No conditioning exercises tonight, for the first time in more than 6
weeks of classes, I didn't have to struggle through pushups, situps,
leg-lifts and squats. Instead we warmed up by practicing rolls and
other floorwork. First we tried moving across the floor on our backs
using just the shoulders, then on our stomachs, then sitting with
feet elevanted using just the butt to move forwards, backwards and
sideways. Then forward rolls, starting on all fours, extending one
arm and turning it forward so the shoulder rolls. Systema rolls
aren't somersaults, you are never supposed to roll on your head, but
always the shoulder, and turning so that one shoulder or the other is
bearing the weight. Usually my rolls are more like "round-offs" as I
always end up sideways. We were supposed to do backward rolls by
laying on our backs and swinging the legs over our heads, but I
couldn't do this. I need someone to spot me as I can't really get my
legs behind my head. Then we were supposed to dive into a roll from a
squatting position but I was too scared to do this on the hardwood
floor. Seeing this, and my mom's hesitation to do the forward rolls
(she has no problem with backwards rolls, but she says the forward
rolls hurt her bony shoulders), our instructor Edgar Tsakouls let us
move onto the mats. Of course he increased the difficulty of the
rolling exercise once we were on the nicely padded surface. We
practiced diving over a stool and into a roll from a standing
position. Although the guys went into the roll at a run, I had to
roll by lifting one leg behind me until it tipped my balance forward.
Even in the swimming pool, I never run into a dive, I just kind of
stand there and tip forward. Then we practiced a similar exercise
where you walk toward someone and they grab one of your legs and pull
it behind, forcing you to dive into a roll. I was pretty brave on the
mat despite being a huge scaredy-cat on the floor. It makes a huge
difference knowing that there's a protective surface to soften your
landing. But one thing I've learned from Systema class is that the
floor isn't all that far away. You can fall on the floor from a
standing position and not hurt yourself as much as you might think.
It's just that the body is conditioned to over-protect itself and
the "flinch" response to perceived impending harm is pretty hard to
suppress. Edgar told us we must be perfectly silent when we roll and
fall on the floor, in case we are on a special ops assignment and
have to use stealth, but he smiled and laughed, knowing we are all
just ordinary New Yorkers and not intelligence operatives.

After the rolls, we worked on kicks and legwork for a good long time.
Evading and catching the kicking leg, trapping the kicking leg
between our thigh and foot, various ways to unbalance a kicking
opponent. We tried kicking high while our opponents ducked underneath
it, considerably easier for me paired up with a guy who's over 6 feet
tall, than it was for him, me being about 5'7" and not good at
kicking super high. Then we applied the same principles to punching,
ducking underneath the punching arm. Edgar stressed that evasion is
always the first step, before ducking or trying to redirect force, we
should first ensure our own protection. He demonstrated using one or
both arms to cover the head and "roll" off the attacking punch as you
duck underneath it in a "combing your hair" kind of movement,
sweeping the arms back and over your head with palms facing
outwaryd. "Like a monkey," he said, laughing as he demonstrated how
to move the arms in this way. We finally moved into takedowns, but
most of the class was spent on ducking, evading, swivelling the hips,
and that elusive "figure-eight" movement that is used to trap an
attacking limb.

*Vsego nailuchshego* (best wishes),
Rachel