Don't lose before it's begun

Often in the Krav Maga classes you are going to hear a plethora of bad language.  For some people it's normal, some tolerate it and some can't abide the swearing.  In class you are manhandling someone who doesn't want to be moved and you have to explain while adrenaline courses the body - you get excited and of course bad words come out.  I am the world's worst! The thing is though, it's such an important part of your training.  A lot of people have never been shouted at, let alone had someone in their face screaming and swearing at them.  For many people this is the point in an altercation where they give up and lose before it has begun.  They could have the greatest physical skills, but they can't deal with the verbal portion. I’ve been on courses where the first few hours was just been screamed at and belittled and you can't do anything but try and verbally de-escalate the situation. We were getting slapped, sworn at, pushed and almost spat on.  It was a tough exercise, but you got to do it back to others, so every cloud. 

Every one is different and all classes have a cross section of society, so if you are doing specific drills then you need to  be careful. One night a few years ago we did this exercise where you were pinned against a wall being shouted at and you had to de-escalate the person verbally. I said the bad guy could slap them if they wanted.  Well that evening there were about four new guys in the class. They were all big guys and I explained the drill and they all wanted to take part.  It was a dynamite session, yet none of them ever came back to train.  Just sometimes it can be a little too much for people, but at the same time you can't go to a boxing class and not get hit, and you can't swim and not get wet.  The rule of thumb of is go gentle with some people and just hope that, if anything happens to them, that their attackers also go gentle!