Islamic Republic of Iran: Maziar Kebat (مازیار کتابت) Chen Style Taijiquan Practice in the Southwest Fars Province! (18.6.2023)

The setting is beautiful as is the high quality of the martial technique! I suspect that we may assume from this that ‘Taijiquan’ is considered ‘Halal’ within the faith of Islam – a fact which grants the practitioners a certain enhanced ‘virtue’. In China, Islam (and Muslims) are greatly respected for a) their spiritual purity and b) their martial integrity! Good to see Taijiquan in Iran and the people united in practice!

Email: Socialist Martial Arts – ‘Systema’ (система)! (8.6.2022)

The cultural and religious baggage within Asian cultures generally means that it takes decades to finally arrive at the ability that Systema teaches from the first day of training (and only then, if the practitioner of the Asian arts has found a competent Master). This signifies the ‘Socialist’ egalitarian nature of ‘Systema’ where there were no coloured belts representing a fascistic and hierarchical grading system – as is common within Japanese culture. In the original Soviet – (and now ‘Russian’) – martial system (Systema), the highest form of inner and outer awareness, body-alignment, organisation and movement, as well as advanced technical manifestation – is taught first without any hesitation, whilst an individual’s psychological and emotional (spiritual) understanding of what a practitioner is physically experiencing has to catch-up over the many years of training.