I just wanted to share my impressions on Saturday seminar Systema & Aikido, that was organised by Sam Benson and Scot Allbright. First of all, thank you both of you for this opportunity to have a glance at both Systema and Aikido. I have never had any experience with Aikido before and I must say I was impressed to see it in life action. The seminar started at 11 am and was organised in 4 blocks of 900 mins each. Scott started with warm-up and immediately one could see a difference in approaches. The Aikido is formal and we were lined up in four lines and rows and had to follow the Scotts commands. Then the different exercises started. First, high and low blocks, then we moved to work with knives. The aikido guys are using soft knives for training and this allows them to work at full speed without injuring each other. There are pros and cons to this approach, but working at full speed does help. All the exercises are very technical and one should replicate them precisely to make them work. I noticed that any deviation from a technique would cause an error and thus will make it unworkable. It goes both to an attacker and a defender. The exercises and techniques progressed and I was getting used to them as well. The techniques are not too complicated and once learned could be applied in a very effective way. I also noticed that Aikido uses more tension and sharp movements, things that we usually avoid in Systema. The second block was led by Sam and it started with usual from (on you knuckles, please) ground exercises - a person on the ground being pushed by another one tries to roll out of pressure. By doing this we developed sensitivity and adopted our bodies to work within limitations caused by being on the ground. Then on the knees, then standing up, then work against the knives (the hard ones) with pre-emptive strikes to the pressure points as well as continues attack. The knife work started against the wall where one would stab another one with the knife at almost full speed and the defender would need to move his body away from the pressure. Next drill was not to allow to stab at all by striking first and then with continues attack against the attacker. The next Aikido block was dedicated to sticks. Again very interesting and technical drills. I liked especially the one when an attacker would hit me baseball way with a stick and I would have to get close and use the momentum to put him down applying my hands on the stick and rotating it in a certain way changing directions. It was very similar to what we do in Systema. There were other drills where I would have to use my strength in order to finish the attacker, so lots of sweating.. =) Again it was required to do the drills very precise in order for them to work - to stop the movement in a certain point and start applying pressure or push. In Systema if youd made an error for whatever reasons one would simply continue the movement until the comfort is gain again. But still it was very interesting to see those techniques as they are very effective once became reflexes. The last block was again Systema. It was Systemas turn to work with sticks. Again from the ground.. limitations.. pressure and escapes from the pressure by observing the direction of pressure and rolling out of it by being relaxed and loose. On the knees and then standing up.. Pushes and hits with sticks, working on balance and continues movement of the whole body to put an attacker down. It was usual for Systema guys but I believe it was very interesting for those attendees who practise Aikido. To summarise, I liked the seminar very much and went very smooth and the way it was structure help a lot to see, even though at glance, the differences and similarities between two systems. The formal way of Aikido remind me classical music with its organisation, discipline and application of various strict patterns limited by seven notes. Whereas Systema is more jazz for me where one can improvise in any way, stay relaxed as he likes but still there are the same limitation of seven notes. And by seven notes here and there I mean the limitations of our bodies, range of movement, flexibility and speed. Both ways are applicable and the secret in improving the skills lies in studying deeply those seven notes. How you are going to apply this knowledge is up to you. Thank you Sam and Scott, once again, for the seminar and thank you everybody who attended it. Great work!
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 13:21:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015