Emotional Content in Training: The Role in Krav Maga
Unlike most other martial arts, Krav Maga is deeply rooted in practical self-defense-created for real-life situations where your survival is the most important issue. In those moments, physical skill is an issue, but the emotional factor is not less significant. Understanding, controlling, and using your emotions comprises an essential part of Krav Maga training: the psychological tension accompanying violent confrontations.

What follows is an explanation of some of the emotional content involved in Krav Maga training and why it’s so important to be there both physically and mentally.

Emotional Awareness: Important in Combat
In every situation that involves stress, there is always a surge of emotions such as fear, anger, and anxiety that sometimes cannot be contained. In a violent attack, how these emotions are dealt with could mean life or death. Krav Maga training will condition the student on how to handle these strong emotions so that they can respond effectively and not freeze or do something impulsively.

The feeling of fear is normal when one is in danger, but unbridled fear will lead one into a state of panic and paralysis. Krav Maga teaching allows persons to recognize their fear and utilizes the fear to motivate them into escaping or defending against an assault. Training under pressure: since one trains under pressure, it takes them through stressful situations to understand how to manage fear and keep clear during an attack.

Anger: It is a weapon as well as a weakness. In the core of the fight, being out of control of your temper will make you take thoughtless decisions. Properly channelled anger gives you the energy and aggression required to defend yourself. Krav Maga teaches students to find a balance by using that anger constructively without letting it cloud their judgment.

Adrenaline: In a self-defence case, your body would always release more adrenalin, whereas, it makes your senses and reacting times increase. Too much adrenaline makes one overreact or shake hands or make decisions that are not totally practical. Krav Maga training teaches with the practice of stressful drills to work with one’s adrenaline, allowing one to take advantage of it rather than having the feeling of overdrive with it.

Emotional Content in Krav Maga Drills
Many Krav Maga instructors have included emotional stress in training