MONDAY & TUESDAY – PRE-CHECK @ NORMAL CLASS TIMES

WEDNESDAY: NO CLASSES - PRIVATE LESSON DAY: PRE- TEST FOR RED/BLACK BELTS WHO ARE TESTING IN SEPTEMBER. TEST BEGINS AT 6:00PM SHARP! AUG 2-4: WORLD KICKBOXING CHAMPIOSHIPS!!! THURSDAY: PROGRESS CHECKS @ NORMAL CLASS TIMES The fight team, along with the Whitaker family, will be in Orlando, Florida for the International Kickboxing FRIDAY: PROGRESS CHECKS @ THE FOLLOWING TIMES: Federation World Championships. Although we will be down a couple of instructors, all classes will run on a 4:00-4:30 – Little Champions normal schedule thanks to the rest of our instructor team. 4:30-5:00 – Little Champions 5:00-6:00 – All Under Black Belt Youth We will also have Sherri Franklin filling in at the front 6:00-7:00 – All Under Black Belt Youth counter during the majority of our classes. However, their 7:00-8:00 – All Mixed Curriculum Black Belts might be times the counter is vacant. If you need any 8:00-9:00 – Beg and Int Krav special help, or have questions Sherri cannot answer, we 9:00-10:00 – Adv and Black Belt Krav will be checking messages on FB and emails to assist our families. However, during the World Championships it’s a very busy time; therefore there might be a longer delay than usual, and we apologize in advanced if this causes any inconvenience. Please Note: The Whitaker family will

AUG 26-30 - Progress Check Week be on vacation immediately following the IKF World Kickboxing SEE SCHEDULE ACROSS THE PAGE Championships. The Championships WEDNESDAY, AUG 28TH are Aug 2-4. The Whitakers will be Pretest for all ½ red- ½ black belts who are eligible to test gone until Monday, Aug 12th. for black belt in March. MONDAY, SEPT 2ND ALL CLASSES WILL RUN ON A NORMAL CLOSED FOR LABOR DAY. SCHEDULE. HOWEVER, CERTAIN TIMES THE COUNTER MIGHT BE UNMANNED.

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience. is an Israeli hand to hand system which was originally developed for the Israeli military. Although the art was officially developed in the early 50’s, its roots are multifaceted, and shows the system’s evolution stretching from the late 1800’s to present day. Many people, groups, and events had influences on the evolution and development of this art. These influences can be traced back to 1882 and the development of Zionism (A Jewish movement which was focused on getting a homeland for Jewish people) to the present day IDF (Israeli Defensive Forces… Special Forces for the Israeli Military).

Pre-State Era & Moshe Feldenkrais

The was born in the 1920’s out of Zionism and was a Jewish Militia which was mandated to keep Jewish communities safe in Palestine. Although they mainly trained in Japanese Jujitsu, boxing and stick fighting were also components of this training. The development of many Krav Maga concepts began developing in this pre-state era. In 1930, a Jewish Haganah leader named Moshe Feldenkrais wrote a book entitled "Ju-jitsu and Self-Defense". Feldenkrais, who was a skilled ju-jitsu practitioner, noticed Haganah fighters, who performed ju-jitsu well in training, were unsuccessful during real life battles. In this book Feldenkrais questioned the effectiveness of ju-jitsu in real battle. He began formulating techniques around the principle of "unconscious reaction“ (natural instinctive reaction). Feldenkrais began to build techniques around a person's instinctive reflexive movements. This is the principle of reflexive movement we use in Krav Maga today.

This book was the first Jewish book ever written about self-defense and it was highly influential in the development of Kapap (Krav Maga’s predecessor). Kapap incorporated the principles of Feldenkrais’s book as an infrastructure, along with the fighting systems of boxing, knife fighting, stick fighting, and ju-jitsu. The system of Kapap was used until shortly after the development of the IDF in 1948.

Imi Lichtenfeld & the Development of Krav Maga

In 1942, Imi Lichtenfeld, the founder of civilian KM, immigrated to (then Palestine) from Bratislava, Slovakia. Imi was a great athlete, who was trained in gymnastics and he was a champion in the combat sports of boxing and . With Anti-Semitism spreading rapidly in Bratislava, Imi began to organize small groups of Jewish people to form an underground defense organization that patrolled the streets of his community and defended Jews who were being attacked. Imi gained a significant amount of street fighting experience and learned the difference between the sport fighting and street fighting. In the early 40’s Imi, fled to Palestine to escape the Nazi’s.

In 1944 Imi was recruited into the (the elite fighting force of the Haganah) and became a Kapap instructor. In 1948, the Jewish fighters won back the land of Israel and the IDF was formed shortly thereafter. Imi then became one of the hand- to-hand instructors for the IDF. In the early 50’s Imi was asked to condense the Kapap manuals down to a more efficient fighting system. They called this system Krav Maga. The place where this happened is now known as the Wingate Institute.

Imi retired from the military in 1964 and along with his student and partner, Eli Avikzar, began to modify and develop the system of KM for civilian self-defense. In the early 70’s Imi opened his first civilian KM school in , Israel. The system has continued to evolve as the nature of military combat and civilian self-defense has changed. In short… The bad guys change their method of attack, therefore KM must evolve. However, the underlying principles and baseline techniques are still the same.

Metro Krav Maga Connection

Most of our instructors at Metro Krav Maga & Kickboxing have trained in Israel and we have several who are certified instructors from the Wingate Institute. We are taking a school wide instructor and student training trip to Israel for our instructors and adult students in June 2020. We will be training with the Co-Founder’s (Eli Avikzar) son at the original school Imi opened in 1970. Our education continues so we can continue to bring our students the most authentic, high quality instruction possible. What is Success?

This is a BIG question that even grown ups have trouble defining. To put it simple, success is the accomplishment of our goals. The reason it’s sometimes tough to define is because everyone has different goals. So success to one person might not be success to another.

The first step to achieving success is to get some goals. Making good grades next year, getting your black belt and becoming a instructor, making the school basketball, baseball, or volleyball team, or even improving how you treat your brother or sister can all be goals.

Breaking Down a Goal Into Steps

To get a black belt, it takes around 3 to 5 years. That’s a big goal. But we break it down to smaller steps. You can work to achieve 12 belts on your way to black belt. That’s 12 full belt tests before earning your black belt. We break that down even further into stripe or progress checks. You will earn 36 stripes on your belt on the way to black belt.

You see, black belt is just one example I work with everyday. However, you can break any big goal down this way to become successful. Take a big goal and break it down to medium steps. Take the medium steps and break them down into smaller steps. Then keep working to achieve those steps successfully.

Determination Keeps Us Moving Forward

We are not always successful every time, the first time. Setbacks will happen. If we are to be successful, we must be determined to not give up. You will likely fail a belt test, and struggle at some point. You might not make a school team. You might bomb a test at school. However, a set back is only a failure if you give up.

I have found most people give up just before reaching success. As Rocky Balboa says, “Keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done”. WORKSHEET:

Younger students have your parents help you with this

Name 1 goal for your next year of school:

Name 1 goal for the next year for outside of school:

Which of those 2 goals is most important to you, and which is 2nd most important and why?

This month for your purple character word challenge, we want you to take your most important goal and break it down into medium and small steps to get there. Then write down setbacks you might have and tell us how you will deal with those setbacks. Have mom or dad help you with this assignment.

PLEASE USE A SEPARATE SHEET OF PAPER