The internet is often obsessed with strange problems. There are a plethora of videos both showing how to defend against a ninja assassin hidden in the backseat of your car and mocking the meme. One of the founding realities of Krav Maga is that real people don’t have unlimited time to train and so we try to focus not just on teaching what works but focus our fundamentals on solutions to actual problems. So how do we figure out what the right solutions to the right problems are? Crime data and relationships with active police officers are helpful, so are the conversations with our global network of schools led by Alan Predolin. In the best traditions of Krav Maga so is asking your students. When they arrive, while training and periodically checking in even if they have moved elsewhere.
No surprise that we often hear feedback about how anything too elaborate or with no pressure testing didn’t show up to help. The three things that helped in real world situations with real world constraints time and again may not be what you expected.
Instinctively moving into a stance that is not inflammatory but gives you good defensive and movement options is something we drill a lot. Having a plan that you can easily activate if you feel threatened is psychologically very powerful. The fact that it can help lower the emotional tone of an argument that doesn’t need to get physical helps too. So many reports of violent or drunken encounters dissipated and avoided.
This one has helped many of my judo peers not just keep training safely but avoid long term damage from that great villain encroaching age. In the streets of our city, where ice on stairwells (in the Barbican centre for me personally quite recently) slippery pavements or uneven roads can ambush you while you are distracted, this is a low cost high value skill. Yes we recommend staying on your feet when possible, but sometimes fate, gravity or other people get a vote to the contrary.
Traditional Krav used to dismiss BJJ as just dont go to the ground. Traditionally BJJ likes to quote statistics about 90% of fights ending up on the ground. That statistic, by the way, is a misreading of a 1991 LAPD study of officer interactions. It overstates the numbers, and it’s talking about arrests, not street fights. What we absolutely do know is that if you end up on the ground, knowing how to avoid being pinned down is a skill worth having. Students who reported being knocked or dragged or even just starting on the ground were glad they had invested in technical stand ups and pin escapes. You cannot leave if you cannot stand up.
This book was a profound influence on my martial arts and self defence teaching. Dr. Guy Mor and Abi Moriya, who’ve spent decades training and teaching Krav Maga, put it well in their own work on instruction: test what actually works on real students, not just what a tradition says should work. That’s the same instinct behind why we keep asking.
Want to come learn the three things with us in a friendly and supportive environment? Book a Krav Maga trial