I Am Here
What to Expect When Starting Krav Maga
No matter how nutty, outgoing, or enthusiastic we are, we all have seem to have a hard time when it comes to coming up with and delivering our kiai — our yell, grunt, or shout we make during a strike (kick, punch, knee, etc.). Hiiiiiiiiiyaahhhhh! You’ve heard that if you’ve watched an old time martial arts movie. That’s a kiai. Here’s a good post on how to kiai, if you need more details. What I am wondering about isn’t so much how to kiai but why so few of us in the beginner classes refuse to do it!
Of course, the simple answer is that it’s….well… embarrassing. Nearly everyone starts out at first making not a sound. Complete and utter silence. In fact, a lot of people just starting out don’t even breathe as they should. Eventually most people in class, myself included, will hiss, that is push air out through a partially open mouth. It’s pretty quiet but appears to get at least part of the job of a kiai done — expelling air out forcefully with the strike as it tightens the stomach muscles to enable you to take a blow to the midsection more safely. It also punctuates the move being performed for added effect.
What it doesn’t do, at least in a real combat situation, is scare the shit out of, startle, or confuse the opponent. Not really necessary in the dojo, most of the time, to be sure but this is the place to find your kiai.
What the hell is THAT noise!?
I think there are a lot of kiais to choose from as long as you follow what appears to be the general rules of avoiding hard consonants and minimizing use of the vocal chords as much as possible. There’s a lot of creativity, it seems, that one can bring to the proceedings if they choose. Hell, make it a weekend project! Try to keep the windows closed and, if you are in an apartment, mind the neighbors. Once coming up with something that feels comfortable the next step is introducing it to the training, especially around the other students that you have been training alongside with for several months and never heard you do more than hiss.
As with everything to do with martial arts — go for it! There’s no holding back, especially with Krav Maga, so why should your kiai be an exception? If you’re going to go all out let everyone hear you mean business is my stance.
Oh, and you should hear mine. I’m not proud.
This past week was the school’s semi-annual Buddy Week where any student could bring in a friend, roommate, co-worker, spouse, or other unsuspecting family member to Krav Maga class for a couple of free training sessions.
It wasn’t a full bore training week, to be sure. Given the presence of many inexperienced people in our midst (and the fact that the school was supposed to be enticing them, not punishing them) we “shifted down” the intensity somewhat throughout the week and focused again on many rudiments that serve as the foundation to the more advanced teachings.
I saw this week’s influx of people as a very different brand of person than incoming White Belts in a lot of ways. White Belts have made the mental commitment to get into Krav Maga and the ballsy move of stepping into class. This is tough for everyone as everything is new and the unexpected is around every corner. The ‘Buddies’ who came in, on the other hand may have been dared to show up, shamed into coming, or were just ducking in for a class or two to see if this martial art from The Debt, Enough, and Channel 25 News was everything it was cracked up to be. They hadn’t, in nearly every case, made that same gigantic mental leap that a new White Belt makes. It wasn’t necessarily a joke to be in class but in some cases, it wasn’t too far from that. There was a fair amount of laughing, some clowning around, and flat-out talking during our drills’ instructions. None of these were remotely cool and anyone with any common sense should have been able to see that.
This week the instructors were in a bit of an odd situation. They couldn’t start barking at the noobs for a couple of reasons. This would have made the sponsor student who brought them in feel like a tool and it probably would have decreased the likelihood that the Buddy would sign up at the end of the week for a one-month trial — ultimately the real goal of the week when it gets right down to it. This left the instructors a bit more permissive than they ordinarily might have been in these situations.
Wheeeee!
Anyhow, back to the theme. What was the lesson? Well, as I watched the Buddies I could really equate them as People Right Off The Street. Again, as explained above, these weren’t really even White Belts — they were regular people, folks you might encounter in the real world and were the closest approximation to an Average Citizen we would see in school. As such it made it a very interesting exercise to “measure” myself against them. Not in an arrogant kind of “I’m better than you” sort of way but rather in a way that says that this is what I was a little like before thinking about starting up with my training. No, I’m not a superior human compared to the Buddies because of it. I see how these months have shaped me into a more disciplined person though. I don’t whine in class when we do 10 minutes of ab work. I don’t roll my eyes when we don’t get a break. I don’t chatter during class or giggle off to the side with other students. I pay attention, I show respect, and I work my ass off at all times.
I’ve developed a harder, can-do mindset since starting and I’m here to work. Sure I have a very long way to go, a lot of technique to learn, and many bad habits to break. But I can see, as a side-by-side comparison with the Buddies this past week, that I have made tremendous strides in my development and should take a moment to appreciate and reflect on all that this school has brought to my character and physical state since starting this past June.
You’ll notice that this post doesn’t have a survey, just results. That’s because the original survey tool, Polldaddy, now charges for use of its tool. As a result I have moved to Surveymonkey, which you’ll see in use from now on. For older surveys, I have included the results in the original blog post.
We are told in class often that proper pad holding prevents injury, creates a more realistic target for your partner, and desensitizes the pad holder to blows. I am not going to lecture on proper pad holding. Firstly, I am still quite new to Krav Maga and have no illusions that I am the voice of authority on anything (probably won’t be for another few years). Second, there are other resources you can refer to that have “been there, done that”.
Having been on the receiving end of some poor pad holding I have come close to hyperextending my arm, and more recently, been the victim of The Cheater. We’ve all worked opposite The Cheater. This is someone who tries to cut corners because he feels that what the drill involves isn’t important to everyone’s (or at least his) goals.
OOOF!
In this particular instance we were performing a drill where a pad holder would hold a tombstone and their partner would get them in a clinch and drive them to the other side of the dojo with knees. The pad holder was instructed to resist as much as possible. If they were able to keep their partner from driving them backward — or better yet, could drive the attacker backwards! — they were encouraged to do so. In this case, my partner gave me a wink and said he’d move backwards easily. Too baffled to respond to this idiocy I lined up for the drill and we began. Sure enough, I was practically chasing my pad holding partner across the dojo as he scurried backwards with virtually no resistance.
I was not pleased. I called out repeatedly (but not loudly enough to get the guy in trouble) for more resistance but to no avail. I didn’t show any outward sign of frustration, though in retrospect maybe I should have. As minor as this incident sounds it really had an effect on me and I left class that night feeling cheated. There were a few other shortcuts my partner pulled out during class that I don’t really need to get into but in total I felt like it was almost a wasted training session. I vowed that I would not let that happen again and would also be more diligent about how I held pads and performed in general for my training partner.
We could, by all accounts, end this blog post right now but I have one other related anecdote I want to put out there and it relates to this same drill described above. We had a visiting instructor at our school one day. Big guy. No, HUGE guy. Muscle-bound, hulking frame — you get the idea. Very nice fella, as it turns out, but I wouldn’t want to get on this guy’s bad side. As we were being instructed on the drill I decided as the pad holder that I was going to do my best to not budge. I am a pretty big guy myself — 6′ 4″ and….well, I’m big. As the drill started I dug in. My partner clinched me and began driving the knees. Nothing. I didn’t move an inch. In fact, I began driving him back forcefully as the rest of the class marched their way to the other side of the dojo. Our visiting instructor saw this and came over, saying to my partner, “Alright. Take this guy over here. I got this guy”, jabbing a finger at me.
Oh crap.
As I was clinched harder than I knew was possible I was driven to the other side of the dojo by massive sledgehammer blows that had me practically seeing stars. The visiting instructor’s giant forearm was wedged viciously under my jaw and I was alternately slammed by the knees and rammed backwards with his iron arm in my throat. It was epic and I actually did better than I originally feared.
<gag><wheeze>
Interestingly, it turns out the guy I was partnered with was holding back, off to the side, quietly simmering since he got called aside. He was probably feeling frustrated and humiliated for getting put on the bench and I could tell in his face that he was determined to do better. As I partnered up with him again he was like a demon possessed and gave a performance that almost rivaled the visiting instructor’s, driving me back — again — with powerful, driving knees and a mad look of determination on his face. Yeah, I was having quite the night.
There are a bunch of lessons I think can be taken from this anecdote and I’ll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions. I myself was made aware of how a senior practitioner can belittle someone without even meaning to. I hope to avoid that in the future as I climb the ranks. I also found out that, if I can withstand that punishment from the massively powerful visiting instructor, I can probably handle anyone’s knees in the class as well. Finally, I saw how determination can make all the difference. Comparing my partner’s performance from the first attempt to the second was night and day. When he got his second chance he let go of all inhibitions and gave it his all. I’m here to tell you that it was like a completely different person and I was very impressed by the difference. I always want to train like he did that second go-around and so should you.
A very thoughtful article and well worth your time to read and ponder.
I know you’ve heard it before. Heck, if you’ve been training in a particular martial arts style you may be guilty of this yourself. Martial arts style elitism. Otherwise known as “my style can beat up your style”. Here’s a fun experiment: go to Youtube and find a video on martial arts. Go ahead. Anything. If you are feeling lazy try this one or this one or this one. Then, go to the comments below and scan them. Painful, isn’t it? I wouldn’t recommend doing this too often as studies have shown that frequent reading of Youtube comments can lead to brain damage or dementia.
As human beings, we are hard-wired to take immense pride in groups or clubs we belong to. When a child is put on one of the four academic teams you’ll see immediate pride in that team. The team is the best, the other team stinks! You see it on reality shows like Survivor when teams are broken out by men vs. women or Purple buffs vs. Yellow buffs. It’s human nature to band together and immediately create an “us vs. them” mentality.
I think the same is true with martial arts styles and schools. Once you commit to a school and a martial arts style you’ve created a baseline perspective, a lens through which you see other styles and schools. It becomes very personal. “That style has more kicks than mine”. “That style involves more grappling than mine”. “That school has more students”. “That school has bigger jerks”. This is a heated argument that has gone on since the second martial arts style was invented and students learned of each other’s existence.
I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying that most martial artists are male. And of these, there’s a contingent of testosterone-soaked, pimple-faced braggarts who will always take school/style pride a little too far. Is BJJ superior to Muay Thai? Is an MMA fighter the ultimate badass? Can a black belt in Judo kick a black belt in Karate? Does School X have lower attrition then School Y? It goes on and on.
In the end, there is no “best” style. There are “different” styles, all with their strengths and weaknesses. Yes, some schools and instructors are better than others — sometimes immensely — so choose wisely. Looking objectively at it, I think I lucked out with my school and my style. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. There are a couple things I would change or at least tweak a little. However, Krav Maga has most of the elements I was looking for in a workout routine and martial arts style and my school is clean, close to my house, and fits my needs. What more could I want?
I think it really all comes down to your goals, your learning style, the make up of a martial arts style and how it blends with your style, and the qualities you look for in an instructor and school. If you can find good alignment with these attributes I think you’ve done well. Shut out the naysayers, trolls, buzzkills, and malcontents who are running about banging their style’s gong. Get what you want out of the experience and quietly smile as the pointless debate rages on.
Since our school is closed this week due to Summer break a few students and I met up at the local YMCA which fortunately has loads of pads in one of the aerobics rooms. They evidently do some kickboxing classes now and then so were equipped with tombstones, focus pads, and punching bags. We knew we weren’t anywhere near qualified to run our own class but it was still a great opportunity for us to work on several techniques we felt needed some work.
The presence of the instructors was sorely missed to be sure, but what I found useful about this kind of workout was the opportunity to slow it down and discuss the techniques with fellow students. I came to find out that some of the same issues I was having were also common with them. This was reassuring in a way but it also put some focus on that area as well and let us all know that some more attention to that area was warranted. It was a good chance to really think about what it was that we were learning and take it at our own pace for a change. I wouldn’t alter a thing about the intensity that we usually train with but as a rare change of pace outside the dojo this was really an interesting workout.
I can’t wait to get back. I have some questions to bring back to training next week that, until last night, I didn’t even know I had. Thanks to the guys for the great workout and some new perspectives on this great martial arts form.
I am a tad over one month into training. Let’s take a look back and see what’s been covered up to now. Some of the techniques have been combined at times with others to form combinations.
Apart from these techniques, there have obviously been many exercises with the intention of conditioning us (read leave us hunched over on our elbows in a puddle of our own sweat, panting madly and strangely entranced by the lint and random hairs that have found their way to the mat). These have had a large focus on our quads and our core so there have been duck walks, lunges, crunches, planks, etc. We have also had our share of pushups, sprints, and workouts with 12 lb. medicine balls.
Never a dull moment. Here’s to another month of intensity!
I don’t care who you are, it’s never easy being at the bottom of the pecking order. It can be at work, at school, or at the local book group. Being the “new guy”, the most junior, the least skilled of the group is never an easy thing. This is even more evident in a physical, adrenaline-fueled activity such as martial arts.
Day One is tough for so many reasons. You’re nervous, anxious, often confused, out of shape, and completely surrounded by people who know more than you. This is particularly difficult if you are middle-aged, successful at work, and have a family. Why? Well, you are used to calling the shots in many areas of your life and making rules that are followed. People look up to you and follow your leadership, learn from your experience. This is true at home as well as at the job. A life of hard work, perseverance, and dedication pays off with rewards of seniority and authority.
When joining a new martial arts school as a White Belt, none of this truly matters. You are in a class of people younger and older than you who have more experience and you, for all intents and purposes, know nothing yet. Every move is new, every exercise is a trial, and you spend a fair amount of time trying to stay humble and learn to fit in. Sir, ma’am, Sensei, Master, bow, etc. It can be overwhelming.
It’s all good. In its own way, after all, the school environment mimics the real world in that respect. Life has many cycles where you start as the Freshman and move up to the Senior, the Big Cheese, the BMOC. Martial Arts schools are no different. You start at the bottom and learn all you can, enduring the mild arrogance that can emanate some from folks with higher belts. You put up with being in the Second Fiddle class in my school’s case (we have a Basic Class for White through Orange and an Advanced Class for Purple through Black), meaning your class might start late if the higher belts’ class is not done doing what they need to do, you step aside respectfully as they all exit the dojo, and you get used to not having a hand extended to you quite as often as you would from your Basic team mates. To be sure, this kind of hierarchy can creep into a Basic class as well, with slightly more expererienced students (say, 3 – 6 months in) walking a little more puffed out than someone starting their very first class and nearly pissing their pants. There are also the inevitable students who’ve watched too many action films and fancy themselves the next Bruce Lee, looking all dour and serious. It’s their time to feel confident and at the top of the pack — and to enjoy it while it lasts because in a few short months they’re back at the bottom once again as they move into the Advanced class and are the shoeshine boy all over again. (more…)
Here we are. End of my first week of group classes. Without getting gushy, I’d have to say it was everything I was hoping for. It has also made clear to me that I am in far, far worse shape than I had originally thought.
There were a few surprises for me this week, some good and some bad. Let’s start with the bad, shall we? I really struggled with the back-to-back exercises. A full hour of nearly non-stop, vigorous, full-contact exercise was something I am not accustomed to and my body wasn’t shy about letting me know that. My push-ups ended up being really sad, my crunches started well but tapered to pathetic in 10 seconds flat, and even on a “lighter aerobic” day this week I found myself getting a little light-headed at the exertion from our striking lessons (i.e., punching and kicking). I also had some brain hiccups and sometimes got hung up on my footing. I know that Krav Maga is not as strict on stances as many other styles but I still am haunted by the ghost of my training some 20-odd years ago in Uechi Ryu, where footing was treated with an utterly insane amount of attention.
As said before, yesterday’s introductory one-on-one lesson went rather smoothly, if I do say so myself (it’s my blog and I can). I had envisioned a quick sit-down explanation, segueing into a quick lesson, and capped off a presentation of the dreaded COST. It went pretty much as I thought with no surprises.
First, I was fitted with a T-shirt and long, heavy black pants (Gahh!! It’s Summer and hot as hell). Took a few tries to get the right size but in time I found myself waiting to be called in next.
The “quick sitdown” was very quick indeed with a brief conversation of what brought me in. Turns out I was in there for a lot of the same reasons other students have been: to get back in shape in a more regimented routine as a gym visit just wasn’t cutting the mustard. I want to lose weight and get off my meds. Let’s face it, I am overweight and do an awful lot of sitting on my ass 9-5. I also want to pick up something practical along the way (i.e. self-defense). (more…)
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