Thursday, June 12, 2014

Gross Misconceptions

When I first started studying Systema (Ryabko style) back in 2007, I had a giant misunderstanding of what I was seeing. I'd watch a master put an attacker on the floor seemingly without effort, and two things jumped out at me:

  1. The encounter ended with the master standing and the attacker on the ground, usually caught in something horrible (typically an armbar or neck crank)
  2. The master moved very smooth and relaxed.
 My brain saw those two things and created a rule that was simple, elegant, and completely wrong:

"If you stay relaxed and move fluidly, you can do whatever you want to your opponent".

 ...which went a long way towards explaining why for several years, my Systema never worked on anyone who wasn't in my Systema class.

This horrible bullshit "rule" took up space in my head for a long time. Like most terrible ideas, it persisted long after it should have, and it took many years of getting choked, ankle locked, swept off my feet, punched, kicked, and generally manhandled by martial artists outside the main Systema community for me to replace it with more correct* rules.

* More correct. Not absolutely, authoritatively, mathematically provably correct. But better than the lie they replace.

RULE # 0: IF YOUR SYSTEMA ONLY WORKS ON OTHER SYSTEMA PLAYERS, THEN IT IS WORTHLESS.



Pressure test often. Find schools around you with open mat policies and an absence of meatheads. Play with your friends. Play with wrestlers. Play with passionate but inexperienced n00bs. Play with BJJ guys. Judokus. Boxers. Guys with black belts in Korean Day Care. Find what works and what doesn't. Come back to this step often as your refine your techniques.



RULE # 1: YOU CAN'T DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO YOUR OPPONENT, NO MATTER HOW GOOD YOU ARE.  YOU CAN ONLY DO WHAT MAKES SENSE. 'GOOD' MARTIAL ARTISTS ARE THE ONES WHO KNOW WHAT MAKES SENSE.
Staying calm and relaxed just helps you see opportunities better. Calm and fluid movement also can allow you to get your body into a better position without drawing your opponent's attention to it. Most Systema drills are a blend of these two. The "what makes sense" part is usually called biomechanics, and deals with which forces his body is strong in fighting against, and which he can't resist well. (i.e. 'His weight is mostly off his front leg - it's  ripe for sweeping' or 'His weight is fully forward and overcommited; continue and push him into the floor')

The "how to accomplish it" part is usually not given a name - you are just told to relax and breath. The name it deserves is "misdirection", because that's what it is, but that name makes it sound like a parlour trick, so no one calls it that. (for instance: you can pull and arm by grabbing a wrist, but this alerts your opponent and allows him to resist that pull with full force. If you catch his wrist in the crook of your elbow, you can often pull him off balance before he knows what you are doing - he's not used to being "grabbed" by anything except hands).

So staying relaxed and fluid allows you to do whatever trickery you are up to for a little longer before your opponent can figure out how to resist it. Sneaky.



RULE #2: IF SOMETHING ISN'T WORKING WITHIN THE FIRST 2 SECONDS, TRY SOMETHING ELSE. DO NOT CHASE A TECHNIQUE.

You know that feeling you get when you try your favorite armbar on a 300-lb gorilla and he just grins and flexes as it fails to work? Your hands are already on him; just because Plan A didn't work doesn't mean you disengage and go back to the beginning. Fluidity helps you turn it into a hammerlock. Or kick out one of his legs as he's concentrating on his upper body.

Afterwards, be sure to play it off like that's what you intended from the start.

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