Blog entries

Closing the Loop

Peter

Our orientation establishes how we conduct ourselves in general, and becomes a posture or trajectory that influences the decisions, actions, and reactions of participants in a conflict. This posture can exert a gravitational pull on our interactions with other people, leading both towards and away from conflict.

Orientation was expanded in Boyd's model to include the idea of "implicit guidance and control". This, combined with feedback, is what creates the general mode or i [...]

Barny's Desk - December

Barny

Decide to be happy, knowing it is an attitude, a habit gained from daily practice, and not a result or payoff.

The holidays are here. With all the joy that comes with this time of year also come the bad guys that make it unpleasant for some. I wrote about awareness in last month's letter; I want to emphasize for the next 30 days to have a g [...]

Inspecting the OODA loop: Orientation

Peter

Last month, I introduced the concept of the observe-orient-decide-act loop, or OODA loop, developed by military strategist John Boyd. It is a concise model of conflict that has guided war planners and fighters of this country since his 1986 presentation.

Boyd's feeling was that the orientation phase was the most crucial to the outcome of any conflict, as it determines the posture one takes to the conflict before any action begins. My simplified model from last month shows a cycle wi [...]

Preparing for a Krav Maga Belt Test - by Pam Tao

Maria

This month we have a special article written by Brown Belt student, Pam Tao.

"Okay! One person in the center of the circle, standing with your eyes closed! Everyone else will put on all Level 1 and 2 attacks on this person! And I want overlapping attacks! No stopping! No breaks!"

So y [...]

Barny's Desk - November 2007

Barny

Fear can be your best friend or your worst enemy depending on the way you choose to use it.

Anyone that says they are not afraid of anything is either a fool or a liar. How you deal with fear is the important thing. The normal first response to fear is either to run as fast as you can to escape whatever is making you feel uncomfortable, or freeze up like an animal caught in headlights. Fear causes a [...]

Getting Inside the Loop

Peter

Military strategy is rich ground to till for concepts related to self-defense. Much time and energy is spent in military organizations defining the nature of conflicts and devising means to overcome them according to their objectives. Many different models have arisen from these efforts over the centuries. As individuals, we can adapt some of these models to help us deal with conflicts that arise for us. One of the most useful and universally applicable models of conflict was devised fairly rece [...]

3rd Annual Women's Self-Defense Seminar (Nov 10-11)

Maria

In case you haven't noticed on our events calendar, our annual Women's Self-Defense seminar is coming up again. It is extremely helpful to those women who are nervous about city life, or believe that there is no way to defend themselves or stay safe. If you or someone you know wants to learn to keep themselves safe, please check out this informative class.

Open to all levels

, these 6 hours of comprehensive training will include:

Kicks and Knees [...]

Fuel For Your Training: nutrition seminar 11/3/07

Maria

Feel like you are working out tons and not losing the weight you want? Feel like a bottomless pit of hunger and can't get enough to eat?

Join fitness instructor Kat for a seminar on nutrition! Learn how and what to eat for peak performance. Find out how to decrease body fat, while simultaneously building lean muscle mass.

Topics covered:
Strategiesfor healthy eating in the real worldForaging in the urban jungleHow to eat “in the Zone”Fat is [...]

My imminent return

Peter

Those of you who've been missing my Chinese Boxing class, have no fear. I am expecting to return to teaching October 1st after fully recovering from knee surgery. I will be returning to my regular teaching schedule of Mondays levels 2 and 1 (6pm and 7pm), and Thursdays level 3 and Chinese Boxing (7pm and 8pm respectively).

New Grappling Instructor

Maria

We have a new grappling instructor here at KMSF. James is no longer teaching here and our wonderful Zee has already found someone to take over his classes on Thursday and Sunday. Our new instructor is Lana Stefanac. She will start teaching classes on Sunday, September 8th. Lana comes to us from Cleveland, Ohio and has a professional MMA record of 4 wins and no losses. She fought over Labor Day weekendin Art of War 3 in Dallas, Texas (with a quick victory over her opponent) and just qualified in [...]

Polk Street Fair September 15th - THIS WEEKEND!

Maria

Come help support the Polk Street Corridor by attending the Polk Street Fair Saturday, September 15th. Running from 12-7pm, the fair promises to be full of fun, including:

* Lots of great food like sushi, ribs, oysters, Thai, Sandwiches and more

* 2 beer gardens

* 2 stages of entertainment, with DJs and live bands

* lots of booths

* a children's play area

* and an Artists Alley with work of local artists.

[...]

Interview: Peter Pryputniewicz

Peter

Peter is one of the original members of KMSF, and also teaches Chinese Boxing. Peter is also the one who normally conducts all the interviews for our newsletter in addition to his column. This month, the interviewer finally becomes the interviewee.

KMSF: You're an instructor at KMSF, and one of the original members that came over from Chinese Boxing. How has your experience with Krav Maga been, both the system and the school?

Peter: I studied Chinese Boxing for a ve [...]

Knee surgery

Peter

As some of you know, I recently had surgery to repair a knee injury. I was very pleased to find out it was not damaged nearly as much as I thought at first. There are a lot of things we take for granted in life, and one of them is simple physical mobility. To be without it or to be compromised in that way is a major disruption to anybody who likes to train.

The injury happened during sparring, I was pushed and as I was flying backwards trying to gain my balance, I jammed my left l [...]

Krav Poker Run Fundraiser

Barny

The first annual KMSF Motorcycle Poker Run will be held on October 13, 2007!
Get to know your fellow riders on this fun ride. Never done a poker run before? Here's the idea: we ride around, making several stops. You pick a playing card at each stop, and the best poker hand will win the pot. In case of a tie, the pot will be split between the winners.
If you have a license but do not own a bike, you can get a deal on a rental at Eagle Riders on Bryant Street. If you plan to rent, you need [...]

Barny's Desk - September 2007

Barny

Often you must rely on your intuition.

Intuition, instinct, sixth sense - these are all the same thing. Learn to listen to it and just react to the feeling. If that means avoiding walking through a crowd or reacting to a physical threat, just do it. You will have time to think about it later. I have never seen this principle better demonstrated than on the Human Weapon Krav Maga episode that just aired on the History Channel. One of the top instructors commented that only a [...]

UFC 74 review

Peter

The fights were all pretty interesting, no snoozers or ridiculously quick endings either. St. Pierre mostly dominated Koschek but couldn't submit him. George really took it to Kos, stuffed his take down attempts and then took him down repeatedly and controlled from the top position, eventually sitting on his head and almost pulling off an armbar, a kimura and at the last minute almost got him in a leg lock after pounding on him a bit.

Couture pretty much destroyed Gonzaga&# [...]

Interview: Pam Tao

Maria

KMSF: How long have you been doing krav?

Pam Tao: It's been about four and a half years. I started in October 2002 at the old school.

KMSF: Who did you train with first?

PT: I started originally with checking out the school. My M.O. was to show up and observe the classes first. I'd heard about krav from the media buzz around a movie at the time, and then I saw the ads that KMSF was running back then, too. My brother had studied karate and judo for a lo [...]

Training Partners

Maria

Over and over again, I hear from students that they enjoy the senseof community and support that the KMSF Training Center provides. There seems to be an endless supply of people willing to offer advice on techniques or help a newbie negotiate the difficulty of holding airshields for the first time. All these good training partners can help make classes more i [...]

From Barny's Desk - July 2007

Maria

The best defense is to not be there.

Most violent situations can be avoided by using your sixth sense. Stay aware of who and what is around you. If something feels wrong, it probably is. Walk close to the curb instead of next to the building, and keep your head up instead of looking down. At night walk only on well lit streets. If you see someone or somethingthat makes you feel uncomfortable, cross the street. If someone starts to follow you, go into a store or public building and c [...]

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