The Instructor Team planning this weekend’s MasterClass

The dates for 2012 are as follows:

Last Class Before the Break: Saturday 2nd June 2012

First Class After the Break: Monday 18th June 2012

Please ensure you attend as many training sessions as possible between now and the break to ensure you keep your skills at the highest level.

If you have any questions regarding the training break please contact us

KMG instructor update with Ze’ev Cohen Master 1

Images from the P1, P5 and Graduate level gradings with Tomasz Adamcyk

Address and directions for the upcoming grading weekend.

Date: 31 March 2012

Venue: Crystal Palace National Leisure Centre, Ledrington Road, London, SE19 2BB

Grades: P1, P5 & G Levels

Date: 01 April 2012

Venue: Crystal Palace National Leisure Centre, Ledrington Road, London, SE19 2BB

Grades: P2, P3, P4

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Over 140 students attended our pre-grading workshops in London and Essex– amazing effort by all involved

The Institute were invited by world renowned fashion photographer, film maker and owner of SHOWstudio.com Nick Knight, to take part in a photoshoot where the worlds of Krav Maga and high fashion collide. Called Powerdressing, the concept was to highlight the fact that a women can defend herself in clothing adopted when she is at her most vulnerable to attack – the heels, furs and jewels of evening attire.

Featuring supermodel Lara Stone (that’s Mrs David Walliams to the uninitiated) and Institute instructor David Slade, the films are introduced by Institute Director Jon Bullock, and assisted by Institute instructor Magda Nikitczuk (who also trained Lara prior to the shoot).

You can view the films here

You can view the photos on the V Magazine website here (Click ‘Launch The Story’ link to view images)

One word that I would be very keen to remove from the vocabulary of any Krav Maga Instructor is the word ‘mistake’. The first online dictionary I ‘Googled’ defined the word mistake as “an error or blunder during action”.

The word mistake is often used by many Instructors to define the performance of a defensive action by a trainee, or indeed another Instructor. It is a horrible word to say the least, that suggests that the performance of the action was ‘wrong’, my belief is that there is no such thing as a ‘mistake’, or a perfect performance for that matter…there are simply RESULTS! Results that are deemed as meeting a certain standard or results that need improvement.

Therefore, when describing a performance of an action by someone, it either followed the Krav Maga principles of the action or, may have been lacking some of the principles which means they simply need to improve certain areas, but it is by no means completely wrong! If I am teaching someone a defensive action and they perform it with the opposite hand, or opposite leg to the one requested, but they still end up not getting kicked/punched/grabbed then how can that be a mistake? They still managed to defend themselves and reduce the impact of the attack. It is therefore my role as Instructor to highlight how they could improve the action through applying the principles more effectively, or doing exactly as requested, rather than saying it was ‘a mistake’.

In a situation of imminent danger, whether alone or with a loved one, when it may be cold, wet and dark – the influence of increased adrenalin in the body may encourage a less than ideal defensive action. But if that defensive action reduces the impact of the situation, prevents you from being hurt and you are able to continue to actively defend yourself or another, and head to a place of safety, how can the less than ideal defensive action be a mistake?

Which brings me (eventually!) to the point of this blog. When you are training in Krav Maga and you start to make a defensive action that, within in the first split second, you realise was not as good as it could have been…DON’T STOP! Continue on to complete the action as best possible, adjust yourself to make the best of the situation and complete the scenario. Then review your results! Go back to your training partner, say that you want to carry out the action again, slow it down, review how you performed, take it step by step and analyse it point by point. Better still, if it is not completely clear, call the Instructor over for clarification, which is what they are there for!

Stopping during mid-action, having a ‘hissy fit’, stamping the floor, looking up at the ceiling and saying “that was SH**T” is an extremely bad habit to get into, unfortunately, I see it alot.

Why does it happen? It happens for a multitude of reasons, one of which may be that the trainee is embarrassed (possibly because the Instructor was watching, as it never goes to plan when your Instructor is watching, right!) that they did not perform the action as best possible and are therefore being judged…let me tell you now, that in the Institute of Krav Maga UK, this is never the case, our Instructors are there to improve you as much as they possibly can.

In the Expert Levels of the Krav Maga system, we have a process of learning and training called ‘Warrior Capabilities’ (A warrior is defined as one who is engaged in or experienced in battle). In this method of learning, we are actively training to deal with a situation that does not go to plan. What happens if the assailant reacts quickly to your defensive action? What if they move back? What if they pull the weapon away as you try and control it?

What do we do in this situation? Say, “Excuse me; I didn’t perform my defensive action correctly, could I have another go? I would suggest that the hissy fit, stamping of the feet and looking to the ceiling may not be the best practice in a real time situation. And remember, more often than not, how we act in training is how we will act in real situation as our mind and our muscles recall a response that is carried out again and again.

(But what about during an examination for a grading I hear your ask…I will cover performance during grading in a later blog)

Training is exactly what it says; it is training, defined as the action of teaching a person a particular skill or type of behaviour. This is the time for us to practice, to test and measure our performance, to review our results and improve them. This is the time to understand what situations or defensive actions we find more difficult than others, and what we need to focus on.

Remember…in training you are never being judged, simply assisted and guided to be as good as you possibility can. So when required, ASK for more guidance.

Remember…DON’T STOP…complete the action through to the end of the scenario, then review the results of how you performed, if you believe it needs improvement (and we all do!) go back and do it again, and again, and again!

And a final point to all Instructors who may decide to read this, studies have shown that a greater level of improvement is a by-product of compliments. Therefore, consider refraining from using the word ‘mistake’, it is negative, deconstructive and demoralising and does not help your trainee improve whatsoever!

See you all soon.

Jon Bullock

The aim of this blog is to share my experiences, opinions, ideas and theories on Krav Maga (KM) in the hope it may assist you in achieving your training goals.

This first ‘blog post’, entitled Why We Train, and was inspired by a conversation I had with Israeli Instructor Tal Kvores at the last UK grading. We were discussing the importance of recognising that all KM techniques and tactics hold equal levels of importance, regardless of where they appear in the syllabus. Unfortunately, at times some people training in KM tend to measure the importance of a technique or tactic, and whether they should practice it or not, based on where it appears in the syllabus. For example…“I am an experienced trainee, why should I practice XY & Z techniques as they are in the early grades of the system and I know them!”

Here is my opinion….

We all begin Krav Maga training for a variety of reasons, such as, an alternative to the gym, to learn effective self defence, to grow in confidence, as progression from a more traditional system or to protect loved ones. Of course it is common that our desires to begin learning KM are a combination of these.

My personal journey in KM began after spending many years in a sport based system that was portrayed as being self defence. However, knowing what I know now, this was in no way the case.

This is not to say that all sporting systems are not useful from a self defence perspective, after all KM was created from sports. However, I firmly believe that learning a system governed by rules, training by those rules and then attempting to directly transfer those skills to a self defence perspective leaves gaps and produces mental limitations that may leave us vulnerable in unpredictable or uncontrolled ‘street situations’.

I did not begin KM to attain a grade or to attain an Instructor status, however due to discovering a passion for KM I migrated in this direction. I began because I wanted to develop skills and a mindset that would assist me (and possibly my loved ones) to be as safe as possible in a difficult situation.

Without going into too much detail, my own personal journey in KM began when my years of training in the previously mentioned sport based system let me down in a difficult ‘street situation’. This is not to say that it was only the fault of the system, the environment of course played a large part, but my lack of understanding of how people behave in uncontrolled environments was something that seriously affected my ability to react.

After this situation, I discovered KM and began training as it met the 3 core needs of what I was looking for:

1. Belief in what the Instructor was telling me

2. Enjoyment, and

3. Knowledge that the skills would still be there for me when it mattered in an uncontrolled environment.

This brings me to why I continue to train. I train for survival – to be able to protect myself and others when we have been unable to avoid, deter or prevent a situation of serious danger. In addition, I believe in what I am training in to the point where I took the decision to teach others.

With this in mind, I train in a way that does not place some techniques or training methods as more important than others. They all hold very equal value regardless of when they were learnt in my KM ‘career’, what grade they are within, and for what situation they could be applied.

A professional boxer lives and breathes training with 4 punching techniques. They repeat those techniques when they are moving forwards, moving backwards, when tired and when being hit, over and over again. They are continuously trying to improve, striving towards the unachievable goal of perfection, or to be as close to it as possible. But why? It is so those punching techniques do not let them down when it matters during an important match.

Similarly, every KM technique should be practiced from all angles, in all directions, in varying environments and with differing limiting factors such as darkness, confined spaces, with multiple assailants, on the ground, sitting down, using the ‘non dominant hand/leg’ and when having to protect another…this list is by no means exhaustive!

Therefore, my advice is train with the same mindset as the pro-boxer. Of course be proud of your grade, work hard to achieve your next grade to measure your progression and retention of skills, but do not bring an ego with the new badge…bring humility. Train for that moment in time when it matters, when you need the skills to be there for you, that skill could be a basic punch, a release from a dangerous hold, a defensive technique against a weapon. We can never predict which technique we might need, we can only analyse what types of situations are occurring more frequently and include this within our training. But that is by no means a prediction as to what technique or tactics we might need one day!

To conclude, consider training every technique in its own merit, with its own benefits and treat each one as an individual tool, with the same level of importance as the next. If we allow some of those tools to become rusty, and we do not keep them sharp and well oiled they will never work as well as they used to, and may let us down when we really need them!

I hope that was not too painful for a first post!

See you all soon!

Jon Bullock