Systema reflections

By James Dexter

 

 

Some years ago, when I began Systema lessons with Aran I wrote a short piece on my thoughts about the Russian martial arts. I had come from a very varied martial background. Over the twenty five years prior to training in Systema, the majority of the arts I trained in were predominantly striking based arts and as a Combat Francais Savate instructor and in my youth a competing Thai and kick Boxer, Systema came as a bit of a shock to me. Now nearly six years on I would like to share my feelings and insights into what I have learned and what the Russian martial arts have shown me.

 

I know many people have written of the benefits and effectiveness of Systema as a system of self defence, so I am not going to explore that side too much in this report. In regards to how I see Systema in it's relationship to me, the one over riding factor I have found is the art is extremely personal. Over time it seems almost to fit itself around you, not only while training in the class but into your everyday life. This might seem quite strange but the concepts of relaxation, breathing and attempting to be calm which Aran shares I try to carry with me during everyday life.

 

This becomes very evident when realizing the benefits I’ve found to my health within the Systema. The prior years of hard contact training and ring battles left me with several physical problems which as the years progressed manifested themselves into back problems. Some of the martial arts I trained in after retiring from combat sports that are reputed to be relaxed seemed to only aggravate my problems. Yet within a systema class the high emphasis on posture, movement with breathing and relaxation started to bring my back into a much more comfortable state. This along with the slow exercises which are a part of the core training elements of the art, saw my back discomforts start to fade away. Then came other deeper relaxation exercises which again really helped me.

 

Aran once told me that you get to a point in your training where you need to take a “ leap of faith". Whether spiritually or physically this I viewed as an extremely personal approach to an art. It came to me that spiritually the art opened my eyes in many different ways and having an art which enforced and embraced my personal views was great. It showed me that strength can be found in many different places and that the physical side of both training and life can in many ways be almost a side show to what is really important, that strength and courage is sometimes quietly spoken and not always roared at the top of your voice.

 

Physically, Systema needed me to put a trust in myself that the actions I took were the correct ones. The multitude of drills make you look at survival from some very different angles. The art is so multi layered that trying to describe it for me is quite difficult. In layman’s terms it works, it’s not flashy in fact completely the opposite, it’s understated or subtle in its execution yet quite complex in its simplicity, not everyone seems to understand it, but the more you practice, the more the concepts and theories take shape and being able to adapt to different situations really shows the versatility of the training. The training drills, exercises and self defence work are very beneficial, sometimes in ways you don’t immediately notice and there never seems a point within a session that you stop applying yourself in some way. You could be striking or receiving hits, working on takedowns or practicing falls and rolling, or concentrating on combat strategy, it’s never ending.

 

The use of the environment figures heavily within my training with Aran, whether this is the use of unlikely objects such as chairs etc. We do train a lot with what I like to call ‘Environmental Understanding’ - this takes your training to new and interesting realms. It could be the middle of a wooded area where unrelated things such as footing and terrain can play a major role in your response to any number of given situations, not simply in combat but also in survival based situations. From there Aran will take us to an urban area where a whole new list of variables need to be taken into account, when all this is added to understanding fight psychology, lowering of blood pressure, breathing and disruption and the multitude of other practices we work at, it’s easy to see just how deep and complex this art can be.

 

In the past some martial arts I trained in and then taught required me very much to emulate my instructor without a lot of thought- just a perfection of technique. Systema looks more to the individual and in training you can almost see the personality, emotions and to a large degree fears come out and leave you- so again I believe it’s quite personal.

 

Feeling your own tension and the reading of tension in others really makes you view people and situations differently. Some time ago I met up with an old friend a very respected Master in the Filipino martial arts and as we chatted and reminisced of the old days as students together I couldn’t help but be aware of the tension that seemed now to cause him problems through out his neck and shoulders’ I was reminded again of the Systema lessons and being taught about how the body can sometimes retain tension within the muscles and subconsciously the body is almost living on it’s nerves.

 

During training you can almost visibly see this type of tension dissolve from yourself as the lesson progresses, so by the time it ends you feel more relaxed than when you began and the improvement in both your posture and attitude can only be said to be enhanced, this relaxed state not only makes you feel better physically but gives you clarity of mind which is useful in any circumstance or working environment.

 

Where do I see myself in another six or seven years time? Hopefully doing very much what I am doing now. I have tried to give an idea of just some of the ways the training has helped me and I am sure it is personal to every practitioner. It has been quite difficult to put into words without going too deep but all I really want to say is that Systema will help you make connections with yourself you never knew you had, and will help you to look deep inside yourself to bring out the best of you, and sometimes expose the worst of you. It helps you identify tension but ultimately it makes you realize that you are capable of many things.

 

When I decided to share about my experiences with this training on paper, Aran asked that I don’t write too much about him but more on the art itself, but I can’t finish without expressing my thanks to an inspiring human being, and someone I’m privileged to call a friend. Sorry Aran I had to put a little bit in.