In February 2004, Mikhail Ryabko, the Master of the ancient Russian martial art of Systema, came to London to conduct a two day seminar on knife defence and psychology of confrontation. Mikhail shares his real life experiences of surviving armed conflict under a variety of circumstances. DVD contents include:
Working on the ground, Strikes, Sudden attacks, Work with minimal contact, Surviving throws, Pyschology of confrontation, Correct training methodology, Bodyguard and rescue scenarios and much more....
Bonus footage includes work with the rope, Cossack sabre and amazing full-speed gun disarming techniques.
Running time Approx 70 min. Format - PAL, no regional code
Language - English and original Russian soundtrack
This is my review of the DVD produced from the footage of Mikhail Ryabko's last visit to London:
This DVD is very different from the other titles available. I really like the different angle from which the footage is presented and how it is organised into many bite size subjects with (selectable ) narration and a thought provoking introduction by David Kirillov. This gives the footage a certain feel - what you do watch has been carefully selected to show the concepts mentioned in a simple way. If friends were to ask me 'what is systema?' I would use this DVD to try to show them. In many ways it's a video equivalent to the exceptionally popular systema guidebook by Vladimir Vasiliev. It outlines some of the key elements or characteristics of what we do chapter by chapter. For example I showed it to my parents and they found it very approachable and watchable - I don't feel that I would be able to show them 'Strikes' or 'Beyond the Physical' and it be similarly meaningful even though they are both excellent materials in their own right.
I really enjoyed the bonus footage at the end of the DVD and certainly wish there was more of this available. When I attended the seminar, I never really took in what was happening when Mikhail demonstrated work with the sword, rope and pistol, so it was good to be able to re-play it until I could see things I had originally missed. This must be why using video should be recommended, you get a second chance if you missed it when it happened or you want to look again after you understanding of systema has moved forward.
You can find more infomation on the 'Knife Defence and Psychology of the Confrontation DVD here
Sam Benson 10/08/2004