What's New - Timeline - Articles - Techniques - Catalog - Seminars - Links - Contact Us
Introduction to Authentic Russian Martial Art
Russian Native System of Self Defense
General Alexander Retuinskih
This tape is a live seminar shot in 1998 during General Retuinskih's first visit to America, edited down to an intensive 90 minutes; showing many aspects of the ROSS Training System. Speaking in Russian and having his instructions translated by Mr. Scott Fabel, Gen. Retuinskih sets straight to work; showing clearly the basic training of the Russian native style. Mr. Scott Sonnon, the head of the American Annex of ROSS, serves as a most pliable and expressive uke throughout the tape.
The tape starts with some basic breathing and warm-up techniques from the "Cossack Squat" position. The use for these becomes apparent as we are introduced to a series of falling, rolling, and ground mobility exercises. These drills are designed to help you relax and flow on the ground and when going from the ground to standing or vica-versa. Starting from a simple front fall, General Retuinskih adds complexity to the movements until he is showing full leaping rolls and high impact falls effortlessly. This section will take a bit of practice time, but even if "you know how to fall" from other training - have another look, and work through the drills. This is a far cry from the "slap the mat" falls! After showing the basics of How to move, General Retuinskih shows how these apply to combat.
Starting from basic body holds, throwing applications for the falls are taught, and those falling skills are seen in action! The simplicity of so many of these tactics will surprise you, but their effect is undeniable. This is combined with a study of the principle based joint locking used in ROSS. The flow is never ending, and locks lead to throws to strikes and so on, with no break in the action.
Techniques drawn from Russian folk dances are taught, and then applied in defense of punches, kicks, and grapples. Techniques such as "Playing the Accordion" are so natural to the body's motion that they are easily learned; training is more about learning when and how to use them, not worrying about "how to do the move right." Again, the transition between stand up and ground fighting is blurred and seamless applications are shown.
The last section os a long montage of weapons fighting and disarming. Defense against knife, stick, shovel, staff, firearms, and more are shown, accompanied by a soundtrack of Russian traditional music. This will give you an idea of how these same technique have parallels with the weapons. If you like to scavenge every technique (as I know you do) you'll go through this section a bunch! As always, look more to the principles than to the "technique", which is a byproduct.
For More Information, Please Visit:
Trivia Note: For those of you who follow all the pay-per-view extreme, and ultimate fights - do you remember that one shot tournament early on where they pitted a bunch of American Special Forces against a group of Russian Spetsnaz in rough "boxing style" fights? General Retuinskih was there in the Russian's corner, and directly from the arena got into the car with the two Scotts, and they drove to the seminar seen on the tape - some 14 hours away, getting only a few hours of sleep. Knowing this, to me, makes their performance on the video even more impressive, and shows the real use of Efficiency central to the Russian style.