I have been involved with training in various martial arts and other combative skills and sports for almost 55 years. From that, I was awarded three black belts, two in karate styles. This also included quite a number of years traveling to Russia for instruction in combat and sport SAMBO, Rukopashnii Boi (RB) and Systema, which all began in 1993. RB and Sambo are excellent systems of fighting. Yet the ancient Slavic martial art of Systema goes back more than 1,000 years. I present its origins, history and development, all the way up to it becoming a premier hand-to-hand combat system used by the most elite of the Soviet and Russian Spetsnaz (Special Forces) in my book 1500 Years of Fighting: The Complete Book of Russian, Ukrainian and Soviet Martial Arts from Cossacks to Spetsnaz and Beyond. Systema was designed to help everyone from villagers and peasants to the famed paramilitary warriors known as the Cossacks fend off a never-ending succession of invaders of the Ukrainian and Russian landmass, each of which came with their own weapons and styles of fighting. Systema is the Russian and Ukrainian word for “system”. Systema is not just a system of combat skills and tactics. “Systema” implies that it is a complete system of combat (with and without weapons), survival skills, wilderness tradecraft and stealth, but also spirituality, connection with God, kindness, compassion, health from a holistic approach, nutrition, relaxation and natural medicine. A significant aspect of that is its peerless training in breathing.

Famed Systema master, the late Spetsnaz colonel, Mikhail Ryabko, always said that much is made of the miracles of birth and sight. But the real miracle is breathing and, through breathing, the creation and sustaining of life. No other miracle would exist but for the miracle of breath. Breath work is found in many sports and all martial arts. It is certainly a foundation of Buddhist meditation. While intense and challenging work, that only sees the practitioner disciplining his breathing through a body that still, allowing great focus. Most of the breathing work done in athletic activities sees the person conditioning his body to always move in fixed and structured ways in tandem with the breath. You see this with everything from weightlifters to boxers who can only punch on a sharp exhale. But if circumstances change, or an injury occurs, the breathing is disrupted and performance fails. Often the brain ceases to apply its training in breathing. In life-threatening events such as military combat, being criminally assaulted or trapped in a car after a collision, circumstances completely disrupt breathing and panic sets in, further endangering the person physically and psychologically. Systema goes beyond the breath work of other disciplines and trains everyone in how to breathe (it’s amazing how many people do not know), how to alter your breathing based on circumstances, how to breathe through pain and fear, how to recover your breathing in the short term, and regain your health in the long term. It is especially important in using breathing to recover from injury and illness.

Most instructors do not teach from a position of experience. They merely parrot what they were taught by others, who also never experienced the most intense and threatening circumstances that proper breathing can get you through. Manny Rodriquez is not one of those instructors. An American army combat vet from the Iraq War, Manny suffered indescribable, debilitating and life-threatening wounds from battle, including being blown up by an IED. He spent 18 years undergoing surgeries, rehabilitation, therapy in all its forms, relearning to walk, talk, think and function. Toward the end of that period, he met and began to train with Systema instructor Bruce Rewerts who not only helped Manny relearn to function through the physical aspects of the martial art but also the psychological and spiritual aspects. Chief among them was learning to breathe and, through breathing, recover his body, his mind and his life. Manny credits Systema, especially its breathing work, with being the catalyst that finally allowed him to return to normal life. He says, “Systema and its breathing work saved me.”

Taking all of his experiences, and working intensely along with Bruce to further research all of the available information and studies on breathing, the two have created a peerless and unprecedented training called Tactical Calm. This program has already helped many police, fire/rescue professionals and military servicemen and women. However, it is not just for them. In today’s society, we live everyday confronted with stresses, problems, frustrations and aggression that still see our bodies and brains react through explosions of adrenaline, chemicals, hormones and fear, just as our ancient ancestors did when confronted with an actual life threat. And we experience these things more in a day than our ancestors ever did. Tactical Calm can help anyone deal with the stresses of our complex, modern existence in ways that psychotherapy and medications never can. Manny is proof of this, and in developing a program to heal himself, he can do the same for anyone.