REAL Martial Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
This excellent article was written by Martin
Wheeler. Martin is a Systema teacher
based in LA. I have trained with him in
Santa Fe and have the highest respect for him.
This article describes why Systema is what it is. It answers teh questions I often see on
youtube from people who believe a martial art is only a real martial art if it
is in UFC or challenged by MMA fighters.
Read and see why Systema is what it is and not something else.
Over the recent years I have read with interest on the
internet back and forth as to the validity of training in Systema by observers
who have only viewed experts in the art on YouTube or video. Usually a
comparison is made to the most visual of fighting arts, mixed martial arts or
MMA. The same types of questions are posted over and over again, “Why do they
train slowly? Why does this look way too easy? Why did that guy fall over and
seem unable to get back up?”
And I have read with equal interest the various ways in
which the art is defended by practitioners of Systema. Not that they are not
valid questions, they definitely are, it is just I rarely hear these same
questions from anyone in seminars, classes, or in sparring sessions, no matter
what their background or what speed they work at.
Just for the sake of balance, I began in the martial arts
at a tender age and have studied in many full contact environments from boxing
systems to grappling systems, to clever weapons based and ‘street-fighting’
arts, and have enjoyed sparring, fighting and training for the last thirty
years with anyone who’s paths I have crossed from beginners to world-class full
contact fighters. I was a bouncer for ten years and I am currently contracted
to share my views on close-quarter-combatives with professionals from elite
security services around the world, as-well-as MMA fighters, Systema
practitioners, traditional martial artists and civilians.
So why, if I have studied all these other full contact
systems with relative success, would I choose Systema?
For me that is easy to answer. It’s because I have tried
it. I am just one of many who brought whatever I had in my little bag of tricks
to test Vladimir Vasiliev, or heaven forbid, Mikhail Ryabko, when I first met
them. And I have yet to see anyone who did not come out the other end of the
experience the same as I did, that is to say, confused, in pain but with a
profound insight into the fact that something fundamental had changed.
To put it mildly, there is a lot more going on with
Systema than meets the eye. And if there were not, if you could really just see
what was happening by watching it on YouTube, then it would not be very good
Systema.
Mixed martial arts are dramatic, fast and superbly
visual. The best method for two pugilistic grapplers to go at it since the
gladiators of old Rome. You can see what is happening and the results are self
evident. It hosts some of the best conditioned and most versatile athletes in
the world.
I love to watch it, I love to train in it and always
enjoy working with anyone from that world. And in my opinion, anyone who trains
in MMA who is even half decent, man or woman, is to be taken very seriously.
So I hear you ask: Well, if Systema is so good why isn’t
it in the UFC? And I think that is an excellent question.
But I might ask: Well, if the UFC was any good why don’t
they throw a knife in the cage?
As unrealistic as that is, maybe you get my point? The
dynamic of a fight would change immediately if a knife were indeed tossed into
the cage. You would see two highly trained fighters having to immediately adapt
to a completely new set of rules or die almost instantaneously.
I think anyone would agree that eating jabs from a
skilled fighter, possibly the least lethal of MMA striking attacks, sucks, but
by comparison is quite pleasant compared to a single knife wound.
When I first trained with Vladimir he stopped me in the
middle of a sparring session and said in his own inimitable way, ‘Martin, I
know men that you would take to pieces in the ring’. Of course, stupidly
beaming with pride I thought he was complimenting me, until he turned away to
attend another student and added flatly… ‘But they would kill you.’
And there’s the rub. Almost every visible strategy,
philosophy and motion that is great in an MMA sport environment is useful in
the street and even on the battlefield. But only useful. Whereas everything in
Systema is purposely designed for both of the later environments, is not
visual, and has been proven as effective in those arenas as MMA has in the
cage. Systema’s structure is intentionally designed to appear structureless,
and the speed of the action although registering as slow to the eye is actually
a highly developed relational timing, deceptive due to the Systema practitioner
remaining calm.
Recently I was invited to introduce the concept of
Systema to an overseas Special Operations Unit. While there, I was shown a
video of various instructors that had been invited to train their operators and
show what they had to offer. Among them was a top MMA coach from Pride. I asked
what they thought of his training. ‘Excellent’ the Colonel said ‘but for us,
virtually useless.’
This is in no way disparaging to the Pride coach, he was
obviously excellent. But the fact remains, what is good in one arena is not
necessarily good for another. Systema is not designed primarily for a sport
environment or a sport mentality anymore than MMA is primarily designed for a
battlefield environment or a combat mentality.
One could train for twenty years in Jujitsu, for example,
and be an amazing grappler. But if you were to introduce just one more opponent
into the fight you would not be doing Jujitsu anymore. It is simply not
designed for fighting two opponents efficiently at the same time, even on the
ground. It is primarily structured to fight one opponent at a time.
I am not saying the Jujitsu fighter would not prevail, I
am merely suggesting that if he had to fight two or more possibly armed
opponents at the same time on a daily basis then his training might soon start
to look, at least from the outside, like Systema. And then armed with that
knowledge, the way he worked against a single opponent again would also
dramatically change. After ten years or so it would look as alien to another
Jujitsu practitioner observing it from the outside as Systema does now after
centuries of refinement.
Systema, as a martial art, in the form it exists now is
primarily designed for real life application, it works for unpredictable
situations (such as multiple opponents, various weapons, uneven terrains, poor
lighting, confined space, etc.) for professionals in the military, law enforcement
and security, for someone who’s got to fight while injured or wounded or has to
protect a woman or child, for someone who is older or in a poor physical
condition. Training and fighting in Systema is designed to avoid injuries, and
even heal your old ones. And that requires a very different bag of tricks, look
and feel to a sport fighting art.
Although, as Vladimir once remarked with that casual
profound quietness ‘Systema just happens to be a martial art’. And to have any
understanding of that gem, one cannot merely observe it from the outside…
Martin Wheeler, Systema Senior Instructor, U.S.A. Martin
is teaching regular Systema classes at The Los Angeles School of Russian
Martial Art. He has trained in the martial arts for over thirty years ranging
from Boxing, Grappling, Weapons fighting, Kenpo Karate and for over 10 years in
Systema. He is contracted to teach SWAT teams and Special Operations Units and
is also produced Hollywood screenwriter.
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