Instructor(s)

[culater411]

Do you want an instructor with real fighting experience (military or law enforcment)?

or

One that has been training in MA for a long time?

Do you think your Instructor should be in awesome shape or is decent shape good enough?

Do you think your Instructor should warm up with you or just insrtuct you during your warm up? (My Instructors do always take part in the warm up, they call it leading from the front).

culater 🙄

[gimgamgommetje]

Re: Instructor(s)

quote \”culater411\:

Do you want an instructor with real fighting experience (military or law enforcment)

If I have a choice ,yes I prefer that . Preferably as relevant as possible to my reality. I’m in security so if my instructor knows a lot about how to deal with specific security problems that’s a very good thing.
military combat is less relevant , however still very usefull.

combat experience can also be a bad thing, not necessarily good.
If your instructor has an attitude of being a killer and teaches you to do that stuff for civillian self defense you might end up in big troubles with the law. Especially if you have children groing up etc you wouldn’t want to go to prison for a couple of decades ,would you?

quote \”culater411\:

or One that has been training in MA for a long time?:

No not relevant. He should be certified in krav maga and have a good knowledge about reality.

quote \”culater411\:

Do you think your Instructor should be in awesome shape or is decent shape good enough?

there are things to say for both, but if he is normal shape and the techniques work fine for him, it shows that you don’t need to be superman to perform the techniques.

quote \”culater411\:

Do you think your Instructor should warm up with you or just insrtuct you during your warm up?

Well, especially with beginners yes. for me personally no.
If you tell me to do 10 push ups I know what to do.

[anonymous]

To me, experience is very important. There is just something about instructors, who have been training for fifteen, twenty years or longer which is very inspiring. Those kinds of instructors, no matter what you ask them, even if it is a somewhat unusual question, they always know the right answer. Sometimes, the student hasn’t even finished his question and they already start answering, explaining in detail and maybe even pepper their answer with personal anecdotes of what happened to them or other professional fighters they’ve trained with in a real fight or in training. When they’ve finished explaining and showing you what to do you always feel as if you’ve learned something that really helps you to improve your technique. If the person is less experienced, he/she will be able to give you a good generic answer to a common question, but that person might not be able to get into much detail.

I think that law enforcement/military experience is a plus, but not absolutely necessary, depending on what the instructor is teaching. For example, a BJJ instructor doesn’t need to have been in the military to be good at BJJ. But it would be good if he has studied BJJ for a long time and has maybe even been in tournaments.
For self-defense/Krav Maga law enforcement experience is great, because an instructor with that type of experience will also know about legality issues, such as what kind of counter attack you are allowed to do and under what circumstances and such. Also, he probably has had some good real life experiences in his line of work.
Military experience is great also, especially for Krav Maga, since it originally came from the military. Of course military training is different from civilian training and so the instructor should know that and not teach ‘military only’ techniques to civilians.

As for the warm up, yes, I’d rather have my instructor there. I feel while I’m stretching my muscles I am also stretching my mind (getting ready for class) and so it’s good to have your instructor there, as motivation, before you even begin the actual class.

I also think he should be in good shape to do the sport he is teaching. In other words, he doesn’t have to be a super 300 pound body builder, but he should be in good shape to fight, however big or small his muscles might be. Some professional boxers, kick boxers, BJJ fighters are actually quite small or even skinny, yet they are great fighters and at an ideal weight for their sport. So, I don’t care how many push ups they can do as long as they are in good shape to do the sport they are going to teach me.

So, I’d say experience is more important to me than conditioning. For example, I think it would be great to be able to take a lesson from Helio Gracie, who is well over 90. I’m not sure how many push ups he could do at that age, but to learn from someone with that much experience would definitely be great.

[chguise]

I notice ya’ all said \”he\” and \”him\”, as in male. What about, say, a woman, one twenty, petite? Not worth training under? (yeah I said it and I don’t want to hear it, you know what I mean)

[thunder]

This has nothing to do with Krav but I got a funny story about instructor experience…
I started off in taekwondo and tangsoodo, and trained in american kickboxing for about two years leading up to college…
I started college at Texas A&M and started going to this kung-fu club because it was free, and because the master was supposed to be like the highest ranking guy in Texas in his system..but mainly because it was free and I really didnt have extra money…
So the first class I went to he’s going on about how he trained David Carridine (which I thought was impressive then because I grew up watching the Kung-fu reruns) and how he sparred with Chuck Norris(I was in his UFAF organization) and Joe Lewis..etc.etc..
I wore a t-shirt and kickboxing shorts because I didn’t have a white belt with me and I didn’t want to offend anybody by wearing a brown belt which I had at the time…
Anyways, this guy started picking on me the first couple of weeks I was there..like how his style could easily defeat boxers and kickboxers, how his master went to thailand and knocked out 2 muay thai guys in the first round…anyways just hyping his system up while using me as a dummy in front of the class in his little one step fighting drills…
it was really funny to me even at the time because he would bring me in front of the class and say ‘ok, throw a roundhouse kick to the head with your right leg’, and when I did that he would sweep me or throw me on my ass..really dramatic cool looking stuff…and I didn’t mind it..I kinda liked the attention really…
Then I think it was into the third week he decides he wants to spar…he was a big guy 6’4 about 300 lbs… but had a big beer belly…I was 170 lbs at the time and Im 5’9… he tells me to come up first, and said ‘I’ll go as hard as you go’ and so at first we started really light, basically tagging each other…then I started scoring on him really easily, but it was no big deal just training, then I guess he started getting pissed because he stopped in the middle and said that my stance was wrong and thats why I dont have power…etc, etc… I competed in american kickboxing but train muay thai so my stance is like the Krav ready stance…his is more like the sport karate stance…so I changed my stance and kept going…then he kicked really hard to my mid section with a sidekick..which I blocked but sent me to the floor because he was powerful…and he was saying, how much more power this stance can generate…so I thought ‘cool I guess we’re sparring harder’ so I got up touched his glove said ‘good shot’ and started kicking his thighs…I stayed out of reach because I was too small to go in on him, but I keep getting the thigh kicks in and when he started dragging and sucking wind I started kicking his exposed liver…we didnt spar long, I would say under 3 minutes…but he was winded…any ways he got pissed stopped and said I need to watch my control…I kept going back for about 2 weeks after that but he never sparred again…funny thing is that a guy I kew that kept going said they started sparring the week after I left…

so I guess the moral of the story is if you’re gonna teach fighting, either know how to fight, or at least be in reasonable shape, so you can complete one 3 minute session…there are no one punch knockouts at least in the dojo..well at least your teacher should teach you well enough to keep u from getting knocked out with one blow before he starts asking u to spar 😀

[chguise]

But one kick knockout isn’t unheard of,

I was sparring with (I’ll leave his name out because he denies it to this day), and I got him with a hook (the first and only I got him with). He pushed me back and my hands dropped (I didn’t have alot of experience at that time) and he round kicked me, toe in, to the temple and I went down like a sack of cement.

They told me I was out for a clean ten, I have no idea. Only thing I remember is feeling like I was glued to the mats when I woke up, oh, and the puking afterward.

Weeeh howdy that was fun…..

[john-mccollum]

Chguise,

Denise (formerly of Dublin Martial Arts) not only COULD kick my ass, she did on a regular basis, in conditioning terms.

Sure, there are some big apes in my class who could probably outmuscle her, but I would much rather take instruction from her than from them.

Not exactly on topic, but responds to your question about females.

As a guy, I have NO problem learning from a woman. Maybe if I was actually skilled enough to take her, I’d start feeling cocky, but that’s not likely to happen in this lifetime for me.

[chguise]

Hey John,

I just had to say it because of all the testosterone and instructor ‘bashing’ (notice the quotes and leave me be) going on here as of late. I’ve only run across a few guys who didn’t want to take my classes, they left. No skin off my nose. I know what I had to do to get here.

Thanks for responding 😉

[klem]

Instructor Qualities

I don’t buy into the ideal of the instructor has to be the baddest a$$ in the class philosophy, but he or she should be proficient in the techniques they are teaching.

I believe at the very least the instructor should understand what makes a technique correct and should be able to communicate this to the students.
What makes a great teacher, is one who can see that a student is doing something wrong, know what it is, and come up with a solution to correct the problem and communicate that effectively as well. I’ve known alot of good instructors and sport coaches who could do the former but couldn’t do the latter. That takes experience and in some cases, just a good eye at spotting the problems.

If the instructor is not warming up with the class, then they should at least be watching the students (especially beginners) to make sure they are doing things correctly and safely. The instructor should be warmed up enough to demonstrate techniques adequately.

[thunder]

chguise…kicks are easier to defend than punches…especially kicks to the head…keep your hands up…sounds like you got caught with a taekwondo type roundhouse to the head…always keep your chin tucked in and absorb the kick with your arm& shoulder..kinda like throwing elbow#6 in Krav…now straight legged muay thai roundhouses can wear you down but you can block TKD type roundhouses all day like this… but keep your chin tucked!

I like to go in and unload with punches if they try kicking my head w/roundhouse…keeps them in check, and your momentum is driving them back…could even go for leg sweeps, or clinch…cool thing is you know how it feels to get knocked out…can’t get that much worse than that in training… 😀

[guerrero]

I think Chris, or chguise, tends to blame the lack of respect she receives on her gender, and not on what may be the actual issue. Letís make her a guy for a second. What does ìheî have? 3+ years of Krav, and a well earned instructor qualification. Stop right there! Thatís plenty worthy of my respect, not that Iím anybody whose respect is worth coveting. Despite my 20 years in MA, numerous street fights in my younger days, and a few sanctioned, rules-based events, if ìheî, as an instructor, can impart the philosophies and techniques of Krav effectively, I am ìhisî willing student regardless of whether or not I can kick ìhisî butt. ìHeî knows more Krav than I, therefore my ability to best ìhimî in a fight is not even a consideration if I am truly there to learn the art.

But ìheî doesnít stop at that. ìHeî boasts on this forum and in the flesh about how many guys butts ìheísî kicked. How about this posting in the discussion concerning instructor skill sets, ìI’ve several guys at my gym that most likely think they could take me, that’s fine. In a stand up, rule filled match, probably. But in a life or death struggle, I’ll win, I have not one doubt about that.î Iím sorry, any guy who talks this trash loses my respect instantly. Confidence and the inherent belief in ultimate victory are imperative to succeed in a struggle. Inwardly imagined, meditated on, and held, itís gold, outwardly spoken and boasted, itís trash.

Earlier in my life, I found myself in rougher environs. I was forced to fight with more frequency than should be required in a civilized society. Each encounter turned out differently. Sometimes I routed my opponent on pure skill and superiority. Sometimes luck enabled me to escape relatively unscathed. And sometimes nothing short of divine intervention stopped the head bashing and saved my life. I know in a life and death struggle I will give my all to win, but the ultimate outcome lies in more than my beliefs and boasting.

Chguise, no rules means no rules. It means headbutts, elbows, knees, gouging, biting, weapons of opportunity, etc. If no rules are applied to you, theyíre applied to your opponent. Youíre telling me that if the likes of Mike Stroud, Jeff Fredricksen, Ivo, or several others of our LE guys or street fighters went no rules on you, you would, without a doubt, win? You see, thatís disrespectful and earns disrespect back. Your gender isnít the issue, itís your chops. Youíre mouth and no meat. Forget the respect of the misogynists and chauvinists. You want the respect of the fighter? then be a fighter. Use your skills and not your mouth, and you may get what youíre looking for.

I apologize for my rudeness. I just hate to see good people whoíve worked so hard to achieve something worthy go and shoot themselves in the foot by burying those achievements with nonsensical trash talk and gender-based insecurities.

ìBut the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.î .

[chguise]

Actually, what I was saying Guerrero, was that I’m confindent in the system. And that in a no rules, when I have to win, life or death, I will come out on top, or die trying. Mr Strode, I am confindent would never cross the line, nor would any of the other talented guys at our gym, since you obviously train there.

You’re taking confidence in myself, something I recieved gratefully from Krav as boasting. Am I a badass? No. Do I win when I fight Stode or any of the other guys in sparring? Not really, its not possible for me to compare to someone who’s been training in boxing and fighting for so long. Or who out weighs me by a sixty or seventy pounds.

I have no problem with respect at my gym, I said a few of the guys, not all of them. And I know exactly who they are. Most of the guys training are stand up guys who have enough self confidence to allow a woman to teach them something. Yes I have a few eye rollers, and most of those guys are fluff.

You’re taking quotes from another thread, out of context (and it was far from a thread about skill sets of instructors.) Shall I boast about the boyfriend who broke my nose when I was nineteen. I didn’t fight back. Shall I boast about the beating I took from someone I thought was a friend, didn’t fight back then either. My ‘boasting’ as you call it was a newly realized right that Krav gave me that I can and will no matter what defend myself. I think it was here that someone said \”If you aren’t dead you aren’t done.\”

Apologize all you want, I think it’s rather cowardly to route me publicly when you know who I am (and made sure everyone else did also), and you don’t even have the chops to sign your post. If you knew me as well as you think you do, you’d know that what you wrote was crap.

This is a board for discussion, I was mearly pushing along a conversation that seemed to be about beating up your instructor, or knowing more than they do. I believe one of the poll choices was about the instructor being puny. You, however, tossed up a personal attack and made sure to name a few names.

And the little comment that I’m mouth and no meat. Yeah, that’s why I passed phase, no meat……

chris

[xkirian]

Guerrero,

Your post is uncalled for and unproductive.

While I don’t know \”chguise\”/chris from Adam and don’t know her skill level, your public flogging, using your \”personal knowledge\” of her off-line identity with out revealing your own is cowardly without a doubt. You want to offer her your opinion and guidance for what you feel is her problem, \”Dr. Phil\”, when she did not ask for it? Well since you know her, tell her to her face or at the very least sign your post with your name.

The main problem with the Internet/these type of message boards is the \”anonymous\” nature of the medium, it’s a haven for \”trolls\” and malcontents. Call it \”electronic\” liquor.

Kirian

[thunder]

gee…I feel like I stepped in the middle of something…

a good teacher and a good fighter are 2 different things…

personally I would rather be trained by someone who has a good understanding of the game than by a \”world champion so and so\”…

that’s why most of the best trainers are really not extraordinary fighters..well with exception of Bas, and a few brazilians (IM generalizing here, there are others I know…don’t take me too seriously)…

it’s the same way in alot of things…I’ve taken poetry workshops from pulitzer prize winners that don’t know how to teach…and I’ve been inspired to write by highschool students..go figure

also if you are a boxer, you don’t really want Ali or Tyson as coaches, because theyre so gifted they may not understand the needs of you and I, and if you are into BJJ you don’t really want Rickson as your coach..oh, wait yes you do…hehhee… 😀

you can only be the best you can be, who cares what others think…peace…

and I’ve gotten my ass kicked and will continue to get my ass kicked more times than I’ve done the kicking…what’s important is that you learn…no pride…leave it in the gym…and yeh guerro, you’re right real fighting sucks…head butts REALLY suck 😀

[guerrero]

Chguise,

I’m new to forums and in my ignorance and inexperience have stepped beyond acceptable bounds. I’ll offer another apology. You’re right, I don’t know you and you don’t know me. I was responding to what I thought was a common vein of your threads where I felt gender was raised a great deal more than it had to be. Actually, that’s none of my business anyway, and the unfortunate thing about the written word is that it stands as posted without tone, inflection, and gesture. In retrospect, I did a poor job of editing, weighing, and expressing my opinion. My respect for your accomplishments got lost in the overdone trash. If I see you this week I will apologize in person.

[Author]

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