Originally posted by Roland I also know that both Guro Dan and Larry Hartsel study Yoga for their health, as well as the history and culture of the arts they study.
For anyone here with experienced with both Systema AND ROSS, what's the difference in teaching methodology? I've got Vlad's H2H combat tapes and I've also read most of the infos/articles/reviews on Coach Sonnon's website as well as the info on FORMA UK's website. So I haven't got much experience. I don't want 'x is better than y' type of discussions, ok.
Cheers all.
PS
Rich or Shawn, can you use pure ROSS methodology to become a MMA fighter? What I mean is, WITHOUT any cross-training in other arts like boxing, muay thai, wrestling and BJJ. From what I understand, ROSS is a system of principles and concepts which could be used to enhance your training as well as being an effective combat system in its' own right.
Coach Sonnon's material seems to be wide wide-randing, covering flow training, impact delivery, takedown training, joint manipulation, conditioning etc.
Rich, is there ROSS seminar soon in Manchester which is open for beginners like me?
I've not personally been to a Systema class, although I mean to sometime; from what I've heard from friends who've done both, they found Systema concentrated more on internalising the movements, while ROSS looked more at practically applying the movements with partner exercises.
As to MMA fighting; I suppose you could; certainly the techniques are there, from all ranges in. However, as I understand it, you need to be practising high-intensity for hours every day with fellow top athletes to be a real MMA contender; I don't know anyone in the UK who trains ROSS to that extent. So in that case, you'd certainly be better off taking the principles and mechanics from ROSS and using it to enhance further training; you can train muay thai or groundfighting of some style or another at least 6 nights a week in most major cities.
I was talking to Matt the other day, he was planning to get a seminar running fairly soon. They're open to all abilities, mostly people with a martial arts background get interested because they're the ones who hear about it. Drop me an email and I'll put you in touch with him, if his details aren't on the site... if you're in the area and free on Wednesdays, go along to the class! Beginners are always welcome.
Roland - I admit my experience of JKD is limited; as I understand it, there are different schools of thought even within the 'style'. Good point about picking and choosing, though; if you don't have the experience to know what to train, you may as well be picking stuff at random out of a book!
I try to run my Systema classes in the same way as at Vlad's school. We try and keep every session fresh and interesting and are usually working on a range of things - though sometimes we may spend a few sessions on say, just knife work.
A typical class will involve a range of exercises, from simple warm ups through to strengthening / stretching. Correct breathing is emphasised throughout, with specific breathing patterns worked .
The bulk of the class will be partner work - one or more partners. Drills range from evading through to working form contact. This may be done against grabs, punches, kicks, or against weapons, knife, stick, occasionally we do some basic gun work. We also do pad work.
As I mentioned we may work against just one partner or sometimes against a group. I also like to throw in some work from seated positions, on the ground, blindfold, etc.
I may show some "techniques" to give the guys some ideas, but we try and free-style it as much as possible. Sticking to the principles is the key thing, then people learn to adapt to the situation as they need to.
The exercises are interspersed throughout the class and, depending on what sort of mood I'm in ;-) may range from fairly light through to intensive.
We finish each class with everyone sitting in a circle passing comments or asking questions about the lesson, that way we get some interesting feedback.
