On the weekend of June 4-6, 2010, Krav Maga Alliance hosted the first Alliance Gathering, which we called “Trial By Firearms.” It was co-hosted by our local affiliate, Krav Maga Las Vegas, and American Shooters, a group of ex-operators who also happen to be fantastic firearms instructors.

I do not mean to diminish the experiences offered by many other great Krav Maga seminars, but I must say: in my opinion, this was the best Krav Maga/shooting weekend anyone has offered. The training included live fire, training, move and shoot drills, and the finale: a simunition house that included both contact fighting and simunition firefights. The experience was as real we could make it while maintaining some level of safety. The stress level was extreme, and the participants were tested on every level: awareness, reaction time, recognition, standup fighting, groundfighting, shooting tactics, shooting accuracy, aggressiveness, and an ability to remember details and articulate them clearly.

We had 50 participants, and all of them were high energy. The group dynamic was fantastic, and we could have asked for a better group of attendees. People traveled from Australia and Vancouver, Canada. We met attendees from Texas, Ohio, Idaho, and Michigan.

Training began on Friday with a day of high level Krav Maga training on gun and knife defenses. This training was excellent, but it was only a prelude. On Saturday morning, we broke the attendees into four groups, and each group went through four different sections: High Stress Krav Maga, Basic Live Fire, Advanced Live Fire, and the Sims House. Lunch was provided at no cost on Saturday and Sunday.

I won’t go into detail about the Simunition house. If you want to know the specifics, come next year and try it yourself. Let’s just say that you walked into a building (not a room, a BUILDING), and then had to get back out again, with an unknown number of assailants trying to stop you. You didn’t know how many there were, or where they were hiding. You didn’t know if they were going to lie in wait or come out and find you. It was home invasion training on steroids.

I could not have been more pleased. This is the kind of realistic training I want for the Krav Maga Alliance. All the participants rose to the occasion, and I think everyone learned from the experience.

I hope we see you there next year!