Krav Maga Starts April First

It snuck up on me. I went out to verify the end date of the last cycle (which should have been February 26th?)& saw that the calendar had been updated. The Spring session begins Aprils 1st... which is tomorrow evening. So I'll need to pack a bag this evening for that session. I'm assuming that the calendar is accurate. It's certianly been updated since I looked at it last, only a week or so ago. It appears that they skipped the month of March.



So I don't even have time to get psyched about this. I was actually planning on working late tomorrow evening, but that should still give me enough time to get across the bridge & get to the class by 6:30 PM. Two weeks smoke free... I hope my lungs are up to it. I've got adequate gear for this beginning session.

This should be interesting. I want to find out if this system is going to work fo rme. It certainly seems like the most practical one for me; easy to learn, applicable to multiple scenarios & based on natural, instinctive movements. I'm also hoping that it will mesh with me and that I'll be able to utilize the skills in the EP training & future work.

Of course I'm still going around in circles mentally as to whichsystem would benefit me the most. I already have time invested in American Combato & as I've said before, it is a known quantity. The techniques are PROVEN & I've developed a knowledge & appreciation of the culture surrounding them & the individuals who espouse this type of self-defense. Men like Steiner, Applegate, Fairbairn, Cestari, Tegner, Nelson and Underwood.

One significant benefit of the Combato school is that the schedule is much more adaptable. I can train more than two days per week. If I miss a training session I can make it up. If I miss several, I don't have to restart my training.

The other issue is the quality of training. While I don't accept all of the negative remarks I see in regards to Krav Maga, the westernization of the system worries me. I don't want to waste time & money studying a glorified version of Tai-Bo.

Of course, most of the negative responses I've seen come from the MMA & BJJ "gurus" who claim that one cannto defend against multiple opponents. They say that one MuSt spar in order to appreciate "combat". They also state that "You fight like you train". This last one is the most telling lie. Yes, you DO fight like you train. They train on mats in a dojo, with rules. They spar with pads & boxing-style gloves. They fight according to rules & rounds. They only fight one-on-one. So how can they comment on systems that avoid all of this? Talk about marketing.

Update: I give up! I missed it again. I ended up having to work until 6:30 tonight. Perfect timing, eh? That;s it. I'm going to make a call & set things up with Prof. Steiner & just get back into American Combato. I've wasted too much time trying ot hit the window to get enrolled in the Krav classes.

I Need More Motivation...

I'm not spending enough time on the Spanish lessons. Common opinion is that it takes in excess of 250 hours to become functional at a conversational (not native fluency) in a foreign language. Currently I can stumble my way to an airport, train station, find the restrooms & order a beer or a taxi.

The Learn-In-Your-car CD's are decent... especially for the money, but I'm looking into augmenting them somehow. I'm still thinking about Rosetta Stone. I thought that I'd get more of an immersion effetc if I were utilizing the LIYC product... in the car & then had the Rosetta Stone installed on the home PC. I think it's easier fo rme to concentrate on the subject matter at home because during teh commute I'm busy avoinding morons in traffic. Still, when I do listen to the CD's in teh car, I manage to get around an hour in each direction (to & from work).

Here are some of teh options I'm considering. I'm not all that jazzed about spending yet more money on language software. It's taking money away that I should be puttinginto savings for the EP course itself.


Michael Thomas Speaks Spanish

Tell Me More... but HOLY CRUD this product is expensive!

SPE Police Functional Spanish. I actualy think that this might be very helpful in certain aspects.

I still have some other Spanish language DVD set around here somewhere. That one consist sof "scenes" where characters are conversing in Spanish & you are listening to them while reading the Enlish translation.

Interstingly, nearly all of these rely on memorization. Whatever I do, I simply need to start putting th ehours in & (like everything else I'm involving myself in for this career change) force myself to do it.

And no, I really do not want to spend the money. I already put enough of a dent in teh savinsg account this month thanks to a few legitimate expenses and that stupid trip to Centralia... which cost far more than I was intending to spend. I went through what was supposed to be a weeks worth of cash in a single evening. I CANNOT do that anymore.

Finally Over The Cold

I think I've finally managed to beat the company bug. I've had three or four days of waking up & feelinf "normal". So it's back to the weight training tomorrow. I'm goingto leave most of the weights where they were during teh last training session. The squats are my main concer right now. Firstly, they're so light that I'm basically squatting what I'm pressing overhead.

I need to get the squat weights up so that everything else will respond. None of the other lifts are goign anywhere until I get the squats up around body weight. That's going ot mean adding more than five pounds per session for a while. I think I may start out with a five-pound increase tomorrow but then do 10-pounds for a while after that until I get the weight up a bit.

I'll leave the other weights static for now (especially the high pull) to allow myself to get back into the swing & put the squat well ahead of them where it belongs. I may also video tape tomorrow.

On the subject of self-defense training, I missed the start up class for Krav Maga once again. This is the second time I've had the flu when a session started. Another time saw me scrambling to get to a last-minute job interview... that was a complete waste of time.

So now I need to decide if I'm going to wait another two months or just try to get back into Combato. Both systems have their advantages. I t'd like to try out the Krav Maga classes in Seattle though. If I end up taking the skills with me, Krav Maga has a very large following & one reason I was particularly interested in the IKMF school was because of their affiliates in South America. Krav Maga Brazil has over 70 schools down the coast in virtually every major city in Brazil. They also have academies now in Argentina, Uraguay, Chile... oh and yes Mexico. I think that if I manage to make it down there I'll want to continue studying. The plan would be to turn that into a second career.

The problem is having to wait another two months before I can start up. I could begin Combato a lot sooner. Combato has more classes available & the schedule is much more opened. Combato is a more complicated system however.

I do have the two-day Target Focus Training seminar coming up at the end of March. That will be interesting & I'm really looking forward to it. This will likely be the last training session held in the Seattle area according to TFT. One thing about this seminar is that I'm likely to meet some like-minded individuals. These would be people that I may actually be able to train with over the next year.

One thing I'm curious about is how the TFT will mesh Krav Maga and Combato. I'm pretty creative so I think that the things I learn at the seminar will augment either system. Both systems are fairly straight forward, but my one concern is the weapon defenses. TFT is far more opened that Krav Maga. It's probably closer to what would be taught in American Combato. No attempts at controlling the weapons. Simply attacking the attacker. One thing about this is that they don't seem focused on collateral damage which Krav Maga seems to be. Krav has a lot of focus on fighting in enclosed spaces. It will be an experiment. I may like it... or I may decide that it's not for me. I'm always skeptical of new systems. Especially ones that have been so lauded by the media.

I could use another two months of getting in shape before I enroll in KM. I've dropped around 13-pounds over the last two months just by changing my diet & the beginnings of the workouts. More aerobic work on the treadmill & the trails wouldn't hurt. I noticed that within the last week I've been slipping backinto taking the unintended power naps when I get home. I really hate that but I'm feeling tired. I had none of that while I was weight lifting & I've skipped breakfast the last few days as well.

One other thing about Krav Maga is that it is fairly well known (and respected) as a functional system among military, law enforcement, security & protection teams. I think that it's likely I'll run into training that incorporates Krav. I also suspect that I'll meet some people who've trained in it & taken their executive protection specialization courses. It may look better on my application than something that may be unknown & somewhat obscure. I suspect that the weapons defenses that I'll see as well as the formations & much of the other curriculum are influenced by Krav Maga or aimilar systems. The Israeli's are heavily invested in close protection & security training. The close protection course taught by the IKMF also interests me. It may make a good addition to training once I get things rolling.

Budget, budget, budget!

I doubt that most people take a hard, serious look at how much money they "blow" every month. I'm starting to... & it's pretty darned depressing. I'm getting a lot better at this though. I've taken to buying my groceries rather than habitually grabbing dinner at the stop-and-choke on the way home from work. I easily save at least $100 per month that way. A food budget of $40 goes surprisingly long way for one guy. The only drawbackis that eventually one gets tired of the soup-&-sandwich fare. I'd probably cook for myself more if the commute didn't wipe me out & take such a significant chunk of the evening.

Once again I'm seriously looking at stopping the cigarette & latte` habit. I just crunched the numbers yet again & estimating on the high end - assuming a pack of smokes & a single latte` every day of the week... that's $3650 per year! Yikes. If I just quit & stuffed that money into my savings account for the next six months it would add over $1800 to my Orlando account. That's over 1.75 months savings since I'd planned on putting $1k per-month into that account.

That means that I'd have the cash BEFORE the six-month date. So in case things wind down on this contract in April or may & I don't get a full six months, let alone a full year, I could still be on-schedule. The extra two months of employment would be gravy & travel money. So now I have to start focusing once again on just how serious I am about breaking out of IT & into EP.

I've been thinking a lot again about the difference between goals & dreams. I should do some research on "tricks" for goal planning & pursuit. Did you ever notice that the clowns that do the motivational speaking hardly ever actually give any useful advice? I wonder if it's because they cannot explain how one "motivates" themselves.

Bummed... Seriously Bummed.

I found out this week that on top of the 10% pay cut, all technical staff at MS have been re-designated as exempt. So we're now all "all hours" employees. No extra rate for overtime. It's straight time only from now on.

Am I glad to still be working? Yes. Do I think that the company is hosing the contingency staffers as much as they possibly can on the assumption that the majority of people will grovel to keep their jobs in this horrific economy? YOU BETCHA! Darn straight they are.

I'll work this contract for as long as I can. I honestly hope that it lasts a full year. At the very least, getting nine months out of it would set me up. Then I'm going to submit my application to Orlando & hopefully leave this industry before it kills me.

It Can Stop Snowing Now!

Enough is enough! I have a feeling tht this is going to be one of those "Blizzard in April" years. I'm sick of it. I've got a cold to get over, I've got to get back into the gym... which means the basement... which means with snow on the gournd, sub-flippen-FREEZING temperatures down there.

The past few days have been almost bearable. Friday was chilly in the morning but the sun made a guest appearance. Same with Saturday. It wsa just nice ebough to coax people outside... then came rain, cold & snow... then some sun again... and promptly a 20-degree temperature drop. The cat's no dummy. He knew what was coming. Even with the sun still hitting the back yard, he wanted inside... NOW!

It started up light, early yesterday evening. It was almost like frozenrain, but a bit lighter. I heard it before I saw it. I assume that this was hapenning on & off for most of the night. When I got up this morning it was COLD! It was also snowing again, but melting off faster than it came down. Not anymore. That first session of slop coolded everything down. Now we've got nearly an inch within the ast two hours. It's coming down even heavier & I have a feeling that it's not going to stop until tomorrow around noon. These shots are about three houtrs old now. It really started coming down while I was over at Top Foods picking up supplies for the next week. That dictated my buying up enough soup for the next week or so. Chowder (white and red), some gumbo & a few other versions. I meant to get chili as well but I'd filled the stupid basket before I thought of it.

Right now i'm wishing I'd made the drive down to Lacy to hit Cabella's. I bet that last week or the week before they were having a sale on fleece tops. Ah fleece! That sounds pretty good. The vests are useless in these temps. I need something covering my danged shoulders & arms. I'd like some more Under Armor or something as well. That basement is going to be C-O-L-D!

Sickly thoughts...

The cold, flu or whatever the heck it is, is still holding on. This particular virus just seems to... "linger". I went back to work on Thursday still feelin gwhiped out. Friady was better but I fell like doing a very little bit of nothing this weekend. The cough & nassle congestion are still hanging out.

So I thougth I'd just drop some general thoughts in there since I'm unable to do any weight training or much of anything else.


These are the basic rules of close-combat as discussed by Prof. Bradley J. Steiner.


1) Never agree to fight.

Agreeing to fight eliminates any legal defense you may have had & warns your opponent of potential action from you. Act with surprise & preemptively when at all possible.

2) Develop an Either\Or philosophy to close-combat!

Either go ALL IN!!! NOW!!! Or resign yourself to do nothing at all & except the repercussions of your inaction.

3) Attack the Attacker!

Do not wait to be attacked. Use preemptive strikes whenever possible. Do not attempt to trade blows or block attacks. Attack your attacker.

4) Always use Follow Up!

Launch a barrage of blows, strikes & attacks. Keep the assailant off balance & keep the on the defensive. Do not stop until the threat is gone

5) The Only Objective Is To Win!

Your goal must be to win at all costs! Do whatever you must to win.

6) Expect To Get Hurt!

Have the understanding & expectation of injury. When it comes you will not be surprised or shocked. Such shock will not short circuit your attack.

7) Never Fight Fairly!

Since your only goal is to win, use every dirty trick in the book. Carry objects like gravel or small change to throw in the assailants face. Hit them high & low. Spit, gouge eyes or toss a newspaper in their face.

8) The Enemy Is Not Human!

The walking pile of detritus that is assaulting you does not deserve ANY compassion. They are a feral animal.

9) Develop Good “Radar”!

Keep you level of environmental awareness activated. Be aware of individuals & activities that are around you. Do not be surprised.

10) “Defense” is a Last Ditch Option!

“Defense” is not the primary goal. It is what you will be forced to resort to if you are surprised. Such techniques are not the optimum in combat & are a last resort.

Company Flu...

Sheesh. This crud finally caught up with me & hit with a venegance last Sunday morning. Nice running fever, chills & assorted aching for 2 & 1/2 days. Then another day's worth of coughing, sneezing, more assorted aches (like someone had takes a baseball bat to my kidneys & upper back... Missed three dayys of work. I still have nassle congestion & am generally exhausted. This essentially blows the workout program for an entire week. I seriously doubt that I'll be back at it until Monday. Not even then if I cannot get rid of the head cold.