COMPLETE KRAV MAGA

Basic Punches Mitt Timing Drills for: Preemptive Attack& Follow Up Attack; Learning Back Hand Strike: Side Kick Switch, Front Kick followed with Punches; Front Kick Drop Punch Side Kick & Back Hand Strike Combo.

Inwards block; 40:50 Outwards Block Demo & walkthrough; 46:19 Toreador Demo

Toreador Continued, Demo with a muleta; 4:08 Alternate between the 3 blocks(Hot-zone Tactical Entry Methods)

Demo vs. Side Kick;

Groin Roundhouse; Low Leg Kicks; Outward Slap Kicks; Inward Slap Kicks; Horizontal Side Axe Kick; Full Turn Horizontal Axe Kick (compared to Martial Arts Reverse Turning Kick or Spinning Hook); Vertical Upward Attack Kick backwards.

360 Reflexive Outward Blocks vs. hooks and slaps and knife from Neutral Stance; 14:45 Outward blooks from crossed arms position; 24:02 Inward Reflexive Blocks slapping the attacker's wrists Demo of Human Reaction Time Limits; Explanation not to pass your Sternum with our blook in order to facilitate way for your cross arm counter attack; Drilling Reflexive Inward Blocks; 28:30 Blocks and Counter vs. Drop Punch/Jab & South Pow Drop Punch/Jab or cross hand in worse case scenarios because you never want to wait for the cross punch skipping a possible jab for block and counter attack. Even if there is no jab as he moves into the hot zone you block an invisible jab and counter attack even if your block hits nothing your counter attack should hit your attacker.

Heart Stomp Kick, Side Kick, Outward Slap Kick, Attack Roundhouse, Defensive Roundhouse, Learning and Drilling Defensive Kick Backwards, Vertical Axe Kick Backwards, Inward Slap Kick, Horizontal Axe Kick, Full Turn Horizontal Axe Kick.

Elbow Strikes: Side, Backwards, Forwards; Uppercut, Knee Kicks. [Note:  When kneeing you need to simultaneously  pull the opponent down towards the knee to avoid him pulling you having your leg come down losing the impact force.

Students will lean the mechanics of creating maximum impact with their elbows and knife hand strikes: Side Elbow, Horizontal Elbow, Backwards Center Body Elbow, Forward Elbow, Uppercut Elbow, Hammer Strike Elbow, Horizontal Backwards Elbow, Vertical Backwards Elbow, Outward Knife Hand Strike, Inward Knife Hand Strike.

Simultaneous Striking 3 People when Circled by a Mob, Escape from two people grabbing your wrists at the same time.  When in the long range and few people are attempting to attack you, move closer to one of them and try to position yourself behind them and the other people so you only need to fight one at a time. Try to use the first as a shield against the others using restraining technique.

Breakfall Backwards; Breakfall to the side; Hip Throw to facilitate getting comfortable with break falls; Escape from Mid Body Front Takedown: Pointed middle finger knuckle to the temple & hammer elbow to the top of the head; Escape from Midbody takedown with evasive hip twist and hammer strike to the back of the head or neck; Defending while lying on the back against approaching opponent: Upward Heel Stomp Kick to the front, 45 Degree Heel kick with the lower leg from the side, leverage on the ankle(with lower foot) and under the knee (with higher foot) with both legs to drop an attacker on his head; Blocking Kicks from the ground: 95 degrees outward 360, Inward blocks.

Escape from garment grab leverage on wrist elbow and shoulder, Escape from garment grab leverage on wrist and elbow, Use of restraint opponent as a shield when fighting multiple opponents. Note: In both methods the elbow is going over opponent's arms to prevent opponent from headbutting attack. Could be used to prevent a leg or hip throw.

Escape from Windpipe Choke from the back two Methods: 1. Plucking the wrists and moving diagonally backwards to avoid a pull, 2. Creating Leverage on one wrist between the neck and the shoulder with sharp diagonal torso turn falling forward with gravity landing on feet sidewise; When held close on the wall close, move to a leverage on the neck!

Rear Naked Choke for Sentry Removal, Side Neck Hold (Two Methods: Head Smash to the floor; Overhead Roll Grabbing the Balls.

Deadly Leg & Chin Throw smashing head on the ground; Kicking and Tripping from the ground; Escape from Ground Side Approach; Escape from Stomach Mount; Escape from Ground Guillotine; Escape from Ground Neck Hold; Wrists pinned Escape to the sides of the shoulders, Escape from Wrist Pinned over the Head; Escape from Sitting Naked Choke.

Take down kicks are drilled after learning break falls for Krav Maga Students to learn about the maximum potential of low kicks.  Therefore its in the Grappling Chapter and not the Impact Chapter.  The kick to the front leg is aimed under the calf in a diagonal direction toward the groin.  The follow up full turn kick is aimed diagonally upward trying to catch any part of the leg to the buttocks.  The idea is to create impact lifting the base of the body off the ground causing it to lose balance and fall.  Theoretically, once the opponent falls you can follow up with a backwards heel kick to the head.  It was part of the demo requirement for Civilian Krav Maga Black Belts and was never taught at the IDF curriculum.

Keep in mind the concept of dead side and live side. In hand to hand combat we should be happy somewhat to block and move into the attacker's dead side i.e. towards behind his back because it’s easier to control him and avoid attack with his cross hand. When it comes to knife, we usually move to the attacker's live side after a knife deflection because it’s easier to find a large target. However when we use bare hands vs. knife we teach first from neutral position to block a right handed held knife attacker with our left hand and counter attack with the right moving to his dead-side in most scenarios except top-down stab where we stay in place blocking the knife facing his live side. However we swing the knife down inwards to control him from the dead-side. As for inward slash attack we block with both forearms forward after we lunge back from the evasive lean and with leap backwards and we go for the dead-side. With reversed/outwards slash we lean back to evade the slash and leap back in a dip forward with outwards block to block a reversed slash inwards, grab the attacker's knife holding arm with our left hand and his throat with our right hand.

Top-Down Dead Side; Slash Defense Live Side; Identifying Inefficient Straight Stab with Top-Down Hold and Applying Straight Stab Defense; Applying Straight Stab Defense for Inefficient Straight Stab with Bottom-Up Knife Hold because you don't have time to step around and apply angled elbow block; 5:36 Distracting front hand stabbing with the cross hand Demo and Drilling; 11:00 Side Kick vs. Knife Stabs; 16:05; Intuitive bare hands vs. knife;

Defenses vs. Knife Attacks: Straight Stab Live Side; 13:45 Bottom-Up Stab (Defender moves to the Live Side);20:30 Top-Down (Defender moves to the dead side [Note:  The categorization of this video is drilling the other side basically blocking with the opposite hand in which is usually the live side except for top down Stab and reversed slash]); 23:12 - 25:02 Demo of transition behind the back after blocking Top Down Dead Side; 26:35 Reversed Slash; 31:40 Demo Straight Stab Defense Dead Side; 45:44 Slash Defense Dead Side; 52:10 Top-Down Live Side; 57:29 Bottom-Up Rib Stab [Note: If you execute block vs. Bottom-Up Stab Correctly you avoid the possible Side Stab]; 1:00:22  Demo of proper Bottom-Up Stab Tactic (Students are requested to use continuous pendulum motion attempting to cut defender's hand and reach the stomach for pulling out his intestines; 1:10:15 Distracting Hand with front hand Knife Stabbing with the cross hand.

Straight Stab Dead Side Defense; 14:35 Slash Dead Side Defense; 21:00 Top-Down Knife Stab Block; 26:20 Bottom Up Knife Stab; Bottom-Up Dead Side Defense; 37:00 Controlling Bottom-Up Knife Attack with one arm while countering with the cross arm Demo; 39:00 Distracting Front Hand while Stabbing with the Cross Hand Defense.

Attacking with a Bat on Large Pads;  Bat vs. Bat

Assault Rifle Strikes Demonstrated with a Stick; Stick vs. Stick Blocks; Blocks vs. Assault Rifle Strikes demonstrated with a stick.

Pistol Threat Defenses: Front Headshot; Front Barrel Pointed to Centerbody;  Front Barrel Pushed to the Stomach; Side Barrel Pointed to the Ribs (Two of diversion methods: Palm or Forearm); Back; Barrel pointed to the Head; Back Barrel Pointed to the Center Body; Side Barrel Pointed to the Temple.

Side of the Head from the Side; Sitting from the Front; Sitting from the Back.

When Sparring each of the training partners strives to attack first. However, if you feel your opponent was first to enter the Hotzone, you need to concentrate on blocking and counter attacking because you have less time to attack!  Remember to penetrate with your impact punches and kick only few millimeters into the opponent skin to give him a clear understanding yet avoiding injuring at all costs!

When Sparring each of the training partners strives to attack first. However, if you feel your opponent was first to enter the Hotzone, you need to concentrate on blocking and counter attacking because you have less time to attack!  Remember to penetrate with your impact punches and kick only few millimeters into the opponent skin to give him a clear understanding yet avoiding injuring at all costs!

When Sparring each of the training partners strives to attack first. However, if you feel your opponent was first to enter the Hotzone, you need to concentrate on blocking and counter attacking because you have less time to attack!  Remember to penetrate with your impact punches and kick only few millimeters into the opponent skin to give him a clear understanding yet avoiding injuring at all costs!

SPARRING IN PURE KRAV MAGA IS NOT FIGHTING:

If you are used to action films with camera action where the hero prevails and floors down multiple opponents you need to reset your mind before you take a look at pure Krav Maga sparring! If Krav Maga sparring would look like that, it’s possible that it’s another one of those choreographed violence where you have a leading attacker and a follower victim.

But when you try to learn out of a three minute intensive high rate pulse sparring drill, both training partners take the opportunity to try a comprehensive myriad of options that can happen in reality. As an instructor and perhaps as a training partner, one knows that he can floor down his training partner in a matter of few split seconds and game would be over. Instead however both training partners try to stretch the limits of the element of surprise and execute variety of attacks and blocks trying to reach their training partner's pressure points and at the same time block their training partner's attempts to reach their own pressure points.

Life is simple with sparring. You attack trying to reach your training partner's pressure points and you either reach them or being blocked and countered. You might be able to counter the counter but that's it!

Your training partner could move to three directions: backward or move forward to your left or to your right! You need to follow up and keep attacking or blocking the counter and countering it to either of these directions.

Real sparring training for self defense is not about choreographed violence. You have a training partner and both of you are aware to each other's limits and try to train each other to the max honing your skills. You need to stretch your training partner's skills to the limits instead of taking advantage of them and beating them!

When you are out of the hotzone you are out of reach. But when you enter the hotzone you must reach your opponents’ pressure points simultaneously, because your pressure points become reachable to your opponent as well.

Before you enter you already have examined all the possibilities of counters under the constraint of the reaction time. While in the hotzone you can only fit split seconds one to 3 motions. Anything after is if you bought time forcing your opponent to slow down in pain or move backward.

If he moves to the side you have to be ready for that too. Then the way you position yourself might let you block and counter the counter! You know all the angles of attack coming from and the directions your opponent is moving to or from. The methods are impact and push and pull. Impact could be applied on your pressure point or on your body to make your body hit the ground like a vice.

You can use push and pull to have his head or shoulder hit the floor or just to control him so he needs the other arm and legs for balance and he cannot attack. Finally, everything is under the limits of the element of surprise / reaction time. So sparring is trying to use what you've learnt and teaching the use of judgment. It’s also getting to train as close as possible to reality without getting hurt and discouraging the good challenge your training partner has to offer.

Your training partner needs to attack from realistic distance, and in realistic speed, but without a full extension of the arm or foot.

Other safety and control in grappling keeping in mind constantly your training partner's safety of joints and limbs. Maintain full speed, but less penetration or push and pull with limited force.

When I spar, I wait after each move to see what happens to the training partner, because they usually block and counter attack. I try few combinations, but I let them try too. However, my combinations would be two moves until they know they got hit. I don't keep beating them up after that.

I attack their bodies but sometimes their limbs or a little in front of their bodies to lure them to execute a blank defense to test their timing and judgment. I change the rhythm as well to test their judgment of defense and counter attack according to the Pure Krav Maga principles.

It’s best to let students spar with their training partners, but in a small group at the beginning if they don't get enough challenge from each other I try to help. And of course there is no point to try anything crazy just a little bit more.

You can see I have combinations all the way through but I build the speed slowly until the point I want to finish the sparring. That way they can learn to see. Otherwise they will get hit and will see nothing.

I use incremental penetration in the last finishing punches to the point they stop and drop their arms down knowing they got hit and distracted.

Every time you get into the hotzone - the distance where you can lunge once with a hit or a kick, consider it as a separate fight in reality! In reality it would amount to an average of three tenths of a second of a block and counter attack.

Here are the Pure Krav Maga Guidelines for Sparring:

-Control your strikes to minimum force for few splits of a second.

-You don’t want to injure your training partner.

-You don’t want to Knockout your training partner.

-You want to reach your training partner’s pressure points first.

-You want to provide your training partner a challenging opponent.

-You want to prioritize your selected offense and defense techniques to apply.

-Yet you want to provide different variations to test your training partner’s proper response.

-Each hotzone entry represents a single “Street-Fight” yet you want to learn your training partner’s habits from the many fights in one session and find out the loopholes and take advantage of them so you can point out to him how to prevent an exposure in the future.

Both training partners try to give a chance to their training partner and increase the difficulty and resistance gradually. Also they try to give their training partner a broad base collection of scenarios.

Many times, once they have a good defense and counter they are happy and don't bother to do the required combination to confuse the attacker enough to facilitate exiting the hotzone safely without interruption.

Finally, since both training partners are doing Pure Krav Maga it’s not easy to just attack. You need a combination and you need to lure the training partner to move to where you know they will move. Well it’s just the training.

The reality would be faster. One kick to the balls or one kick to the body balls or stomach followed up with hammer strike to the back of the head or punch to the face.

If you don't want to kill him you might gradually increase the strength of your punches, until it’s enough to stop him. As long as you hit somewhere painful you can distract and cover up with quantity. But if he has a knife or a friend attacking you, there is no time for many counter attacks.

You have people saying you need to cover your face when sparring or defending yourself - I say to them imagine people would be covering their faces when driving a car or flying an airplane... You need to see to navigate to reach and protect all pressure points...

Finally, how are you going to practice the transition from neutral peaceful position to attack or defense by surprise if you keep your hands up throughout the sparring? Forget about fighting sports mentality! It’s about not being ready and practicing the attack or defense, not the waiting for it.

You do not have time to wait for it as in reality you have few splits seconds to react before you could be dead. So you need to mimic that in your sparring training as each time you get into the hotzone is another fight. Therefore you do not want to cover yourself in a defensive mode but rather give yourself a natural practice of learning the limits of the reaction time and distance knowing when you can still block or attack. And when you block or attack you are not waiting for it with your hands up. You are just passing through the lines in the desired direction within a split second!

I just love those imbeciles that say you must protect your face with your hands...If this is how you train you are not doing Krav Maga!

Krav Maga training is about the economy of motion to save your live. Within a split second you need to block and move to counter attack.

So you need to emphasize your training on being relaxed and not expecting an attack and moving to a block and counter attack. At the same time you do not want to project your attacks or blocks as projecting them, might give time to an experienced opponent to counter either or both!

When Sparring each of the training partners strives to attack first. However, if you feel your opponent was first to enter the Hotzone, you need to concentrate on blocking and counter attacking because you have less time to attack!  Remember to penetrate with your impact punches and kick only few millimeters into the opponent skin to give him a clear understanding yet avoiding injuring at all costs!

When Sparring each of the training partners strives to attack first. However, if you feel your opponent was first to enter the Hotzone, you need to concentrate on blocking and counter attacking because you have less time to attack!  Remember to penetrate with your impact punches and kick only few millimeters into the opponent skin to give him a clear understanding yet avoiding injuring at all costs!

When Sparring each of the training partners strives to attack first. However, if you feel your opponent was first to enter the Hotzone, you need to concentrate on blocking and counter attacking because you have less time to attack!  Remember to penetrate with your impact punches and kick only few millimeters into the opponent skin to give him a clear understanding yet avoiding injuring at all costs!

When Sparring each of the training partners strives to attack first. However, if you feel your opponent was first to enter the Hotzone, you need to concentrate on blocking and counter attacking because you have less time to attack!  Remember to penetrate with your impact punches and kick only few millimeters into the opponent skin to give him a clear understanding yet avoiding injuring at all costs!

When Sparring each of the training partners strives to attack first. However, if you feel your opponent was first to enter the Hotzone, you need to concentrate on blocking and counter attacking because you have less time to attack!  Remember to penetrate with your impact punches and kick only few millimeters into the opponent skin to give him a clear understanding yet avoiding injuring at all costs!

SPARRING IN PURE KRAV MAGA IS NOT FIGHTING:

If you are used to action films with camera action where the hero prevails and floors down multiple opponents you need to reset your mind before you take a look at pure Krav Maga sparring! If Krav Maga sparring would look like that, it’s possible that it’s another one of those choreographed violence where you have a leading attacker and a follower victim.

But when you try to learn out of a three minute intensive high rate pulse sparring drill, both training partners take the opportunity to try a comprehensive myriad of options that can happen in reality. As an instructor and perhaps as a training partner, one knows that he can floor down his training partner in a matter of few split seconds and game would be over. Instead however both training partners try to stretch the limits of the element of surprise and execute variety of attacks and blocks trying to reach their training partner's pressure points and at the same time block their training partner's attempts to reach their own pressure points.

Life is simple with sparring. You attack trying to reach your training partner's pressure points and you either reach them or being blocked and countered. You might be able to counter the counter but that's it!

Your training partner could move to three directions: backward or move forward to your left or to your right! You need to follow up and keep attacking or blocking the counter and countering it to either of these directions.

Real sparring training for self defense is not about choreographed violence. You have a training partner and both of you are aware to each other's limits and try to train each other to the max honing your skills. You need to stretch your training partner's skills to the limits instead of taking advantage of them and beating them!

When you are out of the hotzone you are out of reach. But when you enter the hotzone you must reach your opponents’ pressure points simultaneously, because your pressure points become reachable to your opponent as well.

Before you enter you already have examined all the possibilities of counters under the constraint of the reaction time. While in the hotzone you can only fit split seconds one to 3 motions. Anything after is if you bought time forcing your opponent to slow down in pain or move backward.

If he moves to the side you have to be ready for that too. Then the way you position yourself might let you block and counter the counter! You know all the angles of attack coming from and the directions your opponent is moving to or from. The methods are impact and push and pull. Impact could be applied on your pressure point or on your body to make your body hit the ground like a vice.

You can use push and pull to have his head or shoulder hit the floor or just to control him so he needs the other arm and legs for balance and he cannot attack. Finally, everything is under the limits of the element of surprise / reaction time. So sparring is trying to use what you've learnt and teaching the use of judgment. It’s also getting to train as close as possible to reality without getting hurt and discouraging the good challenge your training partner has to offer.

Your training partner needs to attack from realistic distance, and in realistic speed, but without a full extension of the arm or foot.

Other safety and control in grappling keeping in mind constantly your training partner's safety of joints and limbs. Maintain full speed, but less penetration or push and pull with limited force.

When I spar, I wait after each move to see what happens to the training partner, because they usually block and counter attack. I try few combinations, but I let them try too. However, my combinations would be two moves until they know they got hit. I don't keep beating them up after that.

I attack their bodies but sometimes their limbs or a little in front of their bodies to lure them to execute a blank defense to test their timing and judgment. I change the rhythm as well to test their judgment of defense and counter attack according to the Pure Krav Maga principles.

It’s best to let students spar with their training partners, but in a small group at the beginning if they don't get enough challenge from each other I try to help. And of course there is no point to try anything crazy just a little bit more.

You can see I have combinations all the way through but I build the speed slowly until the point I want to finish the sparring. That way they can learn to see. Otherwise they will get hit and will see nothing.

I use incremental penetration in the last finishing punches to the point they stop and drop their arms down knowing they got hit and distracted.

Every time you get into the hotzone - the distance where you can lunge once with a hit or a kick, consider it as a separate fight in reality! In reality it would amount to an average of three tenths of a second of a block and counter attack.

Here are the Pure Krav Maga Guidelines for Sparring:

-Control your strikes to minimum force for few splits of a second.

-You don’t want to injure your training partner.

-You don’t want to Knockout your training partner.

-You want to reach your training partner’s pressure points first.

-You want to provide your training partner a challenging opponent.

-You want to prioritize your selected offense and defense techniques to apply.

-Yet you want to provide different variations to test your training partner’s proper response.

-Each hotzone entry represents a single “Street-Fight” yet you want to learn your training partner’s habits from the many fights in one session and find out the loopholes and take advantage of them so you can point out to him how to prevent an exposure in the future.

Both training partners try to give a chance to their training partner and increase the difficulty and resistance gradually. Also they try to give their training partner a broad base collection of scenarios.

Many times, once they have a good defense and counter they are happy and don't bother to do the required combination to confuse the attacker enough to facilitate exiting the hotzone safely without interruption.

Finally, since both training partners are doing Pure Krav Maga it’s not easy to just attack. You need a combination and you need to lure the training partner to move to where you know they will move. Well it’s just the training.

The reality would be faster. One kick to the balls or one kick to the body balls or stomach followed up with hammer strike to the back of the head or punch to the face.

If you don't want to kill him you might gradually increase the strength of your punches, until it’s enough to stop him. As long as you hit somewhere painful you can distract and cover up with quantity. But if he has a knife or a friend attacking you, there is no time for many counter attacks.

You have people saying you need to cover your face when sparring or defending yourself - I say to them imagine people would be covering their faces when driving a car or flying an airplane... You need to see to navigate to reach and protect all pressure points...

Finally, how are you going to practice the transition from neutral peaceful position to attack or defense by surprise if you keep your hands up throughout the sparring? Forget about fighting sports mentality! It’s about not being ready and practicing the attack or defense, not the waiting for it.

You do not have time to wait for it as in reality you have few splits seconds to react before you could be dead. So you need to mimic that in your sparring training as each time you get into the hotzone is another fight. Therefore you do not want to cover yourself in a defensive mode but rather give yourself a natural practice of learning the limits of the reaction time and distance knowing when you can still block or attack. And when you block or attack you are not waiting for it with your hands up. You are just passing through the lines in the desired direction within a split second!

I just love those imbeciles that say you must protect your face with your hands...If this is how you train you are not doing Krav Maga!

Krav Maga training is about the economy of motion to save your live. Within a split second you need to block and move to counter attack.

So you need to emphasize your training on being relaxed and not expecting an attack and moving to a block and counter attack. At the same time you do not want to project your attacks or blocks as projecting them, might give time to an experienced opponent to counter either or both! 

Summary:  I really don’t want to hear ignorant comments about guarding your head with your hands. Sparring Drills in Krav Maga are practicing from neutral stances like your daily positions for attacks by surprise. Your Defense is based on the limits of the human reaction time, not on guarding your vitals by placing barriers of your arms or legs. Your arms and legs are used to block attempts to reach pressure points. The difference in sparring drills to drilling techniques is that in sparring both training partners attempt to attack however if you started late you are left with no choice to block and counter attack. Each scenario last few split seconds and then you break. So in two or three minutes sparring you achieve drilling several angels and distances of attack and defense scenarios and each one of them lasts few splits of a second. You also get to drill them under pressure instead of the stupid pressure tests that everyone is wasting their time on and getting away from the bulk of the training.