Take a friend or a kid and two or more tennis balls. Mark one or more of them in a pattern or color and walk around your partner while he is standing. Throw the ball at him and say the color or marking out loud with this designation. If the color match the ball the partner will move out of the way and intercept the ball and continue to throw it to you with the least amount of stoppage or change in direction and if the color doesn’t match he will just move out of the way. You can do this with almost any object but tennis balls tend to leave less scarring on the face if you accidently impact hard. In a room without expensive chinaware it is also beneficial to note the bouncing about and the ricochets of the bouncing balls. Remember to keep breathing and to keep the eyes relaxed and not on the ball. Look at more than one thing at once and your coordination will relax into action better with little time.
Have a partner place their fist on your neck and press. Feel the tension from your body resisting the movement and allow the leg which is in the direction or closest to the continouation of the press to negate the movement and no more. Have your feet rest under your hips and your hips above your feet so when the neck is under pressure your entire body spreads the pressure and moves to avoid injury and no more. Do this with eyes closed and from all directions without aggressiveness. This way you have the chance to clean out the flinch and the fear control over you and you can use them as tools rather than them wielding you. Continue to spread the fists over the entire body and also have your partner squat close to you and press the legs and hips with his fists. It is a good way to relax and to move naturally. Once you covered the entire body move to the head and here allow the fist to align with the contact without becoming uncomfortable as the pusher and as the person being pushed remember the eyes are very soft and avoid sticking someone else thumbs there.
Breath without stop during the drill paying attention to let the breath stay within bounds of comfort as well. Avoid pulling too much air inside and becoming stiff and avoid breathing to shallow and becoming less dense.
Both should have their eyes free from focusing solely on the partner. The worlds is big and there are a lot of people with tire irons…
Place yourself in a position such as the static push up and have a partner walk toward you and away from you. Your job is to strike him in any way you can without creating discomfort for yourself in twisting or bending of the spine. Keep your eyes relaxed and remember to think of yourself first. This way you learn to strike from a point of comfort and avoid getting into an uncomfortable position just to hit.
If you are already in an uncomfortable position like being chocked from behind repeat the drill and avoid escalating your discomfort.
Even if you have a knife to your body you can lessen the injury. When you give up you are hurting yourself and that makes no sense. This does not mean you need to look hard and tough. Sometimes you can survive using your wits and communication. In fact most life is like that and it is a shame not to use skills you are honing each day. Consider though that we work on breathing and moving and when you add talking you need to first maintain your awareness of the former and add to this. This way you will not be completely out of the water and it is wise to work on this before it happens.
Give your partner a whip rope or a stick and have him close first one eye. Now try to reach him first with your feet as he swings and moves himself to either deter and avoid you and you change places and closed eye from time to time. Next close both eyes and work again minding to keep the movement minimal and paying attention to the speed we work in. Breath and note if fear is driving you or you are choosing at which speed to move. The stick drill is also great to do while sitting on the ground and moving in this way.
Keep an open mind and change heights and locomotion as the work requires.
Take a partner and walk toward him to hold or hit him as you please. His drill is to push you or hit you and you work to first evade with the body and to use his movement to bring him to you. For example if he raises a hand to push you away, make contact with it and come through the channel it creates while you use his movement to add some of yours. If he wants to push you away than his arm is moving away from him with force and you simply add a bit to it to connect and control his movement. A beginning where you simply make contact to just feel his movement will aid you greatly in this drill to understand when to start moving and how to move with him rather than try to impose your own intern.
Once you are close and your legs are inside him (meaning you can place your feet or one foot within his or very close and you know you can move freely with his body without learning or bending your own form) place one hand or arm gently on his head and with a step bring your head and your hand to lever his head with the movement of your body moving. This takes paying attention to your movement as most tend to tense up and use force to bring the person to them but this also plants us in place and limits both sight and awareness on our side. Use your legs for walking and eyes to look around so you remain free and aware of what is around you. There will be a clip to show the work later on. Once you are all comfortable with this work using your heads work with headbutts and the aforementioned tactic of bringing the partner to you using whatever he brings you to lever him down and once he is down start kicking your partner to help him learn that staying in the same place is not always a good idea with someone you are at his feet.
Keep breathing and remember to keep the mouth closed and relaxed through this drill unless you are over amorous of your dentist 
With a partner hit each other one at a time using either limbs or the body taking 10 breaths to complete each movement. Use your body and limbs to escort the attack to you without moving away at first and simply feeling the movement and the tension in your partner. This looks weird but it lets you move with your partner without trying to move him and thus to actually feel without fear and tension. Do a few of those from different sides and different limbs. Now pay attention to where your body wants to go as you feel the tension from the attack and let the body move as you still let the limbs simply touch and feel the attack ( you may feel you are already moving him or her without intention because he will feel the lack of resistance and his movement will be grander than his intention) Do this for a while and work on matching his or her speed or less so you avoid flinching by awareness. Start to move as you feel the tension and now while in contact feel where there is an opening and add to the movement still keeping with the 10 breaths per movement and keep the breaths even and relaxed. This is a hard drill especially in the beginning where if feels ridiculous to guide the hits in but consider that when you clean the tension and fear and allow your partner or partners to enter, you will be free to do as you wish as you are within the movement.
Take a partner and cradle his head in your hand on your body. Start by turning in all directions at normal height and than on half and full squat. Add to the turn another direction such as back and to the right and again follow all heights. Now add bending and curving your body in a way to make the head more comfortable on your body, for example you create an inner curve in your right chest as you turn right and bend forward and go to half height. During this both work on breathing without stop and on staying as comfortable as possible. Try to work so you choose your steps and alignment rather than complying with another. This way you will be free even in the hold. Continue by repeating the drill on the ground sitting and laying flat and here add another focus to use your eyes all the time and to spread you awareness all around rather than what is already in reach. Give yourself permission to reach the heavens first with your eyes. Continue by using your legs to lever your partners body and limbs in movement in order to control them more aptly and remember to avoid getting levered yourself by keeping your breath and tension within your awareness and having the right goal.
A third partner with a whip to let you know when you forget to use your eyes and calm your mind is a great add on to this and any drill.
Start by laying on the ground with your limbs to the sides and simply breathing and relaxing on the ground. Let every part in turn press to the ground and rise from it and note how this affect the rest of you. Now do the same drill using two parts at a time and you will enjoy more freedom of movement from this.
Have a partner walk to you and walk through you using his feet a few times from all directions and do the same for him. Have your partner roll over your body without standing and than rolling but all in one sequence and avoid holding your breath. The contact will come. Look to being able to prolong any breath phase to stay comfortable and to shift the pressure within using tension selection in your various awareness locations.
Have your partner stand next to you and you move without sitting up to find ways to move and direct him using all parts of you and yes using your head as well (biting his shoes can lead to some strange looks and a case of bad breath
Next lie down face up and than face down and have your partner hit you from all direction using his limbs and body. Keep breathing and make yourself as comfortable as possible. Make sure you spread your awareness in your entire body and work on feeling the pulse everywhere.
Have your partner or more than one person attack you while prone and find a way to move so you are not hit. Running, throwing objects, kicking, rolling and so on. Choose to fight when you thing it is the right thing to do. Avoid letting others decide for you.
Smile.
Start with one partner standing and the other moves around him and closer and further all the time keeping at least one limb on him without any pressure and simply sliding on his or her form. Let the breath start each movement and relax your form from your joints to your tendons to your tissue. Continue to posing your partner in any way such as one arm up and repeating the drill to find how you can move inside his form and use the no eyes method as well to become more aware of your skill and different feelings here.
Continue to squatting a few centimeters and doing the same work while minding that your eyes are free to look where your body is heading (or is it the other way around) and avoiding focusing on the partner and in thus fixating and levering your own movement.
Continue to doing the same work in different heights while your partner slowly changes form and placement and now work on letting the arms and legs roll and slide on his body and limbs and head so as to release the point of contact and making it float and move around according to the movement and tension you feel in yourself and in your partner.
Continue to work where you are on one leg and find out how you can still move even if you are on one leg without leaning on your partner.
Continue to working where there is no contact between you and the partner and it is formed when you are contacted by him and after that you enter where his body is.
Remember to breath and smiling is allowed.
It is hard to work on being stabbed which is a given but we can work on the feeling of it using a simple pinch. Start on the back of your partner and pinch a large piece of skin and flesh using the thumb and the side of the pointing finger. His job is to move and position his body while breathing to escape without harm from the pinch. Note that parts of you which may seem indirect to the work can help a lot with the tension and pressure map which affects you movement. If you are pinched in the center of the back and raise one shoulder as you move back the other you will find an opening already there willing to let you escape the pressure. Move slowly to a smaller and harder pinch using your nails and smaller parts of you partner and keep breathing. Move to the front of the center mass and repeat the drill and then work from the sides. Move to the legs and repeat the drill and note to work from different starting points such as a wide stance or with one leg in the air. Avoid referring to a natural stance. The only one is change. Add work on the upper limbs and neck and the face using care not to take out something you don’t know how to put back in and add in this stage another hold or attention point such as a hand over the face pushing or leaning one leg against their feet. Keep working and in this place add a dull knife and pinch using the thumb and the blade. Take care to keep breathing and slowly find a solution using all of your body. When you spread your attention in all your body a single point is less of a threat to your calm and you are able to move more freely doing more with less.
Move to stabbing and slashing using one point and then holding your partner and stabbing and slashing him from different points working from the ground up and remember.
Move from the breath starting with the body (be efficient and effective)
Relax your eyes and the body will relax as well (you can move in more than one direction at once)
Keep breathing (you can do the work no matter which stage of breathing you are in)
Smiling can hurt if you cheek is open. Take care to know the purpose of what you are doing.
We often strive to complete what we started whether it is working for us or we are working for it. For example if you are asked for advice you usually give more than what was intended and end up doing something not too benefiting for yourself. Take knife work for example. If you work to complete a deflection or a step rather than making the goal clear in your head you will end up moving in directions that can get you killed or worse getting a loved one killed. Work first in evading one attacker with a knife (you work with the person rather than against the knife) focus on moving just to get the job done and note if you move more than you have to. Add a second attacker and again this is great to feel where you move without care or complete what has no relevance. Add another one and remember to keep both eyes free and relaxed from focus and after a while a good clean sense of survival and letting go of the outcome will emerge. This way you will do just what is needed and no more. This way you may survive.
A technical note. when you raise your hand to deflect a knife you are giving it resistance which is a form of support. Work slowly first to feel and move with the blade limb and blade without resistance and learn to ghost the attack with the touch of your limb or body and you body moving. For example if I am attacked from the front and I block the attack than the attacker can glide and slice over this resistance to get to me. If I make contact and move, I feel where I am more comfortable and move there and I can guide the attack where I want it and keep breathing.
Consider this: Every inhale has an exhale potential in it but not every exhale holds as inhale within it. The nature of tension is different for every movement and mirroring or balancing should take this into account.
More on this later on in the DVD.
It is important to pay attention to ourselves first and to others after. People who wish to blend or enter another in training or in an actual conflict tend to make themselves in the shape and tempo of the other to blend into him or her. In doing this we distort and change ourselves giving us tension, change of alignment and breath. For example if someone comes at me with his arms to grab me I may see an opening to perform a technique and mold myself to make it happen but within this action I break my own form and try to fit in. Work to see instead of looking for something, and you will see all. Work to blend by seeing and feeling where you can go as a whole moving the way you do and breathing without changing your own rhythm and avoid trying to complete someone else’s picture. Paint your own.
A nice way to note this tension from outside created by the focus in outer things is by looking at a direct target. Look at a tree and have a friend move and twist your neck for you and find how you tense up and how you are already tense by fixating on the outside. Now relax your eyes and just see and repeat the drill and note if there is less initial tension and less tension in movement as you remove this leaning of the eyes. Now close your eyes and repeat and take something from the drill.
Let me know what you think.
Sharon
Systema Israel.
The more we learn the easier and simpler things become. To make this leap simply think of the purpose of what you are doing and pay attention. When you think and pay attention you stay calm and attentive.
Take for example the static push up. People do this for “core” power and that is all they get from this because that is their intention. If you are clean of intention you are free to receive whichever gift the drill or person have for you. The same goes for an attack. All attacks have openings and tension in it and if you are calm using your breath you will see or feel those as well as the danger.
Keep breathing.
Take any basics movement such as push ups, squats and leg raises and do them with tension in only one limb. For example do a push up while tensing one arm and learn to do your work as you want it without having to tense against the tension and with simple awareness let the affect of it go past you without affecting you. Do a squat with one leg tensed and note the effects it has on your alignment and vision. It is vital to spead yourself in the body to feel how this affects you and how you naturally clean the tension and it’s affects out. This way you learn yourself.
Take this into your life rather than into just a class and find new freedom for yourself and those around you.
Remember to keep breathing and remember it is not about perfect movement but simply getting the job done so you can go home to your wife and kids.
I got married on the third of this month and it is a great pleasure to have a person to share your life with. In Systema we learn to make the circle we draw around us larger and larger and it is also deeper in effect. Remember to keep your eyes forward and up and your heart clean.
Tense a part from a finger to a leg and roll with the tension lasting throughout the roll. Go over the body and continue to tensing and releasing once you touch the ground with anything other than your feet. Go over the body again and finish by tensing and relaxing on the inhale/exhale timing while you roll.
Work before and after and watch the awareness and natural movement arise from within.
Continue and now instead of rising the tension relax the parts which are close to the one in contact and let the body move without focusing on any part and allowing yourself to spread in the body. This way you allow the body to move instead of collapsing and you will note the difference between awareness and just relaxation.
This is a solo drill: Do a breath pyramid where you walk and increase the number of steady steps you take on the inhale and on the exhale and on the inside listen to your thoughts. Avoid judging or evaluating your thought and simply listen. Once this is done repeat this frame of mind during movement with a partner either talking or talking with your fists and release the need to succeed. Just breath and move and feel.
To relax sit on your shins and place the stick on the back of the shins. Press it through the tension using your arms and breathe to let the tension clean out and move the pressure around so you make your legs more free rather than soft. Remember it is not relaxation but awareness and control of tension. No tension at all means death.
First have both partners walk through you with a fist to the body and you simply move to avoid getting hit while focusing on keeping breathing.
Next place both hands at the back of the neck and repeat the drill with the focus of keeping your eyes relaxed and avoiding any contact so your body sense will extend further. Look forward and up.
Next place your fists on your hips and repeat the drill focusing on paying attention to your alignment. Note the difference in movement in your hips and shoulders and find your breathing and eyes to help you simply feel what is happening. Avoid trying to fix yourself, you are not broken just a bit dirty with tension and fear and once you notice them they vacate on their own accord.
Next Close one eye and than the other (not both) and work on how this affect the way you see and not see the world and what happens when you relax and move where you wish to be rather than relax. (communicate with your partners about the best speed for this drill and remember you are here to learn rather than push through pain)
Next extend on arm straight to one side and repeat the drill, This is a good drill to show how much we focus on attractions in front of us rather than stay inside and calm. When you feel relaxed enough move so your evasion is hitting your partners on their way without stopping them but adding to their movements. Remember to avoid getting stuck in response and choose where you want to be.
Have a partner lie down and place your fist on him or her. Relax your arm and fist so you rest your fist on your partner from the shoulder and match his breath so you breath as one. Allow the fist to change alignment from the shoulder and elbow with his breath and slowly sink as the movement permits without pressing. Feel where there is no density and avoid pushing and tensing yourself. You will need to find your patience for this drill. Later on use this in movement and in the work to allow the strike to come in rather than pressing.
Feel what you have at hand rather than try to mold without feeling.
Stand tall but not fixed
look up and see all
Let every breath build you anew and smile with the gift of every moment.
On a personal note: if you do the slow movement and rolling combined with breathing you are pretty much covering all bases in solo work.
Repeat the drill but now have your partner face the other way and close his eyes so you have to read his tension so you can guide him without getting tensed and rooted in one spot.
Later on you can work with a few partners on a group settings in a more pressure type of work and remember all the implications of your work.
Tips: Keep breathing, relax the spine, avoid getting into a mission oriented frame of mind and just do the work. Being a hero is a good recipe for a story but a bad one for a long life. Keep movement to what works and avoid other movements.
Next have your partner do the same to you and at the same time press his hand or fist to your head. This will allow you to better feel where you bend and twist yourself and you will be able to move more with and guide your partner rather than trying to outsmart or out maneuver him.
You may than add an arm or any limb to the work to help the body work rather than work with your arms and letting the body parish in static. Remember life is movement and movement comes from the breath.
Another way to look at this is in your personal practice. Many times you will be without a partner besides god and you might look at a piece of paper with many instructions on it for help. Keep the parameters to a minimal and give yourself freedom to let yourself truly come out.
My best example so far is to spread ten steps with fists over ten minutes. You are bound to learn something from that slow movement drill and something new every time since you are not burdened by working on everything at the same time.
Second drill: Place a stick over your shoulders or your back and have two or more partners move you with their fingers and later with knives or sharps of any kind. Their goal (note the way is not so important as the end in mind) is to have you collide with the others and you work to keep free from getting stabbed and at the same time avoiding hitting others. You must relax and move freely to achieve this and to relax your eyes as well.
Breathe relax and move, you may think you did something wrong but try to work with what you have and let the way present itself. If you try to win, you work on another and he must loose. This way creates aggression and tension and harms you a lot. Work on relaxing your contacts and see where that takes you.
Breath and let the movement come rather than force it.
Have one partner walk toward you with a fist as the other is holding you and you move the one holding you to have them engage each other and repeat.
Have one partner hold your head and another one of your limbs and move them so they oppose each others intentions.
Remember you are not in a contest in a Systema lesson nor in life. You need to work on not loosing and you will gain control by paying attention to your breath and to your pulse and to your blood pressure.
And relax the face, it helps.
You can smile but I am not forcing anyone
Start by tensing up and letting yourself get hit all over and feeling and sensing how your body moves and handles.
Repeat the drill as you relax in increments till you are without tension that is not working for you and again note the direction your eyes follow and how the tension and alignment change during the drill.
Repeat the drill and now let the hitting move you and work to move as a whole relaxed together (start with pushing) so for example if you are hit in the leg your body moves rather than your leg moves from under you or if you are hit in the chin your body moves rather than your head twisting off your neck (I think you can see where I am headed here…)
Repeat the drill and now come to meed the hitting with your limbs and or body relaxed and letting them hit you and simply feel the tension in your partner or partners (you can feel the tension of your partner if he is hitting you with a stick as well you simply need to address the man with the stick rather than the stick with the man)
Repeat the drill and now add to the movement of the hit to guide it so you avoid getting harmed and avoid getting tensed up beyond what is working for you.
Repeat the drill and now connect with him or her or them wherever you want and ride their hits to use their tension and movement for your own needs and survive (this is good to do with a group surrounding one person with everyone hitting without stop)
This drill sequence is meant to allow you to relax and be humble when you do the work. You don’t need to be faster than someone else when you can ride his fist and control his form and spirit through this. You don’t have to be stronger than the taller heavier person if you can see all of him as a person and feel where he is unaware and without density. you need to work on yourself and through this comes Control and humility.
To my student: This will be on Thursday or Friday lesson and remember there is great fun in hitting your partners legs with fists.
Deserts also work well for this if you have water. 
Now do this in a non natural position such as twisted or bend by yourself or by a partner. Work on just minding the tension in your body as you are being twisted and feel how this tension or its elimination by awareness can free you to do the work rather than responding to someone else working.
After everyone has done the drill replace the chain with a dull knife and do this again adding moving the arm from the elbow down and again see what you can do with just this.
To show how important thinking of yourself first and others later in terms of space have your partners try to grab and lift you off the ground (add a trunk to this drill if you and your partners are willing) and see how you manage with large movements with arms fully extended in reaction in contrast to placing yourself where if fits you in space and using the least amount of movement in the limbs and body to control others.
