Systema Sweden: Göteborg Dynamo Russian Martial Art Club

On Breathing: An Interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin, Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:54:00 +0000

This is the third part of the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin on the subject of breathing and breath-training. In the first part of the interview, Dr Zinatulin explained the ways our breathing can affect our health in general, while in the second part, he described a series of simple tests we can use in order to assess how well we are breathing. In this installment he discusses matters related to breath training as treatment to diseases, the ways that our diet can affect our breathing and offers his opinion on some breath-training methods used in psychotherapy and sports.

Dr Sergey Zinatulin teaching the use of the Frolov Respiratory Training Device
to members of the Russian army special forces

Dr Zinatulin, in cancer related research, it is often claimed that hypoxic cells are more aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Do you believe that breath training can affect the oxygenation of cells and thus be relevant in cancer treatment?

When we talk about cancer treatment, we are usually referring to special methods such as surgery, chemotherapy, etc. However, we should remember that the success of cancer treatment depends not only on the treatment done, but also on the overall state of the patient’s health. Further rehabilitation of the patient is very important, since surgery does not equal recovery. While a lot is said about the importance of a proper diet on the overall health, almost nothing is mentioned on the role of breathing exercises in treatment and rehabilitation of cancer patients.

Breathing exercises are a valuable tool for the successful rehabilitation of oncological patients, as part of a health-improving physical training program. Experience from oncological patients treatment shows that they need rehabilitation even after successful surgery. These people are in a state of stress, their physiological reserves are reduced, and their immunity is weakened. Properly chosen breathing exercises, combined with the oncologists’ recommendations, help restore the nervous and immune systems to their normal state and provide for effective prevention of recurrence.

My personal experience in working with cancer patients is not extensive, but my observations are the same as those of the specialists in the field. For example, Johnny Suskevitch, consultant of the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, has taught breathing exercises to most of his patients since 1999 and about half of them suffer from cancer. Japanese professor Muraki Hirosama who studied different breathing methods says: “…few people know that great results can be achieved just by breathing properly. The most impressive effect of correct stomach-breathing is an increased ability of the body to heal itself. Many diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, liver and stomach conditions are treated better if the patient combines treatment with breathing exercises. Moreover, medications intake decreases greatly”. Finally, my colleague doctor S. N. Paschenko reports good results on using the Buteyko method in women with breast cancer: special treatment led to increased three-year survival rate, better quality of life, including reduced fear of unfavorable outcomes of the treatment, increased work capacity, easier social adaptation and relief of edema in upper extremities.

How about the relationship of nutrition with breathing? For example, we know there are foods that can trigger allergic reactions and also some other, dairy products for example, that increase the production of mucus. What would an ‘optimum breathing diet’ be like? What should we avoid?

This topic seems to be of great interest to many people, because quality of nutrition is considered to be the main factor for health and longevity. But it is almost impossible to give specific universal nutrition guidelines, due to the fact that breathing exercises are performed by different people, with different needs, living under different conditions and circumstances, from children to seniors, from sedentary patients to professional athletes.

Various foods have different pH indexes and thus can indirectly influence the activity of the breathing center, the pH balance in blood and tissues, lung ventilation and breathing processes in tissues. K.P. Buteyko has pointed out some factors that can cause overbreathing, and those are: overeating of high-protein foods (fish, eggs, pork, fatty cheese, black caviar, or lots of vegetable protein) and consuming strong tea, coffee, cacao, chocolate and alcohol in large quantities. Also according to Buteyko, vegetarianism and intermittent fasting make your breathing lighter.

My experience shows that when people perform respiratory training consistently, they need less food. On the whole, there is only one basic one recommendation on nutrition I can give to people who practice respiratory training: keep your diet diverse and consume everything in moderate quantities - avoid overeating and avoid eating the same foods all the time. Deep-fried and smoked foods, sweets and sugar, white flour products, alcohol and coffee should be kept to a minimum. It is also important to switch to a vegetarian diet from time to time and occasionally do short periods of fasting with fruit juices or just water. Finally, keep a log of what you eat to determine which foods are best for you.

In cases of respiratory diseases, such as asthma, is seems quite obvious that breath training can offer great benefits. But, what if the patient is at a very young age? I know that the main focus of your practice is treatment and health improvement in children, so in your expert opinion, how easily can we teach breathing exercises to a five year old, for example? Do you have any specific suggestions for such cases?

Indeed, respiratory exercises are mandatory in cases of lung diseases (asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, after pneumonia or lung surgery) and just as important in cases of children suffering from lung diseases. It is fairly easy to teach breath-training to school children, because they understand those exercises better, but I have also worked with pre-school children of age 3 to 5. In such cases, I have found that the most effective approach is to introduce the simplest exercise – slow diaphragmatic breathing through the nose – in the form of play. It is most important for a child to breathe with the diaphragm. You can also teach a child to exhale slowly by having her make bubbles with a straw in a glass of water. It is more complicated to teach a child how to use a respiratory training device, such as the Frolov device, but these basic exercises we mentioned can be quite effective. It is also important to teach a child to breathe only through the nose during the whole day.

Let’s talk a little about the connection between breathing and our psychological state: we know that psychological stress can alter our breathing patterns. How does this happen? Can it work the other way around, and by this I mean, can we alter our breathing patterns to minimize the effects of psychological stress on our body?

Breathing, brain function and the nervous system are closely connected. Psychiatrists, psychotherapists and physiologists know that all emotions (happiness and sorrow, anxiety and depression, fear and calmness, strain and relaxation) have a direct and immediate influence on the breathing function. To simplify things, think of it this way: when we are crying or laughing, the rhythm of our breathing is offset, we are ‘missing a beat’. It is mainly stress that throws the system that regulates breathing off balance and in turn deregulates the function of organs (heart, intestine, etc.) and systems (endocrine, immune). In this sense, it is of great importance that we perform respiratory training regularly, so that we can prevent possible ‘breakdowns’. After periods of great stress, I suggest daily breath-training sessions combined with relaxation for 7-10 days in order for one to recover mentally and physically.

There are some methods of self-exploration and therapy (for example, Stanislav Grof’s Holotropic Breathing), advocating the use of hyperventilation in order to achieve non-ordinary states of consciousness for the purpose of self-exploration. Such methods claim to be successful in treating psychological problems, but what do you think about possible side-effects in the physical health? Are there cases where consciously practicing hyperventilation can actually be good for us?

It’s true that the experience from using Grof’s method shows how deeply and strongly one can influence the mind through breathing. I personally view this and other similar techniques as ways of affecting consciousness by way of breathing, but not as breath-training, and that is why such methods should only be performed under the supervision of a specialist, as opposed to respiratory training, which we can practice without supervision. A Holotropic Breathing session can take up to 2 or 3 hours depending on the level of participants. A much less extreme alternative that I suggest, in order to effectively relieve stress or anxiety, is to lie on your back, inhale slowly for about 10 seconds, exhale in a relaxed manner for 10-15 seconds, and repeat for 5-10 minutes.

How about practicing breath holding? I believe there is a specific practice in a Russian martial art system where practitioners hold their breath while performing physical exercise (for example, push-ups) in order to gradually induce a feeling similar to that of panic and then recover by breathing fast and sharply. Is it possible to build ‘mental toughness’ through breathing practices such as this one? How about the effects such practices might have on our health?

Yuri Bulanov, doctor of sports medicine, who has been working a lot with strength training and bodybuilding, has developed his own patented system of breathing training, which is based on breath holding. He calls it hypoxic breathing training, since when you are holding your breath, the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood is increased and the oxygen saturation is decreased. Bulanov thinks that breath holding in a calm state has a strong effect on the body, but he adds that it should be practiced with great caution.

Breath holding is an extreme type of training that places significant stress on the body. It can be used as a method of physical training for different sports, but it is extensively used in free diving. If you are interested in that, you can find detailed descriptions of specific methods in the book «Breatheology» by Stig Avall Severinsen, a four time World Champion freediver. Nevertheless, it is my opinion that the experience of both sports medicine and martial arts tells us that it’s more important to be aware of your breathing and learn how to control it during physical activity, rather than to be able to hold it for long periods of time.

This third part concludes the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey ZinatulinFor more information on Dr Zinatulin's work and the Frolov Respiratory Training Device, please visit:
www.intellectbreathing.com
www.vitaltkoncept.se

On Breathing, Part 2: Find out how well you are breathing

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:02:00 +0000

This is the second part of the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin on the subject of breathing and breath-training. In the first part of the interview, Dr Zinatulin explained the ways our breathing can affect our health in general. In this installment he describes a series of simple tests we can use in order to assess how well we are breathing and provide a reference point to determine the effectiveness of our breath training.

Dr Sergey Zinatulin teaching his 'ABCs of breathing' program

to the students of a school in Novosibirsk, Russia.

Dr Zinatulin, is there a simple way or a test we can easily perform to find out how well we are breathing?

We can assess our breathing at home by using a number of simple tests. Your readers can go ahead and try any of the following tests or all of them.

First we can determine our type of breathing, which can be thoracic, mixed or diaphragmatic. Sit comfortably, preferably with you back and neck supported, and note what happens to your torso when breathing in. In thoracic breathing, the chest goes upwards and ribs expand, during the inhalation. In mixed breathing, both the chest and the frontal abdominal expand while breathing in. In abdominal, or diaphragmatic, breathing, the frontal abdominal wall comes forward and the stomach swells, still the chest does not expand during the inhalation. As we mentioned earlier, when in a calm state, only diaphragmatic breathing is recommended. In healthy persons, diaphragm expansion during the inhalation act is 6-8 cm, while in physically trained people it can be up to 10 cm.

The second assessment test you can perform is to determine the frequency of your breathing. Count the number of breathing cycles you perform in a minute in a state of rest. One breathing cycle consists of one inhalation and one exhalation. If you count 15 breathing motions and one inhalation, this would be 15.5 motions per minute. According to the Buteyko Table of Health zones, a healthy person should be performing somewhere around 8 breathing cycles per minute.

Another thing you can check is your breathing rhythm. Healthy people usually have a very rhythmical breathing in a calm state, but each with their own special characteristics. All you have to do is pay attention to your breathing, and follow the peaks and valleys of each cycle from inhalation to exhalation, paying attention to the points at which one phase changes into the other. Also note whether or not you make pauses during the two phases and if yes, before which part of breathing cycle.

These three parameters (type, frequency and rhythm) are what we could call ‘external characteristics’ of breathing, they give us a basic idea about its external, visible aspects. But breathing, just like an iceberg, has an invisible and actually more important part – it is the part of breathing that is happening inside the body, in our cells. This determines the quality of our breathing and state of our health.

There are three tests that are commonly used to evaluate the quality of our breathing. The first one is known as the Control Pause test, in which you measure the amount of time you can comfortably hold your breath after a calm exhalation. This is a rather sensitive test: you shut your nostrils with your fingers after you calmly exhale and then you hold until you feel the very first signs of air shortage. You should not hold your breath until you feel discomfort! At the end of the test you should be able to resume your breathing exactly like before, without taking a deep breath – if you do, it means that you held your breath longer than the test requires, so the measurement you will get will be inaccurate. Do not be surprised if your control pause is very short. Even athletes rarely do better than 30-40 seconds. According to KP Buteiko, the control pause for healthy adults is somewhere around 60 seconds. If a person has CP of 60 seconds, this person is considered to have a normal CO2 content.

The second test is known as Stange’s Test or breath-holding at the stage of a calm inhalation. Breathe in and out normally, then take another inhalation at about 80% of your maximum capacity and then hold your breath. Once again, do not hold your breath until you feel extreme discomfort. A good result for this test, indicating good health, would be 75±5,5 seconds for men, and 54±5,2 seconds for women.

The third test you can perform is Hench’s Test, or breath-holding at the stage of a calm exhalation. This is similar to the Control Pause test, but the difference is that, after a calm exhalation, you want to hold your breath for as long as you can, without of course going to extreme levels of discomfort. In general, a good result for this test would be 46,0±3,3 seconds for men, and 32±4,0 seconds for women.

These tests show how tolerant our body is to hypercapnia (high level of CO2) and hypoxia (low level of O2). If a person suffers from disease, these parameters decrease. On the other side, through regular breath-training, these parameters can increase by 10-20 seconds, and that is why I believe that breathing exercises are essential to maintain excellent health.

In the third part of this interview Dr Zinatulin will address the effect of breathing on brain performance and the immune function of our body and he will also discuss the possible benefits of breath training in cases of serious diseases, such as cancer.

For more information on Dr Zinatulin's work and the Frolov Respiration Training Device, please visit:
www.intellectbreathing.com
www.vitaltkoncept.se

On Breathing: an Interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:18:00 +0000

Today, I am really happy to post the first part of my interview with Dr Sergey Nakifovich Zinatulin, on the subjects of breathing and breath-training. Now, judging from the variety of breathing-related suggestions, aphorisms, truisms, and 'facts' that I have heard over the past 25 years that I have been into martial arts, my conclusion is that, although the importance of breathing is almost universally accepted in circles of martial artists, its function is barely understood. In this sense, I thought Dr Zinatulin might be able to offer valuable insight, so it was about two months ago that I announced that this interview would happen and asked the readers of this blog to send me the questions they would like to ask the doctor. I have to admit though that what I originally conceived as an interview, ended up being closer to a small scientific textbook. I hope the contents are as insightful to you as they have been to me. A great big thanks to my friends who contributed their questions for this interview!

Dr Zinatulin, could you please introduce yourself to the readers of this blog, and could you provide some information about your background?

I was born in 1959. In 1982 I graduated from medical University of Arkhangelsk, Russia with a major in therapy and specialization in psychiatry, neurology and narcology. I worked in this field for about 4 years, and then in 1987-1988 I took courses in the Buteyko Breathing Technique under Konstantin Buteyko himself.

From 1997 on, I have been studying and researching the use of different breathing training devices, respiratory kinesiotherapy, and developed various methods of respiratory training both with and without special devices. My main focus is treatment and health improvement in children: I’ve been worked in a clinic for children, created a special program to teach the Buteyko method to children and have overseen its application in kindergartens and primary schools. I have authored several books on respiratory training and I have lectured extensively on the subject.For the results of my work in the field of healthcare and clinical rehabilitation, I was awarded the A.P. Chizhevsky gold medal “For Professionalism and Business Reputation” by the Russian Academy of Medical and Technical Science.

I’m currently working as the head of the scientific department of the Russian company Dinamika; I am offering consultations to patients from all over the world on the use of the Frolov device. From February 2012 I also started giving classes of my program for children “ABC of Breathing” in one of the best schools in Novosibirsk.

Who or what was it that prompted you to devote your life and career to the study and research of breath training, respiratory therapy of various diseases, and the use of breathing devices?

During the period I was studying under Konstantin Buteyko, I became convinced of the health benefits that we can reap from breath-training - I completely restored my nose breathing and managed to cure myself of my stomach ulcers, gastritis and cholecystitis. My personal experience and numerous successful cases of other Buteyko practitioners lead me to the decision to further develop these ideas scientifically and in practice. Down the road, I got to understand that learning the Buteyko method can be quite difficult, and that is why I became interested in breath-training devices that help learn correct breathing in a much simpler way.

From 1987 until today I have witnessed many cases of patients that recovered ‘miraculously’ thanks to the benefits of breath-training, with help from our specialized knowledge, after putting in a lot of effort themselves, of course.

Everybody seems to know (or claims to know) that “Breathing is Living”. Would you like to explain in the simplest way possible why this is true, and perhaps provide an analogy so that we better understand the role breathing plays in our body?

I have developed a special program where children from the age of 5 years old get to learn about the benefits of controlled breathing. I use a very simple test to help them understand how important breathing is and you can try it too with your children: put some food and a glass of water on a table. Have them sit by the table, then hold their breath and wait to see what is the first thing they desire; air, water of food? It is air, of course!

Medical research shows us that a human being is a single whole. It is a proven fact that breathing is part and parcel of blood circulation, metabolism, energy exchange, acid-alkaline balance, and water-salt metabolism. The interconnection of breathing with sleep, memory, emotional tone, ability to work, physiological and adaptive capacity, etc. is also widely known. Between all those, we exist due to the energy of breathing. At my lectures and workshops, I often call breathing “an invisible thread of life” - if it is cut, we die.

Each and every one of us breathes, but is there a correct or an incorrect way to breathe? How could we define ‘correct breathing’ and what are its benefits?

The first rule of correct breathing entails nasal breathing (both during inhalation and exhalation) at rest and during light physical activity. When we are speaking, singing, or we are engaged in a moderate physical activity, we should inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.

Second rule: diaphragmatic breathing is the only normal type of breathing in a state of rest. During rest or light physical activity (quiet walking, slow race, speaking, singing), we must learn to breathe diaphragmatically, expanding the stomach during the inhalation. During intense physical activity, if necessary, diaphragmatic breathing can be augmented through work performed by the auxiliary respiratory muscles (intercostals and thoracic). Once intense physical activity is completed we should once again return to diaphragmatic breathing.

Correct breathing improves lung ventilation and prevents hyperventilation. It has a positive effect on the circulation of blood and lymph, our metabolism, the function of intestinal organs and our nervous system.

How does our breathing become disturbed in the first place? How do we ‘learn’ to breathe wrong?

Generally, the brain respiratory center controls the whole process of breathing. The neurons of the respiratory center receive information about the composition of inhaled air (temperature, humidity and various impurities), gaseous composition of air mixture in the alveoli of the lungs, gaseous composition of the blood, the lungs ventilation parameters (inspiratory and expiratory volume, respiration rate and frequency), pulmonic tissue stretching, ventilation apparatus performance, and respiratory muscles tension. The respiratory center receives this information non-stop; it analyzes, processes, and compares it with data on body temperature, metabolism, acid-alkaline balance, pulse and blood pressure indexes, etc. Therefore our breathing reacts to pretty much all the processes happening inside our body and in the environment. K.P. Buteyko, for example, pointed out that overeating (especially too much protein), allergens, hypodynamia, sleeping on one’s back, stress, smoking, and alcohol consumption have a bad influence on our breathing.
I personally think that the main reason of disturbed breathing in people today is the lack of a “breathing culture”. Now that I am working with school children I see proof of it all the time: children at the age of 7-8 know about food supplements and vitamins, but know nothing about controlled breathing and correct posture. Gay Hendriks has made a similar observation in his book, Conscious Breathing; he writes that he has rarely seen newborns who couldn’t breathe using their diaphragm, but among 6-graders it was almost impossible to find one who could.

If we fail to understand the way to breathe properly, all other factors lead to dysfunctional breathing, chronic hyperventilation and other disorders. And this, in turn, leads to development of different diseases (lung, heart, vessels, metabolism, and nervous system pathologies).

How about oxygen and carbon dioxide? Could you explain how each one affects the acid-alkaline balance in our body in the process of breathing, and subsequently how does each of them affect our health?

Through the process of breathing, oxygen is brought to the lungs, where it gets absorbed into the bloodstream and then delivered to all the body’s tissues for the important energy-creating function of metabolism. The part of the breathing process that takes place on the cellular level is the oxidation of food molecules that releases energy and has carbon dioxide and water molecules as by-products. In our cells, breathing and nutrition come together in metabolism, which is a constant process of substances and energy exchange.
Regarding oxygen, our body uses approximately 600 liters per day, in a calm state. About 90% of that oxygen is used in the cells for oxidation of nutrients, to provide energy for the various functions of the organism. The thing is that part of this oxygen creates active forms of oxygen with high oxidation activity. These are known as free radicals. These are are very active chemical substances that circulate in the body and are ready to react with other molecules of vital importance to the living cell. If oxidation stress develops in the body, it may be the cause for a number of serious diseases, including heart disease, cancer, cataract, atherosclerosis, and many others. The contradiction here is that a certain amount of free radicals is actually necessary – for example, our immune cells use free radicals to kill bacteria. In this sense, it is important to maintain balance between the role of oxygen as oxidant of nutrients, required to produce utilizable energy, and the damaging role of oxygen as oxidant of DNA molecules and cell membranes. Interestingly, this balance can be maintained with the help of carbon dioxide that is a universal inhibitor of active oxygen forms generation in cells: it noticeably slows down the reactions where active oxygen forms are generated. Thus, it protects our cells from destruction.

Carbon dioxide develops in our cells as a result of chemical reactions. For a long time it was assumed that it is a waste product of cellular respiration and must be removed from the body. That is why it was considered important to breathe a lot and deeply to get more of the “good” oxygen and remove more of the “bad” carbon dioxide. Nowadays, after long-term research, it has been established how significant the biological role of carbon dioxide is. It is now common knowledge that carbon dioxide plays an active part in the regulation of breath, blood circulation, metabolism, acid-base balance, electrolytic balance, permeability of cell membranes, nerve cells excitability, bronchial motor tone, and the tone of blood vessels, digestive organs, and urinary tracts. Through specific breath-training practices we can ‘harness’ the healing properties of carbon dioxide and use them to prevent a great number of diseases or assist in their treatment.

In the second part of this interview, Dr Zinatulin will present a number of simple tests we can use to assess how well we are breathing.

Wrestling made easy

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:10:00 +0000

The purpose of this blog post is to provide a short report of the Dynamo Wrestling [1] Concepts four-month course. I will try to analyze the concepts and principles which were explored during the course, describe the training methods that were used, and share our conclusions.

DYNAMO WRESTLING CONCEPTS – WHAT?
Dynamo Wrestling Concepts is the teaching and training methodology we use at the Göteborg Dynamo Club to provide students that have no wrestling background with a good understanding of wrestling concepts and principles and a firm grasp of basic technical skills (throws & takedowns) and tactical options (arm-drag, duck-under, slide-by etc) within a relatively short amount of time. The basic idea behind this program is to teach wrestling skills mostly through open drills and games, with as little technical instruction as possible.

The Dynamo Wrestling Concepts course was held for the first time during the period September-December 2011.

DYNAMO WRESTLING CONCEPTS – WHY?
A question you might come up at this point is “why bother teaching wrestling to the students of a Russian Martial Art Club?” The reasons are actually numerous – let try to explain a few:
First and foremost, we commonly describe our work at the Dynamo as ‘one human body – one set of movement skills – endless possibilities of application’. It is of the utmost importance for practitioners to understand that the same set of power generation movements that they learned during the entry level training at the Dynamo, and then applied during a three-month fist fighting course, was applicable with practically no modifications at all in the wrestling course.

Another reason we consider wrestling important: it is an excellent teaching tool for understanding the mechanics and experiencing the kinesthetic sensation of an ‘ideal throw’. In my experience, about 90% of the throwing techniques I have learned in various martial arts over the years follow the same set of biomechanical guidelines and when executed correctly, give the thrower the same - very specific - ‘feeling’. In modern Russian Martial Art, throws are often performed and demonstrated through small joint manipulations or with minimal contact, so the subtle technical nuances can become very complex. Practitioners often become overwhelmed by complexity so they never actually get to ‘sort out’ what makes a throwing technique successful. Wrestling provides the simplest possible context in which the guidelines of throwing techniques can be implemented with very direct actions that make the application of forces obvious and easy to understand. Once the student has acquired the feeling of a good throw through simple means, it is natural to progress to more sophisticated applications. The opposite (progressing from the complex to the simple) makes for a very bad educational approach.

Wrestling provides with some of the most typical applications of what in judo is known as ‘the push-pull principle’, i.e. changing direction of attack when the opponent resists in one direction. This principle is tremendously important for any type of martial art practice because, in combination with rhythmic and continuous movement for power generation, it provides a way to understand and experience the sometimes mystical and hard-to-grasp concept of ‘flow’. Thus, wrestling promotes flow – simple as that.

Finally, wrestling drills are an excellent way to develop muscular strength and aerobic/anaerobic conditioning.

Charles and Henrik demonstrating wrestling flow/soft work. Neither of them has any wrestling experience besides approximately sixty hours of training in the Dynamo Wrestling Concepts

DYNAMO WRESTLING CONCEPTS – HOW?
In the process of first explaining the contextual logic behind every wrestling technique before proceeding to develop specific skills (explaining the ‘why’ before the ‘how’), here are the steps we followed:

We described the main task of the activity of wrestling in the simplest way possible, i.e. ‘to bring the opponent off his feet and depending on the context (sport wrestling or restraint and control tactics), either on his back or on his face.
We described the task of ‘throwing an opponent down’ in terms of simple physics: we explained the concepts of center of mass and base of support and how an object topples over if the projection of its center of mass falls outside the base of support.
We explained how, by placing the opponent’s weight on one of his legs, his movement and power generation become restricted, plus a number of options for throws present themselves: we can either apply force in three directions to move his body so that his center of mass moves outside his base of support, or we can attack his supporting leg (either with our hands or our legs) to remove support from underneath him. This way the main task of wrestling is reduced to a much simpler one – to apply force on the body of the opponent so that his weight is supported by one leg only. This task definition is nothing else than what the founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano, was referring to as ‘kuzushi’ or ‘unbalancing’, but in my experience, students understand what they must do much better when asked to “bring their opponent’s weight over one leg”, than when asked to ‘unbalance the opponent’.
After defining our task in the simplest terms possible, we proceeded in discovering the means to achieve it – our question was: “how and where do we apply force on the opponent’s body in order to bring his weight over one leg?” At this point the main wrestling grips were introduced: the elbow-collar tie-up, the underhook and the biceps tie-up. Although the grips were specifically demonstrated, a ‘game’ could have been used instead where students are asked to push and pull their partners around the mat, so that the most effective ways to grip and apply force would eventually present themselves. I decided that, at this point, ‘re-inventing the wheel’ could have been constructive, but not time-efficient. The drill we used instead asked of the students to combine the power generation movements they learned during their entry-level training with the force application points dictated by the basic wrestling grips to move their partners forwards and backwards, left and right, or in a spinning movement. The conclusion reached was that it is relatively easy to bring the opponent’s weight over one leg by moving him to one direction, then suddenly switching towards another. The first version of the drill was performed using only one of the basic grips each time. Gradually the drill became more complex with the students switching from one grip to another.
The next step was to discover ways to attack the opponent once his weight had been brought over one leg. In this step, the concept of ‘hyperfunction’, from Aleksander Retuinskih’s ROSS system was introduced, and a small number of specific force applications were presented. Finally we practiced various rhythmical footwork drills that helped seamlessly connect the power generation movements from the breaking of balance, to entering, to performing the throwing technique. All these new elements were inserted in the previous pushing and pulling drill, thus resulting in something that started looking like… well, wrestling!
Finally we ended our exploration by introducing ‘fighting for grips’ in the upper body, since specific grips offer a positional advantage that allows us to bring the opponent’s weight on one leg without him being able to resist (for example, if we manage to position ourselves to his side or his back). The pummeling drill (and pummeling contest drill) was introduced at this point and a small number of specific attacks demonstrated.

DYNAMO WRESTLING CONCEPTS – RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS
As I said at the beginning, the Dynamo Wrestling Concepts program was implemented for a limited period of time, since the goal of the Dynamo Club is not to train wrestlers, but to develop all-around combat skills through training underlying fundamentals (‘the essentials’) that are as generally applicable as possible. We prefer not to allow students to acquire stylistic habits, but rather develop the ability to understand the needs of various contexts and adapt to them.

In this sense, there were significant aspects that although included in our training, did not receive special mention – an example might be the idea of defending against having one’s weight brought over one leg and counterattacking by redirecting the opponent’s force. The current plan is to revisit those aspects in the future.

Based on my experience after training in martial arts for over two decades, the results were quite impressive – students with absolutely no wrestling experience whatsoever were able to execute throws in a dynamic environment (against fully resisting partners) that I wasn’t able to after two years of judo training. The embedded Youtube video features two members of the Dynamo, Charles and Henrik practicing wrestling soft work, and might give you a sample of what was achieved in a very short amount of time. All in all, I believe there is tremendous potential in teaching wrestling (and any other combat sport or fighting style, for that matter) using a constructivist approach.

I would be very interested to any feedback and suggestions the readers of this blog might have, so you’re welcome to leave your comments or send me an e-mail.

[1] I am using here the term 'wrestling' with its broadest possible meaning: that of competing against an opponent from a standing position, with the goal of throwing each other down, without the use of strikes. I am not referring to the Olympic sport of wrestling or any other specific style of wrestling with or without a jacket. I am also not referring to submission wrestling.

A great big thanks to Vadim Kolganov, SAMBO Master of Sport (http://www.dynamosambo.co.uk) for his valuable insights and feedback regarding wrestling tactics techniques and training methods, and Luis Preto (http://www.pretomartialarts.com), whose book Fencing Martial Arts: How to Sequence the Teaching of Techniques and Tactics provided great insight on how to construct a basic curriculum.

SAMBO / ROSS seminar with Vadim Kolganov at the Dynamo Club Göteborg

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:21:00 +0000

The Dynamo Club Göteborg, in collaboration with Systema Norway proudly present:

SAMBO/ROSS seminar with Vadim Kolganov
From Jacket Wrestling To Russian Martial Art

Breaking Structure, Affecting the Balance
Flowing from takedowns to submissions: ‘quick kills’

Saturday-Sunday April 21st – 22nd 2012, 10.00-16.00

To register or request additional info contact info@dynamoclub.se

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THROWS/TAKEDOWNS!
Did you know that every single throwing/takedown technique – regardless of the martial art or combat sport it comes from – follows the same set of simple biomechanical rules?

Once you understand these rules, all techniques become one – learning and practicing become incredibly easier (since you know what you might be doing wrong) and practical application of technique becomes automatic.

In the seminar From Jacket Wrestling to Russian Martial Art, Vadim Kolganov, Master of Sport, is going to present and explain:

The basic concepts and principles of Breaking Structure and Affecting the Balance, which apply to both sport combat and self-defense throwing techniques.
The most effective drills to practice them to perfection.

The second subject of this seminar is ‘Quick Kills’: How to quickly and effortlessly flow from throws/takedowns to finishing techniques, for either sport or self defense applications.

There are no ‘Russian Martial Arts’, there is only one Russian Martial Art! This unique seminar, organized by the Dynamo Club Göteborg, provides you with a great opportunity to link all martial knowledge (whether it comes from SAMBO, ROSS, Systema or any other ‘style’) upon one single thread!

Have you been thinking of ‘adding SAMBO to your Systema’ for some time now? Well, the time has come!

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Vadim Kolganov is one of the foremost exponents of Russian Martial Art in Europe today. He has earned the rank of Master of Sport in SAMBO after winning the Moscow SAMBO championships twice, has won a bronze medal in the SAMBO World Masters Championships and won the British SAMBO Championships. He is a certified instructor in Alexander Retuinskih’s ROSS system (the Native Russian System of Self-Defense). He teaches and practices the sport of Russian Army Hand-To-Hand Combat (Armeiski Rukopashni Boi), and the traditional wrestling style of Kurash (belt wrestling). He has worked in the Moscow Region Police Force as an inspector of physical education and self-defense. Besides Russian Martial Art, Vadim has also studied Wing Chun, Western Boxing, Jujitsu and American Freestyle Wrestling. He is also a certified kettlebells instructor in the RKC organization.

All martial arts practitioners of any level are welcome to attend to the seminar. No prior knowledge in SAMBO or other style of Russian Martial Art is required. Participants must be at least 18 years old.

SEMINAR INFORMATION

LOCATION - TRAINING SCHEDULE

Shorinji Kempo Göteborg Branch Dojo, Landerigatan 9, 41670 Göteborg, Sweden

Training Schedule: Saturday April 21st (10.00 – 16.00), Sunday April 22nd (11.00 – 16.00)

SEMINAR FEES

1200 SEK (135 euro) – The price includes ten hours of training (five hours per day for two days) with Vadim Kolganov.

The fees are payable upon registration.

The seminar will be filmed and made later available in DVD format. If you participate in the seminar, you can get a copy of the DVD at the special discounted price of 120SEK (13.50 euro), shipping included. If you want the seminar DVD, go ahead and add the amount to your seminar payment.

For all others, the price of the DVD will be 435SEK (49.00 euro) plus shipping.

REGISTRATION - PAYMENT

Register in advance in order to reserve a spot on the seminar. Send an e-mail to info@dynamoclub.se, including your: full name, age, address, city, postal code, country and a telephone number where we could reach you if needed.

Your registration is considered complete only after we have received your payment. We will send you a confirmation e-mail once we have received your registration and payment.

Send your payment to:

Accountholder - Göteborgs Systema-RMA Klubb, c/o Åhrman, Töpelsgatan 8B, 416 55 Göteborg, Sweden.

If you live in Sweden:

Bankgiro: 381-8721, Plusgiro: 501661-3

For foreign transfers:

SWIFT: NDEASESS

IBAN: SE67 9500 0099 6018 0501 6613

Name and address of bank: Nordea Bank AB, 105 71 Stockholm, Sweden.

Please make sure that we can identify the payment as coming from you.

REFUNDS

If the event is cancelled, then the full amount of your payment will be refunded. If you cancel your registration (by any means) before Friday, April 6th 2012, a charge of 200 SEK is levied on cost refund. If you cancel after this date, we cannot issue a refund; you can have another person take your place in the seminar though.

THINGS YOU WILL NEED

Since training will be conducted on mats, no shoes are allowed. All you will need is comfortable training clothes, a water bottle and a towel. If you have a wrestling jacket (judo or jiu jitsu/jujitsu jacket, SAMBO kurtka), although it is not necessary, it will help you explore more possibilities.

We will be having a small break around 13.00 on both days, so it’s a good idea to pack a light lunch.

PHOTOS / VIDEO

Photographing by participants is allowed at any time. Filming is not.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Training takes place under your own responsibility – the club/organizer and the instructor of the seminar can in no way be held liable for any damages/injuries occurring during the event. Be respectful of your training partners and place safety before everything else. Registering to the seminar entails you accept this clause.

Our goal is to organize high-quality training events, not social events or get-togethers (although we quite enjoy hanging out with fellow martial artists – after training). This means that the number of participants in the seminar will be limited so that the instructor can offer personal attention to each and every one of them.

Go ahead and register early!

There can be changes to the program, but if there are, you will be promptly informed.

TRAVELLING TO GÖTEBORG – ACCOMODATION

You can find pretty much all the information you need at this link: http://wikitravel.org/en/Gothenburg

We will be happy to answer any additional questions you might have or give you our own suggestions, so go ahead and contact us!

For additional info – inquiries contact Charles Franz E-mail: info@dynamoclub.se
or Spyro Katsigiannis Tel: +46 (0)767 67 91 79

Food for thought: training articles I recently read - (27-02-2012)

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:23:00 +0000

There's a list of Dynamo- recommended reading from the past month - enjoy!

Roadwork 2.0: The Comeback - In recent years long, slow endurance training (mostly roadwork) is being often attacked as a training method inferior to high-intensity interval training, as far as combat athletes are concerned. In this most interesting article, strength and conditioning coach Joel Jamieson argues that roadwork is anything but dead.

7 Things I learned in 2011 - The gems of knowledge offered by Eric Cressey, my favorite strength and conditioning coach, at the end of 2011, were recently re-published in the T-Nation website - some fantastic insight in there!

Everything You Thought You Knew About Learning Is Wrong - TED speaker and best-selling author Garth Sundem explains why you should not try to learn, by breaking down knowledge into blocks.

Instinctive sleeping and resting postures: an anthropological and zoological approach to treatment of low back and joint pain - Physiotherapist Michael Tetley argues that your posture during sleep might be responsible for musculoskeletal pain and offers alternatives he picked up in his 14 expeditions all over the world to meet native peoples and study their sleeping and resting postures - absolutely fascinating!

Book I am currently reading:

Combat in outnumbered scenarios: The origin of Historical Fencing

by Luis Pretto

Dynamo Kettlebells Concepts: Martial Arts Training... with Kettlebells!

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:45:00 +0000

“DYNAMO KETTLEBELLS CONCEPTS”? WHAT’S THAT?
It is a form of specialized strength training that you can use to make your martial arts/combat sports-specific movements more powerful.

HOW DOES IT DIFFER FROM ‘CONVENTIONAL’ KETTLEBELLS TRAINING?
The most popular forms of kettlebells training out there offer what is known as General Physical Preparation (GPP), i.e. they increase the body’s capacity for work (especially strength endurance) regardless of the specific activity one wants to become better at. Other methods of training for GPP are running, rope skipping, weight-lifting, calisthenics, etc.

If you think of your body as a car, GPP methods mostly increase the horsepower of the engine and the size of your tank. On the other side, specialized strength training methods, such as the Dynamo Kettlebells Concepts, improve the way your car can apply the power on the road – we could say that they improve the grip of the tires, handling and cornering, the mechanics of the car, but also the skills of the driver!

In a few words: GPP improves your strength, your power and your endurance, but can also address possible muscular imbalances in your body (lack of mobility, stability, etc). The Dynamo Kettlebells Concepts use those improved motor abilities and apply them in specific key-movements of martial arts and combat sports, so that you can become better at them.

CAN THE DYNAMO KETTLEBELLS CONCEPTS REPLACE GENERAL PHYSICAL PREPARATION?
No, they can NOT. The Dynamo exercises and drills should be used in combination with other training methods of physical preparation in the context of a periodized program. In order to put the Dynamo Kettlebells Concepts to good use, you need to have worked on your GPP before.

If you already have a conditioning coach who is helping you with GPP, that is great - the Dynamo Kettlebells Concepts will be an excellent addition to your training. If you don't have one, and you wish to improve your GPP, the Dynamo Strength and Conditioning Concepts will bring you where you need to be physically.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PRACTICING/TRAINING AT THE DYNAMO KETTLEBELLS CONCEPTS?
A dramatic increase in punching power is the most obvious benefit, but also your footwork, evasion and head movement, rhythm, timing, flow and efficiency of movement (more work done with less effort) will be significantly improved.

For more information on the Dynamo Kettlebells Concepts, contact info@dynamoclub.se.

On soft training in martial arts: Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:03:00 +0000

A series of posts on the subject of softness and soft training in martial arts, wouldn't be in any way complete without the taiji (tai chi) perspective. In this fourth, and last, installment of the series, my good friend Glenn Gossling, Chen Taijiquan practitioner and instructor, offers his insight on the subject, viewing soft work as tool that allows for development without injury and accelerated recovery. A very big thank you to Glenn and the other three contributors to this collective post, Grigoris A. Miliaresis (who wrote about the Ju No Kata of Judo), Mark Lajhner (who wrote about soft training in MMA and combat sports), and Thong Nguyen (who wrote about the use of soft work as a tool to sharpen awareness of movement). I would also like to thank the readers of the Dynamo blog, whose enthusiastic response to this series of posts exceeded my expectations by far!

FEAR INOCULATION OR, LISTENING TO A SLIGHTLY SCARY STORY AGAIN AND AGAIN

Everyone knows that taijiquan is based around the principles of yin and yang, hard and soft. Still, it is comparatively rare to see taijiquan used as a martial art, or to see its hard side. Chen style taijiquan preserves both, but even when working with the ‘hard’ it is still important to maintain the principles of good posture, relaxation, and coordination between breath and movement.

My experience of taijiquan and other martial arts has shown me that achieving a balance between stress and relaxation is essential to all good martial arts training, both hard and soft. Taijiquan begins by teaching and emphasizing the soft, but it still leads to the hard. The methodology is that soft slow movements can be used to teach clear and precise principles and techniques while gradually conditioning the body. A similar principle is used in systema where the slow squat and the slow press up are core to body conditioning.

My approach to teaching is to focus on relaxation, or to put it another way, non-tension, as rather like Saussure’s structural linguistics, taiji is - from a philosophical point of view - a system of difference without positive terms. There are two aspects to non-tension, the physical and the mental.

Before doing ‘hard work’ the person has to be physically capable of doing it. A degree of physical conditioning is essential. It sounds obvious, but most of us have been gung ho enough at some stage or other to injure ourselves by trying to do something we weren’t ready for (remember the one arm hand stand push up craze? or is that next year?).

In simple physical terms, this means working within our capabilities, but at a sufficient level to challenge ourselves. How do we know what that level is? Tension is the indicator - for example, if someone goes rigid with tension and falls over while doing a pistol (a form of one legged squat), then to develop they should do an easier exercise – simple squats or negative pistols (ie just a controlled descent). Moving them to a harder exercise such as pistols with kettlebells may not be beneficial to them at this basic stage.

Digression 1 - Stress is a comparatively new concept first outlined by the Slovakian/Hungarian scientist Hans Selye in 1936 as a short hand for what he called General Adaptation Syndrome. The English word ‘stress’ is actually a bit misnomer as in mechanical terms the concept is closer to that of strain. A simple mechanical example may help explain what explain what Selye meant – if you apply a sufficient external force to a piece of steel, the steel will temporarily deform, but it will pop back into shape when released from that force with no great harm done. If a much too large force is applied the piece of steel will be permanently deformed. Similarly, if a repeated force is applied to the steel, microscopic stress fractures may occur that could lead to an eventual catastrophic failure. Biological entities such as humans are slightly different to a piece of steel in that they are able to adapt. If you apply an external stress to a bone it will flex or break. If you repeatedly stress a bone without breaking it the bone will adapt, build in density and be able to take greater degrees of stress. Selye’s work found an underlying pattern to stress which is illustrated in his 'human function curve'.

(image from www.stress.org)

There are a number of key considerations here:

Stress isn’t all bad
Stress can help you develop
Work at a level that is below the ‘breaking point’
Allow sufficient time for recovery

The human function curve can be used to explain two of the ways that soft and hard work interrelate. First, soft work allows you to build incrementally towards hard work allowing development to occur without injury. Secondly, soft work can be used to accelerate recovery.

For example in Chen taijiquan we have a ‘hard’ form called the Pao Choi (‘Cannon Fist’). This form uses a lot of stamping and ‘fajin’ (‘explosive power’). It has been known to cause splits in the shin bones and strains to the tendons if progressed to too soon. The softer ‘Yilu’ form that you do first allows bone density to gradually develop by applying lesser stresses. It is important to be able to do the harder form without excess tension as if you do it while tense or in poor posture you are much more likely to injure yourself. Even when you know the Pao Choi it is still important to do the soft form as the prolonged interlinking of breathing and movement encourages a relaxed state that promotes recovery. As a rule of thumb it takes between three and five years to get to the Pao Choi.

Master Ren Guan Yi performing a shortened version of the Pao Choi form - his power generation is tremendous!

Humans, however, don’t only operate on a physical level. They are also subject to mental or psychological stress – and in particular fear. Again, as with physical stress, a degree of mental stress can lead to a positive adaptation, but excessive mental stress can lead to or reinforce negative adaptations. This is particularly the case when dealing with fear.

Digression 2 – The anatomy of fear: The amygdala, a small almond shaped part of the brain just above the brain stem, is the body’s alarm system. It is one of the oldest parts of the limbic system and as such is capable of emotionally ‘hijacking’ the brain. The amygdala monitors what is going on and decides on the body’s emotional response. The process by which it does this is profoundly unconscious and can happen very quickly. Sensory information from the eyes or ears goes to the thalamus, where the information is split. The main part of it goes to the neo-cortex for detailed analysis, and a smaller portion goes to the amygdala and hippocampus. If the hippocampus - using a quick but inaccurate memory system - recognizes the sight or sound as a threat, the amygdala prepares the body for action while waiting for more accurate confirmation from the neo-cortex to see if it really should be frightened. The amygdala sends impulses to the hypothalamus for activation of the sympathetic nervous system (which controls the fight or flight reaction). The metabolic rate rises and a variety of hormones are released: dopamine (for concentration) and noradrenaline (aka norepinephrine), adrenaline (aka epinephrine), CRF (the main stress hormone of the body) and endorphins (to dampen pain). If the neo-cortex agrees that there is something to be frightened of the body can then proceed to a full state of fear. It is around this moment that you may become aware of it. You may notice the increased heart and respiration rate, you may feel a tightening in the stomach, tunnel vision, tension around the throat and neck, trembling. This will all have occurred in under a second and most of it will have happened completely unconsciously. If on the other hand, the neo-cortex decides that there is nothing to fear the amygdala relaxes its responses. However, a number of hormones such as cortisol will already be in your system and can remain there for some hours. This can be problematic as a number of small stresses can have a cumulative effect. (for more info on the anatomy of fear see: www.absolutetaichi.co.uk/articles/an-anatomy-of-fear)

Again the concept of the stress curve is useful. A small amount of fear is good. It focuses the attention and encourages development. Larger amounts cause an emotional hijacking by the amygdala, which stops you using your cortex – the thinking part of the brain. Chances are you’ll already have experienced this at some point in your life (if you have ever done an exam where you read the test paper and could not remember what you read by the time get to the end of the first sentence, gone blank in an interview, or been at a loss for words in an argument with a loved one). You can monitor other people’s or your own stress levels during training from breathing patterns. Fast breathing correlates strongly with fast heart rates. Most people’s performance begins to break down at heart rates of between 115 and 145 beats per minute, with a severe breakdown of performance at above 175 bpm. There is an important difference between people breathing hard because they are working hard and breathing hard from stress – exercise makes you redden, fear makes you pale.

An emotional hijacking can happen during a fight or training, often just momentarily, but that can be enough. Your brain responds with shock at someone throwing a punch. You inhale sharply, hold your breath, tense up. One of the downsides of this is that being tense, when being hit, makes it hurt more. Another downside is that if you are tense you will move poorly making you easier to hit. Yet another down side is that your reactions may become exaggerated (bigger than necessary), easier to read, avoid and counter. And finally, if your cortex isn’t involved you will not be able to judge the situation or response accurately.

This is bad enough in a fight, but during training it is worse, because not only will you not be learning appropriate responses, but you may very well be ingraining poor ones. I regularly see this in people who have trained ‘hard styles’. You present a relatively soft or slow punch to them and you get a fear reaction from them – typified by big jumpy moves and large blocks – the problem with this is that the stress state becomes a habitual response that is easier and easier to slip into.

The point here is that if someone is physically capable of hard training, they can start it, but you may find that their stress levels can quite quickly stop them getting any benefit from it. If all that is happening is that they are getting hit, getting hurt and learning to be frightened of being hit this isn’t training.

What is required is to build up to hard training with soft training so that bit by bit the mind can mentally adjust and realize that it is something that it can deal with. This is a process known to psychologists as ‘fear inoculation’. The repetition of set forms allows the brain to understand that there is a set story and that it has predictable and understandable patterns. This is why children like to hear the same slightly scary fairy tale over and over. So, the brain is programmed with a set of responses to being hit softly, how to move, avoid and deal with it. It has reference points. Then you can ramp it up, but it is important to try to work within limits that can be dealt with, moving in and out of the comfort zone. Bit by bit the limits increase and as the fear diminishes you can find that actually you can take a good hit. (for postmodern martial artists – an understanding of these narrative structures also is useful because then you can see how to disrupt them in unexpected ways)

It is necessary to understand that the cortex has no direct way to control the amygdala. The rational part of the brain has no direct means to tell the amygdala, a primal and unconscious part of the brain, to stop being frightened. What you have to do is work with your breathing. Your breathing connects to an even older part of the brain, the medulla oblongata in the brain stem. The medulla is the brain’s interface with the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system comprises the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). By slowing the breathing you can directly engage the sympathetic nervous system to encourage relaxation.

If you understand this from the outset you can train yourself to co-ordinate movements and breathing so that all your basic training works to create a state of relaxation. Thus when you start hard training, the body already has some ‘slack’ and it will take a bit longer to create stress reactions. Similarly, as the patterns are ingrained they become easier to use to recover from stress. By linking movement with breath it means that you can use movements to encourage good breathing patterns when it is difficult to breathe (such as when you are winded) This is another advantage of using set forms in training. Finally interlinking breathing and movement is demonstrably effective for power production (for more on this see: www.absolutetaichi.co.uk/articles/breathing).
However, even when you do all this, you will still occasionally come across something new, that takes you by surprise and you may still get that moment of panic where you inhale sharply and hold your breath, but from working through this many times in the past, hopefully you will have conditioned some good reactions to this response.

Thus, when looking at hard training overall, you can say that if the body is ready to do it the mind should be as well, but throughout the training attention should be paid to stress and excitement levels to keep the metabolism at a level where you can still work and learn through conscious engagement. Yes it is good to push. As students develop they may even come to quite like getting a good hit, after all it teaches you something about yourself. You learn exactly where you hold your fear and tension and so just as the soft work prepares you for hard work, the hard work deepens the soft work.

Glenn Gossling

Glenn Gossling has been studying taijiquan since 1988 and since 1996 has been a student with Grandmaster Chen Xiao Wang, 19th Generation Lineage holder and current Chen family inheritor. He is a registered grade A instructor with the Tai Chi Union of Great Britain. He has also been an instructor of Dayan Qigong, Changquan kung fu and Stav, as well as having studied Systema, Muay Thai and kickboxing. For more information visit: www.absolutetaichi.co.uk

On soft training in martial arts: Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:44:00 +0000

In the third part of this series of guest posts on the value of softness and soft training in martial arts, Thong Nguyen a veteran martial arts instructor and teacher of dance offers his own unique perspective on the subject: soft work as an essential component of developing body awareness and perfecting movement BEFORE proceeding to dynamic application. For those of you that haven't read the previous installments of the series, here is Grigoris A. Miliaresis' post on the Ju No Kata of Judo and Mark Lajhner's post of incorporating soft work in combat sports. What I personally find most interesting in this series, is that each of the contributors approaches the subject from a rather different viewpoint, continuously offering additional insight. Enjoy the post!

SOFT WORK: DETECTING SUBTLE NUANCES OR, 'THE FLY LANDING ON A FEATHER'

As a lifelong teacher of dance and martial arts I find soft work and kata an invaluable tool for learning any skill. Kata can range from the stationary exercises found in Qi Gong to Judo's slow moving Ju No Kata, to Kung Fu's dynamic forms. They serve to develop and educate a understanding of the body on a somatic level with minimal brain intrusion.

I consider kata to be the body's ultimate muscle-body-memory trainer. It helps students in evaluating their internal, physical and mental processes. The kata itself is but a part of the benefit. The greater benefit is in how the students learns to find and remove their debilitating barriers/habits in attempting new and unfamiliar tasks. A self-imposed learning curve if you will, stemming from a lack of confidence and connection to their own bodies. The slower the kata the better it permits the students to pick up on subtleties in order to correct them. Imagine trying to detect the weight of a fly that has landed on a kettlebell you're holding, as compared to one that has landed on the tip of a feather in your hand. Slow work enables your whole body to move and feel like that feather. You'll better detect nuances and variances in movement. When a student finally "sees" his body and its idiosyncrasies it is like the first time he heard a recording of his voice - he can't believe it isn't the sexy voice he always thought he had.

At my dance studio, the first thing a beginner is taught are foot patterns: where to go directionally, on which foot to step and where. Then, they're introduced to the foot work; how the foot first contacts the floor- heel, ball, flat, toes, inside edge of toes etc. Then, styling: how the upper body accompanies the lower body during the weight shifts. Next comes rhythm, timing and synchronicity to music. Only after these are reasonably executed is a partner added. The recipe is methodical and by the numbers, which begs the question: "How would that translate in application on a crowded dance floor?" The following video shows me dancing with a girl I'd only just met that night. Once ALL knowledge, coordination, mobility, timing, rhythm and consistent results are addressed and resolved, the "hard work" phase comes naturally with regular exposure, practice and experience. This is the method I use in teaching martial arts. Without it, "free-play" is a messy blur. With it, things come into focus and start to make sense.

There are no shortcuts or panaceas for building lasting skills, only a clear understanding of what to do, how to do it, when to do it and the determination to do it. Real learning can't be rushed. Katas provide a way to groove and polish the essential basics. Learn the techniques (soft work) in order to throw them out (application of hard work). Professionals know if they can't perform under a controlled scenario, they will never last a real one.

Enjoy your Path,

Thong Nguyen

Thong Nguyen was born into a martial arts family. His uncles were masters of various Asian arts and his father was a Judo champion. This provoked a curiosity and an openness at an early age. He holds Dan grades and teaching certificates in Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Filipino, Vietnamese and Russian martial arts. He has been teaching dance along with martial arts for over 38 years based in Washington, DC. He developed KaizenTao (www.kaizentao.com) 24 years ago as an amalgamation of his primary expertise in Dance, Chinese and Japanese arts and professional sports. His students are renown for being a fun and respectful group of people spanning a wide spectrum from professionals at the forefront of local and national security to dedicated martial artists to those with no experience in combative forms. He also worked as a fashion photographer in Paris, Milan, NY, LA, and DC.

On soft training in martial arts: Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:38:00 +0000

Softness and soft training in martial arts: what is it, is it really necessary, how do we practice for it, how much, how often? After last week's first part of this series, a guest post by Grigoris A. Miliaresis on the Ju No Kata (“form of gentleness”) of Judo, today Mark Lajhner, a former Judo competitor, MMA competitor, and currently MMA coach, shares his own perspective on how we can benefit from soft work and most interestingly, by 'investing in loss'. I found this post most fascinating - I hope you enjoy it!

SOFT WORK IN MARTIAL ARTS - SHOULD WE DO IT?
There has been a lot of debate whether soft work should be included in martial arts training. Before we start to do that let us define what soft work is. According to my friend Spyro Katsigiannis (who asked me to write this article) we could describe it as follows: "In Soft work we practice using real force and energy but in a slowed down time framing, so that the startle reflex is minimized - there is no fear response, because there are no fast threats leading to spastic reactions". To me, this description brings to mind the Ju-No-Kata from Judo as well as the absorption drills often used in Systema.

The goal of soft work is to "prime" the martial artist to react in the most biomechanically efficient way in a stressful situation. It can be done in a free manner, just "playing" with forces our partner is giving us, or while exploring a specific technique, like in nage komi in motion in Judo (throwing exercise without partner resistance).

Systema absorption drills are an example of non-technical soft work training. When people first try them, they usually find them weird and not quite credible as a training method, because they are missing the point of the drill, which is priming the body in generic movement patterns. But in order to develop fight worthy skills we need to go past priming and into the specific technical realm.

Although priming drills can be effective as a supporting tool, I don't think they are necessary. We can benefit from soft work if we do it in a context of the martial art we are practicing. Here are the examples of soft work that I often give my athletes:

Nage komi (throwing practice) in Judo or wrestling
Slow motion grappling sparring
Grappling & ground and pound flow drill (it can be both slow or faster, but I recommend it being slower)
Striking flow drill: we use only 50 % of speed and 5-10 % of power
MMA flow drill using the same principles as in striking flow drill

Slow motion grappling sparring is a form of soft work training and can lead to a significant increase in skill development.

All of these methods give us time to think and execute our techniques with precision, limit the startle reflex and are actually quite enjoyable, since full-on sparring is demanding, not just physically but also psychologically. They eliminate (or minimize) competitiveness in training, which can sometimes limit our learning. Many of my athletes report a significant increase in skill development from just one of these sessions.

Numerous fighting moves come to us quite naturally (headlock, trips, the double leg takedown, elbow cover, fading), but at the same time, there are a lot that don't (slips, bobs and weaves, most throwing techniques), so how do we practice those until we become proficient? The answer is pretty simple: slowly and deliberately. In order to explain this, an analogy from computer lingo might be helpful: if we imagine the reflexes and instincts that evolution has equipped us with as a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), we need to ‘progress to Windows 7’ by enhancing some of our instincts and completely overriding others.

Except the above mentioned drills, there are other "soft components" of training we can include in out sessions. Back in my days as a Judo competitor, I made a terrible mistake by always training with "balls to the wall" intensity. I thought that if I always gave 100% of my effort and fought until there was no glycogen left in my body, trying my hardest to never be thrown, I would eventually become a champion. This is a mistake that cost me dearly: I was only able to place 3rd in the nationals, and I became a real live encyclopedia of trauma (many injuries and surgeries). Don't get me wrong, I'm all for intensity, but it has it's time and place. This is a very broad theme and we don't have time to go into detail in this article but I will give you an example of this principle: there was this young guy in my Judo club that became national senior champion at the age of 18 in my weight class - very talented, with gymnast-like moves, great physical attributes and impeccable technique. During Judo practice, he was repeatedly ‘destroyed’ – he was getting thrown many times by many people. At one time, I manhandled him so badly in sparring, that he stopped midway through our randori, calling me a savage and asking me "what kind of Judo is this" because I was relying on my strength to "bend him down" instead of trying to throw him. While I would never stop a randori for any reason other than injury, and was mad at him for doing so, I eventually got to learn a lot from watching him train. He might have "lost" a lot of randoris, but he devastated his opponents in competition in spectacular fashion and became one of the youngest champions in Serbia. At the same time, I was struggling to also become a champion but it simply never happened.

So what was the secret of his success? When I did randori practice, I wanted to throw people for sure, but I mostly wanted to dominate them. He, on the other hand, wanted to practice technique and often put himself in dangerous situations, even if it meant that he would get thrown. For example, he deliberately let people try uchi mata on him so he could redirect the force and counter. Does he get thrown many times in training? You bet! But his matches usually end with him performing a spectacular ippon (an equivalent of knockout in boxing) on his opponent because he takes risks in training and learns from them. In my mind this is also soft work. Why? By giving yourself the permission to fail, you are not struggling against your opponent's forces at that moment, and there is no psychological pressure.

The point of this example was not for me to tell you what a ‘stud’ I am for dominating my teammate in training, but to explain that his training principle was far superior to mine.

I might have trained wrong during my Judo career, but it all changed when I switched to MMA and it paid dividends. I just wish I had done it sooner. As humans, we all have limitations, both physical and mental, and by training sub-optimally, we can hit those limitations earlier than necessary. That usually leads to injury, lack of motivation and often, quitting training altogether.

By including the softer components, we can make our training more efficient, more to the point and a lot more fun.

Mark Lajhner

Mark Lajhner is the founder and chief instructor of the Kaizen MMA Academy, in Belgrade, Serbia (www.kaizenmma.com). A distinguished Judo competitor and national team member, he made his debut in MMA in 2005 and retired undefeated in 2008 as the best Serbian MMA fighter in the 85 kg category. He has studied MMA and Submission Wrestling with August Wallen, one of the world’s most renowned MMA experts. He has also competed in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Submission Wrestling (Grappling) and Freestyle Wrestling winning numerous medals in these sports. Mark is a Judo black belt and a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He is a certified MMA, Thai Boxing, Submission Wrestling (Grappling) and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor.

On soft training in martial arts: Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:20:00 +0000

The text that follows is the first in a series of guest posts on the subject of softness and soft training in martial arts. The starting point for this series was the Ju No Kata (“form of gentleness”) of Judo – a rather cryptic set of prearranged techniques that was developed by the founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano, around 1887, that supposedly epitomizes the principles of the art, especially that of yielding, or gentleness. It is most interesting to add here that Professor Kano came up with this particular method of practice when the number of people studying Judo had increased to the point where he could no longer personally advise everyone during free practice [1]. I personally consider Professor Kano the most important martial arts innovator of the 20th century and a genius of an educator, but my training in Judo has been limited to a couple of years and included almost exclusively hard training methods, so I can’t say I understand the knowledge which is ‘encoded’ in the Ju No Kata. What I decided to do then, is turn to my friends for a little help: I asked a number of martial arts instructors from different disciplines to watch the Ju No Kata on video, and ponder upon the use of soft training methods in order to distill principles and increase martial skill in the style they are practicing.

The first contributor in this collective post is my good friend Grigoris A. Miliaresis, the closest person I have met to what I would call a ‘scholar of Japanese martial arts’ that also happens to be a seasoned journalist. I am sure that you will enjoy his post as much as I did!

JU NO KATA: ILLUSTRATING JUDO’S MARROW
I’ll always cherish the memory: the main mat of the Kodokan Institute in Tokyo filled with tens of hardened judoka from all over the world, with ages varying from early 20s to late 70s and ranks from 2nd to 10th dan, many of them high-level competitors, sitting quietly, mesmerized by two Japanese “obachan” (lit. “aunties”) performing the Ju no Kata, probably judo’s most misunderstood form and the one that judo founder, Kano Jigoro thought as the container of the quintessence of his system. Apparently all those people seemed to share Kano’s idea; either that or the sight of the two middle-aged diminutive women performing it with a precision that would bring tears to the eyes of a USMC drill sergeant and a grace that would put to shame his niece, the ballerina, really got their attention.

It’s hard to grasp what the Ju no Kata is all about. The techniques are almost unrecognizable for those who only know competition judo and, worst of all they are performed at a glacial pace that defies any idea of effectiveness or practical application. “The throws aren’t even completed”, I usually hear the critics of Japanese martial arts cry in despair. “What is this? And how can this embody the essence of judo? This is not even training”. Well, it is training. And it does embody the essence of judo, provided the viewer is conversant with, well, judo, as well as with the way the Japanese do and, especially, teach things. Some knowledge of body mechanics wouldn’t hurt either –I don’t have it but Spyros does and I’m sure he can discern the theory behind my empirical ramblings.

To understand the Ju no Kata, first of all we need to establish the framework: it is a kata, that is a set of stylized moves created to (a) put order in the chaos of things (the Japanese do that all the time; kata are present in all expressions of their culture), (b) teach the body, including the nervous system, the basic functions that the system (in this case, judo) considers essential. Even if we dismiss (a) as redundant since we are not Japanese, we have to seriously consider that (b) has indeed some merit; if it didn’t, Japan wouldn’t be able to continue producing Olympic medalists for almost half a century (last count: 65 in toto) under this training regimen.

Second of all, we need to understand what is considered “essential” in judo –yes, I know it sounds like tiptoeing between psychoanalysis and over-theorizing but this won’t take long. According to its creator, judo’s first and foremost quality, its cornerstone, so to speak, is flexibility (it’s even in the name: this is what “ju” or “柔” in “judo” means): flexibility of the mind (i.e. knowing when to use excessive force and when to yield, creating openings where there aren’t any) and flexibility of the body (i.e. being able to twist and contort your body parts so you can put them where they can exploit the openings and use the leverages and the timing needed to complete a technique).

Does the Ju no Kata teach the judo student this essence? If you ask me, definitely –and this is precisely the reason everything is done in slow motion: so that the student has enough time to put his body in exactly the perfect position for the perfect leveraging and for the perfect timing. By taking away speed and momentum (present in almost all other judo kata), Kano’s students were able to remove unwanted tensions in their body and focus on the precision of the technique with optimum biomechanics (also part of judo’s “manifesto”: seiryoku zenyou/精力善用or “maximum efficiency with minimum effort”).

I haven’t been taught the Ju no Kata –and the loss is all mine- so my first hand knowledge is limited. But there is one more thing that I remember from that day in the Kodokan: when the obachan finished their presentation and started teaching, most of the non-Japanese judoka had serious learning difficulties; apparently their bodies were too tense to adapt to doing things slowly and with precision. The worst part was that the middle-aged ladies (who, after the initial demonstration seemed to have cloned themselves and filled the whole mat) were going from one pair of participants to the other, playfully tossing them around while complaining about their poor backs.
Grigoris A. Miliaresis

Grigoris A. Miliaresis started training in the Japanese martial arts in 1986. He holds dan grades in judo, aikido and iaido and has also trained in Shotokan karate, kendo and modern naginata. Since 2007 he has been studying the classical naginata school Toda-ha Buko Ryu under licensed instructors Ellis Amdur (in Athens) and Kent Sorensen (in Tokyo). Besides training, he has written extensively about the martial arts in the Greek magazine “Monopati gia tis Polemikes Technes”, was managing editor to the Greek edition of “Journal of Asian Martial Arts”, has translated more than 25 books on the subject and runs a related blog (in Greek and, occasionally, in English - http://budobabble.blogspot.com/). He currently lives in Japan.

References

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ju-no-kata#cite_note-1 (retrieved Jan 2012)

Slow push-ups: do you really need them?

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:17:00 +0000

Strange creatures, those humans – it’s not only efficiency they’re after, it’s oversimplification too. Let me give you a training related example: people are not just content with getting the best possible results with the least possible effort (which makes sense, if you ask me), they also want to practice as few things as possible! The dominant mentality could be described as such: “Can you find me one single exercise that builds muscle and strength, burns fat and gives me the heart of a Marathon runner?” This is what people want and the almighty market rushes to provide it with every possible opportunity. Thus, every now and then, we end up not just with the 'perfect training program' but also with exercises being attributed with miraculous properties. The kettlebell swing has been named ‘a fountain of youth’, for example, while the Turkish Get-up is supposedly all you need in order to build stability, mobility AND strength around the pelvic and shoulder girdles. And then, there’s the slow push-up, the slow flat-foot squat and the slow sit-up, which according to a specific brand or Russian Martial Art activity, are the only resistance exercises one needs to practice in order to build the attributes needed for combat training.

It is my belief that physical preparation training is not prescribing and performing a (long or short) series of exercises, but the fine-tuning of a series of parameters through various training protocols, in order to perform the specific movements of a particular activity, more effectively and efficiently. In this sense, there are no good exercises or bad exercises and there are definitely no perfect exercises or ‘all-you-need exercises’. Exercises and training protocols can only be consistent or non-consistent with your training goals, depending upon the results they produce. So as to give you an example, let’s put the slow push-up under the microscope.

WHAT ARE SLOW PUSH-UPS GOOD FOR?

Any type of push-up can build local muscular endurance of the arm extensors and chest muscles. Push-ups can also promote stability at the hips, the torso and the shoulder girdle – as long as they’re performed with proper form. If your belly is sagging or your butt is sticking up, if your shoulder blades are popping away from your ribcage (winging), if your head is dangling towards the floor, then your form is not proper, and you might be doing more harm than good, both to your posture and your joints, so keep those points in mind (and no, bad form does not ‘promote relaxation’). But what are the benefits of performing push-ups slowly? Well, performing one repetition of an exercise that lasts one minute is a rather uncommon training protocol that I have never come upon during my years of training or in any of my training books (and I have quite a few). With the amount of unconventional (bordering on exotic) resistance training methods explored by the Soviets during the 70’s and 80’s, if there was remarkable value in this one, we would definitely know a lot more about how it works, but it is not so. What we can do then, is make a few educated guesses based on similarities with other training methods whose effects we know more about. So, let’s give it a try:

SLOW PUSH-UPS INCREASE CONNECTIVE TISSUE STRENGTH/TENDON STIFFNESS

According to Verkhoshansky, “long application of isometric exercises leads to significant expansion of the connective tissue” [1]. ‘Isometric’ is a contraction of the muscles that is not accompanied by changes in muscle length – when you push against an immovable object, a wall for example, your muscles are contracting isometrically. Connective tissue in our case is tendons and ligaments, most probably tendons only, since normal everyday activity (without training) appears to be sufficient to maintain 80–90% of ligaments’ mechanical potential [2]. Remember here that tendons connect muscles to bones, while ligaments connect bones to bones (in joints). Research also indicates that long duration (more than 20 sec) isometric exercises lead to decrease of the elasticity of tendons, i.e. tendon stiffness [3]. One more thing we often find in strength training literature is that moderate repetition sets (8-12) are optimal for building connective tissue strength – in case you haven’t had the chance to use a timer while training, it is interesting to know here that 8-12 repetitions of an exercise performed in moderate pace last somewhere between 30 and 35 seconds. What is most likely then is that the accumulated time under tension rather than the way of performing muscle contraction (statically or with movement) is responsible for the increased strength and stiffness of the connective tissues: whether you’re moving or not, if you maintain constant tension for 20-30 seconds in a group of muscles, your tendons become stiffer. It would make sense then to assume that a push-up performed slowly will make the tendons of the muscles around the shoulder and elbow joints stiffer, i.e. harder to elongate.

(SOME) SLOW PUSH-UPS INCREASE LOCAL MUSCULAR ENDURANCE
A variation of the slow push-up often proposed by RMA instructors involves repetitions performed slowly in a limited range of motion, mostly around what is known as the ‘sticking point’ of the exercise, where the effort becomes increased to the mechanical disadvantage of that particular position. This partial reps protocol has been used extensively by the bodybuilding community and is supposed to facilitate hypertrophy of the slow-twitch muscle fibers, by impairing the blood circulation to the slow fibers through the constant tension [4]. Increasing the size of your slow twitch muscle fibers can also translate to better oxygen utilization by them, thus improved local muscular endurance.

SLOW PUSH-UPS CAN FUNCTION AS A MENTAL TOUGHNESS EXERCISE
Constant muscular tension is associated with a feeling of discomfort, so performing resistance exercises slowly can be used as a means of desensitizing one to the feeling of fatigue – a meditation on pain, if you like. Various methods of removing the focus from the feeling of discomfort can be used, the most common being that of focusing on the breath and regulating it.

WHAT ARE SLOW PUSH-UPS NOT GOOD FOR?
In a few words, slow push-ups will not improve your maximum strength, i.e. the ability of your nervous system to recruit a lot of muscle fibers at the same time, in order to produce more force. They will also not improve your power, which is the ability of your muscles to produce work (movement) in a short amount of time. They will not improve your skill either, since push-ups are a rather simple movement pattern.
One more useful note here is that like any other training method, slow push-ups are subject to the law of diminishing returns: the longer you perform them over time, the less the effect becomes, since your organism becomes desensitized to them and does not adapt any further.
Finally keep in mind that if you only perform horizontal pushing movements (such as the push-up), without any horizontal pulling exercises, you might end up with muscular imbalances in your shoulders and subsequent chronic injuries.

At the beginning seconds of this nideo, Mikhail Grudev of the IZVOR system is practicing strikes on the heavy bag. His explosive movements, performed in increased ranges of motion would be better served by compliant rather than stiff tendons. Training in slow push-ups for extended periods of time is not helpful for this type of movement.

WHY USE SLOW PUSH-UPS, THEN?
Use them by all means at the beginning stages of your training, especially if you do not have much strength training experience – connective tissue strength is most necessary in athletic activities, such as martial arts training. You could also use slow push-ups as part of your ‘anatomical adaptation’ training periods each year, before you start using training protocols for strength and power. Regarding tendon stiffness: first and foremost, do not confuse it with joint stiffness, i.e. the inability of a joint to move through its full range of motion. Tendon stiffness, leads to an increased stiffness of the muscle-tendon complex, which basically means that your muscles become like hard rubber bands: they stretch little and they spring back fast. This is useful if your set of skills requires you to generate power in short ranges of motion. On the other side, increased tendon stiffness is NOT desirable if you need to generate a lot of power in increased ranges of motion: a tennis serve, for example does not benefit from increased tendon stiffness. One last thing on this matter, which is a bit complex: you can do with very little stiffness training altogether, if you replace the tendon stiffness with some voluntary muscular contraction that pre-stretches your tendons, thus making them momentarily stiffer (this is known as ‘active stiffness’). To understand this better, try skipping rope with your ankles in dorsiflexion (the opposite movement of pointing your toes, that is) and your calves isometrically contracted. You will see that you will be bouncing effortlessly, because your Achilles tendon will be acting as a spring, pre-stretched, thus momentarily stiffer, not structurally harder! Of course, this ‘situational tendon stiffness’ is a skill, not an attribute, so you need to practice it – it’s your choice, do what you deem appropriate. Regarding local muscular endurance: I would rather use other training methods that have the ‘stamp of approval’ of sports science, and have been used extensively by athletes over the years. Regarding mental toughness: yes, a one minute repetition of a push-up is very tough, but so is a ten-minute set of kettlebell snatches, or stationary cycling for five minutes with the resistance set to maximum. Mixing your methods might lead to better results.

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
During the years I was practicing a specific brand of Russian Martial Art activity (Systema-RMA), I practiced slow bodyweight resistance exercises (push-ups, sit-ups, flat-foot squats) almost exclusively for a prolonged period of time (about two years). During that period I developed chronic pain in my right shoulder that was later diagnosed as supraspinatus tendinosis. The pain gradually subsided as I added pulling exercises to my training program, pull-ups, chin-ups and horizontal rows. I personally did not see any significant increase of my punching power or punching skill (as is often promised by Systema-RMA instructors), as would be expected, since slow push-ups are neither a power nor a skill exercise. On the contrary, I experienced a dramatic increase in my punching power when I started practicing ballistic movements with kettlebells.

CONCLUSION

The purpose of this blog post was not to use fancy terms such as ‘isometric contraction’ or ‘tendon stiffness’, but rather to point out that there are no exercises that can ‘cover all your needs’, with miraculous properties, that can function as magic pills. Before you incorporate any exercise in your training, you need to know as much as possible about its benefits and drawbacks (the adaptations it brings about on your body) and how these can help you reach to your specified performance goals. This way you will train, rather than just ‘work out’.

References

[1] Verkhoshansky Y., Special Strength Training Manual for Coaches. Verkhoshansky SSTM, 2011. p. 83
[2] Zernicke R. F. & Loitz-Ramage B., Exercise-Related Adaptations in Connective Tissue, from Komi P. V., Strength And Power In Sport. Blackwell Science, 2003. p.107
[3] Kubo K., Kanehisa H., Fukunaga T., Effects of different duration isometric contractions on tendon elasticity in human quadriceps muscles. The Journal of Physiology (http://jp.physoc.org/content/536/2/649.full), retrieved January 2012
[4] Seluyanov V.N., Erkomayshvili I.V., Adaptation of skeletal muscles and the Theory of Physical Preparation, from Verkhoshansky Y., Special Strength Training Manual for Coaches. Verkhoshansky SSTM, 2011. p. 85

Guest post: Dragan Milojevic on RMA Mavericks - a blueprint on how to go your own way!

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:53:00 +0000

Spyro: Today, I am really proud that my blog features a guest post from Dragan Milojevic, a veteran martial arts practitioner and instructor, fellow training science geek and blogger. In August 2011, Dragan started the 'Talking the Edge' blog, which I personally place among the most insightful ones out there, regarding martial-arts-related topics, so make sure you check it out. For now, enjoy Dragan's post!

Nowadays it is not uncommon anymore to see people who had belonged to a group of similarly-minded people or an association, deciding to go their own way at one point. It is not different with martial arts, and even the relative newcomers in the global (actually western) MA scene, like Russian arts, have by now grown enough to have those occurrences. However, not everybody who does it seems to have similar success, either commercial or “professional”, in the sense of coming up with satisfactory level of instruction. This rant will be my attempt to discuss what it takes to make one’s own chosen path in martial art fruitful.

First of all, I want to point out that this text does not relate particularly to the phenomenon known as eclectic styles/schools, meaning the instructors who had trained in several different martial arts (although it is pertinent in that regards just as much), but also those who believe they have something new and improved to say and show within one system. Before we move on, I want to state clearly that in my opinion, the budding school founder should have had some serious time under the tutelage of a qualified instructor before, as otherwise it is really hard to gain the proper understanding of general principles in martial arts, i.e. to form the necessary “filters” that make sure everything else is in right place.

Now, that said, if those foundations to be solid, the instructor should have had practiced a fighting system that meets his true interest (excuse the plug, but go this article for more details). Otherwise, it will just be one of those futile attempts to “weaponize” and/or “lethalize” the arts that are simply not meant to be that way (like taijiquan or aikido for example). If these very basic criteria are met, then we can take a look at what really makes a new approach to martial art(s) meaningful. For the sake of simplicity, and assuming that most readers of this blog have some background and/or interest in the Russian martial art of Systema, I will draw the examples to illustrate my points from that environment.

One thing that is conspicuous is the fact that in more than 15 years since Vladimir Vasiliev has opened his school in Canada and made the world aware of Systema, the only “renegade” instructors so far are those with extensive previous experience in other martial arts. I do not wish to risk being drawn into politics of it, so instead of speculating about the reasons why there are no true examples of “systema-only” trained instructors who had decided to try making something new out of it, I will try to focus on the reasons that make those who stand out as positive examples of finding their own voice in it.

Spyro, Alex, Kevin: three corners of the same triangle

While the level of skill and efficient movement as demonstrated by Vasiliev himself is awe-inspiring, to me his teaching approach has always had me somewhat frustrated and wanting for more. Obviously, it was the same case with some other people, so a few of them have taken steps to try and improve on it. I have been blessed to have tasted at least a modicum of what they have to offer, and in the process to recognize some of the important common threads that make them sit well with my own understanding of martial arts. In attempt to make my introductory notions clear, I will address the work (as I understand it) of Alex Kostic, Kevin Secours and our own host Spyro Katsigiannis, with attention to their training methodologies.

No, make that methodologies! This is the operative key word here. Namely, the single most frequent and decisive factor that tends to lead the “make it or break it” equation among the failing “innovators” towards the latter part is the lack of a well though out and implemented methodology of training. All the cool or “street proven, battle tested” techniques and tactics in the world are worth zilch if the student is effectively impeded in learning them by the haphazard and disconnected manner of instruction.

So, we then need something that will be a central pillar of the teaching and training method within a particular school. While there can be many options in this regard, depending what the instructor wants to focus on, in my view there are three essential areas than need be covered, and any of those can then be utilized as the central “axis” that keeps everything else in place – physical/mechanical aspect; mental/emotional aspect; and tactical/contextual aspect. Please understand that all three are parts of one greater whole, such that stands bigger than the simple sum of its parts. To make sure that the interrelation of all parts is depicted properly, I will show it this way:

However, as long as all three topics are tackled in the training process, it is probably best to take one as the mainstay of one’s teaching.

For example, Spyro chooses to build a strong physical foundation – sound understanding and command of mechanical principles of power delivery and efficiency of movement, upon which the students can later add their own individual expression of those principles. In line with such focus, Spyro’s innovation was to actually implement the results of the sport science and its accomplishments in improving the development of human performance, instead of just paying lip service to “scientific” methods and roots of Systema, while in effect having no grasp of it. Again, it is not to say that the students in the Dynamo Club will be cut short of their understanding of emotional and tactical facets, it is just that they will draw their emotional control and tactical “level-headedness” from the confidence in the understanding of how their bodies will operate in an optimal manner.

Alex certainly starts his students on the proper mechanical principles, but the main “angle” of his approach is the emotional state of the individual in the situation of combat. Therefore, his methodology deals mostly with guiding the students in the series of gradual and challenging drills that represents various “phases” of possible technical continuum, thus exposing them to the need for acknowledging the state they are in, and developing the confidence to then experiment with possible mechanical applications. The students are forged in both symmetrical and asymmetrical types of situations, thus providing insights into tactical possibilities, so none of those will present a shocking novelty in case of a real confrontation.

Among the three instructors mentioned here, Kevin is probably one with the most extensive professional experience in “force application” and teaching military/LEO, so it is only natural that such background has yielded an instructional approach that uses various tactical scenarios to instill adequate technical and mental attributes into his students. Again, all the critical elements are there, it is just the matter of picking out one to function as the foundation for the overall training and teaching method.

To wind up this lengthy discussion, I will just add my own view on how all those aspects can be worked within a training season and over a longer period of time (periodization anyone?). The way it seems to me, the logical order of instruction would be the following: mechanical → mental → tactical, which forms one cycle of instruction. It is then repeated, starting with mechanics again, but on a HIGHER level, i.e. integrating all the previous material and experience into the new criteria and requirements for another turn. For those of you image driven learners out there, it would look like an ascending spiral for example, with each new coil going exactly over the previous one.

In conclusion, in hope of having offered something worth reading, I would like to thank all those who have taken time to bear with me on this one and to Spyro for inviting me to do this. Train hard, train smart and have fun doing it!

Dynamo Concepts Workshops: no questions unanswered!

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

(se nedan för text på svenska)

The Göteborg Dynamo Club Presents:

Dynamo Concepts Workshops

The Four Cornerstones of Russian Martial Art
February 5th / 12th / 19th / 26th, 12.00 – 15.00

Nowadays, Russian Martial Art is commonly taught as a bunch of ‘novelty drills’ randomly put together, lacking teaching methodology, and often full of mysticism and claims to superhuman abilities – “we do that because the Masters say it is good”. What is lost this way is the true value of this unique approach to combat training: the in-depth study of biomechanics, the development of all-around dexterity and flow in movement, and the emphasis on concepts rather than techniques. At the Göteborg Dynamo Club, training in Russian Martial Art is an organized process, with no questions left unanswered and plenty of room for each practitioner to develop individually, since unlike what is commonly claimed, it is not practice that makes perfect, it is perfect practice that makes perfect!
The Dynamo Concepts series of workshops will provide you with a solid basis of understanding the answers to some of the most fundamental questions that universally apply to combat:

How can I move faster, with more power, with less effort and less fatigue?
How can my strikes be harder, coming from unpredictable angles?
How can I affect an opponent’s structure and balance so that a takedown becomes easier?
How can I use breathing to minimize the negative effects of combat stress?

More importantly, the Dynamo Concepts workshops will present a logically structured series of training drills in order to improve your martial performance, regardless of the style you are practicing!

The subjects of the workshops will be the following:
Workshop 1, Sunday, February 5th: Human movement as a weapon
Workshop 2, Sunday, February 12th: ‘From any position, any strike’
Workshop 3, Sunday, February 19th: Breaking structure and Takedowns
Workshop 4, Sunday, February 26th: Managing Combat Stress

The participants who complete all four workshops will receive certificates of attendance.

For practitioners who are interested in joining the regular classes at the Göteborg Dynamo Club, this series of workshops will provide the necessary entry level training: once you have completed these twelve hours of training, you can become a member and regularly train with us. For more information on the Göteborg Dynamo Club, please visit www.dynamoclub.se

Do not miss the opportunity to understand the logic and method of Russian Martial Art!

Only ten spaces available - register now!

SEMINAR INFORMATION
Where?
Shorinji Kempo Göteborg Branch Dojo, Landerigatan 9, 41670 Göteborg, Sweden

When?
February 5th / 12th / 19th / 26th, 12.00 – 15.00 (Sunday)

Workshop Fees
The training fee for all four workshops (twelve hours of training) is 1200kr (price for students: 900kr). It is also possible to register for individual workshops at the price of 400kr (300kr for students) per workshop.

How to register/pay
The available number of places for participants is limited – register now!

Send an e-mail to info@dynamoclub.se,

including the following details: full name, age (minimun 18 years old), address, city, postal code, country, telephone number.
Registration deadline: Monday, January 23rd.
Payments are made to:

Göteborgs Systema-RMA Klubb (accountholder), c/o Åhrman, Töpelsgatan 8B, 416 55 Göteborg, Sweden.
Bankgiro: 381-8721, Plusgiro: 501661-3

Göteborgs Dynamoklubb presenterar:

Dynamo Concepts workshops

Den ryska kampkonstens fyra hörnstenar
5 / 12 / 19 / 26 februari, 12.00 – 15.00

Rysk kampkonst lärs ofta ut som en samling spektakulära övningar och tricks, till synes slumpmässigt valda, sällan med en pedagogisk tanke och ofta lastad med mystik och löften om närmast övermänskliga förmågor – ”vi gör som mästaren säger.” I processen förloras något värdefullt från de ryska stilarnas arv och unika approach till kampträning: att på djupet studera biomekanik, att utveckla rörlighet, flyt och kroppslig intelligens i alla riktningar, och emfasen på koncept snarare än färdiga recept och tekniker. På Göteborgs Dynamoklubb tränar vi rysk kampkonst i en strukturerad och utforskande process, med stort utrymme för individuell utveckling, och där inga frågor lämnas obesvarade. Till skillnad från vad man brukar påstå räcker inte den gamla devisen ”övning ger färdighet”. Perfekt övning ger perfektion!

Seminarieserien Dynamo Concepts bygger en solid grund för att besvara några av de mest grundläggande frågorna när det gäller närkamp, och hjälpa dig att lösa problemen:

Hur kan jag röra mig snabbare, med större effekt, och med mindre ansträngning och utmattning?
Hur blir mina slag tyngre och hårdare, och hur slår jag från oförutsägbara vinklar?
Hur kan jag påverka motståndarens struktur och balans, och göra en nedtagning enkel?
Hur andas jag för att minimera fightens stresseffekter?

Framförallt ger Dynamo Concepts en strukturerad uppsättning övningar och drillar som ökar din prestationsförmåga, oavsett vilken kampkonst eller stil du tränar.

Under fyra workshops går vi igenom följande ämnen:
Workshop 1, söndagen den 5 februari: Kroppens rörelser som vapen
Workshop 2, söndagen den 12 februari: ”Från alla positioner, alla attacker”
Workshop 3, söndagen den 19 februari: Att bryta strukturen och nedtagningar
Workshop 4, söndagen den 26 februari: Stresshantering i närkamp

Du som fullföljer alla fyra delar kommer att få ett deltagarbevis. För deltagare som är intresserade av att gå på Dynamoklubbens löpande lektioner är Dynamo Concepts ett grundkrav. När du har fullföljt dessa tolv träningstimmar kan du bli medlem och träna med oss på regelbunden basis.

För mer information om Göteborgs Dynamoklubb: www.dynamoclub.se
Ta chansen att förstå logiken och metodiken bakom rysk kampkonst.
Endast tio platser – anmäl dig nu!

PRAKTISK iNFORMATION
Plats
Shorinji Kempo Göteborg Branch Dojo, Landerigatan 9, 41670 Göteborg

Träningsschema
Fyra söndagar, 5 / 12 / 19 / 26 februari, 12.00 – 15.00

Seminarieavgift
Avgiften för fyra workshops (tolv timmar träning) är 1200 kr (studentpris: 900kr). Det är också möjligt att registrera sig för enskilda workshops, och då är kostnaden 400 kr (studentpris: 300kr) per tillfälle.

Anmälan & Betalning
Antalet platser är begränsat – anmäl dig nu!

Skicka ett mail till info@dynamoclub.se

och inkludera följande detaljer: För- och efternamn, ålder (åldersgräns 18 år), adress och telefonnummer.
Sista anmälningsdag: Måndag den 23 januari.
Betalning sker till:
Göteborgs Systema-RMA Klubb, c/o Åhrman, Töpelsgatan 8B, 416 55 Göteborg
Bankgiro: 381-8721, Plusgiro: 501661-3

2011: A few books I read, some stuff I used and liked

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:01:00 +0000

There we are again, with one of those ‘end of the year posts’ – after the previous one, about things I learned, here are some books I read and some stuff I used and liked within the past 12 months. You will find more than one kettlebells-related resources in the list, plus a couple of training books and a couple or products promoting recovery: 2011 was the year I decided to take my kettlebells training to the next level and in order to do this I had to work a lot on ‘weak links management’ - at the age of 42, it somehow gets to be that way...

THE KETTLEBELL SYSTEMA UNIVERSITY WEBSITE, BY COACH DENIS KANYGIN
I was quite impressed by Denis Kanygin’s Science of Kettlebell Sport DVD set, which was released in 2010 – there is no other instructional that I have watched (and I have watched quite a few) with a better biomechanical breakdown of the Girevoy Sport competition lifts and a more detailed progression of training drills in order to perfect them. Still, the new members’ website launched a couple of months ago by Coach Kanygin exceeded my expectations by far. The sheer amount of information you have access to as a member (for the cost of 25$ per month) is overwhelming by any measure and I honestly mean this, since I have been a member since October and I haven’t yet managed to read/watch everything in there! Whether you are into fitness training with kettlebells, Girevoy Sport, or kettlebells juggling, the Kettlebell Systema University website offers a mind-boggling combination of articles and video tutorials for the lifts themselves, programming and training periodization articles, full yearly programs (including all the workouts), plus injury prevention strategies and drills. One of the best investments I made this year by far!

THE ESSENTIALS OF KETTLEBELLS LIFTING BOOK,

BY COACH NICO RITHNER
Another excellent resource on kettlebells training, literally a breath of fresh air in this world of ‘plug and play programs’, ‘secrets of training revealed’ and ‘workout of the day’ idiocy. Rithner’s book is essentially an introductory guide to strength and conditioning training and how kettlebells can be used to apply proven scientific concepts, whether you want to compete in Girevoy Sport, or you just want to become stronger, more explosive or more athletic. The chapters contributed by Thierry Sanchez on the history of kettlebell sport and Peter Van Dorren on the biomechanics of the competitive lifts are also very good. This is a nice addition to any training library – you can buy it from Rithner’s website.

SPECIAL STRENGTH TRAINING MANUAL FOR COACHES,

BY PROFESSOR YURI VERKHOSHANSKY
The late professor Verkhoshansky, one of the foremost Russian experts in the field of sports training, introduced the world to a number of revolutionary concepts and methods from the 1960s on, such as ‘Shock Training’ (commonly known as plyometrics), the Block Training System, the Long-Delayed Training Effect and Special Strength Training among others, while he is also known as the first scientist who applied the Physiology of Adaptation in the theoretic analysis of the sport training process. Verkhoshansky was indeed a ‘renaissance man’ of sport science and reading his analysis of the theoretical aspects behind his Special Strength Training methodology in the second edition of this book (the first one from 2006 included mainly descriptions of training methods) is in a sense as fascinating as reading John Cage writing about sound and music, or Rudolph Laban writing about movement – except that Verkhoshansky is way more specific in describing his revolutionary concepts, that reveal how much he was influenced by the complex system approach, self-organization and the physiology of adaptation. Do not misunderstand me: this is a resource containing a tremendous amount of practical knowledge and applications of Verkhshansky’s methodology to cyclic, acyclic and team / combat sports (which should be taken with a grain of salt), but treating this only as a ‘how to’ book might not do justice to the ingenious ideas presented in here. This can be an incredible eye-opener to people who are stuck to a mechanistic understanding of the training process – it’s not an easy read by any measure, but it is a very important one. You can buy it from the site of Professor Yuri Verkhoshansky.

THE HOW TO SEQUENCE THE TEACHING OF TECHNIQUES AND TACTICS BOOK, BY LUIS PRETO
I have posted a review of Luis Preto’s book about a month ago, so there’s no need for a detailed description here.
In a few words, in this book, Luis presents an approach to teaching martial arts that boils down to the following guidelines:
•    Teach the technical elements of your style by explaining the tasks (as opposed to describing the movements) that must be performed and make sure the students understand the logic behind each technique.
•    Sequence these contents into a step-by-step system that makes sense.
•    Allow tactical skill to be developed simultaneously with technical proficiency.
Although I’m way more into unarmed combat training than weapons work, Luis’ approach to teaching applies almost universally and belongs to that category of ideas that are ‘so simple they’re ingenious’. You can buy Luis’ book from Amazon.com.

THE FROLOV RESPIRATION TRAINING DEVICE
Unlike the rest of the breath training devices in the market, that simply offer resistance training for the respiratory act, the Frolov Device is a sophisticated method of breath training that has a broader, systemic effect on the body . Besides improving external breathing (the exchange of gases that happens in your lungs), it also helps optimize your internal breathing too, i.e. the oxygenation of your cells and thus, your metabolic energy production. I used breath training with the Frolov Device as part of my preparation for the Tactical Strength Challenge Competition, which took place last September – a customized program was designed for me by Dr Sergey Zinatulin, head of the scientific department of the company that produces the device. The effects I noticed was a stronger and more effortless breathing function, much improved quality of sleep and better recovery between training sessions, significantly improved levels of energy during the day and, most importantly, reduced inflammation in my chronic injuries despite the much increased training volumes and intensity. Although I have done quite a lot of Qigong breathing exercises during my years in Chinese martial arts, it is only after using the Frolov Device that I believe for the first time that there are significant health and athletic performance benefits in breath training. If you live in Sweden, you can find more information about the Frolov Device and buy it at the website of Vitalt Koncept AB.

EARTHING GROUNDING MAT
The idea behind the Earthing Connection Products is pretty simple: ‘grounding’ yourself, i.e. somehow placing your body in direct contact with the ground, equalizes the electrical potential of your body to that of the earth, and can revitalize your health, by reducing free radicals and inflammation. The scientific research behind that series of products seems to be rather solid. I got an Earthing Connection mat after the recommendation of a good friend and have been using it (you basically connect the mat to the ground port in a socket and then place the mat under your feet when sitting or lying in bed) for about six months now. I was especially impressed when, during a training session I got hit with a heavy foot-stomp on my instep, which caused my foot to swell so much that I could not fit it in my shoe. Surprisingly, my foot was back to normal size the next morning, with no icing, no compression and no elevation, after placing the Earthing mat under it during sleep. If you live in Sweden, you can buy Earthing products from this website.

So, that's all for 2011. I hope this year was as insightful, productive and fascinating as it was for me, and I wish 2012 is even more so for all of us. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year, everybody!!!

2011: A Few Things I Learned About Training

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:39:00 +0000

As this year approaches its end (yep, about a couple of weeks left), here are a few things that occupied my mind more than once during the past twelve months, regarding training, whether for attributes or for skills. Most of the examples you will see me using are from the context of what is known as ‘fitness training’, but my comments apply in the realm of martial arts training just as well. Please keep in mind that, with my conclusions I do not lay claim over any type of truth – that’s just the way I feel about these things NOW. Here I go then!

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU TRAIN AT, IT’S WHAT YOU TRAIN FOR THAT MATTERS!
It is pretty common nowadays to consider specific training protocols or specific training implements, usually marketed by training brand names or franchises, as an end in their own: “I train Crossfit” or “I train with kettlebells” are comments that people make pretty often, and to be honest with you that doesn’t make much sense to me. Training is (or should be) a goal driven process: the various forms of training stress imposed to an organism cause specific adaptations. You cannot train using power lifting protocols if your goal is to run a Marathon race, right? After all, the word ‘fit’ literally means ‘appropriate’. Well, what do you want to be appropriate FOR?
A specific program or a training implement are tools, means to an end, NOT goals. Using kettlebells, TRXs or various other gizmos without a goal is like driving a car for six hours a week and never actually having a place to go to: you’re waisting precious energy and you’re probably wearing the car down to no purpose. A legitimate goal might be to lose weight, improve your body composition, compete and finish a half-Marathon for the first time, tear a deck of cards with your hands, become a more powerful striker etc. Before you train, you need to set your goal, i.e. conceive the image of a desired future. Then you must examine various training methodologies according to the results they produce, find which ones are useful in your case and combine them in a training program that includes not just training, but rest and recovery too. Is this way too complicated? Well, that’s why there are professional trainers out there. All you have to do is tell them what you want. They will translate your goals into ‘training language’ and design a program for you.
An article with a similar subject was written by my good friend, Serbian strength & conditioning coach Mladen Jovanovic and posted on his blog, almost the exact same date last year. Well worth reading, just like the rest of his training blog – check it out.
So why is it then that people cling to training fads of implements like fanatic football fans to their teams? This brings us to my second thing I learned this year, namely…

REDUCTIONISM: MIGHT BE GOOD FOR THE BUSINESS, BUT NOT AS GOOD FOR THE CUSTOMERS…
In case you haven’t noticed, reductionism is everywhere around us: things have to be always “either… or…”, never “both… and…”. For example, the most popular kettlebells franchises in the market claim that it’s them alone who offer the ‘correct training methodology’ and the others ‘do it wrong’ or even worse, have ‘inferior training goals’! So suddenly, you find yourself having to follow one line only: “are you hard-style or soft-style”? Sorry guys, but I am a trainer, not an erection…
The thing is, in an extremely consumerist environment, marketing has to be aggressive and cut-throat: you have to shout loud enough AND trash-talk your competition to make your voice heard. In this sense, a brand name or franchise has to define itself not just by what it is, but also by what it is NOT. This way we ended up in either-or views such as ‘long slow endurance training is not good, high intensity interval training is the best’. Well, what if I tell you that the first training method increases the volume of your heart and develops your vascular network while the second one makes your heart muscle stronger and more enduring? Why wouldn’t you use a combination of both methods for best results? Unfortunately, if you don’t know the science behind each one of the two training options, you get to listen to the voices of marketing rather than the voice of reason…
In its most extreme version, this ‘either…or…’ mentality, lead the founder and CEO or a very popular fitness franchise to claims such as ‘no achievement in human performance has ever come from exercise science’, or that ‘the therapy for training injuries is STFU’! As I said, in might be good for the business, but is it good for you? Just take a moment to think about it…

Another training fad or THE BEST TRAINING METHOD EVER? You be the judge of that...

THE KNOWLEDGE OF PRINCIPLES CAN SUBSTITUTE FOR THE IGNORANCE OF FACTS

The meaning of this quote by French philosopher Claude Adrien Helvétius exploded into my mind when, while exchanging views on breath training in a social medium, I read someone’s post that “if burst breathing causes respiratory alcalosis, and bust breathing is advocated by the masters of a martial system, then respiratory alcalosis must be good for you”! Well, correct me if I’m wrong here, but I’d rather first know what respiratory alcalosis is and which breathing patterns are causing it, so I can conclude myself whether it is good for me or not. Swallowing a ‘recipe’ whole and then trying to ‘force’ the scientific knowledge that confirms it, while often ignoring that which contradicts it, is a sign of intellectual laziness. The relationship between you and your instructor (martial or other) should of course be built on a basis of trust, but in the end only you are responsible for your training and learning! Know your scientific principles first – in the overwhelming majority of cases, the facts will confirm what you already know, but you will often also be able to prevent training screw-ups, plus you will be able to organize your training yourself if needed.

French philosopher Helvetius: did this guy know his training or what?

A LITTLE COMPETITION CAN CARRY YOU A LONG WAY

2011 was the year I decided to return to some form of competitive activity after eleven years (it was year 2000 when I competed in san shou for the last time and decided to call it quits due to lower back injury). A few months ago, my good friend, Serbian MMA coach Mark Lajhner told me that competitions function more or less as a very efficient time constraint, just like exams for university students – indeed, can you imagine how much more time it would take for a student to get a university degree if there was no exams and tests involved whatsoever? Training is pretty much the same thing – after you set your training goals, it’s good to set a time frame within which you plan to achieve them. But, besides forcing you to drag your lazy bottom to the gym, competitions are good for something even more important: trying out training methods in order to determine their effectiveness and trouble-shooting. In September 2011 I competed in what is known as a Tactical Strength Challenge, which took place in the city where I live. The TSC is a maximum strength/strength-endurance/power-endurance event, and I decided that the training goals in order to compete were not inconsistent with those of a martial artist (since I mostly train martial arts) or the rest of my life, so I went for it. Now, within the two month period I prepared for the challenge, I had the opportunity to learn quite a few things about training programming (thanks to my good friends, coaches Greg Mihovich and Mladen Jovanovich), nutrition and rest/recovery options, PLUS I got to make some training mistakes (yeah, stupid ones too), that hopefully, made me a somewhat wiser athlete and coach. My point is that if you don’t get challenged occasionally, it’s pretty hard to grow, and some form of competition can provide a good incentive. For a number of reasons, I am not very much for professional sports, but amateur competitions are well worth considering, even if you don’t think you’re ‘good enough’. In the TSC I participated, there were quite a few good athletes, but also a number of competitors who could just perform two or three pull-ups (maximum number of bodyweight pull-ups was one of the events). But, you know what? They prepared, they showed up and they gave it their best shot. Plus, they’ll be back in the next TSC and do much better- and that is just awesome!

OK, that’s enough ranting for one blog post. I just hope this year was as productive and full of knowledge for you as it was for me. You might be interested to know that for the moment I am working on writing a document on how classical mechanics can help you understand how to improve our power generation potential for martial arts, but regarding the Dynamo Club blog, I’ll just be back in a few days with a post on the stuff that I got and liked most in 2011. Unill then…

With a little help from my friends - Luis Preto: an interview

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:27:00 +0000

After the reviews section that was introduced in my previous post, today I am proud to present one more new feature of the Göteborg Dynamo blog, namely that of interviews. The title I gave to this series of interviews is 'With a little help from my friends', for a very simple reason: since the training methodology we use at the Dynamo Club is, more or less, an 'open source' system, that has incorporated elements from the work of various instructors I have had the privilege to meet and train with through the years, I thought I might try and pay back all these generous friends for their help, by presenting them in the Dynamo blog and promoting their work.

The first friend I chose to interview is Luis Preto, instructor of Jogo do Pau (the Portuguese staff fencing art), a sports science geek, and writer of a series of most insightful books on training for technical and tactical martial arts skills. I have had the opportunity to personally meet and partner-train with Luis about eight months ago, during a training seminar in Norway and I was impressed by the depth of his knowledge on biomechanics and also his politeness and humbleness. Later, I got to read his book 'Fencing Martial Arts: How to Sequence the Teaching of Technique and Tactics' and his approach to designing an effective training curriculum influenced quite a lot the way we organized the contents of the section of teaching throws and takedowns at the Dynamo.

Here's how our online conversation turned out:

Luis, could you please introduce yourself to the readers of this blog and could you provide some information about your background?

Hello fellow martial artists! My name is Luis Preto, I’m 33, I was born in the UK and later raised in Portugal. I started practicing martial arts at the age of 9, with karate. Fifteen years ago I opted to dedicate myself to the exclusive practice and study of Jogo do Pau, the Portuguese fencing combat system.

I have always been at the opposite end of the so called ‘naturally gifted performers’, so I always felt the need to analyze my shortcomings and come up with specific drills to correct them. However, I came to understand later that my shortcomings were pretty common for a lot of practitioners, which in turn led me to conclude that the most commonly used training methods needed improvement. Initially this turned into an obsession but, as I underwent an undergraduate and master’s degree in Sport Sciences, it transformed into a passion.

Although as an active teacher I’ve researched basically every single training factor there is, I would have to say that my main field has been skill development, namely the application of the ecological perspective of human movement to martial arts so that students learn techniques by understanding the natural contextual logic of affordances and constraints that gave birth to the techniques in the first place.

How about Jogo do Pau? Could you briefly share a few historical details about this art and your personal course in it?
Jogo do Pau is commonly known as the Portuguese staff fencing art. However, according to the information that I’ve had access to that is not entirely the case. First of all, it is actually a European rather than Portuguese fencing art, since the same art has also been practiced and used by the French. The thing is, it became extinct everywhere else except in Portugal. Secondly, it is an art which focused on techniques that can be applied both to staffs and bladed weapons, such as long double hand and short single hand swords.

However, its main characteristics are that:
•    It is an art with its origins in skills development for combat in outnumbered scenarios, with applications to both battle-field and self defense contexts.
•    It was preserved through the use of the staff, since this weapon was being used by civilians until far later than the swords. Nowadays, its practice is still mostly done with staffs because, although swords look cooler, staffs are way more exciting since the level of skill required for parrying techniques is much more complex and demanding.
As for me, I’m just an instructor - perhaps an instructor who benefited from access to unique sources such as Masters Russo, Mota & Saramago as well as Soviet sports science researchers such as Yuri Verkoshansky, but still, I’m just an instructor looking to improve each day and help my students the way I would like to have been helped as a youngster.

In your website, you are referring to your How to Sequence the Teaching of Technique and Tactics as a book that will allow one “to overcome the standard training of learning an art, by developing functional combat skill”. Which is the standard way of learning a martial art? Why do we need to overcome it?
Regardless of the techniques of each martial art, most striking styles have two common mistakes in their teaching methodologies:

The first mistake has to do with teaching technique and it simply boils down to the unproductive distinction that is usually made between the movements of an art and the environment in which they must be applied. As Humans, we do not elaborate our movements by thinking of activating muscles in sequence a, b or c; and we do not build our movement skills by thinking of placing our limbs in certain positions in space. Techniques develop as a result of the task that needs to be performed, in combination with the constraints and affordances of the environment and the person performing the task. There is a logic behind each movement and, if this logic is communicated through training, it allows the students to learn techniques from a perspective of performing tasks (such as parrying a strike with certain characteristics), thus becoming combatants rather than merely performers of ‘empty’ movements. The instructors who understand this are able to grasp the overall combat logic which connects every single factor, from offensive and defensive techniques to context specific tactics, which therefore allows them to properly structure teaching sequences that successfully build upon previous ones.

The second main mistake has to do with the inability of martial arts’ most common training methods to develop tactical skill. Both the commands method, with the practitioners behaving like puppets, executing techniques at the instructor’s cue, as well as the instructional teaching method, with the instructors making all the tactical decisions and providing the practitioners with all the information that they are supposed to merely implement in combat, utterly fails in developing tactically competent practitioners. Since combat requires that participants interpret their opponent’s behavior and make instant decisions on how to respond, training methods must be reformulated so as to promote active thinking from students in the sense of evaluating their opponents’ traits and finding an adequate solution. This will promote the development of tactically competent combatants and, may even help develop some true martial artists, those people who are able to think outside the box and present us with technical or tactical innovations.

I feel that the drawbacks of these training methodologies must be overcome because students who are investing money and effort in pursuing their goal of developing effective combat skill deserve to have access to the most effective methods available. Additionally, improving the training methods used by previous generations does not constitute an insult to them. These previous generations simply had to start from scratch and couldn’t possibly cover everything before time caught up with them. Were they alive today, I am of the opinion they would be their most fierce critics and would constantly look to improve their own ideas to new heights.

To my understanding, your three recently published books and one training DVD are part of your answer to the need there is today for improved training methodologies in martial arts. Could you shortly describe which specific problems in training methodologies each of the books and the DVD is addressing?
First I would have to say that the common trait between them is that I tried to approach combat techniques not as movements, as seen from an outside observer, but as tasks being performed by a person who is submitted to a specific context (combat) that elicits also specific tasks (injuring the opponent while avoiding being injured) in order to be successful.

Therefore, in the book on parrying skill I present partner drills that enable practitioners to naturally develop parrying motions according to the constraints that influence their practice. This allows understanding of the combat applications for each of the different parrying options, namely by transmitting the pros and cons of different parries available to intercept the same strike. Additionally, I also explain and present training drills on the topic of defensive timing and distance management.

The book on footwork follows the same line of thought, explaining how to develop footwork under a combat utility perspective, which is attained by focusing on distance management, speed and adaptability to opponents of different characteristics. I also included an additional section in which I look to breakdown footwork’s biomechanical issues so that practitioners are able to optimize this combat variable once their distance management skills are well developed. Again, I look to use exercises with a partner so that practitioners are presented with problems and tasks to solve, which enables them to develop the footwork movements by understanding the environment’s constraints the make it logical and natural to move in a given way.

The book on combat in outnumbered scenarios is mostly on technique and tactical skills to fight against multiple opponents when using a long two handed weapon or a short single hand one (staffs and batons). Once again, both techniques and tactical options are explained within their natural combat context and practiced in such a way. Hence, the contents presented focus on free fighting instead of establishing rules or principles that the group of combatants has to go by.

The DVD looks to present the fundamental topics for any martial artist who does weapons sparring, such as, distance management in striking, perceptual strategies in parrying, tactical application of different parries, the relationship between defensive parrying footwork and parries and, finally, principles for the development of tactical skill.

It is my feeling that the majority of people perceive martial arts or combat systems not simply as a set of tasks that arise out of a set of strategic imperatives, but as crystallized and closed systems of knowledge comprising of techniques AND teaching methods. Why do you think this happens? What would you reply to someone who ‘accused’ you that your art is not Jogo do Pau anymore?
I have had the enormous privilege of teaching alongside Mr. Robert Liles, who was by the words of Mr. Ed Parker (the founder of American Kenpo) his Kenpo adoptive son. I know for a fact that Mr. Liles has been praised that his Kenpo is better than the founder’s, but mind you that he has also been criticized, since he had the “nerve” to make adjustments on Mr. Parker’s technique. When confronted by such compliments he simply claims that his Kenpo isn’t better, in his words his Kenpo is just Kenpo from “year two thousand and something”, while his instructor’s was kenpo from the twentieth century. To that he adds that the reason he managed to progress further was because he benefitted from his instructor’s initial work. Today’s medical science is the result of the enormous improvements made ever since the time of witch doctors and such. People can’t wait for medicine to progress even more so the cure for diseases such as AIDS and cancer can be found. In a similar way, when combat systems are subjected to objective evaluation in the form of combat, be it in the street or in the competitive arena, the mentality of questioning knowledge is maintained and the systems continue evolving. However, questioning things and trying to make progress is hard work and, therefore, those who happen to practice martial arts under the comfort of not being pressed to show results in a combat situation, find it easier to merely keep everything the same and ultimately criticize those who look to continue their instructor’s unfinished work as a sin, when it really is the higher tribute that can be paid to them.

Should someone state that the JdP that I teach is no longer the traditional JdP, I would start by reflecting on the criticism - should I conclude that changes had been indeed introduced, changes that actually led to enhanced combat performance, either by improved technical contents or by better teaching / training methods, I would embrace this comment as a complement. I would hate to end up stagnating, especially since during the fifteen years I was lucky to be in contact with Master Russo, there was never a single season in which the technical program didn’t require at least one minor adjustment.

It is very often claimed that the ‘old martial art masters’ knew everything and modern day science actually has nothing new to add in martial training methodologies. Where do you think this notion comes from?
I would have to say that two factors contribute to this. The first has to do with the fact that martial arts are mostly practiced by people whose professional commitments forces them to study subjects such as, for example, law and engineering. This means that most people have insufficient knowledge about human movement sciences to analyze technical skills and teaching methods, just as I am not knowledgeable to comment on the construction of a bridge, a doctor’s surgery technique, etc. Hence, sometimes practitioners place their previous instructors on a pedestal and due to lack of knowledge fail to detect components that can be improved. Think about it this way: when kids are ill, their parents take them to doctors, because they naturally acknowledge that they need help on a field that they don’t know much about. Unfortunately, when it comes to training, very few people show the same attitude, as if admitting one’s lack of knowledge on human movement analysis and skills acquisition should be a cause of shame and ridicule. In addition to that, there is this quite popular sports myth according to which, a talented performer can also teach and analyze his activity from a theoretical standpoint – well, this is a quite silly myth. I can easily transform someone who does not even know how to read or write – let alone be knowledgeable about biomechanics and physiology - into a formidable fighter. However, I can also guarantee that this formidable fighter won’t even realize how he actually performs many of his skills, much less be able to teach them. Nevertheless in the world of martial arts he would be considered a master and proficient teacher solely on the basis of his fighting performance skill.

Secondly, in general we, human beings, like to feel safe. In this regard, quite a lot of people would rather believe in a fair governing entity such as God, or be convinced that Nature will always find a way to mend our mistakes, than face the possibility that we might be here on this planet by ourselves and that the planet might be on the verge of collapsing. The belief that the system we train at emanates from a superior entity who knew everything allows us to feel safe that we won’t get lost in the search for martial skill, thus being destined to succeed.

What are you currently working on?
Currently I am working on three new writing projects. The first one is about functional physical conditioning for elite sports performance. However, when I say elite I don’t refer to professional international level athletes. I’m referring to getting all enthusiast competitors to learn how to get the most out of their training by laying the physical foundations that enable them to optimize their technique and stamina. Additionally, this won’t just be one more book on physical conditioning - it is meant to work as a teaching course that will get readers to apply the contents covered to practical training scenarios and therefore develop real and useful training management skills regarding the topic of physical conditioning. The second document I’m working on is about the prescription and practice of the squat for sports and, last but not least, the third one is about understanding how to merge all biomechanical, physiological and contextual variables in one complete and coherent way, in order to diagnose what makes effective offensive and defensive techniques in striking martial arts.

Would you like to close this interview with some advice for aspiring martial arts instructors, whether that would be books to read, subjects to study or habits to acquire?
From a scientific perspective I would advise the following reading:
•    To develop a more critical view on sports training in general: “Sports: Is it all BS?” By Dr. Michael Yessis
•    On performance psychology: “Fear: The friend of exceptional people” by Geoff Thompson
•    Regarding physical conditioning I would only advise “Supertraining” by Dr Mell Siff and Dr Yuri Verkoshanski, but it is a quite complex hardcore scientific reading. Hopefully, my document on physical conditioning, which will be available at the start of 2012, will be a cheaper option as well as an easier read for those interested on this subject
From a personal perspective, I would like to ask people to start acknowledging the fact that performing is different than teaching and, secondly, to be open minded to the point of constantly looking for ways to improve their teaching methods so as to help their students the same way they would like to be helped, as opposed to merely teaching so as to use the students for their own personal training. By doing this, everyone will benefit: the arts, the students and the instructors, in the satisfaction they derive from teaching.

To find more about Luis Preto, visit his website at www.pretomartialarts.com. His books can be purchased from Amazon.

Book review: How to Sequence the Teaching of Technique and Tactics, by Luis Preto

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:25:00 +0000

A new feature of the Dynamo blog is launched with this blog post, the reviews of martial arts training and instructional resources. Please bear in mind that you will not find any negative reviews in this section, since we'll be dealing exclusively with products that have proved helpful in the Dynamo training methodology and practice, so in a sense we recommend them, or better yet, the resources we'll be writing about have been "Dynamo approved". We'll be starting from the book Fencing Martial Arts: How to Sequence the Teaching of Techniques and Tactics, by Luis Preto.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Luis Franco Preto holds a Master's Degree in Sports Science. He has been practicing and teaching martial arts for the past 25 years. He is an instructor in Lusitan Fencing, aka Jogo do Pau. He holds a dan grading in Wado Ryu Karate and is a certified self-defense instructor under Geoff Thompson. You can find more info on him at www.pretomartialarts.com.

ABOUT THE BOOK

First and foremost, this book is targeted mostly towards martial arts instructors and not so much the average practitioners, since its subject is teaching methodology, and namely teaching skills and organizing the training contents into an effective curriculum by having each training stage being a natural consequence of the previous training stages. In a few words, the subject of the book is teaching fencing martial arts and understanding:

what to teach
in which order
and how to go about teaching it.

This is achieved through the extremely meticulous progression of drills which is presented in the book, designed to guide the fencing arts student from the beginner stages of practice up to free sparring, while building solid technical skills and developing tactical knowledge at the same time. The drill descriptions are more or less generic, but specific examples are provided for each, so the reader can easily come up with different versions of the drills.

What is even more interesting about this book is that Preto approaches his subject from a 'clean slate' perspective, i.e. not as a Jogo do Pau instructor, but as a scientist who first defines the problem he'll be dealing with, then breaks iτ down in smaller sub-problems and proceeds to gradually solve it, making sure that he always explains the 'why' before the 'how'. In this sense, the book is not about presenting a specific martial style, so it is valuable to all instructors of blade/stick arts. If we take it one step further, the thought process followed here by Preto can be a most useful model to those who aspire to develop a more modern and effective curriculum even for empty-hand martial arts or combat sports. All in all, this appears to be a very important book for martial arts instructors, especially given the poverty of the English-language martial arts bibliography in books focused on pedagogy.

ABOUT THE LAYOUT AND PRINTING QUALITY
The font used in the book is rather 'noisy' and I personally could do with a much simpler one, the quality of the pictures is very good and the layout could benefit from bigger margins, to make noting and marking the book easier - but that might be just me...

HOW TO GET THE BOOK
You can purchease it from Amazon.com.

Systematizing My Systema, Part 3d: Mental Toughness Training

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:45:00 +0000

In Part 3a of the Systematizing my Systema series of articles, we discussed the general idea of athletic training vs. sports training and we also argued that training for self defense is definitely an athletic endeavor, rather similar to training for combat sports in terms of motor qualities (strength, speed, power, mobility), physiological/metabolic qualities (aerobic, anaerobic endurance) and basic movement skills, although quite different in terms of the strategies and tactics explored. We also claimed that a person involved in any type of athletic activity, in order to maximize performance, needs attributes, skills and mental toughness. Attributes were discussed in detail in Systematizing My Systema Part 3b, while we addressed training for skills in Systematizing My Systema Part 3c. In this post we will discuss the third aspect of our training which is pressure testing for mental toughness.

PRESSURE TESTING: WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH...

First things first: "Why should we pressure test at all?” you might ask. The answer is rather simple: through drilling you do acquire skills, but under combat stress these skills tend to deteriorate - under pressure, a lot of the stuff you are good at in a martial arts training session might go out the window! Now, pay close attention to this, because there's a lot of nonsense written online on this particular subject: we are not pressure testing whether our techniques function in conditions of combat friction - we are testing whether we ourselves can function under pressure! As long as our techniques do not ignore the laws of physics, they will work just fine – paraphrasing a good friend of mine who’s into Japanese martial arts, O Soto Gari does work in real combat, although my O Soto Gari might not. Rather than the techniques, it is our brain where the source of the problem lies, where emotions arise (mainly fear) that can make our tactical knowledge disappear and mess up with our physical skills.

The key-word here is emotional regulation. It is actually quite strange that although the role of deliberate practice (i.e. drilling for skills) in developing expert performance in sports has been exhaustively studied, the role of consistent exposure to competitive settings has not been studied nearly as much, if at all. Still, it is quite difficult to imagine someone who is capable of regulating his emotional responses to a stimulus that he has never been exposed to, right? Just to give you an example, imagine Larry Bird fooling around and shooting thousands of hoops from outside the three-point line – if he never practiced with a fellow teammate trying to defend against him in a dynamic environment, would he be able to score as much in a real game? I seriously doubt it.

Now, the most common argument against dynamic training in a self defense context is that the actions one might take against his opponent when in a life-threatening situation are way too dangerous to be practiced repeatedly without control. In addition to that, some people claim that the use of protective equipment in order to reduce this potential for injury, distorts the mechanics of techniques (for example, a glove allows people to hit much harder that they would bare-knuckled), so it could lead to bad technical habits. My answer to these arguments is: “YES, you would have a point… IF we used these methods to develop technique, but WE DON’T, so you are WRONG”. Let me repeat it once more: we drill for skills; we ‘compete’ to expand our capacity to regulate emotions. In this sense, our competitive training (against resisting opponents, that is) or pressure testing methods are a means to an end, not an end it their own.

Storm Fighting as practiced by athletes of the Russian All-Around Fighting system. Rounds last only twenty seconds, during which the athletes are only allowed to attack - no defense is allowed. The purpose of this drill is not for one to become good at Storm Fighting, since in real combat, retreating and defending might be necessary. The whole point is for practitioners to develop the mental toughness necessary to keep pushing forward while ignoring the pain and the fatigue that is building up over the rounds.

The idea behind the pressure testing we do at the Dynamo is very simple: yes, it would be dangerous for practitioners to closely simulate realistic self defense conditions in a training setting, just to trigger the emotional responses we want to explore. So instead of simulating the conditions, we try to trigger the emotional responses through other conditions, with a lower risk of injury! Although I can’t back this up with hard scientific evidence, my belief is that humans do not have a different fear reaction system for every situation they face – it is the same adrenaline that flushes through the system of a fighter in the ring, a doctor performing heart surgery, a member of an ambulance crew performing CPR to someone who suffered a heart attack, or a fireman trying to remove an old lady from inside a building which is being consumed by flames. Once emotional control can be achieved under one set of conditions, it’s easier to ‘transfer’ this capacity to a different context.

That is why the methods we use in the Dynamo to pressure test are non-context-specific and they basically fall under two categories. The first one is various forms of symmetrical competition: fist fighting, kick fighting, kick-boxing, wrestling, or stick fighting. YES, I know these are not "realistic self defense" practice fields, but the point of this type of work is not to become good at fist fighting, wrestling and so on; the point is to become good in solving combat-related motor problems under a certain degree of pressure and to explore the idea of recovering after making mistakes that bring you in disadvantageous positions. The participants in this type of drills are not trying to win over their partner in order to feed their ego – they are exploring, together with their partner the dynamics of the interaction – the benefit is not in victory but in reaching conclusions. The second type of pressure testing at the Dynamo includes asymmetrical limited-parameter drills (for example, only strikes with the fists are allowed) that are designed to induce panic to one of the participants, who is then asked to apply specific series of actions to limit the symptoms of stress and recover in order to survive. Increasing the pressure in this type of drills is done very gradually so the student can be aware of the exact moment when the fear reaction system kicks in and learn how to recognize the symptoms.

This was the sixth and final (seriously, I promise) article of the Systematizing my Systema series, the purpose of which was to present the training methodology at the Göteborg Dynamo Club of Russian Martial Art as a goal oriented process. This process includes the knowledge of a great variety of training methods and the effects each one of them produces, setting as specific a goal as possible, selecting those methods that when applied in combination will produce the desired result, scheduling those methods in a training program and applying it - as I wrote at the beginning of the first article of the series, it is the 'why' that will determine the 'how'. Blindly following the system a supposedly formidable martial arts master promotes and hoping that you will some day acquire that master's skills, makes as much sense as reading a champion athlete's conditioning program in a magazine and following it blindly with no regard to your level of physical condition, possible limitations and needs - it is more often than not a recipe for disaster or at best a waste of time. In our next blog post we will discuss what we do best at the Dynamo, that is, power generation training.

Systema Homo Ludens seminar with Alex Kostic at the Göteborg Dynamo Club

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:58:00 +0000

The Dynamo Club - Göteborg is proud to announce:

Systema Homo Ludens Integral Martial Arts Training Seminar, With Alex Kostic
November 26th & 27th 2011, Göteborg, Sweden

The evolution of Russian Martial Art

Homo Ludens (The Playing Man) is Alex Kostic’s innovative, holistic approach to martial arts training based on improving the abilities of the body through biomechanical exercise, exploring possibilities in combat through improvisational free play, and testing one’s skills through various full-contact drills. Besides being an effective and realistic training method, Homo Ludens provides the practitioner with a sound philosophical background for combat training, free from dogma and absolutism.

The subject of the seminar will be:

biomechanical ground exercises and practical applications
biomechanics of kicks and defense against kicks

Alex Kostic is a former senior instructor in Systema Russian Martial Art. He has travelled to Russia in order to expand his knowledge in Slavic fighting arts, where he trained in systems such as Slavyano-Goritskaya Borba, Gruntovski’s fist fighting (Skobar) and A.A. Kadochnikov’s Russian Style. He has trained and shared his insights with a number of MMA fighters, as well as security and law enforcement professionals. For more information on Alex Kostic and Homo Ludens Integral Martial Arts, please visit
http://www.homoludens-martialarts.com/

All martial arts practitioners of any level are welcome to attend to the seminar. No prior knowledge in Systema is required. Participants must be at least 18 years old.

SEMINAR INFORMATION
LOCATION

Shorinji Kempo Göteborg Branch Dojo, Landerigatan 9, 41670 Göteborg, Sweden
Training Schedule: Saturday November 26th (10.00 – 16.00), Sunday November 27th (11.00 – 16.00)

SEMINAR FEES
1100 SEK, The price includes ten hours of training (five hours per day for two days) with Alex Kostic.
The fees are payable upon registration.

REGISTRATION - PAYMENT
You need to register in advance in order to reserve a spot on the seminar. In order to register, send an e-mail to systema.goteborg@gmail.com, including the following details: full name, age, address, city, postal code, country, telephone number.

Payments are made to:
Accountholder: Göteborgs Systema-RMA Klubb , c/o Åhrman, Töpelsgatan 8B, 416 55 Göteborg, Sweden.

For participants from Sweden:
Bankgiro: 381-8721, Plusgiro: 501661-3

For foreign transfers:
SWIFT: NDEASESS
IBAN: SE67 9500 0099 6018 0501 6613
Name and address of bank: Nordea Bank AB, 105 71 Stockholm, Sweden.
Please make sure that the payment is identifiable as coming from you.

Your registration is considered complete only after payment has been received. You will receive a confirmation e-mail upon registration/payment.

REFUNDS
If the event is cancelled then the full amount of your payment will be refunded. If you cancel your registration (by any means) before Friday, November 4th 2011, a charge of 200 SEK is levied on cost refund. After this time, a cost refund is not possible; the participant can be replaced by another person though.

THINGS YOU WILL NEED

Since training will be conducted on mats, make sure that your training shoes are appropriate (no running shoes or any other type of shoes with hard soles, please). You can train barefooted if you prefer that.

PHOTOS / VIDEO

Photographing by participants is allowed at any time. Filming is not.

IMPORTANT NOTICE
All training takes place under your own responsibility – the club/organizer and the instructor of the seminar can in no way be held liable for any damages/injuries occurring during the event. Registering to the seminar entails you accept this clause.

In order to provide the highest quality of instruction possible, the number of seminar participants will be limited so please register early.

There can be changes to the program.

For additional info – inquiries contact Spyro Katsigiannis
E-mail: systema.goteborg@gmail.com
Tel: +46 (0)767 67 91 79

Systematizing My Systema, Part 3c: On Skills Training

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:38:00 +0000

SKILLS: NOW THAT WE FOUND POWER WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH IT ?

Once we have trained to generate power from a variety of positions and angles (if you have no idea of what I'm talking about, read part 3b of the Systematizing my Systema series of articles), it is time to apply it. The kinetic energy of a body in motion never truly becomes a force until it comes to contact with another body or object. This force is nothing more than a push or a pull, but in order to achieve the desired effect, the force must be applied to the right spot, with the appropriate part of your body, at the correct angle, at the right moment - whether you're applying the force on an opponent by pulling the lapel of his gi or you're pushing the floor with your foot in order to do a side step. So, to sum it up, the goal of training for skills is the development of a) the sensorimotor coordination needed to produce efficient and effective movement patterns, and b) the cognitive abilities needed in order to applly those patterns in the appropriate tactical context.

WHAT SPECIFIC SKILLS DO WE FOCUS UPON?

OK, there's no way to put this simply, but let me try: none and all! We train what is essential, because it will affect all aspects of our practice. The following small story from The Analects of Confucius sums up what we aspire to do: "While travelling with his student, the Master asked: 'Ssu, do you take me for one who studies much and remembers it all?' The student replied, 'Yes, is that not so, Master?' The Master replied, 'No, I link all knowledge upon a single thread". In the context of Russian Martial Art, this 'single thread' consists of all concepts and principles related to:

maintaining or disrupting breathing
integrating or breaking structure
allowing or restricting movement

Everything we learn is built upon this framework, and all the specific skills we practice (fist fighting, kick fighting, stick fighting, wrestling, grappling, manipulating joints et al) are NOT different subjects as they are simply case studies of those same concepts and principles in an applied form. In this sense, boxing and wrestling are not two different 'martial arts'. They're just two of the multiple ways one can apply the power generation methods we study in our attributes training: "one human body, one set of movements, endless possible applications"!

HOW DO WE PRACTICE SKILLS?

At the Dynamo, after a significant amount of attributes training (our 'power generation training'), we graduate to skills work (we call this 'force application training'), which is a specific series of mostly open drills done with one or more partners. Unlike many schools of RMA that seem to value novelty quite a lot (as if their students suffer from ADD), resulting in training sessions that are never similar to one another, we use a rather small and carefully selected set of drills, that we practice until we become good at them.

Some very high-level skill work on the focus mitts by Cuban professional boxer Yuriorkis Gamboa. His skill work is only made possible by his incredible attributes (strength, power, speed, agility, etc) and it is 'powered' by one basic set of movement skills - please pay attantion to his incredible footwork!

HOW DO WE SELECT THE DRILLS WE PRACTICE?

1. The drills we practice always have a specific goal, which is clearly stated at the beginning, so that the students know what they are training for. Just to avoid misunderstanding, let me state here that we mostly tell people WHAT to do, NOT HOW to do it, allowing this way for a great degree of initiative [1]. The only guidelines that must be followed are those of good biomechanics, in order for optimal power generation (for example, having bad posture when solving a motor problem is not creativity, it is just a limiting factor).

2. Every one of these drills must present the practitioners with a degree of challenge - this challenge should always be a teeny tiny bit outside each student's comfort zone, if they are to grow as martial artists. On a 'macro level' we adjust this degree of challenge by following drill progressions designed according to the rule "from easier to harder and from simpler to more complex". On a 'micro level', this adjustment is made by each practitioner, who is responsible to always push his partner without overwhelming him. In this sense, at the Dynamo, it is more important for one to be a sensitive training partner than to be a good practitioner. When a drill ceases to present a challenge, we progress to a more demanding one, because the purpose of our training is not stroking our ego or looking good on Youtube clips.

3. Finally, the drills we practice can be performed at various degrees of intensity according to the practitioners' level of proficiency (soft work to hard work), but never with a competitive mindset, since that would interfere with the learning process. Of course, there is a place for competitive training in our training approach, but that only comes when skills have been stabilized.

In summary, the purpose of this post was to present a brief generic description of the skills acquisition process we use at the Göteborg Dynamo Club as a system of training means, i.e. a set of interacting or interdependent training-related ideas and practices, that are forming an integrated whole. In our next Systematizing My Systema blog post we'll be discussing pressure testing as a means of mental toughness training.

Notes:

[1] What should be taken into account here is that even though an instructor might allow students a significant degree of freedom in the execution of a particular task, demonstrations made by the instructor in class, or other resources (e.g. Youtube vidoes, instructional DVDs etc) may function as constraints on the student's perception of what is 'doable'. This is practically impossible to avoid.

Systematizing My Systema, Part 3b: On Attributes Training

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 11:50:00 +0000

In Part 3a of the Systematizing my Systema series of articles, we discussed the general idea of athletic training vs. sports training and we also argued that training for self defense is definitely an athletic endeavor, rather similar to training for combat sports in terms of motor qualities (strength, speed, power, mobility), physiological/metabolic qualities (aerobic, anaerobic endurance) and basic movement skills, although quite different in terms of the strategies and tactics explored. We also claimed that a person involved in any type of athletic activity, in order to maximize performance, needs attributes, skills and mental toughness. In this blog post we will discuss the necessity of attributes training.

MOBILITY, STRENGTH, POWER, SPEED, ENDURANCE: DO WE REALLY NEED THEM?

In a few words... yes. Even nowadays, quite a few people in martial arts cycles seem to think that most martial arts or combat systems include all the training tools one needs to become an adequate practitioner. This view used to be quite popular in sports too: "The reigning belief was—and in some circles still is—that strength, power and all other motor qualities in a sport can be quite adequately developed by means of the sport itself, since this approach ensures that the principle of specificity is exactly adhered to", wrote the late Dr Mel Siff, leading sport scientist, back in 2000 [1]. Sports science has disproved this view for quite some time now, and sports practice (combat sports included) too: athletes who do additional physical training besides playing their sport, run faster, jump higher, throw longer, play harder and for longer periods of time, plus they suffer less injuries.

Now, if you need one extra argument to get convinced that attribute training is necessary for self defense training, how about this? Your attributes may or may not permit you to apply your strategies and tactics, since "...Physiological and technical limitations constrain the strategic options available..." [2]. To make it simple, it is your attributes that determine whether you can perform the required movements, even for the simplest of actions. Just to give you an example from my personal experience, I have recently seen a number of Aikido beginners struggling with a technique as basic as ikkyo, simply because their core is weak, so when they're trying to apply force, they bend their spine on the frontal plane (sideways) instead of simply rotating, resulting in less than optimal power generation, that makes for inability to perform the technique. According to the old school view, all these students need to do is keep on practicing ikkyo, until their body gets strong enough to perform the technique correctly, whenever that happens, provided, of course, they don't get injured on the way. The more modern view would have these students do some core stability training for a couple of weeks, a month maximum, and THEN try the technique again, when the function of their body does not act as a constraint on their ability to learn. What is considered a 'technical problem' is actually nothing but a lack of the most basic strength, i.e. an attribute problem.

A member of the Göteborg Dynamo Club training for the Mustache of the Week Competition.

In the Göteborg Dynamo Club of Russian Martial Art, we call attributes development 'power generation training'. Before you start thinking of us as huge and most probably 'muscle-bound' power lifters, let me point out here that whether you're punching someone or taking him down, deflecting a strike, taking a swift step to move out of the way of force, skating on ice and trying to hit a puck with a stick, dribbling and passing a basketball, kicking a football or running to catch the bus, what you are using is power. This means that we use the word 'power' in its strict meaning in physics: that is, work, i.e energy, i.e. kinetic energy, over time. We train to generate as much kinetic energy as possible in the shortest amount of time, through mechanical and physiological efficiency, in order to apply this power in a variety of applications - martial or other. That is what we specialize in and that's what we do best at the Dynamo: making all types movement fluent, effortless and powerful, while at the same time empowering people through movement.

In summary, the argument in this post is that training for martial (or any other type of) skills can commence only when the necessary attributes have been developed, otherwise practice will be inefficient and the practitioner will run significant danger of injuries - train generic movement first, specific movement second. We will have the opportunity to discuss the idea of power generation training in detail in the future. Our next Systematizing My Systema blog post will be on skills training.

References:
[1] Siff M.C., Biomechanical Foundations of Strength and Power Training, from Zatsiorsky V.M., Biomechanics In Sport - Performance Enhancement and Injury Prevention. Blackwell Science, 2000. p. 103

[2] Janelle C.M. & Hillman C.H., Expert Performance in Sport: Current Perspectives and Critical Issues, from Starkes J.L. & Ericsson K.A., Expert Performance in Sports - Advances in Research on Sport Expertise. Human Kinetics, 2003. p. 23

Systematizing My Systema, Part 3a: What did Hercules train in? Self-defense or combat sports?

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:50:00 +0000

Before I try to describe the specific training methods and progressions we use at the Göteborg Dynamo Club of Russian Martial Art, it is of utmost importance to explain the context under which those methods and progressions are used, the "why" that leads to the various "whats" and "hows". The "Systematizing My Systema" series of articles serves this purpose exactly - the first part of the series was a comparison between conventional martial arts training and what we do at the Dynamo, while in the second part, I wanted to make clear where we stand in relation to military systems of hand-to-hand combat. In this third part, I will try to address similarities and differences between our training approach and the one used in combat sports.

Before we go any further, I would like to say that I hold all athletes, and especially combat athletes, in the highest regard for a number of reasons. The first of those is because they bring a whole different level of physical intensity to fight training. During my years as a martial arts practitioner, I have had the opportunity to spar or roll with an Olympian and amateur world silver medalist boxer, a professional kick boxer, judokas who were members of their country's Olympic team, a pan-american medalist in BJJ and a SAMBO Master of Sport. What I noticed in their work, is that they maintain sensitivity and control over their movement at levels of intensity that make "normal" people's skills rapidly deteriorate - their soft work is as intense as what your average martial arts practitioner considers as hard work. This is not because they rely exclusively on strength and speed, as we often hear said from people with little knowledge - athletes might indeed possess above average strength and speed, but they have also tempered their technique repeatedly under pressure, resulting in skills of extremely high level that cannot be acquired through always training within one's comfort zone. Could this intensity come handy in a self defense situation? Well, what do you think?

The second reason I admire athletes is because of their work ethic. They understand very well that you can't get something for nothing, that there is no magic pill. The relationship between time spent training and level of performance is obvious to them, so they make time to train instead of complaining that they do not have the time to train. It seems though that this mentality is pretty hard to come by, and that is why if I had a dime for every person I've met who "tried kick boxing (or Judo, or BJJ, or MMA, or wrestling or...) for a few months and was very good at it, but could not stick to training because of other obligations", I'd be a very rich man... And now that I think about it, I would probably be a much richer man if I took money from all these people who have contacted our club over the past years, asking to learn self defense skills but with as little training as possible, because they were "way too busy"...

Do you want another reason to hold athletes in high esteem? Well, they train to be resistant to failure. They know how to bounce back from making mistakes that bring them in positions of disadvantage. I see a lot of martial artists out there training in "total agreement" with their partners, being unfailingly successful: they fake strikes and their partners fake the reactions they expect, so they all look good and feel good about themselves. That's all fine, if all you're opting for is flow and beauty of movement - but what if one is actually preparring for combat? I remember more than ten years ago, on a LeiTai in Hong Kong, when I hit my opponent with a solid (and beautiful) jab-cross-spinning backfist combination that made the crowd in the stands cheer - he barely shook his head and kept on going after me until he knocked me out in the next round. He could recover from getting hit hard, while I could not mentally recover from failing to stop him with my heaviest strikes. Do you believe this mental resilience is cultivated by training with cooperating partners? Well, allow me to respectfully disagree...

I won't deny it: at the Dynamo, we are firm believers in athletic training. Does this mean that we only train for sport and not for self-defense?

Well, let me put it this way: English speakers like to talk about "sports", but I (being Greek and all) prefer to use the word "athlimata", from the ancient Greek word "athlos" (άθλος), meaning "task", "feat", or "contest". Here's an example, in order to better understand the way the word is used: the twelve labours of the mythic hero Heracles (or Hercules, in the romanized version of the name) [1] are known in Greek as dodecathlon (δωδέκαθλον), which means "twelve athloi", twelve of those feats or tasks, if you will. In a few words, athlos is a feat requiring that you use both your physical and mental resources to a great extent, in order to successfully complete it. OK, now I want you to think about yourself being in a self-defense situation: don't you need to exert control over your mental state, so that your physical skills do not deteriorate, so that you can exert some type of control or another over your opponent or maybe de-escalate? If that doesn't qualify as an "athlos", I don't know what does! And if you want to train in order to become better at completing an athlos or two, well... you are an athlete, whether you want to or not.

Then is training for a combat sport all one needs for self defense purposes?
No, absolutely not: the strategies and tactics that might lead an athlete to victory in the ring, might get him killed in a self defense setting. But the physical skills needed are pretty much the same, whether you're fighting in the street or in a ring. In the Göteborgs Dynamo, we do train like athletes because we need to enhance our performance potential in order to cultivate those physical skills needed for self defense. We do not just focus our training on the needs of a single combat sport - we train at quite a few of them, at the same time: fist fighting, kick boxing, wrestling, stick fighting and a few more, slightly more "exotic"! You might think this is not possible, but it is and we'll have the opportunity to discuss why and how in a future blog post. For the moment, what I want you to keep in mind is that every person involved in any athletic activity (including self-defense), in order to perform at a high level, needs three things: attributes, skills and mental toughness. Coming right up, we're going to discuss each one of those in detail, so just keep reading...

References

[1] Just in case you skipped the class on Greek mythology, check out this article on the labours of Heracles from Wikipedia.

Systematizing my Systema, Part 1: "Martial art? What martial art?"

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Thu, 19 May 2011 06:52:00 +0000

So… what is it that we train at in the Dynamo?

A friend recently suggested that I write some technical articles focusing on the specific training methods and progressions we use at the Göteborg Dynamo Club of Russian Martial Art. Well, that is exactly what I am planning to do in the new Dynamo blog through a series of articles under the general title “Systematizing my Systema”. Since it is my firm belief that form always follows function, in order to explain the “how” of our training methods, it is of crucial importance to first explain the “why”, so starting today, I will first try to provide the readers with something of a training “manifesto”.

Let’s start from the “Martial Art” part in our emblem – is it a specific martial art that we teach?

Well, most people think of a “martial art” as a set of answers to a finite number of combat-related questions (technical, tactical or strategic), plus a method that is used in order to teach those answers to groups of people. Martial arts are usually perceived as “crystallized”, closed systems. More often than not, people obsess about whether a style is “genuine”, or about the lineage of the instructor. If something new is added to them, martial arts usually become “watered-down”[1], so they have to go under a different name, or risk being discredited. In this sense, we are definitely not teaching a martial art: although the Göteborg Dynamo Club is associated to a number of instructors and schools of various styles of Russian Martial Art, the descriptor “Russian” in our emblem does not denote a historical of cultural connection, but rather an intellectual approach: the emphasis on universal concepts and principles of combat instead of particular techniques to facilitate learning, the use of biomechanics to analyze and enhance performance and the development of all-around dexterity and flow in movement. Come to think of it, I dare say that our style of Russian Martial Art is probably as much Soviet as it is Russian (here it is, I managed to utter the “S” word…).

On the other side, what we do at the Dynamo does have some connection to martial arts practice as it is commonly understood: our goal is mastery. We practice deliberately in order to improve in something we consider important, but not necessarily utilitarian. In a way, our martial arts practice is not unlike playing a musical instrument – we do it not because we want to win some talent show or make it big in the music business, but because we find inherent value in music itself, so one could say that we are amateurs in the truest sense of the word.

What we are trying to master though, is not a specific martial style (Systema, or other), it is just human movement as related to combat. By constantly sophisticating our movement skills we aspire to master our body and eventually, our self. For those of you who like to obsess with martial arts’ philosophy, herein lies the only teeny tiny shred of it that we offer to the Dynamo members: mastery only comes after practicing deliberately for a considerable amount of time, so if you don’t do the work, do not expect any results – mind you, this is actually science, not philosophy, but if it sounds like a gem of martial wisdom, why ruin it?

Notes

[1] Over the years I’ve been training in martial arts I’ve heard my fair share of absurd claims but none as nonsensical as “What? They’re using protective equipment and full-force fighting? Then they’re doing MMA, not Systema!!!”

Systematizing My Systema, Part 2: Men in Uniform? No thanks!

noreply@blogger.com (Spyro Katsigiannis) — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:24:00 +0000

In an effort to provide the readers of this blog with something of a “training manifesto” for the Göteborg Dynamo Club of Russian Martial Art, in the first part of this series of articles I tried to pinpoint the similarities and differences between conventional training in martial arts, and the training we do at the Dynamo. Now, since Russian Martial Art is widely marketed (and often understood) as a combat system that has been developed used by units of the Russian military Special Forces, in this second part, I will attempt to clarify where we, at the Dynamo, stand in relation to this marketing identity.

So… do you train at a system of combatives for “professionals” (military and law enforcement) at the Dynamo?

To put it simply: no, we do not. The reasons for this are multiple and I will try to explain them all in the following paragraphs. Ι must point out here that some of the explanations offered below are based on my personal experience and partly my political ideology.

1. Military combat systems are basic sets of combat techniques that are used as tools and can be taught within 50 hours of training, because military people, especially the ones deployed in combat zones, do not have the time to consistently train. Once you go through that type of training (based almost exclusively on the utilization of gross motor skills and aggression), all you need to do is go through a “refresher” course every couple of months and you’re good to go. When you hear or read about “military systems” in which you get to train for year after year, what you’re basically dealing with is martial arts marketed as military combatives, which means that their target group is civilians who get attracted by the military image. What do we think about the military image at the Dynamo? Well, let me just say that wearing cammo is NOT allowed in our training sessions. Plus, we train because we enjoy training and we find inherent value in it, not because we just want a set of tools.

The main difference between army combatives and the training at the Dynamo: we don't take ourselves too seriously.

2. Now, regarding the true military combatives, i.e. the 50 hours of training on fighting skills based exclusively on gross motor skills and aggression: I have practiced one such system, namely Paul Vunak’s Rapid Assault Tactics, about ten years ago, as a member of a Filipino Martial Arts training group. Although the system was extremely effective and pretty easy to learn, what I noticed after a couple of months of training was that I was getting very aggressive as a person, and my “violence trigger” was becoming extremely sensitive. Later, my good friend, JKD instructor Vagelis Zorbas (who is certified in Rapid Assault Tactics) and one of his students (who is an LEO, by the way) confirmed my findings. All in all, I strongly believe that for a soldier deployed in a war zone, hyper-vigilance and paranoia might be a small price to pay for survival, but the people I train with are civilians and I am not in the business of turning normal people into rabid pit-bulls.

3. Strangely enough, the LEOs that have contacted me in the past inquiring about joining our classes (quite a few) described what they want, more or less, in the following words: “I want to learn the most effective techniques and be able to use them immediately, but I cannot train much, because my work does not allow for it”. I simply told them that we could not help them. Because, what we offer at the Dynamo is a training method based on the idea of perpetual sophistication of movement. Mastery is our ultimate goal and the only way one can achieve it is through endless hours of deliberate practice. To put it simply: no practice, no learning.

4. The self defense needs of professionals are very different from those of civilians. A special forces operator might find an AK-74 disarm useful, while a police officer should be able to restrain and handcuff a suspect, but what civilians need the most is awareness of the dangers around them, so that they can stay out of harm’s way. Now, the Dynamo is not a club focusing in a niche market; we are just fine with both professionals AND civilians in our training sessions, and that includes forty-year-old-plus managers, twenty-something computer geeks or jocks who enjoy the occasional knuckle sandwich. In this sense, the skills we need to focus upon in our training are generic ones: power punching, evasive movement, absorbing force, engaging the ground safely, breaking structure, manipulating the joints, etc. These skills are of utmost importance and apply universally, whether you’re a professional or a civilian. If you understand the function of a joint and the ways you can manipulate it, it is fairly easy to learn how to disarm a knife or a firearm. The opposite is not true.

5. There is a view out there, quite popular in military and law enforcement circles (especially across the Atlantic), according to which the members of this society are either wolves (criminals), sheep (ordinary citizens), or sheepdogs (military personnel and LEOs) [1]. According to this view, the sheep are unable to protect themselves because of their diminished potential for violence, so sheepdogs are left the sole guardians of this society, the only ones with “real” self defense needs. I disagree with this view: I believe that it is our duty as citizens to be able if needed to protect ourselves, our loved ones, our property, and our country. As much as I admire the military and law enforcement people for what they offer to our society, I feel exactly the same for doctors, teachers, engineers and people who work at slaughterhouses or in garbage disposal. And, while our society will never require from an LEO to come up with a cure for cancer, a doctor might be forced by circumstances to defend him/herself. When I recently found out about Dr Sergey Shvets’ Martial Art – Russian Style and visited their webpage [2], I was surprised by how much the system’s motto resonated with me: “Intelligent and kind people MUST know how to defend themselves”. It is simple as that. One last thing: besides our duty as citizens, there is also our genetic inheritance as mammals. It is not just the “sheep dogs” – we ALL have a built-in self defense mechanism, honed through hundreds of thousands of years of evolution: it is called “the fear reaction system”. Now, in order for us to become more complete human beings (and less of “sheep”), we need to explore our fear reaction system, in order to familiarize ourselves with the violence that often accompanies its activation, and be able to control it. It is my firm belief that it is complete human beings that make for better citizens and ultimately, a more evolved society – not more, or better trained, or non-subject-to-the-same-laws-as-the-rest-of-us sheep dogs…

Let’s sum it up then: what we practice at the Göteborg Dynamo Club is not military combatives that will turn people into killing machines with minimum training. What we do practice is much closer to a geeky folk-style martial art: a scientifically structured series of exercises, drills and competitive games that provide ordinary people (military personnel and LEOs not excluded) with substantial combat skills and some of the mental toughness needed to apply them.

In the next installment of the series, we will compare what we practice at the Dynamo with combat sports.

Notes:

[1] I first read about this view a few years ago in the book On Combat by Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman.

[2] http://www.mars-fighting.com/