I have finally got some time to comment on the "real world" training
session..

I was a great afternoon, I meet some new friends and learnt some new
systema. Due to the rain, the park was a no go area so Andrew made a
quick decision to train in the fire escape..

There we were six guys crammed into the fire escape area. We started
with general warm-up drills like avoiding a push while against the
wall. This was new experience for me, pushed up against a wall with no
where to go.. Andrew showed us that when you have a wall behind, you
need to move the shoulder forward away from the wall to deflect the
attack.

From this simple drill we progressed to pushes without the wall. The
next exercise/drill was escaping from a grab around the neck. I was
very surprised at the variations that were possible from just a simple
starting movement... from a nice strike to a take down or using the
wall as a weapon.

We finished with my favorite part of the afternoon. Defence against a
push/front kick. My previous experience for defending against a front
kick, is from kickboxing and doesn't require much technique... You
take the kick on your stomach or chest, great if you have a steel
body, but this is not the case for most people.

The systema way of defending the front kick was by way of deflection
using the knee, legs or arm to redirect the movement to an
advantageous position to take the opponent out and down..

A good session!