Blog

Many thanks to Gershon and Andy for taking the 9 candidates through the grappling module of the Instructor training course this weekend. Their methodology of focusing on grappling concepts and putting them into action worked excellently - better than I expected I have to admit. This was in no small way down to the application and talent of the 9 guys who attended: they did a great job of both applying the techniques and teaching them when they were asked to.

Again, I wasn’t wholly sure how it would work having a whole weekend dedicated to grappling but I thought it worked very well and will look to keep it for the next round of Instructor training. Comments from the guys who have attended the Instructor training courses so far will be appreciated - including suggestions on how we can improve the process next time.       

I’ve stuck some clips up on youtube - check them out here.

cheers,

Stewart

NAP, the publishers of our DVD box set ask me to produce some tips for their monthly newsletter to their subscribers. This time I’ve sent them some descriptions of how students have defended themselves; I’ve used the students’ own words to describe what happened and added a bit at the end re the lessons that I think derive from these experiences. I thought that you might be interested so take a look at these:

Jamie, Church of England Minister:

A drunken man came into an refuge we were running. He became extremely aggressive, produced a baton and started to threaten people with it.. Two of us tackled him and practically without thinking I took control of his arm and disarmed him…I was amazed at myself being able to do this so quickly; after this we managed to talk him down and he was subsequently arrested.

Lessons: if the guy has a weapon and you choose to act, do so quickly, without hesitation and focus on neutralising the threat as soon as possible. Against batons move into the attacker quickly as they are long-to-medium range weapons difficult to deploy effectively close-in.

Paul de Silva, Civil Servant (extract from a letter to Stewart McGill):

I was on holiday in Spain ..after a few too many beers I walked back to the hotel alone and was set upon by 6 youths…one ended up on top of me raining punches on my face – of all the martial arts I have done before it was the stuff that I learned from a relatively few lessons with you that I actually used. I covered my face so that I also prevented the back of my head hitting the ground, I bridged violently, head-butted him as I went over, got up immediately and ran. The youths were so surprised and shocked at the fate of their friend that they didn’t even pursue me.

Lessons: if on the ground facing punches from someone in full mount, grab your head strongly and have your forearms cover your face – very importantly this helps stop the back of your head hitting the ground as well as guarding the face. Bridge continually: you may not dislodge your attacker immediately but you will disturb his balance and therefore his ability to punch properly.

Howard, businessman:

I was working late at night when somebody tried to force their way into the office. I confronted him- he shaped up to throw a big right-hander; I stepped into him to take away his range with my left elbow raised high and hit him in the face with the heel of my right hand. He stepped back stumbling badly, I gave him a roundhouse kick hitting the side of his leg with my shin. I must say, even with the adrenaline pumping it amazed me how he went down he went down like a sack of spuds.

Lessons: try to get home earlier. Also, if you’re going to step in to take away an attacker’s range make sure you cover up properly and hit the guy hard and quickly. Often good to follow up a high blow or blows with a lower strike particularly a kick like Howard describes, if you have the range.

Jasper, student:

4 youths stopped me in the street and wanted my mobile. I moved to the edge of the pavement, took the kid on the outside and pushed the heel of my hand onto the tip of his nose. His head went back arching his back at the same time. I pushed down, stepped into him and the back of his head hit the ground very hard. I ran, his friends chased me for a few seconds but their heart wasn’t in it and I got back home buzzing.

Lessons: if you elect to fight in this situation, position yourself optimally in the pre-fight stage and take out the first guy very aggressively. Get out as soon as you can.

Aasim, Computer programmer and Urban Krav Maga instructor:

I was on the way back from training when a guy cranked up on something pushed me backwards and threatened me. I moved back, dropped the bag and –tragically – the kebab that I’d just bought.. I extended my arms into the fence position, my fingers pointing at his eyes. He tried to head-butt me, I simply raked his eyes with my left hand and kicked his groin with my left leg. He went down to his knees and came out with the usual self righteous whining. I left the scene immediately. Apart from the techniques, what helped me were the reality-based Urban Krav Maga techniques. If you’re attacked there’s a good chance that you’re going to be carrying baggage so we actually practice handling surprise attacks when carrying a bag. This really helped in this situation as the bag –and kebab – were only going to get in my way so losing them immediately helped me end up unscathed.

Lessons: always have your fingers pointing at the aggressor’s eyes when putting up your fence; if it’s shaping up to be a fight, drop any bags you’re carrying; incorporate drills into your training in which you’re attacked carrying baggage, wearing heavy clothing etc. just as you might be if it kicks off in reality.

Quick summary of this week’s training and what I’ve picked up from it. We focussed a lot on the use of the double armed “scissors” block against knife attacks and aggressively attacking the knife holder with a combination of this block and a muay thai style knee attack. Basically against the attack or aggressive threat from the blade in the right hand, you drop the left arm to defend against a low attack and raise the right to defend against something higher - your arms are touching and your inner wrists are facing you to protect the veins-and you step in strongly with a right knee attack to the guy’s abdomen. The right knee attack twists your torso so at the point of impact it is at 90 degrees to the attacker hence getting the left side of your body away from the slash. Once you’re in from there you scoop the attacker’s arm with your left, crash into his neck with the little finger side of your right wrist and go medieval with knees, headbutts etc.

Tough to describe this, hope that all made sense. It’s dangerous, messy and the downside is very, very bad but that’s the reality of any confrontation, particularly when the guy has a knife. If the guy is after you with a knife and you can’t run away or get a useful weapon like a chair then, as a last resort, I think you have to go in very hard, cover yourself as best as you can and attack the guy very aggressively to give yourself a chance. To be honest, if you just deflect and move without being able to run like hell out of the way very quickly, he’s going to get you sometime soon so aggressive attack is a perfectly valid option. It’s risky and the knee strike can affect your stability but on the upside it can really screw the attacker thereby giving you the opportunity for attack and disarming.  Being stabbed and slashed can also affect your stability pretty badly.

Anyway the results I saw this week when the knife attackers were going for it like hell and the defenders used this approach were, I thought, pretty conclusive about the strength of this approach. I’ll be interested in any comments but particularly from the people that did the drill this week.

Stewart        

Hi, this is my first shot at the Blog thing so let’s hope that it’s not too painful for any of us and that things will get easier as we go on.

We’ve made a lot of progress so far on the “Urban Project” since we kicked things off in the early part of the year:

We’ve produced the DVD box set and picked up some damned good reviews from people like Peter Consterdine and Bob Sykes, see this link:

http://www.kravmaga-eastlondon.com/urban-krav-maga-dvd.htm

I was asked to do a seminar with the Royal Military police in Aldershot which went very well, see some of the pictures here:

http://www.kravmaga-eastlondon.com/krav-maga-gallery.htm

and we’ve begun the process of authorising the next group of Urban Krav Maga instructors. I’ve done 3 seminars so far and I have to say that this is up there with the toughest things that I’ve have ever done. It’s an ambitiously big syllabus - that  I won’t change as I want to make sure that all Urban Krav Maga instructors have a proper comprehensive knowledge -  and we need to ensure that people emerging from the process can impart the knowledge as well as be able to do the stuff at a reasonable level of competence.

It’s been tough but very rewarding so far: when an experienced shotokan black belt tells you that it was the best martial arts seminar he’s attended than you’ve got to feel good. At the same time you’ve got to keep humble - the whole process is also rewarding for me as the guys that I’m working with are all good, experienced martial artists and I learn from watching how they move, what works for them, how they respond when a technique doesn’t work as initially planned, how they adapt techniques to their own strengths and weaknesses etc.  I’m going through this as it leads me onto a statement of some important principles of Urban Krav  Maga that I’d like to keep constant and that all instructors and students stand by:

1. Never think you know all the answers, and never think that the answers you do know will always be the same.  I don’t go for the “great unimpeachable guru” syndrome that afflicts a lot of martial arts and some reality based systems; as far as I’m concerned I’m just another guy trying to work out the best way of not being hurt.  
2. We all learn from each other and each other’s experience; if it works we’ll do it irrespective of provenance.
3. Techniques don’t always work out as planned and all opponents break up differently -always have a Plan B and be prepared to adapt responses according to what works at the time.    
4. The traditional martial arts provide a much underestimated base to everything in reality self-defence-the shotokan black belt referred to above was able to make great progress partly because of his very strong background in that traditional art and the understanding it gives of tae sabaki and the footwork that needs to be right for anything to work. The more that I train, the more grateful I am that I did my time with the traditional stuff - I may have wondered at the time why the hell I was doing all those reps with the strange stances but it’s become clearer as I’ve got older. However, Kata will never appear on the Urban Krav syllabus
5. Always keep humble - it’s a good thing to be in itself, its a mindset consistent with the traditional martial art philosophy that the ultimate enemy is yourself (that being said some of the most egotistical people I’ve met have been traditional martial arts teachers- funny old game) and you’re always going to meet somebody tougher than you at some point so be ready in every way.     

Don’t want to get too philosophical or pompous here so that’ll be enough of that stuff. Will be sticking more posts up over the next couple of days, hope that you get something out of them

Stewart