>How long have you been teaching?
TeachingÂ… martial arts in general, about twenty yearsÂ… Systema only around 3.
>Where and when did you first hear of Systema?
I first came across Systema while searching the web for articles on my Kali teacher (Tom Sotis). I found a knife throwing website that had 2 interviews about knife throwing. One was with Tom, the other was with Vladimir. I read them both. Both interviews were interesting, thought he opinions pretty far apart. I found a lot of the things Vladimir said to be very interesting. He had a lot of simple “common sense answers that were in opposition to the common wisdom” (ooh, I like that phrase… copyrighted by me;-) .
I was interested in seeing his stuff, but he was in Canada, I was in the USA, and I didnÂ’t know he had video tapes (other than the knife throwing one).
A while later, I got a direct mail from TRS (heck who hasn’t). It was for the “Russian Mega Fighting pacakage. I’d never bought anything from direct mail advertising before, but I thought, “hey a Sambo tape… always wanted one… hmm… Oleg Taktarov… I remember him in the first UFC… might be interesting to see what he teaches…. Oh and this name Vasiliev… hmmm… I think that’s the guy on the knife throwing page. What’s this a guaranteed money back deal… hmmm…. What the heck.”
So I ordered the tapes. When I popped in the Vladimir tape, I was awe struck. The approach and the blend was what IÂ’d always sort of pictured a martial art shoul really look like. It was my dream art, up on the screen. IMO, there was a also a sort of genius to how it was constructed and taught. I just knew then it was the right thing for me.
I went to TRS, ordered the other Vladimir tapes they had. I started playing with the material, and liked it a lot. I started scouring the internet for his name and found his website. Lo and behold a bunch more tapes I didnÂ’t know about. I immediately called up and ordered the rest of them. Before they even arrived, I started planning a trip to Toronto. I pretty much knew I was going to stop teaching the other stuff I taught and just start over with this stuff.
The experience in Toronto was amazing. Better than anything I’d hoped for. The one question I still had in my mind on my way up to Toronto, was “yeah, but how good can the students get”. That question was answered within the first few minutes of arriving at Vladimir’s school. I was amazed at the skill level of the average student. Just fantastic.
Then my life just sort of got obsessed with finding ways to get more training time with Vadimir;-)
How far from Boston are you? Is is a small suburb?
Allston is actually part of Boston. Its where all the students, musicians and artists are. Along with Brighton, itÂ’s the western most part of Boston.
I may have been long winded. Whoops.
>Glad to have you here!
Thanks
Arthur
