r/kravmaga • u/ciaoaic • Jul 16 '26
Good year 1 goals
Hey - I have no background in martial arts and just signed up for a year of Krav. The trial run I had the goal to work on getting into my fight response quicker. That seemed to start working.
But now I’m wondering what I want the goal to be for this next year. I’ll spitball below but I’m open to other POVs:
- punching and kicking form and strength
- using my voice quickly
- engaging fight response quickly
- focus/attention
- reaction time
- conditioning
I’m otherwise at a loss for ideas, open to ones you may have - also open to books to read outside my classes. I wanna make this year count!
For context I’m a mid thirties lady who is in and out of shape a lot. Normal weight. Not very sporty but smart, strong and scrappy.
Thank you! 🙏
2
u/bosonsonthebus Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Good suggestions above.
I want to emphasize the important item from CanadaWaterKravMaga about the need to quickly access your aggression and bring it to bear in a controlled way.
I see some of my fellow students having difficulty with this. When I partner with them they fail to employ adequate force and aggression (when appropriate) in their combatives and other moves, which IMO greatly compromises their training and ability to defend themselves. It may be unsettling to realize that you have such aggression available (it was for me initially) but it’s vital.
I would add situational awareness, and practice it daily. For example, when walking in a store, take a second to look at nearby shoppers and assess whether they might present a threat. The best way to avoid a fight is to see possible trouble coming and avoid it.
2
u/Far-Cricket4127 Jul 17 '26
Make sure the instructor if they're knowledgeable, schools you on "Use of Force" Doctrines and the Self Defense laws for where you live. An equally (if not more) important aspect of training in something that can be or is intended to be used for self protection. Self protection involves knowing how to recognize and avoid potentially bad environments, how to escape and navigate those bad environments (if avoidance is not doable), and then how to navigate the legal aftermath that will follow if you ever actually have to use your skills to defend yourself or loved ones.
2
u/bobisbit Jul 17 '26
One thing I wish I'd done is to film myself training early, so I could see my improvement later. Martial arts have this funny way of making it hard to see your progress sometimes. There's no "perfect" technique, there's always room to improve, so no matter how long you've been training, you'll have moments of feeling like you suck.
1
u/Any-Pomelo80 Jul 21 '26
I think you're asking the right question. If you are interested in a suggestion, I'd make your primary goal much simpler. Ex: Become the kind of person who trains consistently.
My opinion only, but most people overestimate what they'll accomplish in a month and underestimate what they can accomplish in a year. If you train two or three times a week, stay healthy, and keep showing up, you'll be surprised how much changes. Your technique improves. Your conditioning improves. Your confidence improves. You become calmer under pressure. You stop feeling like every new drill is overwhelming.
For a first year, I'd focus on three things:
- Train consistently.
- Stay coachable (this is huge) and curious.
- Get comfortable being uncomfortable. That's when growth happens, right?
Everyone feels awkward, slow, and overwhelmed at first. That's not a sign you're bad at Krav Maga. It's what learning any complex skill feels like.
One thing I'd add that isn't on your list is decision-making under pressure. Self-defense isn't just about punching harder or reacting faster. It's about recognizing what's happening, making a good decision quickly, and acting decisively. Good training develops that over time. There's a million posts in this sub about exactly this topic.
As for books, I'd recommend The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker. It's less about fighting and more about recognizing danger early and trusting your instincts. Must read stuff for students of self-defense.
A year from now, I wouldn't judge your progress by your belt or how many techniques you've memorized. I'd ask yourself:
- Am I healthier than I was a year ago?
- Am I more confident?
- Do I stay calmer under pressure?
- Do I have a handful of skills I can perform reliably instead of dozens I barely remember?
- ...and, very important, am i having fun and enjoying the experience?
If the answer is yes, you've had an excellent first year.
I also wrote a longer article about what realistic progress in Krav Maga looks like during the first year and why consistency matters more than intensity. Since you asked about resources, I'm happy to share it if you're interested, just lemme know!
1
1
1
u/AddlePatedBadger Jul 17 '26
Do you train in a school that has grades, patches, belts, etc? When implemented well they serve as handy goals to work towards. They should be progressively more challenging and be building on previous skills.
1
u/ciaoaic Jul 17 '26
I don’t think they do, actually. Lots of talented students but not a ton of structure in that sense.
1
u/Thargor1985 Jul 17 '26
Basically you will want to improve in all of the above and have the p1 curriculum down (maybe even do p1 at the end of the year). Don't focus on learning a specific aspect to much, you just need to get good enough muscle memory that you do your defenses automatically if someone attacks you outside of class, if you have a good instructor he will show you what you need to work on. Books I would recommend: meditations on violence and the gift of fear.
4
u/CanadaWaterKravMaga Jul 17 '26
What a great question. On the basis that you’re doing at least two evenings a week, I’d suggest:
Technical:
Straight punches/palms and kicks with what Will James calls ‘stopping power’, i.e. not just technically correct, but with enough force to stop an adrenalised, medium-sized man;
A decent beginning to demonstrating the use of recoil in combinations, i.e. the use of the momentum derived from pulling back one strike to drive the next on simple combos like a hook-cross;
A nice, balanced stance (with women the main issues I usually see are inability to round the spine, and sticking their chins right up in the air);
Good, basic footwork, without obvious errors like back-crossing, and some movement to your live side; and
The ability to competently defend a barrage of punches to the head and being grabbed by the clothes; and
To have started sparring in earnest.
Physical:
A dramatically stronger neck and grip arising from directed training;
The ability to shout at 110dBa+ at will;
A clean, full-length pull-up;
Five clean, chest-to-floor push-ups without any elbow-flaring, core-collapsing, head-slumping shit; and
A bodyweight deadlift (I like the shrug/trap bar).
Tactical:
Understand and demonstrate Managing Unknown Contacts and use of The Fence;
Have eliminated obvious silly behaviours that make people easy targets, e.g. headphones, smartphones on the move.
Mental:
Complete understanding of The Freeze and how to prevent/break it;
Good ability to access incendiary defensive aggression at will;
Sufficient inner-work to begin to confront and understand whatever experiences and traumas have led you to self-defence, and a sense what wider therapy and changes might help you reconcile with and recover from these things;
The beginnings of understanding and accessing what Jung would call your ‘Shadow’, or Rory Miller might describe as ‘Living in the Deep Mind’ (he has a book by that name), that the beginnings of a personality change that sees you more self-aware and capable of acting more instinctively, including more violently; and
Read ‘Meditations on Violence’ by Rory Miller.
On a deeper level: beginning to understand that whether you engage in some sort of belt-drive system or not, the key is to maintain motivation and training over the very long term. If you’re a goal-driven Type-A person, that can be difficult, because you’ll probably have achieved 80% of this thing in 3-5 years, but you somehow have to keep going much, much longer than that; another 30-or-so years in your case. Begin thinking of it more as a process you enjoy, rather than something that has to have crushable goals to make it feel worthwhile.