Krav Maga technician, fighter, warrior; which one are you?

Every Krav Maga practitioner talks about his or her rank.  But will our patches, diplomas and belts fight for us when we are confronted with attackers intent on causing severe harm to us and loved ones or even worse, intent on taking our lives?  Will an Expert handle himself better then a Practitioner when faced with a fight for his life?  The answer lies in the training habits.  Is the Expert trained to fight, improvise, make on the spot decisions, adapt to changing circumstances, have the mental and technical ability to fight; or is he simply a technician that has memorized the techniques and gone through the motions to reach his Expert level? If he is the latter, then his Expert rank will do nothing for him in a real life struggle.

A student starting to learn Krav Maga is usually operating at a very technical level.  He or she are presented a technique, they understand it, practice it and internalize it.  To them their success is defined as the ability to execute the technique correctly with minimal errors.  They usually do not pay any attention to the post self defense portion of throwing meaningful combatives, disengaging, scanning for further dangers and escape opportunities.  If the technique fails, they fail instantaneously.  They do not yet have the mental, physical and technical ability to fight if anything goes wrong with the initial technique, or if the attacker pursues them further by modifying their mode of aggression.

With proper continuous training students gain more knowledge and understanding of the principles of Krav Maga. They develop better striking and fighting skills, they begin understanding the importance of finishing mode to every self defense technique.  They develop confidence and assertiveness in their technique and their movement, which is often displayed by their ability to deliver decisive combatives and scan for other dangers and exit opportunities after completion of every technique.  They do not freeze or fall apart if their initial self defense technique failed.  They are now fighters, and for the worse or the better they continue to fight through any failure, despite the outcome.

Ultimately, as students continue developing good training habits, they expand their technical knowledge of the system, they advance their physical and mental capabilities and they begin transitioning to the warrior state.  This means that they can now begin adapting to the changing environment and circumstances of an altercation.  They start to transition smoothly from one technique to the other and find a way to adapt their technique to best overcome any presented problem.  They deliver maximum damage to their opponents with minimal harm incurred to themselves or loved ones.

So can an Expert be an Expert without reaching the warrior state?  They shouldn’t, but in a wrong training atmosphere and with poor instructional focus it occasionally happens.  Especially in schools where heavy attention is paid to technical progression with lack of focus on fighting, striking, aggression drills, finishing modes, movement and positional nuances, and transitions from one technique to the other.

Our school‘s goal is to train people to overcome and survive violent confrontations.  Therefore we immediately push the student beyond a simple technician and put him or her on a path to achieving the fighter’s state.  We spend a lot of time on perfecting techniques to ensure a solid foundation.  But we also spend equally as much, if not more time on striking, movement, aggression drills, stress drills and other training methods to advance students technical, physical and mental abilities when it comes to dealing with a life threatening situation.  That is why we offer full contact training very early on in the students’ development, immediately after practitioner 1 rank has been achieved.  Our goal is for the student to be at the fighter mode by their practitioner 3 level.  At that point we continue to broaden student’s technical knowledge and continue to advance their fighting skills with the hopes of raising their level of proficiency to the warrior status by the middle of their graduate level.

So when you train, ask yourself are you training with a purpose?  Are you striving towards the fighter and ultimately the warrior level, or are you simply going through the motions in class, and are stuck at the technician level of proficiency?  Remember that the latter will do you no good in a real life threatening situation, so push yourself harder in every class and train with a clear purpose in mind.

To help you with your Krav Maga training, make sure to read our article 6 Habits of a Successful Krav Maga Practitioner

“So that one may walk in peace” – Imi Lichtenfeld