Some serious m.a. .......... dance moves?

[Gerry Seymour]

I keep forgetting who said that martial arts are just like dancing, except in the end, the other person falls down.

Don Angier of Yanagi-ryu said that to me - you heard it from me.

 

[_Simon_]

Ok. This totally reminded me of my teen years. I was trying out for a musical. Part of the audition was to spontaneously dance to this music they put on. I was never much for doing anything spontaneously and had heard several times that martial arts were similar to dance. So I tried to do Pinan Shodan in a loose way to the music.

I didn’t get the part. ><


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Ah wow haha that's awesome Michele XD

I can see some serious benefit to this, actually. You know, like a silver lining.

Say everyone on earth learns this style, and this is now the meta for how humans fight. Peace on earth.

Hahahaha now picturing a room full of people just doing this..


Or a fight breaks out in a really rough bar, and every person just starts moving like this XD lmao....

 

[SOD-WC]

W.........T.........H........Did i just watch

 

[AngryHobbit]

If I'm "the other person", then by that definition there's no difference 'twixt martial arts and dancing...

 

[AngryHobbit]

Don Angier of Yanagi-ryu said that to me - you heard it from me.

I know I heard it from you I just couldn't remember who you said said it first. Coming from you it doesn't make sense, because you don't dance.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I know I heard it from you I just couldn't remember who you said said it first. Coming from you it doesn't make sense, because you don't dance.

Not that anyone can prove, anyway.

 

[AngryHobbit]

Not that anyone can prove, anyway.

 

[Steve]

Okay. This thread keeps popping up on the feed so I'll just ask my question again. I know it has been fun making fun of the guy but. I genuinely would like to know how this is functionally different from systema. I could post links to videos, if that would help, but just a google search for systema demos will yield plenty of awkward and goofy looking techniques and movements.

To be clear, I just don't get the joke, i guess. I've seen plenty of goofy things around here, and folks get sensitive. What has tbis guy done to warrant your scorn ?

 

[Martial D]

Okay. This thread keeps popping up on the feed so I'll just ask my question again. I know it has been fun making fun of the guy but. I genuinely would like to know how this is functionally different from systema. I could post links to videos, if that would help, but just a google search for systema demos will yield plenty of awkward and goofy looking techniques and movements.

To be clear, I just don't get the joke, i guess. I've seen plenty of goofy things around here, and folks get sensitive. What has tbis guy done to warrant your scorn ?

Are you referring to the video in the OP?

If so, scorn might be overboard, sure. Unless he is selling this to noobs as a real martial art.

 

[AngryHobbit]

Okay. This thread keeps popping up on the feed so I'll just ask my question again. I know it has been fun making fun of the guy but. I genuinely would like to know how this is functionally different from systema. I could post links to videos, if that would help, but just a google search for systema demos will yield plenty of awkward and goofy looking techniques and movements.

To be clear, I just don't get the joke, i guess. I've seen plenty of goofy things around here, and folks get sensitive. What has tbis guy done to warrant your scorn ?

I am not scorning - I am ridiculing. The commentary to the video is dead serious and the whole thing is presented as the top-secret, never-before-seen, super-human training for Russian Special Forces. Which is preposterous.

Yes "systema" is a thing, and if someone wants to practice it - that is fine and good. But it is not top-secret - as you said, it's all over the Internet. And it definitely does not make its practitioners invincible or super-human. I am still wondering, which poor sap they got to play the role of the U.S. Navy Seal they tapped in the cojones (which he didn't block - Navy Seal, my foot!).

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Okay. This thread keeps popping up on the feed so I'll just ask my question again. I know it has been fun making fun of the guy but. I genuinely would like to know how this is functionally different from systema. I could post links to videos, if that would help, but just a google search for systema demos will yield plenty of awkward and goofy looking techniques and movements.

To be clear, I just don't get the joke, i guess. I've seen plenty of goofy things around here, and folks get sensitive. What has tbis guy done to warrant your scorn ?

From my standpoint, it seems clear the movements are designed to look exotic, rather than to be functional in any sense.

And I'm not above laughing at something that looks funny, even if it's functional. Most martial arts have some goofy-looking stuff in them, and what fun is life if we can't laugh at that stuff?

 

[Steve]

Are you referring to the video in the OP?

If so, scorn might be overboard, sure. Unless he is selling this to noobs as a real martial art.

Yeah, the video in the OP. How is that different than any random videos of systema? Just seems like a double standard to me. Does anyone here have any actual experience with this guy?

Let me just say it like this. I don't see anything in this video that looks practical to me. It doesn't look like it will work, and appears awkward and ineffective. But it doesn't look any more or less impractical than any video I see of systema.

Once again, I'm only asking because this thread seems to have some legs to it. We're having fun mocking this guy. Right?

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Yeah, the video in the OP. How is that different than any random videos of systema? Just seems like a double standard to me. Does anyone here have any actual experience with this guy?

Let me just say it like this. I don't see anything in this video that looks practical to me. It doesn't look like it will work, and appears awkward and ineffective. But it doesn't look any more or less impractical than any video I see of systema.

Once again, I'm only asking because this thread seems to have some legs to it. We're having fun mocking this guy. Right?

I'm not much familiar with Systema. I've seen some movement videos that looked goofy, but appeared to be just drills for movement (shrimping drills are as goofy, and I mock my students for that while I make them do those, too). I've seen some bits of Systema that looked impractical, but not in any amusing way - just in the same way a lot of drills look impractical unless and until they are moved to some resistance (and some still look impractical).

 

[Steve]

From my standpoint, it seems clear the movements are designed to look exotic, rather than to be functional in any sense.

And I'm not above laughing at something that looks funny, even if it's functional. Most martial arts have some goofy-looking stuff in them, and what fun is life if we can't laugh at that stuff?

Why we laugh at some things and not others is interesting to me. And the group mentality is also interesting.

So, then, if I post some videos of funny systema demos, we're all cool? do you guys really have a sense of humor about that? Cause, they're out there... but I'm not confident.

 

[Steve]

I'm not much familiar with Systema. I've seen some movement videos that looked goofy, but appeared to be just drills for movement (shrimping drills are as goofy, and I mock my students for that while I make them do those, too). I've seen some bits of Systema that looked impractical, but not in any amusing way - just in the same way a lot of drills look impractical unless and until they are moved to some resistance (and some still look impractical).

Hey, I'm down to laugh at a good shrimping drill. If that's what this is, then great. haha, we're all goofy. That's one thing.

Ridicule is a word that connotes contempt. This thread seems more contemptuous. Again, I'm asking because I'm curious. Just seems like we have some funny double standards around here.

 

[Steve]

I am not scorning - I am ridiculing. The commentary to the video is dead serious and the whole thing is presented as the top-secret, never-before-seen, super-human training for Russian Special Forces. Which is preposterous.

Yes "systema" is a thing, and if someone wants to practice it - that is fine and good. But it is not top-secret - as you said, it's all over the Internet. And it definitely does not make its practitioners invincible or super-human. I am still wondering, which poor sap they got to play the role of the U.S. Navy Seal they tapped in the cojones (which he didn't block - Navy Seal, my foot!).

I would say scorn and ridicule are synonymous. Both suggest a contempt for the subject.

I think I've seen a systema video where a navy seal gets tooled. If I find it, maybe we can have some fun ridiculing that, too.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Okay. This thread keeps popping up on the feed so I'll just ask my question again. I know it has been fun making fun of the guy but. I genuinely would like to know how this is functionally different from systema. I could post links to videos, if that would help, but just a google search for systema demos will yield plenty of awkward and goofy looking techniques and movements.

To be clear, I just don't get the joke, i guess. I've seen plenty of goofy things around here, and folks get sensitive. What has tbis guy done to warrant your scorn ?

Yeah, the video in the OP. How is that different than any random videos of systema? Just seems like a double standard to me. Does anyone here have any actual experience with this guy?

Let me just say it like this. I don't see anything in this video that looks practical to me. It doesn't look like it will work, and appears awkward and ineffective. But it doesn't look any more or less impractical than any video I see of systema.

Once again, I'm only asking because this thread seems to have some legs to it. We're having fun mocking this guy. Right?

Hey, I'm down to laugh at a good shrimping drill. If that's what this is, then great. haha, we're all goofy. That's one thing.

Ridicule is a word that connotes contempt. This thread seems more contemptuous. Again, I'm asking because I'm curious. Just seems like we have some funny double standards around here.

Fair question. Here's my thoughts on the matter.

The voice-over commentary (as translated by AngryHobbit) seems worthy of ridicule regardless of the art. However since most of us can't speak Russian, we can't use that as a basis for criticism.

The comparison to goofy dancing seems spot-on due to certain sections of the clip where the practitioner appears to be moving to a dance rhythm. This is mildly amusing whether the moves are martially effective or not. Honestly, I can't tell whether he was doing that deliberately or not. I've seen TKD demos set to music in such a way that it turned them into dance routines. He might have been playing with something like that. Anyway, there's a place for martial movements hidden in dance. It's just that some dances are beautiful (capoeira) and some are funny looking (whatever this is).

I do see a relationship between whatever this is and Systema. Some of the movements are similar and Systema does have a lot of techniques I don't consider practical. However I have seen Systema practitioners with some good underlying body mechanics worthy of study. This looks like a bad version of Systema mixed with a bad version of some form of Kung Fu.

That said, I'm not piling on to criticize the martial art or the practitioners. There's plenty of bad martial arts on YouTube and unless someone is specifically asking for a critique there's no point in randomly picking one video out to dump on. I just thought that the video seemed like a good representation of what imagined the dance stylings of Folsom Smedry* to look like.

*(character from a book by Brandon Sanderson)

 

[Martial D]

Yeah, the video in the OP. How is that different than any random videos of systema? Just seems like a double standard to me. Does anyone here have any actual experience with this guy?

Let me just say it like this. I don't see anything in this video that looks practical to me. It doesn't look like it will work, and appears awkward and ineffective. But it doesn't look any more or less impractical than any video I see of systema.

Once again, I'm only asking because this thread seems to have some legs to it. We're having fun mocking this guy. Right?

Well, to be fair, systema is mostly tomfoolery as well, at least the standup part.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Why we laugh at some things and not others is interesting to me. And the group mentality is also interesting.

So, then, if I post some videos of funny systema demos, we're all cool? do you guys really have a sense of humor about that? Cause, they're out there... but I'm not confident.

If it looks funny, I'll laugh. I've laughed at BJJ and Aikido videos (for different reasons), and mocked (for being so seriously rigorous, though that's not a bad thing) some Karate videos. I'm open to things being funny, even when I know they are good. And I'm open to the idea that I'll find some things amusing simply because I don't understand them.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Hey, I'm down to laugh at a good shrimping drill. If that's what this is, then great. haha, we're all goofy. That's one thing.

Ridicule is a word that connotes contempt. This thread seems more contemptuous. Again, I'm asking because I'm curious. Just seems like we have some funny double standards around here.

There's a huge hazy area between the two (amusement and contempt). I certainly am not showing respect for what I see in these videos, which is a realistic representation of my reaction to them. Do I sometimes contradict myself in my attitudes and reactions? Almost certainly. Probably everyone does, to different extents.