The STW Team wants to congratulate our very own instructors Jennifer Alvarez and Arnold Cano for passing their Expert II, Brown Belt Instructor test.
The training was a tortuous four days for eight hours a day, and the test was conducted by third degree, Krav Maga Black Belt, AJ Draven. It was over four hours long, and Mr. Draven did nothing but comprehensive combatives, non-stop, for the first hour or so, and then followed up with self-defense, throws, hand-gun, long gun, stick and knife techniques. WOW! And when it comes to weapons, there is no room for error on this, folks—quite an impressive accomplishment!
“We received great training and in-depth reviewing on perfecting hand gun, long gun, and knife techniques,” said Jennifer. “The most challenging part, aside from cardio endurance, was working with the weapons day after day. Those sticks begin to wear on you after a while and you receive a pretty heavy bruising, but my partner proved to be fantastic and highly skilled at what he did, which helped us both,” she continued.
“The test was different and noteworthy. AJ stressed on all levels of self-defense, standing up work, mixed weapons, followed by one-on-one, then multiple attacker sparring on our feet and on the ground to see how we reacted under a high stress and mixed environment situation,” said Arnold. “As far as my partner, I didn’t have to worry about her. We can finish each other’s techniques as simply as most people finish each other’s sentences. She was always on her game,” he concluded.
Quite impressive is that when you look at the group picture, Jennifer’s head goes up as far as most of these guys’ shoulders and she had to throw most of them around, which goes to show how much technique equalizes things in Krav Maga any given day.
When I asked them what they had to do to prepare for this test, this was their regimen:
“I started training several times a week in January and doing LOTS of cardio work—and I’m talking Bridget worthy classes,” said Jennifer. (Bridget is one of our instructors, better known as The Bridgernator for her hard core, no nonsense approach to cardio work). I did 1.5 to 2 hrs. of cardio every single day. One day a week consisted of plyometrics with p90x, Bas Rutten, ran 7 miles, climbed stairs for 45 minutes, took cycle classes, bag classes, and All in All Out. If I hadn’t done that level of intense endurance training, I probably would not have lasted. I felt for the person who didn’t finish the test and there were at least two that had to go outside and throw up. I know it wasn’t easy and I admired their effort.”
“As for me,” said Arnold, “I did a lot of kettle bell training, plyometrics, Bas Rutten, practiced sparring 1-3 hours a few times a week, which included standing and ground fighting, and a lot of mixed weapons training with high stress drills. I would also like to thank all my fellow instructors and training partners for dedicating time to help me prepare,” he concluded.
Owner of STW Krav Maga, Pete Hardy, said he was glad to have Jen and Arnold on our team demonstrate such high level of commitment and was proud of them both. Congratulations on your effort and success. We know it wasn’t easy and the STW team salutes you!!!
