Krav Maga Midlands
Pump Room Action
Pump Room Action
Night Parks Training
Tuesday 8th May 2014
Tuesday 8th May 2014
By Lance Manley
Due to a
double booking at Krav Maga Midlands’ usual Tuesday training ground in Trinity
school, Leamington Spa, Bartosz decided to improvise and take us all out on a
little trip to get back to nature.
Royal
Leamington Spa has some gorgeous parks and now Spring is finally in the air,
the Pump Room gardens next to the town library were utilised for the welcome
return of the Night Park Scenarios training that we last attempted in
Stratford-upon-Avon in Autumn 2013.
After
meeting up near the river bridge we took to the elevated walkway next to York
Road at the back of the old library near Station Approach. The whole thing
seemed a little surreal with me and the other practitioners warming up while
people walking dogs, joggers, and cyclists all made their way past us with
confused looks on their faces. Some even took a detour to avoid us.
After some
ever-necessary stretching and loosening up we started on 3rd party
protection. This was what it says on the tin, where you have to protect your
“mate” from a frontal attack by a roving scallywag (or in this case, another
practitioner). One technique which is fundamental in this type of thing, is
that you MUST remember to extricate your 3rd Party from the
situation as soon as you have neutralised or reduced the attack.
Reason?
In real life
people try to get involved or are panicking or just plain pissed off to have
someone try and take a swing at them. Ever tried to defend a drunken yet
outspoken girlfriend on a night out? My own experiences of witnessing this are
that she will at least want to “have words” with the other party. The removal
technique was to spin them round, grab their right arm with your right hand and
grab their neck with your left (or vice versa) then push them in the direction
you want them to go until you are both clear of danger.
The next
technique involved if you are holding hands and someone tries to give you
trouble, as your defence technique needs to adapt accordingly. Cue much
laughter as some of the butchest blokes in the club were required to walk along
with fingers entwined as if they were on a moonlit stroll along Brighton
beachfront.
Later we
moved to choke holds and then knife defences. The latter proved tricky as we
were on hard ground but it’s always satisfying to get a bigger opponent onto
the floor, just by applying the correct leverage to their wrist.
A few times
we had members of the public wander through the group including a father with
two wide eyed toddlers, several joggers, and a woman leading a dog on a length
of old rope. She looked at us in bewilderment for a few seconds and asked, “Is this a fight or are you pretending to
fight?” She then added that the dog was a stray she’d found and wondered if
any of us would like to take it off her.
We all
politely declined.
After the
main techniques had been gone through, the daylight had faded and the park
lamps had sprung into life. Bartosz then said, “Number yourselves from 1.” I got in first and then the remaining
numbers were argued over. Bartosz told me to wait and took the other lads to
where the path runs from the bridge, around the back of where we’d been
training before it rejoins the trail. After some whispering and muttered
instructions he came to fetch me and said grinning, “OK Lance, just walk from one end to the other.”
Even though
I’d done this before and even though these were all my club mates and EVEN
THOUGH it was a training scenario…there is something very creepy about seeing
about 12 guys in black clothing, loitering silently around a dark alleyway in
staggered formation, grinning and clearly planning mischief.
First guy
simply wanted to ask the time, a red herring I’ve seen before so I politely
declined and moved on. The second tried to grab me and I managed to kick him
away before I reached the joys of the middle bit where I got attacked with
knives by two guys at once and then jumped by three blokes pretending to mug
me. I got through relatively unscathed and was pleased before swapping places
with number 2. Each guy went through and Bartosz changed the roles of each
“attacker” every time so that no one could predict what they would have to
face. Funniest variation was a fairly big lad who was told to grab the person
as if he was a drunken mate just wanting a hug. It didn’t take long before
someone’s adrenalin got the better of them and they booted the guy asking the
time straight in the groin rather than seeing it as a benign request.
Finally we’d
all got through and we regrouped up the top for the final “Kida” and made our
way home.
I thoroughly
enjoyed tonight’s training. Mainly as it worked on techniques that are
incredibly useful if out with friends or on a date, but also because moving through the Tunnel of
Fun in semi darkness and taking on loads of people is just such F.U.N.
http://www.kravmaga-midlands.com/
