ABOUT EMMANUEL

I am both privileged and honored to express my recognition, appreciation and gratitude on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary celebration for Head Instructor Emmanuel Manolakakis. 

I first met him by the great good fortune of listening to his impressive interview on University of Toronto’s radio station, CIUT.fm, with his radiant daughter at his side.  Although I was parked to attend a meeting where I was already late, I could not stop soaking up his calm approach, his relaxed analysis of random violence, his caring attitude toward his students, and his clarity in his mission to fortify self-confidence through teaching and mentoring. 

Since I had just designed a new special-topics course for graduating Kinesiology students at York University’s Faculty of Health as a cross-cultural survey on martial arts and combat training entitled “Body as Weapon,” I realized that Emmanuel would be the perfect guest presenter and so he has been for these many years.  How much so can only be fully known by his students, but he certainly impacts every person who meets him—this I know!

When Emmanuel Manolakakis enters the room, the electricity of his charisma illuminates everyone with a sense of his presence and the gift of his energy.  He is an alumnus of the Kinesiology program at York, besides having wrestled there, played rugby and football. 

Year after year while nurturing all his students, he generously agreed to come into every class and introduced more than 1000 graduating Kinesiology students to the wonderful and terrible beauty of Systema.  He showed it to be a supreme method of self-protection, functioning just like the immune system of the body to save us from harm in either assault or man-made disaster or natural catastrophe.  

He instructed future leaders of our society in self-defense techniques, smooth moves of avoidance and evasion, fighting spirit and warrior-mindset always under relaxed control.  Besides students in “Body as Weapon,” he volunteered to teach self-defense workshops for those on our campus, portrayed in the media as a dangerous location:  he not only inspired hundreds of York students but also offered special sessions for the Kinesiology mostly-female staff.  

Thus he empowered all at York and everyone here with his encouraging instruction in effective awareness, relaxed presence, conscious breathing, practical confidence and calmly devastating techniques.  He inspires everyone to go beyond their comfort zones yet still enjoy exploring their bodies as sacred.  Finally, in becoming friends with him over the years and his dedication to uplifting York students, I have received the indelible gift of his noble character and his compassionate nature.  His mastery has been his thorough examination of violence and his refusal to believe it solves any problem, so he teaches awareness as the most humane of solutions.

Though he embodies the “do or die” ethos of ancient Sparta, he is foremost among the peacemakers on earth in our century at a time when we need him to be an exemplar of such loving power.

                                                                                                      -

-Dr. Greg Malszecki, 

Senior Scholar, Kinesiology & Health Science

York University