain (hence the preponderance of tigers, snakes, dragons etc in some martial arts ).  There are many risks attached to this type of training and you have to wonder if it is really suitable or desirable for modern everyday life. Even in modern battle, harking back to tales of Viking "berserkers" Dr Jonathan Shay wrote

"If a soldier survives the berserk state, it imparts emotional deadness and vulnerability to explosive rage to his psychology and permanent hyperarousal to his physiology — hallmarks of post-traumatic stress disorder in combat veterans. My clinical experience with Vietnam combat veterans prompts me to place the berserk state at the heart of their most severe psychological and psychophysiological injuries.^"
Achilles in Vietnam

In order to maintain balance the mammalian brain should still be present in training - in terms of compassion (not breaking our training partners), the social aspect (having a good laugh, being supportive of our colleagues) and in learning from each other - everyone is a teacher and a learner in class. Where it has no place is in terms of ego, pride and status, these are all counter-productive to training.

Survival
Training drills should be designed to stimulate one or more of the three minds. Something as simple as a slap in the face can be used to elicit an understanding of emotional response. Drills should be carefully organised to provide a comprehensive and progressive path from logical step-by-step gathering of knowledge through to adding in emotional and social/psychological factors through to various forms of pressure testing to stimulate instinctive response.

Activating the survival instinct is a challenging area of training, both for the instructor and those taking part. It is very easy for people under pressure to "stick" in the emotional mind - especially when you begin non-goal orientated sparring. It is important that the people taking part understand this. Of course an instructor is there to supervise the session but remember one of the key principles of Systema - know yourself. Every drill is an opportunity to observe yourself in laboratory conditions and understand how you react to different stimuli. That self-knoweldge gives you the power to ensure your response is relevant and applicable to the situation. In short, you learn that you are responsible for your own behaviour.

Emotional Intelligence
There is another theory that states when we are put under pressure we revert emotionally to a point at which we suffered extreme stress in the past. For most of us that is an incident in childhood. So people who get very emotional can return to a much younger level of emotional intelligence. You might expect a child of two to cry if he drops his ice cream. If a man of 35 did the same you would think something was wrong. Yet people behave in this way more than you might think - keep an eye out and you will see what a mean. Emotional intelligence is just another term for "know yourself". Once you become self-aware you will become more aware of others and, as we covered in our recent body language workshop, your communication skills will improve drastically. For professional people this is extremely imnportant - there are a few Youtube clips showing examples of emotional brain taking over from the logical /professional which of course leads to problems for all those involved

Don't think that "pressure" means a mugging or ninja attack. It can be as mundane as reading something on a forum - take a look around at the countless heated arguments on every type of forum that degenerate into insult or "challenges". If you can be that upset by somethng so inconsequential, what does that say for your self defence capabilities? Be aware of how your mindstate can be influenced. Advertising is the prime everday example of stimulating an emotional response in order to sell (aspirational, status, conforming to the crowd, sad piano music, fancy terminology, highlighting a fear, etc). Skilled people (or sometimes just annoying ones!) can do the same thing - be aware of it
This is a simple view of a deep subject, but then again it doens't have to be overly complicated for our purposes. Just be aware in training which "brain" you are in. Over a period of time that awareness will extend out to rest of your activities, in the same way that the physical aspects also do. In a short space of time you will become much more aware and tolerant of the people around you - and more tolerance can only be a good thing.

Leicester Camp 2010

2010-09-12T15:06:00.000+01:00

Last weekend saw the first weekend camp organised by the Leicester Systema group. For me it was a nice change - in the past I've organised camps myself whereas this time I was guesting, which meant I was also able to observe the drills and participants a lot of the time. I'll run through the format of the camp first then offer some thoughts and observations

Friday afternoon saw everyone arriving and pitching camp. We had use of a farm on the outskirts of Leicester, far enough out of town to be rural but close enough to be accesible. Most the of the participants were local, but some came from as far afield as Kent, Herts and Notts. First job was to get tents pitched (these ranged from a simple tarp against a fence to large efforts complete with double bed and shower!)
Then fire pits were dug and wood gathered. While everyone enojyed a brew (why does it always taste better from a camp fire?) Rory and Ed took everyone through the plan for the weekend and orientation of the site. The main theme for the training was to be psychological work. Participants were told they would be put through various types of pressure over the camp and the ground rules were laid out to ensure productive and safe training for all

It was just starting top get dark so we began the first session. As the emphasis was on the psyche after a warm-up I took the group through the basics of using the breath to help control fear and tension. I then explained how the brain operates under stress and how we can move between three states - the logical, the emotional and the survival. The role of each in training and in real life was explored through some further drills before taking the group into some deep striking methods in order to prepare them for the work ahead.

Time for another brew and a quick bite to eat and we were off for the first major exercise. This was to be in an urban setting, so it was a quick drive into town. The group was split into two teams and the role and aims of each explained. One group was basic operating as surveillance on the other, each with specific tasks to accomplish. The exercise took place in and around a large park and adjacent industrial area, which led to some interesting interactions! Myself, Ed and acted as observers and it was interesting to see the two groups at work sometimes unaware of the other (and us!). On conclusion of the exercise a few hours later it was back to camp for a nightcap and beans before bed

Saturday morning - glorious weather and after breakfast and a warm-up it was time for my next session. This time I took the group through body structure, in particular the use of the straight line and circle / sphere in hand-to-hand work. Also, keeping with the psychological theme I emphasised once again the "three brain" theory and how it relates to practice and real-life application

Following lunch break the group was divided into four teams for the next exercise. Three of the groups were to work on the "firing range" - with air rifle, bows, etc - while the other group were takne up to the deserted farmhouse for the main exercise. This took the form of an intense psychological test - I won't reveal any more details as some of you may wish to try it in the future and in any event the test is about the experience rather than reading about it. Each of the groups was rotated up to the old farm in turn and also got the chance to experience the exercise from different angles

By now it was late afternoon so while the food was prepared the group was prepped for the night exercises ahead. This involved another short drive to a different site and a cross country trek to an old abandoned railway line deep in the woods. Ed took the group through a PT session, making full use of the surroundings, and then teams were again formed for the next set of drills. These again were mostly psychological-based, though with a healthy dose of physical interaction! Again I won't go into full detail for the benefit of those who wish to try them in the future. We finished up after mindnight, then it was back to camp to feast on the chicken, lamb and beef that had been roasting in the embers!

Sunday morning - time to clear the site and also, as a favour to the farm owners who so kindly allowed us use of their land, to help with some ragweed clearing and general tidying-up. Following this the group was driven to a local sports centre for the last session and a post-camp "de-brief". Each of the participants was also presented with a certificate and so the weekend ended!

OBSERVATIONS
It was interesting for me this time to be more "in the shadows" this time rather than teaching and organising all the sessions. First off I was extremely impressed with how the camp was run and structured. Ed and Rory had obviously put a huge amount of work into creating the various drills together and were ably assisted by their team - including Ash, Gaz, the two army lads Chris and Mike, Michelle and Leanne the farm owner. This meant participants were given some unique experiences outside of the normal realm of what we can practice in class.

In most cases the drills were unknown to me too and were in turn funny, exciting and interesting to watch. The different strategies employed by the participants, their inventiveness in dealing with or creating situations and their determination to keep on going (particularly Tracy) were inspiring to watch and a tribute to their training. The one unplanned incident in itself revealed the participants at their best - how people can pull together as a team, help someone out and then carry on with things as normal. That was very interesting for me as all of a sudden it wasn't training any more, it was real life - and everyone shone.

I hope to get some footage up on Youtube in the next day or so, though as most of the exercises were at night there is not a lot of footage to choose from! Some people also asked for more info on the "brain work" we were discussing, so I will get some relevant links posted up too

Overall - an outstanding camp. As everything went well I'm sure we will have use of the site in future which gives us scope for so many different types of training in the future - so watch this space. Thanks again to Rory and Ed and to everyone who took part, it was a great experience all round!

THE ART OF PERSUASION Part Two

2010-09-02T17:38:00.001+01:00

Now on release - shot at our recent workshop, how to read body language, including observation skills, eye access cues, spotting "tells" and how to spot a liar! Plus pre-emptive work for when communication breaks down!

SECURITY

2010-09-02T17:33:00.003+01:00

When you’ve been training in martial arts for a long time it’s easy to forget what it is that makes people first start training. It’s also easy to take certain things as read or that certain things seem perhaps obvious, either in terms of undertstanding or of avoiding like the plague
I’ve not carried out a survey but would hazard a guesS that one of the top reasons for people starting to train is how to handle yourself - whether in the “street” or the sporting sense. It may be they have had a bad experience in the past or live in fear of something bad happening. The Martial Arts would seem to offer all the answers - but do they in fact offer a false sense of security?

The answer is undoubtedly yes - at least in the case of the numerous “experts” selling fast-track systems of "ultimate" street defence, or offering black-belts within a year if you sign the contract. Anyone looking at one of these websites with highlighted words and a carefully structured sales pitche would do well to imagine they were buying a car instead. Would you go to a forecourt that promised you a Porsche for the price of a Robin Reliant and could teach you to be an expert driver in one easy lesson? Apply the same logic to the E-bay ad that promises to you the secrets of the fighting arts in one cheap DVD and you won’t go far wrong.

However the problem can go beyond the obvious shifty sales-types and into any style or school. There are three types of false security that we need to guard against

THE SECURITY OF TOUGHNESS
So we can run 12 miles in four minutes, do 500 press-ups, take a punch from King Kong and look great in a tight T-shirt. It’s good for marketing and good for the ego. Of course being functionally fit is good for our training and general health - when kept in balance. The danger is when it becomes an end in itself and you become tougher-than-tough. Nothing or no-one can touch you, out run you, be stronger than you. It’s an illusion that can soon be shattered by an out-of-shape brawler with a severe attitude and a beer bottle. Or a group of teenagers who don’t give a toss. On a couple of occasions I’ve seen big men taken down after getting themselves in situations they could and should have backed away from - one was left with a severe injury, a result of scaring the guy he was picking on so much he was driven to desparate measures.
CURE - work outside your comfort zone. Take on new things that you have to learn from scratch. In training simulate injury or work from a vulnerable position. Don't assume you will be on tip-top form when attacked, you may be sick, tired, drunk - or all three!

THE SECURITY OF TECHNIQUE
“What do I do if…” I’m sure we’ve all heard the question or even asked it. The good instructor will explore the possibilities. The less good instructor will give a technique. “You do A, B and C, it’s an ancient technique that never fails”. Or “ you do A, B, C these are commando techniques that never fail”
Simple answers to a complicated question. Of course answers can be simple but should never be simplistic. In some schools techniques can be linked together in elaborate sets and kata. They feel good to do, they give you a sense of movement, power and control. But we should always be aware that they are just what they are - a choreographed routine that, at their best, teach us body mechanics and possiblities, at worse are a codified set of stylised responses to stylised attacks. There is a dnager of trying to fit your secure technique into each and every situation. Or of adopting a strategy that is fine for your training method but inappropiate for a real situation
CURE - do some freestyle work. Don't have a set attack/ defend response. Work in a group of people, or try blindfold work, each will cut down on "thinking" time and force you to respond naturally. If your techniques aren't coming through, examine the training - is it the techniques or is it you? Either way, make the neccessary changes

THE SECURITY OF STYLE

Every style is the best. I’ve yet to hear a school say “those guys down the road are better than us”. It might be that the style can trace its roots to ancient warrior monks who fought all-comers, or undefeated samurai who prevailed against the odds. It may be that the founders are special forces operatives, professional, dangerous men. Or they could be world champions in their particular style. Nothing wrong with any of those, if they are true. You can take security in the fact you a re learning from experienced people - but that is all. Because they are not you! Unless you hire them as a 24-7 bodyguard it’s highly unlikely they will be there if you need them either - it’s down to you.
So don’t be too quick to boast about who or what your teacher is or can do. Leave that sort of talk for the playground - or for the sort of internet forums that have “who’s the hardest instructor” polls or “would X beat Y in a fight” threads. Some people phone me and ask "does it work" - the answer is "no, "it" doesn't work - you do". It's not an answer that the marketeers would approve of, but if people don't realise that basic fact it's unlikely they will get very much from training with me

CURE - train around! If any teacher tells you you can't train anywhere else - leave them. No-one has all the answers. Be open to different attitudes and approaches, try out different styles and instructors.

How can we guard against becoming too secure in our training? It seems and odd thing to new-comers - they come to training to be made to feel secure. Stripping away their securities would seem to be counter-productive. In fact the reverse is true - when done the correct way. Becoming aware of our weaknesses and insecurities is the first step to adressing them. We all have limitations and weakness - we have to learn how to overcome them or to work around them. The Systema method of having no fixed syllabus as such is very helpful in this respect. No-one knows what to expect at class. Things might change at any moment. Rather than being shoe-horned into the requisites of the style, students learn to adapt to the situations presented, discovering strengths and weaknesses along the way. Likewise the training can be instantly adapted to the needs of the student. Some drills specifically put you into very vulnerable situations and invite you to explore your response and learn and grow from the experience
For the instructor it’s doubly challenging - not only do you have to provide the appropriate levels of challenge for your students, you have to ensure that you aren’t just teaching from your own comfort zone as well. This may mean recognising that you have a weakness in some areas and either working on those, or in calling in other instructors who can cover those areas for you. A pyramidal or hierarchical structure is anathema to this approach. Getting in and mixing it with the students will blow any notions of instructor infallibility out of the water too! If you don't mix it up with your students, ask yourself why
Security is good -we nened it in many aspects of our life, emotional, physical, belief. But security founded on the rock of experience, honesty and understanding and is much stronger than that founded on the shifting sand of ego, falsehood and hype.

New Class Training Clip

2010-08-18T15:19:00.000+01:00

Some footage from the last month or so at Tempsford, mostly work around falls, throws and takedowns

When it's Time to Train - then Train!

2010-08-18T14:36:00.001+01:00

Just this last week we have been putting finishing touches to this year's Summer Camp. One thing I'm always aware of, whether it's a camp, a workshop or even just a basic training session, is keeping things moving at a good pace and providing a balanced amount of information and activity for the students.

What prompted me to write this post was an e-mail I recieved about a Kung Fu training camp being held over seas. It included a day-to-day itinerary, which was along the lines of 9am - 11am training session 11am-5pm free time 5pm-7pm training session for each day

It struck me as odd to travel all that distance and spend less than half the time training. Over the years I've travelled as far afield as Toronto and Moscow for training - and have to say I would have felt a bit disappointed if I was only getting a couple of hours a day in. Happily that hasn't been the case - in fact sometimes you wish it would stop ha ha!

Closer to home over the years I've driven consderable distances in the UK to attend classes and workshops. Again, most of the time I have not been disappointed, the sessions have been well-run and enjoyable. There have been a couple of exceptions - one workshop for example was around 80% talking (mostly instructor "war" stories - tales of violence and derring-do) and 20% actual training. Other class sessions became a social event with an ever-extending "tea break" halfway through.

I can accept the fact that things need to be explained on occasion (our recent body language workshop for example was half lecture-half drills) and, of course there is a social aspect to training, after all we are not in the military!

But these things shouldn't impinge on actual training time. We should be able to manage a two hour session with a quick drink break (though we often don't even have that). When it becomes a coffee and sandwich break then something is wrong! I understand it from a teachers point of view - if, that is, you have a need to drag out information and drip-feed. Perhaps then you should ask yourself why exactly you are teaching...

We are all a bit lazy and take any opportunity for a break - another good reason to keep training sessions brisk and lively. That doens't mean mindless beasting (neccesarily!) but a structured approach will contain all the elements needed for good training - physical and mental

There is another more important aspect to this question and that is how we organise our own training time. I've already written about my own solo training - in many ways it's harder to push ourselves without the "support" of the group - but there are so many ways to utilise time. If you can't put a regular schedule together, then use what time you can - exercise while waiting for the kettle to boil. Get up half an hour earlier and go for a run. Take the stairs rather than the lift

But this is all on a basic level. When you internalise the principles of Systema you can be "training" virtually constantly. Breathing, posture, tension and movement are constants, they are part of our natural state 24-7. So we can always be mindful of these things in ou daily life. Being aware of ourselves will extend out to awareness of others and our surroundings. You'll find you can avoid a lot of situations and get into a lot less arguments and confrontation with even basic awareness. Once you add in the skills of recognising non-verbal signals you willl find your communication skills improve, hopefully making ife much less stressful in general!

This awareness should also extent to "tactical thinking". The most basic method of this is the "what if" game. "What if someone jumps out from behind that wall, what if etc etc" However this method should extend beyond mild paranoia into something much more useful (and healthy!). It's often just a case of noticing where things like fire exits are. Or who is the loudmouth in the pub. Or where your kids are at any given time. It's also about developing and listening to your inner voice. Over time it becomes a natural part of you - much as it was when we were hunter-gatherers and were in an "eat-or-be-eaten" environment. Interestingly all the same instincts and responses are still wired into us, even at the deli counter in Tescos (watch what happens if someone pushes in the queue...)

This kind of training will be very self concious at first but if you take it on board you will get some surprising benefits. Training then becomes something else - to quote Ed Philips "the world is your gym" - and that applies for both mind and body. This approach also helps break down the barriers between training and reality. I've known people who couldn't train without their uniform. Or who floundered outside of their usual training environment. Sometimes their training has to be preceded by routines or ritual - in fact the whole training is a ritual in itself. Fine if that is your thing and you are honest about it, but you have to be aware of just how much of a construct training can become

I'll sign off with a story that I've mentioned before but illustrates the point beautifully..... a young journalist was sent to interview a venerable jazz guitarist for a music magazine. During the course of the interview the journalist asked "So how many hours a day do you practice?". The musician replied "I never practice!"

The journalist was aghast "but you are one of the top players in the world, how can it be that you never practice!"

The musician replied "I never get time to practice, I'm too busy playing"

A RECENT INCIDENT

2010-08-11T10:02:00.010+01:00

We always share real-life experiences in class - they either come out during the training or in the circle-up at the end. It's a very important part of the process as it means we can draw on the collective experiences of everyone in the session - not just for "fighting", but so much information also comes back on awareness, fitness and general "life experience".

Normally these experiences stay in the session, but one of the lads had was involved in an incident a couple of weeks back that I thought should be shared with a wider audience. It raises a number of interesting points and, most importanlty, the only person who got hurt, short and long term, was the guy who instigated it.

Our man "X" has been training in the group for around a year and has no previous martial art experience. He is 30-ish in age, just a regular guy. A few weeks ago he was walking through the car park of a large supermarket at 3.30 in the afternoon. He had just finished making a call on his mobile. He heard someone say "give me your f------ phone". He turned to see a young guy approaching. His first reaction was that this was some kind of joke so he aked "What?"

The robber repeated his demand, more aggresively. X laughed and told him to "f----- off". The robber now shouted his demand, put his head down and charged forward. As he did, his right hand dropped to his belt/pocket

X without thinking shot a kick to the knee and as the robber went down, X punched him in the face. The guy was now laying on the floor...in some discomfort. Next to him lay an opened knife

People nearby rushed over. X, thinking quickly, loudly said "did you see that, he had a knife! He was going to stab me". He also began acting shaken up and scared. Within seconds all the people were agreeing with him, they all said they saw the knife even though most of them were some distance away

Now the police arrived. X was told off for "talking to witnesses". The robber was claiming he was "just mucking about" . X continued to act scared and unsure of himself and repeatedly pointed out the fact the robber had a knife. The robber was taken to hospital, he had some damage to his kneecap

The police asked X if he wanted to press charges. He said no, as far as he was concerned the thing was over. So the police arrested X. That was the end of the actual incident

FOLLOW UP

A few days later X saw the robber again, this time with a friend. He approached the robber from out of line of sight, then put his arm around him and said "remember me?" The robber was clearly worried and his friend kept saying "we don't want any trouble!". X told him that they shouldn't go out robbing people then and it was left at that
In the meantime X had a two week wait while the CPS decided whether to go ahead with the case against him or not. Eventually it came through that no charges would be pressed

OBSERVATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
In terms of his actions and re-actions I think X did very well . Perhaps the only thing you could say was he didn't do initially spot the robber - but then again at half three in the afternoon in a busy place you wouldn't expect it (which is perhaps a lesson in itself). His physical response to the threat (and who knows what the guy would have done with the knife) was perfect - delivered naturally, precise, effective and appropriate. It is also worth noting that the knife was unseen until it was dropped onto the floor by the robber

However where I thought X really shone was in his "post-event management". He could have boasted about what he'd done to the witnesses or, even worse mentioned his Systema training! Instead he handled the situation very well, everyone supported him - and rightly so, after all. But I can tell you from my court days how easily events can be twisted in the hands of a good brief. The important thing is what you say - that is what gets noted most. Actions can be interpreted in different ways, if you speak with clear intent it is more difficult to distort

The next interesting thing was the fact that he got arrested, despite all the evidence at the scene. I'm not sure if this is procedure or down to the discretion of the officers on the spot. To be fair they have to make a decision based on only seeing the aftermath of an event.

Finally I thought X handled seeing the robber again very well. He could have gone aggressive on him, or even been scared of him. Instead he gave him some brotherly advice (that will hopefully be heeded). This should curtail any future come-backs or thoughts of revenge on the part of the robber. This is something that's often overlooked in self defence, especially when the emphasis is all on "turning into a wild animal and savaging your opponent". When you come out of that, back into the real world, there can be significant consequences to deal with

Anyway the important things are that no-one was too badly hurt, X kept his phone and is not being charged and a young man has perhaps learnt the error of his ways. Hopefully this will provide some food for thought for all of us and some lessons that can be fed back into our training

An Apology!

2010-08-05T10:45:00.000+01:00

Sorry I haven't posted here for a while - things have been very busy on the music front! I'll be getting some new posts up over the next week or so, there are a few topics that have come up recently plus an interesting incident involving one of the Tempsford guys which I'll be posting details of

A few people have asked about gigs - you can see where and when I'm playing over on my music site at http://www.robpoyton.co.uk/

cheers

Rob

TRAINING ROUTINES

2010-02-17T15:11:00.013Z

Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback so far! Brian H got in touch and suggested I write about my training routines, so here we go!

As you can imagine my training routine has changed a lot over the years. This is very important for a few of reasons. First off, it's important to keep your training fresh and challenging. Secondly as your skills increase and deepen it's good to explore new areas of training. Thirdly your training should reflect your circumstances and aims

As a kid I was never that into playing sports but did a lot of running and a bit of football. I do rememeber being outdoors a lot of the time, climbing trees, throwing stones and generally being active, something that I'm not sure kids today get so much of

My "proper" training began in the Chinese style - which starts with stance training! Early training consisted of learning stances and form movements. This type of training can be very time intensive - and painful! Luckily at the time I was a budding musician so had lots of daytime free - I can remember regularly spending at least an hour a day in practice, forms and stance mostly

As I progressed in the style that time had to expand to fit everything! For example, in terms of just that one style, I eventually knew something like five versions of the 15-minute long form, three two-person sets that could be practiced solo, weapons forms - sword, staff, sabre, various exercises, various kinds of Qigong (with 20 minutes to an hour standing post), power/strength training, bag work, fa jing drills.... and this was all solo training before you even got into push hands, sparring, etc It was quite easy to spend a few hours a day on training (which I eventually ended up doing after going full time).

Outside of that I was getting together with friends regularly - esepcially Rob Murray in his Hackney torture chamber! The routine there was a lot of pad and bag work - we used to do anything from 30 seconds to three minute rounds , 150 kicks on the bag, etc, followed by sensitivity / push hands type work, then stick and knife, plus whatever application/sparring we were into.

Unfortunately some of that training stopped when I moved out of London - though the upside was I now had a large double garage converted into a training room. About this time I started researching into the more internal aspects of training, upped my conditioning work and also began work on accessing different mental/psychological states. This is a very interesting aspect of training, often over-looked, but it is fraught with difficulties. You need very good guidance to keep you straight and true. At it's most harmless it can engender feelings of false power and at it's worse it can have very negative effects on mental health (there is a term "qigong-psychosis" sometimes bandied around). I've seen cases of teachers building up a whole persona around this work and go off into almost cult-like directions. The Chinese Internal Art Festivals hosted by a teacher in Newcastle were probably the "finest" example of this in action and it was a disturbing experience to see how students could be manipulated - but once you see how it works it's easy to spot and you can warn other people about it too

It was around this time I began hooking up with other people, such as Dave Nicholson and adding different things into my training. I was also training under Vincent Chu at the time, which brought even more variations of form and exercise. In fact some of Vincent's exercises are among the few remaining taiji things I still train today.

Dave and I began exploring a lot more knife and stick work, getting into some silat and the work of people like Rick Hernandez. This all fed back into my solo training routines

However it's here that you run up against one of the problems (for me) of the CMA apporach. The Chinese arts have a concept of "eating bitter". The notion is that training is no good unless you are intensely suffering in someway. There's very little joy in it. In principle it's not a bad approach - no pain no gain and all that. But I found that some people do like to wear their suffering on their sleeve, plus it all gets very serious and insular and perhaps a touch self-indlugent. This is perhaps a cultural aspect of those arts - which of course every art has and you have to be aware of what they are and how they affect the training.

There was also plenty of "tell but don't/can't show". I remember at one competition Dave was doing a little impromptu push hands. A Chinese "sifu" stood off to the side watching and made a loud comment. He didn't know one of Dave's guys was a Mandarin speaker and he translated - "that's rubbish, that's not how it should be done!" Red rag to a bull for Dave - he invited the guy into the circle and promptly pushed him ragged for five minutes. The look on the guys face as he tried to get away, only to be pulled back in for more "treatment" was a picture. We did find that quite prevalent.We always wanted to feel first hand from the instructors we encountered but very few would give you any direct hands-on. This may have been a cultural thing again but it was frustrating none the less, especially given the stories of "miraculous powers" these masters were supposed to have.

So my solo training routine at that time would be anything from one to four hours a day, incorporating all the kung-fu methods I'd learnt up til then, plus the general bag work, sledgehammer training, plus a bit of fitness - running and horse riding. On top of that I was teaching a few times a week, plus had the lads over regularly for sparring work

When I got into Systema and met Vladimir that all started changing - slowly at first, but eventually I'd drop virtually all the previous solo training. The thing I trained most at first was the falling and rolling. Largely absent from before apart from a few breakfalls and just hoping for the best! I found the ground movement in particular opening up new areas - and new muscles! My emphasis became less on root and more on three dimensional mobility

Cutting out form work began to leave me a lot more time. I found I could get the results I wanted much quicker with the Russian approach. The exercises click exactly into place as applications, so I wasn't speding time working out possible applications for form postures. Instead the emphasis was on adapting to what was going on rather than trying a "technique. To be fair this concept is also present in the Chinese styles, but not to the same extent (perhaps again a cultural aspect of copying what has gone before rather than innovating?)

One of our guys asked Sergei Ozhereliev when he was over about how long he trained each day. He said something like if you are training on your own for more than an hour you aren't doing it right! You shouldn't be able to go beyond that point if you are really pushing yourself. Again it flies in the face of "conventional" martial arts training, which is almost seen as a "polishing" process, of struggling hours and hours every day to perfect something (cue "training montage" from the movies!). Of course it depends on your training motivations but there can be perhaps too much emphasis on perfecting a syllabus as opposed to developing yourself

There is another inportant aspect I should metnion, which is health. I spoke about mental / psychological health already. Is four hours a day solo training really psychologically healthy for the average person? I used to know a concert pianist who played eight hours a day most days to maintain the standard required for a professional classical musician. However the difference is that he was actually playing concerts, whereas most martial arts people are involved as a hobby and never have the opportunity or need to actually use the skills they spend so long developing.

On the physical health side, I feel the Chinese styles had some good benefits - general good health, posture, balance, strength. However I did start getting bad knee problems through the low stance work (the standard reply is "you were doing it wrong" but knee problems are not uncommon amongst top masters.). Since I stopped forms and worked more on my hips and legs the problem has gone. That's been one of the revelations of Systema work, along with the breathing. I now find the same benefits from the breathing work as from the previous Qigong work - with a lot less time and none (so far!) of the possible problems. Things like cold water dousing also offer a quick and "easy" way to health!

So my solo training routine now is very different. For one thing I don't really have a routine. I tend to train in bursts throughout the day - sets of press ups, squats, etc. some rolling, working with the sledgehammer (I've still not got round to kettlebells!), I run most days, do quite a bit of work with the stick, occasionaly re-visit some sword or staff work and now and then run through some qigong and Vincent's Three Circle Exercise. Of course the breathing work links it all together and can be practiced almost constantly, particularly in conjunction with the Jesus Prayer if you are so inclined

I like to join in as much as I can when teaching, though I'm always aware that I'm there to teach not to train.
Still it's good to work with the guys, there are plenty of them capable of making me sweat now! It's always fun going up to see the Leicester crew, getting back on a horse has provided new challenges! If there's one thing I've learnt from Systema it is that you have freedom to do and try whatever you like. You don't need a gym, don't need equipment, don't have to worry about getting something perfect, "the world is your gym", just get on with it.

It can be easy to get a bit lazy, but that's one reason it's important to get together with other people as often as you can. Even then it's important to have all those exercises in class, they really are the foundation of the work, not just something to get you "warmed-up" at the start of a session. There is a danger they can be dismissed as "just some exercises" but look beyond the surface. The group also provides a supportive / challenging environment - how many of us would try the "fall flat on your front" drill on our own?

I just want to add in something about developing "skills" here too. Solo you can develop some attributes - cardio, strength, flexibility. To develop real skills you need other people. That can be acheived in various ways, limited only by your ingenuity in devising drills. I think it is important to always be developing a new skill or improving exisiting ones. I never got this "lowest common denominator" approach to training - the one that goes in an emergency you lose all fine motor co-ordination and become a lumbering cavemen. With such an approach you learn some very basic techniques - chop this bash that - and that's it. All well and good - but then what? Do you just practice that for the rest of your life? In context it's useful - eg quick training for people going into a specific place. Outside of that is seems a bit limited. To my mind the greater your depth of skill and understanding the better you will work. It's a principle that works for jet pilots, racing car drivers and concert pianists....

For me it's the skill development that maintains my interest - I mean, I do it but I don't much enjoy running round the field in the rain..... Also skill stays with you, whereas as we know fitness goes so quickly! So as far as advice goes for your solo training (apart from "buy my Solo Training DVD" hahaha) - work all the things you can on your own, once you get comfortable with an exercise, change it some way to increase the challenge. Always be mindful of how your exercise can be applied - functional fitness! Take advantage of every opportunity you can and treat life as a learning experience. Alway always always treat your health as number one priority in training and balance your training with the rest of your life. It should enhance your life not detract from it.

Most of all - the biggest secret off all - find a way to enjoy everything you do.... Or to quote the legendaray Viv Savage of Spinal Tap - "have a good time all of the time"

Training History

2010-01-21T13:19:00.020Z

Having written something about my general background I thought I'd detail my training history and some other relevant experiences!

My very first martial art training was in Judo as a young kid - must have been around 7 or so - later I did some boxing too
Of course around that time the Kung Fu series and Bruce Lee were all the rage, and this sparked my interest in the Chinese styles. However unlike today there was very little information around and even fewer clubs - it was all either karate or judo. There was no internet either (pre-historic or what!) and outside of films and TV the only source of information were some American and Hong Kong magazines. It wasn't until the late 70s that the Chinese arts began to be taught more widely

At age 17 I began my training in Chinese martial arts, with John Ding at his newly opened class in Barkingside. John was originally from Malaysia and had a background in Shaolin and Preying Mantis before learning Yang family Tai Chi Chuan under Chu King Hung, who was one of the top teachers in London at that time

At the time I didn't know very much about the different styles of Kung Fu, so it was pot luck that I landed in an authentic "fighting" school of Tai Chi rather than one of the more..shall we say "vague" classes that were also springing up at the time

Class training was once or twice a week and consisted of a lot of (painful) stance work, form training and push hands and application. The class sessions were supplemented with the Monday night crew - a group of us who trained together regularly at the gym in the old Claybury Hospital. Lads such as Steve, Terry, Tony Powell, Dusient, John Elliott and Rob Brenner. I suppose the training was a bit crude - working out applications by trial and error and generally whacking each other about. But they were always good, hard, informative sessions with a great spirit of camaraderie.

John's classes expanded and he eventually opened a full time school in South Woodford (still there I believe). By this time I had started teaching my own classes. I worked full time at the centre, both taking classes and editing Tai Chi and Alternative Health magazine which John had launched.
In the meantime I had got the chance to traing with John's then teachers - firstly Chu King Hung and later Gin Soon Chu. There was a week long course in France with the latter and he also came over the UK a few times. I'd also met some other friends and started training with them - most notably Rob Murray and Dave Nicholson.

Rob came from an old-school karate and jiu jitsu background but was interested in trying anything. Over the years we trained a couple of times a week together, exploring JJ, tai chi, wing chun, stick fighting, RBSD, extensive fitness training and just generally trying things out. I learnt a lot through training with Rob and he is someone who to me has always exhibited the importance of an open mind and a determined attitude in training

Dave Nicholson was running Tai Chi and Hsing I classes in Yorkshire. Dave also had an interesting background (his dad was a bare knuckle fighter back in the day) and he brought a unique Yorkshire down-to-earthness to the Chinese Internal styles! We clicked straight away and for many years shared knowledge, trained together and ran workshops and competitions. Pound for pound Dave was one of the hardest hitters I'd felt and again I learnt a lot from our association.

As you might expect a lot of this training was starting to take me out of the "classical" approach. While I had a wider interest in health, philosophy, etc like most people from my background my main interest was in self defence. Things like knife defence, working in crowds and so on were not being addressed in the traditional style so I began looking round to "fill in the gaps"

By this time John and I had parted ways so I was now my own boss and set up my own group. I kept up my Tai Chi training with Jim Uglow, but also became a "workshop tart" and trained as widely as possible. People I have trained with at workshops include (in no particular order):

Ji Jian Cheng
George Xu

Chen Xiao Wang
Erle Montaigue
Dave Turton
Peter Consterdine
Rick Moneymaker
Sensei Kanazawa
Yap Cheng Hai
Richard Dmitri
Steve Morris

I received more in-depth Tai Chi training from Vincent Chu, who I hosted in the UK on a number of occasions. I also began collecting videos from a wide range of sources and started feeding any good stuff into the mix - some ideas from Silat and Rick Hernandez in particular. There are also some other friends and colleagues I'd like to mention - Jim Fry, Terry Shepherd, Gary Musson, Tony Kirby, Tony Walmsley - plus some of my own guys who helped a lot in running the group - Leigh Revell, Steve Blatcher, Jason and the Chingford crew

By this time I'd also moved out of London and was teaching in the Peterborough area, as well as travelling back down to London once a week! It was about this time I first got hold of a video of Vladimir Vasiliev. I must have played that tape a hundred times, trying to work out how he did what he did. Coming from an "internal" background I could appreciate the fluidity and power of his movements but thought his partners were falling over a bit easy...

His approach intriguedme so I contacted him and was pleased to learn he was due to visit the UK. At that seminar I got to feel Vladimir's skill first hand. Many years of push hand type training and "real" experiences had left me confident in my ability to stay on my feet. With Vladimir I felt like a total beginner and gained an undestanding and appreciation of why his partners seemed to fall so easily.

Very soon I was on a plane to Toronto for the first of several visits to "Systema HQ". At first I was drip feeding Systema into my training and teaching but there came a time when the sensible thing was to embrace it totally. It's not something I've ever regretted and has opened up so many different aspects of training as well as benefitting other areas of life

Since that time I've hosted Vladimir in the UK and trained in the UK and Moscow with his teacher Mikhail Ryabko and some of his top guys such as Sergei Ozhereliev and Sergei Borschov as well as Konstantin Komarov

I still like to keep an open mind and look at all types of training - it's so much easier with Youtube these days! There are some good people about - for example I'd rate Dave Turton as one of the top self defence guys in the UK and Steve Morris of course is a legend. But overall I'm very happy with the training I have now and the access I have to such skilled and generous teachers. In a funy way though I think people are a bit spoilt for choice these days and it perhaps makes them less appreciative of what is around. The martial arts world is still sadly largely insular and parochial and aside from a few friends it's not a world I choose to inhabit very often! Of course a lot of it is big busines now, either the McDojo type or the commerciality of some of the MMA people, but, hey, everyone has to make a living. The downside of that is some of the silliness apparent on internet forums over the past few years, but I'm sure that's a passing fad.

So that's what you might call my "formal" training background. Outside of that I've done the odd bit of doorwork over the years, for friends who were running clubs in East London and was involved in all the usual silliness young men get up to when they don't know any better. More recently I find myself back in the live music world and it's been interesting to have resort to "direct action" a few times again - some things never change it seems!

I also worked for the Crown Prosecution Service for a few years, which was an educational experience - both from gaining an understanding of how the legal system works from "behind the scenes" and also in seeing all the different cases coming in. My work at Crown Court included putting evidence bundles together, including scene of crime and autopsy photographs. Believe me once you've seen the results of a frenzied axe attack you will never underestimate the danger of dealing with edged weapons.

My wife is currently Crime Reduction Officer for the local area which again has lead to new understanding of how criminals operate - so I guess you could say I have experience with both sides of the coin.

My own personal training these days still has a large self defence element, but is more geared towards health and mobility as I approach 50! Hopefully I maintain some of that youthful interest and enthusiasm though perhaps tempered with a little more realism or cynicism.... If I had to sum up my approach it would be "Take your art seriously, take your work seriously, but don't take yourself seriously"

Apologies if I've left anyone out from the above and thanks to all my teachers, training partners and students past and present. Here's to the next 30 years......

Why I Teach

2010-01-09T15:04:00.003Z

Before explaining more about my training background and what I teach I though it might be useful to write some thoughts about why I teach (apart from "it beats getting a proper job....)
My aim is to give people good "general" self defence skills that will help them cope with day to day difficulties. It's important to me that the training methods foster good general fitness and health. I also hope to encourage an open-minded attitude in people, to make them inquisitive (nothing is above questioning), adaptable and as self-reliant as possible.

I hope that the training reflects that - and that while covering all the generalities (which of course the principle-based approach allows us to do ) we also have time for some specifics. Some of our people need these for their work, be they prison staff, serving military, etc and it's interesting for the other guys to cover these areas as well. Where I can't teach specifics myself, we are lucky in having a wide range of skill sets across the group (from English backswording to hot-wiring a car...) to draw upon. . Outside of that we can always look to call in other groups or people for their expertise

I try to make the training multi-faceted and evolving. Everyone has input in the process (a standard practice in Systema classes), there are no divisions of grade, rank or experience. The training should be progressive with varying levels of pressure to test understanding and encourage skill development. There is no emphasis on competition (in the sporting sense) or being glued to a syllabus (in the traditional sense). Hopefully the lessons learned are universal in their application. I tend not to distinguish between training for this or that, to me it's all just training - the application is up to you.

There are some things any instructor has to balance and these are the most challenging areas of teaching. There is realism vs safety (training is never real, there is always a compromise, the balance is in minimising the compromise). There is information overload vs in-at-the-deep-end. I tend not to be an especially technical instructor, nor someone who explains every minute facet. Having said that it's important to ensure everyone has at least some understanding of a drill or exercise. Sometimes the meaning is layered and sometimes students come up with their own understanding too, which is something to encourage.

The needs of the individual vs the group. I'm lucky in having an experienced group of guys who work well with each other or with new people. There's always a balance between helping someone who is struggling (which is all of us at some point) and keeping a level appropriate to the group as a whole. There is also a danger of always playing to the strengths or needs of one or two people in the class (and that includes the instructor!)

Which leads to - personal skills vs student skills. What I mean by that is not to be an instructor who wants to develop people in his own image, but encouraging people to develop their own strengths. Of course we all have areas of particular skill and ability, but the balance is in recognising what our students need, not what we like to do. The same can be said for projecting our own fears or psychological hang-ups onto our students (believe me I could write a book...)

In short I see my job as an instructor to construct an environment in which people can develop their skills, develop their ideas and test their understanding in a challenging but safe way. It's not for me to say how successful I am, but, with a small measure of pride I'm pleased to see how the Regulars have developed, especially over the last year or so. On the one hand it makes my job easier - everyone knows to just get on with it. On the other it's harder to find new challenges and to keep things fresh and dynamic for all of us.

But the main reason I kept until last - I enjoy it! The day I don't is the day to stop doing it.....even if it means getting a "proper" job....

You can see clips of our class and workshop training at my Youtube page

Hello!

2010-01-07T16:41:00.000Z

..and welcome to my Blog!

As this is my first post I thought I'd write something about who I am and where I'm from!

I was born in 1963 in Forest Gate hospital (no longer there!) within shouting distance of Upton Park.

Most of my childhood was spent in Manor Park, latterly at a house on Romford Road (no longer there!) and I went to Avenue Infants and Junior school (no longer there - are you seeing a pattern?)

At age 12 we moved up the road to Ilford, where I spent my teenage years. Attended Ilford County High school, took A levels and then got my first job as a trainee surveyor

There's two major interests in my life, both started around the same time. The first is music - I had lesson on the old family joanna from a youg age. The second was martial arts, which started with my dad taking me to a judo club in East Ham.

At 18 I got into my first band (The Academic Hamiltons) and also started serious Kung Fu training with John Ding at a club in Barkingside

I guess I had the usual upbringing for a lad of that time and place, there was always a lot going on, politics and music were very active at the time, plus of course all the youth sub-cultures (Mod) and football stuff (West Ham of course)

Over the years my involvement in music waned but I persisted with the martial arts, eventually becoming a full time instructor in the mid-90s. More recently I took up music again (Hammond organ) and currently balance my work between teaching (Systema), making DVDs and playing music

I'm married and live in rural North Beds - a far cry from E12 but the country life suits me now!

Over the coming months I'll be posting thoughts and experiences on training, music and anything else that I feel like!

Be seeing you

Rob

http://www.systemauk.com/