R.O.S.S.

[kamahlthedruid]

Does anyone here know any R.O.S.S. instructors in San Diego. I want to check out this system someday.

[Kuma]

You just started Systema, I'd wait a good while before trying something else.

[kamahlthedruid]

Scott Sonnon said that psychic non contact fighting only works on compliant partners. I don't think non contact fighting makes an art more marketable because it is too unbelievable. I read about R.O.S.S. and the style is less aggressive in the beginning phases of training and less technique based than systema; however, the style also has sambo influences because their is gi and no gi grappling.

[JusticeZero]

I'm just going to repeat Kuma here and say 'Just train what you're working on now, for now'.

[kamahlthedruid]

I will stick with systema, but systema masters also demonstrate non contact fighting. I believe that the art I am learning is legitimate, but I hate the fact that systema is tied to mystical nonsense.

[Wastelander]

I will stick with systema, but systema masters also demonstrate non contact fighting. I believe that the art I am learning is legitimate, but I hate the fact that systema is tied to mystical nonsense.

It sounds like your Systema instructor sticks to realism and as long as you make it clear that you want realistic training he will probably give that to you--just because you are training in an art that contains "mystical nonsense" in some branches doesn't mean you have to believe it or practice it. Karate includes concepts of ki meridians and I don't believe in that beyond the basics of how nerves work, and it doesn't change the fact that I learn how to defend myself effectively.

[kamahlthedruid]

I don't know if hypnosis is real or fake but it is suppose to be similar to systema no contact fighting according to this blog. http://montrealsystema.blogspot.com/2009/04/10-common-misconceptions-about-russian.html

[JusticeZero]

OK, your art contains some hypnotism oddness in it and christian symbolism somewhere. My art contains in it a mixture of Catholic and Yoruba (mostly Yoruba) philosophy about inverting the world, the african pantheon in place from there jumbled up with the Catholic saints, protective charms, a mythic wuxia-like figure said to be invulnerable to bullets, and a variety of quirky oddness fueled by nationalism, racism (in both directions), machismo, and general cultural confusion.

If it makes me scratch my head and tilt it oddly, I often end up having to simply accept that a lot of the people who came before me were in to a lot of odd things for various reasons I cannot begin to guess at, and those things are still in the art they taught that my teachers are trying to faithfully pass on to me.

Nobody expects me to go to a priest of a religion alien to me to get a patua like Lil' Ze in City of God. But that sort of thing probably happened with someone back when, and in the attempt to faithfully pass on the art, it got forwarded to me. And I forward it to my students, as context and maybe there's some wisdom or knowledge or inspiration they can pull from it.

I am told that there is a master of some lineage of my art, somewhere in the U.S., who converted in a big way to Hare Krishna. (Reportedly, they had a large roda at a Burning man festival that they, along with a college colleague of mine, were at. I was not there, and cannot speak to any details.) He proceeded to merge his interpretation of the art with his beliefs, and teaches it that way; I am told but cannot verify that he only accepts Hare Krishna as students, and that his skills are enough that people have done so in order to learn from him. (This amuses my gamer friends to no end, given that it makes their flower-selling monkish image in their minds' eye take on a wierdly shao-lin-esque image.)

If one of his students reaches a level of teacher, then breaks from their religion, their lineage will still be heavily tinged with Krishna. It wasn't before, but now it is. Their students will frame things in ways that ring of Krishna thought. They will do this even if they have never been a member of that religion. It has tinged their teaching, and it is easier to pass on the tinged material, openly acknowledging the flavoring, than to try to exorcize the influences, hoping that they are not cutting away valuable insights. As such, even if they haven't the slightest bit of Hare Krishna leanings, they would still be teaching 'They do this because of the Krishna principle of blah blah blah..' because that's how it was taught to them, and that teacher may not feel confident in their ability to eviscerate their own art just to purge the Krishna philosophical references, and not lose things in translation.

And then someone will come along and look askance at the teacher and go "...But you teach Hare Krishna with your martial art, and I don't believe in that." What's the poor non-Krishna teacher from the Krishna lineage to do? Shrug a lot, mostly.

Don't obsess too much over what might tinge the style's roots, worry about whether the stuff works and is solid and testable.

[luca61]

Scott Sonnon said that psychic non contact fighting only works on compliant partners. I don't think non contact fighting makes an art more marketable because it is too unbelievable. I read about R.O.S.S. and the style is less aggressive in the beginning phases of training and less technique based than systema; however, the style also has sambo influences because their is gi and no gi grappling.

Psychic non contact fighting? Is this a joke.

[kamahlthedruid]

My instructor said that non contact fighting is advance systema and he has no idea how it works.