Michael then moved onto the main focus of the seminar which was punching. We practiced numerous drills to improve precision of placement and our method of delivering the punches. It is safe to say that precision is crucial to Systema. Simply waving your arms around wildly or hitting blindly are never going to bring reliable results. When Michael pushes or hits you with his fists he catches you movement and redirects it in a different angle so that there is no resistance.

To learn to align our fists correctly we spent 5 minutes at a time stood on our fists in the press up position and had to walk up and down the walls on our fists. By relaxing the muscles that we did not need for these exercises our fists soon became heavy and full.

Later that evening we were driven by Michael across Moscow for a small class attended by his advance students. These included several Spetsnaz officers including Sergie Oschereljew. Sergie took us for a warm up that included rolling along and crawling over benches in various directions. We were then shown how to fall into a wall if pushed so that we remained relaxed and received the wall across our whole back. Michael then demonstrated using precise pressure to various points to effect someone’s balance. He did this whilst balanced precariously on two benches that had ne stood on top of each other. The reason for this was to remove the possibility of pushing using support on the floor. Michael then moved onto connecting these points to effect balance using the lightest of pressure.

This session was followed by Michael taking us to dinner before returning us to our hotel.

The next day we returned to punching and taking strikes onto the body. The warm up was taken by Valentine who was introduced as one of Michael’s oldest students. Valentine started to train at about the same time as Vladimir Vasiliev. He used to be a boxer who used a gym that Michael was teaching in. Being unconvinced of what Michael was teaching he decided to challenge him to a fight. In his own words he woke up on the floor having been there for some time. He was very confused by this because he could not feel any pain from being hit.

Valentine started to train with Michael. The hardest thing he found in what Michael wanted was to be a good person. After a year he was still not convinced and challenged Michael again. This time he was beaten so badly he simply wanted to go home. Michael refused to allow this and told him he had to stay or he might die. After treating him with a special tea and some massage Michael explained there was only good and bad and that Valentine needed to make his choice. To this day he studies with Michael.