Krav Maga DFW @ Dallas, Texas

**ddrj** · Posted On: 7/18/2009 4:33am

Greetings bullshido'ers, read the rules and gave my ratings for this place. Now for the review..

Aliveness: I gave it a 3 because we did a lot of partner drills. Everything's done in a controlled environment. Not a lot of sparring at all. Sparring is offered 1x / week. 1 hour. Start off with practicing on the bags for 30 minutes with instruction. Then about 15 minutes of sparring with a partner. Then remaining 15 minutes playing a game called monkey in the middle.

Equipment: Should've gotten a 1 but i took the gear for sparring into consideration. If attending regular classes, you don't need any gear (not even a cup really..). Nothing can really hurt you here because you're just practicing the moves they teach you with a partner and a focus pad over and over. The equipment they provide is usually worn down but at least they provide it.

Gym size: 4 because it's not too small and not too big. When there's a lot of people it does get very hard to move around, but not a big deal..

Instructor / Student ratio: Most of the time you get one instructor for about 25 - 35 people. Other times you get one instructor and 2 others walking around the room. This is the best time because you can just pull one and get them to critique you. However this doesn't happen very often.

Atmosphere / Attitude: This I have to give it a 7 or an 8. The people there are so friendly and nice. Not a lot of tough guy attitudes even tho there are a few. Everyone's supportive and wants to get to know you better. Even the instructors aren't bad. Only when it gets to pressuring you at first to sign up for a year in advance, but other than that you're fine.

Striking Instruction: Gave it a 4 because ... well.. the rules say it best "Striking for punching/kicking only and/or limited purposes (demonstration, highly restrictive sport" <--- exactly

Grappling Instruction: BJJ class offered once a week modified for krav... it's not really all that great. No standing or clinch, only ground.

Weapons Instruction: This is only for the advanced class (there's beginner, intermediate and advanced). You get to this level usually at the 3rd quarter of your second year. Knife, gun and bat defenses learned in this time. Everything's plastic so you don't have to worry hahaha. I gave it a 3 because "Compliant partner drills and preset encounters". You never spar or have any sort of real contact. No tournament winners etc here either.

Little bit more if you're still reading... the class is mostly comprised of middle aged people to even 60 year olds. I've seen some young'ns around 20 but by far very few. Classes are offered around 4 times a week (beginner), 2 times/week (intermediate) and 2 times/week (advanced) for one hour sessions each. A lot of material is repeated and this wouldn't be bad if we actually had more sparring sessions / actually sparred. But learning the same moves multiple times with no real chance to test it and actually cement it into your head is pointless IMO.

The lack of sparring is it's biggest pitfall in my opinion. There are cardio classes offered too and this is one of their major selling points. They offer a free trial class and they try to pressure you so hard to sign up for a full year in advance after that initial trial class. This is another major pitfall.. the guy looked like he was about to get tears in his eyes when I said "I'm going to do month to month for now". The main instructor doesn't usually teach the class. He's around 60 years old but looking at him you could tell he was probably great when he was in his prime.

And that's it for my rating + review. I made it as unbiased and truthful as I could.

***Omega Supreme*** · Posted On: 7/18/2009 1:45pm

I would've ranked the aliveness higher according to your description.

**ddrj** · Posted On: 7/18/2009 7:22pm

Originally Posted by Omega the Merciless

I would've ranked the aliveness higher according to your description.

sorry bro, but description of what specifically? If you meant the description of the aliveness, please keep in mind that most of that description revolves around sparring. You only get to spar when you're advanced (i think intermediates can come too though i'm not sure). The actual classes don't deserve more than a 3 or a 4 IMO.

***Omega Supreme*** · Posted On: 7/18/2009 7:33pm

We're not talking about average classes. Raise it- don't raise it. I don't care. 3 or 4 is like point sparring. I was one of the people that created the ranking system on this. I'm just going by your description. Even if they do it once per year it's still has something to say about their aliveness.

***Omega Supreme*** · Posted On: 7/18/2009 7:35pm

For the record:

RATINGS: How Do Aliveness.....does your school look like this? - No BS Martial Arts

**ddrj** · Posted On: 7/18/2009 7:41pm

Originally Posted by Omega the Merciless

For the record:

RATINGS: How Do Aliveness.....does your school look like this? - No BS Martial Arts

thanks for this, I've updated the scores

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 7/18/2009 8:33pm

I think you get it now. Everything you described is drilling which is fine. Your sparring, even if it is once a week, is not point sparring.
The level is a 5 but, according to what you feel, they don't spar enough.

That is an honest review.