PolishSun
Member
- Joined
- May 25, 2020
- Messages
- 447
Maybe it would be better to learn to survive in wildness?
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Probably so!Maybe it would be better to learn to survive in wildness?
Systema is not suited for self-defense either. It was developed for the Soviet military, and is used mostly by trained killers. It is an offensive art, meant to kill and main people. It is also hard to learn, and teaches you to do things that will get you in trouble, like breaking spines. If you want to learn to fight, go ahead. But that is not necessary, learning to avoid conflict is far better. For the average or larger sized man, if he is in a bad neighborhood, he might learn boxing strikes. Couple of caveats though. The dancing and dodging is not that good for the streets, mostly because you should never waste time and allow them to bring in friends. Blocking is worth little without gloves. So just get strong, learn to run fast, and learn the basic punches. The basic punches should also be trained to hurt people, none of that point scoring love-tap stuff they often teach in boxing schools.Very interesting, I should've mentioned systema in the original post.
Why do you practice it, tho, if it's not valuable for self-protection?
Or are you saying that systema is superior to other methods?
It hardly takes an expert to know wing chun , tai chi and wushu do not work, or to understand the realities of actual violent confrontation. IMHO you are giving people harmful advice. I practice a martial art, Russian Systema, and I have no illusions that I could go around engaging in actual violence, nor do I expect to be in a fight in my life. I am not a kid, fights among adults are rare.
People should not practice these things for self protection, it makes them more vulnerable. There are good reasons to practice martial arts, but not self defense for regular people.
Systema is not suited for self-defense either. It was developed for the Soviet military, and is used mostly by trained killers. It is an offensive art, meant to kill and main people. It is also hard to learn, and teaches you to do things that will get you in trouble, like breaking spines. If you want to learn to fight, go ahead. But that is not necessary, learning to avoid conflict is far better. For the average or larger sized man, if he is in a bad neighborhood, he might learn boxing strikes. Couple of caveats though. The dancing and dodging is not that good for the streets, mostly because you should never waste time and allow them to bring in friends. Blocking is worth little without gloves. So just get strong, learn to run fast, and learn the basic punches. The basic punches should also be trained to hurt people, none of that point scoring love-tap stuff they often teach in boxing schools.
I learn systema for several reasons. Health, because it teaches relaxation and natural movement, magic powers (you would not believe the stuff I am starting to be able to do), grounding, feeling peaceful in conflict, and it makes me more attractive (because relaxation, learning to love everyone, and grounding).
Again, people should think about how common violence is, and how they can make it less common if it happens in their lives before learning to fight. Videos, weekend courses etc are worth nothing. To learn a single strike well enough to be useful takes tens of hours of training. Learning the eight basic boxing punches would take hundreds of hours and require some maintenance. And you still are liable to breaking your hand with them because they are not meant for unarmed combat.
Good post.Systema needs brackets around it when speaking of as it's taught differently by each instructor.
I've trained with great instructors and not so great ones over the past decade.
If progressed properly, it can be a great base of movement for "self awareness" that can be applied in potential violent situations. Again, most teachers of it aren't that good in my opinion.
The psychological component, situational awareness, how to detect and diffuse is the basis that is missed in most teachings. Tony Blauer is probably the best when it comes to this understanding and application in my opinion. He's not biasing the learner into a technique, rather an understanding first.
It helps put into context all the different ways of "defending" oneself in a violent encounter. Or better put, avoiding one altogether. Look him up. He has plenty of great stuff online for free.
For example:
Training wrestling is great, but do you wrestle someone with a knife?
Training boxing is cool, but what happens when there's 3 people attacking you at once?
The understanding comes before the application of a "technique" (i.e- boxing, wrestling.)
Going back to Systema, it's more of an open system that, if progressed properly, can integrate all the "techniques" more spontaneously since most violent encounters are not preceded by an agreed set of rules.
I highly suggest an audio series, not free, by Tony Blauer, that will probably have a higher likelihood of saving a life than any technique. Hence, avoiding, or if escalated, diffusing a situation without violence. CEREBRAL SELF-DEFENSE: The Mental Edge — Blauer Spear System (its $15.)
@Adam
Now you are strawmanning me like a mf. Yeah, you can get attacked, and you can get hit by lightning or catch covid-19. None of that is worth considering because it is not likely that it will happen, and when it does it usually is not a big deal. Except maybe the lighting. It is not worth dedicating thousands of hours to.
I am also not against learning self-defense or fighting. I think Systema, with a good teacher, can be life changing. And there is nothing wrong with any martial arts. I just dont want people to be afraid and thus waste time preparing for something that wont happen, nor do I want anyone who wants to learn fighting or self defense to waste their time on taichi (in case of fighting) or martial arts in general (in case of self defense).
You can imagine all kinds of crazy scenarios and fine, fill your mind with fear. I am not going to and I would not want anyone else to do so.
Anyway, if that thing with the chickens scared you, perhaps it is better you stay away from developing these abilities. There is some scary and weird stuff that can come up.
I cant make heads or tails from the videos. Maybe you can, if it was me I would not bother.@Hugh Johnson @Beastmode
I've been learning and practicing Systema techniques for the past few days. Unfortunately I don't have anyone to practice with...on the brightside, I'd been incorporating very similar movements into other training styles for a little while now, almost without realizing what I was doing.
Anyways. What practitioners would you recommend? The original WW2 soviet dude's lineage? Newer styles? Some modern styles look pretty controversial/overly theory-based.
Teacher beats style.@Hugh Johnson @Beastmode
I've been learning and practicing Systema techniques for the past few days. Unfortunately I don't have anyone to practice with...on the brightside, I'd been incorporating very similar movements into other training styles for a little while now, almost without realizing what I was doing.
Anyways. What practitioners would you recommend? The original WW2 soviet dude's lineage? Newer styles? Some modern styles look pretty controversial/overly theory-based.
Teacher beats style.Teacher beats style.
Depending on where you are, you might find someone who represents it to your liking.
Lineage is as important as the teacher's capacity to demonstrate and "draw out" your abilities and understanding/integration.
I've never trained with Vlad in Toronto, but I've heard only good things with him in person. Martin Wheeler in California is another one. Kwan Lee in Seattle. Tommy Floyd in West Palm Beach. Kevin Secours in Montreal.
All that I can think of at the moment that I think are worth suggesting.
If you scroll back to my earlier post, I still think Tony Blauer gives the best foundation to build any form of "self defense" as you'll have a solid construct to work from and not be so focused on any "technique."