Systema Good for real life or not?

Ok ive heard many people say systema sucks, Ive heard its great, how you can get punched and you absorb the punches, how you can relax and hit harder, how you can do all this stuff with flexibility and such, BUT alot of people say that in real life if you were a systema user and you walked up and tried to fight with a 3rd Degree Black Belt he'd kick your butt...........so does anyone have any experience in systema in here? Does anyone know its uses in the real world?

 

Not a systema student, but seen good and bad examples of same movements..
once again its the person not the art, that said, it suits an already accomplished m.artist i reckon, sometimes a little exagerated though isnt it, like with chi/ki strikes etc.. i ignored those parts lol.
horses for courses i suppose

 

If you see the systema video's there usually slow motion, and the guy is beating up like five guys or not beating them up but pushing them away and throwing him out of the way and doing all this almost matrix stuff. If he did that stuff in real time i think id be totally stunned because he makes it seem so easy to just destroy an opponents body a kick to the knee a hit to the elbow your opponent throws a kick you grab it and toss it away from you.........but like i said its mostly done in slow motion.

 

As with any style, there are going to be good people and bad.

People probably talk bad because some of the videos that pop up first on YouTube are just ridiculous:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7_dzu4TQDs"]YouTube - What is Systema? Systema Self Defense Mega clip[/ame]

 

Best egsample ive found is Sibrisky Vjin, from memory. sorry if i misspelled it
I dont watch others yet.

 

I've noticed Systema guys are fanatically adament about the effectiveness of their style. My only experience with it came via my students. I had a young woman who claimed to have been doing systema for 18 months yet she was destroyed in a match with another woman who's total martial arts training consisted of the 2 days they both had with me. I don't really consider that a representation of the art though. From viewing the videos, I see good and bad. I'm not a fan of their striking methodology, but the environmental training is spot on. Generally, it's not the techniques of an art, it's the way they are practiced that makes it effective in the real world. Case in point: Lyota Machida. From that standpoint, Systema's approach to training may make the style moderatly effective.

 

a quick wiki read has turned up the fact that there appear to be two different MAs called systema, one of them being ryabkho's

 

HI,

For me: YES !
The system is a good system of Defense ... Many say that kravmaga is good : here too ! Russians have a pragmatic analysis of the Self Defense.
This is not a traditional martial art but an effective system of Defense.
There are many system or Art of Defense ! The problem is not whether system is good !?! But whether the student can apply the techniques of SYSTEMA ?
If the student feels well with the system ?
In my humble opinion: a lot of martial arts are very good ! But it is the student who is good or not good...
it is impossible to say a martial art is better than another martial art ...
This is the only student who gives life to the system ! If the student is bad style = who is ill will ... If the student is very good = the system he represents is very good !
After there is a feeling with the teacher... A great fighter is not necessarily a great pédagoque... (instructor).
Many great fighter is not great pédagoques...
We must find the right system or we feel good and good teacher !

http://video.google.fr/videosearch?...ource=hp&q=systema&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#

Respect has all !
:bow1:

 

Sayings like that are pretty meaningless, but here's he blog/ thoughts of a "third degree black belt" who now trains with us

http://stevewildash.blogspot.com/

Like anything, it's down to how it's taught and how it's trained. I can only speak for myself and my guys but we've found it extremely effective across the board. There's a whole bunch of vide clips on my Youtube page of our general and specific training. Here's some typical class stuff

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0I7ffo2E08"]YouTube - SYSTEMA CLASS TRAINING SUMMER 2009[/ame]

 

I have grave reservations about systema. Mainly because it shares with other RBSD styles this terrible habit of training using 'he does that, you do this' style drills. These 'defences' are often unrealistic, but that's besides the point. My main point is that fighting doesn't work like that. You should be learning to apply techniques and methods that you can slot into any given situation rather than pat responses to a given situation IMHO.

 

This is all based on a mixture of hearsay and internet information, of course. I could be totally wrong about systema.

 

Systema is like any other system. How it works for other people is no indication of how it will work for you. So get to a class and tell us your opinion from personal experience

 

The advanced practisioners just look far too caual for my liking.

The attackers go down too fast...nope looks set up to me.

"Nerve centres are wayyy too over rated in my opinion.

No real defensive posture and one "deadly" strike????

Seen too much of it in other arts to be convinced.

I stand ready to be corrected.

 

your video is pretty good not slow motion like the majority ive been seeing there was another clip were they were sparring on youtube but the site was in russian BLAH and i dont speak russian.

 

Arts im interested in but cant access in this city are

Panantukan (filipino boxing)
Sambo
Shootfighting
Kali, Escrima, Arnis
Silat
Krav Maga

In this city we DO have

BJJ
Savate
Aikido
Kickboxing
Muay Thai
MMA
Boxing
Judo

etc etc

 

Actually we don't work like that at all, it's all very free flow and improvisational. We work from a principle base rather than specific techniques and tend to throw in a lot of variables.

cheers
Rob

 

"Western Systema"

I trained many years a ago briefly with a system guy -(my back ground was 8 years of wing chun at the time). I really enjoyed the training and some of the strikes were ackward to stop and very powerful with a whip lash motion.

However I took some of my class mates to train with the systema guys and on the whole wing chun guys came off much better. The main reason was NOT superiorty of Wing chun - the ststema guys rolled on to the floor a lot and the wing chun guys followed and struck them preventing them getting up.

I suspect if you went to hit a good systema guy you would get an almighty surprise but frankly as a fighting systema I would go for krav,boxing, thai boxing mma every time.

I suspect that what we see as systema here in the west is a very watered down version of what went on in russia.

On a final point - the whole systema - special forces thing...
Its irrelevant - you wont train (and retain) civilian students like the spetznaz were trained so all those claims are nonsense for civilian students.

As I see it system is a great system,offers great mind/body connection, is a great hobby/martial art but is probably not the fastest or most effective self defence system

 

A thread on a systema forum (about systema) blew my mind about my own arcane style. And their forum mod is mean because I haven't been approved for membership to it