One of the things that first drew me to Krav Maga was its emphasis on aggression. I’ve always believed that fighting/self-defense was a mix of three things: simple techniques, physical fitness and an aggressive mindset – the last one being the most important of the three. I also liked the fact that Krav Maga training had a “Cosher Kravi”/Combat Fitness element to it, though in some styles and systems this is often over-emphasized, and/or gets confused with self-defense/fighting e.g. 100 punches on a tombstone pad, followed by 50 Burpees etc. is a great fitness workout – and obviously has its benefits, such as getting you to work/operate when exhausted - but it’s not actually training you to improve your technical fighting abilities, as you’re not concentrating on punching/striking form and accuracy etc. when you do these drills. Aggression, although extremely important and worthy of its own training time, is not a substitute for striking power, accuracy and speed, it’s something that should be trained in addition to these things. Simply putting more “effort” into a punch, doesn’t make it a better punch, and this can get overlooked, especially when putting more effort into a strike can make it “feel” like it’s a better strike. Just because you feel that a punch has power, doesn’t mean that it does, it’s the result of the strike that tells you how effective it was. In this article I want to look at two elements of punching/striking that are deserving of their own individualized training time: accuracy and power.

If your strikes aren’t accurate, then it doesn’t matter how fast or powerful they are. If you can’t land a punch/strike, it was a waste of time and effort throwing it. This is an obvious statement but it’s worth taking a moment to recognize its significance, and how we may have created a “gap” in our training methods. A kick/striking shield is a huge target, and one that is almost impossible to miss. I say almost impossible, because I’ve seen people whose accuracy is so bad, that there are times when their strikes don’t properly connect e.g. a knee hits the bottom of the pad, rather than the front of it, etc. One of the effects of adrenaline is that your field of vision shrinks, making targets appear smaller than they are e.g. an assailant’s head will shrink to the size of a tennis ball. If you haven’t practiced accuracy in striking because most of your pad-work involves relatively large striking surfaces, then you may find that when you’re involved in a real-life confrontation, where you are having to strike a small, moving object, such as the head that you lack the skills and abilities to do so. Your aggression and fitness aren’t a substitute for this. To deliver concussive force, you need to be able to connect with your strikes, and training this is a worthwhile pursuit. Working with hook and jab mitts (especially micro-mitts) and double-end bags etc. will help develop these skills. We should not be so arrogant as to not look at how other systems train these skills, and replicate those methods.

Aggression is not a substitute for power generation, especially if you are dealing with somebody who has been punched before. For most people, the greatest effect of being punched is the shock of it. Most people emotionally crumble when punched, rather than being physically incapacitated; the one-punch knockouts that grace social media are not representative of striking in general. There is also a reduced marginal effect in this regard: if somebody starts to realize that your striking lacks power, although being initially shocked, this will start to wear off as further strikes are experienced. If your strategy is to try and wear somebody down by throwing multiple strikes that lack power, be aware that there are people you are going to meet who won’t be affected by this strategy. There is a place for clustering less powerful strikes closer together to overwhelm an assailant, and this may act well as creating a “distraction” that in turn creates an opportunity for you to then disengage, however if you find yourself in a more prolonged encounter, you are going to want to deliver strikes/punches that have power. This means being able to transfer weight effectively. If you look at a strike such as a “jab”, the punch connects as the foot which steps forward, strikes the ground. That means all the weight being transferred forward, goes into the strike/punch. If the punch connects before this moment, a good percentage of the potential power has been lost i.e. there hasn’t been a full shift of weight. This idea of maximizing power through shifting weight often gets lost when people become overly aggressive – they are so intent at making the punch, that they lose the discipline (or never understood it), of moving the arm and the body together.

There can also be an over-focus on delivering power forward, with power generation not being trained in different directions, such as laterally and/or backwards. Some people have the idea that moving backwards is “retreating” and isn’t something that you want to do, however there are times that you might jam up with an assailant, and need to create the space to deliver power punches/strikes – something you may not be able to do if you are right up against your assailant; there are obviously other strikes you can perform at this range, but if somebody is covering/protecting themselves well, these may not always be as effective as you would like. Because you are moving back, it can be hard to get bodyweight into your punch i.e. your weight is moving in the opposite direction. One way to add your body into the strike, is to drop your weight as you step back, and change the level of your punch from the head to the stomach (body shots are also a good option, if you lack accuracy as you are dealing with a larger target than the head). The simplest way to do this, is to lift your rear leg, and step backwards and down as you make your punch – again the foot should land, as your arm extends towards/impacts the target. To generate power laterally, for hooks and slicing elbows etc. your stance needs to have width, as you will want to be able to transfer weight from one foot to the other, as you make your strike; many people’s stance is too narrow to accomplish this, which is why they lack power in these strikes/punches. Again, we should look to utilize the tools that other systems use to generate these skills, such as the heavy bag and/or kick shield.

As important as aggression training is, it should not be confused with skills development. Skills development needs to occur in a much more “clinical” environment, when you’re not exhausted and able to focus and concentrate on the components that make up accuracy and power. We should also use the right tools for the job e.g. a kick/strike shield is great for developing power, but not a great tool for training accuracy etc. In a real-life confrontation we want to be able to utilize everything, recognizing that it is our training which at the very least levels the playing field somewhat. If we are relying solely on aggression, and our assailant can match us with that, then we have no advantage over them. If we can bring superior skills and abilities as well, that’s when we might start to have an edge.