Master’s Path Krav Maga students have recently been focusing on their ground skills. Any self-defense program that lacks a significant grappling/ground component is doing its students a tremendous disservice. The majority of street fights involve one or more people going to the ground; assaults against women are largely attempted on the ground. A working knowledge of how to protect yourself and get off the ground as quickly as possible is essential to a well-rounded self-defense education. For the last few weeks, Shihan has begun nearly every Master’s Path Krav Maga class with students partnering up and drilling mount escapes and guard escapes. If you are on the ground and someone is sitting on top of you (mount) this is an emergency! On the street you will not have much time before a punch or an elbow lands. Getting off of the ground is something all self-defense students need to learn, and in order to learn how to do this you must have a good training partner (and must be one in return!). At Elite we have a very strong “family” feeling; students care for each other and train with each other with the goal to make each other successful. Making your partner successful can be a tricky thing, especially at the Master’s level, as there are many factors that go into being a good training partner. Teaching students to be good training partners is something that Shihan has been focusing on in addition to the ground techniques themselves. First of all, don’t just be a dummy for your partner! Allowing them to do a technique this way does not make them truly successful! If you let them train with no resistance then they don’t really learn a technique; learning to make a technique work when someone is actively giving pressure is a much more advanced level of understanding then just knowing how to walk through the steps on a person who is behaving like a rag doll. After your partner walks through a technique several times, it’s time to add a little resistance. This resistance will take different forms depending on who you’re training with, and it depends on many factors: Your partner’s size; his/her skill level; age; injuries, etc. If you are bigger than the person you’re with or more skillful, it’s your responsibility to help them deal with your particular attributes, just as you must adjust to theirs. This doesn’t mean crushing them…it means making them feel your weight a bit and how you hold. If they are having trouble, you can give pointers (be sure you’re correct!!) and walk them through the motions. As your partner begins to have more success with the technique, you can add a little more resistance. Over time, this will help your partner reach a level of proficiency with the technique that will lead to success with real-life application. On the other hand, when you are doing the technique to someone smaller or less skillful, don’t rely on your size or strength. Focus on making the technique perfect; perhaps work on your “support” side; try it with your eyes closed and identify where the gaps in balance and weight exist…there are lots of ways to train and learn, regardless of your partner’s size. Being a training partner is a huge responsibility. How you train with someone directly affects their learning, and if they have to apply what they’ve trained in a real attack someday, your training interaction with them can directly affect their success. If you train too softly with someone and never give them any pressure or realistic resistance, they will have a false sense of security and not be able to apply techniques on an actual attacker. Additionally, if you’re too hard on your partner and never give, never teach, and constantly shut them down, they may get discouraged and leave martial arts for good. If they are attacked somewhere down the road and don’t have the knowledge that they need, much of that is on you. Be a good training partner! The instructors at Elite are always here to help answer any questions and guide you …be sure you ask! Learning to be a training partner is as much a learning process as training the martial arts themselves, and just as important. ~Katie Toney
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 01:49:12 +0000
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