Conditioning exercises of the usual grueling variety were followed by
some practice rolling which is always fun and relaxing. The class was
large and the space a little tight for rolling but that was part of
the practice; Systema teaches you to be aware of not just your
partner, but all your classmates. We also stretched each other by
locking arms back-to-back and then bending over and lifting our
partners off the floor, shaking them around to stretch the back. Then
we tried doing backbends and placing our palms on the wall, "walking"
down the wall and back up again using just the hands. This is very
difficult so we spotted each other. My arms are still a bit sore from
this exercise. Then we did some avoidance and yielding exercises,
kicking lightly and gently at our partner's shins while they evaded,
then striking just with the knees, using a pivoting, swiveling type
action to lend force to the kicks, with optional takedowns using the
legs only. Systema footwork is still elusive to me; it's almost like
sidling across the floor, with some pivoting in elliptical motions,
but always with the knees slightly bent and the hips tucked forward.
The knees are not supposed to be "locked" straight.

We practiced "steering" our partners by the shoulders while pivoting,
sort of rolling them back and forth between both arms, as if rolling
a barrel, "like dancing," said Edgar, inevitably. Systema's slow
sparring looks more like dancing than what we generally consider to
be a martial art, and that's a big part of its appeal to me, that
it's a gentle method of self-defense, always following the natural
inclination of the body toward avoidance of a threat, making double
or triple use of every movement of the body, e.g., motion to avoid
turns into a strike, blurring the line between defense and offense.

Edgar decided we were too tense and made us do "40 count" pushups,
leglifts, situps, and squats, counting to twenty on the down-press,
then back to twenty on the up. I don't have the strength to even hold
myself in an upright pushup position for 40 of Edgar's counts (he
likes to offer lengthy training advice in the middle of counting, add
a few "fractions" to the count as we get up to 18 or 19, etc.) He
advised us to use the short "puff" breaths when we felt our arms
about to give way.

Next we moved into knife disarming, "like a snake" Edgar explained,
as he first redirected the knife attack, and then wrapped his forearm
around the flat of the blade like a lever, sort of rolling the blade
away from his partner. It's almost impossible to describe this
movement, Edgar sometimes refers to it as the "Number Eight," i.e.,
figure-eight. We practiced manipulating the elbow by shoving it
upward, capturing the arm against our body for an elbow joint
lock, "sweeping" aside the attacking arm. Edgar always pantomimed
slitting the throat of his partner with the practice knife, and my
partner told me that if I was ever disarmed a real knife, I should
always slash the attacker, not to kill, but to shock into
complacence. I was partnered with the most talkative of all my
classmates, we stopped sparring for a good five minutes while he
talked about knife fights. I learned a lot from him and we worked
together effectively, but of course I'd rather be training and
talking at the same time.

*Vsego nailuchshego* (best wishes),
Rachel