Systema Seminar (part I)

I am finally getting this together! I don't have many pictures, you'll have to use your imagintion for most of it. I hope I've written this well enough that you get an idea of my weekend.

**************************************

I found out about the seminar on Friday, I believe. From there it was a bit of a panic to see if I would make it there. I had never been to Denman Island before, and really, had no idea where it was. I spent a great deal of time figuring that out and trying to figure out how I would get there. I sent off an email to Vali to see if he had any ideas, knew of anyone I could catch a ride with. He put me in touch with the folks in Gibsons, which was a no brainer, but I didn’t what to bug them unnecessarily. Eventually, it was decided that I would meet up with them at the Horseshoe Bay ferry and we would rent a car to drive from Nanaimo to Denman Island. A surprisingly economical way to get over, until you factor in the cost of getting a car across on the ferry ($70 each way vs. $50/day).

Where I would spend the night remained a mystery even once we got to the seminar. I had panicked a bit and purchased a camp stove and some other camping equipment even though I was told not to worry. It was a bit of a splurge (what about this weekend wasn’t) but it was just too cute to pass up. It comes in a little plastic container and even has accessories that I can get later! I also packed a bunch of food, hoping it would be enough (of course, it turned out to be too much; although, I got kudos for being over prepared instead of under!)

While it was a bit of a panic to get to the seminar, once we were there things loosened up quickly. I was happy to feel that, even though I hadn’t really practiced over a year, I hadn’t lost much, (although this could mean I sucked as much then as I do now). We did some really fun drills with running with your eyes closed and two groups running at each other to help get over the initial fear. We did grab and escape, and punching drills all with the intention of disassociating with the attackers and attacks. We progressed from punching to knife work in a way that I could see that the movement and breathing for punching is similar to the movement and breathing for knife defense (I learned something!). After a while, I got the impression that we were practicing for more than the standard 4 hours. All told, we practiced for about 6 hours. Thankfully, the pillars of Systema, Breathing, Relaxation, Posture, & Movement, meant that I survived the 6 hours without completely exhausting myself.