MacDonald Academy of Martial Arts
Kenpo Karate, Krav Maga, and Fitness for the Boston / Watertown area
A collection of fundamental Krav Maga techniques. These articles are to serve as an introduction or refresher only; they are not a substitute for qualified instruction and hard training.
Here’s the video Danelle mentioned the other night while using her favorite analogy for the turning hammerfist. It’s an alternate—and perhaps the best—strategy for when someone’s creeping you out at an ATM (NSFW, language):
“ATM Strategy” with Tony Blauer – video [wmv] [mov]
via CrossFit.com
What’s the hardest part of sparring? Getting hit in the face? Mixing punches and kicks? Seeing peripherally out of that stupid helmet?
Nope.
The round is over; it’s time to rotate.
In the spirit of Krav Maga Sparring Drills for Visual Learners, I present a visual guide to sparring rotation.
At the end of the round, everyone returns to their starting positions, then everyone moves one position to their left. If there is an odd number of students, the student in the bottom left corner is the next to be “odd person out” and returns to the rotation in the following round.
At the end of the round, everyone returns to their starting positions, then everyone moves one position to their left except the student in the bottom left corner. This ensures everyone gets to spar one another.
I wrote a post a while back titled “The Importance of Explosiveness” and discussed the psychological and physical importance and how-to’s of being explosive in our defenses and combatives. If explosiveness is the violence of the action itself, aggression is the precursor, the intent to be violent in order to protect oneself. It is also what will sustain us in the fight long after explosiveness has been sapped by exhaustion and/or injury.
Explosiveness is a physical attribute. Aggression is a mindset. You can take an untrained person and make them physically powerful with just a bit of training, as I outlined in the explosiveness post. What is much harder is to train a non-aggressive person to “unleash the beast”, but it is possible with the right drills, the right coaching, and the willingness of the student to go there. It’s amazing to see it happen for the first time.
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This goes against everything I believe in as a Krav Maga instructor and a nitpicking technician, but I’m going to teach you how to throw a good sloppy punch.
Why?
When we introduce 360° Defense in Level 1 classes, we typically begin by illustrating its efficacy for defending against an overwhelmingly common attack: the bar room haymaker. This is that wide, arcing swing typically thrown by an untrained person aiming to knock the head off the object of his or her ire. Make no mistake, this attack may be ugly on a technical level, but it is very powerful and very dangerous. But it is also very telegraphed and therefore much easier to defend than, say, a straight punch or a tight hook punch.
Enter 360.
In order to properly train the defense, though, we must be able to replicate the attack. The what-I-hesitate-to-call-technique should come naturally. The only cue I have to give most students is “throw a ball”, and a tight swing of the arm becomes a gloriously wild, full-body bell-ringer. A little experience playing catch and the aforementioned ire are all you need to throw a proper hooligan punch. But, being a slave to detail, I will now break down the sloppy punch into far more detail than it deserves…
You’re probably familiar with Abraham Maslow’s maxim, “It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” It is actually a variation on a concept written by Abraham Kaplan two years earlier: “I call it the law of the instrument, and it may be formulated as follows: Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.”
You’ve likely also heard “Never box a boxer, never wrestle a wrestler,” an adage attributed to various martial arts figures, depending on whom you ask. Each of these fighting styles becomes its practitioner’s Golden Hammer: a boxer and a wrestler will each rely on his or her respective skill set, no matter the situation. I’m generalizing, of course, but this is a fighting reality and is especially evident in many MMA events. A fighter who is dominant in one aspect of the fight game (boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, BJJ) will try to keep the fight in that mode at all costs, even when his or her corner is screaming otherwise.
Our system of Krav Maga is designed with this in mind, so our techniques are well-rounded and cover both stand-up and groundfighting. Standing and trading blows with a boxer or groundfighting with a wrestler is not an effective means of finishing the fight and going home safe. However, even within our versatile training, we are no less subject to the Law of the Instrument. Our Golden Hammer? Almost without exception, it’s knee strikes. Early on in our Krav Maga training, most of us discover that knees are devastating close-range weapons; true fight-finishers. Knees become the go-to combative, and most of us throw them regardless of how our partner is reacting.
Does that mean that we should ease up on the knees? No! Just don’t try to force their application in a scenario where a more suitable tool could be used. Try to keep these important points in mind:
If knee strikes fit those criteria, then keep these points in mind (see also Knees in Review):
Our instructors are highly trained and certified in their respective disciplines. Brian … Learn More
We're proud of our achievements as a school and in the community. Awards: We've been voted "Best of the Best" Martial Arts in Watertown - from 2003 through 2013! MSA and GKM are survey … Learn More
