The importance of realism in Krav Maga, Martial arts and self-defense training, continuing from “Are You A Good Training Partner?”
Whether your goal for training in self-defense or martial arts is to be able to defend your self on the street, competition fighting or merely to get into shape or learn a new skill one thing that should be present in your training for it to be in any way successful is realism with in your training.
Now there is a time and a place for this along with other aspects of your training for it to be successful and I am not suggesting sacrificing one for the other. When a new technique is being learned at first taking things slow and easy is the best way often to figure out body movements, dynamics and train mussel memory but then comes time to drill and stress test.
Now as anyone who has been attacked in the street can tell you it is extremely uncomfortable and stressful both physically and mentally, and for you to be able to react effectively in a real-life situation you must be able to train under conditions as closely resembling those in real life as possible. Like wise if you are training for a competition whilst the stakes might not be life and death you can guarantee your opponent is going to be giving it there all and expecting you to do the same. And if your goal was simply to get into shape the metabolic demand of an energetic and committed opponent is going to be a lot higher than that of a luck luster one.
Which brings me to my point I have trained with lots of different people over my years in the martial arts world ranging from security and law enforcement to the odd soldier (or ex-soldier) and even a few pro fighters, and then everyone else from the committed students to the casual attendees. One thing that makes the biggest difference in my experience as to Whether or not your training partner is helping you get the best out of your training is there ability to bring realism to the situation or technique, and by this I mean if you are training to get out of a choke they better be putting a good choke on you or your training isn’t going to be doing that much for you.
Once again there is a time and a place for everything and if you are a seasoned practitioner and your training with a newbie or less experienced partner I don’t mean go balls to the wall and leave them without any hope of actually executing the technique they are supposed to be learning, you obviously have to match your power and intensity to an appropriate level but make sure it is challenging for them, there is usually less of a problem here for the more experienced person but as the less experienced person you better be bringing your all to the drill. I can’t tell you how many times I have had a newer person try to put a hold or choke on me the more resembled a neck massage or hug and then as soon as I started to resist at all they just completely let go.
This becomes very frustrating as the whole drill becomes largely useless for the person being attacked, it doesn’t remotely resemble a real attack for those wanting to learn to defend themselves or jump into a competition fight and as far as getting into shape or learning something new goes, your burning little to no calories and not learning much either.
So, here’s a word to those whom I’m talking about
- People come to classes to learn to fight that means the expect to get grabbed kicked punched your not going to offend anyone by being physical
- Use this time when you are playing the attacker to work on your own punches kicks grabs foot work look at the technique from the other side and what you might be having trouble with or how you can improve.
- If you are going to hard your partner will tell you as long as there is mutual respect this shouldn’t be a problem.
As a new person this can take a minute to get used to and figure out but don’t take to long because in the meantime you’re not doing yourself or anyone else and favors
Written by: Evan J
UTKM Yellow Belt