Pushups, leg-lifts, sit-ups, and squats are our standard conditioning
exercises for warming up. Next we stretched with our partners, back
to back, locking arms and one person bent over to lift the other up
into the air and shake them around to stretch the back. We also
stretched each other's shoulders by having one person face a wall,
while the other pulled their arms backward and away from them, and
pulled the two arms together, which was at times painful. Edgar
instructed us to breathe the "puff breaths" to tell our partners when
the pressure was too much.

A quick note about breathing in Systema, which many experienced
Systema-ists have told me is the most important of the Four
Cornerstones (breathing, relaxation, form, and movement). Since
Systema is all about survival, and has no sport application (no
tournaments, ranks, or "rules"), breathing is paramount. As Systema
instructor Rob Green explained, in a combat situation,
breathing "might be the only thing that is left of "you." Breath for
as long as you can, then there is a chance you can survive."
Breathing sustains the human body, it also brings relaxation, but in
the case of life-threatening injuries, as Mr. Green points out,
remembering to breathe may be the only thing that staves away death
long enough for help to arrive.

The Systema "center" is not the lower abdomen, as it is in the
Eastern arts, but the solar plexus, and the breathe is sometimes
envisioned as coming from that area, although Systema-ists breathe
from the lower abdomen as well. You are supposed to breathe in
through your nose, out through your mouth, and often during class,
Edgar asks us to breathe out "audibly" as a reminder to be mindful of
our breathing. Systema-ists exhale before exertion, exhaling audibly
is a major component of some of our drills. Especially during hard
exercises, breathing out audibly is helpful in relaxation. While
falling or rolling, or trying to "escape" from some painful drill
like limb-twisting, or even before performing a difficult strike, the
audible "exhale" can make a huge difference. But as Vladimir Vasiliev
explained on one of the Systema instructional tapes
(http://www.russianmartialart.com), you don't want to "whoosh" all
your exhaled breath out of yourself. The exhale should be nurturing
your body as much as the inhale. The exhaled breathe is controlled
and a little bit rounded back toward yourself, almost as if you are
whistling, and this circular type of breath provides additional
protection.

The other kind of breathing is the "puff breaths" to extend endurance
or moderate pain when you feel a muscle about to give way, such as
during conditioning exercises. This kind of breathing is like short,
shallow panting like a dog and is very helpful when it seems your
stamina is about to fail.

Next we moved to light sensitivity work, shoving our partners gently
while they returned the shove with the same force. Not just the same
degree of force, but trying to "channel" the force of their shove
into ours, passing energy back and forth, as it were. Nothing New Age-
y about this exercise, just a drill to develop sensitivity. Then pain
compliance with first one then two people twisting our arms while we
avoided by going in the same direction as the twist, going underneath
our arms in circles to both yield and escape. Then we had to sit on
the floor while two people grabbed our wrists and began to twist,
quite a bit harder to escape from this one.

Then we practiced leg-work and kicking. We kicked our partners
lightly with the feet, then with the knees, then the hips, while they
avoided. Then we moved to takedowns using just the legs, mostly the
knees. Our partners walked towards us at a normal pace while we
practiced a variety of ways to trip and take them down, leg sweeps,
trapping the ankle and pushing the knee, using the hands to abruptly
push the knee in or out to disbalance. We practiced pretending to
knee our partners in the groin, and using that momentary withdrawing
motion to kick one foot out from underneath, "faking them out," as it
were.

I am still working toward that elusive "wave-like" motion of Systema
where you take the person down gradually using the six levels, in
stages, with a sort of swaying motion of the hips, squatting, while
keeping form, and using the downward motion of the squat to
disbalance the opponent without losing your own balance.

We finished the class with a sensitivity exercise. Edgar moved his
fist over Oleg, a senior student, not touching him, just sort of
running his fist an inch or two over his body, while Oleg gracefully
avoided it. Then he pressed his palm flat on his chest and asked him
to resist his pressing hand and "pulse" his muscles against his hand.
He did this for a few seconds then pressed his hand almost to Oleg's
chest, but at the last second stopped, and of course Oleg leaned
forward as if to pulse against him in the same pattern they had been
following. Edgar explained that this leaning forward is entirely
involuntary and asked us to try it on each other. This exercise I
think was meant to demonstrate the Russian concept of "happy fist"
where you make your opponent believe he has struck you, although he
has missed. Since his body has already "committed" to the punch, it's
too late to for his mind to understand that no contact was made.
Edgar explained was a Special Ops technique. The Oleg stood with his
back to Edgar while he demonstrated running his hands over Oleg about
an inch away from his body, and asked us to try to influence our
partners in this way. Oleg good-naturedly shook his head, he
couldn't "sense" what Edgar was doing to him. but when they switched
places, Edgar, with his back to Oleg, did seem to bend and yield to
his invisible touch.

*Vsego nailuchshego* (best wishes),
Rachel