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Giant Killer addressed the need for a variety of drills to keep things interesting for Krav Maga classes in another thread. I agree. To that end, here’s a thread to post the drills that you like the best to keep things fresh.
I’m partial to Thai pad drills involving punch / kick combinations. I like a 1-2 punch / high round kick combo. The Thai pads force movement and awareness. They’re also a mean workout for the padholder. Two minute rounds work pretty well, particularly if the holder calls out sprawls for the puncher.
Re: Favorite drills
My favorite drills have been the real-life scenario self-defense drills. I love them all. The chaotic ones where I may end up being the bad guy against a big guy who doesn’t know how to partner with a woman are scary but I go ahead and strangle them anyway because I’m much more motivated to keep my guard up when it’s a partner I don’t know anything about. I also love it when we ramp up the intensity by cussing each other out. It hurts my feelings when my partner laughs at my cussing (apparently I’m not scary!) but hearing all the yelling in the room gets the adrenaline going.
One that we did in Level 2 back before I took time off (I’m back in level 1 now) was in a hallway. We took turns being “it” and everyone else in class walked toward them and either pulled a knife (plastic of course) or asked them for the time one by one.
Some of the stuff we did in a women’s class was totally awesome. We set up cha.irs as a bus or airplane and defended from a seated position. We defended against attackers on stairs (ascending and descending). We did some sexual assault scenarios. Most of us were in Level 2, but it was amazing how many techniques we learned in Level 1 applied to scenarios that on the surface seemed completely divorced from the “regular” classroom routines. It gave me a lot of confidence not just in what I could do, but what krav could do for me.
I got kind of tired of all the boxing stuff in Level 2 and I wasn’t interested in fight class, either, which was our only alternative until the women’s class came along. The sporting aspect of KM is waaaaay behind the play-acting good guy vs. bad guy stuff in keeping me motivated.
I live and work in dangerous places. One of my coworkers (a security guard!) got her nose broken by a customer, and another one got beat up by three people. Another one (another security guard) is on permanent disability thanks to a well-placed punch to his eye. My neighborhood is safe by comparison, but there was an armed robbery & attempted rape in the parking lot of my complex last summer. All those things got me back to krav after taking time off, and I really live for creative self-defense drills even more now.
Re: Favorite drills
quote stevetuna:Giant Killer addressed the need for a variety of drills to keep things interesting for Krav Maga classes in another thread. I agree. To that end, here’s a thread to post the drills that you like the best to keep things fresh.I’m partial to Thai pad drills involving punch / kick combinations. I like a 1-2 punch / high round kick combo. The Thai pads force movement and awareness. They’re also a mean workout for the padholder. Two minute rounds work pretty well, particularly if the holder calls out sprawls for the puncher.
***SHAMELESS PLUG****
NTC -Sherman Oaks Wednesday 5:45pm – Thai pad workout class 🙂
James
Re: Favorite drills
In class we sometimes do defense techniques with our eyes closed in a not so well lit classroom. We only do these if we are short students. It could get very messy if it was a larger class.
We will have a victim stay in one position and have anyone move in for the confrontation and then you must respond. We have done variations on this with more than one attacker, just to spice it up a little.
I think those type of drills help to build a good foundation in people.
Re: Favorite drills
I have always enjoyed the man-in-middle drills. Standing in the middle in a dark room with your eyes closed and strobe lights going off and loud music blaring while you are waiting to be attacked is always interesting. I also enjoy the drill were you stand facing a line of students who take turns attacking you one after the other, although you know the attack is coming, it really wears you out.
Re: Favorite drills
Two of my favorites:
Sprint to end of room (where a stick is laying on the ground); pick it up; one end on ground, one end on forehead (you’re bent over almost at waist); and spin around stick five times; sprint back to other end where parther is holding tombstone or large pad — hit or kick for one minute.
The other involves glasses our instructor purchased that are used to simulate driving while intoxicated. It is very disorienting when you look through the lenses. Stand in center of room, eyes closed, put on glasses; open eyes and find people with pads to hit — must spring around room to find pad, avoid those without pads.
I like them because they teach me to hit and kick while extremely disoriented, dizzy, etc. (Not to mention watching the others staggering or running off-line around the room.)
Re: Favorite drills
Hey, a thread based on what I said! Cool! 🙂
I’m 100% with Guerierre, the self-defense drills are where it’s at. Pad workouts are good too, but if it becomes pretty much all you do, they can become tedious. Such as the famous Bas combo in pretty much any class from 1 – 5, so you end up doing mostly left, right, hook, uppercut, kick for several hours in a row (if you take several classes).
I like the idea of really drilling the self-defense techniques, getting good at them, then apply them to different scenarios. First sitting down, with obstacles in the way, lying down etc. Then later go outside, the garage, car (car jacking scenarios), side streets. One could also go to the park or to the beach and train there, with and without equipment. Even in the ocean. I just talked to a guy, who does all kinds of things like that in his gym and it sounds really cool. Also told me about some schools in Germany, where they train inside buses sometimes, or go to an ATM and train there. While some of these things may be harder to do in the US (for legal reasons), one could at least try to find alternatives (such as using chairs in the gym to simulate a bus or airplane, or go to the patio outside). One could also try to secure permits to do these things in public places at least once a month or so. Street clothes classes would be interesting, too. And using the “drunk goggles”, they are great.
To me RBSD has so much more to offer than just a simple Muay Thai or boxing gym alone and I think we should take advantage of it by doing drills that one wouldn’t do anywhere else, such as training in realistic environments, doing obstacle courses (one students walks through a predetermined area, is attacked along the way) etc.
Inside the gym, one could do recognition drills, such as one person in the middle, different attacks with differnet weapons, maybe with strobe lights, scary music, or obstacles in the way (tables, other students, who may need to be kept out of the line of fire), letting stuff lie around for students to pick up as weapons… One time we had one student wait outside the room, then he would come in and be attacked first by one person, then another, sometimes quickly, so he had no time to do a disarm, sometimes later, so he could do a disarm and then go weapon vs weapon against the second attacker.
Lots of great weapons/SD stuff to work on and if you do this for an hour, you can actually get tired, too, so you are getting a workout as well. Then one can take a fight class after that and still get plenty of pad work and conventional sparring in and thus get the best of both worlds.
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GiantkillerRe: Favorite drills
Hehehe, how did that chair smiley get in there? Fits very well, though, that’s just the kind of training I’m talking about! 🙂
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GiantkillerRe: Favorite drills
As for combatives drills, I like any drills that actually improve your abilities as a fighter. One person attacks, one defends for example, going easy at first, then faster if the defender does well. One can also have the defender defend and then give one counter.
It’s also good to have the teacher explain the dynamics of the fight and then practice a combination based on it. Vut Kamnark used to teach at the NTC a few years ago and he always showed one combination, explained how the opponent would likely react to it, then what I should do to take advantage of the opponent’s reaction. Doing that, one would learn a little bit about the fight itself and strategies used in the ring and it would help improve one’s abilities.
One could also do multiple attacker drills with the teacher watching, maybe freezing in certain positions and thinking about what would be the best way to move/counter from there.
Just lots of stuff that improve your overall skills. :box: :box2:
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GiantkillerRe: Favorite drills
Okay, just gave our patio/courtyard at the NTC a closer look today and thought that it would be really perfect for doing some SD related drills, or working on specific scenarios.
There are two wooden benches there that can be easily moved, great for working on scenarios where you may be sitting on a park/bus bench and are assaulted and/or threatened. Some techniques would be very different in that case, for example gun from behind.
There is also a small shop that has a number of metal chairs and tables standing in front of it, which could be used for scenarios involving bar fights (carefully of course, safety first! 🙂 ) or situations where you may be sitting at a table in a restaurant/cafeteria or even inside a home and are accosted/attacked/threatened. There are also stairs, ramps, confined spaces, places to hide behind, and a walled in area with only one exit that could be used for pretend ATM scenarios.
As for drills, one cool thing to do would be to have one student wait outside room 3, then have the other students hide (or simply stand around or walk through) room 3 as well as the whole courtyard area. Then the student waiting outside would be given a signal and come in. He may be attacked immediately or not. Then he would be walking on a pre-determined route, first through room 3, then through the exit door into the courtyard to the right, walking once around the entire courtyard area until he comes back into room 3. Along the way the other students may hide or walk openly, sit on benches etc. Some attack, some don’t, some may just ask for the time etc. One could even add in third party situations depending on the level of the class (or the level of the student) and/or weapon vs weapon (he may make one defense, do a disarm, then use that weapon against a second attacker) or multiple attackers. Also, one could tell the student to sit down on a bench at a certain point, just for a moment. Someone may be sitting there or not, or someone may approach who could be harmless or a threat.
Going really crazy, and this is the part that is probably just my vivid imagination, but what would be cool, too, would be to position snipers on the roof one story up. Yes, snipers!!! Here is how: There is a type of balcony and first level courtyard above the lower courtyard, so one could put guys with paintball guns (KM extreme) or super soakers (milder, easy clean up version) on the roof and have them hide and shoot at random at the people doing defenses below. They could also throw stuff (light stuff of course!), water balloons or maybe those foam yoga blocks, or a wet towel, to distract/attack the student below. Sort of like fighting in the street with one guy and having his angry, lunatic friend throw stuff from above, or even pull a weapon. Just one more thing to look out for.
Okay, okay, I already know what they are going to be saying about that idea, but everyone’s got to admit that it would be pretty cool.
As for the simpler drill, without the snipers, I think that could work really well, especially considering that half the class usually works outside anyway. Or at least one could do the scenario drills there, bench, restaurant, ATM, dark corners, stairs etc, or work out in the rain sometimes, or with street clothes etc.
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Giantkiller
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