Self-defense is a wonderful thing. Even if you favor pacifism, knowing how to defend yourself is an essential skill. Self-defense training is also a great way to get into shape. A good martial art discipline should not only work the entire body, but also strengthen coordination and build up muscle memory. And when it comes to this, Krav Maga is one of the best.
Students of Krav Maga are expected to develop muscle memory for the simple and direct techniques so that it becomes reactionary and instinctive. It is always taught within Krav Maga, as well as many martial arts, that if the fight can be avoided without any physical confrontation, to take that path instead. In the robbery example, a victim would first give the robber the money and only after that would the Krav Maga student initiate an attack when the danger did not subside.
When confronted with the threat of violence, the mind goes through a series of steps to choose a response. These reaction stages include the following
1: Threat Recognition. In analyzing a potential violent situation, the mind must recongnize the danger and then process it.
2: Situation analysis. Once the mind recongizes the danger, it contemplates the possible outcome and takes in any additional clues that may be helpful in arriving at a choice of action.
3: Choice of action. After processing the danger’s potential outcomes, the minds quickly considers available courses of action and chooses one. This leads to the final stage, action or inaction.
4: Action or Inaction. After the mind settles on a reaction, it propels the body into action or the paralysis of inaction. Training improves this reaction flow by allowing you to quickly assess violent situations. Training ingrains the appropriate responses into your muscle memory. Whether the threat comes from a punch, choke, knife or gun, you will already know how to react.
By training and mastering the techniques of Krav Maga these moves will become burned into your muscle memory and allow you to react much quicker and more effectively should you ever need to use them. The way we build our technique is through muscle memory and repetition and in our classes we focus on teaching the proper techniques and giving you enough practice with them to allow you to react effectively when the time comes.
