Krav Maga

Techniques Glossary

Some notes on what certain terms mean. (Or blank if I don’t know what it is.)

Sliding (as in sliding kicks or punches)

You are basically taking a step during the strike itself. Like, if you were doing a sliding kick, you would almost kind of hop on one leg during the kick. It’s not really a hop though, it’s obviously more of a “slide”. This is done—I think—to close distance.

Uppercut kick?

Not sure. P4 level. Probably strike to chin?

Scissor kick

Not sure. P4 level.

Cavalier

Not sure. Seems like P5 or G level. Some kind of wrist lock or disarm?

Stances

There are three stances in Krav Maga.

Passive

Totally unready. Arms down.

Semi-passive

This is like when you’re trying to deescalate a situation. However, your arms aren’t completely unready. Have your arms and hands kind of like a prayer gesture, seems less threatening. Legs are roughly shoulder width, but not staggered.

Fighting/combative

You are striking. Hands are head level, sticking a little out (you prefer to catch knives early, so it’s not as close to your face as in boxing). Elbows in. Feet staggered. Back leg on ball of foot (probably assists with springing forward or throwing punches). Front foot turned slightly inward (not really sure why on this one, but they seem to mention that).

P3 headlock from back

Worked on this on 2024-03-21. There are three defenses (written assuming the incoming arm is on your right):

1. Early timeline: Block with your outside (right) arm, turning in (left, toward attacker). Groin strike with left arm, then headbutt backwards.
2. Middle timeline (you could not block in time):
   • Grab attacker’s (right) arm with both hands, pulling their arm forward and away from you while headbutting backwards, striking their face.
   • Then, still grabbing the arm, move the arm and duck under the arm moving out (right), so the arm is on your inside (left) shoulder. Pin the arm with your shoulder in their armpit and your head tilted left against their arm. This is done to maintain control.
   • Getting behind them, attack their back side and then escape.
3. Late timeline: Turn inward (left) in the same direction as the headlock, ducking under, striking the groin and escaping.

We also worked on how to get into a headlock from behind position. Two ways:

1. Using the “one rhythm inside defense” (assuming an orthodox left jab), move their jab down with your left arm, throwing your right arm over their arm and under their neck, moving behind them.
2. Ducking under their right arm (assuming throwing a right cross), wrap your right arm around their stomach, moving left (their right side), then “swim” under and behind them, sliding your left arm under their neck.

P3 headlock from ground

Worked on this on 2024-03-20. You are supine on the ground. If your attacker is on your right side, the attacker is laying their back against your chest, trying to headlock you with their right arm.

Prevention techniques (I’m still kind of unclear here):

• You block their (right) arm with your (left) arm, striking the groin/face with your closer (right) arm.
• Then you shrimp under (??), pushing off them with your legs and kicking them.
• Escape using figure four getting-up-from-ground technique.

If you cannot get out, the technique is:

• Again, begin with striking. Strike, hand in eyes (your left arm pulling them from behind), strike the back of their head with your (left) knee.
• If you can shrimp out then, do that.
• If not, bridge upward, giving you space to shrimp out from under them.
• (This is the complicated part.) You then have room to throw your (left) leg over their head and in front of their neck (so the back of your knee is against their neck).
• You then do a kind of “stomping” motion that ends up rolling them (I’m still not great at this).
• Roll them into a prone position, pinning them with your arms in a kind of “push-up” position.
• Optionally strike their shoulder (not head) with your knee.
• Complete the push up and escape.

Tapping shoulders/knees

As part of the warm-up where you go around the room, changing directions every 3 or 4 steps (with your hands up), you eventually are told to tap shoulders, then knees, then shoulders-or-knees. The idea being that you’re scanning for threats and opportunities, and trying also not to get tapped.

• A fun add-on is to pick out one attribute, like “green shirt” or “no shoes” and have people only go after them. This builds in the scanning ability, and it’s fun because you can force people to interact with some specific people (like people hiding in the corner, you can call out an attribute they have).
• You can also do this in bear crawl or crab crawl mode.
• You can also do this where one person delineates an outer boundary that is constantly shrinking.
• Conga version. There’s a partner version where you’ll only tapping the shoulders of the person in front of you, and that person is only speed-walking, not panicking, but the point is to be able to not panic and zig-zag more. The instructor yells “switch!” and then both turn around, the previously-front person is now behind, tapping the shoulders of the other person.

Situational awareness quiz

This is where you ask people questions about the situation they’re in, with the idea being that people should bring their mind to their surroundings and context. You ask questions like:

• How many people are in the room?
• How many people are wearing shoes?
• Who’s in front of you and who’s behind you? What color shirt are they wearing?
• What’s the street number and address of your current location? I like this because you’d need this for calling 911.
• Where are your keys or phone?
• Where’s the nearest exit?
• Who has a knife? (You can do this with the practice/prop knives and have people keep track of it)

This is a fun thing to try to practice outside in life. Do I know the color of people’s eyes?

Object tossing

Part of a warm-up where you’re tossing objects like a tennis ball or prop knife. Gets you to practice eye-hand coordination, and sometimes communication by calling out people’s names. In that sense, it could be used as a form of community building.

• Instructor tosses tennis balls to some people, calling out their names. You have to call out person’s name before tossing them the ball. If people drop the ball, the whole class does pushups. That’s a fun thing too because it means you have to be aware of everything around you, like I try to be the first to recognize a ball has dropped and do a push-up immediately.
• Tossing prop knives is similar, and sometimes you just toss it back and forth with a partner, which is a type of team-building. You may also try to only catch it by the handle.
• There’s a version where you’re sitting down and your partner bounces a tennis ball and you have to stand up quickly and catch it before it falls.

Grab

Games where two (or more) people try to grab the same item.

• Sometimes it’s a prop knife evenly spaced between you. Instructor says “Go!” and you both dive to grab it.
• Sometimes you have to touch your head, shoulders, knees, and feet according to yelled instructions, with the instructor eventually yelling “Grab!”
• Sometimes you’re both sitting, backs facing each other, then instructor yells “Grab!”. You could also be lying down.
• Sometimes a person already has a prop knife, like tucked into their back waistband, and you try to grab it from them while they try to defend.

Dogpile

You start by laying on the ground. Five or more people pile on top of you, usually with kick shields, pressing you down. Instructor yells “go!” and you’re job is to get out of the pile in whatever way possible, run over to a designated person holding a kick/punch shield and punch.

Eyes closed stress training

There are some components where one person closes their eyes, then the partner(s) either repeatedly slap them in the face or upside the head, punch them in the stomach, or otherwise try to shock disorient them. Then a partner with a kick shield yells out their name, the person opens their eyes and starts punching/kicking the pad.

Gauntlet

A similar type of stress training where one person is in the middle of a bunch of people with kick shields. Middle person starts punching one person’s pad. Another padholder yells their name or pushes them with the pad and the main person has to switch targets and start punching the new padholder.

There are other gauntlets where you start at one end of the room, and there are a bunch of padholders who will try to stop you from getting to the other side. Your job is to get to the other side, you can punch, kick, shove, whatever.

2026-07-20

Techniques.

• P2/P3 cross arm drag from same-side grab. Assume left shoulder is grabbed by opponent right hand. Left hand comes up, palm-in, thumb facing out, sweeping off opponent wrist and grabbing it with left hand. Left arm pushes their arm down. Right hand grabs their right tricep, or between elbow and armpit (usually just above elbow). Left arm swings their arm from your left side to your right side, then right arm pulls in, dragging them past your right side (I guess you can move too). From there your right arm can ungrab, come up, and clothesline the neck or otherwise go into a choke.
• Pinky-up wrist pin. Assume opponent right arm grabbing your left shoulder. Right arm comes up and over their hand, grabbing the top and meat of their pam with a C-grip. Left hand clasps over the right hand, pinning their hand to your chest. With both hands, rotate opponent hand, pushing their pinky toward ceiling. Keeping them pinned, you cause tension by pushing their wrist, by leaning chest in and squatting down with your knees.
• I think there’s another version where you step across them.

2024-03-23

Full combat. Some notes.

• Work on fluidity of combos and movement (I tend to just do one or two punches, which is bad). Work on having a rhythm of punching and movement with no pauses.
• I’m normally okay at scanning against the rogue fighter, but I got caught by the same trick I do on other people where you look intently with your face so they focus on you and not on the world around them. Oof, sorry for the run-on sentence.
• I need to watch the Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman fight because it shows Ali’s ability to clench, and it’s where “rope-a-dope” comes from.
• I need to work on the ability of my muscles to engage for longer periods of time. I get way too gassed while grappling. Strikes are just short bursts of muscle activity, whereas grappling involves a kind of constant strain that drains your battery pretty quick.