Big John in the NYC

John was out in New York and has been studying with a Krav School out there. This is his report from his time in New York.


Krav Maga Long Island
They were very welcoming at the krav school in New York and let me train for free as a guest. The director, Michael Blitz, has taken a year off to set up the school which is actually outside NYC on Long Island in a town called Syosset. It seemed the training in centres in the city itself was quite limited, either once a week or in short runs.
Syosset is on the Long Island Rail Road, the one that goes out of New York to the beach resorts, the Hamptons. From the station (it has a platform gap of up to 15 inches! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syosset_(LIRR_station)) to the club was an hour's walk. The big white houses had mail boxes and lawns with built in sprinklers and funny looking birds and squirrels you don't see here. Anyway, the club is really well-equipped and so are the students. They let you do your own stretching first (but I think they would have enjoyed Lee being there giving them a 20 minute workout) and it's straight into practice and then class stretching at the end. We did defence against kicks, putting together 4 punch combinations and getting out of bear hugs from behind. This one you had to hunker down, stick your butt out, slide your hands down attacker's arms to locate and grab the exposed index finger which you bent back, stepping to their side. I remembered to show them the bear hug repeated left and right backward elbow strikes you guys showed us. Other stuff we did was 360 degree blocking and using a clenched thigh to block a kick.
NYC was great. I really had an interesting time. Transport around the city is cheap and you get cheap eats. The people were nicer than expected, have loads of energy and a can-do attitude. At the hotel a hotel porter told me MJ had died when we were going down in the lift and when I got outside the black guys selling stuff on the pavements were putting on tribute shows with his songs and dances.
At Ground Zero in downtown Manhattan there is a little chapel called St Paul's, built in 1766, set in trees directly opposite, just a few paces from where the twin towers had been and still surrounded by other skyscrapers on the other 3 sides. For eight months 100s of volunteers worked from it round the clock, tending to the rescue workers. That was very thought-provoking. It's the oldest building in Manhattan still in use.
Although it was cheap to eat and get around and t-shirts cost $2 and they had cool sneakers at good prices, hotels were just under $300 a night! I had also walked 20 hours a day with krav thrown in. I tried to find a cheaper hotel across in Queens where they are $150 a night (wow, half price!) but I actually felt a gunshot behind me and there was a slight feeling of menace in the streets. Anyway I was more than content with the time I had and I really recommend it but maybe when it's a bit cooler.
John (Lamont)