IKMF Krav Maga Crash Camp Blog

Krav Maga Crash Camp Israel

The day of arrival. I can barely contain my excitement. Derek and Jan are friendly faces. The Global Instructor Team are all smiles as we begin arriving. Family that haven’t seen you in a while giving warm hugs and friendly greetings. It was a long taxi drive on Shabbat since trains don’t operate on Friday and Saturday. Arrival at the training center is relieving. 20 hours of travel by planes, trains, and automobiles have finally ended. The “family” is beginning to assembly in pockets around the living areas about to eat lunch. Lunch is an event of old friends and catch up. I am relieved that the food is better than the 2011 camp. At the end of Crash Camp in 2011, the G.I.T. gathered the group for a question and answer session. The feedback was mostly positive, my suggestion was improving the food. Training at high levels for extensive periods of time is similar to elite level athletes training for sports. It requires adequate nutrition to fuel the body for extended periods of vigorous activity. So far, so good. The rest of the evening was spent settling in and casually chatting with students and instructors from around the world. G Camp this year will have 44 participants from around the world. In this environment, I feel inadequate in the communications department. Everyone speaks at least two languages, their native tongue and English, I can barely speak mine:). The common thread is the passion for Krav Maga. Why else would anyone travel to the other side of the world to hang out and get beat up by nearly total strangers?!!
MORE TOMORROW…

IKMF CRASH CAMP DAY 2

The first part of the morning is spent explaining how the course is laid out. Runnning on the beach and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea in the morning followed by breakfast then Grade level training. This is the preferred by the students so that they are fresh in the morning and ready to absorb level-specific material.

I jumped in with the soon to be G5 students for the Level training and had the pleasure of working with the National Director of Uruguay. I’ve said this to students before – you may not share the verbal language, but we all “speak” Krav Maga. I speak a minimal amount of Spanish, but the tips back and forth are explained through demonstration of varying speeds. What a fantastic time.

Theme training today was all about ground fighting. Dealing with punches, kicks, and wrist grabs while you are on your back. When I say the are people from all over the world, I mean it! Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, Australia, Hong Kong, France, Uruguay, China, Canada,… We’re all here! Some have been training many years, others, just a few. I’m working my way through the group so I have the opportunity to train with everyone and get a different perspective of Krav Maga. I worked with Bo Van Velzen who is the National Director of the Netherlands and Benny (I hope that is his name) from Germany.