The Stages of Learning Krav Maga

Understanding how your body and mind progress from learning techniques to performing them instinctively.

PART 1 — The Cognitive Stage: Learning the Fundamentals

Learning Krav Maga requires more than learning the individual movements, concepts and tactics.
Krav Maga is a physical system that requires not only understanding, but execution of the learned material. This requires the practitioner to feel every step of the technique, to develop the necessary proprioception and awareness to build the neuromuscular connection, linking the muscles involved with the exercise to the brain that is processing the activity. In other words, learning how to learn a new physical activity requires specific guidelines that we wanted to briefly share with you to guide you in your Krav Maga journey.

The early stages of Krav Maga training require relatively choreographed, slow and controlled drilling, with limited variability to allow the practitioner to build the necessary neuromuscular connections associated with every new technique. Speed is a detriment to this stage of learning, as it prevents the students from making the needed body-to-mind connections necessary for learning the activity. That’s why you often hear us slow newer students down, so that the brain has the time to process the executed movement. In sports science, people often refer to this stage as the cognitive stage, where you are tasked with remembering the specific movements, allowing your body and mind to build a blueprint for the execution of these newly learned techniques.

Next (scroll down): Once the basic movements become more familiar, the way you train, and the challenges you face, must begin to change.

PART 2 — The Associative Stage: Learning to Adapt

The next stage of physical learning is known as the associative stage. Here the students start feeling less awkward about their movements, and start developing the ability to self-correct without constant feedback from the instructors. To transition to this stage, the main expectation from the students is their ability to start to self-assess and analyze their performance to seek further improvement. In order to assess your performance, the practitioner needs to feel some level of challenge. This can come from increasing the intensity and/or the frequency of the attacks, the speed and intensity of the execution of the techniques, and/or the variability of the drills. This in no way means that the student should start working with 100% speed and power or participate in free uncontrolled sparring. But it does mean dealing with slightly more resistant opponents and slightly more chaotic drills. Think of our Fight Lab and Sparring classes as an example.

Successfully navigating this stage of learning requires a progressive increase in the intensity and variability of training. We expect students to go a bit faster and harder to push the limit of their proficiency. However, two things need to be maintained: first, the safety of yourself and your partner(s). Second, the speed and intensity need to be such that you can still self-evaluate without feeling so overwhelmed that you go into “survival mode”, with no recollection of what you did or an understanding of how you did it. This will allow you to make the necessary adjustments with every rep, drill and exercise, and ultimately progress you into the autonomous stage of learning.

Next (scroll down): The ultimate goal is to reach the point where technique no longer requires conscious thought—but can be performed automatically, with speed, control and awareness.

PART 3 — The Autonomous Stage: Performing Under Pressure

In this ultimate stage, the students no longer need to think about how to execute a specific movement or technique. They are working in automatic mode with high speed and intensity, yet with full control and awareness of every movement. They are capable of constant self-assessment and improvement and are able to deal with unconventional situations and scenarios. This is what you would expect to see from professional athletes, and what you see in some of our advanced students that have devoted many years to mastering the system.

As you progress through your own stages of learning Krav Maga, and challenge yourself to perform at a higher level, keep in mind the following safety parameters. Krav Maga is a contact system (it literally means: contact combat). Although we try not to hurt our partners, accidental contact may happen. Obviously, we have specific classes devoted to contact training, and those require their own safety equipment. But even in regular Krav Maga classes, always wear appropriate safety gear to minimize the chance of injury. This includes groin protection for men, and for everyone, we strongly encourage having mouthguards available. Whenever you and your partner are trying to gradually increase the intensity of the drills, wear the mouthguard in case of any accidental contact. We (the instructors) have always worn mouthguards in our training whether it be among ourselves or with others during national and international Krav Maga gatherings. However, keep in mind that if you are constantly making contact with your partner(s), your speed is too high and doesn’t match your ability. Slow down until you are in full control and are able to keep yourself and others safe. This is also generally the speed where you are able to self-correct and adjust as needed, facilitating your learning. Always remember to follow your instructor’s guidance and directions, as each student is different, and requires different focus that is best observed and directed by a qualified teacher.

Happy training!