Okay, so first I should make clear that there are different schools of Systema, and every one of them can be taught in different ways, from what my teacher told me, there are some schools who keep some degree of spirituality and mysticism and others who rely specifically on science to understand the bio mechanics of the body and such (obviously the way the practical part of Systema changes, but I wanted to clarify on that because I think it is the most relevant part here).
My teacher learned Systema through various other teachers from Russia who came to Argentina every now and then, he is also a master in Karate, Jiu Jitsu, Kappap, and a lot of other martial arts, I should ask him what school he follows but I think it’s Kadochnikov’s. Thing is the way we learn it is based on bio mechanics and cinematic. I did Wing Chun for about a year, so I have a little understanding on how it works, I also practiced a bit of Tae Kwon Do when I was little.
In Wing Chun, you’d go and you’d practice stances, punches, kicks, drills repeated a thousand times. In Systema you won’t be practicing a single fucking stance in your life, you learn concepts. For example, you learn about the pivot, how a pivot works, then you’d do a couple of exercises when a pivot is included, what does the pivot cause on the other person, how you can change the center of gravity of your opponent through this pivot or how to gain an advantage thanks to it. You of course practice punches, kicks, and do some drills, but we never repeat endlessly like most martial arts do, we never try to memorize a specific deffense or attack, what we do is learn how some concept works and try to apply it to different situations.This is why practicing a year of Systema makes you a more or less good fighter (depending on how much you practice, and also if you exercise your muscles, not only practicing the theoretical part), whereas with most martial arts you will need at least 5 years to be a valid opponent.
This was an example, though, Systema can materialize in a lot of different ways, but I think it more or less helps to understand how it is different than other martial arts, we never practice it as a sport or for competition, there are no competition in Systema, every practice has in its interest the most efficient elimination of a target, that’s why we include things like kicks to the groin (obviously not a real kick, but the simulation) within our practices, thing which is prohibited in competitions.
Sorry for taking so long to reply.
Okay, so first I should make clear that there are different schools of Systema, and every one of them can be taught in different ways, from what my teacher told me, there are some schools who keep some degree of spirituality and mysticism and others who rely specifically on science to understand the bio mechanics of the body and such (obviously the way the practical part of Systema changes, but I wanted to clarify on that because I think it is the most relevant part here).
My teacher learned Systema through various other teachers from Russia who came to Argentina every now and then, he is also a master in Karate, Jiu Jitsu, Kappap, and a lot of other martial arts, I should ask him what school he follows but I think it’s Kadochnikov’s. Thing is the way we learn it is based on bio mechanics and cinematic. I did Wing Chun for about a year, so I have a little understanding on how it works, I also practiced a bit of Tae Kwon Do when I was little.
In Wing Chun, you’d go and you’d practice stances, punches, kicks, drills repeated a thousand times. In Systema you won’t be practicing a single fucking stance in your life, you learn concepts. For example, you learn about the pivot, how a pivot works, then you’d do a couple of exercises when a pivot is included, what does the pivot cause on the other person, how you can change the center of gravity of your opponent through this pivot or how to gain an advantage thanks to it. You of course practice punches, kicks, and do some drills, but we never repeat endlessly like most martial arts do, we never try to memorize a specific deffense or attack, what we do is learn how some concept works and try to apply it to different situations.This is why practicing a year of Systema makes you a more or less good fighter (depending on how much you practice, and also if you exercise your muscles, not only practicing the theoretical part), whereas with most martial arts you will need at least 5 years to be a valid opponent.
This was an example, though, Systema can materialize in a lot of different ways, but I think it more or less helps to understand how it is different than other martial arts, we never practice it as a sport or for competition, there are no competition in Systema, every practice has in its interest the most efficient elimination of a target, that’s why we include things like kicks to the groin (obviously not a real kick, but the simulation) within our practices, thing which is prohibited in competitions.
Now I’m sorry for taking so long to reply. I meant to say thanks for writing this informative post. (I’m terrible at replying, as you can see.)