One of the more challenging drills for a beginner to perform is doing Inside Defenses and 360 Outside Defenses against random attacks. This video explains in detail how using a proper arm position in your Fighting Stance will make it easier to perform this drill.
Transcript:
“Hello, this is Randall and Glenda with KravMagaTraining.com. In this video we’re going to discuss using a proper fighting position or hand positioning when you’re practicing your inside defenses and 360 blocks. What I mean by this is that if you have a proper hand positioning, where you position your hands to begin with makes a big difference on your ability to defend these random attacks.
So this is what I mean. Glenda and I are squared off and what most beginners tend to do, even though their taught to have their hands farther out in front, especially when their shoulders start to get tired because they’re not used to keeping the hands up a lot, their shoulders haven’t developed that conditioning yet, they tend to start to bringing in their hands really close. And the problem is when you start with your hands in really close, by the time that attack is coming towards you, regardless of which attack it is, go ahead Glenda, because you started really close to you, by the time you recognize the attack your hand barely comes out and you barely have time to defend it. So why not cheat, put your hands out a little bit farther so you’re already like halfway to the proper positioning. So by the time I see the attack coming my hand barely has to move. Lets do a couple Glenda at like half speed. My hands barely have to move. Whereas if I start really close like this, you’re going to notice each one of my defenses require a bigger movement. A bigger movement is a slower movement. Which means you’re more likely to miss the defense or going to get hit. So make sure you have your hands farther out in front. As you get more confident with the techniques you can start bringing your hands in a little bit closer. But in general bring them out a little bit farther.
Now another thing is, not only just having your hands farther out in front, but keep them about shoulderwidth apart. Which is another thing that we emphasize but people don’t necessarily do it consistently because they don’t understand the importance of it. Sometimes I see some people too wide like someone’s pointing a fucking gun at them. ‘Oh, don’t shoot!’ I don’t know what the hell this shit is. But then sometimes I see people keeping their hands to close as well. Keep them about shoulderwidth apart and the reason why is think of this space between your hands is like a guide. Anything that’s going to fly between these two arms is going to be one of your inside defenses. Anything that doesn’t fly between your two arms is probably going to be one of your 360 blocks. So this makes a great guide. So if I have my hands out here like this and I see something coming down the middle, ‘ah’ inside defense. If I see something that’s not coming down the middle, it’s a 360 block.
So between keeping your hands out farther, but also keeping them shoulderwidth apart, you’re going to find that it’s going to be that much easier to recognize the angle of the attack and know which defense to do properly. Glenda and I are going to do a couple more at half speed and you’ll see that by just doing these two things I literally barely have to move my hands and it makes the defenses so much easier. Now compare this. My hands are close. They’re really tight to me. Notice the movements are way bigger. Yeah, I can still do that the defense but it’s making the technique a lot more difficult. And difficulty sucks. The whole point of everything is trying to make things as easy as possible. So that’s kind of the beauty of Krav Maga in that it’s an effective system but it’s effective in a way that anybody can learn the system if they’re willing to put in the work. And it doesn’t require that you have great timing or great athletic ability. So we want to keep everything as simple and as easy as possible.
So by keeping your hands farther out in front, shoulderwidth apart. Basically, just using a proper fighting position like you were taught, and being consistent with it, trust me, when you do this drill in class it will be so much easier.”
“Krav Maga techniques must be accessible to the average person, not just athletes.”
