Martin Wheeler Groundwork Seminar - Saturday, March 12th, 2005

Martin Wheeler Groundwork Seminar - Saturday, March 12th, 2005

After introductions, Martin told us we have to get back to being as unafraid of the ground as children are, but that's it's difficult to lose the fear we've acquired because the ground is now so much farther away. It's hard, it hurts, and if you hit your head on it, you might just get knocked out or worse. He said that Systema's approach to ground fighting makes it different from many other martial arts, as well as from typical street fighting. He did a brief demo to show the difference between Systema and grappling. When you lock someone with your legs, you are locking yourself as well. In Systema, instead of maneuvering to lock the opponent in a motionless position, it's constant movement between the limbs.

To warm up we did some pushups, sit-ups, and squats. For the sit-ups, we alternated between holding the torso at 45 degree from the floor, and then the legs at 45, and then both off the floor&$151;very difficult. We also did the "Superman" exercise where you lay on your stomach, push the stomach out and lift the arms and legs off floor as if you are flying. Pushing the stomach out can be helpful for moving across the floor, as we found later with the "handcuffs" exercises. We also did this great stretch where you lay on your stomach, hands pointed downward to your feet, and bring one foot behind and over to the opposite hand&$151;it's a nice stretch for the hips, thighs, and shoulders.

To get comfortable moving across floor, we moved around on the stomach using just shoulders, and then our on backs using just shoulders. For the latter, Martin wanted us to isolate the rotation of the shoulder blades, not rock side to side from one shoulder to the other.

We practiced rolls for a good long while. Rolling forwards and backwards, rolling and changing direction mid-roll by moving across the shoulders. Rolling in a "handcuff" position with hands clasped behind the back. Martin explained that the "pinwheel" roll-in-place is useful, but he wanted us to learn to cover distance by rolling. He demonstrated by springing forward like a panther from a low crouching position and falling softly into a forward roll. His relationship with the ground is amazing to see. Martin is always graceful but his movements on the ground are especially soft and even carefree, if that makes any sense. It's kind of hard to explain but if you get a chance to train with Martin or even just to watch him, it's worth going out of your way to experience his phenomenal style.

To get us comfortable with covering distance, he had us spring forward and reach our arms out to catch ourselves as we fell. "Like diving into a pool," he said, demonstrating springing forward and down, not just straight down. I've always been afraid to dive into pools in this way, I just fall downwards into the water rather than springing up and down. I told Martin I was scared to do this, and he told me not to be. It's actually easier to spring up and forward, than just straight down, but I still found it hard to catch myself with my arms without collapsing. Then we were to spring forward and tuck into a roll, bending the knees in one direction or the other if necessary, but I just continued with springing forward to confront my fear without rushing.

My mom's rolls are nice and controlled, she can roll very, very slowly, but when my legs tip beyond a 90 degree angle to the floor, I lose control of the roll. Finally I learned why. Martin observed that I was rising my torso as my legs come down and told me to relax my back and keep my torso flat after rolling. He told us, "If you're rolling, you can't stop rolling," and demonstrated rolling across the floor like a ball. He explained that rising the torso can be useful if you need to stand right up again after the roll, but it can be limiting if you might need to change your direction or your movement mid-roll. Also keeping the torso flat after the roll helps to protect it from bullets or other dangers.

We also did some "duckwalking" exercises, walking around in a tight formation in the center. Also duckwalking and falling forward into rolls. Martin asked us to walk on our feet, not the balls, which is very hard for me. Once my knees are bent beyond 90 degrees, all bets are off!

We practiced backwards rolls. Martin demonstrated some escape artistry worthy of Houdini--how to free yourself if your hands are bound behind your back. He rolled backwards, and wiggled his hips through the imaginary constraints. Most of us struggled to do the same; my mom was one of the few people who seemed to have no trouble with this exercise. It takes patience to free yourself in this way, and so it's a slow rolling exercise, in addition to a "handcuffs" one.

We did this exercise where you do a forward roll starting flat on your back. You slide your foot towards your head as you lift your torso and kind of rock your hips forward, then into a forward roll. "Like someone is pulling a string," Martin said, pantomiming this as he and Edgar demonstrated. It's very difficult. I tucked my leg underneath instead of going right up on my foot, rolling on either side of my shin and rising on the other foot, allowing some room to bring the other leg at a less acute angle into a kind of catcher's crouch, to avoid the acute angles. Martin said that was fine and told us that it's just a matter of making things work for your own body, regardless of its physical restrictions.

We also did this exercise I found a little confusing. You start on all fours, swing one leg over, and then the other leg, round and around….kind of like the "star" exercise except you don't change your hand and opposite foot, you just flip the legs over and over. It's kind of like a breakdancing move. We also practiced rolling from side- to-side staying flat, starting on your stomach, "threading" one leg beneath the other in sort of a number 4 shape, rolling onto the back, then onto the stomach again by threading one leg beneath the other. We rolled from side-to-side with the arms clasped behind the neck as well as the arms extended over the head. We practiced leading the movement of the body by "tossing" the arm, starting on the back, and flinging the arm in a circle and rotating from back to stomach and back again.

My favorite set of exercises began with one person lying on their back, the other draped across. Every time the person on the bottom tries to get up, the one on top shifts their weight to prevent it. The goal is not for the person beneath you to get up, nor for you to pin him, but just to explore movement on the ground. If you are dynamically sensitive to the other person's movements, you can stop them from rising using only a few ounces of pressure. It's a sensitivity exercise. At a previous seminar I saw Martin prevent someone from rising using just a few fingers.

Next, the person lying on the bottom had to move around, and the person on the top allows the movement carry them along. Martin demonstrated, giving the illusion that he was about to be thrown off at any moment, yet always gliding effortlessly along on top of the other person. This was a fun exercise, probably a little harder for the person on the bottom, but again the goal was not to pin them, but to let them move and stay "afloat" on top of them.

We spent a few minutes on choking, just sitting on the floor. Martin demonstrated the windpipe choke and the artery choke. He told me either is extremely dangerous and can kill a person within seconds. We practiced choking each other a little, just to get a feel for it. Martin also showed us a vulnerable point on either side of the trachea, near where the jaw meets the neck, it's right behind the thyroid gland. A choke doesn't have to be a two-handed throttle. Martin showed us some other sensitive areas of the neck. He demonstrated on each of us how a hooking, squeezing or pinching motion with one hand is quite painful and alarming. Standing up, we practiced using this one-handed movement against a punch, rotating out, and stepping in to apply the choke. Done correctly, it drops you to the ground almost instantly. We also tried just hitting the sensitive parts of the neck with the side of the hand, with "heavy" hands kind of like judo chops, Martin explained.

Back down to the ground again, we rolled back and forth over our partners as they lack on their backs. My mom and I rolled over each other in four directions: starting parallel and rolling side to side each way as well as starting perpendicular and inching over on our backs or stomachs, and over again on our back. Then we did the same exercises with eyes closed. Also changing position while rolling over our partners, so that your head ended up where your feet were once you were on the other side.

We began to work with manipulating the arms to maneuver the person on the ground. We started by exploring the range of our partners' arms as we both lay side by side. I kind of enjoy this, because my shoulders are sometimes stiff, yet the joints have a wide range, so I'm afraid I treated it more as a passive stretching exercise for myself! Then we tried using the arm to gently roll our partners from stomach to back to stomach, etc. Next Martin had us lock our partner's arms as they moved to yield to it, and then they locked us in turn, back and forth, locking each other. "You can lock a person anywhere, not just the arm," said Martin. We also practiced manipulating the fingers to move our partners and locking each other in turn with the fingers. Then the same locking back and forth exercises in tight formation in the center, with eyes closed. I generally stay on the fringe of such exercises. I'm a little wary of entering the melee, but sometimes it's worse to stay on the edge because the flailing limbs are more dangerous!

We ended with some mass groundwork and and offensive chokes with eyes closed. First, rolling around and choking our partners in turn. Then, Martin told us to switch partners with our eyes closed. "Don't make friends, just find a new partner!" he said. He told us to work in groups of two or three. Switching partners is not something I do well even with my eyes open. I'm very timid about it. But I soon realized if I didn't attack the nearest body, I would miss out on some great training. So I began to choke someone but I felt a little hesitant about doing it with my eyes closed. I couldn't see if they were tapping out and I'm still unfamiliar with exactly how much pressure and how long it takes to kill someone in this fashion. Someone began to restrict my air flow, but he stopped before it became uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I took his finger and bent it backwards painfully until he yielded. It was kind of calculating and even a little spiteful of me. Because he choked me, I hurt him in return, until we sort of just drifted apart and began to attack other people.

Some tight holds and chokes do make me feel vulnerable, such as being choked in the mounted position. I find it better to keep moving before the person choking me gets a good grip. If I'm trapped, I want to make a space by inflicting a little sudden pain until I can move a limb to free myself. But I'm unwilling to hurt my partners until I can do so with some finesse. Like Martin said in the beginning, the ground is hard, it hurts, and it can even kill you. I would like to learn more about how to work when you can't move between the limbs, if you find yourself wrapped up like a Christmas present by a tight, painful hold. If I can't move out, I just start the exercise over. But sometimes there is another solution in the back of my mind. I like my classmates a lot and would never intentionally go for the groin, but there are a lot of times when I'm locked up tightly by a very strong person where it just seems to be the only way to freedom.

In Systema, controlling the other person is more important than just hurting them. Pain compliance can be a means of control, but some people will keep fighting even with such acute pain that any normal person would pass out or go into shock. It's hard to know the effect of the body's own chemicals during a conflict when all the instinctual senses are engaged. But if you can control the other person by being sensitive to their tension, their movements, and how your own movements will affect theirs, it's a more powerful psychological tool than merely inflicting pain.

On the ground, it's easy to get tricked into thinking that if you're on top, you're "winning." But as we saw with Martin's "tumbleweed" exercise where he lay atop the other person as they rolled around, carried along effortlessly by their motion, a situation on the ground can change instantly. I like this about ground fighting. It is never too late; there is no position where I feel as if I haven't a chance. Even pinning someone with your entire body weight isn't enough to neutralize the threat, if the person on the bottom is continuously moving. And you know what they say, "if you can breathe, you can move!"