October 26, 2007 NYC seminar with Mikhail Ryabko and Vladimir Vasiliev

October 26, 2007 NYC seminar with Mikhail Ryabko and Vladimir Vasiliev

Friday was our 3-hour seminar with Mikhail. Vlad, Valerie, Martin, Valdis, and Frank A. were also on-hand to help out. I missed the first few minutes, because I was behind the front desk, doing registration. Even with four of us behind the counter, we could not get everyone registered fast enough. I had to bail out so I didn't miss too much of the training, but I did miss the introductory remarks.

We started with some crowd work: walk through the middle of the room, and since we were standing in a circle, it gets pretty dense towards the center. We did the same with eyes closed. It is interesting to observe a crowd of reasonably relaxed people stiffen up and start fighting with each other to get through the crowd and to the other side. Many of these same people walk through crowded places like Grand Central Terminal every day without lashing out at the people nearby, but being in Systema class lends a different flavor, much as we may try to be everyday people, we often end up in fighting mode.

On the same theme, we lay on the floor and crawled through the middle of the room on our backs, and then again on our stomachs. We were doing the "Systema crawl" where you propel yourself along with a wave-like movement, without using your arms. Of course this gets difficult as your reach the center of the room and everyone is massed together. I stayed clear of the melee, because I wanted to be careful not to hit my head. I was still recovering from my concussion. I did it only a few times. Later on Saturday, Vlad commended me for doing this even with my head injury. It did make me more scared than I would have been ordinarily, though I wasn't having any dizziness or other symptoms, except the fear of getting brain-damaged by taking another blow to the same place on my head (my physician had warned me strictly that a third concussion to that same place would result in permanent damage. But they tend to scare the repeat customers.)

We did the same thing with eyes closed, and then partnered variations on this exercise: leading your partner, whose eyes are closed, through the crowd. Then giving just verbal direction, no touch, to a partner whose eyes are closed. Then to two and three people, all with eyes closed, first walking, then crawling, navigating solely on verbal direction from the 'leader.' I realized how difficult it was for me not to be the leader. As leader, I felt reasonably successful in getting my partners across the room. With someone else leading, I had trouble trusting their leadership.

Mikhail said that training is like life and that these are scenarios from war and emergencies. He asked us for comments on how we felt about the exercises. I raised my hand and shared my own experience: When I had to be led by someone, I did not trust him. He told me to crawl straight but I sensed some empty space to my right. I went off on my own, got separated from my partners, and never made it across. They all did. I announced that in a real emergency, I would have died. As typical when you admit you screwed up, everyone laughed and laughed. Vlad in particular gave me a delighted look. I am always honest about my training but never imagined that my failure would be met with such amusement and delight from Vlad and Mikhail.

In groups of 3 two people just stand a few feet apart, one of the two closes the eyes and the third person (the leader) gives directions to the person whos eyes are closed. The goal of the leader to tell the person whose eyes are closed how to throw the other person. The person being thrown does not do anything (does not help, does not resist). The catch was that the person giving the directions had to give them all at once, "Take two steps forward, put your left foot here..." then the person carrying out the instructions had proceed forward and do the throw exactly as described. So it was also a memory exercise, because the person giving directions wasn't allowed to 'coach' you once you started to move. It wasn't just about throwing the other person, but doing it exactly the way it was described by your partner, that was the hard part.

We did knife work after the crowd work – one person draws, the other has to stop him. This was an awareness exercise, not a disarm drill. To stop the draw, you have to look at the whole person; the shoulder, the face, expression in the eyes. If you can push the shoulder back before the draw, that will prevent it. Mikhail demonstrated with his amazing skills; his slight-of-hand is better than any magician's. He easily outfoxed his opponents and drew the knife on them before they had time to react, and seemed to take much enjoyment in outwitting them.

We did the same thing in groups of three: the one in the middle draws and the two on either end stop him. I was quite good at drawing and evading my two partners. I tricked them in all sorts of ways, going down, moving the non-drawing arm, faking them out, using Vlad's trick of scratching my head. They commended me on how well I was doing; by the time they tried to stop me, I already had the knife at their throat or kidney. "Yes, I'm a sneaky little b*tch, aren't I?" I said. Maybe I was a little too pleased with myself. I generally would not use that kind of language. But in some scenarios, like knife work, being a b*tch is not always a bad thing.

But it took my two partners only a few tries to get the hang of being just as elusive as I was. I don't know why I took to it right away. Though I may have some skill with drawing the knife, I wouldn't say I'm especially fluent at using it. The knife I carry for self-protection, a small folder, would always be my last resort. But I've gotten better at the knife disarms. We did some of those, as well, though the emphasis was on preventing the draw. Mikhail insisted that we respect the knife and back away when our partners drew and threatened us with it. He also said, "Don't be a hero, it's always better to run away from a knife." This was a good point; too often the training knives make us complacent. Martin Wheeler once told our class he'd run from a schoolgirl with a rusty pocket knife.

We did a little free work: draw, attack, and your partner has to disarm. I worked with several guys who were surprised at my skill. Most were pleasantly surprised. I guess they do not train with too many Systema women.

Mikhail does not give extensive step-by-step directions; he gives the general idea, the theme of the exericise, demonstrates a few times, and leaves us to figure it out. Martin Wheeler went around the room assisting with the personalized instruction.

We practiced keeping the blade flat while our partners rotated it around our arm and hand. This is tough – keeping it away from the inside of the wrist where the vital arteries are; always keeping the blade flat against the outside of the hand or the outer arm. I was working with Martin. "Is this really hard, or am I just dismal at it?" I asked. Martin told me it was hard but when I watched him do it, he made it look easy. Don't they always?

Next we did similar work against the body – holding our own knives pressed to the body and partner trying to twist or rotate them to cut, while we had to keep the blade parallel and flat. This was a good deal easier than doing it just on the arm and hand. Later on, one of my classmates told me he looked over at me doing this exercise and though I looked great; he actually described my movement as 'lovely.' It was so kind of him to notice and to make a point to tell me!

We did some cutting work on the ground, one partner presses the knife into the other, who lies flat, and then he has to escape and disarm. No thinking, just move. The guy I was working with was extraordinarily open. He didn't know much Systema but he had a good sound base to be an excellent practitioner. It's 90% attitude and his was very open and positive. I showed him a few tricks and tactics I've picked up with knife disarms from Edgar – just simple stuff like one-handed disarming, turning the knife back onto the attacker, and using the momentum of the thrust to initiate the disarms. He liked it a lot and would have been happy to learn more tactics, but we went back to the knife-pressed exercise.

Next, a little free work on the ground, one partner attacks the other, who disarms. I was partnered with a woman from my class who's learning Systema very well. She's small and light and once she realized that she had to use her entire body weight, she picked up the groundwork very well. I told her to make sure to turn her body to get out of the way of the incoming blade. I only had to tell her once; she will never forget that. I guess it's sexist, but I find female beginners so much easier to teach than male beginners. They listen well, you don't have to repeat stuff, they are patient and don't expect to get it right away, but when they do get it, you can be sure they will never forget. This woman has only been training a few months and already has more self-defense skills than the average man she may encounter.

Mikhail was in excellent spirits, often joking with us. He was much more talkative and witty than the first time I trained with him at Fighthouse. He seemed to be having a ball teaching us, and I sensed genuine enjoyment of teaching. He said that the seasoned gentleman of a certain age were the most tense, which I usually find to be true. It seems that sex has replaced the "buttering toast" analogy for Systema. He made a ribald joke about not being tense when you lay in bed with your wife – except one part!

I had a great time on Friday night; it was a true joy to be there with our esteemed master, and several of his top students, as well as many like-minded people. I was sorry when the seminar ended, and my only consolation was that we'd do it again the next day, and for a bit longer.

Thanks to everyone who attended, to Peggy and Edgar for putting together a great event on such short notice, and most of all to Mikhail and Vlad for sharing their immense knowledge with us. Spasibo!