Police Krav Maga

[bushido_man96]

I just finished day 1 of a Police Krav Maga instructor course. I am having a blast, too. We did a lot of striking today, combative stuff, and moved into self-defense against various chokes. I've got a nice looking handbook to go along with it, and will be thumbing through that as I go this week. The instructor, Mike Davis, really kept us moving today, and I am tired and will be sore tomorrow.

I'll update here and there on this thread, and answer any questions anyone might have here. I'll be posting more of the content in the Martial Artists' Training Log thread.

So far, lots of good training. There are some new concepts I haven't seen, as well as some familiar ones that are just slightly different. I think I will take a lot out of this course.

[Nidan Melbourne]

I'd love to attend a krav maga class. Because they look awesome!

[bushido_man96]

It is a good time. Our instructor is setting a pretty intense pace, and I have been worn out since day one. I am so sore from striking the bags, getting out of bed hurts. My shoulders and core are pretty worked over. And we do lots and lots of reps. One of the officers in the class today said he was counting strikes, and we did around 600. We also did a ton of reps today on choke defenses and disarms. Loads of fun!

[jaypo]

My wife took a self defense class from a Krav Maga practitioner this weekend. She came home and used me as her personal heavy bag!

All in all, I was impressed with what she learned in only 2.5 hours. She's never had any combat training. As a matter of fact, she felt a bit traumatized by just having her hair pulled and being pushed against the wall in the class. But she demonstrated what she learned on me, and being a Nidan in Shorin Ryu (and dabbling in Kyusho a little), I am very impressed with Krav Maga. I may start taking some classes to add to my repertoire.

[sensei8]

Can Police Krav Maga be used in LEO's working in the USA? Different countries might mean different laws; allowed different tactics!

[Harkon72]

Ah, the mythical Krav Maga! You'll be able to take on anyone after 4 hours of training! Krav Maga was designed to be taught to Israeli security personnel so that it would be combat effective in at least time as possible. Call me an old fashioned traditional toad, but it's not for me. We have a seasoned Kravist in our Aikido class; he may have the moves and technique, but simple principals and taking his balance defeats him every time. He's only a beginner like me, but you can see the frustration as he tries to apply technique where there is no need to do so.

[bushido_man96]

Ah, the mythical Krav Maga! You'll be able to take on anyone after 4 hours of training! Krav Maga was designed to be taught to Israeli security personnel so that it would be combat effective in at least time as possible. Call me an old fashioned traditional toad, but it's not for me. We have a seasoned Kravist in our Aikido class; he may have the moves and technique, but simple principals and taking his balance defeats him every time. He's only a beginner like me, but you can see the frustration as he tries to apply technique where there is no need to do so.

Its not that you will be able to "take on anyone after 4 hours of training." I trained for 5 days, 8 hours a day. The goal isn't to take anyone on. The goal is to provide some tools to individuals in the form of certain concepts to make them easy to pick up, so that people that need to use them, but don't have all the time to train that others might, can learn to do so.

I would also caution that "becoming combat effective in the least amount of time possible" equals being done learning and training sooner. The guy I trained with is a "career" Krav Maga guy; he believes in it, and studies it, a lot. He was also a Muay Thai fighter in Thailand quite a while back, so he's a guy who knows some stuff and has seen some stuff. Anyone who sticks with it is going to gain as much from it as from any traditional style.

[Harkon72]

I may be a little biased against these quick fix systems because of my work. I have worked in the mental health community for over 10 years. We as an advocacy charity for example have to train our staff to be safe in potentially dangerous situations. Finding a system of self defence for them is very difficult. We have had various trainers and so called masters offer us courses that sound fantastic on paper. They promise to provide sufficient training to make our advocates confident in three two hour sessions for example. That's rubbish, utter delusion. Not only do these courses offer no real scenario for defence, the techniques they teach give a false sense of security that is positively dangerous. The government endorsed system called "Breakaway Training" is hilarious, they should take it on the comedy circuit. The other system offered was based on Krav Maga. Now, I don't profess to being an expert, but if you think for a second that an attacker is going to show you the weapon before they strike you with it, then you are quite deluded. It may be that the individuals that teach this stuff are not up to scratch, maybe the system its self is fine, but I wasn't impressed. The problem with the health board advisers on this matter is that they think that mentally ill or disadvantaged people are idiots, and that they can be appeased by any old rubbish, but make no mistake, some of the most capable martial artists I have met have needed mental health care. Giving professional people Mickey Mouse self defence training is unacceptable and something I don't want on my conscience.

[bushido_man96]

Krav Maga is not a "quick fix" self-defense system, nor is it really designed to be trained for a day or two, and then that's it. Like any Martial Art, it needs to be practiced over time. Nor is the whole art included in a one week course. There's a lot more to it than that. Our instructor didn't tell us at the end of the week that we had it all, and that was it. No. We had a great week of training, and learned a lot of good principles to train by, and now its our job to go back to the departments and continue to train, improve, and get better.

[Harkon72]

I searched in our area for a school that teaches Krav Maga regularly, and I found one. Also, one of their students trains with us at the Aikido class. I think it is a reflection of what he is being taught that he really struggles with Aikido. He gets really frustrated; he doesn't seem to get the fact that there are no set techniques and responses in our Aikido system. There are principals that you apply to each situation in a fluid and flexible way. The guy just can't get his head around it. I asked at his class how they were taught the Krav Maga, and my suspicions were right. The two ladies and one man who teach there were already Dan grades in Karate and Kick Boxing, fair enough. What happened was that they were approached by a Krav Maga stylist who offered them a series of courses that would adapt what they were already teaching into the Krav Maga way of thinking and system, and after a while they would be qualified to teach Krav Maga, which would be in truth a self defence system that used their previous styles and teaching within the Krav Maga model. Apparently, if you follow, you can call your new system "Krav Maga", use their logo and ethos to advertise and send out to other clubs super human Krav Maga hoodie wearing thugs. I'm not saying that this is what always happens, but it seems that what has happened here is that the Krav Maga teachers have hijacked a perfectly good school with a promise of fame and fortune in the self defence world. I get paired off in the dojo with Superkrav quite often, I find him quite funny but I don't like the swearing.