Elite Training Center: Redondo

Several people have come up to me in the last few weeks expressing anxiety about how their hectic schedules and outside commitments keep them from training as often as they’d like. It can be frustrating to watch fellow students advance at a rapid pace because they are able to train several hours a day, and while you’re happy for them, you feel like you’re moving much slower in comparison. I completely understand this frustration…I’ve felt it myself on countless occasions! What’s helped me is to try hard not to compare and to look at the bigger picture and see the cycles of life a little more clearly. Maybe you can’t train much because you’re rehabbing an injury or because you work a demanding job. Maybe you have young children and caring for them fills your days. And then you look at that college student who has a comparatively open schedule and a freedom in his life that you remember only vaguely (if at all!). It’s easy to feel despondent and discouraged, but everyone’s life moves in cycles. Eventually, at one time or another, most of us will feel the pressures of work, family, or injury. We also will have times when we have fewer outside pressures and can make it into the school more often. What’s truly important is that we keep training and keep moving forward on our own individual paths. For some of us that path is a career as a professional fighter, but for most of us it’s a lifelong commitment to improving our lives and the lives of those around us through martial arts. Elite Training Center in Redondo Beach is here to help you attain those goals. Try to train steadily and consistently to the best of your ability while maintaining a balance in the rest of your life. Martial arts are about enriching and adding to life…try to enjoy your particular path, with all of its slow climbs and occasional steep jumps!
Here’s a good goal: Aim for ten minutes of shadowboxing each day, running through and reviewing the techniques that you know, from kickboxing to kali to jiu jitsu to Krav Maga. By the end of the month, you will have logged five additional hours of repetition of your skill set.

Hit first, hit last! Words that we encourage all students at Elite Training Center to adhere to.

Krav Maga, Kali Silat, BJJ, Muay Thai Kickboxing, and MMA all express the importance of timing. To wait or anticipate is too late.

In no way are we condoning to go and punch someone in the event of any altercation. The idea of waiting for someone to throw the first punch can lead to…wait for it…wait for it…BAM! You just got punched! Be aware! This is a judgment call. If all exits and reasoning have been exhausted then it is time to act.

Don’t be beaten to the punch.

This Saturday, March 3rd at 1pm, is the next Krav Maga Promotion and Test. Whether you are promoting, testing or just coming to support your fellow students, you will be a part of an amazing day. Come join us for a little bit of everything including a great workout, Kickboxing, Krav Maga, MMA and teamwork.

CM

Stand up for something! Fight for what you know is right! Be something more than a faceless drone in the sea of billions!

Martial arts were developed to protect the practitioner and his/her fellow warriors. The battlefield is what brought the martial way to the forefront. It was because people stood up for something. This isn’t to say that all armies of old were standing up to something evil. There have been many instances where invading armies did not have the best of intentions. But in order to change anything, it takes the will of one.

All of the martial arts taught at Elite Training Center in Redondo Beach, CA were created by people who stood up to or for something.

Krav Maga, Muay Thai, Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), and Kali Silat were all at one time a component for change or protection. These martial arts all stood for something.

Elite Training Center’s Winter Survival Education Retreat was an enormous success. It’s taken a few days for the magnitude of the knowledge and experience to sink in, and I’m finally ready to share my thoughts.

To begin, getting a taste of what it’s like to fight in the snow with winter gear on was an eye opening experience! From kickboxing, to kali, to Krav Maga, to MMA and jiu-jitsu, students discovered how different it is to fight and defend themselves off the mat. It’s one thing to train in a controlled environment, and it’s another challenge entirely to adapt and apply those techniques in a more unstable and unfamiliar situation.

Besides training in martial arts, we learned survival skills that are so important yet so difficult to come by. Land navigation and orienteering, shelter building, fire starting, water purification, fishing/hunting/gathering, and first aid were just some of the topics. What made the information even more valuable was the real-world experience behind it; we had a former Army Ranger and former Navy SEAL as our expert instructors, and their experience and knowledge lent a unique perspective to each lesson.

On a personal level, I was privileged to witness some of the more subtle yet crucial necessities of survival at work. My team’s positive attitude, teamwork, and calm demeanor were critical to their success. It was also fantastic to watch them apply survival lessons learned at the last retreat, such as organizing effective search parties, and to see them have such success with those techniques.

I consider myself so fortunate to be a part of a school that teaches all aspects of martial arts. Martial arts, at the core, are about survival and defending those who are weaker and less able to defend themselves. An army defending the freedom of a nation cannot succeed if they can’t survive conditions long enough and well enough to actually fight. The same skills and mental fortitude can enable a family to survive if stranded in a snowstorm. I feel so much more prepared and equipped to handle such a situation. Elite is unique, and has enriched my life in immeasurable ways…I can’t wait to be a part of the next adventure!

Katie T.

When we learn to read, we don’t immediately jump into books with long, complex sentences. First we learn our letters, the formation of each and the sounds they make. Once those are mastered, we are taught how to combine them into words and then how to put those words together to open worlds of stories and knowledge. The martial arts are similar. For example, in basic kickboxing, we are taught how to perform a proper jab, cross, hook, uppercut, parry, elbow, knee, and basic kicks. We practice these individual techniques over and over again, embedding them in our minds and muscles so that they become second nature. So when we move to the more advanced program we are ready to learn how to combine these different elements to form a seamless flow of techniques as well as tactics and strategy. Those initial basic building blocks of movement are essential to every piece of our journeys. Although kickboxing was the example, this is true of all martial arts. At Elite Training Center, we are very proud of our programs (Muay Thai kickboxing, MMA, Jiu Jitsu, Kali, and Krav Maga); each of them has a defined and comprehensive basic training curriculum that truly prepares students for the large amount of knowledge and challenge present in our advanced programs. Our students succeed and progress because they are so well equipped with the fundamentals.
There is a time when reading clicks…when those letters cease to be seen and sounded out individually. We see the whole word and even phrases without even thinking about it. This is how martial arts skills evolve as well. Enjoy the process!

Really great to see all of the various martial arts careers unfold and progress at Elite Training Center. The movement and commitment the instructors have been witnessing continues to impress and make us proud. I’m eager to keep moving forward and continue to evolve with you all in the future. Great job yet again students of Elite Training Center, Redondo Beach, CA!
-A. Haro

With the holiday season upon us it is important to think about how truly fortunate we are. At Elite Training Center in Redondo Beach, CA, we stress the importance of giving back to the community and those less fortunate. Daily we are able to practice a myriad of martial arts which consist of Krav Maga, Kali Silat, Muay Thai Kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) and MMA. These very functional and effective martial arts would not be with us today had the importance of sharing and giving back not been instilled by the practitioners of the arts.

To truly understand the martial way is to give the self to the arts with the understanding that the responsibility of sharing this information is vital. If one can share information, should it be so difficult to volunteer time and other material goods?

This time of year there is a call to give to those less fortunate. Somewhere a child will wake up without a gift to open. Somewhere a child will be huddled with a loved one just to keep warm. Take some time to look around at what you have, what you want and then what you can give.

Hello Elite Training Center Friends,

This week’s classes in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu program saw us practicing techniques in combatives and self-defense focusing using the guard to influence and control the distance against punches, elbows and headbutt strikes by the top fighter. After this instruction, we moved on to additional submission attacks from the bottom position using the triangle choke & kimura armlock.

During the punching defense classes from the guard, we continuously practiced the understanding of making it extremely difficult for the top fighter to land successful strikes in a series. If the top opponent is hitting you effectively, you are not influencing the control of the distance. The middle position in the guard is the major factor of control. When the top fighter can stay in the middle position with good posture, it is going to be a difficult day for the bottom fighter. This is the start of effective guard passing and striking attacks for the man on top.

The basic strategy was to keep the opponent very close (Closed Guard) or very far away from you (Open Guard). This is a similar concept that relates to the standing clinch and closing the distance in jiu-jitsu. We need to keep in mind, our opponent will be bigger and stronger than us in a ground fight; therefore, you will not be able to hold a position for ever or a long period of time. When your opponent attacks with a strike or a punching technique, you will need to move at the right time in this situation to counter it. Using too much strength or wasted energy will quickly make you tired. Move at the right times and use your whole body: Mostly your hips and legs to control the bigger opponent.

Later in the week we continued our understanding of the kimura armlock and the triangle choke from the guard. Some of my observation saw many of the students trying to understand the details of the triangle choke. The kimura was easy to perform after a basic review. The triangle choke had many of you making adjustments to finalize the technique. And adjustments in the details are exactly what you have to do to making all jiu-jitsu techniques and strategies work for you: not just the triangle choke.

Keys to success in finishing the opponent with the triangle choke for the guard are: Getting a good bite on the opponent’s neck with your leg; controlling the opponent’s arm to bring it to the correct side of your body; controlling the posture on the opponent’s body by controlling the head; making body adjustments with your foot on the opponent’s hip to get the best angle to finish the technique; and finally, using a figure-four lock with your legs with the foot behind the knee to squeeze the opponent’s neck for the choke hold. Extra details to finalize the leg choke triangle is to pull downward on the opponent’s head with your hands, squeeze your knees together and lift upward with your hips. This is done at the same time and making for a three directional pressure.

For many of you this was the first time really learning the triangle choke. All the details will get easier: I promise you! There are 15 partner drills I can think of that will help you improve this technique; plus, you will also get a nice workout while improving your jiu-jitsu!

Be ready for next week!

Best,

Prof. Tony Pacenski

Elite Training Center

Don’t be so quick to dismiss someone who doesn’t have as much experience as you in your martial arts career. There is always something to learn either through viewing or doing. At Elite Training Center in Redondo Beach we refer to our upper level programs as Master Path.

Although Krav Maga is not steeped in such rich history as Kali Silat, it is continually changing and moving to ensure efficiency. Kali Silat, 2000 years old is continually researching and developing to come up with new technology to counter enemy tactics. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) stems from Japanese Jiu Jitsu. A once thought art of strength and position was slowly developed into position and angles.

If martial arts are always changing then how can one call themselves or deem another a “master?” There is the masters path, a journey that has no end, only the gathering and accumulation of knowledge in the martial way.