Examples of Stress Training

This book delivers a significant amount of information about the techniques and principles of Krav Maga but, by its nature, the book cannot simulate Krav Maga training. Real training involves creative stress drills and applying the techniques and principles under various types of pressure. From our perspective, no technique or response is really learned until it’s tested in dynamic situations.

We strongly recommend that you perform stress drills under the supervision of a trained instructor. Krav Maga instructors certified by Krav Maga Worldwide and the Krav Maga Association of America go through an intense training program that includes lectures and discussions on physiology and sports kinesiology. In addition, they attend lectures specifically on safety in training and creating training drills so that the drills they offer are both productive and safe. Ultimately, all the training you do is at your own risk; however, participating in training drills under the supervision of a certified instructor will give you the highest measures of both safety and intensity.

Some training drills can be both simple and effective. Once you’ve learned defenses from two different types of chokes, simply close your eyes, stand passively, and wait for your partner to attack you with either of those chokes. Once you feel the attack, open your eyes, realize which attack is coming, and react immediately and appropriately. This is the simplest version of a stress drill, and it’s quite effective.

More intense versions of these drills include distractions and disturbances. Here is an example involving one defender, three people with large pads, and one attacker. The pad holders begin to hit and push the defender, who can cover himself but cannot attack the pads. He allows himself to be jostled around so that his balance and vision are impaired. At any time, the attacker can grab the defender with any attack (limited to those attacks the defender has learned to deal with). The defender must react immediately. The pad holders then immediately go back to disturbing the defender.

Here’s a variation of the drill above, featuring one defender, two people with large pads, and one attacker. Note that this version allows the defender to work on at least one specific strike, and is designed to exhaust the defender and add groundfighting as well:

The defender begins to strike one pad with punches, elbows, knees, etc. The other pad holder smacks the defender with his pad, at which point the defender pivots with a hammerfist (you’ll learn that in this book) and continues with strikes. This continues. At any point, the attacker closes in, catches the defender from behind, takes him down, and gets on top in a full mount. The defender must reverse the position, get back up, and continue to strike the pads. (Note: To prevent injury, the defender allows the attacker to take him down—a more intense version of the exercise involves the defender attempting to prevent the takedown, but this requires greater skill on the parts of both attacker and

defender to avoid injury.) This drill is exhausting!

We have hundreds of such drills that allow our students to learn how to apply the techniques they’ve learned. It is the only way to truly prepare for a violent encounter on the street.