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Went through my first pressure test Tuesday night. Truly a humbling experience. I found myself forgetting techniques I would have said I had down cold, and reverting to closed fists, clutching opponents and high kicks.
I was humbled, but not humiliated. Managed to stay “alive”, even managed to get a good shot in on an advanced student by faking a need to puke right before I burst into him. Easy enough, as I was close to puking anyway. Think that’s a ‘works once’ kind’a trick though. I’m not in bad shape, but Lord. I can’t remember ever being that desperate for air.
I walked (ok, stumbled) away with a different outlook on what I need to work on and how I need to train, and a deep appreciation for the role of stress innoculation in training like this.
Rory Miller remarked on how anticlamatic his first “real” fight with a gang banger was after training with serious students for so long. I can see now how that might be true. At least I’m going to use that as motivation to train hard.
Re: My first pressure test
What, a little more specifically did you get to do? Each place does things like this a little differently so I’m curious as to what you did.
Re: My first pressure test
quote TigerUpperCut:What, a little more specifically did you get to do? Each place does things like this a little differently so I’m curious as to what you did.We worked in groups of five, with each group including a couple of level II or III students. Each evolution would start with exercise intended to exhaust the participant (mine for instance was 40 mountain climbers, ten dirty burpies, 20 mountain climbers, five dirty burpies, 10 mountain climbers, and five more dirty burpies), with the pressure test beginning the moment the participant finished the exercises. The four other students were expected to steadily attack the participant, with grabs, chokes, punches or kicks, with at least one ‘go to the ground’. If the participant did not manage to regain his feet from the bottom position within ~5 seconds, all four aggressors would begin thumping on him. (my school subscribes to the theory that your opponent is presumed to always be better then you, always have a weapon, and always have friends. Our doctrine is that staying on the ground grappling is a great way to get kicked to death by your opponent’s friends. We’re taught to do damage and regain our feet ASAP) We were expected as aggressors to keep a constant, steady pressure of attacks up with no breaks for the participant, but not to simply ‘mob’ them. As a participant (at my level), we were expected to meet chokes with a windmill, palm strike or other level I defense, expected to get a rhino block / #6 elbow up and burst into punches with a counterattack, steadily step off line, block solidly, be proactive rather then purely reactive and keep a decent fence up. Testing was supposed to go for three minutes, but there was some sort of oversight and mine lasted for about a week and a half. This was purely a combatives test – some of our tests are ‘fight your way to the exit’ based rather then time based.
Some of my screw-ups included trying to throw knees when an aggressor would try to shoot into me instead of driving their head down or sprawling, grabbing onto opponents instead of dealing with them quickly enough to be able to deal with the next threat, and reverting to TKD closed fist punches, high kicks etc. When I went to the ground, my opponent was in a committed choke, with his weight on his arms. Instead of first nailing him in the eyes / face to drive him back, I ‘swam’ out of his grip and tried to get outside of his left leg while grabbing his left arm so I could roll him. Worked in a half-ass way, but I could have gotten some solid fight-stopping licks in first. The feedback I received from the instructor and other students was on target, useful and to the point. I learned a tremendous amount about where I am in my skills and what I need to work on.
Everyone did the exercises before each evolution, not just the participant. I was the third in my group to test, so I’d done the exercise portion three times and been an aggressor twice, all in rapid succession, before my test came up. I felt completely out of gas before my test even started. It’s amazing how much energy you can find when you really reach down deep though. When others are too tired to fight anymore, a Kravist is just getting started.
I guess I’d better clarify; this was an exposure to pressure testing, not the actual ‘advance a level’ pressure test. I’m a level I student, and won’t be looking at level II for several months. Our level II test is six minutes rather then three.Re: My first pressure test
quote Kevin Mack:fyi..thats a CKM test not Krav MagaI didn’t recognize a term or two, and this could be why. BUT…that seems like a solid test of skills and heart, regardless of which system uses it, no? What is a Rhino block?
Re: My first pressure test
I’m a little confused…..doesn’t KMWW pressure test their system? I was always under the impression that we did. How they get there is a bit irrelavent! I have studied with many instructors out of the KMWW camp and did many ‘pressure test’ styled classes. I thought the explanation from tomtrauma was excellent. It makes a lot of sense to pressure the student to se what is hard wired and what isn’t. A flinch response is just that. When you can use the response as an action it seems to me to have more value. But what do I know, I have only done this since the 8o’s. It would be a shame to let this thread turn into a my Krav is better than yours bs. Just learning something to save your ass in the street makes sense, to me anyway. Carry-on.
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