Sydney Systema Seminar

5 hours Sunday 20^th October, 2008

SYSTEMA BALLISTIC STRIKES AND CONTROL

My name is Peter Aftanas and I have a growing Systema School in Sydney Australia (www.RussianMartialArt.com.au).

In October Ian Ayres a friend of mine and a Systema Instructor from Brisbane was in Sydney and able to come down to the school and give us a one day seminar called SYSTEMA BALLISTIC STRIKES AND CONTROL.

As you can see from the name of the seminar it was tough and hard and all about “doing the business” as Ian like to say.

The Seminar

The Seminar was organised as a one day five hour training session. The topic for the seminar was SYSTEMA BALLISTIC STRIKES AND CONTROL.

We had 25 people attend and it was a painful day for all. Almost everybody at the seminar had trained in Systema before.

Ian started the day with some nice gentle group based warm ups, timing and distance work for strikes, Systema foot work, body contact and control drills, strike placement drills, mass attack movement drills, etc. The boys and girls were well warmed up but not quite ready for what was about to come.

We then moved on to many different striking drills, walking strike drills, movement strike drills, and multiple partner strike work, then mass attack strike work. As the time moved on we progressed through Ian's work schedule. We moved form the simple to more complex work. Ian's constant focus was “the fight”. This was completely a combat strike seminar.

As the seminar drew to a close Ian introduced the class to pad work, strike correction, as well as different and unusual strikes.

The training was hard, tiring, painful and relentless. Ian brought a distinct fight realism to this seminar that a lot of people had not seen before. Most people who study martial art forget that they are studying how to fight and more importantly they are studying how to survive and / or fight for their lives. Ian brought this realism to this seminar. The people attending certainly had their eyes opened to this fact.

Ian did a great job, even though everyone was bruised and beaten they all still laughing at events and demonstrations throughout the day. The seminar was a great success and a great learning day for all who attended.

Final Note and Thanks

There are a few people I have to thank for this seminar.

Firstly, I have to thank all of the Sydney and interstate people who attended the seminar. It is not easy to spend five hours getting hit or waiting to get hit and still find time to laugh, joke and have a good time. Thank you.

Secondly, I want to thank Ian Ayres for such a professional and focused seminar. Thank you for the time and effort you put into the seminar, the passion with which you delivered the material, and the genuine care you took with the guys as you hit and kicked them. Thanks again Ian.

Australian is certainly on the map now as far as Systema is concerned. More and more people are attending seminars and classes. Once again thank you all.

Kind regards,

Peter Aftanas.

Please visit our Sydney - Australian website: www.RussianMartialArt.com.au