@tzrider
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Re: Returning to Krav Training After 6+ Months Away
I haven’t laid off as long but took time off for a neck injury. Have had periods when I was more fit and less fit.
If you’re well enough to train, go back and train. Don’t re-injure yourself. Your fitness level will come back.
Re: Getting rid of old habits
quote Jdr_stw:2) I think both my punches and strikes are pretty hard, but my reflexes are slow and my coordination is not so great.A lot of great input so far. On the above point, it’s easy to attribute a slow response to reflexes, when the problem is really something else. To react properly to an attack, you have to see the attack, recognize what it is and choose an appropriate response to it.
It takes repetition even to reliably determine what the attack is. To others’ points about going slower, those slow repetitions help train you to see various attacks for what they are. That’s the first step in having the right response.
Drilling the attacks of course also gives you needed repetitions on the responses. The more repetitions you have, the more quickly you will choose the right response.
Along similar lines, as a senior student in class last night, the instructor had the other students attack me by surprise with various weapons. Everything went the way I’ve drilled it until someone with a long gun rushed in and attacked with a butt-stroke instead of pointing the gun at me.
We don’t drill that scenario and as you might guess, I hesitated. Thinking about it afterward, I redirected the attack similarly to defending an overhead stick attack. It would have worked, I think, but then transitioning to a counter attack and disarm was awkward. I see I have room for improvement in generalizing various attacks to try to make faster decisions when someone attacks me a little differently than i have seen before. This wasn’t slow reflexes exactly, it was slow decision making because I was uncertain what I was dealing with.
Re: Holding the focus mitt and hook punches
I notice some people holding a focus mitt with their forearm almost vertical, which allows it to twist the shoulder joint when a partner throws a hook. With less bend in your elbow and your forearm off vertical, the blow should swing your whole arm to the side, which is a lot easier on you.
If your wrist is fairly firm, this will also give your partner enough resistance without you having to bat at his hand. When partners are too enthusiastic about “meeting” the punch, they end up stuffing the punch by being too early. The less of that you have to do to offer resistance, the better.
Re: Krav Maga Testing Styles (failed 1st test)
At our school it’s standard for lower level tests to run about four hours and higher level ones to run six or more. There is no class component to the test. You’re there to test, not for a review. There is also no written test. I think our instructors’ only interest in pens or pencils is in their potential as improvised weapons. 😉
The first portion of the tests is an extended warm-up. This serves to warm you up to help prevent injury, but also to get you tired. The instructors want to see how you do when you’re tired and at a disadvantage, as those are the conditions Krav is training you to operate in. The instructors do take this into account. Their expectations factor in the fact that they’ve worn you out and your current level. They expect techniques to look very good for a brown belt and allow for the inevitable errors at lower levels. In all cases, they expect the student to “stay in the fight” and to be as effective as they are able to be.
The intensity does vary throughout the test, but you keep moving the whole time. The combative tend to be very cardio intensive, while evaluating breakfalls and ground techniques are less so. In a four hour test the students may get three or four 90 second breaks for water.
Re: Beginners’ Injuries
quote SCH_Thurston:My advice – which as it happens I am taking myself as I enter this new year – is to slow down in classes and as far as possible pay attention to what I’m doing. Where is that back foot? Is my elbow really level in this hook? What prime targets did I just fail to spot by resorting to the same combatives I did the previous round? Now, in doing this I don’t expect to go home quite as sweaty or tired as I could, but that is the point. There are no guarantees but one likely side-effect (provided nobody kicks yer knees out by accident!) is that you should reduce the chances of injury.As for that “KM not right for you” rubbish, put it out of your head!!!! KM is right for everyone!!! The less athletic and older we are the more we need it.
Thurston nailed it with the bold above.
The only think I can think of to add is that injuries tell you something about areas of your body that are vulnerable to certain motions. Learn from that and change your training routine to minimize aggravating that body part.
In my own case, at 53 years old with a lot of hard miles on, my elbows aren’t what they used to be. They both grind a bit and have range of motion limitations; they don’t bend as far as most other people’s. That makes some defenses problematic, like plucking off a choke from behind. I can’t do that very well at all and if I try to drill it too many times, the technique doesn’t improve but my elbows hurt like hell. This is an area where I have had to devise an alternate way of plucking off the choke.
Re: seeking advice about a local gym
quote Ma_Ria:When I questioned it, I was told to just trust them that the training was good and that the plan was none of my business.I would interpret that to mean there is no plan.
Re: Guys what we’ve been learning this whole time isn’t True Krav Maga
quote Pfff:I’m tired of fighting with dumb people.Time to change schools? :D:
Re: This is a tough introduction.
quote Defiance:I am a survivor, if you know what that means. Recently, one of my abusers has been coming around. I don’t feel safe because I am not safe. He’s threatened me. I cannot change the exposure to him that I have so please don’t suggest the police or something of the like. I simply need to learn how to protect myself.But I am scared to try this knowing it will trigger me. I’m in a good head space mostly about what he did to me. But it will trigger me and I almost need it to. When this person, who is larger, stronger, and significantly more fit than I, comes at me, I freeze. I go numb and my brain stops. I can’t afford that anymore. I need to fix it.
It sounds like you have good reason to learn to defend yourself. There may be things about the process that are uncomfortable at first, but you know that if you are to improve your situation you’ll have to confront your fears.
The best way I know of to do that with anything you’re afraid of is through progressive desensitization. As you research schools, get in touch with them; explain your situation and concerns. See if they have an approach that addresses those concerns and try to be open to the possibility that they will go about it in a different way than you have envisioned. You might ask if they have trained other abuse victims in the past. If they have, they have some reality on the subject.
There are a couple of Krav Maga Worldwide affiliates listed for Pittsburg: https://kravmaga.com/pennsylvania/ If you haven’t already found them, it’s a place to start.
I wouldn’t wait to begin training until you’re “more fit.” In my experience, people who say that never get around to training in Krav. Better to come to class and do what you can. Over time your fitness level will improve, you’ll gain the skills you seek and you’ll probably feel pretty good.
Re: Bag but not partner
What’s the application? Are you sparring or doing some other drill?
When you say you can’t hit him, what is happening instead? Are you missing? If so, are your punches coming up short or are they off target to the side (or high/low)?
Re: Legal aspects of self defense
There may have been other threads on the topic, but this one may be interesting for a start: https://kravmaga.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3024
Re: Weapons?
quote CJs Dad:And evidently he has a smaller curriculum than the rest of us too.“KRav has 2 main stick defenses.”
Not sure where he’s training, but IKMA has a single defense that applies to overhead, from the side (1 or 2 handed) and an attack to the knee from the side. They have a slightly different variation for off angle. That would generally qualify as two defenses.
If he’s not training with IKMA, then I don’t know what he’s talking about.
Re: Bad Sparring
quote bear34:Inexperience(helpless or careless) TKD students who had never taken a Krav class and wanted to practice head kicks and, worst of all, MMA guys who were actually training for fights.There was a TKD student who had begun sparring with some of us after having trained in Krav for quite a while. His intensity was totally appropriate and he played by the rules given.
He did have some ideas left over from point sparring, including double kicks; starting low and finishing high. The kicks are an efficient way to score in a TKD match, but they don’t have a whole lot of power. He tried that on me three times. The first time he fooled me and landed a round kick to the head after I blocked the first kick to the body. The next two times I kicked him in the groin since he had it exposed so long.
He quit doing it.
Re: Bad Sparring
Some guys confuse being a training partner with being an opponent. Good advice to talk to the instructor and perhaps avoid that partner. You’d like to think that most people can be coached into appropriate behavior, but there are a few knuckleheads out there.
Re: Balancing Aggression With Tactical Caution
quote Don:I was expecting one of them to get KTFO keeping their chins up like that but I guess since they were scoring at will on those low/mid level kicks… 😀Kinda makes me wish I had a tail. ;):
Re: Balancing Aggression With Tactical Caution
Here is another street fight that is more similar to sparring:
