Stress Drills
While fatigue can certainly be considered stress, it is not necessarily the only factor that causes stress in a fighting situation. Krav Maga uses the term
Your body responds when it is hit or punched, especially when it hurts. This can make it very difficult for you to make decisions and react instantly. Stress drills are exercises that should make you uncomfortable (not only from fatigue, but from unexpectedness) and demand instant reaction and repetition.
React to the Unexpected: The Sudden Stress Drill
For this drill you will need a partner and a punching/kicking shield.
Stand passively with your eyes closed (no peeking!).
Your partner stands in front of you and shoves you with the bag, then holds it for a front kick counterattack.
When you feel the bag hit you, open your eyes and attack with a Front Kick or a rapid-fire series of Front Kicks. (Chapter 14, page 160)
This drill is great for training vision, recognition, and reaction. It does not have to be restricted to Front Kicks alone. As you become more comfortable with the drill, incorporate other combative such as knees and punches
Here are some ways you might increase the level of stress:
Turn down the lights.
Allow your partner to approach from behind and from different, more unorthodox, angles.
Increase the power behind you partner's attack and your counterattack.
Standing with your eyes closed when you know an attack could come at any moment can be a bit unnerving, but training will help you greatly overcome your fear. The idea is to breathe deep and to think nice, calming thoughts while waiting for your partner's shove. Doing so will increase the level of surprise when you get shoved, simulating the reality of being attacked while off guard.
As always, remember that you are training. The power behind the shoves you receive from your partner should increase slowly as you proceed through the drill. Eventually, you want those shoves to have enough force behind them to knock you off balance. They should not be rough enough to cause injury to you or your partner.
Physical methods that will help you learn to exhibit mental intensity or aggression include furling your brow, growling, and gritting or baring your teeth. These expressions are throwbacks from our predatory past and may help you find an inner aggressiveness or power that you never knew you possessed. This is inner power is what martial artists refer to as your fighting spirit.
Never be deliver these shoves to some-one's head or other sensitive areas. After all, your eyes are closed and, consequently, your risk is mildly increased. Start light and verbally ask for small increments of additional power behind the shoves, but only when you are ready for them. Remember to talk to your partner — he or she is not the enemy. If your partner increases the power of the shoves a little too much, do not hesitate to tell him or her to bring it back down a notch.
Stress Drill 2
Equipment needed: focus mitts.
Stand in a Fighting Stance with your forearms covering your head. (Chapter 13, page 146)
Your partner is going to make you uncomfortable and use the mitts to disturb you by poking or lightly hitting you with the mitts in your midsection, your ribs, and maybe toward you head and arms.
Your job is to absorb the attacks and keep your eyes open.
When you partner slaps the mitts together, he will call out even numbers (two through ten), and you send that many punches to the mitts and go right back to absorbing the hits.
This drill will keep you from cowering in a fight. It teaches you to be aggressive under a stressful situation and to keep your eyes open so you can see what is going on. Make sure your partner starts lightly with only a few attacks at a time. As this becomes less stressful for you, your partner can pick up the amount of attacks or increase the amount of force within each attack.
This means exhibiting an intense state of mind while maintaining precise mental acuity. If you are in a threatening or violent situation on the street where you have to defend yourself, it is vital that you allow your fighting spirit out by being aggressive. You may not have experienced this emotion before. During training, try to release that aggressive side no matter how uncomfortable it may feel (especially if it's new to you). This way if it is ever needed, you can rest assured that you know it's there for you to tap into.
Those who are not familiar with fighting tend to react to sudden aggression by freezing up. This reaction is comparable to a deer freezing in headlights. Stress drills are excellent for fighting against this tendency. When done with even a minor level of regularity, these drills will effectively minimize your odds of having a deer-in-the-headlights reaction when attacked without warning.
All of these Krav Maga drills are designed to improve your chance of survival in a difficult situation. These drills increase your confidence in techniques by giving you a chance to succeed under stress, they help decrease reaction time, and they increase your strength, endurance, and ability to function under stress in the context of a fight. While performing these drills it is necessary to emphasize aggressiveness. Even if you think you did something wrong or are not sure of a technique, perform it with conviction and confidence. Once predators see a sign of weakness in you, they will take advantage of the situation. Training at being aggressive will translate to situations on the street.
When or if you ever find yourself in a situation in which you are being threatened or attacked, your body experiences a certain type of stress or pressure. When the mind and body are placed under this stress, it becomes hard to make quick decisions and reactions to keep yourself safe. Krav Maga training drills try to simulate what it would be like to find yourself in an actual lifethreatening situation and teach you to react appropriately, which is why it's important to add some kind of stress to your training drills.
