I started to take street fight classes quite late when I was already 42 and hadn’t had any physical activity for 10 years prior. I had a specific goal – to get my punching right. While some fights happened I simply didn’t know what to do.

It was quite dangerous to own a shop in crowded places during 1990s – people were completely off limits. It became safer in 2000s; however, various situations still occured.

When you get older your health doesn’t get better, nor as your energy level or coordination. So I decided to get some skills to feel cool in any situation.

To get your punching right and learn to deal with the situation are two different things. Punch is your weapon. Knowledge how you use it – it’s all about psychology. You can fight with the punch-bag for 10 years and lose it all on a dark street. That’s what the trainer taught me: don’t panic, assess the situation, look around and act accordingly.

And then it all started and I got carried into it. I had a training once a week, never missed one and was always looking forward to a next one. I guess I got some talent in this.

Once professional boxers came to our place and I was training with the pads at that time. Zayashnikov asked them: “So you see this guy over there? For how long you think he’s been training?”. They said: “Well at least 7-8 years by now,

he must be a candidate in master of sports”. But I was training only for 2,5 months by that time.

The most interesting thing is that as I started training, no more extreme situations happened to me. People can feel this kind of things. And now I can see who and where I should punch. Let’s say I meet this big guy and he starts to behave in a really bad way. I just say to him: come on dude, chill, stop stressing it out. And he does calm down. It’s incredible.

Yuri Suslikov, CEO “M… Company”

I wanted to take street fight lessons for a long time – you have to be able to fight and defend yourself. On top, I had an unpleasant experience in the past – I got into a fight with a big bunch of guys in a restaurant. I got beaten up, to be precise. There were 8 dudes simply looking for someone to fight with…

After this, excuses like lack of time lost their significance and I started to ask my friends who was taking lessons and where. I was told about Zayashnikov, but no one could properly explain me what was so different there versus average boxing gym. Everyone kept saying to me “Just go and see”. So I went and saw, and was quite surprised. Zayashnikov told me right away “Go put on gloves, we’re starting”. I asked weren’t we supposed to warm up first. “Will you asked the guys who attack you to let you warm up too?”, – he replied. That was quite a convincing reply. “So why do we keep our shoes on?” – I asked. “Well you’re not running around barefoot on the street, do you, nor you change your shoes when a bad guy asks for a smoke in the backstreet”, – he said.

I like competitive sports. I always feel bored at the gym – it’s way more interesting to be in the ring with sparring partners. It’s a continuous competition. I want to prove – not to the rival, to myself, – can I or can I not, will I be able to escape or not. You go to the training and get some from the coach. And immediately jump into different reality. It makes you psychologically ready for unexpected. It’s kind of school of life through street brawl.

I’ve been going to a regular gym for one year, and it all was quite traditional: 15 mins warm up, then exercise. It was just gymnastics basically, nothing else. And here you have a school of life.

THE TRAINING BASE.

Victor Lesnoy: We’ve tried almost everything. We were fighting with bats and bars, learned how to get away from a knife attack, trained fully dressed in a suit and with our shoes on – to imitate getting caught by surprise. The one I remember the most is the training with knifes. Zayashnikov invited the sparring partner who is a cold steels master. And here you are, standing in you suit, getting hit by a knife. Your task is to duck away from the stab maybe even missing one, but with minimum harm for yourself. It’s not about defeating the attacker, you have to get away from the situation, you are to fear and defend properly.

Sessions are quite harsh. But you have to understand that if you’re really learning martial arts and not getting punched then it’s just gymnastics.

I for example can’t fully understand some strikes if I’m not getting hit a little by the trainer. I got some, a lot and regularly, I was even walking around bruised. But well, you’re not coming there to play chess. You’re not a glass Barbie for trainer and sparring partner to get care of you.

My personal advice is to train without a head gear, otherwise you won’t get it all to the fullest.

We’ve been coming in suits to some trainings and were working on purely street punch technics. In street fight no one is actually doing straight punches (crosses) – you don’t have time to build a guard stand. Plus in 70% of the cases you’ll end up with your hand broken if you punch straight. That’s why you mostly use hooks and swing – the so-called “wedding punches”. Plus you use painful blows to the knee, the groin etc.