Regarding Chronic Head Injury, Sparring and Krav Maga

[timford]

Hi guys how’s it going,

I really want to learn practical self defense. I’m 26, and am a firm believer that a man should know how to defend himself. I’m not confrontational but I don’t want to be walked all over by people who are overstepping their boundaries.

I did boxing for a year and learned a lot, but at the same time I got my head hit REALLY hard a few times and had some post concussive symptoms, that led to even bouts of depression for a couple of months following.

For those of you who have done Krav Maga for a while… Can you learn it without the 100% full contact punching to the face? The reason I ask is because so much of fighting is adrenaline. If you know someone is going with 20% intensity, you aren’t scared. Part of fighting is being comfortable knowing someone is actually trying to hurt you, as opposed to letting the fight or flight adrenaline kick in. You hear all the pro MMA guys, they say it’s about staying relaxed.

If I start Krav Maga, will I learn how to diffuse a drunk guy at a bar getting in my face? Or another drunk guy throwing a haymaker at me.

I work in Finance and don’t want to lose my faculties like these NFL players and boxers do, but I do feel that JUST technique can’t get you very far because in a real fight, theres always that fear that ****, this isn’t a plastic knife this is a real knife and this isn’t my Krav Maga sparring partner going at 20%, this guy is trying to kill me.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[jjbklb]

Re: Regarding Chronic Head Injury, Sparring and Krav Maga

I never had 100% punching to the face,even when I sparred later (outside of regular class-time.

BTW
If there is major concern,aren’t there ‘soft’ sparring head gear you could wear during class,after telling your instructor why you brought it?

[kmyoshi]

Boxing gyms are notorious for going hard on newcomers at the gym because they want to see if you have heart. Not the safest training method. Something that really surprised me is that people who compete do not spar as often as you think. They work on conditioning and pad work and spar once or twice a week. This is to prevent injuries that will set them back (hint hint…).

You can learn Krav Maga without sparring at 100% but you will still need to spar to get accustomed to getting hit, recognizing the punches and kicks, how to defend them effectively and firing back with your own. The main thing is to communicate with your sparring partner prior to starting the round about how hard you two should go and to tell them if they are going too hard for you if you get caught. Majority of the time, if someone hits you hard, you’ll want to hit them back just as hard if not harder and thus escalating and then it becomes a pissing contest. Size is also something to take into account. I’ve sparred a guy who had at least 120lbs on me say “go 50%?” and I replied with “whose 50% are we talking about, yours or mine?”
If you’re sparring at 20%, you may not be scared of getting hit but are you able to defend and throw great offensive combinations? I like sparring a bit slower because I can see (feel?) my mistakes as they happen and can correct them more effectively. If I’m unable to slip, and throw effective counters at 20% speed, than I definitely cannot do it at even 50% speed.

With Krav, you will learn how to defend yourself against soft threats (drunk guy) which does not necessarily need to escalate to physical force to a guy throwing a haymaker. However, a haymaker is usually thrown when you’re not looking, distracted/unprepared for it but that is for another thread all together… what I like about Krav’s fighting stance is that it doesn’t look like a fighting stance, so you can have your hands up ready to defend, but it doesn’t look threatening. Krav doesn’t have an official verbal judo curriculum (unfortunately) but basic social skills will help you out of a lot of situations (i.e: not taking someone’s bait of posturing.)

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