Now, we all know where I will be in just a few short days....Russia!!!.Some may refer to my adventure as "crazy" but I , on the other hand, made this decision one morning last year around this very time. Once I decided to go to Russia and train with Andrey Karimov, we began discussing small details. I watched all of his videos and practiced with whips..daily, for months. I lingered in and out of back pain treatment, medical treatments, doctor's offices and physical therapy more than I'd like to admit. I was put on bedrest, taken off bedrest, in the ER...you name it,it happened.
All this really messed up my plan :TRAIN EVERYDAY FOR THIS SEMINARrrrrararwr..
At some point, somewhere along all of this , someone came to me and said"well, you are kind of cheating by "pretraining and having insider intel on his teaching style"". Um, what the wha?
I am not even sure what that meant. I asked this person to elaborate and he said"well, you know..you already know what's going to happen".
Yeah. No.
I didn't .
I bought my ticket, made my reservations and mapped out my 4 week journey without knowing anything. Hell, I wasn't even sure what city I would be in. I just knew I was going. But this brought up some interesting points...
1) I was not, in reality, training with any regular group here...so my training, was what I had already learned plus whips..at best. Sure, we fight in our house, really well...and fun...but, not "training".
2)Daily communication with Mr. Karimov rarely involved discussing "training" . We prefer cat emoticons and cat videos-much to everyone's surprise.
3)How could I prove to any naysayers that Mr. Karimov has such exquisite teaching material and technique,if anyone believed I had a one up on them?
4)Why would anyone take my word on it...I can say "yeah..he's a great instructor"? all day long, but even I would want proof....why shouldn't anyone else?
5) If part of the reason most people don't go to Russia and train is the fear of not knowing the language, culture, surroundings...how could I put their minds at ease? Here I am , Rosetta Stoning it away , which again..gives me an one up. And let's be honest....if you have a new motorcycle , and you're a Systema instructor, and you haven't been to Russia...ever.... you are cheating your students out big time.
I made the very conscious and difficult decision to stop pretraining. I stopped preparing myself and endlessly watching his videos. Luckily he began touring, so our conversations are quick and fun.I became ill, so there was not much I could do but rest up. I stopped trying to eat super healthy , I stopped my barefoot walking through the rocky terrace at the park.I stopped using all my language learning apps. I stopped obsessing about the culture, geography and what social mistakes and fouls I may make. I refocused my energies on other projects, and stopped thinking about preparing myself for training. I asked my doctors to slowly pull me off any medications for nerve spasms and muscle pain from my conditions that I was taking and I detoxed myself off virtually anything that would make this a comfortable experience for myself as possible. I, am going in raw.
I want to go in completely void of what may be stuck in my brain that may have created bad form and may have caused me to duplicate horrible patterns...I want to go in as though I were a child, in a candy store..and see every opportunity for life. I want to go in at zero and come out at 100%. Now , the choice wasn't all mine, I mean..I have been on bedrest off and on, and I could easily blame it on that...but why blame anything...why not see what comes of this experience , live and up close?
While I thought maybe I should have started video taping this display of de-systemaizing, I found some of what I was going through, very graphic and personal...some situations frustrating and some liberating. I did start to film a doctor a few weeks ago , until he had some bad news and I turned my camera off per his request.
The good news is this.... no one really knew I was doing this( and if you were one of them, thank you for not laughing at me, yet still calling me crazy), so you are hearing it here first. In fact, I only recently told Mr.Karimov , and I am not even sure it translated well. But then again...he is 100% secure in his technique and methods anyway,so he doesn't care much about what I think I may know vs what he can teach me. He cares about being open and honest and doing the best I can. The bottom line is...he cares.
All this made several things happen in real life....
I gained weight(egads ...this water training just got real, ugly)
My asthma came back , full force... I am currently ,sitting recovering from pneumonia.
I trained a few days ago for the first time in months, with someone new and was surprised by my own agility/memory/skill. Don't get me wrong, I could barely move later on...but that's ok.
While everyone wonders how I am going to survive this intensive training program without pretraining....., I wonder, "how am I going to walk away from this group of amazing people without crying?". How does anyone survive anything? They just do. Mr. Karimov is 100% in teaching this, and I am 100% confident that I will learn what he has to offer(even the underwater stuff). That...says alot about both of us. You cannot expect to get what you want, without the work. If you go into this situation guarded, with false assumptions, then that's exactly what you will get out of it.Yes, you can pick and choose what you want to learn, but then what? Then, you are are cheating yourself of a full, immersive experience.
This brings me back to what I've always suspected..this "Systema", is a lifestyle choice. It isn't weekly meetings, training incessantly, timed training,memorized "drills"....these people, actually live this. Everyday. It is their system, their lifestyle. It is what works for them.That is why there is no real definition for the art,for them. It is your individual system and how do you train for that?
I will document as much as I can along the way. I'm not nervous or scared about messing up. I have every intent to be a complete sponge to what he has to offer. I will be living this module of training for 21 days. I will be exactly where I said I would be a year ago.
Everything we will be doing will be documented via video and I am sure it will be on a DVD. I am REALLY putting myself out there....like, seriously. I want everyone to know, that if I can do this, so can you. Yes.YOU!
Save the Starbucks money, make a plan, and stick to it. Find an instructor you like and go.
Stop pre-training, start living!
Thank you Jesse, Sharon, Veronica, Milo, Harley and anyone else who watched me go a smidge crazy on this journey.
All this really messed up my plan :TRAIN EVERYDAY FOR THIS SEMINARrrrrararwr..
At some point, somewhere along all of this , someone came to me and said"well, you are kind of cheating by "pretraining and having insider intel on his teaching style"". Um, what the wha?
I am not even sure what that meant. I asked this person to elaborate and he said"well, you know..you already know what's going to happen".
Yeah. No.
I didn't .
I bought my ticket, made my reservations and mapped out my 4 week journey without knowing anything. Hell, I wasn't even sure what city I would be in. I just knew I was going. But this brought up some interesting points...
1) I was not, in reality, training with any regular group here...so my training, was what I had already learned plus whips..at best. Sure, we fight in our house, really well...and fun...but, not "training".
3)How could I prove to any naysayers that Mr. Karimov has such exquisite teaching material and technique,if anyone believed I had a one up on them?
4)Why would anyone take my word on it...I can say "yeah..he's a great instructor"? all day long, but even I would want proof....why shouldn't anyone else?
5) If part of the reason most people don't go to Russia and train is the fear of not knowing the language, culture, surroundings...how could I put their minds at ease? Here I am , Rosetta Stoning it away , which again..gives me an one up. And let's be honest....if you have a new motorcycle , and you're a Systema instructor, and you haven't been to Russia...ever.... you are cheating your students out big time.
I made the very conscious and difficult decision to stop pretraining. I stopped preparing myself and endlessly watching his videos. Luckily he began touring, so our conversations are quick and fun.I became ill, so there was not much I could do but rest up. I stopped trying to eat super healthy , I stopped my barefoot walking through the rocky terrace at the park.I stopped using all my language learning apps. I stopped obsessing about the culture, geography and what social mistakes and fouls I may make. I refocused my energies on other projects, and stopped thinking about preparing myself for training. I asked my doctors to slowly pull me off any medications for nerve spasms and muscle pain from my conditions that I was taking and I detoxed myself off virtually anything that would make this a comfortable experience for myself as possible. I, am going in raw.
I want to go in completely void of what may be stuck in my brain that may have created bad form and may have caused me to duplicate horrible patterns...I want to go in as though I were a child, in a candy store..and see every opportunity for life. I want to go in at
 |
| one of my many trips to the ER in the last year.What's your excuse? |
The good news is this.... no one really knew I was doing this( and if you were one of them, thank you for not laughing at me, yet still calling me crazy), so you are hearing it here first. In fact, I only recently told Mr.Karimov , and I am not even sure it translated well. But then again...he is 100% secure in his technique and methods anyway,so he doesn't care much about what I think I may know vs what he can teach me. He cares about being open and honest and doing the best I can. The bottom line is...he cares.
All this made several things happen in real life....
I gained weight(egads ...this water training just got real, ugly)
My asthma came back , full force... I am currently ,
I trained a few days ago for the first time in months, with someone new and was surprised by my own agility/memory/skill. Don't get me wrong, I could barely move later on...but that's ok.
While everyone wonders how I am going to survive this intensive training program without pretraining....., I wonder, "how am I going to walk away from this group of amazing people without crying?". How does anyone survive anything? They just do. Mr. Karimov is 100% in teaching this, and I am 100% confident that I will learn what he has to offer(even the underwater stuff). That...says alot about both of us. You cannot expect to get what you want, without the work. If you go into this situation guarded, with false assumptions, then that's exactly what you will get out of it.Yes, you can pick and choose what you want to learn, but then what? Then, you are are cheating yourself of a full, immersive experience.
This brings me back to what I've always suspected..this "Systema", is a lifestyle choice. It isn't weekly meetings, training incessantly, timed training,memorized "drills"....these people, actually live this. Everyday. It is their system, their lifestyle. It is what works for them.That is why there is no real definition for the art,for them. It is your individual system and how do you train for that?
I will document as much as I can along the way. I'm not nervous or scared about messing up. I have every intent to be a complete sponge to what he has to offer. I will be living this module of training for 21 days. I will be exactly where I said I would be a year ago.Everything we will be doing will be documented via video and I am sure it will be on a DVD. I am REALLY putting myself out there....like, seriously. I want everyone to know, that if I can do this, so can you. Yes.YOU!
Save the Starbucks money, make a plan, and stick to it. Find an instructor you like and go.
Stop pre-training, start living!
 |
| Mr. Karimov's wife, Katherine. |
Thank you Jesse, Sharon, Veronica, Milo, Harley and anyone else who watched me go a smidge crazy on this journey.
