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< Articles of Interest
Review by Lau Wen Hsin
Lau Wen Hsin was a visiting student from Singapore.
It was towards the end of July when I made my way down to Melbourne from Perth. While I was there, I visited a few Systema schools, including Dougall's Inner City Systema.
Upon reaching the rusty doors of the gym, we soon discovered that as with many things in life, one should not judge a book by its cover. Laying behind the very same door was the colourful gym that Dougall's school uses. We stood at the entrance of the gym for a few seconds as we looked at the guys do their warm up (we were a little late). It wasn't long before Dougall got up from his roll or something and greeted us.
The training at Inner City Systema was really good. Warm ups were thorough and provided a progression from basic exercises to more challenging work. Dougall works very closely with his students, giving the senior students opportunities to take over sections of the class. In the short time I was there, the warm ups and even one lesson were led by senior students. In my opinion, this is a very good practice which gives the students the opportunity to learn more about handling people at a managerial level. It also gives them the chance to reinforce what they have learnt and forces them to organize what they have learnt, streamlining their knowledge of Systema. Allowing such interactions also helps the instructor to see things in ways that they might not have seen before, widening the scope of the class' study of combatives. It also fosters good instructor-student relationship and eases possible tensions between instructor and student.
Over the period of time I was there, the topics covered included striking, pushing, escapes, dealing with pain, being soft when you should be... things immediately applicable to combat as Systema practitioners know it. Probably because of my familiarity with some drills and my striped telnyashka, Dougall spotted pretty early on that I was a fellow practitioner and we had a little conversation which included my short trip to HQ.
Always linking more advance concepts to very basic drills, Dougall convinced me of the importance of things that I have long overlooked. Very encouraging in the way he teaches, he never puts students down and always relates their frustrations to his own learning journey and his own methods of overcoming similar obstacles. At the same time, Dougall manages to be tough and somewhat firm in his teaching. A good example of how this works is how Dougall handled the striking lessons. When demonstrating strikes, Dougall used the lines on the mat to mark out where we would stand to receive our "gift". We were told to only strike our partners when they stood on the line and that he wouldn't tolerate it if someone did not respect that. While Systema instructors generally do not strike their students more than they can take (I really respect that), the line was very helpful as it was something very visual that we could use to indicate our readiness. Having said that, what happens when you do stand on the line is a different story...
I really enjoyed my training at Inner City Systema, and would definitely go back to train with the guys if I get the chance to. The students are warm and approachable and the instructor is top-notch. God bless you guys and keep up the good work!
Lau Wen Hsin
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