RMA Systema Bonn e.V.

Ask Norbert August

This is the last week of our special month. Last week and this week, we have explored "grabbing". Here is the video from the class, and the insight from Norbert!

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Allowing oneself to be held means accepting the inevitable

Many martial arts focus on defending against grabs or preventing throws. It is often suggested that, with sufficient vigilance, one can prevent a potential attacker from even initiating a grab.
In the real world, however, this is a dangerous misconception. No one—not even the most skilled martial artist—can maintain a level of alertness that allows for the advance detection of every potential attacker or the pre-emptive defense against every sudden assault. On the contrary, attempting to maintain such constant vigilance and a state of high alert will almost certainly take a toll on one’s mental health.
In Systema, however, personal health and well-being are paramount; therefore, constant vigilance aimed at preventing a physical attack is not the solution.
The solution lies instead in becoming aware of one’s own flaws and limitations, accepting them, and using training to mitigate their consequences.
A classic example is dealing with grabs. One might argue that if one is sufficiently alert, an attacker would be unable to launch such an attack without being detected and stopped beforehand.
Consequently, some systems avoid allowing such attacks to occur at all, focusing instead on thwarting them in their very early stages.
Conversely, other systems only begin their defense after the grab or throw technique has already been applied.
In a real-world self-defense scenario, however, both approaches are undoubtedly necessary.
Since I generally cannot know how an attack will unfold, who is involved, or what my own mental and physical state will be as the victim, I have very little opportunity to influence the situation beforehand.
In other words, my training and preparation for such scenarios must address the full range of potential developments.
This involves, in particular, accepting that an attack—such as a grab, a chokehold, or an attempted throw—might occur without me being able to spot or prevent it beforehand. Consequently, my training must address the consequences of the opponent's actions; above all, I must accept the reality that such an attack can happen.
In this sense, working with holds is essentially a matter of working on one’s own mindset—preparing oneself for the possibility of such an event and learning how to handle it. One should also avoid underestimating these types of attacks. There are attackers—such as trained wrestlers or judoka—who specialize almost exclusively in this style of combat and are highly proficient at it.
Furthermore, there are individuals who have previously been victims of violence and consequently face significant psychological challenges in similar situations (for example, a woman with a history of abuse who must come to terms with the fact that a similar attack could happen again). Over the past two weeks, we have focused specifically on these issues during training and sought to find answers. The video offers a brief glimpse into our work…

The video from the class this week.
Ask Norbert, and here is the insight from him.

- Tunnel-vision -

Many people have encountered it—often without realizing it—when finding themselves in a situation they perceived as dangerous or chaotic. This phenomenon is known as "tunnel vision," a mechanism that likely served as a tool for early humans to detect threats during the dawn of our species.
In the face of imminent danger, tunnel vision compels a person to focus their sensory input almost entirely on the identified source of the threat; essentially, the body’s sensory organs—particularly the eyes and ears—lock onto what appears to be the most significant danger. While this ability was highly advantageous in the relatively straightforward environment of prehistoric times—where threats (such as wild animals) were clearly defined—it often acts as a hindrance rather than a help when it comes to identifying or dealing with dangers in our complex modern world.
Threats today are no longer limited to a single saber-toothed tiger; in our urban environments, which are saturated with sensory stimuli and complex threat scenarios, the danger our system prioritizes—and consequently focuses on via tunnel vision—is often not the greatest (or only) threat present during a conflict. For instance, one might spot and fixate on an active assailant wielding a club or a knife, yet fail to notice two other individuals standing slightly to the side—individuals who could well be accomplices to the attacker.
Therefore, it is crucial for professionals who deal with hazardous situations—such as military and police personnel, as well as firefighters and emergency responders—to break free from this "tunnel vision" when confronted with a potential threat. Naturally, the same applies to ordinary citizens who are about to become victims of an unlawful attack or who witness one involving others without being directly involved themselves.
This specific scenario was among the topics we addressed in our training this week.
The focus was on helping trainees "break the tunnel" of their perception.
To achieve this, we conducted short role-playing exercises featuring changing scenarios; participants had only a very brief window (approximately five seconds) to assess the situation and were required to report their observations once the scenario concluded.
Exercises like these compel participants to rapidly gain a comprehensive overview of the situation, as focusing solely on the primary action (tunnel vision) often causes them to overlook other critical details—such as the presence of a second, armed individual nearby.
With the help of such exercises, trainees can learn to gain a general overview of the situation at hand and avoid falling into the dangerous state of tunnel vision in the first place.
The videos provide a brief glimpse into the exercises we conducted.

Since August is a bit quiet month at Systema Bonn, we have decided to have “Ask Norbert August”. We can bring our questions, themes we would like to cover, also the materials we see online, so on.
This week, we asked Norbert “searching for the tension, and destabilisation”

Here is insight from Norbert after the class.

Participant question: How do you influence the "form" of the person you are interacting with?

When watching videos of Mikhail — or having learned from him personally—one frequently observes that he could throw attacker off balance and bring them down seemingly without effort, using movements that were often imperceptible, almost as if by magic.

No one argued more vehemently against the idea that this was "magic" than Mikhail himself; he never ceased to emphasise that everything he did consisted of natural movements — albeit movements executed at a level of perfection.
It is therefore beneficial to study the concept of breaking an opponent's balance—or, more accurately, influencing their "form"—to gain control over the situation.
It is not without reason that "form" is one of the fundamental principles of Systema; mastering and understanding it is essential for surviving a real-world confrontation.

Influencing an attacker's balance—and thus their form—does not involve the use of brute force. Instead, it relies on a subtle interplay between analysing tension in the attacker’s body and executing an extremely precise change of direction—one that often goes unnoticed by the attacker. The key lies in the subtlety of this influence; the attacker does not perceive it as a threat.

Changes in direction are often initiated via the fingers, moving in multiple directions
simultaneously (for example, laterally combined with upward or downward motion). This makes it difficult for the attacker to pinpoint a specific direction or to offer resistance against the movement.
During training, it is important to start slowly, ideally with a partner who offers no initial resistance. One must learn which simultaneous directional movements are required to effectively disrupt the opponent's form. Later, this can be practiced against an opponent who is actively resisting; by bypassing the line of force created by their tension, one can actually turn that force to one's own advantage. The videos offer a few glimpses into our training, addressing a participant's question about influencing the other person's form and how to go about it.