The Interview of N. Matushina with A. Kadochnokov (“Kung fu” magazine №8 2003)
– Do you train military personnel?
– As I told you above, the difference of these types is in their aims. Before starting to train you need to decide where you belong to, what kind of knowledge do you need and what’s your purpose…
– Who can teach the Kadochnikov Systema now?
– I have a lot of disciples all over the country: from the North Pole to south boundaries and from the east to the west. I can only tell you the period – forty years. Just imagine I’ve been teaching people the Russian hand-to-hand combat since 1962. I have a lot of disciples but they are not engaged in the sport type of martial arts and you can’t track them.
– What is the main principle of your Systema?
– What is the first principle? It is the principle of leverage we can apply. There are three types of, leverages: first, second and third. What is leverage? This is a solid body that has a pivot. This solid body can rotate around the pivot. Leverage has two levers. The longer the lever the stronger it is and we gain in force and lose in distance and vice versa. This is the golden rule of mechanics. A human being and his body is a mechanism and all laws of physics, mechanics and biomechanics can be applied to it. And first of all here can be applied the principle of leverage. Elbows, forearms, hips, ankles and so on are leverages that turn around joints. I suggest regarding a man as a system of leverages to demonstrate visually the work of all leverages in a human body. In this way we can see how the projection of a weight’s vector shifts outside the supporting area – this is the key moment for the Russian hand-to-hand combat. When you look at a picture in a textbook on hand-to-hand combat it is important not the expressions on people’s faces but how well these pictures render the technique they depict.
– In whole what is the ideology of all types of the Kadochnikov Systema?
– Our philosophy is to protect our country. The marines have a symbol – an anchor. Do you know what it symbolizes? Courage, strength, firmness… Do you know what symbolize these three stripes on the collars of the marines? They stand for Peter I, Ushakov, Nahimov. Three victories of the Russian navy: one victory was over the Swedes and two were over the Turks – Ushakov and Nahimov.
– What military traditions do we have?
– They are Ushakov, Nahimov, Makarov, Suvorov… Sadly Russian people start doing something only when the situation is hopeless. We are like a bear that won’t attack until you exasperate him. The Russians have tendency to forget everything connected with their native land. The peculiarity of a Russian man is that he lives for the day. All the other nationalities tend to preserve their traditions and their past.
– Is there any examples of heroism and military spirit today?
– During the World War II captain Leonov and ten scouts captured and disarmed the army of six thousands of “samurais”. He lives now in Moscow, sick and forlorn. And he wrote the book “Get Ready for an Exploit”. One more example is connected with the tragedy at “Nord Ost”. A friend of mine died as a hero. Lieutenant colonel Konstantin Ivanovich Vasiljev came to Baraev and offered himself in exchange for children. He and three more people from the Ministry of Home Affairs were shot. He was a man of high moral values, spiritual and physical abilities. In 2000 in Chechnya my other disciple, Ufimczev, came under fire from six automatic guns. He survived due to the skills and knowledge he got at our trainings. He knew how to move, roll, do different complicated rolls with the elements of acrobatics. He was wounded but he survived… He was given an early discharge from military service on medical grounds but he lives normal life. He is a good, healthy man.
– How do you think what is need to be done to revive Russia?
– For thousands years technologies were the same. After the Stone Age came epoch of steam, electricity and electronics – there was a leap in development of the mankind. Time has “shrank”. Technologies change several times during lifetime of a man. People have to be retrained several times to keep their job and stay updated. This is impossible and a person starts to lag behind as human’s mind gets tired and all this leads to chaos. People need their brains cleaned to revive the nation to stop the growth of divorces…
I’ve said that we need Basic safety and Civil defense and emergency situations! It helps to protect a man from injuries, helps to improve his lifestyle.
I’ve mentioned above that our enemies are smoking, alcohol, drugs, wars and different stresses. I mean it! What shall be done here? We should start right from the school: Basic safety, Civil defense and emergency situations, military discipline. What else? We should get our young men ready for the army so that he doesn’t try to evade conscription… On the whole if a man is not ready to extreme cases he will suffer anyway. That’s why I’m telling that there should be the unity of three forces: physical, intellectual and spiritual. Of course these problems should be solved by the state. We were saying that the educational program should be changed. We need to raise the level of training our people so that they could survive in emergency situations. We need Basic safety, Civil defense and emergency situations. To revive our country we need a musician, an artist, a writer and others. Everyone should live and make one’s contribution to the harmony of life. When our thoughts are clear there will be patriotism in our souls. We should feel pride and patriotism when speaking about our native land.
– Is faith and religion so important for revival of the country, military traditions and the Russian hand-to-hand combat?
– Suvorov used to say: “Training an army that has no faith is like sharpen rusty iron”.
– In your opinion, does it make sense for Russian people to go in for eastern martial arts?
– Why not? Anything for a quiet life… There is such a thing as an exotics… Everyone has his own range of cognition and interests.
– Before you worked out your Systema, What kind of martial arts did you learn?
– I used to practice boxing, classic combat, Graeco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, sambo. Just like every other kid.
– What kind of eastern martial arts did you learn?
– None. I was an adult man when these styles appeared and I had different interests at the time. Probably I would start learning one of them if they appeared earlier.
– Please, tell more about yourself, about your service, job, things you’re working on…
– You should ask someone else this question. It is difficult for me to speak about myself as I can’t find proper words. I’m just a loyal man, soviet, Russian man, the World War II veteran. I lived an ordinary life, tried to learn everything I could… For now I’m serving in the armed forces of the Russian Federation. I work the way I can, trying to correspond and trying to improve science… I’m trying to be a good person… Serve my Fatherland!
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