Re: My observations on Krav Maga culture,it’s growth and instructors.
My $0.02 on this the instructor model though, is that the actual training time must be taken into account. If you take a student that has studied their martial art for 3 years to obtain an instructor certification, but due to his time constraints, can only make it 2 days a week for an hour, then that student has spent 312 hours of training time total, if he was never injured or sick and couldn’t make a class. Then, if you take a student that goes to an instructor course that is condensed into say 3 weeks, training 6 days a week for 10 hours a day, you get an instructor that has 180 training hours.Are they totally on par, no, but the difference is not as drastic as if you just say 3 weeks vs. 3 years.
However, I firmly believe (as the military has taught me) that a good leader/instructor is first a good follower/student. I certainly do not think that someone with no krav experience should be able to take an instructor course and come out an instructor. You learn how to be a instructor by watching those that instruct, and learning different styles of instruction. I believe that someone should have to at least obtain a level 2 certification before they can go to an instructor course.
Not to get too deep into military analogy, but a 0-1 (Ensign, 2nd Lt.) coming straight from the academy is not going to get the same respect from the enlisted as one coming from prior enlisted service. They wear the same rank, but one has more operational experience than the other. The prior enlisted had to learn to be a good follower, while the academy grad hasn’t seen any real service yet.
It is the same thing with Krav. I will respect and trust the judgement of an instructor that took the time to learn the system, and then get his instructor cert. much more over one that simply went to the course. Krav was meant to be learned quickly by the end user, but to teach it that way, you must have a deeper understanding of it than is required of the end user. You have to know why you are running a certain drill or teaching a certain technique, and not just by regurgitating what a book or an instructor at your course said.
So, I have 13 months of training- can I instruct too? Lol
