Welcome to the Ringling Systema Study Group!
For those of you who have studied a bit of the System in the past, I look forward to laughing through some good, honest suffering together. For those of you new to Systema, here’s some basic information that should help you get started.
Systema just means the System in Russian (but they wouldn’t write it in those letters). Vladimir Vasiliev brought this gift to North America that he learned from Mikhail Ryabko in the former Soviet Union. It is a collection of primarily four principles used to guide one’s navigation of the world and conflict:
- Breathing
- Posture/Structure
- Movement
- Relaxation
Over time you will discover that none of these is easy, but they are all simple if you let them be. There are no real techniques in the System. We will learn some ways of moving that one might call techniques, but they are more practices in learning to see opportunities that you might not have seen before.
In the System, we tend to train VERY slowly compared to other styles. In fact, whenever one has doubt about what’s happening, we slow down. This allows us to explore the movement in order to understand the principles of movement more deeply.
This is a study group. That means that we don’t have an instructor. I’ve studied for a number of years and have enough experience to help us on our way, but another aspect of the System is that there are no belts. Everyone learns together. I’ve worked with n00bs and senior instructors in the same drills and learned from both.
Each of us will move differently and develop differing styles. This is part of discovering how your body works. We will sweat and do some exercises that you will learn to love to suffer through.
There are links to the right. Check those out over time. Also, those of you who would like to study more, there are a number of small study groups in Sarasota, as well as a school where my friend Marc Bresee is the instructor within a bike ride of campus.
Now, I’ll leave with you a brief introduction via a video with two of Vladimir Vasiliev’s students. Note the fluidity of the movement.
Filed under: SocialNiceties
