Scenario-based training engages all three learning domains (cognitive, psychomotor, and affective), is interactive and dynamic, and requires time-pressured decisions. Learning within the domains enables students to understand a concept, perform a task, or alter a behavior.
Cognitive (Knowledge)
Cognition is a general concept that refers to all forms of knowing, including perceiving, imagining, reasoning, and judging. It is the foundation for the other two domains. Cognition enables a person to apply knowledge (what) to perform a task or skill (how) and understand and accept the reasoning (why) behind the basic concept.
Psychomotor (Skills)
Psychomotor refers to skills involving knowledge learned through the senses that is applied to physical movement. Learning is developed through repeated practice of the skill.
Affective (Attitude)
Affective learning involves how individuals deal with issues emotionally and includes traits like individual awareness and values.
Okay… enough about effective learning.
Last night’s class began with warm-up drills involving:
- Controlling and moving an attacker
- Controlling and moving an attacker while counterattacking
- Controlling and moving an attacker while defending against body strikes
- Defending against a knife threat, bursting forward diagonally delivering a front kick to the groin, and then escaping
Here are last night’s scenarios.
Side-by-Side Scenario
For this scenario, we had to have our eyes closed. We couldn’t open our eyes until the attacker said, “Hey!” At that point, we would then know who was being threatened.
Your significant other, friend, etc. is standing beside you. An attacker approaches threatening with a knife. Who makes the defense? Do you both make the defense? If you’re trained, but the knife isn’t pointed toward you and your partner isn’t trained, do you make the defense?
Hostage Scenario
Your significant other, friend, etc. is taken as a hostage at knifepoint. The assailant is backing away from you with him/her. What do you do? Do you try to de-escalate the situation by talking to the assailant? Do you throw your wallet or any other valuables in the direction of the assailant? Do you rush the assailant?
Two Attackers Scenario
In this scenario, we were attacked by two knife wielding assailants. I had fun with this one. I moved myself into a position where attacker #1 was blocking attacker #2. I immediately neutralized attacker #1 and then I used him as a shield against attacker #2. While I was controlling attacker #1 and using him as a shield, I was able to deliver a sidekick to the liver of attacker #2 driving him back. I then drove attacker #1 to the ground using a wristlock. I disarmed him and then terminated him. The termination was a no no since I had eliminated the threat once I put the assailant on the ground. I got a little carried away. I didn’t get a chance to finish off attacker #2 because it was time to change roles in the scenario.
The Shadow Scenario
This scenario had your partner holding a knife with his back towards you. Whichever direction he moved, you had to follow (shadow) him. Picture a NFL football game with a defensive cornerback shadowing an offensive wide receiver. At some point, your partner turned and attacked you with the knife. It was very stressful. Because of my proximity to my partner and the swiftness of his attack, it was hard to judge his angle of attack. One of my defenses was jamming the knife against his body and driving him to the ground. Hitting the ground took the wind out of him and allowed me to disarm him and do a little ground and pound. The technique is not at the top of my list for defenses, but it worked under the circumstances.
Our lead instructor explained that you’re going to find yourself in certain situations that are a bit different from in class. He stated that you’re not going to be able to go to “the book” and find the technique for that particular situation. That’s why Krav Maga is a system of principles and not techniques.
Anytime you’re involved in a confrontation, look at it like a pool game. Every time you shoot a game of pool, the balls are not going to line up the same way. You’re going to make shots that you have probably never made before. The shots may look the same, but they are off just a fraction of an inch. As in pool, you need to understand the underlining principles. Then you’ll be able to improvise like a Jazz musician and suit the scene perfectly.
