COMING SOON: GUN SEMINAR

We still have a few spaces left for our Gun seminar scheduled for June 26th from 2-6 PM
Members $60 Guests $90
Seminar includes defenses against several basic hold up positions including take away.


SCHEDULE CHANGES

In August we will be changing our schedule and would like some inputfrom all of our students.

We will be adding some Level 4 classes since we will have a level 3 test in July

We have had a few requests for:

1. Weekday AM classes 10AM?
2. Kundalini Yoga
3. Mui Thai
4. Boxing


What would you like?? and when??
Let us know at the student feedback page.
Please take the time to respond, if we do not have at least 10 people interested in a new class we can not add it.
Also, Sundays have been a little slow, would different class times add more interest?

Summertime in the City

June is here and summer is upon us. I'm still recovering from May but this nice weather is helping. I finished another week of instructor training at Krav Maga headquarters in Los Angeles. Once again I had the good fortune to have Instructor Brain Lowry as a training partner, and we both made sure to help each other maintain a high level of focus and energy throughout the week. This time the bruising seemed to be concentrated in the legs, from absorbing kicks to the thighs seemingly every day. Fun, huh? At least I got to come home, Brian had two more weeks of mountain combat training to go. In a commendable bit of positive thinking, he remarked that it sure would feel good on his thigh bruises to hike through those cold mountian streams. I thought I was tough before I heard that. Oh well. He also lent me a very interesting book on identifying sources of violence, called "The Gift of Fear". I'll review it here when I'm done, but so far it is excellent.

Foundation for movement

In the context of self defense training, it is critical for people to understand how their body works, so they can apply this understanding to the skills they need for self defense. In times of great stress, the more thoughtless and automatic you can make movements and position your body, the greater your chances are of survival. This is the relationship between self defense and resistance training.

So how are these two activites related? Most specifically it is in the learning of applied body mechanics. In both activities, you must develop sensitivity to the optimal leverage required to work against outside forces and gravity. On the other hand, appreciating the differences between the two activities is where we find out why they are so mutually beneficial.

First, the similarities. Resistance training causes the body to quickly understand skeletal alignment and leverage against gravitational force from a variety of positions. On the first set of bench presses in anyone's life, it is quickly understood that one needs to have their elbows aligned with the wrists against the weight. It is the same with the first straight punch we ever threw at a target. With resistance training, we also use muscles to stabilize ourselves while working on more advanced movements, like lunges or squats. When it comes to self defense, stability is a key component of having leverage to defend, then strike and kick with power.

The difference between the two is obvious, in the gym or in the park, no one is choking you or hitting you while you do your situps, at least I hope not! If so, stop training for a moment and beat the crap out of them, then finish your workout somewhere else. The point is that in order to develop positive habits of posture and alignment, it requires an activity that allows you to do just that, without stress or distraction. That is how you can reverse years of bad posture and make permanent corrections to how your body operates in space and under stress.

One of the best features of Krav Maga is that it harnesses instinctive reactions, and turns them into positive actions. The problem is that some of our instinctive reactions come with the baggage of postural habits. The more tired or stressed we are, the more these show up in our movement. Resistance training builds a foundation that supports strong postural alignment, and builds unconscious motor skills that can help us fight and survive. We don't want to sacrifice any speed for strength, so resistance training needs to be blended carefully into a self defense training plan. There a lot of resources out there on this subject, and I'd like to find some that focus on developing resistance training programs for fighters. If any of you have suggestions, please forward them to me for the book list.
Have a great month of training at KMSF.