Video: Striking Fundamentals

This week at NC SYSTEMA, we barrel headlong into Striking and Kicking. Love them or hate them, learning to deliver and receive strikes is an essential aspect of self-defense. As Ben Askren's abrupt, 5-second UFC defeat clearly showed - even world-class grapplers can be stopped outright with a single, precise, and well-timed strike. Here, Instructors Glenn Murphy and Raymond Desmarais show three key elements of strike training in Systema:

1) Start your preparation at the point of contact - unwrapped wrists and fists are easily broken

2) Pushing builds precision - if you can push effectively, then your strike will be heavy and precise
3) Use gravity to your advantage - proper body alignment and relaxation add weight to strikes while keeping them hidden to your opponent

With these three principles in mind, practically anyone can learn to hit like a truck. Intrigued? Come try a class today!

SFL Episode 85: On Success

This week, the return of Systema-fan, ultrarunner, healthy lifestyle guru, and co-founder of WellStartHealth, Howard Jacobson. Here, Howie and Glenn embark on a fervent chat about success, including:

  • how we define success to ourselves

  • the biological drivers of success in humans

  • the limits of extrinsic and competitive success metrics

  • achievement vs efficiency and elegance

    and, of course...

  • what Systema can teach us about success

Follow Howie’s healthy exploits on his own podcast, at plantyourself.com. Businesses - check out his health intervention programs at wellstarthealth.com

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Video: Takedown Fundamentals

This week we're returning to basics at NC SYSTEMA, studying standing grabs, holds, locks and takedowns from simple to advanced, from applications to escapes and counterattacks.

It's good to study a variety of locking, wrestling, and throwing concepts - not least because they may be used against you. Skilled wrestlers and grapplers are not to be underestimated, and without sufficient experience in how to escape or control them, you may not get a chance to apply your favoured striking, kicking, or ground-fighting techniques.

That said, a few solid basics can go a long way. With proper timing and precision, you can extrapolate two or three key principles into hundreds of practical techniques. The key is training for efficiency, rather than racing toward the intended result.

Here, Instructors Glenn Murphy and Raymond Desmarais show three fundamental takedown patterns which can be varied and combined to create a wide range of subtle counterattacks.