Advice
on a Successful
Krav Maga Grading

PRE-TEST

Practical:

• When you are considering to do a Krav Maga exam there are a few factors to consider. First, have you been training long enough? A couple of hours a week for 4 or 5 months is a reasonable amount of time to be prepared for your first grade: P1. The higher the level the more training time is required. Regular attendance will obviously improve your chances of passing. Be honest with yourself. Cutting corners doesn’t pay off in the end.

• Don’t gamble and try to grade when you know in your heart you’re not ready or haven’t trained enough. Krav Maga and Krav Maga Grading is not a game.

• Know the names of all techniques, punches and kicks. Be very familiar with your curriculum. Print, take it with you to class. If there’s something in your curriculum that you don’t understand then ask your instructor.

• Try to understand the Why of the techniques. You should be able to explain them in the instructor asks. 

• Make Krav Coach(kravcoach.nl) a part of your training and preparation. It will help you to know your curriculum, the names of the techniques and the details of techniques.

• Know the techniques and the material. All of it. The test is not the time to learn that one technique you don’t know. The proper techniques ought to be your first instinctive reaction.

• Ask questions during or after the training if anything is not clear to you. Ask for a demonstration for a technique if you would like to see it again.

• Take notes after your training sessions. Keep track of what you’ve done. Write down details that you find important to remember. 

• Be familiar with common mistakes. Krav Maga examiners know how to look for certain common mistakes that you might make. Ask your own instructor what these mistakes are to make sure you don’t make them.

• The higher your level, the more difficult it gets. Don’t forget to keep investing time in the lower level techniques. You can definitely fail P5 on a P1 technique. 

• Understand what you’re doing. The tester will line up all the trainees and say what you need to demonstrate. Know the names of all the techniques, punches and kicks. Understand what it means to go from ‘passive stance to ‘semi passive’ to ‘fighting stance’. Testers might add variables to see whether you actually know what you’re doing or whether you’ve simply memorized your actions.

• If at all possible, try and watch a grading before you take your own. Study how people do techniques, watch the dynamics of a grading and get a concrete idea of your exam will look like. Compare techniques and candidates, what looks good and what doesn’t. You can learn a lot from watching a grading.

• Participate in a Pre-Grading. It’s the ideal way to do a mock exam of all your techniques and experience doing Krav Maga at a high intensity for a couple of hours at a time.

Physical:

• Don’t expend too much energy in the days leading up to the test. Take your intensity down a notch in classes to focus on technique; don’t try out a new exercise routine two days out. Your conditioning won’t be improved in a week, and you don’t want to be sore and exhausted before the test even starts.

• The best conditioning for Krav is Krav. Instructors are frequently asked how to improve conditioning. Yes, running and circuit training will help, but all that stuff needs to be supplemental to specific training. There’s no substitute for self-defense drills and pad work. Again, the time for ramping up training volume and intensity is not a week before the test. A smartly periodized program starting at least 4-6 weeks before your grading is best. If you have time for just one thing, coming to class on a regular basis will do wonders!

• Take multiple classes in a row. Getting used to doing Krav Maga training for a few consecutive hours is the best preparation for a test, since a test will be several consecutive hours.

• Stop training altogether 2 days or so prior to the test. If you MUST move around, do some light cardio or review of your techniques, followed by stretching, yoga, or other non-impact training.

• Get enough sleep.

Nutritional:

• The big point is – DON’T MAKE ANY DRASTIC CHANGES TO YOUR DIET A FEW DAYS BEFORE THE TEST. Want to go vegetarian? Sure – but don’t do it in the weeks preceding a test. Want to try a strict paleo or primal plan? Great – but again, don’t do it a few weeks before the test.

• Hydration begins days, not hours, before the test. Be sure you’re drinking lots of water in the days leading up to the test. Steady hydration (as opposed to chugging a gallon of water a couple hours before the test) will not only greatly aid your performance, but you won’t be sloshing around and running to the bathroom every five minutes!

• Feed yourself. You’re going to expend a lot of energy over the course of the 2- to 3-hour test, and there’s nothing worse than hitting the wall. Your body needs to be fueled.

• A few things that EVERYONE agrees will work against your training are refined sugar, alcohol, and excess caffeine.

Mental:

• Before you walk the walk, talk the positive self-talk. All successful athletes, military operators, business leaders, and other high-level performers engage in positive self-talk. So how do you engage in positive self-talk? Simply think through what you need or want to hear when things get roughest. Write it down on a card. Recite it to yourself several times, and then bring it back to the surface while training. Don’t just think it – inner dialogue can be quite slippery. Say it out loud. Say it to other people. But most importantly, say it.

DURING THE TEST

• Listen carefully to the examiner. This piece of advice seems obvious, but after fighting for over an hour, it can be easy to lose focus. Listen to exactly what is being asked of you. If a quick front kick is being asked for, only focusing on the ‘kick’ and performing a stomping kick is not good. Listen in particular to what stance they want to see and what direction they require. Do not be afraid to ask a question after the instructions have been given. Guessing what is being asked for is not the point of grading. The examiner will be more than happy to explain further.

• Be explosive and powerful in the first ten minutes.

  The testers are experienced Krav Maga instructors. They will get a feel for your abilities within 10 minutes. If you can show good body language, clean techniques and explosiveness during the first five to ten minutes, you’ll make a good impression as these are things that you either know or do not know. The further the test progresses, the more exhausted you’ll get.  If you make this good impression in the beginning, they will cut you more slack later on, when you make errors due to exhaustion.

• Do your best at all times. Assume you’re being watched with every single movement you do. Even if you don’t see an instructor, they might still watch you. Make sure to vary your attacks and punches, don’t just favor one arm or leg. Whether you see a tester or not. (They ARE present, after all).

• Give a quick and ‘instinctive’ response. This will convince the tester you’re able to perform these techniques on the street as well as in a safe environment.

• Don’t freeze, no matter what happens! If you miss a counter, forget a technique, fall to the ground, or if anything at all goes wrong: do not freeze! Just keep going and counter attacking, in any way you can. Things like this can happen ‘on the street’ or in a real situation. Show your instructor that you won’t freeze (and get yourself killed). Krav Maga focuses heavily on survival mentality, which includes never giving up!

• Scan and run away! Running away is one of the founding principles of Krav Maga. Make sure to do this after every technique or combination you perform. Only stop doing this when they tell you to. Running away is never bad.

• Also show preventing an attack. For example, kicking the attacker before a choke, pushing hands away before a choke etc.

• Don’t get angry when things don’t go your way. You are going to make mistakes. Just deal with it. If at first you don’t succeed you try again. You are supposed to feel stressed during an exam, it’s part of the process. It’s how you deal with the stress that counts.

• Be respectful towards your training partner. Don’t kill each other, respect each other’s talents and limitations, try to stay coordinated and prevent injuries.

• Bad attacking leads to a bad defense, good attack à good defense. Make sure you and your grading partner attack each other properly.

• Don’t dramatically show your exhaustion. Show the examiner you can handle the test. You’re tired but you’re up for the challenge.

• When you’re tired, don’t sit down or lie down during the test unless you’re given permission to. During a short hydration break you drink something and catch your breath but don’t crash to the ground.

• Execute your techniques properly, don’t skip any steps in the techniques and properly finish the technique.

• Bring water and electrolytes. It can be a sports drink or a gel.

• Protect yourself! Make sure you wear groin protection, a mouth guard and shin guards. Also bring your punching gloves. You and your training partner are going to be performing at a high intensity and are going to be exhausted. This increases the risk of injury so wear the recommended protection.

• Send those punches and kicks out fast, bring them back quicker.

• Move off the line. Move out of the channel. When you’ve performed a technique, Move off the line and commence passive scanning. Once you’ve moved, avoid the spot you started from and choose the best direction to advance/retreat to.

• Active scan. When you’ve finished a technique, complete a 360 view of the room. With passive scanning there should only be a quick look needed.

• Be choosy about where you strike when you counter an attacker. Remember, most people expect a strike to the face, so remember to strike the groin as well using the appropriate method for the distance. PLEASE, no pats on the back etc, save this for afterwards.

• Scan, scan, scan – “Moving and scanning, stay out of the channel”

• Always finish. When doing a self-defense move, add in an extra elbow, an extra knee to the head, and move to the attacker’s dead side to show you really know what you’re doing.

• Avoid Telegraphing. For example, don’t make a big motion before you punch. The hand should move first and not your upper body. This avoids telegraphing, i.e. showing your intention.

• DO NOT QUIT.

POST-TEST

• Don’t leave too quickly after the test. Take all the time you need to do some appropriate cooling-down and stretching.

• Refuel and Rehydrate.

• Be proud of yourself! Whether you feel you did well or not you should congratulate yourself on finishing the exam, regardless of the outcome. Making it through your Krav Maga exam and having given it your best is an accomplishment to be proud of.

• Thank your testing partner(s) and the examiner.