Well with work commitments and other stuff going on I've missed about 3 months of Systema training.. Wednesday night was my first night back and I have to say I was surprised at how much I remembered and how easy it came back to me. We even did 3 on 1 attacks and normally i would struggle but it was actually good fun and I got some good takedowns in.

Always good to get back into it! I read a quote from an Okinawan Karate Master (may even have been on the FA website!) and it was something like "It does not matter how long something takes you, as long as you keep going!"

Anyone who has trained for any amount of time will have missed training for a decent stretch at some point. Little thing called everyday life tends to get in the way now and again for a lot of us lol!

Regarding you picking it up again so easily... your mind is an extraordinary piece of engineering. When you concsiously learn something, it goes into your subconscious mind. All the while, though you are not aware of it, your subconscious mind is swishing it around and working on what you have learned.

Have you ever looked a particular problem, say a maths problem, that you couldn't figure out? You look at if forever, and nothing comes of it. You get up and go do watch some TV for an hour, come back to it, and 10 minutes later you have the answer!!!

Your subconscious mind was processing the information you conscious mind had taken in. It was working on it the whole time.

It may very well be that although you weren't at class, your mind was still working on what you had learned, so it was easier to remember.

That's a very good point Prizewriter, my day good is working in IT and when I get stuck on a problem i often find wandering off to get a coffee gives me the break I need to come up with a solution..

I think the type of martial art has a lot to do with how you cope after missing training for a while. When I use to do Kickboxing missing a couple of weeks meant I lost the flexibility for kicks that I normally had. However because Systema is a more natural form of self defense I think it's easier for your brain to remember what it nows... (in my opinion anyway).