I signed in for Krav Maga!

Cool. Looks like it is going to hurt some!

 

Great techniques but that's where the basis of Krav Maga is. The training is not very difficult, don't expect to get a great workout as you will be focusing on the specific techniques.

 

I have. practiced martial arts for most of my adult life, I am confident that there is no more lethal a form of martial arts than KM.

 

Looks good!
The ability to defend one's self is always a beneficial thing.

Since my back is shot, and is not going to heal at my age, I just carry a gun.

Good luck!

 

I trained at the Krav Maga center in LA when I lived there back in the 90s. Great workouts, very practical techniques, but above all there's a frame of mind - they aren't playing. You'll see what I mean. Have fun.

 

awesome! i would like to do this also, but a back injury prevents it. good luck
keep us posted on how its goin, and yer progress

 

Do you really have long hair? Martial arts can be really painful with long hair.

 

My son took about a year of haganah , which is the updated version by the Israeli military. Some pretty intensive stuff. Keep a bottle of aspirin around lol.

 

i have trained in martial arts for a big part of my life (lol funny my avatar showed something like that) ... anyway, what i learned is that, given a choice between fighting a martial artist and a street kid (here in the Philippines), i would fight the martial arts guy... at least i know he is gonna kick, punch, grapple, etc. i made the mistake of fighting with a street kid once. the first thing he did? ran, got some distance and picked up rocks, and boy, did those hurt! ... i never predicted that. good thing i had enough space to run or else i might have ended up in the hospital.

the point of what i said is, martial arts will never prepare you for a real street fight situation. the best thing i learned in martial arts is that, you do not pick a fight in the streets, and nothing can beat running as a self defense.

and i wonder how your sparring sessions will be? ... eye-gouging, kicks to the groins, etc. are really dumb to include in sparring sessions. and if you dont include those, you'll end up sparring MMA style (or worse, kickboxing). and if you keep on sparring MMA and kickboxing style, guess what fight instincts and reflexes you will end up with?

assuming of course you will be sparring ... cause i know a lot of "self defense" classes DO NOT SPAR. they claim their techniques are too dangerous lol those kinds of dojos have the weakest students. they cannot fight in tournaments, and they certainly cannot fight in the streets (no one can... unless you are a street kid who has had your share of gang wars).

it seems like i am discouraging you ... but what i am trying to say, is that you join a gym with the best training regimen. a regimen that can make you very very fit. one who has regular sparring sessions that DO NOT HURT or INJURE you on purpose. and finally, a master who is smart enough to tell you that fighting on the streets might get you killed, so better not do it.

try to stay away from those "self defense" classes ... they are most of the time, a sham.

*edit* i watched the video and thought it was funny. fighting is not clean. its messy, dirty and always moving. it might look impressive, but none of the stuff there will ever happen in real life

 

Great post. My father in law, now 73, grew up in the streets of Singapore in the early 50's. To give you an idea of the area he grew up in, his mother stayed awake while he slept, so she could wipe scorpions off of his face while he was sleeping. He started boxing at a very young age and became a champion street boxer. He literally had hundreds of fights and lost many. He would fight anyone for money and anyone for fun and, he was as tough as they come. The one thing he told me that stuck with with me was that he could tell when people were afraid to get hit. Those were usually the people that boasted to him the most. Boxers have a big advantage v a lot of styles because they can get hit and not care like you are conditioned to believe that your particular martial art counters them.

Street experience counts for a ton and I would go against the Krav Maga "expert" who has never been in a real fight before I would go against an untrained street fighter. Wait until someone pulls your shirt over your head and starts socking you.
You would learn quick then.

 

now your dad is the real deal. he fought in both tournament style fights (with modified rules probably, which is more difficult at times), not to mention in the streets ... im sure he has dealt with weapons and people throwing rocks (those are damn effective, and i have never been in a martial arts class that trained us to do that - it doesnt sound as easy because it involves accuracy, keeping distance and speed on finding and picking up things to throw).

respect to you and your dad.

-*-

all in all, i think martial arts classes are there to get you conditioned, and load your body with reflexes and muscle memory. when it all boils down to it, surviving is really about presence of mind and conditioning. sadly, a lot of martial arts classes kill your presence of mind, and instead, replaces it with "step style" defense. they also kill your conditioning by focusing on techniques and "kata type" defensive manuevers when you should be doing your cardio and strength training.

finally: you know your class is a sham when an instructor says "what will you do when a guy approaches you from behind and attacks you like this..."

 

I really, really want to train in Krav. I just don't want to end up training at a place full of a bunch of MMA meathead wannabes*. As others have alluded to here, it seems like it's one of the few martial arts that's pretty realistic with the idea that you may have to maim your assailant, possibly for the rest of that person's life, in order to defend yourself.

*No disrespect to anyone who seriously trains as an MMA fighter...I'm referring to the over-testosteroned douches...you all know the archetype.

 

I've had a run in or two with a couple of guys like that. I'm not a big guy, but I've managed to talk people out of stupid fights just by either keeping a cool head and calming them down, or oddly enough just intimidating them by acting completely insane. Frankly, of it came down to it, I won't say I have the stuff to make it in those situations until I've gotten there.

That said, good on you OP, whatever your goals are with this, I wish you the best. I'm considering getting into boxing, mostly for fitness, but when it comes to actual street fights I can't say that I'm the type to want to do that sort of thing.