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Originally Posted by
globetrotter 
I think that the school I go to is at the high end of the scale. we have a rack with (?)14 or so 100 pound bags, about >20 medicine balls and >20 thai boxing shields. I am guessing a lot of schools dont want to put in that kind of investment. it means that every 2 people in class can have a heavy bag, a medicine ball and a shield.
I think that this is good. There is really nothing better for teaching power punching and kicking than a heavy bag and a boxing shield.
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this is a weakness and strength of american krav - the basic idea (here) is that it is for self defense, and that everybody should be able to do all the moves. so they teach for the basic common denominator. I am honestly not sure the rational behind not teaching good body mechanics in the begning, but I am a little scared it may be a business decision. in my school, more than half the guys are cops and LE, so the work gets pretty hard, but I can see with the small people and the women they aren't generating a lot of force.
but, that said - in my last dojo, which I chose for proximity to my house and convenience we had a couple of guys who were at championship level in forms - they competed a few times while I was there at national and internatioal level. so you have a black sash, 20 years old, can do beutiful kicks and spins and jumps, but he couldn't generate a lot more force than some of these ladies who are in my krav class who have a year in class. I think the fact that everything we do is against something - a pad or a bag, helps.
Apparently, you have no idea how hard my mom can hit
One thing that I did see that I thought was sort of silly was the groundwork that they were doing. They were learning a very elementary bump and roll to get out of the mount. The problem was, that the person mounting them was not really resisting at all. To me, this was a huge deficiency. Any guy of any reasonable size and strength who has mounted you and is actively holding you down is not that easy to turn, especially since the inclination of an attacker is going to be steady themselves to control your hip movement and apply a rape choke with the left while pummeling you with the right. The theory or dislodging their center of gravity is solid, but actually being able to do it is not at all easy, and is typically not pretty. I was talking to the instructor about this (not during his class, obviously,) and he essentially said "The students are not ready to learn head control yet." Which I don't agree with. I mean, they might not get it right, for a while, but you don't magically become ready to learn basic concepts.
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yeah, this is the worst part. in my school, there is a sign that says all of your clothing has to be official krav clothing. I ignore it, and nobody has ever said anything to me. my padding and other gear isn't official either. but they try to sell it to us.
Yeah, I hate that.
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actually, I think that this is about the hardest, and one of the most important parts. one of the things that krav excels in is getting people to make the switch into a more agressive mode. if you have gotten though life never actually hitting anything, pounding a pad a few hundred times a week and working on excersizes that involve answering agression can be a be help.
also, american krav is aimed not jsut at guys, think about teaching some 50 year old lady to be willing to hit - it really isn't an easy thing.
Again, you apparently have never met my mom... nor my wife.
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yeah - here is the biggest secret that the american krav organization doesn't want you to know: the whole "style" is based around teaching soldiers (at least 20 years ago) there were a few courses - a two week course and then two 6 week courses. and that was it. there was a course for instructors. now, sure, these were 40 hour a week instruction courses, but that was pretty much the whole sybolus of krav. and it was based on boxing strikes with a few modifications, a few asian martial arts kicks and knees, and some jujistu and wrestling work (which I believe has become a bigger part of it). but there wasn't really anything there for a person to "study" krav for years. the people who did well in krav did something else (like your friend). in israel, not that many people who aren't in the krav business practice krav for years.
here, they want people to study for years, so they have padded out the style, and I suspect that it may influence the way they teach - they may not worl too hard on the body mechnics of striking in the first year to have soemthing to teach you later on.
I knew this. But knowing what you should do and being able to do it are two different things. Like sliding a punch. Despite plenty of practice, my head movement has always sucked. Apparently, I would rather block with my face.
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but I would still say - I think that the heavy work with actually hitting something is a big benifit. and, to me, it is about as much cardio as I want to get at this point in life.
one other thing - and I think that this was raised on one of the martial arts threads: if you are looking to be a high level martial artist, and/or competitive, I wouldn't recomend krav. krav is great for taking somebody who doens't know how to fight and teaching them in a short term, and it fits my needs very well - it gives me an unlimited supply of sparing partners in a good framework. I am not really looking to learn anything (in a martial art) at this point in my life, I am looking for a framework to excersize.
Yeah, fair enough. I dunno. I guess that I was just a little disappointed. I knew that the system was fairly simple, but I thought that these guys were going to be some tough hombres who just did a few things *very* well, that's all.
