It always amazes me when people confuse, and miss, a learning opportunity because their eyes are set on achieving something different to that which the exercise they are engaged in, has been designed for. How people interpret the point of the activities they engage in has always fascinated me from a teaching perspective e.g. the person who misinterprets a drill designed to test and develop control of range as a lesson in aggressiveness and forward movement etc. These people often come away feeling they have achieved something (and possibly scored a point) because their partner continued to work with the purpose of the drill whilst they were working to an entirely different agenda. These are the individuals that write their own rules to training and at some point wonder why they’re never improving.

A drill is not a replica of a street fight, or even a sparring contest. It is an activity which looks to develop and focus on a particular skill that is required to be proficient in a fight or physical conflict. The development of these skills, such as movement and range control is something that a certain degree of expertise is required in before it is tested under extreme stress and duress. You cannot test and master something at the same time however much of a hurry you may be in to do so. The purpose of a drill is to help you master something – if you’re unable to do this because you are following your own agenda or interpreting the drill according to your own agenda, and what you want to take away from it you are wasting both your time and your partners.

Krav Maga often gets labeled as a system that is simple and easy to learn. Many people however interpret this in a way that makes fits in with what they want/wish to hear. Being “easy to learn”, is not the same as being “easy to master” – the Krav Maga blocking system can be taught and learnt in about 5 minutes, however to be able to use it to block the strikes of an aggressive or skilled assailant is going to take a lot longer than 5 minutes. Simple is not the same as simplistic; an idea, principle or concept can be simple and uncomplicated (as can a technique) but there can be a lot behind it. The Krav Maga blocking system utilizes a hand defense coupled with a body defense, which is a simple idea however the movement/direction associated with the body defense can give the principle a lot more depth to it than may first appear e.g. the body defense should also move a person into a prime attacking position.

The drills that we use are designed to teach these principles and give practitioners room to explore and discover how these principles can be worked out in dynamic situations, whilst developing the necessary skills to put them into practice. It is easy enough to turn a drill into pursuing your own idea of what is important however you won’t really take much away from the experience, other than the knowledge that once again “you are right” J.

We drill in every class, and playing by the rules of the drill and to the point of the drill is what will develop the skills you need to apply the principles and concepts of the system. Once these have been achieved you will start to be able to get the techniques you are taught to work…