What a Dark Room Revealed About More Than Forty Years of Training About a week ago, I finished up teaching the last class of the day — the teen and adult class — and began my end-of-day routine. Tidy up the training floor Push in the chairs Fix up the lobby Pick up any trash Read More …
Most martial arts training will make you more dangerous without making you less afraid. You’ll learn new ways to hurt people. You’ll develop physical confidence in controlled environments. But the underlying fear — the fear of being hurt, of being overwhelmed, of losing control — often goes completely untouched. The result is what you sometimes Read More …
Here’s a paradox that runs through a lot of martial arts training: You’re there because you’re afraid of being overpowered by someone else. So you find a martial arts class. And then you train in a system where nobody touches anyone. The fear that brought you there — the fear of contact, of being physically Read More …
Why Learning to Fall Is One of the Most Important Skills You’ll Ever Develop Of all the physical fears people carry into martial arts training, fear of falling is one of the most universal — and one of the most worth addressing. It makes sense. Falling feels like losing control. The ground comes up fast. Read More …
Why Perfectionism Is the Enemy of Self-Defense (and What Systema Does Instead) If you need to know the right answer before you act, Systema will challenge you. That’s not a warning. It’s an invitation. Most martial arts give you a menu of techniques. You learn technique A for situation A, technique B for situation B. Read More …
Fear of embarrassment is one of the most powerful forces keeping capable adults out of the martial arts. Nobody wants to look incompetent. Nobody wants to be the worst person in the room. And walking into a room of experienced martial artists as a complete beginner takes real courage. But here’s something worth sitting with: Read More …
Yes, Systema has roots in Russian Special Operations. That history is real, and it’s part of why Systema works so well. But it has almost nothing to do with what actually happens in a Systema class. Systema Colorado in Longmont is not a paramilitary training compound. Nobody marches around in camouflage. There’s no machismo culture, Read More …
Is Systema Fake? Is It Too Brutal? (Spoiler: Both Criticisms Can’t Be True at the Same Time) Two of the most common reactions people have when they first see Systema on video are completely opposite — and they can’t both be right. Reaction one: “That looks fake. Nobody would actually fall down like that.” Reaction Read More …
(In Fact, Waiting Is the Worst Thing You Can Do) Here’s something most martial arts schools won’t tell you: waiting until you’re “in shape” before you start training is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. At Systema Colorado in Longmont, we hear it all the time. “I want to get fit first, then Read More …
If you’ve trained in a traditional martial art, you know what progress looks like. It’s visible. It’s around your waist. Each new belt is a marker — proof that something was learned, tested, and validated. The system tells you where you are. Systema has none of that. No belts. No ranks. No stripes, no certificates Read More …
