The Maxim Franz Australia 2009 Tour

Sydney: 7 hours Saturday 13^th - 7 hours Sunday 14^th June

Melbourne: 7 hours Saturday 20^th - 7 hours Sunday 21^st June

SYSTEMA – The Russian Fight

Introduction

My name is Peter Aftanas, and I have a Systema school in Sydney, Australia ( www.RussianMartialArt.com.au ). This year I have combined with Adam Vounoridis in order to bring Maxim Franz back to Australia.

In 2008 Maxim Franz made his first trip to Australia. Since then our school has grown and the boys and girls have trained hard and we were all looking forward to Max's return.

The Seminar

Two seminars were organised for Australia. One in Sydney and one in Melbourne (about 1,000km south of Sydney).

The Seminar was organised as two, two day event 7 hours per day. We had over 20 guys attend in Sydney and about the same in Melbourne at Adam's School. It was a great training experience. Almost everyone that attended the seminars had had some Systema training so it was a great opportunity for Max to take us all up to the next level.

Sydney - The First Day - Saturday 13^th June

Max started the first day with lots of warm up drill, ground stretching, soft falling, rolling on your partner, push ups, breath work, etc.

We then moved to more rolls both forward and backward and various types of ways to fall and move on the ground. Then on to take downs, tactical walking and strike work, opponent control drills, more strike work, strike absorption, relaxation drills, soft evasion type drills, slapping drills, grab escape drills, etc, etc, etc. As the day rolled on we continued from drill to drill.

Max constantly emphasise that we should “take care of our partner” and “don't destroy you partner” and “remember your partner is helping you, don't break each other”.

Sydney - The Second Day – Sunday 14^th June

The second day started much like the first. Warm ups, walking and running with breath work, stretching, rolls, falling / rolling over an obstacle (your partner), etc.

We then moved to some warm up knife work, then stick exercises, ground work with sticks and knifes, etc. The emphasis was on breath work, sensitivity and soft movement.

From here we moved back to more knife work, lots and lots of knife work. Drills to draw the knife defend then attack, drills to control the opponent, the exploration of various grips and the drills to develop these skills, knife work on the ground, knife on knife, knife on open hand, take downs with a knife, etc.

There were drills to help develop movement and control with knives, relaxation and tension with knives, drills for precision movements and placement of the blade, and much much more.

This then brought us to the end of the second day. Two days 14 hour of training, a great seminar. The next few days were spent sightseeing around Sydney and the wildlife park. Max had the opportunity to touch and hold a koala, mix it up with kangaroos, wombats (the big hairy pig-dog type beast) and all of the interesting wildlife of Australia.

The next day Max was off to Melbourne to do it all again with Adam Vounoridis and his Melbourne Systema School( www.MelbourneSystema.com.au ).

Melbourne - Saturday and Sunday 20^th and 21^st June

The Melbourne seminars were very similar to Sydney. Lots of emphasis on sensitivity, and becoming more soft and more relaxed in our work. We did lots of ground work drills, lots of “down and up” work, lots of various types of take downs, strikes, ground movement with defence and attack drills.

We worked with the opponent against themselves and with the using the various bio-mechanic principles. Then lots of walking drills, slow and fast drills, mass knife attack drills, and once again lots of knife work.

The two seminars that Max gave this year in Australia were well thought out and very professionally delivered. Max has great enthusiasm, passion and support for the growth and expansion of Systema. I would not have any hesitation to recommending Maxim Franz to any one who wants to organise an Systema Seminar for their Systema school. Just do what I did and contact Vladimir and ask for his advice.

Max is a wonderfully and genuine ambassador for Systema.

Final Note and Thanks

Firstly, I would like to thank Vladimir Vasiliev for his wisdom and foresight in sending Maxim Franz to Australia for these two great action packed seminars.

Secondly, I have to thank Max for a truly great seminar and for being such a nice guy (when he is not hitting you). Thank you for all of the constant advice, encouragement and all of the stories.

Thirdly, I would also like to thank Adam Vounoridis for his help and support with the Sydney and Melbourne legs of Max's Systema tour. Adam like myself attended both seminars where we tried to help each other out.

Finally, I would like to thank everybody that attended the two seminars. Systema is growing in Australia now and I believe that great seminars like these two by Maxim Franz will only increase the Systema's momentum of growth.

Thank you all.

Kind regards,

Peter Aftanas.

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