Krav Maga Blog - Sep 2016

Whilst most of our personal models of violence probably involve single assailants, the reality of modern violence is that we are just as likely to be assaulted by more than one person. If we look at the social settings where violence occurs, such as in bars, pubs, and clubs, etc., it is likely that an aggressor will not be alone, but will be part of a group. It is also true that many predatory criminals work together, such as muggers, who find strength in numbers, and can use members of the group to act as lookouts, as well as to...

Students who have little or no experience of violence, will often fall into the trap of believing that real-life violence reflects their training environment; this may also get reinforced by watching combat sports such as MMA, as both the training and sport environments of the martial arts and self-defense share many properties that don’t exist in the real-world e.g. they both occur in uncluttered environments, where there is a good deal of space in which to maneuver (in fact, a cage or ring is designed to allow combatants to demonstrate what they can do – it is designed to enable,...

Most Krav Maga students will have had little exposure to actual violence (there are also instructors out there who fall into this category). Because of this, students can fall prey to the idea that the practice of techniques and skills in a classroom setting, accurately reflects the real world. There is also the idea that simply practicing techniques, against committed, realistic attacks, replicates real world violence – in some regards it does, but in many it doesn’t. It trains, and improves, skills and attributes, and technique execution, but it doesn’t actually improve a student’s “understanding” of what violent situations look...

If you’ve ever competed in a martial arts competition, you’ll have likely found that certain things that you could successfully, and repeatedly, pull off in the training environment, didn’t work so well for you, when the stakes were higher. It took me a lot of competition time, when I was practicing Judo, to get to a stage where I was consistently replicating what I could do back in the Dojo – and at times, even perform better. In this article, I want to look at some of the issues that arise when you are put under stress and duress, whether...

When dealing with armed assailants (whether with a knife, gun, etc.), there are a number of approaches that you can take; which you select depends on certain situational factors – do you have an easy disengagement route, are there third parties with you, does your assailant look conversant with the weapon they are using, are there objects (improvised weapons, obstacles, etc.) in the environment that you could use to your advantage? The various combinations of such factors and components, means that only having one approach to dealing with an armed assailant, such as controlling and disarming, is extremely restrictive and...