The enthusiasm with which I began training the reconnaissance company quickly faded away. I had to face difficulties of a different order, about which below:

Firstly, the officers, mostly graduates of the Kiev VOKU, looked down on my efforts and with a fair amount of skepticism, because they considered themselves sufficiently prepared in the applied hand-to-hand combat necessary for the intelligence officer, while my methodology was considered folklore and amateur performance.

Secondly, the fighters partly had basic pre-army training, someone was engaged in boxing, someone in wrestling, some simply had good natural data, but did not do anything before.

Thirdly, what I tried to teach them did not adapt well to the army uniform (then there was still no Afghan woman); the fighters wore ordinary cotton and boots. It was impossible to deliver kicks, the situation was somewhat easier with sweeping and punching. When mastering punches, I also faced difficulties in the sense that fighters who had boxing training demonstrated initially better hand techniques than in karate. For myself, I concluded that it is necessary to master boxing.

Fourthly, since the basis of the technique I taught was shock, little time was devoted to techniques from army hand-to-hand combat complexes. To be honest, I didn't know how to combine them with karate.

Fifth, the biggest problem was the lack of these exercises in planned combat training, the separation of personnel for household work, etc.

Two months later, the company went on a business trip to the border with Azerbaijan and the classes stopped.

Nevertheless, during the time of mentoring, I was enriched with methodological experience and recognized gaps in my own knowledge and skills that needed to be urgently filled. They consisted in my poor knowledge of wrestling and boxing techniques and in ignorance of the applied part of hand-to-hand combat. And the fact that the applied part is needed was clearly shown by the incident that happened in the regiment.

At night, a sentry, a soldier of the reconnaissance company, at the post shot the cook – also a soldier who was stealing ammunition. It was an emergency, although in the official version everything was presented according to the regulations of the garrison and guard service, with the shouts of the sentry, "Stop, who is coming!", "Stop, I will shoot!" warning shot upwards and only then to defeat. The reality was different.

Without going deeply into why the cook climbed into the ammunition depot, I will say the following. His fellow countryman was supposed to be in this post, but that was changed, and the guy from the intelligence, who happened to be in his place, did not want to participate in the criminal scheme. A skirmish ensued between the cook and the scout, then a fight, in which the taller and more well-fed cook prevailed. Then he climbed to steal ammunition, at this time the reconnaissance scout got to the machine gun and successfully sent the cook to the next world, and himself on vacation.

Having analyzed the actions of the fighter (not from the point of view of the Military charter), I came to the disappointing conclusion that karate techniques in this situation would be ineffective, but if the fighter could not only shoot from a machine gun, but also use it in hand-to-hand combat to deliver strikes butt or, in extreme cases, a bayonet knife, the cook would be alive. I also thought about the shooting, that a warning shot would really have stopped the cook and attracted the awake shift to the place of emergency. But everything happened as it happened. In general, the need to improve the applied part of hand-to-hand combat became obvious to me.

The maelstrom of events of the rapidly disintegrating empire has sunk to its outskirts. The departure of officers to their republics, which suddenly became independent, began. Our coach Volodya quit his job and went to live in the Moscow region. I was left alone with my weak knowledge of karate and a desire to improve.

The groups coached by Volodya came to me, part of the people fled, but many remained. How could I continue training.

I kept in touch with the coach and came to Moscow several times to improve my level and be certified for the red belt. Volodya introduced me to Kasyanov. I attended some of his trainings and then studied with his daughter Sophia.

Two weeks of staying in the capital was enough to figure out that Kasyanov's hand-to-hand combat is not the storm map that my coach knew. All students worked well with their hands, grabs and throws were used. I was able to understand the tendencies in the development of hand-to-hand combat according to Kasyanov's version, but it was not enough to perfectly master the technique during the two weeks that I was in Moscow. I did not pass on the belt. Returning to Leninakan, I continued my own training and group training, taking into account modern trends.