Taking strikes to the body is more than just a physical task. Both being hit and being the person doing the punches has it’s own emotional baggage to deal with. Believe it or not most people are frightened of hitting other people. Some of this comes from the way they have been brought up and the rest is the fear of what will happen if they do hit someone.

By practicing punching each other we get to learn that being hit is not the end of the world and in some cases can be the start of some very interesting and effective work that uses the force of the hit to generate your own response. Even people who train in so called full contact styles use protective padding or gloves. This means they are unlikely to know how they will react when the gloves are off and there is no rules or referees.

Rolling also gives us a chance to train efficiently and test our skills for real. How many martial arts train on mats. Not only do they prevent your body from becoming soft enough to roll correctly on hard floors it is building in a psychological weakness. A the first point the student taught on mats stumbles or falls on concrete he is likely to tense or hesitate causing injury. For someone who studies Systema it is only another roll.

Practice working against an opponent while a second one immobilises an arm or leg. Not only does this put us under pressure it gives us a chance to think and move more creatively. Pushing the boundaries of what we thought possible.

Knife defence is another area where correct training puts the student under immense pressure. The first thing to understand that for training it is best to use a real though slightly blunted knife. The reason for this is because it has a very different feel and effect on the body, that a rubber or wooden knife could not reproduce. Without experience of this we are likely to freeze once an attacker brings out a real knife. This is because it would be too far out of our range of experience that we would have to take time to come to terms with it. A friend of mine who took a knife off a real attacker commented how similar to training it was simply because he had learnt against the real thing.

This system trains the way it does for a reason. This is because it produces the skills and qualities in an individual that are necessary for survival. Testing our boundaries are important for this development, but are tools to get us there and not the pinnacle of what we aspire to become. With a competent instructor students will constantly the find their boundaries being tested and expanded.