Preparation time…

Thursday Session..

I think we all forget sometimes that good preparation for a particular way of training is just as important as the training itself. last nights session was all about this..

The Thursday class for the last few weeks have been focusing on various aspects of ground work, and for this weeks session Gareth decided to join in the class and hand over the reins to John Hunter, who in my opinion is a very knowledgeable Systema guy, and has an excellent teaching method. John explained that over the next two hours we were going to be looking at preparatory drills designed to prepare our bodies for further ground work to come over the next few weeks. The session comprised mostly of familiarisation with the floor and helping us to become comfortable with being in an uncomfortable position, so drills covering breath restriction, movement restriction with a partner/partners were to follow. Even though the drills we were going to look at were relatively simple, they were still quite challenging..
I suppose the Systema approach to most things is to work from the most disadvantage position possible and if you cope well from that point anything else will always seem a lot easier to deal with. So the drills that John showed where designed to restrict you one way or another; this is where relaxation and correct breathing was going to be important, to avoid getting yourself all fearful and tense. These were not fighting drills but drills that placed you in a disadvantage position while on the floor and the object was to observe their affects upon us. One drill in particular showed this.. While laid out on the floor your partner had to position you in such away that it was very uncomfortable, but at the same time your breathing had to also be compromised in some way, whether it was by the position itself, or the partners body weight, or by the hands over the nose or mouth, or as in my case I was left with only one nostril free for breathing, with the rest of my body compressed and contorted.. It’s funny how you can adjust to your situation and survive with what you’re given, even with only one nostril to breath with it was sufficient, as long as I kept calm and relaxed.. I have actually been in similar positions during free play ground work, where my breath was almost removed and often the panic sets in.. had I spent more time with this pre-drill training I think my fear levels and abilities to cope under stress would have been a lot better..

Saturday session

This Saturdays session like so many these days just flew by, I guess it’s because the work we are doing is so varied and interesting. Rob set us up with some cardio drills and some fundamentals, as a review for the regulars and as an introduction to striking for the two new guys that started this week. The session was pitched just right to keep everyone busy, which isn’t the easiest of things to do from a teaching perspective.The work rate was quite high during the pad work section, I had a good partner in Nick Padgett who helped me to keep things moving at decent pace, and even at a high work rate we were still able to experiment with the pads getting the most out of a great bit of simple kit.. Using two focus pads we were able to look at our form and the fluidity of our striking, to maximise our efficiency.. it’s so easy to get fixated with the pads and just belt them in single strikes with a uniformed timing, instead of breaking it up with multi-strikes with different tempos, always looking at placing many strikes in the least amount of time... Using variations of the figure of eight pattern, we we able to look at delivering same hand multi-strikes, as well as combinations of both hands, more than just the hook, jab and cross. We looked at footwork and body positioning from standing all the way down to the floor. What is interesting though, is how adaptable the hand is to striking, it doesn’t matter how the body is positioned and what direction the strike meets the target, the hand seems to form itself into the correct shaped tool, whether open hand, back of hand, hammer fist (top / bottom) traditional fist, it doesn’t matter, it will form itself into what's required of it.
I do like working with the pads and wish we could do more with them, as it does enable you to be more explosive with your work, which isn’t always an option with your training partner for obvious reasons.

Steve

Piece by Piece…

After a weeks lay off from training due to a winter cold, it was nice to have two great sessions back to back. Thursdays session involved dealing with kicks while on the ground and todays session spent the full two hours on knife work, which a fair proportion was also spent dealing with knife attacks whilst on the ground, the two classes I thought linked together quite well.
2012 has been a pretty good one so far, in terms of understanding my training, what I’m doing and what I’m doing it for. I feel the learning curve is on the rise again and starting to feel really good about my training perhaps for the first time since starting out in Systema. I seem to be able to visualise training drills in a new way which seem to make me feel better about what I’m doing. I think I’m finally starting to grasp the concept of fighting from any position and through the levels; from standing to the floor and from the floor to standing. In the past Rob has gotten us doing pad drills one of which involved striking the pads while standing, through squatting, to sitting and then laying out on the floor, without stopping, continuous striking then back up to your feet again. In my mind I think I really must have been carrying out the drill for drilling sake, and did not think how this would apply outside of the pad drill, but in the last two classes it has suddenly dawned on me that I should be and can work against someone as I have done on many occasions while on the pads.
In Thursdays session one drill involved starting from laying on the floor and receiving kicks from your partner, dealing with the kick, continue to strike at your partner as you rise up off the floor to a point where you regain control, and then turn the tables by taking your partner to the floor. The same work applied today, instead of kicks it was stabs from a knife, but the same process applied, dealing with the knife, working against the person while rising up off the floor, back into the dominant position.. both drills were very useful in understanding this point.
Both lessons for me where very similar but quite different in their content, but did reinforce the point that Systema is fundamentally the same whether standing or down on the floor, and yes I know I’ve been told this many times, but  I can tell the puzzle is finally coming together; the drills really are applicable to wherever you find yourself, and I think at last I’m starting to grasp this, perhaps the last plateau is finally behind me and can now concentrate on bringing my Systema together  “Piece by Piece”….

Steve

Levels of play…

I’m not sure about you, but I sometimes find it difficult to maintain the concept of soft play in training, the likelihood is at some point I will feel the need to ramp the pressure up... Rob pointed out quite rightly in last Saturday’s class, that its not always a good thing to remain in the “killer” mind-set of hard and fast for extended periods, as it could turn out to be counter productive, in that you don't give yourself the time you need to learn. I suppose keeping yourself in a high state of ferociousness does seem a bit OTT and I doubt that you could really maintain it for very long anyhow, and even if you could you would probably fry your brain at some point as well... So there must be times in your training where it’s appropriate to slow things down and “flowmosh” for want of a better word… that said I still think its still all too easy to fall into that trap where you view slow drilling as a reflection of real fighting, and expect that everything will always flow nicely and never badly.
Gareth for one has taught me that slow play is a great way to understand movement and feel your way around your training partner, some comparing it to child like play.. and I’m all for that, but I feel that the concept of play can still be play even when its ramped up to a higher more intense level. To me play is only a separated from real fighting when there is an intention to do harm to another person. When you watch two top Judo players totally going for it, this still seems like a form of play to me, albeit a very rough and tumble form of play, but yes still play in my view, but labelled as a competitive sport instead. A true sportsman always has a real respect for his opponent and wouldn't dream of doing the other serious harm or injury, even though the work rate is in overdrive. Even boxers who admittedly are trying to knock each others blocks off are still far from the mind set of ”kill” and as with the Judoka, kill is the last thing in the world that they would want.. I think its all about the intensity of the situation for these guys, as of course the desire to win..

I do think without contrast in your training you cant possibly appreciate things like pressure, fear and loss of control. There are of course other considerations to take into account before increasing the pressure, whether you want to help your partner or not, if you do, you also have to bare in mind their skill level before you start to ramp things up... I remember in Jodo it was always pointed out to me that there was always teaching side between partners in training, no matter what your skill level, there was always someone better than you who naturally became the teaching side, as was there always someone less skilled than you, so you then became the teaching side; the person with the more experience worked to the level of the less experienced, but it was also their job to help raise their partners game, pressuring them to a point where they would find it always challenging, and not leaving the bar at a low “soft play” level for too long, always trying to instil in the trainee what they were actually trying to accomplish, to learn to fight and with some degree of skill, but also showed them that through the training process they where able to change their perspective towards fighting, train to a level where you didn’t feel you had to, but would do if necessary. I think this was true of most Japanese arts that I looked at, slow and deliberate to start, then at some point you had to cross over to the next level, but common to all was the “review”, which meant taking it back to basics and use slow play to recap, to reinforce the skill set.
Working with Mark at the weekend was as usual a good balance and demonstrated to me that this idea of play at different levels is possible… when we work together it’s quite often with varying intensities, the slow and tactile, through to medium digs, onto fast and heavy strikes, but all the while just play, without any form of malice, just a clear and focused mind with an appreciation of fun during our training time together.

Steve

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To the last breath…

One of my greatest fears is having my breath taken away, suffocation or perhaps drowning. The thought of dying in this way is a pretty big fear of mine and facing up to it and working though it is a big challenge; to be able to fight to survive knowing that you have to find a way out, to get that breath that your body craves, coping with panic and other emotions, to keep a clear head under this sort of pressure is really worth visiting, as Rob said taking your self somewhere like this highlights how much of a survival instinct you have, strong enough to keep going? or will you lay down and die? Interesting thought isn't it.

This week we continued the breath work theme, but first a knife work warm up which lasted for about fifteen minutes or so, which was a decent amount of time to have a play, and enough time to learn more about movement, passing the knife back and forth between you and your partner, stripping the knife and other disarms… a great start, I think its very important to have access to this free time experimentation, these extended periods give you the right sort of practice time you need.

Recapping on last weeks breath work was a good way to get us in the right mind set for work to come later in the session. Running and holding breath drills and using exercise to normalise your breathing was first, followed by more pair work, using sit ups, press ups, leg raises and squats as a means to challenge ourselves; standing, sitting or laying side by side, no quantity of sets or reps given, both partners set off in the exercise together, one holds their breath while the other breathes normally, when the breath holder can't hold his breath any longer he starts burst breathing until normalised, all the while continuing with the exercise, at this point of burst breathing his partner then takes over the breath holding until he can't hold any longer, then burst breathes, repeating for a few changes then change exercise.

Rob stressed that at any point during any of the breath holding drills you could stop if you felt that your blood pressure was up too much, as safety for everyone was priority. The next drill was similar to the floor breath holding drills, but this time standing, with a partner again, both hold their breaths at the same time and stand without doing anything, the first one to suck in air and start to burst breathe was the signal for his partner to start striking him as a penalty, using the strikes to help normalised his own breathing... One thing that was observed during this drill was the introduction of unwanted tension through incorrect breathing, especially when holding the breath, too much tension held by tensing upper chest and shoulders, instead of breathing in and out lower down in the abdomen and lower chest. The tension I was holding by breathing this way was a problem, as it affected the duration I was able to hold my breath.. it was very poor indeed.. Andy my partner pointed this out, which later prompted the question to Rob. Seeing Andy last longer for this drill and issue me the punches time after time, was an indicator of how I was doing…there was something clearly wrong here… Once Rob explained the breathing with out tension, it was a lot clearer.

The next section of the lesson was all about not being able to have the choice of when you were able to breathe and for how long.. Rob used Mark and myself to demonstrate this. I had no idea what was going to happen.. I knelt on the floor as instructed, as did Mark.. he knelt by my side, Rob said when I was ready to take an in breath Mark was going to then place his hand over my nose and mouth; when I could hold no longer I was to tap Marks arm and he would let me take a breath... This time I wanted to take on-board the tension thing from the previous drill, so as Mark applied his hand after my in breath, I went into a sort of meditative state trying to be totally relaxed with eyes closed... This time I was able to hold my breath for at least double if not three times as long before I tapped Marks arm, but you guessed it, Rob Must have given Mark the nod to keep his hand there taking me beyond that point where I wanted to give up… realising what was up I continued, forcing a deeper relaxation if that makes sense, as the gag reflex to breathe had to be suppressed.. I had a few more seconds to continue before tapping again, but Mark still held his hand in place, a few more seconds passed before I physically moved Marks hand from my face so I could take that breath, even though I did this I still think I had a bit more in me to continue, it must have been the bodies automatic response to survive making me yank Marks hand away.. once again interesting work, proving even I can push myself further when the easy option is removed, decision made for me to carry on...

 

The next progression was to work in pairs and then onto threes and fours.. first in pairs, partner one standing the other behind him, again hand over nose and mouth, eyes open, but this time when you felt the need to breathe this was your queue to work against the man behind you, doing what ever you needed to do to escape and then finish.... 
From here I was working in a group of four with Mark, John and Gareth, a similar drill, one standing being held from behind having their breath taken away, eyes open, the other two stood in front, as soon as the person holding his breath need to breathe, the gripping hand was removed and this was the queue for the two men in front to attack the man who was trying to recover his breath, he had to then either escape or work against the two attackers.. it was surprising how effective you could be even though you where still in recovery mode... From here the next drill was pretty much the same, but while you where being held and holding your breath from behind, one guy in front with focus mitts, he was digging jabs into the breath holders body at the same time.. when the breath holder needed to breathe again, the arm was removed, he then had to move forward and attack the focus mitts at full tilt, driving the pad holder back...

If given enough time to prepare, it would seem that you can cope with breath deprivation for extended periods, but if other factors are introduced it becomes much harder, even something as simple as laughter can change things.. my breath was being held and someone then cracked a funny, this caused me to hold back a laugh, but in doing so I lost more breath in the process. Distractions, pressure, and fear, certainly don't help you in drills like these, over coming all mental and physical obstacles is a tough ask, but necessary when placed in a difficult situation where you have to survive.

In the circle at the end of the lesson, it was clear that everyone had taken something from the various drills, I'm not sure if my own fears have been totally put to bed, but certainly realised my own short comings with breath control and know if left up to me I might give up too easily, but when forced to survive I like everyone else in the group operate differently, and the willingness to endure more and more through the bodies desire to live and breathe is visible; this sense of survival seems to be an ingrained automatic response for most people, its as though you don't have a choice in the matter the body decides for you... It will fight “to the last breath”.

Steve

S-t-r-e-t-c-h your

One of the more significant changes in how I use breath work in my training was the idea of stretching your breath. I think I’ve only just started to appreciate how useful this way of breathing really is.. its probably only since the summer of last year that I started to really put it into practice. I particularly like it because its a very easy way of allowing you to make simple exercises like press up’s, sit up’s and squats more challenging. Its funny that as a result of this type of breath work I'm much more aware of holding my breath when I concentrate on every day tasks, when very focused on doing something perhaps a little bit precise, I suddenly realise I’m holding my breath, which then forces me to breathe again… 

Part 1/ Yesterday Rob showed a few new drills that sort of related to this idea of stretching your breath, by using extended breath holding. As a part of  our warm up the class started to jog run around the training hall, starting off with some square breathing, timing the breath to strides, in for 4 hold for 2 out for 4 hold for 2 etc.. from there we continued to jog run with normal breathing around the hall, then Rob said on the command, breathe in and hold your breath as long as you can while continuing to run.. when you can’t hold your breath any longer drop to the floor an recover with breathing, then straight up again into running and breath holding. Next drill same again, but instead breathing all the way out then hold for as long as you can, when you need to breath hit the floor to recover and up again running as soon as you can.. Continuing again with this drill but using press ups to recover, breathing in on the down press and out on the up press until recovered or breathing vice versa, then up and running once more and repeat. Next from a static press up, hold your breath as long as possible, when you need to breathe again start doing press ups with breathing to recover, which did somehow speed up recovery... then reverse this do press ups while holding your breath, then hold a static press up at the top end and burst breathe to recover. The next simple drill was working with a partner, both striking at each others body, not too deep, heavy enough to work the body, both holding their breaths while doing this.. the first one that needed to recover stood still hands by their sides, his partner could then recover as well, but he continued to strike at his partner as he breathed, but turning up the volume a bit as Rob put it... This was a great way to get us all warmed up for what was to come in the next section of the class..

Part 2/ The big pause…. This was something I mentioned in a post last week.. I think this phenomenon  its more common than we think.. We all like to think we have good flow, but the reality is there’s a point for most of us where we stop working against our partner, either as a micro pause, or perhaps longer, or even stopping altogether. Rob was trying to encourage us to think about this and keep us moving during our work against our partners, as what you practise in training is probably how it will go for real... I for one am guilty of this, as I tend to think of my flow as a count, maybe influenced from the old days where it would be 1/ jab, 2/hook or cross, 3/upper cut 4/upper cut, then break away… an old habit I need to move away from. I noticed this in one of my partners yesterday, Mark is one of the strongest fighters I know and have no doubt in his abilities, but even so he too had this pausing.. he seemed to time the duration of his breath to his work, a flurry of punches or strikes and the breath stopped so did his work, all but briefly but still there, he takes the next inhale and gets himself moving again.. I think most of us have a variation of this sort of thing, which makes us less fluid and we continue to fight against the idea of flow motion.. a definite stumbling block to our advancement and understanding of this goal… So how do we figure out how to move beyond the pause, well Rob was saying perhaps try not to think how good or bad things might be going for you at that moment, don’t admire your successes or wallow in failures especially in mid-flow, just keep working until you don't have to.. This is a difficult mind set to get yourself into, to not think of success or failure but to just to do.. and keep doing what you’re doing… I sometimes wonder if we tie our timing of our work to our breathing too much, perhaps there’s a way of breathing that I don't know about yet that enables you to breathe continuously and allows continuous motion to take place, letting us continue regardless… Rob said we are going to spend a bit of time on breath work over the next few weeks.. it will be interesting to see how we all develop and whether the pause button isn't used as much, but the play button is…  :) 

Steve

The Road Ahead…

Frustration, inadequacy, confusion, were a few of the emotions I felt throughout yesterdays session, the first Saturday of the new year… These emotions were highlighted during a section of the class where I was paired up with Rob P working on a specific close work drill, the idea in its self was quite simple, move away from the punch and continue to work against your partner, pretty easy you would think, but caused me one or two problems... I was having real trouble with my flow motion, a subject the class covered in some depth towards the latter half of last year. Feelings of awkwardness and a complete lack of flow were frustratingly obvious to me, but then grateful to Rob for confirming what I could already feel... Rob said it looked as though I was comfortable at one range, but as soon as the range closed to a range I should in fact feel more comfortable with, seemed very stop starty ( if that's a real phrase) I should in fact feel safer and more comfortable and able to cope better when in this close quarter range, but he said I should first try to slow things down and get the control and flow back first of all, as better flow was what I was looking for.. working a bit slower should actually start to make thinks a bit easier for me... The fact is, lots of years working at a fighting range where you felt you were just outside of trouble, somewhere where you can nip in and out to deliver shots with relative easy and still feel in control, safe and secure.. but this is all well and good, but enter into the uncomfort zone and my fundamental Systema basics seemed to escape me. On reflection it appears that I struggle soon after I’ve placed a couple of well aimed shots and there it is… a slight pause before I can continue, almost as though I need to evaluate damage done before I can progress any further.. this can be a real problem, as I found out when slow sparring with Rob, I would move, take a couple of shots only to leave space for Rob to move back into, stuff I’ve spoken about in previous blog posts.. I explained to Rob that as soon as I see the shot I take it, which he said was fine, but you must continue on.. perhaps my pre-emptive strikes seemed a little rushed, creating this pause because the flow had indeed stuck, not able to recognise or feel the next strike in the flow sequence..  Rob explained and demonstrated that once in and moving I should just keep moving, that way the flow motion doesn't get stuck and yes I felt the pressure from Rob when he was in the flow, which was difficult to deal with and overwhelming at times; as my movement tended to get stuck I was unable to free myself from the flurry of his striking I just couldn't react well at all.
I explained to Rob that unless I'm put under a fair bit of pressure my work against someone seems to be less effective, so I asked Rob to make it more pressured... Not sure whether my work was actually any better really, but the feeling that you get when you are actually up against a real threat one that can do damage to you is somewhat different, certainly drives you on and focuses your mind to think about mobility etc.. of course this may well be the totally wrong approach; I have been told so many times that thinking too much about any given situation will be problematic for me.. speaking to Matt after the session I said I thought that we had similar issues with over thinking things, even though there are a few years difference in training between us.. I said to him do you think we have problems like this because we are both from an engineering background? we tend to problem solve in a 2 + 2 = 4 type of way and if 5 is the result we will continue to analyse and pour over it for the solution, we expect that if we are presented with A  and do B, C must be the outcome, and then and only then we can progress, but if D is the result we struggle to make sense of it and progress in our eyes is very slow, and considering that our willingness to learn is so great, find this slow progress unreasonable.. I think he knew what I was getting at and may possibly have something to do with how we approach things, but of course on the other hand it may well be total bollocks, it’s more than likely that we are just slow to grasp simple things :)

Gareth made an interesting point as we discussed further, as I understand it he tends to have no preconceived expectations of the lesson or how he’s feeling at the time will effect his training, he just takes it as it comes and if things don't work out too well it doesn't particularly matter, he also said that Chris W once spoke about how he felt prior to a class, he said he thought he might have a rusty lesson that day and that’s exactly what happened.. this does seems a reasonable way to look at things, I should really adopt his open attitude, but like most people who are still fairly new to Systema, think that everything looks pretty easy and that you should be competent in no time, but the reality is yes it does take hard work and effort, but still you really must not beat yourself up if things do go a little tits up from time to time, almost let the time you spend training wash over you and eventually stuff will stick and you will eventually get it… proving your expertise in something just isn't the ultimate goal here, its something less obvious, perhaps not unlike the harmony found in Aikido, not that I know much about that either, but you can see the connection somehow..

To be honest I felt that I've taken a little backwards step so far this year, I know its still early days, but do see that there are still a number of problems to resolve and know that I’ll still be analysing what I should be doing for a while yet, instead of going with the flow, what I need to do is slow things down and worry less.. My new years resolution is going to be encouraging close proximity, and try to free my mind and body of the comfort zone, the place I know where I can be most effective, instead I should be constantly challenging the uncomfort zone, working to be comfortable at varying ranges including the floor... I can see exactly what needs to be done, its just finding the way through to where i want to be.. perhaps this is the goal for this years training, to free myself of the notions of where I think I work best and explore the options of where I don't particularly do very well, areas where I still carry an element of fear, putting aside the desires to be something and somewhere where  I’m clearly some way off from, the understanding of true flow motion is still somewhere down “the road ahead”….

Steve

Good to be back… :)

 

Yes 2012 is here and the 5^th of January marked the start of training for 2012. It was good to see some of the old faces again after the couple of weeks break and good to see a new starter so early on in the new year. As it was the first session back for the Stevenage Training Group, Gareth decided to make it just a general session to get us back into the swing of things, as I think most of us were pretty lazy over the Christmas period and fitness levels were probably suffering more than we realised; I know I hadn’t done as much as I should have, but I guess its nice to recharge the batteries once in a while and slob out a bit. I am glad I didn't go too mad on the food and drink this year though, as over doing it always makes it so much harder to get going after the long break, the lack of regular exercise really does make the body sluggish and tired, not sharp at all. I was hoping that I wasn't going to find the lesson a struggle, but as luck would have it managed quite well which surprised me and afterwards felt re-energised once more..

Really looking forward to Saturdays class with Rob and the guy’s and as the first one’s outside for the Tempsford group should be great fun. The weather has been blowing gales for the last few days and thought it should make for an interesting weekend session, but today once more the British weather has surprised me, not a cloud in the blue sky and barely a chilled breeze to be felt, so the weekend looks in good shape, so can’t wait to get stuck in to this year’s Systema fun and frolic’s.

All the Best for 2012 you Systema blokes from around the World.....

Steve

2012’s around the corner…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a personal level 2011 has been a pretty good year for training, low on injuries and also pleased to say good health. This has enabled me to turn out fairly regularly and as a result feel some improvements have been made. There seems to have been so much ground covered in the past twelve months and everyone that takes part in Rob's classes and Gareth's training group seem to have gone up notch, I for one feel this is so, as the guys are pushing and making things more challenging for me at every session, which can only be a good thing for all of us... I think the guys know at Tempsford and at Stevenage that we are lucky to have knowledgeable and dedicated instructors to push us forward into a stronger position for the coming year, helping us to increase our understanding of the Systema principles and how to best apply them, not just as self defence, but in our everyday lives too…

Rob has put on some great courses this year and all of us appreciate his hard work and efforts to make each session enjoyable and interesting and has also brought together lots of like minded people in the process, to train along side each other in an open and friendly way, creating an environment for sharing both experience and expertise. The Leicester group that visit are a great asset for us and add ideas through their take on Systema, which certainly adds to the experience for me, and look forward very much to meeting up with them again in 2012.

Rob has hinted that as we've moved on a bit further in our understanding and raised our achievement bar to to speak, that next year will be equally as challenging for all of us, which is what we all need, more of the same.. and that's why we keep coming back….

Next year is certainly going to be more challenging for me as I push into my 50th year and 34th in the “Martial Arts”.. even so, these times are certainly the best so far, and grateful to all my training buddies for their support and encouragement when ever we get together, some of the nicest best blokes you’d ever meet…

So here's to a great 2012 and a Happy New Year to everyone... 

Cheers and all the best.

Steve

Three for after Christmas… :)

Crunchy Star..

Figure of eight sit up..

Moving push up from a fix point..

“Merry Christmas” and a “Happy New Year” especially to the Tempsford, Stevenage and Leicester Boys...
Thanks for a great years training…

Steve