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Knife Defense

Vladimir Vasiliev

    This was the first tape put out by former Spetsnaz soldier and trainer Vladimir Vasiliev back in 1995.  Since then, Vladimir has gone on to make over a dozen other videos on the Russian martial art of Systema ("The System").  These have met with a some controversy, with people either really loving or hating them.  Some critics claim that his movements are nonsensical, and his credentials are fake; supporters feel that the style is highly effective and his credentials genuine.  Over no other martial artist's videos have I seen such diametrically opposed viewpoints, and any time his tapes are mentioned in a public forum you know there will be strong opinions both ways.

    I feel that in all of this, Vladimir has really gotten the short end of the stick, and that his incredible skill should be obvious to anyone with eyes to see!  I am not alone in feeling this way, and I know that many well respected martial arts experts such as James Keating, Brett Jacques, Matt Furey, and Oleg Taktarov feel the same way.  Vladimir's techniques are very different from what people expect, and his style has it's own way of moving.  His critics may not understand what he is doing, but they are wrong for thinking that since "they can not understand it, it must be bad".  As it is often said, "Don't judge another person's world by your own low standards."  When you see Vladimir and his students maneuvering at full speed against multiple armed opponents, in an unrehearsed situation, with the attackers falling and colliding, stabbing each other and so on, I think it should be obvious that it is both real and very high level.

    The tape starts with a number of historical film and television clips showing the Russian martial arts.  In these, we see A.A. Kadochikov, among others, teaching the russian military.  Footage of Spetsnaz troops is also shown, and we are treated to a number of techniques with the knife, bayonet, shovel, unarmed combat training.  (Again in response to critics, I would ask - if this is all fake, where was this footage shot?  Canada?)  Though the quality of the footage isn't the best, the technique is amazing, and the historical significance is not lost - it wasn't that long ago during the Cold war that this would have been footage seen in America  by only top level Pentagon guys, if at all.  On the historical side, you can see some of this historical film footage of A.A. Kadochnikov at his web site, which now has a large section in English and a dozen film clips to download.

    From here we get into the bulk of the tape, which is unarmed defense against knife attacks.  There are approximately 40 techniqes and variations, which Vladimir shows slow, in detail, and then at full speed.  These are broken down into defenses against different styles of attack (overhead stab, straight thrust, backhand stab, slashing, muggings, etc.) with brief clips of Vladimir's teacher Mykail interspersed between them.  There is a lot of information presented here in a very short time, and you will have much to practice if you take the time to break these down.  Several concepts central to this work are using relaxed flowing movement, sensitivity, striking / grappling integration, and blade reversals.  The voice overs throughout this section help to clearly explain what Vladimir is doing.

    The final section is a long montage showing disarming work against a host of other weapons, as well as unarmed combat, knife throwing, mass attacks and many other aspects of training in Systema.  This was all "live" footage of Vladimir and his students shot durring training and at public demonstrations.  Though it is not "instructional" footage exactly, it gives a lot of insight into their style of moving, and is just amazing at points.  You will want to have the remote handy to rewind the "greatest hits" as you go through this section.  Definately a lot you can scavange here if you take the time to really watch what's happening.