This video gives two basics movements for health and injury prevention by allowing the body to move according to it’s current map of tension and to release excess as needed. We also show a partner drill which gives the practitioner ability to move better in space and in relation to others and also to move with more efficiency. Keep safe.
systema Israel: health and movement awareness using the stick
May 21st, 2012 | ransuruFour low tech ways to prepare for selection and deployment
May 19th, 2012 | ransuruThe further I look back at my military history the more gadgets and trinkets meant the world to me. A young skinny soldier at eighteen thought the world of this pin or that beret and considered getting a shortened M-16 the peak of comfort at the time. Later on things progressed to changing the torture devices the IDF issues you as shoes and making sawing and shaping the best vest and configuration possible. The older version has far less crutches to performance and a lot more experience to understand what is really important to getting the job done and living well in nature.
With this perspective I present you four simple cheap ways for the serving and those who plan to serve their fellow countrymen to make yourself ready to the moment when your actions will mean life and death.
1. Many cultures prepared their young for adult life with some variation of a spirit quest. The form I experienced was very simple in formula. Three days in nature with no sleeping, no eating and drinking and all the time you do something from making fires at night to preparing tools and tracking animals during the day. This can be dangerous as people do drop during this trial and the subconscious does surface to some degree (on the fourth day the barrier is broken between the folds ) and here comes one of the hidden parts of this trial. You must find and organize people friends or family to look over you and you need to do the same in turn. Civilians forget the military is team work and there is no better time to start working on that than right now.
The time spend during the spirit quest or however you want to call it will give you a much better control over your senses and deciding what is true and what is just in your head. You will meet some of your demons and as you have to keep working during this time you will either learn an important lesson for the next time or release a lot of misconceptions on your limits bodily mentally and emotionally.
2. Everyone has a few minutes a day to himself. A parent can do this drill while cradling his first born and a kid can do this under the house for a few minutes just before coming home from school. The drill is again simple in formula. You have only two rules. A you keep moving all the time and B you must take X steps per X minutes you have time right now.
Yes, you take one step per minute and you have to keep moving the entire time. This translates to slow motion walking and the benefits start manifesting from the first time you take time for yourself. Awareness to your own movement will rise and the impact you force on your body as you fall from leg to leg will clean out of your system. You will find yourself making less and less noise and your feet will wake up to the surface you are on and you will have less and less bumps and bruises on your toes and legs from going here and there. Another side of this drill is stalking proficiency and again here you will need friend or partners to work with.
We start with just listening as one partner faces away from the stalker and turns only when you hear or feel some movement. Progress to facing the stalker in open ground and calling out the movement only when it breaks the lines of the surface (breaking the surface of a shaded building or coming out of a curve in the ground before the watcher) Progress to moving in nature and using any way to move silently toward the watcher and again this is something you can do from time to time but everyday you can take a few minutes to hone your skill and awareness. No one can do this for you and the subtlety of what this will give you will reveal itself over years and years.
3. Movies are shot during the day and illuminated by night but real work and most of your training will take place during nighttime. Building your ability to work at night will affect your everyday life and allow you to progress where others falter. We start by not turning on the light every time you go to get something from the fridge or when you go down to take out the trash. Slowly and with care you can progress to orienting yourself in dark buildings and in nature using friends and partners to play hide and seek without the use of light. A small and fun trick in this drill is to wear sunglasses during night time games and turning the lights on and off by a partner in the game to see how you fare in the ever changing game of life.
4. The worst time to learn to handle yourself well is when the bullets are flying overhead or when your brother in arms is screaming from a puncture wound in his privates. One of the best educations to your knowledge and to your nervous systems is to give from your time at the local hospital or any of it’s equivalents. Take time and volunteer in the local emergency room. Scrap up the human waste from the floor and help to hold down the crazed drug addict after a long boring shift. Death, injury and fear are a part of everyone’s world. Be the warrior and come up to meet them and make the world a better place for yourself and everyone around. You.
Nothing I write here is new nor is it very high tech or glamorous in any way. Being the guy or girl who walks into the fire to save those who cannot help themselves or the shooter who lies waiting for days to stop the terrorist on his way to the school bus isn’t glamorous either but being on this site and reading these articles I think I am communicating with the few who find the beauty being a good human being and serving with the best.
Stay safe
Stay low
don’t forget to smile
When your face relaxes you shoot better
Three simple drills for calmness and precision
May 8th, 2012 | ransuruThree simple drills for calmness and precision
1. Do something brief but taxing such as sprinting up a short hill or climbing a rope. Stop and pay attention to your breathing and to your pulse. If you cannot feel the pulse press your hand to the side of your throat or ribs and repeat the drill until you can feel the pulse in the entire body as you listen to your body calming down and as you progress add delicate work such as throwing a small stone into a paper cup or drawing what is in front of you after a brief glance.
2. Take a normal breath and slowly exhale as you perform something repetitive such as walking, push ups or peeling potatoes. Use the same speed for your work until you cannot exhale no more and then continue for a little while as you again listen to your pulse. Work on the freedom you have to act rather than react to bodily fear but respect the fear. Neglecting attention to any part of you will not be wise in the long run.
3. Lie on the ground face down with your limbs spread to the sides. Tense toward the edges of your limbs with the intent of moving your limbs forward without focusing on the resistance. Hold this for a few breaths and repeat as you face up to get to know your tension better. There is a lot to gain in working toward what we perceive as impossible. Remember no one knows how to walk coming out of the womb even though you already have the tools to accomplish the task.
A. Paying attention as you continue to act
B. Release the habit of reaction and be free
C. Work to clean the perception of the world so you can see things as they are.
Always keep working. Your daily work need not be long or hard but to it must be.
Systema Israel Natural movement using the legs
February 20th, 2012 | ransuru
In this video we do one simple thing. We walk (move) with the contact. That does not mean we walk passively but we choose our steps with awareness and breath leading. Breath, feel, move and keep human. Remember it is much easier to destroy than to build and move only in the speed you can keep yourself and others safe in.
Steps:
Breath and relax the eyes
feel (direction and pressure)
feel where you are comfortable
Move from the breath letting the breath lead
Keep breathing
February 11th, 2012 | ransuru
Have a partner walk freely and walk calmly behind him. From time to time draw near and use your fist or hand to push or pull him within your movement. Your partner needs to use his breathing to avoid building tension from anticipation and either roll with the pressure or if you feel a change in the tension or movement of your partner roll beforehand. Switch roles so the one walking first needs to push or pull the one walking behind him. In this part of the drill where your partner sees you the movement must be natural and excess tension free so you can contact without your partner rolling out of the way.
Repeat the drill using either legs or arms both ways and then going for a body to body affect. Finish by using rolling through your partner either way and if the number of partners of students permits do the drill using three or more people with choice of targets to work with…
Focus points:
Let the breath lead movement
Avoid change of pace when the work does not demand it
be aware where your eyes are heading
movement can originate from different positions and using different tension maps in the body. The same movement can appear the same but have different affects altogether. Avoid mimicry and be yourself.
Systema Israel Dealing with strikes to the head
February 6th, 2012 | ransuruIn this video we learn to first recognize and secondly make intelligent and conscious use of the patterns of tension which dynamically make up our posture reactions and using this also actions. Fear and discomfort are there only when we discard or misinterpret the information our body is giving us with every breath. Move naturally and see for yourself.
Telling tension
February 4th, 2012 | ransuruHave a partner hold you in some way using both force and intention and in this hold or movement keep breathing and tense and relax each leg in turn and then each shoulder and arms in turn. Feel which of both pairs is more inclined to move during the relax phase of the drill and with the breath start the movement from there. Repeat the drill many times and in each time change but a bit of the drill in movement and in the tension.
Avoid making the mistake in technique people make when they try to rely on this crutch as we change each breath in the map of tension and movement which creates our posture and movement.
Example: Your head and neck is wedged in the armpit of your partner and your spine is somewhat bent downward. his other hand is pressing into your kidney and you want to go home and eat some schnitzel… You tense and relax each limb and connection to the main body in turn spreading your awareness in all of you and releasing the stuck feeling that grows from such contacts. Your feel the arm naturally rising from the elbow gathering and extending his arm pressing on your kidney and in this open door you extend your opposite leg affecting his knee so he feels his mortality and discards frivolous thoughts of controlling others until he gathers his own wits.
Shoulder magic
January 17th, 2012 | ransuruWorking on the shoulder movement is great and very beneficial but I propose to work on the entire area to facilitate less injury and less taxing of the joint itself.
The plan has two stages:
1
Stand first facing the wall and use your hands to walk up and down the wall keeping from locking your joints and working from the body.
Do the same facing away from the wall (place something soft under you if you fear head contact with the ground)
PROGRESS to the second stage once comfortable with one using both sides
2 Sit on your behind and rise your body on hands and feet or fists and feet if you are a martial artist and want better wrist control. Start walking back and forth and from time to time change from facing up and facing down walking.
The best part is the last here: rise to a bridge and hold for a while. When you are comfortable holding for sixty relaxed breaths start raising each limb at a time going in circles and once this is easy start walking while in the bridge and transferring between the stages as you move.
Changing speeds of travel will also benefit this drill and your health greatly. Moving fast at times and super slow at others will create a whole movement other choices will not create.
You will not have another shoulder problem again unless you are in the way of a bullet or a knife.
Program two: Developing your own System or getting to know yourself in movement choice!
January 1st, 2012 | ransuru1. Have a partner strike you slowly
2 Repeat several times until you notice new things about your movement and see where it can go
3 ease into faster and faster repetitions of the same movement in order to clean the fear of speed and acceleration from us
4 See how you can add more purpose to your movement by adding another goal such as paying attention to the people around you holding pitchforks or as you evade you also strike the partner blending in his or her movement but avoid getting competitive or in real life conflict you will be much handicapped by this outward desire and lack of inner balance.
5 Repeat and allow yourself to be hit and avoid resisting your partner in this work to avoid getting tense and afraid from moving or getting hit.
6 Don’t forget to let the breath lead.
A program loop
December 30th, 2011 | ransuruHere is a simple loop for getting what you want. That is when you figure out what you want or your wife tells you what you want 
First: Find out what is the right thing to do.
Second Start doing it
Third: Try to do it better
Four: Go back to First as all things and you as well are changed.
As easy as breathing as you take things one at a time.
Example:
Someone comes to hit you.
First and second need to work together or in other words think on the go (Just this could be a whole book):Consider the situation as you breathe and on the go ..
Move most of you out of the way leaving one limb behind to avoid drawing the partner or actual attacker to where you are NOW and to be able to contact him and deliver a quiet word.
Third: repeat the drill or try to use less in your next encounters.
Fourth: Try to note the attacker before he or she or they start actualizing their intention and don’t be there.
Breathe…
Systema Israel Tension and direction in hitting and levers
December 16th, 2011 | ransuruSystema Israel Working as one from the feet up
December 9th, 2011 | ransuruSystema Israel working to affect the entire person
December 9th, 2011 | ransuruDecember 6th, 2011 | ransuru
Ten minutes in ten days.
Take each day during this drill a length of land and walk it with no breath. Count your heart beats and monitor them everyday. Learning to listen to yourself is a instant way to increase your awareness and let you know when pushing something or going somewhere may not be the healthiest choice. There is always a before to the attack. Not always an after.
Remember this and make sure your training keeps you humble.
After ten days switch to tying your laces with no breath or anything that suits your needs. Combining two things together makes them more than just their sum.
Making a healthy fist.
November 29th, 2011 | ransuruOpen the fingers wide and match finger tip to finger tip in the other hand and press one hand with the other as the other resisting but yielding lightly. Do this with the breathing several times each way. See how your fist closes after you go through this drill and see if there is more room to shape the fist more comfortably and the thumb is more free even under pressure to close on the fingers.
One lesson plan > Learning to hit and to receive contact
November 21st, 2011 | ransuruStart: Learning to hit and to receive contact
4 basics slow 60 breaths up and 60 breaths down
4 basics swift 1-4 Inhale- exhale- pause
8 rolls
8 hold arm statically and step to only create contact with no pressing to your standing partner. The idea is to learn your distance without having to shift or lean so you always know where you are and can move in any direction.
8 rolls
8 hold arm and walk into the person and allow the arm elbow and shoulder complex to spring up and the fist to move and find the sinking positions into your partner.
8 rolls
8 have the partner fall into your fist, allow it to spring up and return the spring without pressing the person back but sinking the fist into him.
8 rolls
8 walk into the person and have the person place an arm in your way and you need to keep moving without stopping to think (thinking on the go is never overrated) and sink the fist in.
8 rolls
8 have two people walk into your perceived space and allow both arms to spring freely and unsparing into them each on their own. Avoid leaning into them with your body. keep breathing.
8 rolls
Walk into the person and alternate both walking into each other. Allow the fist to slide into a forearm on the contact and allow the elbow to sink in. Pay attention to avoid giving away your freedom of movement by leaning into the hit with no awareness.
8 rolls
5 minutes of rotating static holds
Everyone speaks on what they learned and what they feel about the movement.
Perspective
November 17th, 2011 | ransuruConsider why some of the experienced people are calm.
The person in front of you has a knife and is trying to stab you with it.
1 there is a hospital nearby and people in shouting distance that might care for me
2 I can see the knife and it is not in me, there is light to navigate and command the surroundings mentally and bodily
3 the knife is clean and smooth, no germs to kill from a scratch no metal teeth to tear up flesh
4 I can choose what to do instead of working a way to get a mission done…
There is a lot to be said about free will and seeing your options. Instead of speaking about it just pay attention.
Take a moment a day to run this thinking feeling moving drill in your head along with your body moving. See the effects over time with your life in general and avoid narrowing it to “fighting”
Push ups are boring. I never do them.
November 16th, 2011 | ransuruIf you need to motivate yourself to do something it means you are not paying attention. Take for example the push up. On your fists, on a stick, from ropes, legs in the air, on a wall and so on. Inhale going down, no breath at all, one arm at a time, of a partner and so on. When you make something seem one dimensional it loses it’s functionality to you and so there is no dire need to do it. When you are cold and do push ups to warm up or keep limber in the sub zero desert it serves a purpose and there is movement from within without any of the silly I need to do this or that.
To me all things are breathing drills, paying attention drills, humility drills. All essential to my survival and well being. I don’t need to do push ups. I am someone who pays attention when doing push ups.
And nothing beats slow push ups in the tide Gives a real sense of the importance of breathing and your own perception of time…
That Distance
November 1st, 2011 | ransuruPeople have notion from dishonest practice about their abilities that can prove fetal. Working in high speed on a low speed simulated attack or working hard against a complaint partner results in allusions of abilities that do not match what will happen if someone does not play by your rules. Have a partner with an open hand stand a step from you and have him place his hand on you where you work to avoid any contact by him. Do this from several angles from your body and see if this little drill makes you think of your ability to avoid being cut or stabbed (big difference!) Being swift and strong may not be the way to go when a deal changer like a knife or a sharp shard of glass is about.
Advance to standing and having a partner walk perpendicular to your station and have him again not reach out but while walking move his hand and touch you. Again mark your notes on the fighting from a stationary place and keep breathing.
A gentle reminder. A cut in the hand is a prolog to a stab in the torso.
Be safe and keep your shield up by paying attention and being honest.
Someone walking behind me
October 24th, 2011 | ransuruStart walking and have a partner walk behind you or behind you and a bit to the side as long as you do not have him or her in your field of sight. Show your partner how to use the widening part of the wrist as a crook or hook and have him use it on your neck or wherever fits as you walk with him behind you. He works independently to collapse your form from the hook contact and you work with your breath to clean out any building tension and keep breathing so when the contact is introduced you do not freeze. If you have the freedom to do so take a stick and have your partner stab your body with it when you do freeze so the idea of choosing to move is illustrated against the idea of staying in place after an outside contact.
Add voice (yelling, commands, derogatory language according to the crowd) and again let the breath lead the movement and add here paying attention to the walking movement so you can use whatever contact you create (limbs, body, head) to collapse the structure with less work to get the job done.
Add reversing the work so you turn to him to bring him to the ground or work without sight according to sound and other senses to do the same work without turning to the partner who is walking behind you. Again place a nice short stick in your partners hands so he will happily encourage you to avoid working with TOO much tension and avoid working against someone’s strength.
Remember we are all just people. Treat each other with honesty and respect and we will all grow.
Can you touch it.
October 3rd, 2011 | ransuruA very simple two people drill. One person stands and can only move his arms straight from the shoulder at a slow pace. Person number two needs to touch his body to the standing person body while avoiding getting touched by the moving straight arms. Consider each arm to be a knife and remember one touch means a cut or a stab. Work this drill slowly as you relax your eyes to see both the person and all the nice empty space around him or her. Learn how your body can get the job done or not and learn to avoid running ahead into the knife thinking you can wing it along the way.
Avoid pushing or pulling on the arms at all and every touch is considered an injury during the drill. Learn to be patient in your movement and keep the main goal of survival and living well in mind instead of having a short term goal of winning a game.
Keep your face relaxed and your eyes from falling into following the movement. Keep breathing and moving and learn to avoid bending in place to avoid a hand coming your way when the other arm is doing the same.
Simple is good never easy.
action over reaction
September 13th, 2011 | ransuruinner tension = outer tension
September 12th, 2011 | ransuruLet us compare how we release a tense muscle or spasm compared to how we release a hold or lever on us:
1 Note how we are held or tensed up what is happening when we move and how does it feel
2 Start small relaxed movement in the free parts of us along with the breathing so tension and pain is devided and released
3 allow our body to align with the direction or rotation of the hold or spasm so we can move ourselves with it instead of against it (you may imagine it as working along the grit of sandpaper instead of rubbing against the grit)
4 Go home
SPIRIT = Breath
August 25th, 2011 | ransuruWorking on your spirit is not building courage that can wear out or “learning ” to withstand pain but gaining awareness through the fog of tension and perception of what we can truly do.
Start by doing simple tasks like drawing shapes and walking in a straight line while slowly inhaling or exhaling till there is nothing left and then add a bit more on what you perceive as empty.
Swim underwater while slowly exhaling of if you have a tube inhaling or close your eyes and look for a pebble at the bottom of the pool while you exhale or run on your last breath. (important to have a buddy who does not fancy your woman to guard your back if you lose your consciousness here)
Proceed from simple tasks that do not require more than a “stored procedure” of motion to tasks that are more whole in nature so all the dust can be removed from both intellect emotion and body noise.
Add the drill where people walk through you and you evade them while exhaling or inhaling to the end and see how this fares in comparison to the previous jobs. Give them wood meat sticks like the ones used in kebabs and have them repeat the drill with the pointy end toward your stomach and later on add a rope they can hold between them to create a wider obstacle to make use of.
Another example to a more complete task is to keep contact with a partner holding a blade in one hand who is working to remove your contact from him using the blade. You place your hand on the back of his neck, he moves the flat of his knife on his neck and you remove that arm and place the other on his stomach without losing contact with him and so on.
Yet another example for this level of drill is to close your eyes and go from one end of your house to another on one exhale of inhale of without any air at all. Later on adding no contact or noise to the drill is very helpful for soldiers and civilians alike. The same works for any piece of bush with no mines in it.
Now we proceed to a more open drill where the objective is not defined in advance in some ways just like life and in particular the myriad of conflicts we are a part of during ours.
Start with the obvious of having a bunch of people walk past you with different intents from dragging you to their trunk (not an elephant man joke) to asking for the time to picking your backpack and so on as you breath calmly as possible and learn you do not need to tense up or hold your breath toward impact or contact and not everything in life is black or white.
Continue to restricting your breath to uneven breathing (One pulse inhale and three pulses for exhale for example or One for inhale and ten for exhale and so on) and repeating the drill as listed before.
Continue to a more focused but shorter drill of doing this during one prolonged inhale or exhale or one of them and a breath hold to the end at the end of the extended breath while you repeat the drill with the several people with several intents.
Continue to the best drill for this of one group on one group play without telling the other team what you set up to do but have one person know all intentions so there will be no unhappy accidents like impalement and injury…
Have some fun and learn something while you do it .
August 20th, 2011 | ransuru
So you want to reach out and touch someone ?
What happens if he or she is not in agreement with you ?
What if they are doing something about it other than not being there ?
Start with a partner sitting on his behind and you sitting an arm length from him. Have him place one arm in the air toward you stay still. raise your arm slowly to contact the arm and slide on the arm refraining from creating a contact spot your are moving around and seriously moving your arm and shoulder freely rotating your forearm, moving your elbow and shoulder ALL TOGETHER!. It will also eventually work if you avoid letting the breath lead the movement but it will take a few more lifetimes so make your decision about this.
When you ask why we are sitting on our behinds I answer to note how we can move without our legs and hips so we avoid compensating with one part over lack of awareness in another.
Continue with your partner raising his arm toward you and back and you maintaining contact but without resistance or leaning on him during all the movement.
Continue to add him rolling his body toward you while he extends toward you and you do the same work as your own body evades his all while maintaining contact and awareness to your own tension and the most important part of the key your breathing.
Now repeat the drill standing and replacing rolling with walking and running and adding a stick or other tool when you feel comfortable with it.
We are already afraid so there is no need to push toward it in training and learning. Learning to release fear is more fruitful then learning to coexist with it.
Keeping the eyes and head clear during rolls
August 11th, 2011 | ransuruTo engage a child you do not need to forbid something but to engage in something or intrest or worth. When rolling note how the head and eyes are free to move and removed from harm when you point one finger upwards and look at the finger throughout the roll. This way you learn to remove what is blocking your way even if it is a part of you without having to consider it as danger or harm. How you define what you are doing limits and guides you. The more your movement is without names and tags the less you need to carry and overcome.
Uneven breathing
August 8th, 2011 | ransuruWe tend to even things out with carrying groceries in each hand or bringing our breathing to the same intervals or pulse timing for the inhale exhale and sometimes to the pauses between them.
Consider working on uneven phases of breath to learn to work with this imbalance and letting the tension this builds release with the growing knowledge of self through the work.
Start with writing numbers from one to ten or twenty depending on your comfort at the moment with no linear connection between them.
Inhale and exhale according to the numbers letting the inhale and exhale match each other but changing depth and length of the breath from one whole cycle to the next.
Next repeat the drill but have one inhale be the first number and the exhale the next. This way you advance in releasing the hold balance has on you and freedom in movement and temperament (how the outside affects your mood) from the outside reveals itself.
Next add the pauses between inhale and exhale with the random numbers and when you curse me remember to be kind especially if you go for the twenty and more in the number spread.
Next add simply walking a step per heartbeat if you allow for it to lead the movement or use one of the basic four drills and repeat the number drills first just inhale and exhale and then adding the pauses in between as you push up with the same count or do leg raises along the exhale.
Next do a different drill from the four basics with each breath phase.
Lie down and tense and relax your body parts one by one and in waves to feel how tension changes form in your body as you release this master key of breath.
Consider getting this: http://www.russianmartialart.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=115
The book
August 4th, 2011 | ransuruThe single reason other then deployment to my lack of posts is working on the book and DVD. If you have any questions I will be glad to answer.
Yours
Sharon
Systema Israel.
Systema Israel: Letting go of tension in movement
May 29th, 2011 | ransuruThe second part of the video http://systemablog.blog.com In this video we go over a drill to clean out and release excess tension from the hips and legs and torso while in movement and eventually altogether. By learning to avoid bracing against contact and mother earth in an unconscious manner we are able to clean out the excess bracing through: 1 letting the breath lead all movement instead of just class movements. 2 Letting go of tension in all limbs and spreading your awareness in all your limbs. 3 Allowing your sight to stay forward and up instead of bypassing the signal our limbs send us and having a freedom to look around naturally.
For soldiers and law enforcement and hunters take note that without this excess tension you will move with less impact and noise signature. Your ability to shoot and hit on the move will evolve and contact attacks will have a lesser effect and surprise effect on you. You will also be less prone to injury and knee and ankle strains than those who think pounding the ground is a good idea outside of a camp fire dance.
Systema Israel Military oriented drills: natural shooting
May 21st, 2011 | ransuruPurpose
April 17th, 2011 | ransuruIf your training does not humble you then what is it you are training ?
April 16th, 2011 | ransuru
It is easy to forget with the pressure of daily life or more intense situations the many ways and tools we have to live and do our work. People sometimes forget to talk or stumble on their word choice under pressure and ofter we focus so much on one body part we forget we have more than one. For example we forget we have another arm when one is under a twist or heavy pull.
Start with one person sitting or standing and have a partner hold onto one arm or leg and push/pull alternating. The person held simply moves with the contact working to stay comfortable and tensing and relaxing the limbs alternating sides. Continue by allowing the free elbow to turn up ninety degrees and as you move with the partner work to place the fist hand or foot on him and keep moving. Change the hold after a while to the neck and body and again move with the partner working to discomfort you and allow the body movement as you move with him to show you opportunities to hit him. A good addition to the drill is to change roles all the time and work from where you find yourself. For example a partner is holding onto your elbow and pushing it behind you and as you switch you relax the hips, turn with his movement and hold onto the inside of the thigh and walk through him. Starting in the sitting down position helps in cleaning the body from bumps that hold you from rolling and turning and as you progress the importance of breathing all the time rises to the surface. Keep breathing and release tension on the exhale at first as it is a muscle release. As you keep moving the inhale will provide you with ample ways to wake up inside as well.
Pass through
March 29th, 2011 | ransuruLetting go of tension and resistance to change is easy to illustrate but the work must be done on all planes of being. Mental, body and heart. Addressing all of these will enable you to keep moving and find a way to get the job done no matter what is happening.
Start with the emotional body by sitting down on your behind and letting a partner push your face with his hand toward the ground. Exhale and avoid resisting but add to the movement after you blend with it to avoid injury when the need arises. The face is very delicate so the partner needs to keep himself in check when he stands up and starts to push the face and head with his feet or shoes but this is an excellent drill once the student is ready for it!
Continue to squatting down and letting yourself be shoved and pushed without letting any resistance rise and in this consider each touch to a blade being shoved into you so avoid fighting and find a way to keep breathing and moving. Once this is done for a while repeat the drill as the squatter is holding his breath with increasing shove count and this will help him or her to release more emotion out and act instead of react. again pay attention to each other and remember to help each other learn rather than break them.
If the squatter is resisting to the point where the standing partner can lean his foot or hand on the partner and lean have them tense up on contact to become aware of it so later on they can shorter and then discard the unneeded tension and just move toward the solution.
Here you will find a good drill for the squatter in continuous movement letting the breath lead you back to the squatting alignment and whenever your partner finds you fall rather then move he will encourage you with a swift but gentle contact to the rear…
Repeat the drill standing and then walking toward each other and once you feel you can let go of the resistance to contact start to move yourself through the partner again without letting tension pass from him to you. This is a more involved drill were you both move through and allow others to move through the space you are currently taking and it will allow you to move in crowds and work with several people at the same time once you allow it to seep humility into your heart mind and body.
Systema Israel Military oriented drills: body wholeness, proper movement, free vision
March 26th, 2011 | ransuruInner voice: From the coming book Bound to unbound
March 20th, 2011 | ransuruIt is always a factor yet it is rarely addressed or even within your awareness. Listening to the inner monologue can be very helpful as all you sides from sub-conscious to fears to wants come into play meshing within it but it can also give way to a lot of negativity in pride and fear and wanting other people to act how you wish them to act.
Three drills to clean out this lack of awareness:
1 Start in a static position such as the lower end of the squat with a aligned back and neck or the static push up and whichever thought “passes” through your head you say out loud and listen to it and release it to the air so it has no effect on you. This will be very funny and liberating at first (not a first date drill mind you) and with practice you will be able to release the hold these passing thoughts and feelings have on you not to mention humility to boost you life and connection with others.
2 Start walking or swaying in place and while exhaling slowly and as you start feeling distress and wanting to inhale or stop tell yourself “I am feeling X” X = angry, pain and so on. There is great power in realizing different emotions and feelings and once you can say I am frustrated or bored or angry again the hold on you is less and less.
3 Close your eyes and perform regular tasks at home or somewhere safe enough and continue to do so as you breathe and work on relaxation in your body. Work on your face and massage it gently and as you work and experience surprises such as pouring a cup of tea without sight It is more interesting that you may think and allow yourself to feel the emotion display on your face. Once you are away you will be less affected from your own body position imposed or not and less affected from the aggression of others.
Do the work.
February 27th, 2011 | ransuru
Stand and check the limits of your sight up down and to the sides. Avoid missing what you do not see behind under or above and check for reflective and shadow surfaces and movements to inform you of something out of your direct sight. tense and relax your face and eyes and see if that helps you seem more in any way. Sit down in the same spot you were standing and note what you gain and what you loose from this vantage point. Check if your neck is relaxed or is your posture sacrificing something for something else. Lie down in the same spot and again work on what you can see more now and what is no longer in your direct sight. Avoid having your own body in the way of your sight such as pointing arms or loose garments and hair if you have any and consider how you can use what you have amassed to create a more true and complete understanding of the situation. Have you now more knowledge of the shadows and mirrors and the structure of what is around you. Does tensing the eyes and face aid in getting more information. Does tensing the neck help in any way.
Military Oriented drills: Obstacles by Systema Israel
February 25th, 2011 | ransuruleg freedom Three drills
February 13th, 2011 | ransuru1 Solo work: Stand on one leg and draw the numbers from 1 to 20 and than erase them backwards (in reverse) with one end of your foot and than with the other. Do the same with your knee and with the other leg. Change positions at will with the ground leg as it aid in no way to create discomfort in yourself.
2 Solo work: lie on the ground and relax your upper body. Use your legs and waist alone to move your body from X to Y and to turn and direct yourself this way and the next.
3 Partner work: look forward and up and and stand in a slight angle to your partner. as he moves move to place your foot where he intended to place his and offering no resistance add a sideways movement to his leg letting his structure collapse. after a while doing this drill have your partner stand behind you and use your breathing to clean the anticipation from your body and mind. Have your partner touch your legs with his without any pressure and once in a while have him place all his mass on the contact by lifting his other leg allowing you to experience a lot of resistance to your current structure. keep breathing and allow all your body to move blending with and directing the force given by your partner so you are less affected and escape without braking contact with him. Repeat this drill until you can move without tensing up and control the situation without letting the first contact raise your tension levels. Keep breathing and relax your eyes.
Systema Israel Military oriented drills
January 28th, 2011 | ransuruSYSTEMA ISRAEL Breathing Spine Eyes
January 15th, 2011 | ransuruHow to make a fist
December 10th, 2010 | ransuruStart by pointing somewhere and noting the natural angle of the wrist and the relaxation in the palm and the backhand. point in different directions and note how your forearm changes angles to keep you aligned and relaxed in this natural movement we all share.
Now slowly and with your breath leading curl your fingers in from the tips to the knuckles but before you start to curl your fingers move the directive of pointing to the knuckles so the palm remains relaxed and engaged (density).
Do this a few times only closing the fingers and keeping the palm and backhand aware and relaxed and in this drill you learn to leave behind excess tension in the making of the fist and its use.
Now that your fist is closed keep pointing with the knuckles and moving the fist from the elbow. This will greatly aid in making the hit a hit
So you want to work on your Systema on your own
December 10th, 2010 | ransuruStart with the basics and when things become easy make them more simple and you will get where you want to go.
Before striking the wall relax in the static push up and walk on your fists and feet.
Before you roll from standing to ground to standing start by flipping up and down on the ground and sitting down and getting up.
Before you start talking strikes learn to walk in all directions and in all heights from a squat to a full standing height.
Hanging in there
December 1st, 2010 | ransuruMany times we focus on our force and power to move against resistance and pass on by our ability to work without tearing at ourselves and avoiding excess tension due to lack of awareness and density (density = fluidity of all three facets of awareness and the health in the tissues and their natural operation for me) One of the needs for an active person can be to hang on his hands and to travel from one point to another Tarzan style. Most people who work on their pull ups do not hang and cannot hang for long on branches or climb pipes outside of buildings because their hold is not agile and their force is able only in a fixed direction.
To clean this work on simply hanging from the bar along with the rest of your work (at the end of the day it helps in letting the spine relax from the effect of gravity) and once holding on for a while is easy you can loop a belt or a towel on the bar or branch and place one hand on the bar and one one the towel lowering the towel hand over time until hanging on one arm is easy (avoid pressurizing yourself and progress naturally)
Once one arm is easy work on switching hands or walking along the branch with your hands and turning from side to side with your contact on the tree or pipe and once this is easy progress to swinging and finding the best time to go up or forward along with the wave. Letting the breath lead here is critical in achieving efficiency and gaining true awareness to the difference between moving by pushing and pulling or simply moving yourself in regard to yourself.
(The principal can be used in many movements and holds such as walking in the squat which is great for your health and humility, holding your self on your toes or on your head while holding your breath and letting the tension come out and many more which you can glean from the many VV and MR DVDs and lessons)
Releasing the push pull drum reaction
November 24th, 2010 | ransuruIt is obvious when people apply force on us they want a response that meets their expectations. Any deviations from this will cause frustration and other emotional and mental effects on them. One of the simplest and most affective to work with is pushing and pulling on your partner.
Start by one person standing and his or her partner placing one hand on them with no tension. The standing person works with his body to push the hand and relaxes a few times and then you change the location of the hand and repeat this drill. This shows you how you tense up against unwanted contact and from awareness you can clean this excess tension from your body and head.
Repeat this basic drill while half down on the squat and here you have an added bonus of working on two things at once both tensing against the contact and remaining free from excess tension while in the half squat. It is important to remember the word ALSO in your general work as what we do does not come to replace anything but to contribute to what it is you want to do. If you are paying attention to your breathing it cannot come instead of paying attention to the direction of your barrel or your hands on the wheel. This allows you to extend your awareness rather than focus it as a pin from here to there and be more alive in life and not just in practice.
Once you worked your awareness to this tensing up against contact move to being pushed and pulled lightly by a partner or more and you simply move with the contact with no resistance to see the effect it has on you with no resistance.
Now start walking from A to be and have your partner come to push and pull you whenever he wants and you work to do two things at once. You move with your partner and continue to move to B at the same time. If for example you are walking toward the tree and your partner is pulling your neck backwards you still have freedom in your legs hips and spine to move in the direction you want (escape evade or simply get home to the lovely wife) and since we worked on awareness to the tension coming from contact we can release it with the continued breathing and keep being free without resisting or using as little force as possible.
Repeat this drill a few times and add sticks to push and pull with starting with the broad side and advancing to the tips (not in the eyes people unless your partner stole your glass eye…) since sticks allow you to further understand your body reactions and the freedom the body has in all the parts rather than focusing on the outer contact.
Once this is done hand your partner a stick with no pointy ends and have him stand in place. You will work toward him from different directions and he will place an obstacle in your way using the long side of the stick. Work this drill and change places frequently or even with a third party calling out the switch so your mind will release the role it takes and simply breath and move.
Continue to having your partner walk with the stick and you come to place your arms around him (placing your arms around his legs without stopping is one way to do it) and he uses both the long and short of the stick to move you and remain free. It is important to the work of the stick person to avoid becoming a pusher or trying to keep the oncoming “hug” at a fixed distance and work freely with what fits the moment you are in (sometimes you push, sometimes pull and sometimes with awareness you can see where your partners are not paying attention and you can control their movement by touch alone there)
Move to both partners trying to place their arms around each other without the other persons arms or legs around you and here one side will alternate at will working to get his job done or just staying free with no limitations to his movement. The partner will experience these differnet levels of work and will be able to notice how his own work is dependent on the nature of work in his contact and thus clean his mind and body from this type of leaning on outside behaviour.
Have fun and work honestly
Survive the tool in YOUR HAND
November 6th, 2010 | ransuruWe often work against attacks which involve tools such as stick knives shovels and the like but not hurting yourself with your own tools is seldom practiced. People who for example work with long light blades such as machetes know that drawing the blade back from a cut using just the arm can end in it coming back to the source of the movement which is your body (please consider how much you can affectively learn from this sentence alone)
Start by holding a tightly rolled magazine in your hand and have a partner work to have your relaxed hand hit you and your job is to do the least amount of work to avoid getting hurt. Continue to the excellent standing drill of person A needs to get person B to point X and again A works to use the magazine to his favor and B works to avoid getting hurt and to not reach point B (not an elephant trunk)
Continue to do the same drill only now hold unto a full length stick such as a walking stick or a mop and once you feel more comfortable with the stick replace it with a hammer. People think you must be effortless all the time and once you are good you will not be using force at all and that is silly. If you need to push a car you will use force. If you need to drive a person from A to B you can use much less force but still move yourself and working with unbalanced tools such as a hammer will help you clean out the misconception of work not being just that work. Remember we aim to employ the least amount of force and harm to ourselves and others and we can truly do great things, all of us but only honesty will get us there.
Once the hammer is done with you start with a chain and use great care as you will have less and less control of it if you resist your partner or partners in this drill and the role of the chain in this drill is to show you how much we tense and resist when there is no benefit to us by acting so. The more you will tense up and try to move others you will be hurt by the chain in your hand. The more you will move yourself you will have the chain by your side.
Now let us use a great new tool called a flat trowel which we will use before the knife to be able to push and lever with it on the body and limbs. The shape of it like an upside down triangle which is opposite to a regular sticking knife and thus allows us to explore evading harm to ourselves in an expanded way. Because the angle is revered you will feel a point boring into you whenever you decide to play smart with the blade and rotate on the tip which you can do on a static plastic blade but not on a real moving one especially if you are holding the blade and your partner is wisely taking advantage on your reluctance to move yourself.
Once this is done and the bricks are in a row repeat with a not too sharp blade and remember breathing and paying attention is key and not winning a practice drill. The more ego you have the less you learn about yourself and the less good you can achieve.
October 24th, 2010 | ransuru
Simple. To gain awareness on how your body works and works well in different positions you need to explore them with different tools and with calm so you can both process and make use of what you learn.
Start standing upright tensing and relaxing your body one part at a time with your breath setting the pace and not the other way around.
Continue by leaning from the hips forward standing on one leg and having the other walk balk with the body to remain as relaxed as you can and repeating this process again.
Continue by leaning back from the hips keeping your upper body as aligned as possible to keep the breathing relaxed and the head free to move and again the leg in the air is in line with the body as it works the same in walking and you repeat the tensing and relaxing process.
Close your eyes and repeat the process and please mind how your feet both work together even in midair to help you transfer tension out and when you finish the drill keep this knowledge and don’t let your plans get in the way of letting your feet clean and clear you out of rough spots.
Two is one and one is none
October 14th, 2010 | ransuruThere is an old army joke about a soldier getting two wishes from a Jinn. He thinks and things and then declares I want a magazine that never ends and poof it is laying in his eager hand. The Jinn asks for the second wish and after pondering the soldier says proudly I want another one…
There is actually quite a lot of wisdom in this silly yarn. We are taught that two is one and one is none in the army but in broader terms we learn to rely on ourselves and not on our gear. Things fail break or are” loaned” by someone who thinks they know better but never tastes the dirt. What stays with you is a spirit of mistrust in everything in the beginning from the timeline your commander issues to the rifle actually shooting. When you mature by a few months you learn to attach small and shiny items to yourself by more than one mean and learn to use things to more than their intended purpose. You can open a can with the front sight of an M-16, You can put torn flesh together with Locktite glue (a historical note is that one of the original uses was just that) and you can use your mind and body for just about anything.
It is a state of mind first of using tools with your mind being one of them. Thoughts of despair frustration and vengeance are kinks in the machine you are running and as you know you cannot escape a trap leaving parts of you behind and return to normal living. Learn to harness your mind by working everything together. Your emotions and body both effect the mind and it affects them as well. Ignoring a glitch in any of them will lead to not knowing why you are angry after not eating or sleeping for a while and if one part of the chain is stretched it is soon to break.
Make it not a habit but a drill to be used when needed to report to yourself on all your systems. How am I feeling ? Am I afraid or something or angry which is the other side of the coin. Is my body suffering from bad nutrition while on a trip or deployment ? Am I bored from patrol and drift away in my mind while driving or walking ?
These simple questions take the harness from the emotions thoughts pangs and pains and places them in you. It is simple but not easy so slowly start with this process and see what it can do for you.
October 5th, 2010 | ransuru
Simple is not always easy but it is the easiest path. Staying with the principles and avoiding getting lured into work for work sake is the greatest pitfall of pride and knowledge instead of awareness.
Start standing on one leg with the other one relaxed in the air under you and not in some static tension position. Have a partner use either his legs and body or a good stick to move your legs alternating between the one touching the ground and the one in the air. Work to stay within your comfort and move as little as possible. Keep breathing and clean out the idea that you need to defend the ground under your foot. Move to stay comfortable but only as little as needed. A good measure of comfort is how you perceive time within and this is another key to mastery.
Continue to moving the air leg without stop while your partner creates blocks for your movement using himself or the stick or both. Learn to clean out movement that has to finish its course with no reason and move from more than one guiding point at once. Pay attention to your breathing and live in your hips knees ankles and toes all at once.
Once you gathered a bit from that drill walk into each other in turn and then all at once learning to clean out measuring your location in relation to another person and just move with no unnecessary anchor. Learn by simply walking without leaning your legs on someone else how the previous drills allow you to naturally find the open door rather then trying to force your way and remember to keep moving. It is the definition of life. From every breath you can learn and from every encounter you can gain. How you grasp the movement is key to mastery. If you struggle for victory you may get it and you may not which is a bad dice roll in a knife fight but if you strive to understand what you experience in yourself and in others and avoid separating these very similar concepts you will gain more from every breath.
September 6th, 2010 | ransuru
Being relaxed on your fists comes from being relaxed in your body and in your perception. You must learn to move with your breath and to use the least amount of tension to keep the fist closed and the wrist aligned and to remember to move with all your body and not have density just in the fist.
Start by tensing and relaxing on your fists in the static push up working to spread your awareness in all your body and to note where you tense up or are not aware of your alignment and are hurting your breathing. Repeat for the sides (one one fist and one leg, body straight and perpendicular to the ground) and than face up static push ups. Build to a 100 breaths in each gravity pool and remember it is just the start.
Now to the choppers: start with your fists on the ground and walk your legs with your body as straight as you can around lifting each arm from the body at a time only when you must. Remember you need to work to extend your comfort zone with awareness while avoiding pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Being outside it in combat is injury or death most of the time and the wife is against it.
Now have a good partner lie on the ground and you walk on his body both face up and face down working to keep the elbows alive and the shoulders moving from the body and not moving the body. Remember to walk with your legs and body and let the arms do the talking.
Now do the same drill only have your partner roll as you walk with him working on keeping your breath light and your eyes free from following your partner. Keep the fists on your partner and add an elbow and shoulder at will.
Now have two partners or more squat with you and have a free everyone walks through everyone with the arms acting as ghosts and just touching the partners and collapsing working on just feeling the movement and the breath. Do this until you start to dislike the person who wrote the drill…
Now half squat and have two people or more push you at the same time and you simply ghost your fists and arms on their moving arms and body. Again just feel the movement while you keep your breath vision and body free from outside control.
Now start to sit down and get up and have people come and walk through you and you move out of the way (rolling, walking, sliding and so on) as you let the movement sink and screw into them while you move freely still. Remember to keep your survival via awareness above overextending yourself and injuring yourself. a broken collar bone in the forest behind the lines is not the same as a sport injury in survival terms.
Now have people come to embrace you (walk or run at you and work their limbs around you to drop you so the others can play that English sport with your head) and you work your entire body including shoulders head limbs and behind to keep moving and letting the fists do the talking.
OR
Do a much better thing and attend a Vladimir and Mikhail seminar
Just one breath ot live
September 2nd, 2010 | ransuruIt is important to work on all facets of the person at the same time when you train so they will all be present in daily life and when the rockets start to fall. The best way to do this is to confine both ends of how we perceive ourselves to the same time.
Start by standing or laying prone on the ground and breathing smoothly. Exhale slowly and continuously until you have nothing left and then hold and tense and relax parts of you until your body starts to move out the accumulated tension on its own with shaking and more.
Repeat the drill with smoothly inhaling until you are full and then holding and tensing and relaxing for a while and note the differences in how your body works naturally to take out the tension on its own.
Now that you went to the two ends simply hold your breath when you are at a comfortable position and repeat the drill. Know that you are working well when you feel comfortable. If you are working under stress that is not intentional such as in the static push up you are not paying attention and if you are working with a partner and your movement feels uncomfortable or painful you are already injured if you are working at high speed.
Now bring your legs overhead and in this position repeat the three drills and then bridge up and again repeat the drills to learn how your body is working to end this inner conflict and stay healthy under tension. Once you do all this you can work with a partner to wrestle lightly and with your aim in this drill to stay within your comfort zone and to keep breathing smoothly. The aim of the drill is to help you clean out excess tension and unneeded movement in a way that promoted health and calm.
Once you have done these drills on your own and with a partner (remember to be free in your thought as well. It can be play wrestling with your child or a game of pass with a ball) continue to do the work using the inhale to end, exhale to end and pause on comfort to end with simple movement drills. Start with the four basics of pushups, sit ups, leg raises and squats that allow you to learn how to guide your breath in movement and then add simple movement such as sitting down and getting up, walking and so on.
It is very tempting to go straight to survival drills that depict simulations of violence but it is harmful to work this way all the time. When you come with all your stored tension and unaware movement to the drill you think you are doing well when in fact you are just pressing the tension further down your throat. When you focus on the goal in life rather than in on specific event you will gain much more in all cases.
Now take a stick with slightly pointy edges and as one works on the three breath cleaning drills you poke and push/pull them and they simply move to stay comfortable. Remember that acting out of fear is reacting and it is the act of allowing the outside to control you.
The stick person works on moving without relying too much on the stick and on paying attention to where the tension is in your partner so you can work better and help your partner clean his or her movement better.
Change roles and remind your partner to avoid giving control to others with his eyes by working from all heights and directions (legs from the back, throat from the side, between the legs and to the side at the same time and more) and remember most attacks do not come from the front and most attackers show their perceived weapon for intimidation before the actual hit and not just for their ego boasting.
Proceed to one partner walking to hug/hold his partner and the other working the stick (both ends and everything in between) to avoid the contact. Now you avoid the stick by walking and not letting it sink in or affect more than the contact point and you can learn a lot using this drill and even more when you employ the breathing cleaning drills.
Advance to more than one on one as things usually go in the animal kingdom and have this fun game to work through. One has to either avoid being pushed/dragged or carried to the trunk of the elephant or car (depending on your locale ) or needs to go from A to B in an apartment with an owner who does not collect ancestral chinaware… (start from the beginning with the breath cleaning of inhale, exhale and hold so the need for clean effective and efficient movement is clear from the beginning and no unneeded posturing is brought it or ingrained)
Remember the goal of the drill is to clean you and make you more healthy and sound. If you race or try to win you have already lost. If you try to out dumb a silly curse or enraged person you are not within you comfort zone and have already lost.
Play for the big reward which is your life and service to others.
