Krav Maga Clearwater

So here we are in the middle of this pandemic and the powers that be have given the ok to open certain businesses and activities under ‘strict guidelines’. Though sometimes you can’t find the guidelines and from what I’ve seen, people aren’t following them anyway. Did you expect them to?

So I get it. Most Krav places and other businesses run for a profit and support their owners. Some are in dire need I’m sure. Places I know are opening back up. I’m not there yet. Maybe I would be if I needed the money – if but for the grace of God, there go I.

But you got to ask yourself, is it safe? Am I doing the prudent thing? Our training by nature is close contact. You are contacting bags, mats, each other, etc. Isn’t the point of all this training to keep ourselves safe? So what kind of training could we be doing ‘alone’ but still with Krav Maga in mind?

So my advice to students has been to do other things that are supplementary to Krav and conditioning. Let’s be a part of flattening a second wave. Cardio, stretching, physical therapy, working on your own bags and mats if you have them. How about just going through techniques through visualization practice?

This of course takes discipline. When you have a class or someplace to go, sometimes it’s easier to show up and get in that good training or work out. But consistency and discipline are key to doing anything well in life. One isn’t just born with Krav principles and techniques. One has to practice them and all of the other affiliated mental and physical conditioning.

You could also take some time out and do all of the other things that you’ve been putting off while training….. 😉

Confidence, self-esteem and self-image are closely related concepts controlled by our own minds. Some people have too much, some too little, but how do you tell?

It’s been generally said that men have too much confidence and women have too little self-esteem. But how did we get there? This begs the question of why. Is it a social thing? Very likely so.

We need to explore why one deserves a level of confidence and self-esteem. I think Lanny Bassham puts it very well in his book, ‘With Winning in Mind’. To Lanny, self-image is related to the skill set. True skill comes from training and practice in the conscious mind building those skills into the subconscious mind  where they can be performed readily, quickly, efficiently and smoothly.  The self-image then improves with one’s realization of the improving skills. Once one realizes the level they are, they can work towards further improvement by using the conscious mind to further better the subconscious.  The triangle of conscious, subconscious and self-image continues and feeds upon itself. If one piece is deficient, one must realize that in order to improve the whole triangle. Certainly you can imagine how one can extrapolate this into a whole life concept.

You might say that one who has lower self-esteem just doesn’t realize yet how good they actually are or how much good they do. I would say that one who has a strong self-image and no skill set is a fool.

 

This one says it better than any I’ve ever read.

http://www.jiujitsubrotherhood.com/the-biggest-lie-in-jiu-jitsu/

Nothing against BJJ. I like BJJ. This is applicable in any fighting system.

Injured myself a bit yesterday. Let me clarify. A bit more than usual. A bit more than all martial artists who have been in it for some time have to deal with on a regular basis. Probably anybody who does any kind of more vigorous activity.

It was my mistake. We were playing rather rough, trying to get closer to reality. Went down on the ground with one training partner and tried to pull off a proper arm bar.  One of my legs was stuck underneath and as I tried to pull it out my partner rolled towards it. Heard and felt two nasty pops in my hip and quite a bit of pain in the frontal muscles. Iliacus to be exact.  Pretty much couldn’t move that knée towards my chest for a while, but it got better and today I’m testing what I can do and stretching. Obviously there has been a lot of ice and heat involved in between. Naproxen.

Perfect 20/20 hindsight, I should have just sat up and smashed my training partner’s face with a hammer fist, or turned a bit to my side and completed the arm bar differently. Certainly either one of those is what I would want do on the street. Not take the time to try for a perfect set up: both legs over the body and face to do the arm bar.

Kind of points towards the inevitability of these things happening. Even training somewhat correctly.  There are going to be mistakes made and people moving in different directions or further then the partner anticipated and crack, boom, shit happens.

Be careful. Approach reality slowly and with complete mindfulness. Then at least when the inevitable happens you had your wits about you and can learn from the experience.  Instead of just being injured and not knowing why.

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/self-defense-techniques

I like this with a few caveats. Number 2: Scream and yell anyway as I teach – NO! Get away! Police! Knife! Etc. Add number 3.

Number 9: Might take a few more than one hit. Might even miss the first one.

Great reading. Very real.

http://chirontraining.blogspot.com

http://sealfit.com/sealfit-blog-10-ways-to-tell-how-fit-you-are/

So as I said in the last post, the first set of principles (and probably the most important) are as follows:1) Stop, remove, or disable the immediate threat while giving simultaneous counterattack if possible. 2) Control the weapons and perform combatives as necessary. 3) Disengage and get away.

Let’s take apart and clarify each one. To stop, remove or disable the threat you have to first understand what a threat is. A punch is a threat. A knife is a threat. A very big angry person screaming at you in front of your face is a threat and a choke is a threat. Obviously there are others. The punch you might stop, deflect, or disable using a block, a small table to stop and disable the fist, or by getting out-of-the-way combined with a deflecting block. The simultaneous counterattack could come in the form of a punch with your non-blocking hand or the small table itself. Realize that the person breaking their hand on the table is also your simultaneous counter attack. If possible means just that. The counterattack may not be at the same time but every effort should be made to practice that way so that one will more likely deliver it that way. 

To control the weapon means you have to control whatever was thrown at you. You also have to realize that something else may be thrown at you at the same time that you are controlling and attacking. You have to block and control that also. You’ve seen examples in class where the strike you’re throwing blocks the threat (i.e. side or back hammer fist where your elbow is blocking your face before your hammer hits his face), but that may not always be the case. To give counterattack as necessary is to follow up with blows or objects so as to finish the attacker. Realize this may not mean to kill or maim. Your objective is only to go home safely. In the words of the law ‘you may use the minimum level of force you reasonably believe is necessary to safely resolve the situation’. Or something like that.

To disengage means to move away from your attacker or move him away from you. To stop your attack because he is not attacking you anymore. This should be done with a push or possibly another strike such as to the knee if he’s still a threat, and with you consciously looking around for any other threats while keeping an eye on your attacker. Then get away and if possible call 911 and report. This is important for several reasons. Just one of which is if you hurt somebody they may turn it around on you as if you were the original attacker. Bad people don’t think fair.

For me, the essence of Krav Maga is very simple and boils down to just a few concepts. One should always keep in mind these principles when practicing Krav Maga, and should progress from closed skills to more a open skill set. This means that one should progress from practicing the techniques and the combination of those techniques to practicing the application of those techniques in reality scenarios concentrating on the principles. 

There are three sets of guiding principles for me. The big picture, if you will. The first set has to do more with the way you fight and the second two sets have more to do with the design of the techniques.

First set: there are basically three stages of a fight. 1) stop, remove, or disable the immediate threat while giving simultaneous counterattack if possible. This most likely is the hardest part of Krav Maga to learn. 2) Control the weapons and perform combatives as necessary. 3) disengage and get away.

Second set: there is nothing all that complex about the techniques in Krav Maga. Krav Maga takes what is usually a natural movement and tries to make it better. This is key. It is also a very efficient fighting system. Many times you will see blocks built into the strike and simple one step movements. You don’t see a lot of complex movements.

Third set: in Krav, one always tries to blend two defenses in order to lessen the likelihood of receiving damage. A common technique involves the application of a block and a slight movement of the body, such that each defense will stand on its own but putting the two of them together offers redundant protection. This is not a sport. In a ring there are gloves and rules. On the street there are not and even getting hit once can mean a very bad day.

Next up: taking apart and clarifying some of the principles….