I should have done this a long time ago! After an absence of more than two years I finally listened to my inner urgings and to Jocelyn’s gentle prods (she knows I’m happiest when I do martial arts) and went to class tonight. After an hour and forty five minutes worth of training I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to return.
The class started as usual with gentle jogging (while focusing on breathing in a relaxed manner) followed by some rolls, duck walks and other mobility drills. This was followed by some of the Systema core exercises such as push-ups, abdominal work and squats. All of these are seen as breathing exercises rather than strength work.
Our instructor Vadim Dobrin followed this with one of his favorite drills; lying down and getting up again as efficiently as possible. This one exercise if done for long enough can be a thorough workout all by itself.
The rest of the class was based on some basic Systema movement drills. The idea was to receive an attack and then evade it with as little drama and movement as possible. One of the key concepts covered was the idea that minimal and natural movement often neutralizes a conflict whereas big and aggressive movements tend to increase conflict.
I thoroughly enjoyed the class and from now on I’ll be blogging my experiences with the System regularly. That’s all for now.
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment