Systema For Life

After a short break (and an extended, three-week road trip across the USA), we return this week with Menamy Mitanes - Systema and BJJ Instructor at The Academy Beverly Hills and Systema Los Angeles. In this, Menamy's second appearance on the podcast, we delve beyond his personal story and get into the core training philosophies of the martial arts - about which Menamy is more than qualified to speak. With a pedigree that includes JKD and FMA (under Dan Inosanto), BJJ (under Rigan Machado), and Systema (under Martin Wheeler and Vladimir Vasiliev), Menamy is a truly prolific student and teacher of the martial arts. 

For context, this interview followed a weekend seminar Menamy taught in Greenville, South Carolina, attended by Glenn and several of the NC Systema Crew. 

Here, we get into:

- core similarities (and differences) in approach: FMA, BJJ, and Systema 
- training for self defence versus training for competition
- the dangers of "faith in tradition" and of "go hard or go home" approaches
- why high-level external skill must (and can only) emerge from internal understanding 

Find out more about training with Menamy at www.systemalosangeles.com and www.theacademybeverlyhills.com, and follow Menamy on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SystemaLA

Mentioned in this episode:

Interview with George Saint-Pierre on the Lex Fridman podcast

4-day East Coast Masterclass NC, with Martin Wheeler (Oct 21-24, 2021)

This week, an engaging romp into the worlds of Systema, alternative medicine, and meta-cognition, with deep thinker, podcaster, martial artist, and Chinese medical practitioner Taran Rosenthal. Taran has an incredible breadth of knowledge - which is apparent to anyone who talks with him about anything - yet his experience of Systema profoundly influenced his experience of daily life and parenthood. Here, we riff on all that and more. Including: 

- Discovering Systema as a means of self-regulation and self-exploration
- Similarities and differences between Systema and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) philsoophy
- The assumptions of modern, western science and medicine
- Living in relationship to the world

If you enjoyed this, check out Taran's co-hosted podcast Apricot Jam, here: https://www.audible.com/pd/Podcast/B08K56GN39

This week, a mind-expanding walkabout through the realms of body, mind, and spirit, with Indigenous Australian author, scholar, arts critic, and martial artist Tyson Yunkaporta. Tyson is a Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Knowledge at Deakin University, and author of the extraordinary book Sand Talk: How Indigenous Knowledge Can Save the World. Originally aired on Tyson's own podcast, The Other Others, this episode delves into the confluence of Systema and Indigenous thinking, including:

Mind-blowing stuff, for those interested in such things.  For a better context and understanding of half the stuff we "yarn" about here, be sure to purchase Sand Talk in hardcopy or audiobook format (narrated by the author). For more mind-expanding (and unapologetically triggering) yarns, check out Tyson's own podcast, The Other Others, on Spotify.

This week, a conversation with health and wellness guru, Systema For Life regular, and possessor of relentlessly regular bowel movements. Here, we ponder the subject of self-talk, which one way or the other has become louder and more frequent over the last, lonely year. We're often told by therapists, leadership gurus, and cocky celebrities that self-talk is all-important - the difference between success and failure. But how important is self-talk, really? What role does it play in our health, our decisions, and our self-development?

Here, we discuss:

Follow Howie at plantyourself.com, and buy his book (co-authored with Josh Lajaunie) Sick to Fit, on Amazon.com.

This week, a light-hearted romp into the world of martial arts, mind, and creativity, with Systema Instructor and fiction author Patrick E. McLean. Patrick is an accomplished martial artist with a pedigree that includes Judo, Jujitsu, Eskrima, AikiJujitsu, and Systema. He is also the author of more than 10 dramatic-comedic fiction books, including the award-winning How To Succeed in Evil, and the host of the How It's Written podcast. 

Here, we talk about aspects of creativity in life, work, and training. Including:

Purchase Patrick's books on Amazon.com

How It's Written podcast

This week, a deep-dive into the myths, half-truths, and hard truths surrounding training for defence against edged weapons, with none other than Martin Wheeler - Senior Systema Instructor and Co-Founder of The Academy Beverly Hills.

Here, we seek to include a wide range of perspectives on knife defence, in order to dispel confusion, inform your practice, and make sense of the frequent (and predictable) objections that inevitably arise whenever anyone puts out a knife-defence video clip. The hope being that next time someone starts to argue about knife defence online, you can avoid the pointless back-and-forth, and steer them here for a full discussion.  

Included:

Mentioned in this episode: 

4-day East Coast Masterclass NC (October 21-24)

Live and Online Training with Martin at The Academy

This week, a ponderous diversion into the world of behavioural economics, with Economics Professor and Systema practitioner Rik Chakraborti.  At first glance, you might not think that economics and martial arts have much in common. But in truth, both involve the resolution of internal conflicts, warring instincts and incentives, and a keen understanding of human behaviour.   

Here, we get into:

Enjoy!

This episode sees the return of author, health and wellness coach, and host of the Plant Yourself podcast Howard Jacobson. Prompted by nothing and nobody in particular, we tackle the tricky subject of how not to be an a**hole - especially when you are trying to coach or change somebody for the better. Along the way, we touch upon:

Howie's new book - co-authored with Peter Bregman - will out later this year.

Mentioned in this episode: 

How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman-Barrett

The Bregman Leadership Podcast

This week, an interesting departure into the field of nutrition and metabolism, with Stanford-educated physician, metabolic health expert, and Co-founder / Chief Medical Officer of Levels Health, Dr Casey Means.

We know that diet, nutrition, and metabolism are critically important to overall health, regardless of other behaviours and considerations in life. As it has been said - you can't out-exercise a bad diet. You can't out-relax or out-meditate it, either. But given that there is such a glut of information out there on diet, nutrition, and metabolism, it can be hard to know who to believe, which metrics to trust, where to focus for the optimal result. 

Enter Casey Means and Levels - a unique biodfeedback system that measures real-time blood glucose levels in order to help you make connections between your lifestyle choices, your unique metabolism, and your overall health.  Here, we get into:

Find out more about Levels - and read high-quality scientific articles on metabolic health - here: https://www.levelshealth.com/blog
Follow Dr Casey Means on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcaseyskitchen/?hl=en

This week sees the joyous return of veteran instructor, founder of Austin Systema & Tai Chi, and thoroughly decent human being, Gene Smithson.  Always an elightening guest, here Gene shares his insights on:

Train with Gene at https://www.austinsystema.com, and buy his execellent books and e-books Shot: Healing Hurt, BreathWork and Simple (Not Easy) on Amazon, here