Sharon's Systema blog

Take your normal street or place you live in and walk a known stretch of it during the day. Stop every 100 meters or as many double steps it takes you to pass 100 meters and look back at the road your took and look for places where you are seen but do not see the observer yourself. Wait till dusk and cover the same stretch of land in the same direction and note how the play of light and shadow creates different blind spots and artificial illumination disrupts the perception of distance and height. Now repeat the drill at full darkness and if your breath changes in speed and depth. Listen to your heart beats and take more time to stop and look back not just into the shadows but to the illumination and what comes off it. Remember to take note of not only what you see but what is missing. Do you have different sounds than during the day, do the people dress differently and what is the minimal range from which you can identify a person or a vehicle ?

Count your breaths during a stretch of land like a 100 meters or so and compare it to the same distance in dusk and at night. Realizing you are afraid or with some sight problems can eliminate a lot of the problem. You can calm your breath only once you realize you are breathing too fast. You can do everything as long as you remain honest with yourself.

Take a stick and hold it in a comfortable distance between the hands. Now with both hands bring the hands apart as if you are working to lengthen the stick and bring all the tension to the hands and fingers and work to keep the neck and shoulders free to move. Do this a few times in different heights and with palms facing either up or down and after this tense in any directions you choose and as you keep the tension move one hand in or out using the fingers and the palm as you keep the tension on the same level smooth. Do this using both hands and remember that if you look down or into your hands to monitor them you are learning to ignore the information they are sending you all the time and ignoring the many benefits of seeing people and other animals come and go. The other thing to note is that if you look down you tense the neck and it affects your entire body. Learn to give support and to work as you give support and you will be able to control more than yourself over time. For example if you can both give the impression of being held at the neck as your arm supports your breathing you will be more able to deploy  a firearm or to escape the hold when it is appropriate. Sometimes it is better to do the work without a crowd but for this you have to stay calm and keep breathing.

Swing your arm from the shoulder back and forth. Note your hand and see if it rotates a bit naturally if the shoulder is relaxed and the movement comes from the body. Note if your elbow is also moving on the axis of the elbow. Now place your fist over the height of your shoulder and let it drop either on the wall or your partner's chest. Let the forearm advance naturally and avoid keeping it in a fixed angle from the arm and you will gain a lot of relaxation and effect. Let the shoulder rotate a little so you are more comfortable and more whip can travel from the body to the fist to the target and keep it relaxed and let it sink or move if you are hitting a wall or your partner is tensed up. If you feel a bounce coming back it means your fist is too tight as well.

It is better to work in pairs or threes and count the hits each one makes so your mind is not asleep as you work.

We are used to articulate ourselves with our mouths fingers and feet at the phone, the wheel, the levers and so on. Work on gaining more awareness and control by drawing the numbers in the air using your elbows, shoulders, knees and heels while on the ground and than standing. First draw 1-20 and than after you go though the list, do the same numbers only now draw from the opposite direction meaning by starting to draw from where you previously ended and remember you can use your body to move the focus by walking you draw a line in the air with your every point. Keep this in mind as you work.

Write a list of five basic actions you take and than do them very slowly twice. We do them twice in order to let the body and mind feel the difference and we do it slowly to expand our attention to more of what is happening and to become aware of our weaknesses.

For example: Climbing a flight of stairs.
                    Typing on the keyboard
                    reaching overhead for a plate or a shelve
                    tying your shoe laces
                    putting your wrist watch on

Check where your eyes are and do you really need them there? How are you breathing, how is your alignment, are you tensed up without need, can you do it in a more comfortable way and so on.

Another way to do this is with a partner who tells you to freeze whenever something "pops" in his eyes and you have to gather something for yourself within the freeze and only them move ahead with the task.

Take your stick and a small ball or a few of them (about the size of a large marble or one of the small rubber balls for kids to bounce off walls) Place the ball on the ground and slowly use the stick to move the ball by touching first and than moving it without loosing contact. Do this for a while as you relax the shoulders and hips so you don't become bent from the attention and than using a wall send the ball to bounce off the wall and play return with it for a while. Un-focus your eyes and let them take in all that is around you. Once this is done Throw the ball in the air and work on directing it either up or down using the end of the stick. Remember to move from the body and use a comfortable grip. Place no importance on where you start the movement from (left right high low) and remember that the body when aligned can move in any direction from any location.
Throw the ball behind you or in front of you with your eyes closed and than open them and work. Have a partner help you with this if you can and work also using either hand or or from the position of holding the stick as a walking stick. Relax your face and keep your breath going. Close either eye and work to find your range of vision and how you can best move to survive with this happening to you.

Remember that it is easier to keep moving than to move and stop and move. Keep your breath going. It is the beginning of all movement.

Lie face down on the ground and place a flat hand under your chest. Slowly inhale and using the movement of the inhale lift your chest and head supported by the part touching the hand. Exhale and let it come down at the same pace. Repeat this in both directions up and down and and work on first relaxing your body despite the disturbance of the hand and than becoming aware of the movement you have in the area the hand touches and than from that location to the rest of you.

Repeat this process using a fist after you have done it with a flat hand and use both hands in different locations and one over the other to see how you find a way to move.

Work on letting the breath actually move you and add to that and see how you fare afterwards in the rest of the drills. Remember you have to work constantly to clean yourself as tension is building all the time. Have a partner aid you by placing a stick under you and moving it from place to place and afterwards add to this a knee or a foot on the opposing side of the stick to help you learn to be free under pressure.

Do the same drill facing up and remember to keep the spine safe.

To keep the body temperature tolerable and the comfort level higher dig a shallow ditch in the sand and note how even fifteen centimeters can relieve the blaze of the summer sun and the reflection of the earth heat. If you are on surveillance you can remove the traces of your print afterward and this can also be done in a forest environment with opposing outcome. If you are in a dry climate you can use the earth to create a barrier from the air and in a wet climate like a rain forest you will need additional layers of isolation in the form of leaves, nylon bags and the like. Isolation usually means low conductivity of heat which is achieves by the material itself or bu bubbles of air caught in the material such as wool.

Even wrapping material can keep you warm at night if you are stuck with a broken leg and no fire and hugging a dog will provide a lot of heat as well.