Hello all! I’ve been fighting a sinus infection and a sore back this week, so things have been a little slow on the Krav Maga front. I’m starting to feel a lot better though and I’ll (hopefully) be back to training on Monday! In the meantime, I thought I’d update you on some of the latest news:

• My gym has recently expanded their operation, by adding nearby 3,000 square feet of space dedicated to Crossfit. This is great news, because it allows for more (and hopefully smaller) Krav Maga classes!
• Chris and I attended our gym’s Krav Maga Halloween Party last weekend and met a bunch of really great people. It was a ton of fun dressing up, seeing people outside of class, and casually chatting about chokes and other defenses. I’ll have more on that next week!
• My Level 1 test was rescheduled to December 6, giving me an extra month to train. I can’t say I’m upset, especially since the test would have been today! I don’t think a sore back and a sinus infection are optimal conditions for putting my body through the stress of an eight hour test… so I’m just thanking my lucky stars that it was postponed!
• And speaking of tests, I recently found a great blog post on how to prepare for a Krav Maga test! It was actually posted by Pam, the woman who first taught me Krav Maga at a Women’s Self-defense seminar in San Francisco (she was the assistant instructor at the time). I remember watching her defend these moves against Barny and thinking “Man, I want to be just like her…” She was flawless, ruthless, and fluid in all her movements. It was truly inspiring. Anyway, I’ll definitely be using this list to prepare myself for my upcoming test!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! Hopefully I’ll have more to report on Monday, when I head back to the gym!

Last night was the first time I’ve ever taken two Krav classes in one night.

I took W for the first class. He’s well-known for being intense and this class was no exception. It was non-stop action. One strike after another. We did advancing front kicks, roundhouse kicks, knees, palm-heel strikes… and that wasn’t even the defense!

I teamed up with a guy two inches shorter than me, but all muscle. I think he may have been reluctant to partner with me at first, but I proved myself by the end. He seemed shocked by a lot of my kicks, but still gave a lot of positive, constructive feedback about my technique.

The only issue came when we started doing knees. He would knee me so hard the wind was knocked from me. Then my stomach started hurting. It hurt so bad I had to ask an instructor to hold the bag for him. THAT’S how hard he kicked. You know me. I don’t just give up. I’m always all in. But he kneed me so hard, I’m 100% positive if I didn’t have a pad, I’d have broken ribs today. Moral of that story is if you throw knees correctly, you will deal a lot of damage.

I decided to wait it out and see if I’d be okay to go to the next Krav class. After I had a chance to cool down, drink some water, and stop shaking, I felt alright.

In MT’s class, I teamed up with V. She was worn out from Crossfit right before, so we were both exhausted and weaker than usual.

We learned how to defend ourselves if we were on our back with a heel kick and then how to get up from the ground. I felt like I was doing okay, but then my stomach started hurting again. I wanted to stay in class and practice getting up (it’s the first official class I’ve had where we’ve worked on this), so I tried to take it easy and focus on my technique rather than power or speed.

Although I had a 45 minute wait between the two classes, all I can say is Oh. My. God. I really just can’t imagine eight hours of that for testing. My brain was goo. My hands were shaky. And my stomach hurt for most of the night. For the future, I definitely need to pace myself.

Even today, my arms feel weak, my stomach has felt off, and I’ve just been really low energy. Sort of what it feels like when you get sick, but without the sick. I’m just going to continue to take it easy today and hope I feel better tomorrow.

This is the first opportunity I’ve had to go to a Krav Maga class with my boyfriend, Chris. We’re both in the same city now (I moved! It was sort of a sudden thing…) and it was his first time to experience some Krav lovin’.

I had told him all about Krav Maga and what he should expect. More importantly, I explained what makes a really great partner. I had told him before about wanting to really get a feel for someone attacking me. I don’t want to feel like I’m being massaged when someone is trying to put me in a choke hold. I want the real deal.

So you can imagine my surprise when Chris grabs me hard to choke me from the side. I’m immediately startled by the power in his strike, even though I know it’s coming. I try to recover quickly and go through the defense. I don’t move as fast as I should. I can’t wait for the day when these defenses are part of my muscle memory; when I just move and defend without thinking about it.

W, our trainer, comes over and shows me how to drop my body down into a crouch for this particular attack. Apparently in Europe it’s a popular offensive move to choke and head butt simultaneously. By dropping down into a crouch, I create a little more momentum for my groin strike and defend myself from those pesky head butts.

Aside from that, the class was almost exactly the same from my previous gym. I was worried it would be too different, but W explained that all instructors are taught by the same professionals in Los Angeles. No matter where I go in the United States, the classes should be formulaic: Bow in, exercise to get your cardio up (translation: kill you), stretch, practice strikes (punches, kicks, etc), learn to defend a particular assault (chokes, bear hugs, etc), execute defenses in a drill scenario, and then bow out.

It all sounds easy breezy just saying it like that. In reality, I genuinely just want a sandwich and a nap right now.

I still have a nasty scab on my right middle knuckle from class last week. I walk into Krav and promptly show the guy who manages the front desk. “So… this is what happened last time I was here,” I say with fake shyness. (Really, I’m super psyched about it…) “Is that gonna be an issue?”

He glows with pride—his face lighting up like a 10 year-old who’s just found out Christmas came four months early. “Good! It’s in the right spot! You want any scabs to be on your right two knuckles.” He assures me my hands will toughen up and tells me to throw open hand strikes for class tonight. A girl who’s signing up for her first class looks at me apprehensively, but I give him a big grin and go watch the class before mine. I have to admit, I’ve been staring at my knuckle with pride all week. Every time I look down, I remember what it means: I’m learning what I am capable of.

I’ve only been going a few weeks, but I can already feel myself getting into shape. After the initial warm-up, I’m not nearly as out of breath as I was before; I don’t feel like I’m going to die. My kicks are stronger, my punches are harder.

The instructor has us close our eyes. You have to train yourself to react as if you were on the street, he explains. You won’t always be prepared. My partner takes the rectangular bag and gives me a firm push and then prepares for my attack. My eyes fly open and I deliver a solid kick to her groin.

Again, I close my eyes. I force my mind to think about something else, allowing my weight to shift lazily to my left leg.

I seriously need to find a new job soon. She gives me a firm push from behind and simultaneously yells “HEY!” I open my eyes and deliver two solid open hand strikes. Left, Right.

I close my eyes… What should I eat tonight for… She shoves. Groin kick, groin kick.

When I leave, I feel great. I’m alert, strong, determined. I get on the crowded train to go home and catch a glimpse of myself in the window. I look like I’ve been manhandled, but I feel awesome! The guy sitting in front of me must think I look bad too, because he offers me his seat, even though there’s another woman in a suit standing closer to him. I smile and politely decline. There’s no way I could sit right now.

Quote of the week: “If you want to go home alive, play dirty.”

About a week and a half ago I took a four hour women’s self-defense class at a local Krav Maga Training center. I saw women who, with every punch and kick thrown, have a story. A raw, hot anger boiling up inside of them. Stories that I’d rather not ask about and I’m sure they’d rather not tell. Stories I’d never want to claim as my own.

My boyfriend, Chris, first told me about Krav Maga after watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother. I just moved to a big city without really knowing anyone here. We figured it would make us all a little less paranoid (especially because he’s on the other side of the country) if I knew how to defend myself.

The thing I already love about Krav Maga is the ability for it to be a serious workout that is fun. We played a version of tag. We raced. We dodged, kicked, laughed, grunted, breathed. We sweat.

I left feeling empowered.

I walked all the way home with a sense of calm and excitement. I started looking people in the face as I walked by them, acknowledging their presence. I’m guilty of staring at the sidewalk as I walk by or deadpanning past people. “Acknowledge their presence,” B, our trainer, said. “It will make them think twice about attacking you.”

I can’t wait to start going to real classes.