The aim of a Systema class is to train principles. Whether the training is solo, on the ground, against a weapon or multiple attackers, it will always work on four key principles; breathing, relaxation, structure and continuous movement.
All committee members who participated in the class were taken through a series of drills with a focus to direct the attention of movement away from the typical big muscular motion to the finer and under-explored body parts, such as the smaller forgotten muscle, ligaments and unfamiliar joints. Majority of the participants froze even at a simple action without the use of their standard big muscle.
The principles of Systema are relax and breathe, accept oncoming forces and "Don't Think!". Many practitioners are used to learning movement and techniques, which was the reason why the participants tend to get confused. They were used to the process of identifying, thinking/analyzing and then choosing the course of movement. It was a big paradigm shift. Everyone in the class had to learn to identify with their own body, and discover its natural movement with the various oncoming forces.
It was fun for all participants to explore how the body moves without any pre-determined course of action. Siheng Chee Keen was happy that everyone in the class had experienced relaxation and the force generated without big muscle. This was just the beginning to a whole new world of using natural and/or logical movements intended for maximum efficiency which can be easily modified for any situation at hand.
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