I haven't posted #31-32, but since they exist as handwritten logs,
I'll maintain the chronology. The day classes are usually small, but
today we started with just Edgar and I, and at first I was a bit
nervous about this, wishing there was another student to distract
from my mistakes. But I began to relax a bit as we warmed up, the
school was quiet, and Edgar's a patient teacher with an easygoing
manner. Another of my classmates joined us as we were doing a
yielding exercise, pushing and returning the energy with a wave-like
motion, yielding, and returning back.

Developing sensitivity and maintaining contact were the main themes,
we worked slowly and lightly on timing, and the psychological aspects
of physical conflict. We escaped from headlocks, full nelsons, arms
bent back, and other kinds of grabs, allowing some contact, but
slipping away, swiveling the hips, rolling the shoulders, rotation,
and other ways to escape and return back. Edgar demonstrated how you
would step sideways between a narrow gap, hip, leg and shoulder
moving as one, and how the same movement applied to the exercise, and
to Systema movement in general.

My partner evaded me with ease, because I was moving slowly. I often
do this as well: evade completely when we are working on allowing
brief contact. Edgar explained that we should wait for the contact,
then slip away at the same speed as the attempted grab, moving away
in the same direction of the grabbing motion, using the energy of the
attacker to escape and return back, and allowing the attacker to
believe he has been successful. Sudden movements or resistance will
be instantly discernible and allow an attacker to compensate, whereas
subtle and yielding movements will fool an attacker into believing he
was successful. (The Russians calls this concept "happy fist.)
Although subtle movements may be felt through the close contact we
were trying to develop, but most people have been conditioned to
believe what they see or what they have been conditioned to believe
about human movement, rather than what they feel. Timing is
everything, and moving away too late, or too early, will not be
visually effective, nor will it utilize the same energy.

Edgar demonstrated how to escape from tighter holds as well. We
worked a bit with freeing from elbow and wrist locks, using leverage
of the forearm. I found it difficult create enough tension in my
forearm, which was necessary for both my partner and I to practice my
leverage. My arms are very loose, and I had to really concentrate on
maintaining enough structure to make the exercise effective, both for
my partner, and myself, when it was my turn to free myself from the
hold. Edgar showed up how movement of the wrist and fingers could
even help to free from a painful lock or twist of the delicate bones
of the hand. By now I know that Edgar will twist pretty hard with any
sort of limb-twisting exercise—I mean, the point is to find a way to
escape, and that's not really possible unless there is some pain from
which to escape (unlike a punch, which can be work on avoiding
without necessarily feeling the pain of impact). My classmates, and
myself included, don't twist nearly so hard. But I moved my wrist and
fingers, and Edgar's twisting became considerably less painful. My
classmate kept asking me if it was working, and I kept telling him
that I was afraid to stop to see how much pain was actually abated,
but he continued to ask me. I don't think he realized how painful it
was to do nothing about Edgar's twistings, but I stopped moving my
fingers long enough to confirm that yes, the movement eased the pain
considerably.

I was the only one who hit the floor today, while Edgar demonstrated
how to free yourself from a half nelson. We were working so lightly,
I didn't even break a sweat. We were working largely on developing
awareness of each others' movements; feeling rather than seeing. I
think my partner was looking for some more combat-oriented
applications, because he asked how these exercises might be used in
scenarios, and how to escape from a grab or choke hold, rather than
slip away from an attempt. Edgar explained that the exercises were
not necessarily to be employed in real scenarios, but to fine tune
the senses to fight effectively without aggression or tension.. Edgar
talked to us at length about the physical and psychological aspects
of internal martial arts, and how it differs from the external
martial arts. He spoke sincerely about how challenging it is to
acquire such skill, and we were reminded that he is also a student,
despite how accomplished he appears to us.

*Vsego nailuchshego* (best wishes),
Rachel