<0.O>!!!!!!! That's some serious stuff! I just watched this show last night called "Fight Wars"? I can't remember right now, but basically, these two martial arts guys, travel the world, and get trained by two different masters of the countries martial arts style (Thiland- Muy Thai) etc... One of the guys gets brought to a more traditional style of teaching (i.e. up in the hills, at sort of a budhist temple kind of thing) the other gets trained in the more modern facility, usually in the city somewhere. Each of the guys, gets 4 days to learn the specific martial art, then on the fifth day, they are given a final challenge, to see how much they actually learned in their teachings... The episode I watched last night was about Krav Maga. For those that don't know, this is the form of M.A. that the Israeli Army utilizes for hand to hand combat techniques. It was originally created by the Jewish People to defend themselves from the Germans attacks, back in the day... Personally, I believe this is by far the best close combat technique. I just don't know what else makes more sense to learn. Most martial arts are based off of artistic movements, designed to strike various zones of the body, where as K.M, is a no holds barred, kill or be killed, street brawl. Seriously, there is nothing that you can't use. They teach you the main target zones of, groin, eyes, back of head, and all other vulnerable soft spots. It's pretty sick (both sicks apply here.. sick-cool, and sick-disturbed). To train in this MA, one of the guys stayed in the city setting, with a civilian instructor, (female, but seriously insane... ) and trained with her class. The other guy was thrown into the Israeli Army, and trained with those guys for the Four days of grueling beatdowns, one after the other, ultimatly injuring him, time after time. <--(seriously, you had to see it... they turned him to jello... not good...) After these guys trained (Extremely hard) at this for the four days, they departed from their instructors, and went to a hotel for the night to regroup their thoughts, and compare their training with each other. The Fifth day, the two met back up with the instructors, and had their final test, to face off with a specific challenge (the whole point of the show). One of the men, was to stand on the mat, and face off with ten different men, one at a time, for 15 seconds each, and not give up. He could be knocked down, but if he got back up, and finished, he was good. This was the guy that had trained with the Army. The same one that I had said was beaten relentlessly... yeah... He did manage to finish with all ten guys, but every time he went down, you could see the pain just destroying him. The second guy was given a similar test, however, the ten guys he had to face, had weapons. If he disarmed the opponent, and gained control of the weapon, then he could use said weapon. He also did a great job, of not giving up. Over all, I thought it was kind of cool to see (a glimpse, no doubt!) what people go through to learn various forms of Martial Arts. However I would like to see it done over a longer timeline. Possible have them study for about a month or so. Having done boot camp over a 13 week period, and not crammed into 8 weeks or so, I feel that I had more time to absorb not only what was being taught, but WHY it was being taught that way, WHEN I would be using it, and for WHAT reason I needed to know this. I think the 5 day thing is a bit obsurd. I really wish I could remember the name of this show. I will look it up later, if no one on here can tell me the name of it, but for anyone that is interested in MMA, or just Martial Arts in general, I would like to hear your opinions on it.
i am pretty familiar with Krav. only because of the books i read (all of the secret agents/kgb/nsa etc. are trained in it) pretty good stuff. MNKK if you want more look it up on youtube (black t-shirts) Jimenez i think...and there is a pretty good guy on there who teaches instructional videos that can be bought. biggest problem is... you NEED a partner. and if you wanna get better you need someone who is way better than you. so you dont get hurt and you dont hurt them. my favorite are the grabs and then joint strikes! everyone always thinks to swing at the head, how would you feel if someone caught your arm and punched your elbow the opposite way with their forearm???????
Oh, I do have some training. After watching that, I can see where the Marines get a lot of their techniques for the MCMAP training. I loved doing that (MCMAP). As far as the videos, I know my wife was looking into starting classes for something (doesn't know what yet). I would much rather she learn this, than kung fu, or something...
I like the hard nature that Krav Maga presents, yet any martial art(IMO) that strategically simulates moves with micro precision is bound for failure if one faces a "real" fighter. A "real" fighter is one that moves without thinking, one that is not bound by acute movements such as dodging punches and responding in an extremely technical fashion is the one that will win, all things being equal. That being said, if any of my loved ones said they were going to take Krav Maga from a "real" instructor, I would tell them to go for it! It teaches physical fitness( the most misunderstood and least taught of all martial arts skills), and it teachs one to take pain and to respond (another very understudied part of the martial arts/self defense). Also, Krav Maga is used in addition to weapon training/firearms training by the Israeli Army. They place a high emphasis on using a "one up" style fo fighting where if you want to fight with your fists, they will kill you with a knife. I like it. Myself, all things being equal, I love hardcore Judo mixed in with some strong striking (Muay Thai) if one were to teach one martial art for stand up/close quarter type fighting.
