Advancing

I had a conversation with someone recently about advancing from level 2 to level 3, and I thought the contents of the discussion were worth sharing. Actually I have a conversation about advancing from one level to the next almost everyday, so by this point I've got a pretty good script down. The main point I always try to get across is that for most people, what holds them back from advancing is not that they aren't good enough at the "new" material, but that their fundamental skills haven't progressed enough. At every level when I'm preparing groups to test, we probably spend more time on straight punches than anything else. The straight punches you throw at your level 1 test are not good enough for your level 2 test, and that's true for every technique at every level. Advancing is not a matter of learning all the material in your level, it's a matter of - basically - getting good at Krav. For example, one of the techniques we learn in level 2 is defense against bear hugs, which usually means base and space and then a bunch of combatives like knees, elbows, hammerfists, etc. Well if you're knees aren't very good, then you're not passing the technique, even if you did it, "Correctly." On the other side of that spectrum, if your combatives are strong and fast (not to mention technically correct) and you defend with intensity and aggression, then it's relatively easy to do bear hugs well because you have the fundamental skills. Other things that hold people back are strength and coordination. In Krav we say that you don't need to be in shape to defend yourself, but you'll certainly do a better job of it with the physical tools.