Looking to get into martial arts in OKC... thinking Krav and BJJ. Advice Appreciated

[henschman]

I have recently realized a couple of things: One, I am too out of shape. Two, I have nearly zero unarmed combat skills. I am looking to enroll in some classes to correct both problems. I like the idea of learning both some combatives and some grappling. Krav Maga looks like what I'm looking for when it comes to the former, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu sounds like the ticket for the latter. I see there are two schools here in the OKC area that teach both disciplines -- National Martial Arts in South OKC, and Titan Martial Arts in Norman. Does anybody have an opinion about either place? Are there other schools anyone would recommend? Is there any other advice you would give to somebody who is totally new to the world of martial arts/unarmed combatives? I appreciate it.

 

[348]

Do your homework on the instructors. There's a lot of hacks out there. I have an interest in Krav Maga but never tried it. I can recommend instructors in Muay Thai, FMA, JKD, boxing, and Systema. If you're interested in any of those PM me.

 

[Commander Keen]

Bump for the morning folks, as this is relevant to my interests. I'd love to take some Krav Maga classes.

 

[Dr. HK]

I have tried Krav Maga through ICCS here in Oklahoma City. Let me tell you, as a military veteran (Recon), and taken allot of different things throughout my life this is the real deal. I would HIGHLY recommend this class to anyone. I know one of the instructors has posted here before. Only two or three of us OSA members attended.

 

[Dr. HK]

here is their website http://oklahomacombatives.com/

they are having a seminar in Tulsa next month!

 

[zghorner]

From '05-'09 seemed martial arts was all I cared about. Back then Redline BJJ in north okc/Edmond was the place to go but now I cannot say. I was never a fan of BJJ mainly because of the Gi and preferred submission wrestling which is basically no gi BJJ. Towards the end of my fascination with MA I focused on pure thai boxing. Theres something about really kicking someone hard or kneeing them in the gut that that turned me on vs a choke or arm bar. The head coach/kru was named Mike Parker and he was fantastic. I was told he is now one of the top ranked MT trainers in the country and I don't doubt it a bit. He still teaches somewhere on the north side of OKC and would highly recommend it if wanting to learn a striking art.

You also might consider an MMA gym like American top team. It gives you a chance to sample many different MAs and eventually you might find one you enjoy more than the other. Its exactly what I did and don't regret it.

 

[Oklahoma Combatives]

Dr. HK thank you for the kind words. As Dr. HK said, we are very different than the run of the mill Krav Maga schools trying to cash in on the latest craze. In fact we dont even like to use the term Krav Maga because of what it has become here in the States. I dont want to hijack the thread or go on a long rant. Thank you to OK Shooters for being extremely kind to us in the past allowing us to post seminar information in the forum. This coming weekend we are conducting a 2 day (8 hrs each) "self defense" Krav Maga camp in Tulsa. Lunch will be provided and each paid participant will receive a free shirt as well. Many topics will be covered - chokes/hold, gun threats, knife threats, knife attacks, multiple attackers, ground fighting, etc,etc. You get the idea. The seminar is priced at $300.00 however we would like to offer a 50% off discounted rate ($150.00) to any OKSHOOTERS members that would like to attend. If interested follow this link for the discount price: http://www.oklahomacombatives.com/seminar discount

We hope to see many of you out there. It will be an eye opening experience.

 

[henschman]

zg, I would definitely be interested in taking something involving full contact sparring too, like Muay Thai. That's another thing that interested me about National Martial Arts, as they also offer MT along with Krav and BJJ. It seems like a really good combo of skills to practice. I am doing this partially for fitness, but would like to learn things that would prepare me as much as possible to win the fight in the real world, just as I strive to do with my firearms training.

My thoughts are that Krav/combatives seem to teach the most effective techniques for winning a real world, life-or-death fight, and teach some skills with the knife and other weapons, which I like because it is rare that I don't have some sort of weapon on me. I probably will want to make combatives the focus of my training... but then again it seems to me a little bit might be missed by only learning techniques so destructive that you can't really practice them 100% full contact against a fully resisting live opponent. BJJ is appealing to me because lots of fights end up on the ground, there may be situations where you do not necessarily want to kill, paralyze, or seriously injure the opponent and submitting or choking him out would do just fine (or have to counter the same type of techniques being applied to you), and a big draw to me is that the techniques allow you to go all out against a fully resisting opponent in a competitive setting. Muay Thai would be a discipline where I could learn how to both hit hard and take a hit (which would feed back nicely into combatives training), and could also be practiced in a full contact sparring setting. But like I said, these are just the musings of someone with no real martial arts training... it would be good if some of y'all with more experience than me could tell me if this multi-disciplinary approach makes any sense, or if I would be better off picking one thing and sticking with it, at least until I learn more.

Good to hear from Oklahoma Combatives -- thanks for supporting the forum. I hear what you're saying about not wanting to get to stuck on names. I don't care what you want to call it -- what I want from a combatives course is to learn how to kill or disable an opponent as quickly and effectively as possible... basically learning the kind of simple, effective techniques that are taught in this old post-WWII Army manual (FM 21-150): https://ia802708.us.archive.org/17/...4/fm_21-150_hand_to_hand_combat_1954_text.pdf
I expressed an interest in Krav because it seems like it is the most common and available source for learning that kind of stuff. I definitely don't want some sort of watered down, Israeli Tae Bo workout program like I suspect some places offer (when a gym calls it's Krav program "family friendly" I have to wonder). I have no doubt y'all are teaching the real deal. Do you offer an OSA special on the weekly classes too?

Still in for more advice from the forum, especially relating to a multi-disciplinary martial arts approach, or suggestions for gyms/schools. Surveyor1653 suggested Systema. Any input on that discipline, and how it would compare with Krav? Post here or feel free to PM me.

 

[Oklahoma Combatives]

Muay Thai, Boxing, Jiu Jitsi, Wrestling.... are good combat SPORTS. Yes, there are techniques and methods from each that transfer over but the application is VERY different in real Krav Maga. Something else to consider is mindset. Most people don't get this. But in the ring, on the mat,etc the mindset is not one of wanting to disable/terminate an attacker... It's a game... a game of trading strike for strike (strikes dont even have to be effective.. as long as there is contact you get a point..LOL).... it's also game of endurance.. You know in the back of your mind you have so many rounds so you pace yourself. Rules are followed by all and there is a ref for your safety. Very different. You mentioned most fights end up on the ground, that's not entirely true... BUT regardless whether you agree or not how many people can you fight on the ground on one time? ONE. What if a weapon is involved? I have plenty of surveillance footage of a ground situation getting ugly because of weapons or because of multiple attackers (most people who attack, unless crazy or high usually aren't alone). As for wanting to submit or choke out an attacker because you dont necessarily want to inflict harm, how do you gauge exactly what the intent of the attacker is? You cant ask him "On a scale of 1-10 how much damage/pain/etc do you plan on inflicting on me? I'll make adjustments as needed."... Thats not reality. Not knocking your thought at all.. I get exactly what you mean.. I've been asked questions regarding that. You have to understand where we come from..where we've trained...where we've been and who we associate ourselves with. We train people across the globe that deal with REAL threats everyday... hostage situation, stabbings, executions,etc.. that's the world we came from and that's why what we train others in has to work. As for sparring we train full speed... We use protective gear, but of course for some it takes a while before they are able to do so. Of course we dont throw a hammerfist to the back of the neck at 100%. But the knife attacks, the chokes/holds, the tackles, the ground fighting, etc is all done full speed up to that student's comfort level/experience. The guy who trained me once said.. "I dont have time to teach BS. How can I knock on a mother's door and tell her that her child is dead because I taught them BS?". I think that statement sums up everything I've said here. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to address your message as best as possible.. One last thing... STRIKING STRIKING STRIKING.. Everyone is so caught up in Jiu Jitsu these days.. Every fight starts or ends or sometimes both with striking. You dont need to know 50 ways to throw a jab.. get some good solid basics on striking and with the right mindset and proper training you can do a lot of damage.. And damage, not pain, is what ends a fight.

 

[henschman]

That makes a lot of sense.

Do you give an OSA discount for your weekly classes?