Systematizing My Systema, Part 3c: On Skills Training

In Part 3a of the Systematizing my Systema series of articles, we discussed the general idea of athletic training vs. sports training and we also argued that training for self defense is definitely an athletic endeavor, rather similar to training for combat sports in terms of motor qualities (strength, speed, power, mobility), physiological/metabolic qualities (aerobic, anaerobic endurance) and basic movement skills, although quite different in terms of the strategies and tactics explored. We also claimed that a person involved in any type of athletic activity, in order to maximize performance, needs attributes, skills and mental toughness. In this blog post we will discuss skills training.

SKILLS: NOW THAT WE FOUND POWER WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH IT ?

Once we have trained to generate power from a variety of positions and angles (if you have no idea of what I'm talking about, read part 3b of the Systematizing my Systema series of articles), it is time to apply it. The kinetic energy of a body in motion never truly becomes a force until it comes to contact with another body or object. This force is nothing more than a push or a pull, but in order to achieve the desired effect, the force must be applied to the right spot, with the appropriate part of your body, at the correct angle, at the right moment - whether you're applying the force on an opponent by pulling the lapel of his gi or you're pushing the floor with your foot in order to do a side step. So, to sum it up, the goal of training for skills is the development of a) the sensorimotor coordination needed to produce efficient and effective movement patterns, and b) the cognitive abilities needed in order to applly those patterns in the appropriate tactical context. 

WHAT SPECIFIC SKILLS DO WE FOCUS UPON?

OK, there's no way to put this simply, but let me try: none and all! We train what is essential, because it will affect all aspects of our practice. The following small story from The Analects of Confucius sums up what we aspire to do: "While travelling with his student, the Master asked: 'Ssu, do you take me for one who studies much and remembers it all?' The student replied, 'Yes, is that not so, Master?' The Master replied, 'No, I link all knowledge upon a single thread". In the context of Russian Martial Art, this 'single thread' consists of all concepts and principles related to: 

• maintaining or disrupting breathing
• integrating or breaking structure
• allowing or restricting movement

Everything we learn is built upon this framework, and all the specific skills we practice (fist fighting, kick fighting, stick fighting, wrestling, grappling, manipulating joints et al) are NOT different subjects as they are simply case studies of those same concepts and principles in an applied form. In this sense, boxing and wrestling are not two different 'martial arts'. They're just two of the multiple ways one can apply the power generation methods we study in our attributes training: "one human body, one set of movements, endless possible applications"!

HOW DO WE PRACTICE SKILLS?

At the Dynamo, after a significant amount of attributes training (our 'power generation training'), we graduate to skills work (we call this 'force application training'), which is a specific series of mostly open drills done with one or more partners. Unlike many schools of RMA that seem to value novelty quite a lot (as if their students suffer from ADD), resulting in training sessions that are never similar to one another, we use a rather small and carefully selected set of drills, that we practice until we become good at them. 

Some very high-level skill work on the focus mitts by Cuban professional boxer Yuriorkis Gamboa. His skill work is only made possible by his incredible attributes (strength, power, speed, agility, etc) and it is 'powered' by one basic set of movement skills - please pay attantion to his incredible footwork!

HOW DO WE SELECT THE DRILLS WE PRACTICE?

1. The drills we practice always have a specific goal, which is clearly stated at the beginning, so that the students know what they are training for. Just to avoid misunderstanding, let me state here that we mostly tell people WHAT to do, NOT HOW to do it, allowing this way for a great degree of initiative [1]. The only guidelines that must be followed are those of good biomechanics, in order for optimal power generation (for example, having bad posture when solving a motor problem is not creativity, it is just a limiting factor).

2. Every one of these drills must present the practitioners with a degree of challenge  - this challenge should always be a teeny tiny bit outside each student's comfort zone, if they are to grow as martial artists. On a 'macro level' we adjust this degree of challenge by following drill progressions designed according to the rule "from easier to harder and from simpler to more complex". On a 'micro level', this adjustment is made by each practitioner, who is responsible to always push his partner without overwhelming him. In this sense, at the Dynamo, it is more important for one to be a sensitive training partner than to be a good practitioner. When a drill ceases to present a challenge, we progress to a more demanding one, because the purpose of our training is not stroking our ego or looking good on Youtube clips.

3. Finally, the drills we practice can be performed at various degrees of intensity according to the practitioners' level of proficiency (soft work to hard work), but never with a competitive mindset, since that would interfere with the learning process. Of course, there is a place for competitive training in our training approach, but that only comes when skills have been stabilized.

In summary, the purpose of this post was to present a brief generic description of the skills acquisition process we use at the Göteborg Dynamo Club as a system of training means, i.e. a set of interacting or interdependent training-related ideas and practices, that are forming an integrated whole. In our next Systematizing My Systema blog post we'll be discussing pressure testing as a means of mental toughness training.

Notes:

[1] What should be taken into account here is that even though an instructor might allow students a significant degree of freedom in the execution of a particular task, demonstrations made by the instructor in class, or other resources (e.g. Youtube vidoes, instructional DVDs etc) may function as constraints on the student's perception of what is 'doable'. This is practically impossible to avoid.