The 1st European Summer Camp Experience

On the 4th September 2005 my students Vinny, Iain and myself arrived at Altenburg airport, East Germany, for what was going to be one of the most demanding weeks of Systema training I had experienced.

The layout of the airport did nothing to hide it’s previous role as a Soviet Mig fighter base. Apart from the control tower and the very small wooden building that served as the departure and arrivals for the one flight a day the only other structures were the numerous camouflaged bunkers that used to house the aircraft of the Russian Air force.

Our next objective was to meet students of Andreas Weitzel in the city of Erfurt. The train service was reliable and cheep and soon had us at our destination. From there we were taken for a drive to the camp which was situated in the heart of a forest and over 100km from Erfurt.

For those who have never met Andreas he is the instructor of the Augsburg Systema school and student of Michael Ryabko. Through his school he organises regular seminars with the top Russian Instructors. For this event he had arranged a residential camp taught by Sergej Oschereljew, a member of the Russian Spetsnaz and one of the top students of Michael Ryabko.

We arrived in time for a welcome feast. This was my
first experience of German cooking which was very
delicious and wholesome. If was also the first opportunity
to meet Andreas and the other 15 students who were
taking part in the seminar. Most were from Andreas’
class in Augsburg, the rest came from mainland Europe. Having feasted the students settled into small cabins which would be home for the rest of the week and had time to explore the site and surrounding forest.

Day 1

At 0930 Hours the next morning we assembled on a field at the far end of the campsite. After a warm up consisting of press ups, squats s and leg raises we formed up in two lines and marched up a track into the forest. Periodically Sergej would halt our progress for more exercises, then continue our march into the unknown. We would have to run up steep slopes or walk in a crouched position, whilst tensing different body parts. No matter what the exercise our focus was alway on our breathing. Sergej was fond of saying, “No matter what happens to you just breath.”