Systema

Histoire

Systema is a Russian martial art made known worldwide in the 1990s by Mikhail Ryabko and his student Vladimir Vasiliev, who opened a school in Toronto in 1993. Its teachers link it to old Russian fighting traditions and to the training of Russian special units.

Systema has no fixed forms or belts. Training focuses on breathing, relaxation, posture and moving freely under pressure, against one or several attackers, with and without weapons.

Historians point out that there is little written evidence of one continuous ancient "systema"; what is well documented is the modern teaching that spread from the 1990s. Classes include ground work, falls, knife and stick defence, and slow push-ups, squats and walks done in time with the breath.

Le saviez-vous ?

• Breathing exercises are at the heart of Systema training.
• Students practise "soft" strikes and learn to take hits by staying relaxed.
• There are no competitions: the goal is practical self-defence and health.
• Different schools and lineages use the name, so classes can vary a lot.

Figures clés

• Mikhail Ryabko (1961–) — leading teacher of Systema
• Vladimir Vasiliev (1950s–) — spread Systema from Toronto

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica · Wikipedia (en): Systema