Hello,

I looked into studying Systema it a couple of years ago but it didn;t seem as accessible then and I got back into Kyokushin which I did when I was younger.  I’m still intending at some stage to take up Systema if I can but at the moment I am particularly interested in the breathing aspect of Systema and how you absorb strikes with breathing.  Kyokushin also places a lot of emphasis on breathing but I think Systema takes it to a different level – or certainly it has a different approach which looks good from what i’ve seen and read about it.

I was at a tournament recently and I noticed that many fighters took punches well but didn’t absorb them.  I think that for some fighters this led to early exhaustion in the fight (my interpretation).  They might have been well conditioned otherwise but the impacts soon took their toll.  I will be fighting in a full contact tournament soon enough and I was hoping to expand my knowledge of breathing and absorbing punches the Systema way.  I’m not sure this will translate into the type of tournament fighting I will be doing but as I am interested in Systema anyway I thought it may be a good idea to find out.  There seems to be, from what I can see, a fair bit of fluidity about your style (if you see what I mean) which might mean the breathing and absorption of strikes wont help me in the ring, but it can’t hurt and it would certainly help me in all other aspects of my fighting journey (I wouldn’t pretend to be a good fighter, just that I’m on a journey which involves some fighting).

I suppose then my first question is whether or not learning your breathing and techniques for absorbing strikes can be taught with out learnigng the strikes, etc.  And if they can, are there any courses in the Manchester area where I might learn – or are there any good instructional books or dvd’s if not.

I have very Kyokushin based goals at the moment and a very busy life, but I do hope to study Systema at some stage in the not too distant future if I can.  From what little I do know about Systema it looks to be an excellent, practical and well founded martial art.  The strikes in Systema look very interesting too!

Thanks and regards,

Rob