Basics in Martial Arts: Krav Maga in Los Angeles South Bay
Basics in martial arts are the key to everything. Today in Master’s Path Krav Maga, Shihan reviewed hip escapes (shrimping) because when the class was lightly rolling (ground fighting) as a warmup, people were flat on their backs too much. It’s never a good idea to be flat when fighting on the ground; your legs and hips should always be working for you to keep you from being compressed. So the class spent some time drilling the actual motion of the shrimp or hip escape, and then we reviewed five or six techniques that require hip escaping for success (especially escapes from side control and mount). It’s so interesting to see how much the same basic motion (hip escape) is essential to so many other techniques. If the basic part fails, nothing else beyond it will succeed.
Now, the Master’s Path Krav Maga students have done hip escapes before, and if they are also students in our MMA (mixed martial arts) or BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) programs they have done them many times. But today was a good illustration of why it’s so important to keep drilling basics in martial arts, if not in class then on your own, so that they become deeply ingrained in your mind and muscles and you do them almost without thought. Once your mind is freed from worrying about completing basic steps, it can begin to anticipate your partner’s motion, allowing you to form a tactical plan of attack (or escape, depending on whether self defense your goal). This is not only true on the ground but for stand up fighting (such as Muay Thai kickboxing) as well. The more technical and solid your basics in martial arts, the more you can build advanced techniques upon them…or even stack basic techniques in a way that gives you success. Some of the best fighters have a game of very basic techniques. They just have those techniques so solid and they are so good at anticipating what an opponent will do against those techniques, that when they apply power/speed/strength they are very formidable opponents.
Each martial art that we teach at Elite has a solid Basic level which drills some of the most fundamental basics. This foundation is so important because when students move to the Advanced levels there is a lot more information and it comes at a faster rate…solid basics are a must. And basics in martial arts have to be practiced all the time. Champion boxers drill their jab every day. So be sure you are practicing your basics as well; practice them at home and during shadowboxing in class. Mentally reviewing the pieces of technique is also very helpful. Basics aren’t always the most exciting techniques, but they are essential to success.
~Katie Toney
Elite Training Center
1628 South Pacific Coast Highway,
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(310) 543-1600
www.elitetrainingcenter.net
Basics in Martial Arts: Krav Maga in Los Angeles South Bay
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