Quote Originally Posted by it-ogo
AFAIK what soldiers are usually taught is neither art nor philosophy. There are several standard situations in close-handed fight (like attack from behind, release from the neck-lock etc.) so for each one such situation a soldier is taught only one trick. In training he repeats and repeats and repeats this trick until it becomes completely automatic. That is all. No dancing, no improvisation, no meditation. But each soldier should have his own series of tricks so enemy does not know what exactly to expect from the randomly selected soldier.

The usual fight in the battlefield consists of one trick from each of the adversaries. And those whose trick is more successfull survives.
what does AFAIK mean?

anways systema is not designed so that if A happens do B and if B happens do C- because nothing ever happens like that. systema teaches you to use your environment to your best advantage, to be fearless, to die, to kill, how to take control of the situation in the most economic and efficient way possible. systema in its purest form is designed for professional soldiers, because in reality- all martial arts developed from warrior societys- in times of war and conflict, martial arts were designed for the warrior- not the monk, today people do it for meditation, relaxtion, excersize- true martial arts are designed for the warrior, true martial arts are intended to be used, martial arts were birthed from war, true martial arts thrive in war. do things without emotional attachement. systema imo actually embodies asian philosophy more than asian martial arts do- at least in my experience. but hey- what the hell do i know.