@crash20
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Re: Never in a fight before.
Well you are right about that whole practice thing Magpie. I have had very little time to practice the white to yellow belt stuff and I am holding off till I understand the yellow to orange belt stuff because I have been to only a few of those classes and It is easy for me to start practicing something incorrectly and then I have trouble undoing what I learned. So I have not been putting as much into it as I should have. The other problem is that I find it difficult to work with some people, of course this is about me and not them. Some people are really good and fast and I have trouble slowing them down or speeding up. Some people are very awkward and step on you and fall on top of you. Some people are very large like the guy I was working with the other day, I was unable to get my hands around his full neck for the choke and with the choke with the pull from behind he would land on top of me and I found myself falling over or in some cases I needed to take a larger step to compensate for his greater height, etc. So the problem is to learn to make adjustments and not go away feeling like I am starting from scratch. So practice makes perfect yes but how do you prepare for dealing with people who move so differently from you or who are so different in size than you, once and a while it is someone much shorter than me which is also difficult? While we are on it another problem I have is keeping my wrist straight for my punches. I get comments on it all the time. I have heard that push ups on your fist helps but I don’t see any improvement so far. I have heard that practicing with a wall is good practice but so far I am still doing it. Anyone have any ideas on how to get my body to keep the wrist straight while punching? Thanks for your reply I like the statement that I “Keep on keepin’ on, Crash. You’re right where you’re supposed to be, and right on time”.
Re: Never in a fight before.
Thanks for the responses everyone, they were insightful and helpful. I am trying to be less judgmental of myself and making the attempt to enjoy my passage on this earth and the decisions that I have made on this journey. As I think popeye used to say “I am what I am”. I am not a fighter and in hostile, dangerous cases I have been able to remove myself from the situation. I now have come to the understanding that this is a good thing. Further I have also come to the realization that there could come a time when I won’t be able to sidestep my way out of an actual attack. To that end I must congratulate myself on taking the steps that I feel will prepare me for such an event. Most of my friends think I am crazy because in their minds no one would attack a large somewhat in shape black man, based on how often someone decides to get in my face or some patient of mine asks me if I have ever been in a fight I know that being large and black does not protect me. I also understand from class that if attacked chances are the attacker will be larger than me and well prepared and committed to get the results they are after. As far as confidence and masculinity are concerned I do feel more confident from these classes and more connected to my masculinity. I guess I feel more confident because I am doing something that directly answers questions I have had ie what would I do if something happened and also because I am getting a little better at it. The Masculine thing comes about I guess because for me this is the most sports oriented thing I have done and while doing it I find myself in positions and a stance that are unusual for me plus I am pushing myself in a way that I rarely do so I leave class feeling pretty pumped and excited about it. To that end I guess the question of my manhood and what kind of man I am is answered by the fact that I took a little over a year to earn my yellow belt but earn it I did. I worked as much overtime as I could to pay for it. I often arrived at home as late as 11pm from taking classes or finding people to practice with. I have worked hard at maintaining my marriage with all the stress this puts on us when he has dinner alone or I can talk about nothing other than how hard the defense from a headlock from the side is. Now I find myself struggling in the new yellow belt classes, (I know I just got there) and worst of all find that when I take the white and yellow belt classes I am still doing several of the techniques wrong and getting the same corrections and facing a wall of frustration. Never the less the type of man I am is that even after last nights difficult class doing the same old choke from the front with a push and from the rear with a pull and with a push I had trouble doing them with the huge guy I was working with that left me feeling not only frustrated but embarrassed. The fact is that I am going back and will keep training for as long as I can hold up. Thanks for all the helpful words and reading my many walls of text.
Re: Can’t get pass the white belt level and now I can’t sleep
Thanks everyone can’t tell you how important the support I get here has been. My school is becoming more and more supportive as we all become more comfortable with each other. I have not cracked my way into their forum yet, so far most of the things I post there get no responses, unlike here. So you are all so right about the comparison thing. I took my first yellow belt and up class the other night. It is a pad work class. This is perfect for me since I have no experience in punching and kicking outside of the classes and since I have a condition that suggest I not take repeated blows to the head. They started it about two weeks before my yellow belt test and actually spoke to me about it before hand. It was great so hard I was afraid I might pass out. I usually get leg cramps at night between the classes my job working in a nursing home and walking and running for trains for my hour and 15 min commute to work everyday. This has been under control lately with lots of water stretching and Magnesium supplements. However during this class that involved endless kicking I started to cramp up. This was wednesday and I am still sore now. At any rate the guy I was training with is one of those people that just eased his way through to yellow belt. Don’t get me wrong he deserved it, he is good every kick nearly knocked me over and I am twice his size, but he got a lot of corrections, it was then I heard you guys and realized we are just all on our on paths with this stuff and I really have to keep myself focused on my own journey. So that is an end to my usual wall of text as someone referred to one of my posts the other day. Here now is my wall of questions, I need to buy more Gi pants. The school has their own and prefer us to buy from them but the are 60 dollars and I use them often enough that I don’t have time to hang dry them and they shrink. I noticed that they have patches so I am thinking of buying a few and putting on a patch. Anyone know of a good place and by that I mean affordable place to buy Gi Pants.
Re: Can’t get pass the white belt level and now I can’t sleep
Thanks for the congrats everyone it is two days after the test and I’m still floating. I’m trying to enjoy it because the way my brain works I am already starting to freak out over the next stuff, you know what classes do I take how far behind the other yellow belts that I started with will I be. How am I going to find the money for the pads the gloves and so on. In fact I start over time again this week in the hopes that I will make up some of the money. How do I deal with the previously injured leg and my disorder that I mentioned in another thread. Right now I’m trying to remember how to tie the belt. They explained it in the ceremony but I was in my head going over and over again hey you did it you passed. So anyone know of a good video that shows the correct way to tie a krav maga belt properly.
Re: Can’t get pass the white belt level and now I can’t sleep
It is done my friends the yellow belt quest is over. I tested this afternoon and it went well enough. I am a yellow belt. Thanks for all of your help.
Re: Welcome -cmon Introduce Yourself
Hi Northern Sol, welcome. It is without a doubt addictive. I have been taking classes on and off for the last year now. I must admit that I have had my ups and downs with it, but overall it has been fun informative and given my body and brain something new to learn to say nothing of the fact that it has helped to make me a little more confidante.
Re: Never in a fight before.
Thank you all for your relies. I myself am not sure what the real question was. I don’t plan on being in any fights of any kind anywhere if I can help it. I know fighting is never the answer. It is just that several things were going through my mind. I questioned my masculinity because as I stated before I am one of those guys since childhood and still today that gets labeled as girly. Mind you there is nothing wrong with girls or women but I don’t feel or intend to respond in any way like a girl. So when it comes up I get thrown for a loop. So when it happened at work the other day my first thought was Krav Maga and how much I am struggling to move forward and how so many of the guys I have started with have just pushed through. Now I know I am on my own path and I need not look at the progress of others in anyway as a judgment on me, but that day when girly was thrown in my direction it dawned on me that maybe my not being one of the boys in class is what is slowing me down. Maybe my general non-masculine unrecognized by me approach to things is either holding me back or having an effect on the way that the instructors and classmates see me. So that is the first question is it possible that being gay and fairly non sports oriented be holding me back? Then I thought well there are girls in the class and the school they by the way are also excelling better than me. Later on the internet somewhere I saw mention of Krav Maga classes for women. I don’t know if that is just about a comfort level for them or about different techniques for women vs men. That was the second question if there are different classes and techniques for women than me why would that be needed if Krav Maga is not about overpowering someone? Then I took class that day and had the talk with my classmate in the locker room who I had assumed was gay only to find out he was not and had been in lots of fights. This again made me question myself was I somehow less of a man by not having stood up for myself all of those times that I basically ran away from a fight? Another question that I did not ask is will I revert to running and hiding should something come up where I am attacked rather than defending myself? Of course we will never know that one for sure until god forbid something happens? Then it occurred to me that I am looking for more out of Krav Maga then I thought, can one gain a stronger sense of one’s masculinity from training or would that be a false sense? At any rate I know this just like working on my defensive stance I have to find where I am comfortable. Thanks again for all of the thoughtful responses.
Re: Can’t get pass the white belt level and now I can’t sleep
Thanks cinnamongirl and KMKY both, responses and videos were both helpful. It does seem to me that for the headlock from the side my problem is getting in tight or close enough so that when I have them they remain under my control and locking down the elbow. I’m still not sure if the elbow should be down to his back or down to my side or a bit of both. Also the youtube demo from KMKY mentions another problem. it in fact sounds like he is going to give an answer but then it gets cut off. That is when I bring they attacker down occasionally I go with him. So the next question for this one is how to keep my balance as he goes down in order to deliver the next strike which for us is a foot stomp to the face. The choke from the rear with a push I am for sure stepping at an angle as I am pushed forward. The questions are is it too much or too little of an angle and watching it I am now wondering if the foot I crossed over should be turning at the same time somehow. In fact I think that is it. We stand in neutral we are pushed forward we cross over our left leg to the right at a 45 degree angle, left hand protects the face right hand goes across the top of the head with no space and turning all the way around pass his hold and then when lined up deliver the hammer strike. However when I do it I just realized that my left leg that is crossed over is the only leg turning. So maybe you are suppose to turn the right foot somehow at the same time, maybe in fact rather than a pivot an actual pick it up and take a step. The last one is the shoulder pull from the rear. I have not found a video for it but as I am turned around with the shoulder pull I lose balance. Any ideas on that one? Thanks guys it is hard to ask these questions in class all the time. So many people have questions and we are all running around trying to get a roll in or a few min with the punching bag or whatever, it helps to have somewhere to ask these questions.
Re: Can’t get pass the white belt level and now I can’t sleep
Ok here is an update to my journey from white to yellow belt. After the massive failure of my first workshop, where they tell you, you can go on to test or not several things happened. One they changed some of the procedures so that the workshop was easier to get into and took place more frequently. Second I kept going to classes and did my best to ignore everyone as one white belt after another passed into the hard to reach yellow belt zone and I became known as the veteran white belt. Also now to take the workshop you have to be recommended by an instructor. So everytime someone asks when I will take the workshop including the instructors I said I am not ready. Not too long ago an instructor recommended me. One day I started feeling a little confidante and asked to sign up for a workshop. Don’t get too excited the results from the workshop were that he felt that I was close but there were a few things he thinks we still need to work on but maybe by the next testing I maybe ready. So at last some progress. In my head the problems are. One the head lock from the side. It is a move I can do sometimes with certain people but not all people. I have trouble with three people imparticular two are very tall and large and then tend to go limp and down as soon as my finger is in place across their nose and they go down before I have time to take the last step and put them down between my legs. The third person is small and wiry and all over the place and is down almost before I’m near her. The response I get is always that is on you, you don’t have control, which I get because clearly I don’t. The next one is the shoulder pull from the rear, as I turn to punch I fall off balance. I can’t seem to turn into a wide enough stance to keep my balance and do the strike. The third is basically the same the choke from the rear with a push after I cross over and turn around to face the attacker One I am off balance and two my feet are not facing fully the attacker and three I am not line up to his center properly in order to deliver the final hammer strike. There are other problems of course but those are the main ones from what I can tell. Any help as always is appreciated.
Re: How long did you spend at each level?
Magpie as you know already I am still working on L1 or for us it is testing into the yellow belt class. I was just going over it in my head and I think I am coming up on about 10 months or so. I go often between two to four classes a week depending on fatigue level and work hours. I am asked all the time by the new people how long have you been doing this and the old people that have tested out already when are you testing. I go back and forth between shame of not progressing faster and I am on my on path kind of thing. It is quite difficult when you are in a room with a bunch of somewhat aggressive people, trying to stay cool and keep my head together.
Re: Welcome -cmon Introduce Yourself
Hey Goldenholden,
Welcome, I have found this forum to be very helpful and supportive. I hope you find the same.Re: epilepsy
Thanks Quasior, I feel the same way. I have several physical issues. One is a former and now not as stable broken leg from ten years ago and now this epilepsy stuff. It would be devastating enough to be attacked by someone or someones let alone to have an episode as a result of an attack or to reinjury my leg. So it seems to me that I need to know not alone how to defend myself but how to protect my head and my leg. By the way I did speak to one of the instructors the other day and he was very positive about it. His comments were that other people have certain issue that require attention but they are able to participate. I should talk to the head of the school. I may have to wear headgear and limit my sparring which I have not done fully yet. So it seems like there may still be a way.
Re: epilepsy
Well this is why I ask. The neurologist made a similar statement. Yet I read things were guys with this disorder are practicing contact sports. One of them was doing some sort of Martial Art some are doing things like football. In their cases it seems they just have to work with the understanding that they have to somehow keep watch. So my thought is I’m training to learn to protect myself not to be in a competition. If I am ever attacked no one will say wait wait do you have epilepsy in which case I need to know how to protect my head and deliver a punch. So how do people with disabilities train.
Re: leg cramps after class most often during sleep
Thanks for the response. I have seen doctors about this before and they so far have never had anything to report. Sunday night I skipped class. However I did go to the gym and did some legs was very tired so only did the machined no free weights and for the most part relaxed for the evening. I was sure I would cramp I had that tight twitchy feeling. So I took a supplement called muscle ease which has some magnesium in it and some energy c which has a fair amount of potassium in it. I then used the foam roller and rolled everything out and had no cramps that night. Yesterday Monday I worked had 12 patients and was late so found myself running for subways racing for patients and then racing to class. Class focused on a lot of kicks. I raced home eat and was in bed by 10pm. before bed I took the same supplements but forgot the foam roller and had major ankle cramps throughout the early morning hours.
