How a sword saved me....and it could work for you,too!

Over two years ago, I had a horrible miscarriage at which time, a surgeon punctured a portion of my diaphragm and an anesthesiologist aggressively prodded my lower lumbar spine a total of three times. The result was devastating.
After a few months in rehab, I was given the dire news that I would no longer be able to "train" or do any sort of major physical activity. Ever . I was heartbroken. Not because I regularly trained in Systema, but I knew that once my body healed, my mind would catch up to me, and the art I loved so dearly, would help me get through those trying times. I just knew I needed to get back into it.

When I slowly began to go public with my outcry for any type of instructor-based-assistance I could get in the matter, it fell incredibly short..incredibly fast and on deaf ears. Luckily, a really amazing
instructor and health coach in Australia showed me a few videos by Andrey Karimov of Siberian Cossack Systema.
I was blown away by Karimov's force, speed, power and ..finesse.
Video after video captured my attention to no end...and I eventually ended up spending over a week glued to my computer watching videos and struggling to figure out what he was saying in Russian language.I knew, that "his" method was something that went beyond the confines of what I was learning(or not learning) here..but, I had no idea how it would impact the rest of my life.

Not only did I message Mr. Karimov(he messaged me back immediately)...I also messaged Sergey Zhukov..a.k.a. "Basketball Sergey". I had seen his basketball floor work video and it was under an "R.M.A." type thread so I wondered how it all connected. I literally spent a year, just trying to find Sergey's name. (I talk about this is previous posts).

The amazingly talented S.Z.

Back to Karimov...
Keep in mind, I don't speak Russian, and he does not speak English.I quickly discovered Google translate. I told him that I felt really stuck in training, and that I came up with a drill that worked great in class, but I knew my time training here, was over. I felt creativity and empathy were severely lacking and I just wanted more. But I wasn't sure what , yet.

He immediately told me to pick up my whip...my
Cossack whip. Which, many of us had in the US , but had no idea how to use it. I sold mine a while back(because I wasn't using it) but my fiancee had his.
Karimov told me very simply..."start using the whip...she's a great teacher".
Um..I had no idea what he meant...how do I use a whip? I was always told these were exclusively for instructors!
When I relayed that information to him, he immediately sent me videos and photos of kids ranging in age of 5-14 years old using whips.
And women. Lots of women using the Cossack whip. Lots.
I was stunned. Shocked.. in horror. How was this even possible???
His only response was "how are you NOT using this tool of the art?".
It was at that point I felt a complete loss for what I was missing out on.
Over the course of several weeks, Karimov walked me through a series of drills, techniques and variations on how to use a whip for massage, balance, coordination, breathing, fear control..and so much  more.
Keep in mind..he was not my instructor.
I did not pay him.
I did not ask him for individual attention.
He...just helped. He saw exactly what I needed and jumped in there. We relayed videos back and forth and he meticulously and directly corrected me.
I gotta admit..there were times I wanted to give up. I had tons of what I now refer to as "whip kisses" on various parts of my body. I couldn't give up though, because I knew that my health, my movement and my body were completely at risk for shutting down.
The more I practiced with the whip..the less I noticed the nagging aches in my back. The more I "stung" myself, the quicker I could catch my breath and fill my diaphragm with energy(meaning..it freaking hurt like hell)...
more importantly..the more I tried, the more encouragement he gave me to push through. At some point, I needed two whips and he sent me a box of whips. I was floored. Of course, as soon as I opened the box, a whip flew out and hit me in the face. It was the best feeling ever.
I immediately began telling everyone about his work. Why wouldn't I? It was creative, fun, challenging and caring. It was harsh. Brutal. Painful and intense. It was everything I certainly needed at the time(and of course, still do). It was the perfect balance to my situation.
I booked my flight to Russia and the rest was history.
While I waited for the day to go meet him in person, Karimov and I chatted about culture, history , the arts, children and so much more. He shared everything he knew, with me. A complete stranger. I absorbed every single ounce of it and even started writing about it. It was and still is, fascinating. At one point..he sent me a video of this beautiful young woman, slinging whips around at an epic rate of speed. Her name was Natasha Kopylova. She captured my soul in just watching her.
And it gets better. A few days later..he sent me video of Natasha using two swords..at the same rate of speed she was using the whips. He told me I also had the ability to do this work. I was in awe. I never had a desire to swing swords around, but damn. It looked amazing.
I sort of joked and asked if she would be at our seminar in May. He responded with an emoticon.
When May arrived and I walked into the gym in St. Petersburg I was so overwhelmed that I didn't notice Ms. Kopylova standing 8 feet in front of me. When I saw her, I immediately started to get emotional. I am not sure if it was the suprise itself or the fact that I may be able to ask her some questions or that somehow, this beautiful woman would touch me with some sword magic.

you can see the fear on my face

Karimov must have noticed my tears welling , because the next thing I know..I had a sword in my hand and she was teaching me some basics. Literally 30 minutes into my first day of training..I was training with a sword. I was mortified. And it's on film..by the way. I had the translator tell her I was incredibly in awe of her and that I had no intentions of using a sword and she smiled and said"why not?? It's easy!"......
Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.um.
wha?

I remember looking at my fiancee and trying to think of a reason why I couldn't use a sword. Then Kopylova told me that children began training with them in Russia at a young age. She also told me she knew women my age that trained with swords.
I literally had no excuse. And how on earth could I tell her no , let alone, Karimov? I pulled up my britches and got to it.
The third day, Natasha did a few drills of really basic sword work. I was in a skirt(I also wrote about this), and I was secretly dying on the inside. The sword was surprisingly heavier when we were being filmed...my skirt was itchy and I seriously have training dyslexia. Everything I did was completely not right and opposite of what was being taught...but..it wasn't wrong either.
See..the difference with training in Russia is , (from my perspective), is no one really micromanages you. No one is there to scoff, roll their eyes or worse, tell you every five seconds what you are doing wrong. The overall consensus is, you will eventually get it.Eventually. Of course, I asked for help and literally had people holding my hand with the sword saying"like this".....it was real, hands on training.

Several days of sword work went by and I even amazed myself. At one point, I nailed a very complicated back handed toss up and I looked around the room to see if anyone noticed. They did. No high fives were given though, because really...it was only complicated for me.
I told several people there that I never thought I would be in Russia, but also, I never thought in a million years I'd do anything with a sword. Everyone encouraged me to keep pushing through the sword work as it was such a rewarding experience and great teacher. The sword, became ultimately, my nemesis, mirror, joy, weapon, partner and the list goes on.
The most important part is..the sword, saved me.
You see, by the time I returned from Russia, I was hit with another very complicated medical condition(two actually). One of them was the official diagnosis of clusterheadaches;a painful headache that lasts 3-4 hours and feels like a "brainfreeze". Except, I was in "cluster cycles". Meaning my headache lasted 3-4 weeks, with very little breaks in between. My activity was limited because of variations in everything from lighting, to noise, to pollution to vertigo. There were days I laid on my floor , crying endlessly because of either the pain or my restrictions because of the pain. I was desperate. My vision often times decreased with these headaches or became very altered, so the thought of doing anything with a whip or sword, was out.
But that was just it..it was only a thought.
I remember Karimov telling me once that we are only limited by our teachers and their knowledge and I remembered a woman at our seminar broke her foot on the sidewalk, yet the last day, she performed with her sword and cast and all! I remember crying out of sheer joy for her and thinking"wow..she is badass".
I asked her how she managed to even swing a sword with her cast on (and she hadn't been practicing), and she very clearly and boldly said" no one told me not to".
That was it...I had been telling myself that I couldn't even lift a sword up with no supervision, but also, I was so worried about my decreased vision , and pain being triggered, that I was scared to try. Here I had 4 swords collecting dust, and who was I to NOT use them?
Thus, began my slow journey into regular sword work. I decided to film myself not only for my instructors to review, but I knew, if I could do it, OTHER people could do it. The problem was, I wasn't really doing it. In fact...I sucked.I was horrible. Stiff, motionless, (still am at times) and super, super guarded. I was weak from being on bedrest and a few times, I yelled at my swords. They were defeating me.In such an inanimate way.
I was on the brink of giving up many, many times and it seems almost every time I WANTED to give up, Karimov sensed it and posted a few videos of children using swords. Or my friend Olga Malkova, would send me a few videos of her work(we both started with swords at the same time). I almost felt like I couldn't let them down by giving up...that motivation alone...is all I needed.
A few times, of course, I hated it. I absolutely hated the metal, I hated my blisters and my dry, arthritic looking hands. I hated the wind. The sun. Being outside with them. I hated it. It wasn't until my son picked up my sword and did the unthinkable. He, juggled it.
Yes..my son, who many people know as a knife and tomahawk thrower, never had a sword in his life. He walked over to my sword..picked it up and did some weird one handed flip thing. First time. Nailed it. And..he kept going. Ten minutes into it..he had the sword spinning at high rates of speed, tossing it up, catching it and dancing along as though he had been born with it. He was on fire. He looked at me and said" Mom..come on..this is easy!"

I am not one to step down from a challenge.....the rest is history.
See, the thing is ,often times we only let what we know or what we are exposed to , stop us from finding out more. We rarely push ourselves to new heights, new levels or new activities.
We let the lack of creativity from our sources, prevent us from growing. We let our own fears, stop us.
Now, Im not saying sword work isnt dangerous..because..it is. Very. But I've been through some dangerous shit,and it wasn't any worse than driving in Austin. And yes, I've hit myself, cut myself, flinched, dodged , weaved and almost broken a sword or two...but again...all those things come in handy.
And I certainly learned how to "GTFOOTW" quickly. Like..super quick. This, was something that I struggled with while training , alot. (***get the fu*k out of the way***).
I even decided that , for me..the sword saved me. It gave me some hope that at the very least, there are great instructors out there who are full of knowledge and encouragement and ideas. Even after my clusterheadaches worsened...I wasn't allowed to feel sorry for myself. By this time, I had a tiny fan base of people watching my videos and asking ME for help with sword work! It was and is a weird pressure that I never expected, but glad that I can help.
Every doctor's appointment (usually with bad news or scalp injections) I just think about how much worse it could have been had I not even sought out something more for myself. Had I not listened to Karimov or Kopylova tell me that it was almost absurd that I DIDN'T do this.
Had I listened to the haters. The negativity, and not to mention..my own thoughts.
In fact..I was so convinced that this "sword therapy" would work on other people...I discussed it with my new awesome friend, Janice Bishop(a.k.a.Janice Bishop O.G.)
Janice and I had a few(ok more than a few) things in common. One strikingly obvious to each of us is that our vision in our respective right eyes , is diminishing. While mine comes and goes...gets spotty, and I get facial pain and paralysis....her's is progressive. Over a period of time..she will likely have no vision at all. We argue constantly about who is more blind.
And I get it...there are people that are blind that do great things.... But it is INCREDIBLY depressing that you are told what not to do, by doctors, instructors, peers, family and friends. It is almost numbing. And after talking to Janice, I knew..SHE knew what I was saying.

When she came to Texas, of course..I wanted to play swords with her all day. Janice is incredibly tall...she has long arms...and doesn't flinch. At all.She is quite phenomenal to train with, because you will in fact, run into her limbs and almost knock yourself out. All while she's smiling. She is the best..really.
Once Janice and I got to spend some alone time with swords, she too, could also feel the struggle, the love/hate...the draw. It almost drives you crazy, if you are an RMA practitioner in the states,because...why weren't we given this as an option? I mean..Janice and I can individually run handgun drills ALLDAYLONG...but swords? FORGET it.
And there in is the problem. Not only did I see the great potential in this aspect of the art, so did she. Now we have two blind folks swinging swords around laughing it up, dancing and shit talking each other. Our lives, minus our depressing disabilities, as practitioners....have been restored.I personally thank Karimov for that(although to him this is just part of Cossack style training), but for myself, it really gave me a chance to explore, meet new people, wear a dress, go to the park and play, differently...It gave my my mobility back, restored my faith in myself and opened up so many new doors.
The take-aways I got from all this are:

• Know when to fold 'em- if you aren't getting what you need from training, don't be ashamed or secretive about looking elsewhere. 
• Ask for help from those in the know-the beauty and power of social media is, there are so many great and enthusiastic people who will graciously assist you. Stay away from people who immediately tell you what you are doing is wrong without you asking for help.
• Push your boundaries-don't let language intimidate you. If you are scared to reach out to a foreign instructor 'cause of "language", you shouldn't be training in combative arts
• Watch the children around you- my son is perpetually happy.That is just who he is and it can be down right annoying, his energy is contagious, but his comfort level in who he is , as a person, is something we all need to possess.
• Find a partner to give you shit- for me, it was Janice Bishop. Since we both "get" why this is valuable, we both appreciate it, and we both understand the value of what potential this has for us. We give each other shit daily, about swords. It is one of the reasons I still use my sword.
• Say "yes"- I never saw the connection of hand to hand combat and weapons/sword work. Not ever. I rejected an opportunity to train with swords a long time ago. I thought it was ridiculous. Had I known that the coordination and skill, not to mention, bravery of holding this bad boy could give me, I would have said "yes". The sword has opened so many doors for me, personally, that I'm not even sure my life is real. Yes..it's that good.
• Don't give in...or up- I was very, very close to giving up. I had zero encouragement, loved ones aside) from many people. In retrospect, it was lack of creativity or even trying to understand my dilemma on their parts. You will ever only know as much as your teacher knows. 
• Be creative- I didn't have a sword for a while. I used my whips for everything. But I also had a baseball bat, a few sticks, a hammer, and more. My sword work gave me the confidence to explore log work, Hungarian whip work and a few other dangerous things....
• Men..listen up...the very , very , very best teachers for sword work, in Russia, are women. While, yes, there are very distinctive types of work(sword-dance vs. combatives) , usually women train to learn both in Russia, and that is what I do. While I *try* to make sure all my moves have a "combative" or "true to soldier form", alot of what I do is actual, technical work, that takes long hours of practice and coordination. I've been around way too many men who have watched my sword whizz by and they try to emulate what I am doing without asking. It really doesn't work that way.There are no stupid questions with this work...there are no dumb "self filmed" videos and all of it, ALL of it is learning.
• Train on your own- I get highly distracted trying to train around a ton of people. Most of my videos are filmed on the roof of my building. I meditate. I listen to music. I watch videos. Some days it works, some days it doesn't. Sometimes, I message one of my many instructors for the old "get out there and do it" speech. Nothing gets done, if you don't try.
• Go to Russia-I absolutely cannot emphasize this enough. If only for a week, get there(if you are training in RMA), it is an entirely different experience training with several groups of people and different styles. Research everything.
• Find groups of like minded folks-the first thing everyone asks me is if I know about "HEMA"....keep in mind, I have alot on my plate, however..this sounds like a good thing. Right now, I thoroughly train on my own at my own speed and I stopped trying to emulate the 100 or so women I watch in Russia. I am not them.In fact, the less I watch, the better I become. The sword will get it out of you.
• Hit an apple or melon- ok..this one, I gotta admit...was fun. Total waste of food, but I try to remain precise and accurate with training with weapons as I would with a gun. At least , it's a great party trick.
• Film yourself- I get alot of shit for this one...alot. Either I am too "clumsy", too "sexy" , too "alone" or too "mannish" or whatever term anyone can think of. I film 90% of what I do for myself to watch back and see what I can do differently(by the way..not one of my instructors in Russia has never said anything negative about my videos...this negativity usually comes from people who don't use swords, are scared to use them, or repute the fact that they are indeed, a crucial part of RMA).I also make a ton of really short clips, because alot of people get overwhelmed when they search the internets for Shaska sword videos. Even when I was watching Natasha face to face, I was so perplexed by what she was doing, I had to stop her many times and ask her to repeat it.
• Don't over invest in your first sword-I intentionally beat the crap out of my first sword, because I know many, many people who let their swords sit around and collect dust(like their whips). I also know alot of people who spend way more than a few hundred bucks on a sword that's gonna end up hitting the ground if they really train(and more than likely, get dinged up). Invest in a decent , basic Russian Shaska(I use Windlass Russian Shaska...which I also now sell), because it is the closest thing to what I used in Russia. The sword is heavy, awkward and heavy. And awkward. It's exactly like the ones children and adults and soldiers use in Russia(to keep it in perspective).
• Have fun, but be safe-I currently have occipital neuralgia , and I still do sword work. But, I also have hit the back of my head several times. Be careful, and really know your limits. I whirl my sword at really fast rates of speed but nothing as fast as Karimov or Kopylova. I know myself. wear gloves after you earn your blisters....gloves help learning all the fun tricks!
• Don't set limits-especially time. The worst thing I've done to myself in learning this, is stopping when it's dark. Oddly, the one time I did the most amazing work, was at night and was hardly captured on film. 
• Think like a warrior-this was something that was told to me in Russia. Don't think of what you look like, but stop yourself in transitions with the sword and ask yourself"how did this provide function back then?". 
• Be fearless-I had to impromptu perform at the Russia House during Karimov's stay here. Not that I had to, but, it called me. I was told it was one of the most intense, and scariest things people had seen, because I was seemingly in a trance blazing through a crowded room, in heels and a dress. It's not on video anywhere,but...the story made it's way back to Russia, where I was quickly revered as a relentless and fearless warrior. If fear is holding you back during a public performance of any type...reevaluate that situation and work on it. Combatives requires a fearless approach, without self pity or worrying about who you are going to fight and that's exactly what sword work is like.

If you'd like more information on RMA sword work , visit our website at Cowboysandcossacks.com

We're on Facebook at Siberian Cossack Systema, Texas Siberian Cossack Systema and Cowboys and Cossacks.

Quick videos are on instagram @OliviaOverturf 

you can always email or message me at milosmami@yahoo.com. 

Go Train!