The above is the trailer for the Systema Video Series available in the Video Series section if you sign up, but there is also the book I wrote, which de-mystiqued a lot of the Systema mythology.

Systema remains absolutely the most effective martial art I ever practiced, and I say this after having achieved a Second Dan grade in traditional Shotokan Karate in a dojo in South Africa where the rules there would get such practices probably prosecuted in most of Europe. The two basic rules we had was that if you got knocked out, when you regained consciousness you carried on, and that you cleaned up your own blood.

In other words, the karate we practiced was not for fancy belts and status, but rather for real and rather brutal ability to win a violent encounter. Yet when I first met advanced Systema practitioners they could easily get the best of me as I would a child. I therefore immediately stopped karate and started system, eventually being made an instructor of it in Russia and teaching it in UK for a few years before work and life saw to it I just did not have the time to spare anymore.

The book is still the most complete manual on the reality and military science of how Systema works, and was also the first time that Systema movements were categorised as part of a scientific thesis work done at the University of Dublin. Purchasing the book also gives you access to 40 videos that are related tot he content in the book. Systema engages various methodologies and training to also make practitioners aware of more subtle effects of raising your awareness under both calm as well as stressful conditions.

It might be of relevance to note that I worked for several years in Cape Town, South Africa in armed close protection, having done all the relevant official training required to do so at the time, when I was also occasionally teaching karate. My family has a long history of men that were involved in some aspect of that kind of work, going as far back as at least about 1200 AD when my ancestors were returning from the Crusades in the Outremer. My father owned the largest private security firm in Botswana before he sold it to G4S, and retired, and my brother currently still works in very high level security concerns in South Africa. Therefore I have never been a stranger to the sometimes violent criminals that unfortunately exist in every city in the world, having performed citizen’s arrest and having worked alongside various elements of the armed forces of various countries, and indeed having trained individuals from UK police, soldiers, and even ex-SAS men, as well as performing operations of arrest or surveillance in conjunction with the military of certain countries. In short, my understanding of martial arts, and the related skills, is not purely theoretical.