The Middle School of Krav Maga

[caption id="attachment_2826" align="aligncenter" width="300"] This is pretty much what a level 2 class looks like.[/caption] We have lots of new level 2 students after the weekend, and Scott and I were talking to one of them this evening. She had taken her first level 2 class the other day and said she felt incredibly awkward, to which I responded that Level 2 is, "The 'middle school' of Krav Maga." And it's true. Now, I personally never experienced any awkward phases in middle school or in my Krav Maga training, but a big part of teaching is being able to empathize with my students, and I completely understand the uncomfortable feeling of being in a new environment with the "big kids," and feeling like you don't belong and aren't good enough to be there, and you can't do anything right, even though - as I can't emphasize enough - I never experienced anything like that myself. You go from being at the top of your game back to square one. You have to learn a ton of new moves and figure out how to use focus mitts, which requires not only a lot of coordination but also a lot of counting. Over the years we have realized how difficult it is to transition from level 1 to level 2, and we're always working on making it smoother. For those of you going through the awkwardness, who just got your Krav braces, and still have Krav pimples all over your faces, hang in there. And as Scott said, all the "Cool 8th graders," who have been in level 2 for awhile, and know what a "2-3-6," is, are about to graduate to Krav high school, where they'll go through the awkwardness all over again. What you're going through is completely normal, and all the cool kids in level 4, 5, and up went through it too. You're going to be fine.