- This topic has 22 replies, 19 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
What were your personal reasons for taking up self defense/hand to hand combat training… more specifically, Krav Maga?
I’ve been on the receiving end of inappropriate, aggressive behavior and realized how helpless I was. For this reason, I insist my girls learn self defense. And I can’t ask them to do something I won’t.
I chose Krav because it seemed practical. I don’t want to compete in sparring contests, I don’t want to perform katas. I want to hurt the next guy who thinks he can force himself on me. Krav addresses this nicely.
why
Bro,
Accountants……thats my reason(I work in finance). They were pissin’ me off a couple years back and my spouse said I needed a place to dissplell my agitation.LOL 😀
Well, the reason was it’s no nonsense emphasis on SD. That and I like working out with LEO’s and Feds. Where else can you go and get a shot in on a LEO w/o getting tasered. 😈
The teachings of KM fit my personal beliefs. This is the real reason!!!!
I remember watching my mentally ill older brother getting kicked while he was on the ground by this huge guy who was always pickin on him. I was maybe 10 years old, and I remember wanting to pick up the rock that was right infront of me and chucking it at the guy. But I couldn’t, I was completely frozen. THat powerlessness was one of the worst feelings I have ever felt. This was after we came to the states.
In Poland I grew up with a good deal of violence, where it was a lot more common but also a lot \”friendlier.\” If people had a disagreement they would fight it out untill they get tired or somebody got a bloody nose and then call it quits. You would probably end up being better friends after the fight than before. In Chicago there was a much bigger gang mentality and it was much more vicious. If you had a problem with one kid you would have to get through 4. And they wouldn’t let you bow out gracefully if you lost either.
I didn’t actually start Krav Maga untill much more recently. I was walking to my car after a calculus exam and I saw a guy walking towards me on the same sidewalk. Alarm bells instantly went off. Something about his walk that disturbed me. I tried to tell myself I was just being paranoid, since I do often read way too much into people’s body language, usually noting the negatives. Anyway, as I was getting closer to the guy I noticed he was coming to my side of the sidewalk. More alarm bells, yet I didn’t do anything. When he was at arms lenght he said \”whats up fa****\” and he hit me in the chest. I didn’t react at all, I just kinda stood there and managed a \”go eff yourself\” and then I finally squared off with him. Fortunatley he kept on walking. But it worried me that I didn’t trust my gut instincts because I didn’t want to offend anyone. He could have just as easily stabbed me in the face. I decided it was finally time to re-embrace my violent side and trust my instincts again.
I found Bas Rutten’s Lethal Self Defense DVD and watched it. He mentioned Krav Maga and I wanted to learn more.
Saw a great show on Discovery Channel that included Krav Maga. I was referred to a local school by an acquaintance, observed a class, and was hooked.
I don’t have the patience to learn forms or anything that is not practical or relevant to today’s street.
Also I am a white collar guy so don’t want to get all banged up in the face from sparring. Bruised forearms from 360 defenses are OK though.
Aggression Management: Much better to hit pads and scream than to get an ulcer from keeping it inside.
Style: What everyone always saysÖit makes sense.
The People: Krav just seems to attract a good audience. Whether people with similar backgrounds to me and or people that sincerely want to learn to defend themselves. Very few cocky and or overly self-confident types.
Instructors: I just click with the instructors where I go. They make it intense and fun. More about mutual respect than forced respect.
The workout: I have been around MAís all my life and I can say without a doubt that I am more tired after a Krav class than with any other MA. My time is limiteds so I need to combine my physical activities.
A lot of what other people said, but also I grew up doing traditional MA’s and it frustrated me that I felt like it was up to me to reinterpret and reapply the principles for street self-defense. Also, there were two or three instances where I was in danger, I should have known what to do, and didn’t, because traditional martial arts didn’t prepare me for them. I never got hurt b/c I still used my brain in those situations, but it worried me. Then my wife decided she wanted to be a Social Worker in inner-city Baltimore, and the issue got a bit more urgent.
Also, in traditional martial arts, the emphasis was on control. I saw people who had no aggression or competitiveness excel because they were \”in control\” And I was painted the bad guy because when I sparred these guys, I would injure them. We probably had similar technical skill, but I knew as a black belt I should be able to take a hard shot, and give a hard shot, and these guys didn’t agree. When I started doing Krav, no one ever made me apologize for going 100%.
As an instructor I love the fact that they value good communication skills. I was constantly frustrated by trying to learn from good practitioners of martial arts who were also poor teachers.
Cause I want to be like J-Lo
Not really, I haven’t even seen that movie….
I agree with what many people have said above. I did not want to learn Kata’s. I wanted to learn a form that would be effective immediatly, not after years of mastery.
I have heard too many stories of black belt’s in traditional forms getting their butts kicked in street fights because all they trained for was point sparring.
But what got me hooked…as we were doing bag drills on my first night of class during my free introductory week, my instructor walked by screaming in my ear like a drill sergent – \”Kick that bag HARDER! If you walk downstairs at 3am and there are 4 guys breaking into your house, you are not going to win that fight. That means you have to kick the first guy so hard that his friends run in fear. KICK THAT BAG HARDER!\”….and then I went to the bathroom and puked.
How could I not sign up after that?
Why Krav Maga?–best system I’ve encountered for dealing with real world threats and attacks. Great schools (Philadelphia, Long Island, NTC), great teachers (same places), the right \”attitude\” for a system, ie., fight to win!
Why NOT Krav Maga? The FORUM has alerted me to the back-fighting that is going on in the organization(s). Very unpleasant.
I think most of my reasons have been posted by others. I grew tired of doing forms, tired of kicking and punching air. I wanted more than a sport, and all the tournament rules where it isnt always the best fighter who gets the gold. I wanted something useful in real life situations, a realistic and pure \”Self Defense\”. I thrive on the \”martial\” more then the \”art.\” I enjoy fighting in class. I wanted a No Holds Barred approach in MA. Also I want to be able to confidently walk where ever I damn well please with out fear of harm.
I had always wanted to try something in the martial arts, but wasn’t interested in the cultural stuff that went along with it.
I wanted to DO something, not study it.
Boxing interested me, but it seemed a little one-sided.
I wanted to feel like, should I be attacked (knock wood), that I could do something about it.
And I wanted to work out hard hard hard.
KM is exactly what I was looking for but couldn’t describe.
I took TKD for a few years and, after witnessing and experiencing a few fights, I instinctively knew that TKD was not good for hard core self defense for me (especially on the street) ñ unless and until you become a blackbelt and that takes WAY too long. So I began boxing and re-introduced myself to wrestling. I happened to see the Discovery (History?) Channel presentation of the top martial arts and saw Krav Maga. I instinctively knew that this was the one for me. Fortunately I found a school shortly after that.
The rest, as the say, is history. And a very satisfying one at that!!!
Just my 2 rubles…
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
