In this week’s tutorial video we’re focusing on hand defenses and simultaneous counterattack. As explained in the video, a lot of times the hand defenses, aka blocking, seem to be done in soft, non-aggressive manner. The training partner will very often be not really attacking but just showing hands or legs so that the one doing the training can extend their arm or leg to be there in the front of the attack. Problem is that this is not the reality. If we are being attacked, the attacker will put all the body weight behind the attack, and we will have to deal with that by putting our bodyweight behind our defenses. To simplify: we must strike the block as we would be striking a punch.
Simultaneous counterattack is what happens when you are able to slip and hit the attacker as he/she is trying to hit you. If you’re a little late, you might have to block the attacker’s strike there along the way. The best way to practice this is to have a partner or when training online, react to the instructor’s motion by slipping and delivering an attack at the same time. Once you are in the “attacking mode”, your training partner can start landing attacks when you are not waiting for them, and you will notice that you can actually make a defense and counter at the same time.
Training tips:
- Train different hand defense motions and remember to always have your whole-body motion behind the defenses
- When training with a partner, use focus -mitts so that your partner can really hit you without a fear of injury
- If you move out instinctively, strike with a kick, don’t force yourself to go to punching -> you won’t be doing this simultaneously
- When training defenses, always be in close range, so that the defenses come instinctively
Common pitfalls:
- Focusing on the defense, not on the stopping of the attacker’s action
- Focusing on the form instead of striking force of the defense
- Focusing on doing the defensive technique from a body position it won’t be natural to do
Repetitions and deliberate practice, failure is needed
According to numerous studies in skill training, failing is very important, but you’ll have to understand the reason behind the failure. Just like a child learning to walk. If you fail more than 50% of the time, the exercise might be a bit too demanding, so back up a bit and aim for 70-80% success -rate. Then again if you succeed 100% of the time, you are giving yourself a bit too much slack.
To get something working for you naturally takes a lot of repetitions and feedback. When learning a movement such as hand defenses, you must train the movement deliberately. This can be done on your own. By using video-analytics or machine -view AI like we have in kravmagacoach.com online platform, will help immensely since in solo training we might miss some crucial points while when training with a partner, the mark of failure is getting hit. The best situation of course is that you combine all types of training:
- Learning movement on your own by using kravmagacoach.com platform
- Training the movement with partner in block-like training or hitting bag or training dummy
- Scenario-type of training where the attack comes from different angles and uses different sort of weapons or objects within it (remember using the protective gear so that everyone will be healthy after the training session!)
We have the technology to help, let’s use it
Practicing the right things and practicing them right is the key to faster learning. This is why we created the kravmagacoach.com online platform utilizing the machine-view AI. When you train by the tutorials and take video footage of your own performance you will be able to visualize the learning and the automated feedback will help you to become better.
Check it out and start your free trial! https://www.kravmagacoach.com/