Hi Andy
It's a fair question, Systema isn't a magic bullet and nees to be trained correctly. Getting good at a drill is not the same as getting good at real life
http://robpoyton.blogspot.com/2011/11/whats-point.htmlAs far as resistance goes - almost all the material the top guys put out is instructional, they are putting something across rather than demonstrating a fight. The uke thing doesn't really fly for me, it isn't as passive as the Japanese approach, as often the biggest lesson is being learnt by the partner, not the people watching. I guess that's something that's clearer if you work with VV and co.
Interms of working with the main teachers I've never heard anyone say "you can't do that". They may sometimes slow a person down to either clearly show something or if they are worried the person may get hurt. They are also happy to ramp things up to whatever level you want to work at, in fact some of the pressure training is based around that (what VV calls cracking the shell without damaging the inside)
This is the problem with resistance - when you are working with another person's tension, people can injure themselves. I've experienced it myself even in "friendly" sparring where the other person goesin hard and doesn't know how to deal with the force that comes back (another Taiji parralel?). So a lot of times people are being soft to protect themselves. Again it can be difficult to see that until you are in the situation
That's why I put up the link to my Youtube channel, there's a range of work across the board, from exercise and soft work to some of the pressure and resistance work. You won't see much in the way of sports-based sparring, as that is not the goal oof the work. We usually work goal-based or problem solving sparring drills to try and keep things in context. Safety is always a concern, balancing the two can be difficult, there's nothing tough about busting each other up for the sake of it.
Outside of training some of my guys are quite active, in one form or another and to a man they have not found real resistance or aggression a problem. Anecdotal I know, but that's the feedback that comes in
It's interesting to me that you have two guys in VV and MR who are, to many people, amongst the leading martial artists of their generation, who are completely accesible, who are totally open to any type of hands-on work you want to put to them and who have a wealth of practical and operational knowledge that they can and will share - yet some people won't go near them. They do challenge some so-called conventional MA thinking and most of all they will make you challenge your own views along with theirs, that's part of the fun
