Q & A
Welcome back, one and all, and a Happy New Year to you! May 2025 be filled with success for you in whatever you do!
Having picked up the blog again after the Christmas break, I’ve found I had a bunch of ideas for articles which, once I sat down to actually write the things, covered topics I couldn’t readily flesh out into a whole post, at least not without retreading old ground. So, I’m starting the year instead by writing a Q & A of sorts, which allows me to give time to these smaller subjects, including answering some actual questions I’ve had over the years. Let’s begin…
Where did the name ‘Pentagon’ come from?
It’s a fairly neutral word, isn’t it? Not obviously linked to what we do, nor where we do it. This was a deliberate choice when I founded the school, mainly out of concern about not having a “dickhead magnet” of a name like ‘Death Kill Inc Krav Maga’ and thus create the impression that we’re a thuggish group, inaccessible and intimidating to the kind of softer, gentler soul that I feel needs self-defence the most. On a more practical level, I figured that should I move away from the North Northants area (no plans to do so, don’t panic!) the name can follow me, and further down the road when I eventually retire the brand can pass cleanly onto the next generation without any clunkiness. These practical matter asides, recall that in a previous post, I talked about my key values, of which there are five, but really the primary inspiration for the Pentagon name actually comes from the five key elements we wish to develop by learning Krav Maga.
We’ll start with the really obvious one: techniques - the ‘how’ of Krav Maga. Any martial art will have an arsenal of techniques which, assembled together, create the system as a whole. I’ve talked about this element of training in some of my previous posts, like this one, or this one. My post talking about a typical class also shows us another aspect, conditioning, which is the process by which we improve our physical selves, becoming stronger, fitter, more durable, and generally more capable. Indeed, people come to Krav Maga for this element alone, and you will certainly see improvements in how your body looks and performs over a training career. The other element I have also talked about at length is mindset - the will to fight and survive. You can read all about this and how we develop it here.
That leaves us with two remaining aspects of Krav Maga training which I haven’t spoken about so much. These are closely related to each other, and the technical work. These are tactics, which can be understood as the behaviour around a technique that allows us to move towards the ultimate objective of safely removing ourself from a violent confrontation, and cognition, which is about developing the decision-making around selecting the correct technical ‘tool’ for the problem at hand to the point that it can become a reflexive, sub-conscious, action. At one end, tactics could be the preliminary actions prior to an attack: awareness, avoidance, verbal de-escalation, and even pre-emptive strikes where appropriate. It includes preventing an attack, for example deflecting an incoming choke hold before it fully locks on and forces you to make a more difficult ‘late release’. Within a fight, tactics would encompass actions such as lining multiple attackers up such that you’re only dealing with one at a time rather than being stuck in the middle, or finding something you can improvise as a weapon. And finally, once the threat is done, we have the essential tactical behaviour of ‘scanning’, which breaks your tunnel-vision focus on the attacker in front of you and returns it to the wider environment, ready to make a safe escape. At all stages, cognition is at play as well, cutting down the decision-making time and thus improving our chances of a successful outcome. Put together, these elements facilitate the optimal use of techniques as appropriate to the problem, without having to stop and think about what we need to do, because we’ve practiced and drilled enough that our so-called ‘muscle memory’ can take over.
How Does Progression Work in Krav Maga?
Most people are familiar with the belt ranking system of traditional martial arts, white belts being your beginners, the black belts being the high-level students and instructors, and a whole spectrum of colours in the middle. One thing to remember about IKMF Krav Maga is that there is no requirement to grade; given sufficient training time you’ll come to see most, if not all, that the system has to offer. Personally, I’ve always liked doing the grades because it’s really good for me from a motivational perspective to have that objective measure of where I’m at and see how I’m progressing, but ultimately, it’s a personal choice.
We have three ‘levels’ in the IKMF, each of which split into a number of ‘sub-levels’ which one steps through sequentially. These are practitioner, which is the general level for most students, graduate, denoting a higher level of knowledge, and a required level for instructors, and expert, which is reserved only for highly-experienced instructors. Each of these are split into five (or more) sub-levels, One being the lowest sub-level, and Five being the highest, indicating that an individual is now a candidate to advancement to the next level. Colloquially in the community, we refer to new starters as P-Zeros, but this is by no means a derogatory thing - we all have to start somewhere! At the other end of the practitioner scale, P5, one will have completed the base civilian syllabus, and might be considered as analogous to a 1st Dan black-belt in, say, Shotokan Karate. Passing P5 is rightly recognised and celebrated as a significant milestone for any individual. Taking myself as an example, I’m currently G3 (an intermediate Graduate level), with G4 being my next grade. Once I hit G5, I’ll be ready to start preparing for the Expert level, starting at E1 - this is a couple of years away for me at least. Note that ‘expert’ is a specific term in the IKMF which carries great status, roughly analogous to a 3rd or 4th Dan karate-ka, and the end result of a literal decade or more of diligent practice, so it’s not to be used lightly. Certified Experts are your bonafide creme de la creme of instructors.
We hold at least two big national gradings in the IKMF each year, generally around March and October. Students have to meet minimum training time requirements between their levels (obviously, assuming consistent attendance!), and at the Expert levels, additional requirements come into play as well, such as being a qualified instructor. I really enjoy these events. A Krav grading is hard work - I will never forget my P1 grading which turned into something of an ordeal, as it was a roasting hot day in May, I’d been up since 5am to ride down to Reading and I hadn’t brought nearly enough water, compounded by me going hell-for-leather at the start of the test without appreciating I had 2+ hours to go…! It can be real shock, but you certainly leave the events with a great sense of accomplishment. You also get to work with and meet people from all over the country, and in recent years the Nationals have turned into really quite grand affairs with 100+ candidates across all P-levels, so you really get that sense of belonging to a wider community.
A final point about ranks in the IKMF: if you see someone in a uniform with red details, they’re an instructor. Never be shy to ask them for help!
What’s the Trojan Workout?
This is a strength and conditioning protocol I’ve discussed in a previous post, developed by Martijn Bos, an extremely senior IKMF instructor and one-time professional fighter in the Netherlands. The idea is to develop strength in a time-efficient manner, with a special emphasis on generating high muscular tension, super-strict form, and working within one’s own capabilities on any given day. A Trojan set is a three-part circuit, the first exercise being an isometric hold where the individual creates maximal tension in their body, making themselves fully rigid. This emulates the ‘freeze’ experienced in a high-stress situation, and done right, this is actually really tiring - you shouldn’t be able to hold the tension for more than 10 seconds or so, and if you can, you’ve not tried hard enough! The student then moves directly into the ‘explosive’ movement, mimicking the furious burst of activity in a violent confrontation once the ‘freeze’ is broken. These will be movements that must be performed at great speed: think jumping, sprinting, flurries of strikes to a punch-bag, or power-based weighted exercises like kettlebell swings and snatches. Again, this phase is strictly time-limited; once the form or the pace starts to degrade, you move onto the final phase. This is the ‘grind’, which captures that arduous slog after the initial burst of energy has died off and you just need to persevere through the situation to its conclusion. As such, these will be heavily-loaded motions, such that one cannot perform them quickly. Think heavy squats and presses (again, with strict form!), dragging or carry a heavy load (such as, say, a training partner!) and even wrestling-types drills. You then rest as you need until you can go again, repeating the circuit for around five minutes or so in total. The key is going balls-out during the set, instead pacing the workout by adjusting your rest periods.
The end effect is very different to more conventional training routines which seem to be more of an elaborate torture than exercise; you are tired, but not exhausted; in fact it can actually be very energising! Check out the Trojan Academy’s website here for more, including, if you fancy a trip to the Netherlands (which I can really recommend - Haarlem is a gorgeous little city), doing a weekend course with Martijn and his team! If you want to learn the Trojan Workout protocol for yourself, then please get in touch and I can arrange a 1-2-1 session with you to show you how it all works.
Who’s Going to Win in F1 This Year?
I’m out of the game now, so I can’t claim any kind of special knowledge, but personally I’m rooting for Lando Norris and McLaren. Lando will have get his elbows out more and not choke on the starts to consistently beat Verstappen (and only a fool would bet against MV, let’s be real), but I’m hopeful! Of course, we’ve also got the box-office (or should that be Netflix?) gold which is Hamilton’s first season in the Red Cars, so it’ll be interesting to see if he still has ‘it’ and whether Ferrari can keep their operational shit together for a whole season without cartoonishly throwing it away at the critical juncture as they have done so often in recent years. I think it’s going to be an interesting season!
All blog posts are reflective of the private opinions of the author, and are not to be considered as an officially-held position of any organisation, including the IKMF and Pentagon Krav Maga. Pentagon Krav Maga, the IKMF and the author will not held be liable for any action or inaction taken by a third-party as a result of this article.
