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I finished my first weekend of two in this workshop (Sat. and Sun., 6 hours each day). I was a little hesitant because my shoulder isn’t 100%, but boy…I’m glad I didn’t reschedule. This weekend was incredible.
The class is kept small (15 max. Mine is 9). The lead instructor is female, and we have 3 male instructors who double as the padded attackers.
They do a wonderful job of building our confidence and letting us all know this is a safe environment in which to learn, quite sensitive of the fact that the scenarios may be upsetting. It’s clear there is much psychological training involved in becoming an instructor, and they use their training well.
They are *very* good at breaking down moves and allowing us to practice before a fight. There is also much humor, which is perfect for breaking up the tension.
The attackers are padded. Make that SUPER padded. I’m sure many of you guys have seen this before, but in case you haven’t, the attacker looks like an alien football player. 😆 The only exposed areas are his legs from the shin down, and his forearms. I have no clue what the stuff is made of, and they showed us the inside of the helmet, but I still couldn’t tell you what was in there. It’s bizarre but effective. The helmet is also such that you can strike the eyes with full force without hurting the instructor. (This freaked me out, because I went right for the eyes without thinking. Afterwards, I realized that I couldn’t remember if the eyes were okay to hit or not…I just DID it.)
Long story short: We could work on our technique with 100% force. They grabbed us, pulled us to the ground, pinned us, swore at us, and we were allowed to fight like it was the real thing. Our classmates stay at the edge of the mat, cheering each woman on. And the female instructor is on the mat with each woman so she doesn’t feel totally alone. If a woman freezes, the instructor is right there giving her advice.
The male instructors only talk to us as students with the helmets off. Once the helmet is on, they become the attacker, and there’s no chatting, laughing, asking questions (the female instructor fields those) ~ they’re all business. They make a big deal out of differentiating between attacker and male instructor.
With each fight, the attackers fight back a little more. As we get bolder with our defense, they ramp things up as well. They also do not exaggerate their responses to our blows. So if we land a good knee (yesterday the instructor teased me about my deadly \”running knee to the head\”), the attacker’s head snaps back, and he rolls to the ground. If we land a sissy punch, he barely flinches.
Next week they bring in another attacker, one we haven’t seen yet. They also warned us that they’ll be fighting and coming back even more than before, more than a real, unpadded attacker would.
There’s so much more, of course. But that’s as brief a review as I can give without leaving out too much good stuff. I froze a bit on the first day, but yesterday felt really, really good. I was less frightened, more pissed (hence the \”running knee\” 😛 ).
I think my short 3 months in Krav helped tremendously. Many of the women were understandably intimidated in the beginning. I was too, but my time in Krav proved to me that I can force myself to do something despite being fearful. So I often volunteered to fight first, knowing I may not do very well, but I was going to try. And I was willing to keep going until I learned.
Here’s the site for Chicago: http://www.impactchicago.org/ . If you type IMPACT or Model Mugging into Google, you’ll find different states that offer this program. I highly recommend it for the women on this board and the women in your lives! My final review will be next week. 🙂
Here’s a chapter with a video available on their site:
Check out the left column and look for \”Watch the Impact Video.\” It’ll give you a good idea of what the class is like.
\”The only exposed areas are his legs from the shin down, and his forearms.\”
So you couldn’t go for the shins? 😉
We try to aim for soft parts, but nothing is ruled out. 😈
The male instructors are such great guys. They let us beat them for most of that 6 hour time frame. We take quick 2 minutes breaks here and there, lunch is about 15 minutes, and we have a brief time out after every round of fights just to sort out how we felt about the whole thing and to get some feedback.
Then it’s back on the mat. I know *I* slept well this weekend ~ I can’t imagine how they felt.
So, Lor, you were able to do all of that with your injured shoulder? If so, I don’t see any reason why you should quit KM.
Giant, yes I was able to get through both days using my arm quite well. I took 800mg of Advil around the clock and just lived with the discomfort.
I thought long and hard about whether or not to go through this program. I signed up for it back in October, and it’s just under $400 I believe (I have to double check that). For various reasons, including $$ and location, I was very hesitant to cancel or reschedule. I was hoping 3 weeks of rest would provide enough time for my arm to heal some.
Against the advice of both my doc and my Krav instructor, I went for it. They place duct tape on any injured areas so the attacker can see it and avoid it if possible, but that’s obviously not optimal. Optimal would have been my butt back at home.
I’m hurting now, but I’m hoping the next 5 days will be good enough to allow me to go back next Saturday. After that, the program will be over, and I’ll go back to babying my shoulder until it’s better. That’s why I stopped Krav. If I kept going back to class every week, I’d just aggravate the darn thing. In fact, even my Krav instructor agreed that I should back off for a while (but he wants me back in the Fall 🙂 ). He had the same thing, and I think he said it took about 3 months to finally feel better.
Honestly, I enjoy this program much more than KM. My main objective is to get my shoulder back to where I can practice Yoga, but if I’m to pick up self defense again in 4 to 6 months, I think I just may apply to become a class assistant for Impact (in fact, I’m working to get Impact to call my Krav instructor so they can offer the program to women here in the burbs) . I love the 100% contact, and I need some of the other things the program provides more than I realized. But that’s just me.
What kind of training program to the women do in between workshops so they can retain the training? Assuming that they aren’t class assistants that is.
DJ
There are more advanced classes that involve weapons, but I haven’t read up on those yet. Unfortunately, the Impact in my area does not offer a steady diet of these programs. It seems to be once every other month or longer. So if I wanted to take the Core program again for more practice, I’d have to wait until April or July. The schedule for advanced classes is not listed, but I imagine those depend on student demand.
It’s a bummer, because I’d love to do this at least once a month. Ah well…can’t have everything.
That’s one of the reasons that I am not terribly fond of the workshop style. If someone does the workshop and feels that they \”have it\” that can be worse than not having trained at all. I think workshops are great for addressing a specific topic and delving more into it but I believe it’s better to train consistently if even for a few months than to take large breaks in between workshops, but that’s just me.
DJ
Hm, I agree that having something more routinely scheduled would be great. As it is, I’m going to have to just sign up when the program is offered to keep my skills up.
I’m not sure the women in my class this past weekend will end up worse than before. I can say with great certainty that none of us feel overconfident, so we won’t be starting any bar fights. 😆 But we know how it feels to really hit a guy now with full force, which is priceless. And we learned quite a bit about the nonphysical aspect of predatory violence, which was quite the eye opener.
If anything, we’re more aware of our surroundings and our actions. We learned how to set boundaries. That alone could save one of us from a potential attack.
I understand your preference for ongoing training though. I’d prefer that too. It would be kick ass (literally! 😛 ) if our school set up an Impact-type class for us ladies.
\”But we know how it feels to really hit a guy now with full force, which is priceless.\”
No, I don’t think so. You know what it feels like to hit a bunch of foam padding.
I’m not trying to demean these courses, but since you’ve put it here, I’m assuming you’re looking for feedback. I’m not a big fan of these courses. The \”attackers\” cannot make natural movements, therefore students cannot train to identify the subtle pre-contact cues. Also, you are able to hit \”full force\” because what you’re hitting doesn’t even look like a person. This training, in my opinion, gives people a false sense of reality.
Also, the behavorial/psychological delivery systems usually taught in these types of classes are specious, at best. They typically consist of advising the \”defender\” to say things like, \”NO! Stay back!\” Sorry, but does anyone think that works?
Finally, much of the \”empowering\” comes from the cheerleading/group contagion. This, also, is a problem, since defenders learn to rely on others for their \”strength\”. Motivation is one thing, but we’re talking about a two-day course, and that horde of other women won’t be there if you’re ever really attacked.
Now, in all fairness, I’ve never been to one of these, but I’ve seen videos, and I’ve talked to people who’ve spent considerable time as the \”model muggers\”.
Actually, I wasn’t looking for feedback. I posted it in case the women in your lives and the women who surf this board were interested. I know when I was considering signing up, I searched all over the net for reviews and such.
I originally typed out this long reply to you Ryan, but then I realized that I hadn’t intended on defending the program ~ only reviewing it. I do however appreciate and respect the opinions here on the board, so by all means, share them.
My hope is that some people see my review and go check it out, find out if it’s right for them. Maybe some women who would never walk into a Krav class will try Impact and *then* have the nerve to try KM. Or maybe for some it would be the other way around.
Either way, I saw some things this weekend that really impressed me. 🙂
You posted a review of another self defense program on the Krav Maga forum, and you weren’t looking for feedback? 😕
Nope. 🙂 If you look at my original post, you’ll see there are no questions, only a review of what I experienced. The post has a ton of hits, so I’m hoping some women checked out my link.
But like I said, everyone can feel free to share their opinions. It’s cool.
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