RachelK
Purple Belt
This is a review of the Jim Kings April 17th seminar at Fighthouse in New York City. I am not sure if I recall all that we learned with great accuracy; please interpret this review as a beginners perspective, not a verbatim description of what Jim taught us. I wanted to edit it since its rather long, but I havent had time, and so rather than let another week go by before posting, here it is, and hopefully I can come back and edit it for length a little bit later (If you would prefer to download or view in IE as a Word document, here's a link http://www.new-pony.com/systema/JimKing.doc)
Jim is an engaging teacher, whether explaining the concepts in a sensible, straightforward way, or demonstrating the movements on Sonny, Alex, and other willing souls with a businesslike and seemingly effortless efficiency. The topic was Fundamental Principles of the Russian System. The four principles of the Russian systemsometimes called the four pillarsare breathing, form, relaxedness, and movement. Jim explained these four principals briefly and how they are closely inter-related. He told us that relaxedness differs from relaxation; relaxation is shapeless, blob-like, whereas relaxedness is not without structure. Stand on your bones, not your muscles, he told us later in the seminar. But he also said that relaxedness is a mental state. Fear and aggression will cause tension; like many emotional states, they have physical manifestation, and this affects your own performance, and will increase your attackers aggression as well.
Jim started us of bunny hopping around in a circle, feet together hopping in unison. He reminded us to breathe, but I found it hard to think about breathing and hopping at the same time. I was breathing as if each hop equals one breath, so after a few minutes, I was pretty winded. He asked us to hop as fast as we could go. Then he asked us to hop backwards, and finally I thought I couldnt hop another step and slowed to a walk, and luckily he told us all to stop, and asked how many were out of breath. About half of us raised our hands, and he said we were taking in too much air, raising our heart rates unnecessarily. This led to a discussion of breathing and how it relates to movement.
Inhale through the nose, exhale through the moutheven my dentist advised me to do this during a recent visit, saying that it would calm me. The nose is also a natural filtration system. For the exhale, Jim demonstrated the difference between exhaling through a rounded O mouth and a more typical slit shape to the mouth. Because the mouth is naturally shaped like a slit, correct breathing requires some mindfulness, at least, when first practicing it. Jim encouraged us to exhale audibly to help coordinate breath and movement, and to begin the breath slightly before the movement rather than simultaneous. He also told us that it didnt matter if we chose to inhale or exhale with exertion, but emphasized not taking or releasing more air that you need to.
My own theory is that inhaling through the nose serves as a natural meter to prevent taking in too much air, and exhaling through a rounded rather than slit-shaped mouth also prevents exhaling too much air, because a round mouth is a smaller egress for the air, so it leaves the lungs in a more controlled fashion. Later on I tried placing my hand on my diaphragm to feel the difference in the different kinds of inhales and exhales, and I found when the breath is well-modulated, so is the movement of my diaphragm, but when inhaling through the mouth or exhaling through a slit-shaped mouth, I can feel that my diaphragm moves suddenly and without control.
Breathing to excess is detrimental, as we found out in the next set of exercises. We did some conditioning exercises, pushups, sit-ups, and squats, breathing in and out on the up or downpress, also doing pushups down to 1 count, up to 1 count, the next down to 2, up to 2, etc., with corresponding breathing. Jim advised us that if our arms or other body parts felt as if they were wobbly and about to fail, we could visualize breathing in through that body part. This is also a helpful pain management technique, to imagine breathing in air through the injured part. We also did sit-ups and squats, breathing in and out, and then we did the 45-degree angle variations of these, holding ourselves at an angle, rather than parallel, to the floor during the pushups. Throughout, Jim asked us to breathe in specific patterns, in or out, and then, without warning, after an inhale or an exhale; hed have us do ten reps without breath. Correct breathing will sustain you for the ten breath-less reps, inhaling or exhaling too much will have the opposite effect. Its funny, because we tend to prepare for holding our breathducking underwater, for exampleby inhaling deeply, and yet, as I discovered, this actually shortens the time you can hold your breath.
While we lay on the floor, he asked us to tense, and then relax, different parts of our bodies, to see the difference between tension and relaxedness. We also did pushups holding ourselves as tense as possible. After the pushup elevated our heart rate a bit, we lay on the floor and practiced feeling our heartbeat, in the arches of our feet, the palms of our hands, as well as in the chest itself. Jim explained that tension between your head and the part where you were trying to feel the heartbeat would prevent you from detecting it. He said that you could practice sensing the heartbeat lying down, standing, or most difficult of all, sitting. I couldnt feel my heartbeat specifically in my palm or my foot, and just barely in my chest, and then only because I had a general sense of the rhythm of my heart, rather than because I felt it.
At some point, I dont remember exactly when in the course of our introductory exercises, he had us visualize breathing in through one limb, out through the other, in through one side, out through the other, etc. Then he asked us to stand and I felt completely, utterly relaxed. I was in a deep state of relaxation, aside my one experience with hypnosis, I was more deeply relaxed than I have ever been. I keep using the word deep to describe it, and by that I mean that if I had been alone in the room and in that very same relaxed state, it would have taken me a few hours to come out of it, as I probably would have just lay down on the floor, not asleep, but in that twilight area between sleep and wakefulness. I confess, I wanted to remain in that relaxed state, in no small part because I was curious about it, but we moved into other exercises.
We practiced moving across the floor by means other than our arms and legs. Inching across the floor on our butts, legs in the air, scooting from left to right. Crawling on the floor using just the shoulders, the rest of the body limp. And sort of undulating across the floor by drawing up the knees a bit and sort of lifting the midsection, then sinking down again. Its hard to describe some of these floor exercises. They must look pretty funny, but you do learn how to increase your range of motion, and to move body parts you never before thought of moving. Its another way of working with limitations, like the one-handed or one-legged exercises, or those using just the legs, or 3-attacking-1 drills. Systema teaches us that even with broken limbs or other injuries, you can defend yourself. This is also a psychological or perhaps even spiritual way of viewing our own survival, just as we do not take the lives of others without necessity, we do not yield our own lives too lightly.
I am veering off on a tangent here, because I often think the way Systema teaches us about survival. The purpose of training, although it has many other benefits, is to ensure our survival, the one goal without which all other aspirations are meaningless. Efficiency of movement, moderation in breathing, expending only what energy is necessary these can preserve your life not only in situations where you are injured, but also in the case of serious illness. Survival relates to breathing in a rather obvious way. If youve ever had bronchitis or another serious respiratory disease, you no doubt recall how painful and physically draining this small act can be. Yet breathing is often viewed as an automatic functionthe body will take care of it on its own. While its true that the body has an instinct to breathe, and to preserve itselfwe use this instinct frequently in classyet what happens when the body suffers grievous injury? Can it be relied upon to keep those automatic functions going? The bodily instinct toward self-preservation will protect us, but at a deeper, more critical level, a strong spirit will provide the ultimate protection from harm.
Getting back to the seminar, after breathing, Jim talked about posture, form, shape, or whatever you choose to call it. He had us straighten and lock our legs, then unlock them, dropping our posture only slightly, about an inch. He also talked about keeping the shoulder and the hip aligned, tucking the hips slightly so that the back does not arch. (Denis the Menace showed us how you can use a wall to check your posture; standing against the wall in correct form, you should not be able to slip your hand between your back and the wall). He spoke briefly about the flying center of gravity, before moving into the topic of walking. In a rather amusing demonstration, Jim showed us different ways that people walk, and how energy is wasted, and form broken, with each of the variations, the springy be-bop walks, the strut, the arm-swinging walk, and so forth. Maintaining a theme of practice you can do outside of class, he demonstrated that keeping form while walking down a public street need not scare away the surrounding pedestrians.
He told us to allow our bones, not our muscles, to support us, and demonstrated on Sonny how posture lessens the effect of strikes on the body. He compared the common notion a fighting stance, and how it weakens stability and mobility. In Systema, we fight in the same posture in which we walk, he explained. We practiced walking and breathing, keeping form, and inhaling or exhaling with each step, then every two steps, working up to eight counts. And we also walked backwards. Yep, we practiced both walking and breathing in Saturdays seminar. And both at the same time! But seriously, these are rich topics, and we learned a great deal from these seemingly simple exercises.
Jim then had us form groups of 4 with one person in the middle, and the other three walking into the one, who turn, evade, or otherwise change position to avoid collision. No heat-seeking missiles, he advised us. Just walk straight into the person, dont track them. This is a challenge in groups of four. In our classes, weve also done this in groups of two as well as with the entire class in a big melee. We also practiced a yielding exercise, but on one leg. Even though I am right-handed, I favor my left side for standing, rolling, etc., so Jim advised me to stand on my right leg to strengthen my balance. Sometimes I have remind myself that my goal in training is not to keep practicing the things I already feel comfortable doing. Its a slightly different way of looking at the learning process, unlike learning to play the piano, for example. Instead of practicing, acquiring some skill, and then showing it off at a recital, there is no recital towards which to aim. It is only survival, and since there are limitless ways in which our survival can be threatened, so the challenges we impose upon ourselves during training are also limitless. But like most of my classmates, Ive come to look forward to working under limitations.
Since each of the fundamental concepts is so closely related to the others, we learned about them simultaneously, rather than one by one. After watching demos and listening to Jims explanations, and trying the exercises ourselves, we spent the last hour or so sparring with our partners, working against wrist grabs and arm bars. Jim showed us how allowing the grab, and taking a few steps back, can dramatically affect the opponents balance and movement.
As sometimes happens with these kinds of drills, my partner and I were evading the grab altogether, rather than allowing contact. Sonny came over to help us. Keep the hope alive, he suggested, meaning, let the attacker think he has been successful. For this particular situation, it is better to allow the grab, than to completely avoid it. Evading altogether allows the opponent time to re-strategize and attack in some other way. Of course there are other times when escaping without contact may be best, but maintaining contact is a key principal of Systema, as the Russian System Guidebook explains, Its good to allow an attacker to grab you that way, you know where he is.
The arm bars were our last exercise, and, as when we work with chokes, our starting point was a situation in which we are seemingly trapped (not, as with the grabs, a situation that we could avoid.) Jim demonstrated how to create space to allow a little room for escape. Rotating the shoulder, collapsing the partners knee, dropping down (or changing levels), or otherwise disrupting the tense and static situation of the arm-bar so that you can transform it into a dynamic and escape-able one.
Jim told us something that really struck a chord with me: Dont worry if you dont get a particular exercise. Theres always another class. Dont be greedy for the knowledge. Have patience. Frustration is just pride at not being able to know everything at once. My tendency to be a perfectionist has been useful in my professional life; in the world of computers, everything stems from a logical structure in which there are only two states, 1/0 for the smallest bits, true/false for the logic of the most complex programs. There is no grey area. But intuition and feeling, well, theres a lot of grey area, and a lot of things that cannot be explained in words. The greatest writers in the world have come pretty close to describing human feeling, love, grief, hope, and the other emotions that affect us so deeply. But even Shakespeares most lovely sonnets cannot convey the feeling of being in love; Systema, like love, is something you just have to experience for yourself.
Later on, during a demonstration with Alex, Jim stressed that the no-contact work isnt magical or psychic, just biomechanics and a little bit of mental trickery. He also mentioned something from the guidebook that piqued my interest: the time shift. He demonstrated this on Alex, slowing down his movements so that Alex also slowed down his attack. Then it appeared to me that he moved a little faster again while Alex was still moving slowly. That is a pretty sorry description of something that cant be explained, at least, not by someone with my limited experience. Im afraid its the best I can do. Ive had the page in the Guidebook where the time shift is mentioned folded down since I first bought the book, and so I was glad to see a demonstration and a little bit of explanation. But I still am not sure how it works. Maybe it has something to do with the slight lag between perception and bodily movement. Have you ever spilled something on yourself, or stepped in a puddle, or even had a slight fender-bender in your car? Sometimes, there is a moment when your mind is aware of the problem and tries to tell your body, Stop no! You are going to have an accident! But your body just cannot respond quickly enough. I dont doubt that some high level practioners are able to unite the body and mind so the response gap is lessened, but I dont think it can ever be completely eliminated. The body has to send the request to the brain, and the brain send the appropriate instructions for action back to the body, and this round trip takes a little time, just like a computer processing requests from a user. A T1 connection will make your Web pages load so quickly, I mean, a fraction of a second, as to appear to be instantaneous, but they are not, its just too short a gap to be perceived. We measure length of time by human perception, as if we are the ultimate time-keepers, and yet these measurements are completely arbitrary.
All of the above paragraph is based on my limited experience, and I am sure that there are some misinterpretations mixed in there, so, as is oft-repeated, I encourage you to attend a seminar for yourself and watch Jim or one of his colleagues, and you will definitely get more of an understanding from that than from the few words on this page.
Jim is an engaging teacher, whether explaining the concepts in a sensible, straightforward way, or demonstrating the movements on Sonny, Alex, and other willing souls with a businesslike and seemingly effortless efficiency. The topic was Fundamental Principles of the Russian System. The four principles of the Russian systemsometimes called the four pillarsare breathing, form, relaxedness, and movement. Jim explained these four principals briefly and how they are closely inter-related. He told us that relaxedness differs from relaxation; relaxation is shapeless, blob-like, whereas relaxedness is not without structure. Stand on your bones, not your muscles, he told us later in the seminar. But he also said that relaxedness is a mental state. Fear and aggression will cause tension; like many emotional states, they have physical manifestation, and this affects your own performance, and will increase your attackers aggression as well.
Jim started us of bunny hopping around in a circle, feet together hopping in unison. He reminded us to breathe, but I found it hard to think about breathing and hopping at the same time. I was breathing as if each hop equals one breath, so after a few minutes, I was pretty winded. He asked us to hop as fast as we could go. Then he asked us to hop backwards, and finally I thought I couldnt hop another step and slowed to a walk, and luckily he told us all to stop, and asked how many were out of breath. About half of us raised our hands, and he said we were taking in too much air, raising our heart rates unnecessarily. This led to a discussion of breathing and how it relates to movement.
Inhale through the nose, exhale through the moutheven my dentist advised me to do this during a recent visit, saying that it would calm me. The nose is also a natural filtration system. For the exhale, Jim demonstrated the difference between exhaling through a rounded O mouth and a more typical slit shape to the mouth. Because the mouth is naturally shaped like a slit, correct breathing requires some mindfulness, at least, when first practicing it. Jim encouraged us to exhale audibly to help coordinate breath and movement, and to begin the breath slightly before the movement rather than simultaneous. He also told us that it didnt matter if we chose to inhale or exhale with exertion, but emphasized not taking or releasing more air that you need to.
My own theory is that inhaling through the nose serves as a natural meter to prevent taking in too much air, and exhaling through a rounded rather than slit-shaped mouth also prevents exhaling too much air, because a round mouth is a smaller egress for the air, so it leaves the lungs in a more controlled fashion. Later on I tried placing my hand on my diaphragm to feel the difference in the different kinds of inhales and exhales, and I found when the breath is well-modulated, so is the movement of my diaphragm, but when inhaling through the mouth or exhaling through a slit-shaped mouth, I can feel that my diaphragm moves suddenly and without control.
Breathing to excess is detrimental, as we found out in the next set of exercises. We did some conditioning exercises, pushups, sit-ups, and squats, breathing in and out on the up or downpress, also doing pushups down to 1 count, up to 1 count, the next down to 2, up to 2, etc., with corresponding breathing. Jim advised us that if our arms or other body parts felt as if they were wobbly and about to fail, we could visualize breathing in through that body part. This is also a helpful pain management technique, to imagine breathing in air through the injured part. We also did sit-ups and squats, breathing in and out, and then we did the 45-degree angle variations of these, holding ourselves at an angle, rather than parallel, to the floor during the pushups. Throughout, Jim asked us to breathe in specific patterns, in or out, and then, without warning, after an inhale or an exhale; hed have us do ten reps without breath. Correct breathing will sustain you for the ten breath-less reps, inhaling or exhaling too much will have the opposite effect. Its funny, because we tend to prepare for holding our breathducking underwater, for exampleby inhaling deeply, and yet, as I discovered, this actually shortens the time you can hold your breath.
While we lay on the floor, he asked us to tense, and then relax, different parts of our bodies, to see the difference between tension and relaxedness. We also did pushups holding ourselves as tense as possible. After the pushup elevated our heart rate a bit, we lay on the floor and practiced feeling our heartbeat, in the arches of our feet, the palms of our hands, as well as in the chest itself. Jim explained that tension between your head and the part where you were trying to feel the heartbeat would prevent you from detecting it. He said that you could practice sensing the heartbeat lying down, standing, or most difficult of all, sitting. I couldnt feel my heartbeat specifically in my palm or my foot, and just barely in my chest, and then only because I had a general sense of the rhythm of my heart, rather than because I felt it.
At some point, I dont remember exactly when in the course of our introductory exercises, he had us visualize breathing in through one limb, out through the other, in through one side, out through the other, etc. Then he asked us to stand and I felt completely, utterly relaxed. I was in a deep state of relaxation, aside my one experience with hypnosis, I was more deeply relaxed than I have ever been. I keep using the word deep to describe it, and by that I mean that if I had been alone in the room and in that very same relaxed state, it would have taken me a few hours to come out of it, as I probably would have just lay down on the floor, not asleep, but in that twilight area between sleep and wakefulness. I confess, I wanted to remain in that relaxed state, in no small part because I was curious about it, but we moved into other exercises.
We practiced moving across the floor by means other than our arms and legs. Inching across the floor on our butts, legs in the air, scooting from left to right. Crawling on the floor using just the shoulders, the rest of the body limp. And sort of undulating across the floor by drawing up the knees a bit and sort of lifting the midsection, then sinking down again. Its hard to describe some of these floor exercises. They must look pretty funny, but you do learn how to increase your range of motion, and to move body parts you never before thought of moving. Its another way of working with limitations, like the one-handed or one-legged exercises, or those using just the legs, or 3-attacking-1 drills. Systema teaches us that even with broken limbs or other injuries, you can defend yourself. This is also a psychological or perhaps even spiritual way of viewing our own survival, just as we do not take the lives of others without necessity, we do not yield our own lives too lightly.
I am veering off on a tangent here, because I often think the way Systema teaches us about survival. The purpose of training, although it has many other benefits, is to ensure our survival, the one goal without which all other aspirations are meaningless. Efficiency of movement, moderation in breathing, expending only what energy is necessary these can preserve your life not only in situations where you are injured, but also in the case of serious illness. Survival relates to breathing in a rather obvious way. If youve ever had bronchitis or another serious respiratory disease, you no doubt recall how painful and physically draining this small act can be. Yet breathing is often viewed as an automatic functionthe body will take care of it on its own. While its true that the body has an instinct to breathe, and to preserve itselfwe use this instinct frequently in classyet what happens when the body suffers grievous injury? Can it be relied upon to keep those automatic functions going? The bodily instinct toward self-preservation will protect us, but at a deeper, more critical level, a strong spirit will provide the ultimate protection from harm.
Getting back to the seminar, after breathing, Jim talked about posture, form, shape, or whatever you choose to call it. He had us straighten and lock our legs, then unlock them, dropping our posture only slightly, about an inch. He also talked about keeping the shoulder and the hip aligned, tucking the hips slightly so that the back does not arch. (Denis the Menace showed us how you can use a wall to check your posture; standing against the wall in correct form, you should not be able to slip your hand between your back and the wall). He spoke briefly about the flying center of gravity, before moving into the topic of walking. In a rather amusing demonstration, Jim showed us different ways that people walk, and how energy is wasted, and form broken, with each of the variations, the springy be-bop walks, the strut, the arm-swinging walk, and so forth. Maintaining a theme of practice you can do outside of class, he demonstrated that keeping form while walking down a public street need not scare away the surrounding pedestrians.
He told us to allow our bones, not our muscles, to support us, and demonstrated on Sonny how posture lessens the effect of strikes on the body. He compared the common notion a fighting stance, and how it weakens stability and mobility. In Systema, we fight in the same posture in which we walk, he explained. We practiced walking and breathing, keeping form, and inhaling or exhaling with each step, then every two steps, working up to eight counts. And we also walked backwards. Yep, we practiced both walking and breathing in Saturdays seminar. And both at the same time! But seriously, these are rich topics, and we learned a great deal from these seemingly simple exercises.
Jim then had us form groups of 4 with one person in the middle, and the other three walking into the one, who turn, evade, or otherwise change position to avoid collision. No heat-seeking missiles, he advised us. Just walk straight into the person, dont track them. This is a challenge in groups of four. In our classes, weve also done this in groups of two as well as with the entire class in a big melee. We also practiced a yielding exercise, but on one leg. Even though I am right-handed, I favor my left side for standing, rolling, etc., so Jim advised me to stand on my right leg to strengthen my balance. Sometimes I have remind myself that my goal in training is not to keep practicing the things I already feel comfortable doing. Its a slightly different way of looking at the learning process, unlike learning to play the piano, for example. Instead of practicing, acquiring some skill, and then showing it off at a recital, there is no recital towards which to aim. It is only survival, and since there are limitless ways in which our survival can be threatened, so the challenges we impose upon ourselves during training are also limitless. But like most of my classmates, Ive come to look forward to working under limitations.
Since each of the fundamental concepts is so closely related to the others, we learned about them simultaneously, rather than one by one. After watching demos and listening to Jims explanations, and trying the exercises ourselves, we spent the last hour or so sparring with our partners, working against wrist grabs and arm bars. Jim showed us how allowing the grab, and taking a few steps back, can dramatically affect the opponents balance and movement.
As sometimes happens with these kinds of drills, my partner and I were evading the grab altogether, rather than allowing contact. Sonny came over to help us. Keep the hope alive, he suggested, meaning, let the attacker think he has been successful. For this particular situation, it is better to allow the grab, than to completely avoid it. Evading altogether allows the opponent time to re-strategize and attack in some other way. Of course there are other times when escaping without contact may be best, but maintaining contact is a key principal of Systema, as the Russian System Guidebook explains, Its good to allow an attacker to grab you that way, you know where he is.
The arm bars were our last exercise, and, as when we work with chokes, our starting point was a situation in which we are seemingly trapped (not, as with the grabs, a situation that we could avoid.) Jim demonstrated how to create space to allow a little room for escape. Rotating the shoulder, collapsing the partners knee, dropping down (or changing levels), or otherwise disrupting the tense and static situation of the arm-bar so that you can transform it into a dynamic and escape-able one.
Jim told us something that really struck a chord with me: Dont worry if you dont get a particular exercise. Theres always another class. Dont be greedy for the knowledge. Have patience. Frustration is just pride at not being able to know everything at once. My tendency to be a perfectionist has been useful in my professional life; in the world of computers, everything stems from a logical structure in which there are only two states, 1/0 for the smallest bits, true/false for the logic of the most complex programs. There is no grey area. But intuition and feeling, well, theres a lot of grey area, and a lot of things that cannot be explained in words. The greatest writers in the world have come pretty close to describing human feeling, love, grief, hope, and the other emotions that affect us so deeply. But even Shakespeares most lovely sonnets cannot convey the feeling of being in love; Systema, like love, is something you just have to experience for yourself.
Later on, during a demonstration with Alex, Jim stressed that the no-contact work isnt magical or psychic, just biomechanics and a little bit of mental trickery. He also mentioned something from the guidebook that piqued my interest: the time shift. He demonstrated this on Alex, slowing down his movements so that Alex also slowed down his attack. Then it appeared to me that he moved a little faster again while Alex was still moving slowly. That is a pretty sorry description of something that cant be explained, at least, not by someone with my limited experience. Im afraid its the best I can do. Ive had the page in the Guidebook where the time shift is mentioned folded down since I first bought the book, and so I was glad to see a demonstration and a little bit of explanation. But I still am not sure how it works. Maybe it has something to do with the slight lag between perception and bodily movement. Have you ever spilled something on yourself, or stepped in a puddle, or even had a slight fender-bender in your car? Sometimes, there is a moment when your mind is aware of the problem and tries to tell your body, Stop no! You are going to have an accident! But your body just cannot respond quickly enough. I dont doubt that some high level practioners are able to unite the body and mind so the response gap is lessened, but I dont think it can ever be completely eliminated. The body has to send the request to the brain, and the brain send the appropriate instructions for action back to the body, and this round trip takes a little time, just like a computer processing requests from a user. A T1 connection will make your Web pages load so quickly, I mean, a fraction of a second, as to appear to be instantaneous, but they are not, its just too short a gap to be perceived. We measure length of time by human perception, as if we are the ultimate time-keepers, and yet these measurements are completely arbitrary.
All of the above paragraph is based on my limited experience, and I am sure that there are some misinterpretations mixed in there, so, as is oft-repeated, I encourage you to attend a seminar for yourself and watch Jim or one of his colleagues, and you will definitely get more of an understanding from that than from the few words on this page.
