is a moderately not well known, but becoming better known Russian system of combat and combat training. In the video above you can see an example of the soft and fluid types of motion that typify Systema.

I personally have done some training in this Russian martial art, when I was living in Brisbane. I attended maybe 10 lessons. Notable subjects in some of these lessons was disarming and fighting with an armed enemy, both knives and guns, and one lesson we spent most of an hour punching each other in the solar plexus. There is a big element of overcoming fear of being hurt in combat. We were learning how to minimise it as well as use the opportunity to attack back before they could start a new attack.

Systema was almost lost when the Bolsheviks imposed communism, but it was saved by being chosen as standart training for unconventional soldiers, called Spetznaz.

Systema is sometimes described as being like Aikido with combat pants... It extensively uses techniques involving controlling levers and balance, as well as exploiting reflexes as part of attacks, sometimes you don't have to even touch someone and you can make them prone to a follow up attack.

There is many videos available that you can find, and schools have been springing up in more places (I am planning to attend classes once I return to Serbia, there is a fairly large group training and teaching it in Belgrade.)

The unique feature of Systema training is it is not structured. Each lesson we would set up scenarios and initial attacks, and then slowly at first but then faster, improvise a response possibly based on what the teacher demonstrates. I have described it as "unlearning", because mostly you just do something, and part of is wrong, and you forget how to do that.

In Chinese internal martial arts, which share a lot in common with Systema, there is a principle that the formless and flexible always prevails over the solid and rigid, water through the riverbed past the rocks... Systema also, like chinese internal martial arts, places great importance on breathing.

Something I remember from the classes was the principle that from intense physical effort you can quickly deplete your blood oxygen and lose muscle strength.

I am looking forward to finally getting back to training in Systema, and I hope you enjoyed learning about it.

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We can't stop here! This is Whale country!

_{Loki was born in Australia, now is wandering Amsterdam again after 9 months in Sofia, Bulgaria. IT generalist, physics theorist, futurist and cyber-agorist.}

_{Loki's life mission is to establish a secure, distributed layer atop the internet, and enable space migration, preferably while living in a beautiful mountain house somewhere with a good woman, and lots of farm animals and gardens, where he can also go hunting and camping.}

<sub>"I'm a thoughtocaster, a conundrummer in a band called Life Puzzler. I've flipped more lids than a monkey in a soup kitchen, of the mind."
- Xavier, Renegade Angel</sub>

_{All images in the above post are either original from me, or taken from Google Image Search, filtered for the right of reuse and modification, and either hotlinked directly, or altered by me}