The drills that followed involved various Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 defenses, i.e., chokes, headlocks, bearhugs, and hair grabs from all sides. We had to swap our boxing gloves for grappling gloves in order to make the defenses. Of course, the aforementioned drills were the precursor to the class ending stress drill: the training suit drill.
The training suit reminds me of the riot gear that police officers wear. The suit allows you to strike the wearer full force.
The training suit drill began with pre-exhaustion. Two students held Tombstone pads. We had to use hammerfist strikes (imagine pounding your fist on a table demanding something) on the pad being held by the first student and then when instructed, move to the second student and use straight punches. And then, when instructed again, back to the first student to use front kicks to the groin (a Krav Maga favorite).
Immediately after that, we had to spar a student while randomly being attacked by the training suit wearer. The training suit wearer was allowed to use all the attacks we practiced defending against earlier, plus knife and handgun attacks. We were allowed to defend against and counterattack the training suit wearer with more force than we would if he/she was not wearing the suit. Don’t ask me how long this took because as I stated in an earlier post, I don’t like to concentrate on the time. Suffice to say that it was long.
I would love to tell you that I looked like Jet Li defending myself, but I would be lying. With the pre-exhaustion and stress, one goes into survival mode during this kind of drill. This is where the muscle memory comes into play after all of those repetitive drills. You’re not thinking. You’re reacting. My defenses didn’t look pretty, but I got the job done.
