Theme for this cycle: Movement and Flow
Area of Focus: Breathing
Class Objective(s):
1. Non-stop movement – no resets while working
2. Breathing must be constant and in sync with movement
3. You’ll understand “breathing your attacker in”
4. You’ll have a better understanding of “staying connected with” your attacker
5. Flow is important and it’s one of the major differences between Systema and everything else
Breathing Exercises – straight out of WarriorFit
1. Clock push-ups
2. Side lunges
3. Tabletops
Joint Mobility Exercises:
1. Figure-8s – arms and shoulders
2. For our legs – we’re going to lay on our backs and count with our legs
Work Specific Strengthening Exercises:
1. Combination push-ups/sit-ups/leg-lifts
1. Do a push-up
2. from the up position
3. roll forward by dropping an arm to the mat
4. from the flat position – sit up
5. sit back to flat – leg lift to backwards roll
6. to flat stomach position
7. push-up and repeat
Drills:
1. Brad taught (took over right after warm-ups) so these are my class notes, rather than the plan (was EXCELLENT work) 2. 1 on 1
1. one partner tries to step on the other’s feet – hands and shoulders are relaxed and hanging
1. maintain good form – don’t look at the feet – see where the person is moving based on the alignment of their body
2. squat – this gives excellent leg mobility and extends the reach of the feet
1. I found slightly higher than a Charlie Chaplin walk seemed to be just about right for me
3. Don’t get happy feet – dancing around – pivot on your heel, the ball of your foot, lift from the hip, etc – don’t drive tension into the leg – that will cause bad things to happen when the attacker catches your foot
2. same thing as 1, only now the person attacking gets to attack the leg with the hands, along with the feet (they can push on the hip, the calf, lift it up, etc)
1. when the attacker drops low, you drop as well
2. when the attacker puts a hand on the leg to grab – pivot on the leg – this allows for kicking, arm breaks, etc
3. as the attacker, I found it really cool to work on using my feet (stepping on them) to set up their legs for my hands – excellent work on both sides of the drill
3. Same as 2, but now the defender can put a hand on the attacker when the drop to bring their hands into action
1. your hands should be right about waist height anyway
2. you aren’t pushing so much as guiding them in the same direction they’re already moving, while extending it a little (this is devastatingly effective)
4. Same as 3, but instead of using your hands, use your body weight to influence them to go away/down
5. We finished up with the same type of work, but the attacker was snatching the leg (from either the inside or the outside with the intention of picking it up).
1. If they snatched on the outside, as they grab the leg and move across to the outside keep them spinning in that direction (at the very least, they will spin and lose their balance)
2. if the snatched on the inside, press down on the shoulder (same shoulder as the hand doing the snatch) and direct it down and out (a little) — crumble time.
3. During all of this work, including the demos and explanations our feet had to keep moving
Self Defense Applications:
1.
Review:
1. The theme for this cycle is Movement and Flow and tonight we covered
1. constantly moving while using our attackers body to identify how they’re attacking and we did this in a nice progression from very simple and general to much more specific and effective
2. constant movement with breathing as a means to get in sync with our attacker