Another Week of Krav Maga Training

The 7:30pm class Monday night primarily drilled on fighting ranges and the continuous and smooth flow of counterattacks (retzev). We warmed up with shadowboxing using combatives that involve different fighting ranges, i.e., straight punches, hook punches, elbow strikes, knee strikes and kicks.

We practiced the retzev by drilling on Level 1 chokes and with some choreographed fighting. The choreographed fighting sequence went something like the following:

Partner: holding focus mitts

You: left jab, right cross, reload hips, right low round kick

Partner: right cross

You: inside defense

Partner: left hook

You: covering, left hook, right cross, reload hips, right low round kick

Partner: right low round kick

You: left shin defense, left jab, right cross, reload hips, right low round kick

Wednesday’s ground fighting night was a marathon rolling event. One of the aims of the class was to slow things down a bit, particularly for the beginners. Typically, beginners overexert themselves and because of that, they tire quickly. The idea was for them to take their time so that they could figure out what was going on and then try and deal with it.

One person started on his back with someone in his guard. In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, this is considered a neutral position. Everyone else waited his turn to wrestle the person on his back. When the instructor said go, both combatants jockeyed for a submission. The time limit was one minute per round.

What made it a marathon event was that the person on his back had to wrestle everyone in the class! Once everyone had their turn starting on their back, we wrestled everyone one more time.

The rest of the class involved a review of the Americana arm lock and practicing a new defense against it.

A 3-hour seminar was held today. Suggestions were requested during the week for what students would like to drill.

We started out with some distancing drills and then we moved on to:

• Overhead stick defense
• Reverse horizontal swing stick defense
• Handgun defense from the front
• Handgun defense from behind
• On the ground and on your back defending against a knife or handgun
• Third party protection

As is typical in our Krav Maga classes, we had some closed eyes drills whereby you didn’t know whether you were going to be attacked with a stick, knife or handgun until you opened your eyes.

The third party protection drills raised some concerned issues relative to an assailant taking your significant other as a hostage. What basic facts apply to all hostage situations? Go here to read about hostage situations and how negotiation works.

I’d like to sum this post up with a quote from a book I’m reading by Rory Miller. The title of the book is Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence. In the book, Mr. Miller defines self-defense the following way:

It is recovery from stupidity or bad luck, from finding yourself in a position you would have given almost anything to prevent. It is difficult to train for because of the surprise element and because you may be injured before you are aware of the conflict. The critical element is to overcome the shock and surprise so that you can act, to “beat the freeze.” Self-defense is about recovery. The ideal is to prevent the situation. The optimal mindset is often a conditioned response that requires no thought (for the first half-second of the attack) or a focused rage.