Monday Night 4th Feb Class @ Krav Maga Edinburgh

The evening kicked off with another Combat Ready conditioning class. With one guy being sick outside you know it’s a serious class. Again, its not a bootcamp you simply go at your own pace but you need to remember and keep moving even if you cannot manage some of the drills.

A big thank you to all the new guys that showed up for the KM class. We started the evening drilling various combatives on the thai pads and then went on to look how these could be applied on an opponent. We focussed on pre-emption last night and paid big attention to our passive guard. Trying to keep the arms together in front of our body whilst looking natural and not in an aggressive posture. By having the arms closer together it closes our centre line down and forces an attacker to strike with a circular attack otherwise he is simply striking into a barrier. However, we weren’t waiting to get hit and we were taking the initiative and striking first and then using a variety of takedowns. We spent the evening covering similar movements and ensured a commonality so we don’t have to memorise set techniques. We also looked at putting in a false lead and striking and pushing through forcing an attacker off balance. Using this techniques allows us to quickly establish a chest to back position. Again we simply used some of the takedowns from earlier in the class. We looked at using these movements when we suspected that the attacker was drawing a weapon and how we could look to quickly gain control. One thing I didn’t cover was how to use the pull through movement on a much larger opponent. I will quickly cover this on Wednesday as we have to appreciate nature and that all of us are different shapes and sizes. We finished off the class with sparring. I had the opportunity to get to spar with a thai boxer who had come along to the class. Its great to get the opportunity to train with people of a good level especially who train in a serious hard art like Muay Thai. After an exchange of low kicks and the fact that my shins couldn’t take anymore I took the fight to ground. After sneaking my gloves off I started gouging and ripping – well there are no rules at this club and I don’t need to play fair!