electronic translators, electrical exam prep, scanners, spy gadgets, dvr, hidden cameras, weather radios
Bookmark and Share
Products • Articles • Book Reviews • Brainpower Newsletter • Contact Us   •   Home • Search

Spetsnaz Information and Resources

Spetsnaz Quick Links
 

About Spetsnaz

By Cathy Richey, the Cathy Factor



This Russian styles of martial arts date back to the 10th century. Throughout the history of this huge country, Russia had to repel invaders from the north, south, east, and west. All attackers brought their distinct styles of combat and weaponry. Battles took place on different trains, during freezing winters and sweltering summer heat, with the Russians often greatly outnumbered by the enemy forces.

As a result of these factors, Russian warriors acquired styles of fighting that combined strong spirit with extremely innovative, versatile, and sometimes gruesome tactics.

Systema ( Spetsnaz), is the combat, movement, and conditioning system taught to elite Russian Special Operations (Spetsnaz) units. It is a fast growing martial arts in the USA - exploding in popularity after being featured on Spike TV's Deadliest Warrior: Green Berets vs Spetsnaz, the Discovery documentary Secrets of the Secret Service, and the Richard Gere spy thriller The Double.

Created in 1974 to act independently of the Red Army, Spetsnaz once epitomized the menace and power of the Soviet State. It was the U.S.S.R.'s secret weapon during the Cold War.

Spetsnaz helped the Soviets overthrow the government of Afghanistan in 1979 by storming the national palace in Kabul and gunning down President Amin and his family. In 1985, when terrorists took over the Soviet embassy in Beirut, a Spetsnaz strike team infiltrated the embassy, abducted four of the terrorists and sent one of their decapitated heads in a bag to the terrorists' leader.

Even today, Spetsnaz is perhaps the most exclusive and most secretive military unit in the world. Comprised of snipers, explosives experts and close-quarters combat specialists, Spetsnaz handles counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, sabotage, and reconnaissance missions. They operate in Chechnya and the Russian breakaway republics, and there are rumors of Spetsnaz operators in Afghanistan that were helping with the hunt for Osama bin Laden. A March, 1999, Time magazine story about Spetsnaz soldiers freelancing as muscle for the Russian Mafia called them "a sinister force" and the "perfect killers."

There are stringent standards required of anyone assigned to Spetsnaz. Potential warriors must be secondary school graduates, intelligent, physically fit, and "politically reliable." Upon induction, they will be asked to sign a loyalty oath in which the inductee acknowledges death will be his punishment for divulging details about his service. After induction, a few will be selected for an arduous, six-month-long NCO school. Those not selected for NCO school receive training in their units. In addition to basic military training, they will be trained in the following specialized skills:

  • Parachuting.
  • Martial Arts: Hand-to-hand combat, silent-killing techniques, knife-fighting.
  • Sabotage using explosives, incendiaries, acids, and abrasives.
  • Infiltration techniques, including defeat of locks and security systems.
  • Foreign language and culture.
  • Foreign weapons, tactics, and vehicles.
  • Survival.
  • Reconnaissance and map reading.
  • Rappelling.

Spetsnaz are not well known within the Soviet military, they do not publicize their existence and capabilities. Russia has denied it even exists. Their uniforms are not distinctive, with ground forces Spetsnaz usually wearing airborne or signal troops' uniforms and naval Spetsnaz wearing naval infantry or submariners' uniforms.

Their ethnic makeup is likewise not distinctive and to some degree reflects the ethnic characteristics of the intended target. For example, Spetsnaz units in the Far East are alleged to have available North Koreans and Japanese from Manchuria and the Kuril Islands.
 
 

About Cathy: She and her Doberman Trooper conduct research into all kinds of topics and produce articles like the one you see here. To contact Cathy, write to thecathyfactor@yahoo.com. Get the facts from Cathy, and let the Cathy Factor give you an edge.

 

Thoughts on Kung Fu

By Mark Lamendola, 4th Degree Black Belt

I realize this isn't Spetsnaz. We will have content for that, very soon. In the meantime, what I have to say here is worth reflecting upon regardless of your martial art.

You may have noticed my byline shows a belt, while traditional Kung Fu has no belt system. In the USA, martial arts schools have had to adopt belt systems for a number of reasons.

There's a network of schools in one particular Karate style, and it has gone very commercial. You'll find its schools in strip malls in just about any city. These schools do not, in my opinion, teach a practical fighting art (I have that opinion because I have fought black belts from these schools and beaten them easily). They do get people to shell out their money, and they do pump them up about their belts, awards, and other incentives that are exterior motivations.

Kung Fu is not about exterior motivation. Nor is it about mindlessly performing endless drills of kicks and punches. The Kung Fu practitioner develops from the inside out, using a combination of physical practice, meditation, thoughtful exercise, slow movements, fast movements, and still reflection to build the person.

When a student joins a traditional Kung Fu school, it is not apparent for some time that this student is learning how to fight. The typical sifu waits a very long time before teaching fighting skills and tactics. This does not work well in the USA, and it causes people to make false comparisons between styles. That is why when I taught in my own school, I began with a few techniques and turned my students into effective fighting machines. One student studied with me for six months, then competed in the Dallas citywide open style tournament. He took second place.

So my recommended course of study for new student class is as follows:

Session 1

  • Discuss with students how to begin a program of physical exercise. I mean free weights, which are the best way to get the adaptive response that produces muscle. You do not have speed without the muscles to generate it.
  • Discuss with students how to begin a program of good diet, focusing in nutrient-rich foods.
  • Show students one technique. Assign it as homework.

Session 2

  • Review student progress on exercise and diet. Listen to student issues.
  • Drill on the technique learned last time.
  • Introduce another technique. Assign it as homework.

Session 3

  • Review student progress on exercise and diet. Listen to student issues.
  • Discuss meditation techniques. Assign homework.
  • Drill on last two techniques.
  • Show stretches.

These first three sessions give students the groundwork. New students will get the same teaching if they join an existing class, but since one learns by teaching, I have the other students explain and demonstrate. As training progresses, I constantly stress the basics. I do not introduce a third technique to anyone still unable to execute the first two flawlessly under various circumstances.

Advanced students will end up practicing dozens of techniques, defend against multiple attackers, practice knife defense, practice gun defense, and fight with an arm or leg disabled.

Most Kung Fu schools do not do katas or forms. Some do. I have never used these in my classes.

If you're interested in trying Kung Fu, the school you try probably won't approach training in the way I have outlined above. However, any good school will approach it with the same philosophy of building the student from the inside out. If you try a school and the instructor overwhelms you with trying to learn many techniques in the first few sessions, stop wasting your time with that school.

A good instructor wants to help you learn. A bad instructor wants to impress you.

My experience with Kung Fu instructors in general (both as a student and as a visiting instructor to another school) is they have a high level of confidence and really don't have a need to win anyone's approval. They just want to pass along their knowledge and help the good student find his or her own way in the art.

 

See also: