Everyone is more or less at risk of experiencing violence during their life. This is especially true for minorities, and as leftists in today’s political climate. The risk of violence will undoubtedly increase as political climates change, so we must be ready to defend ourselves, our comrades, our family and friends, and our communities.
I practise Krav Maga (I know) and have a limited background in wrestling, Karate, and Judo. It would be great to hear everyone’s thoughts on strategies and tactics for self-defence so we can help each other become more prepared to face violent situations.
If there’s enough interest in the topic I think it would be a good idea to start a community for self-defence.
I have shared some articles for beginners in there, I will try to find for some videos, too. Systema is about applying biomechanics and using as little strength as possible in order to defeat your rival in the shortest time possible. The advantage of it is that if you know any other martial art you can simply drop the aesthetics of it and transform it into the more distilled form of Systema.
That’s interesting I will definitely look into it! How does that philosophy deal with potentially applying to little force in trying to conserve energy in fighting? In Krav we are seemingly the opposite, to overwhelm our opponents with violence. Of course it would be great to be economical in the use of force but I wouldn’t want to risk losing because I held back. Is there a higher level understanding to this?
Well, it’s not like you will not use all of your strength in a fight trying to conserve energy (although you could do this is you are certainly clear you can bear your opponent using very little, this is situational), but that for example, if you are throwing a punch you could also hit with your elbow. You would be using all of the same energy that require you to hit with your fist but you are taking advantage of the already carried out movement to create two hits, alternatively, when you bring back the arm to your body, you could hit again with your elbow, and so on, and so on. This is an example, the combinations and possibilities are endless. Another key factor to take into account is that in Systema you apply as much force transfer as you can, that’s why you will see videos of people practicing it doing some weird move, you do not only hit with you fist, but with the weight of you forearm, you elbow, your should, your bust. A good example of this is the following.
Raise your arm as if you were to hit downwards, but place it like this:
O/
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Now do the same but place your arm like this:
O|
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The dot is only so that the head aligns with the body. With this simple adjust, you are now using gravity’s acceleration in your favour and you will hit harder even if you’d use the same amount of strength. Practice this with a partner and hit them on their shoulder, you should not try to break them but to feel the difference in both hits. For this to work, also, you should not keep you arm stiff while the trajectory is ongoing, but rather you should be flexible and soft until your fist reaches the objective, otherwise you will not be taking advantage of gravity since you will make the effort of moving your arm, instead of “letting it fall”.
Ah ok I see, makes sense. I find that cool because it’s kind of like trying to find the perfect course of action. Very interesting.
Basically, I am sure Krav Magga has a lot of similar things when you compare it to older martial arts.