Vladimir Vasiliev – Mikhail Ryabko
Systema DVDs & Books

This is an excellent book, with much more to offer than what one might think they are going to find in a book on martial arts. The first thing is Systema is not so much a "system" of doing things in a set way as much as it is a path to showing you the way to find what works for you. I will have different abilities than others, less than many, more than a few. Systema helps each person reach their potential and find the things that works for them. That being said there are some things that apply to all, such as breathing, intuition, fear, moral codes and many other things. This book is greater than just that. The wisdom contained in this book applies to dealing with life, on life's terms. Many aspects of this book are about getting through life with dignity, grace, courage and valor. And being at peace with yourself and within yourself. I plan to re-read several portions of this book and am planning to get a couple copies as gifts for friends. No, they don't study the martial arts, but when I read certain parts it stuck me how helpful this part would be for one person, and another part for the other. I have no doubt while they may not devour the whole book like I did, they will appreciate the information and wisdom. The book itself is very readable, and once started, hard to put down.I think this book would be of benefit to most anyone, I think different parts will speak to different people, but everyone could benefit. I hope you enjoy and gain from it as much as I, and the other reviewers have.

Do yourself a favor. This book, and it's companion volume, Systema Health: 25 Practises For A Lifetime Of Health, Fitness & Wellbeing, BELONG together. You might as well purchase them both at the same time. The 25 drills of one book support the 25 practices of the other, and vice versa. As a practitioner of Systema myself, I found both of these to very helpful. I like the idea of working on drills, from basic to advanced, keeping in mind that we should never really "outgrow" the basics. Matt does a great job of reminding the reader of that dictum. I like his teachings so much that I bought the Kindle versions of these books so I can more easily carry both books with me when I travel. I refer to them often, and I suggest that you will, too.

First of all before you decide to buy this book you need to understand (in my opinion) it's not for beginners, not for someone who never had contact with Systema, but rather for people who have some experience and/or like to become instructors. I'm not sure if this was the idea behind the book, but having some experience would definitely help, as some basic concepts are not explained in this book.

Also, you have to understand, Systema is not for everyone. You need to be open minded. Get rid of your pride, ego, ambition and prejudice. The aim of Systema is not to be the best competition fighter that ever walk the earth, but to become as good person as possible. To discover yourself. To get to know yourself and overcome your shortcomings.

By no means, don't get me wrong. It is a fantastic supplement to your training. Full of great drills. How to structure training on different levels of progression. How to work with different kinds of people, how to help them to overcome their fears. Full of advice on how to understand and correct most common mistakes. Exercises that will help you develop necessary skills.

Really great element of this book, is part, in which Dr Komarov explains how to learn from training videos. He also puts great emphasis on "following the right path", in which I completely agree with him. You can do a lot of work by yourself, but being able to attend seminars, camps and workshops with qualified and experienced instructors, training with different people, is crucial in making sure we are going in the right direction.

Don't get put off by negative reviews of this book made by people who clearly have no idea what this book is about. Reviews made by people who think Systema is like Krav Maga and this book will teach them secret techniques 😉 Once you see the contents, you will realise, there is no pictures or drawings just solid and competent source of information.

This is not a book you read once, it is a book you keep coming back to. Every time learning something new.

This is my 3rd purchase of a Systema product and they are yet to let me down. This DVD is extremely informative and easy to follow, even though the people in it are experts i certainly got something out of it. All in all an excellent product and i will be buying more.

I've read just about every book published in English on the full range of lines of Russian martial art. Matt Hill's "Living Systema" ranks with the finest material published by any of the schools, not just the Ryabko/Vasiliev line. The clarity of the writing, the simplicity and directness of the demonstrations and explanations, and the comprehensive application of these sustainable practices underscore the vital lesson that we are born to move. I've spent decades rehabilitating from spinal injuries only to find myself battling the inevitable depredations of aging. Or are pain and arthritis and increasingly limited mobility actually so inevitable? The message of this book by a skilled self-defense instructor is that we can enjoy a higher level of sound health and vigor as we get older than the conventional wisdom born of our couch-entombed culture suggests. Self-defense begins by taking care of our own health. Thanks, Matt.---Contents: The difference between 'Living' and 'Exercising.' What are you training/getting fit for? The dangers of overtraining. The floor (is your friend). Integrating movement, breath and posture into EVERYDAY LIFE: Strength--your basic requirements. Look no hands! Squat don't bend. Sit on the bones. The daily constitutional (walk as you were born to). Get down! The 10 natural sitting positions challenge. Posture checks. Elbows off the table. Stair crawls. BREATHE: Release with your breath. Cold shower burst breathing. Breathe then move. BALANCE: Ablutions on one leg. Use your feet. Put your shoes and socks on while standing up. TENSION: Tension awareness. Tension and relaxation before sleep. Continual small adjustments. Cultivate a playful attitude. AWARENESS: 10 games to train awareness. ANNEXES: Are human beings compatible with 21st century living? Daily non-negotiable. Benefits of nasal breathing and breath ladders.—-VIDEO SUPPLEMENT: there is a link to (free) videos demonstrating the exercises and movements that are described in the book. These are concise, clear and helpful illustrations complementing the text very well.

This is a great book on Systema. Interviewing some of the great people in the art.

Creative, interesting stories from Systema. Very inspiring. Not a "how to book" but one that helps with life through Systema training.

A truly comprehensive guide to the reality of the blade! Edge is a combination of years of practical experience and knowledge, presented in terms and skill development methods that will prepare you for dangerous events. An excellent addition to any library on combatives and fighting, this will enhance skills for not only professionals but the average person as well!

This book...was incredible. I would recommend it to any serious martial artist, simply for the passages on combat mindset alone.

I felt like this book kept my eyebrows raised the entire time I read. Sometimes my thought was, "What a brilliant way to put this complex concept I've struggled with!" Many times it was, "Wow. I....have to make a note of this, right now." And occasionally it was, "Goodness gracious, those Systema people are hardcore."

This 300 page book took me six weeks to read, and I was reading diligently. This is because I have page after page of notes, and frequently stopped to reread a passage, or stare off into space and consider, or go back to my own practice and see how I had been doing things and where the gaps lay.

As the title says, it's about striking. How to hit. But to get there, Mr. Vasiliev and Mr. Meredith discuss:
-- How to maintain awareness in combat
-- How to free your body, so that it can make multiple strikes and adjust to openings and adverse situations (such as being grabbed, surrounded, or injured)
--How to learn to keep a cool heart in the heat of the moment
-- How to give all the damage to your opponent when you strike, instead of splitting it 70% - 30% with them
-- How to learn to stop being afraid of getting hit, losing, etc.
--How to breathe calmly and well while going through crazy situations
--How to have a relaxed, powerful, responsive body
--How to take a hit

They give drills to get you there (crazy, hardcore Systema drills).
This is one of those books that I will certainly reread. And be working on these things for years.

It's funny the number of things I thought I knew how to do before I started studying martial arts. Sit, stand, walk, sleep, breathe....

Let Every Breath gave me a lot to think about and at least eight years' worth of things to work on. Well worth reading.
It's a good book. I found the worshipful admiration and gratitude for his teachers a little off-putting … but I do appreciate the humility and gratitude that makes someone want to share how amazing someone else is. However, when I recommend it to others – and I will – I will probably suggest they begin in chapter 3, where the breath teaching starts.

The Russian Orthodox flavor was great. Many martial arts texts (particularly the older ones, but also a number of the new) are tinged with religion. After so many Buddhist, Daoist, Shinto, etc, it was nice to see an Eastern Christianity view.

You can tell that the creators of this method were special forces and that a lot of the early training was military. You can tell that the author practices about a dozen martial arts very intensely. How? The really rather sweet, innocent assumption that everyone who reads this book is an athletic male in his prime.

I have had to completely adjust every single exercise shown in this book to something I could do.
First they have you doing lots and lots of push-ups while doing interesting breath patterns...with no tension anywhere in your body. Just as I was trying to figure out if I (with my pathetic upper body strength) could possibly work up to doing a push-up that slowly if I did it from my knees, the author has a helpful suggestion. Guess what? If doing endless slow push-ups is so easy that not only do you not have any muscular tension but you're actually bored, you can hook one ankle behind the other to make it more interesting!
I had to put the book down to laugh.

I remember my first day of kindergarten. I was four years old. I remember my mounting panic as I struggled to sit up as the teacher instructed, with my legs out straight ahead of me on the floor and my torso perpendicular to the floor. I couldn't do it. My legs simply aren't flexible like that. So I particularly enjoyed it as the writer explained that the double leg lift was easy for breath work because hey! Who can't just slowly lift both legs to a 90 degree angle without any tension? The trick, he says, is knowing when to stop so you don't overfill those lungs. Oh, and stop a lot along the way, not letting your back arch.

My Army friends would probably have a blast with this. But I am modifying every exercise for myself, based on the thought that breathing in these patterns under physical stress will probably bring me most of the same benefits: it just takes a lot less to stress my body that it does for, say, a Navy Seal.

Yes, as other reviewers have said, the actual content is more of a fat pamphlet than a book. But it is a very valuable fat pamphlet. It will take me several years to work through this, and more to make it a natural part of my everyday life. I am grateful that the author boiled down this game-changing teaching into so few words, so that we can grasp the important things and start working on them immediately. It is simply and purely the fundamentals, without frills to obscure the important parts. It is well explained and simple. And every coach, every sensei, every trainer will tell you that it's the correct practice of the fundamentals that matters.