Suprise by Moshe Katz, Krav Maga Instructor, Israel



Surprise
by Moshe Katz, Krav Maga Instructor, Israel

Training with one of my mentors, Prof Arthur Cohen of New York. He taught me to think outside the box.


Bam!  Slam!


What just happened?!

What just happened is I hit you.

There was no warning, this is not usually how I start a blog, you got caught by surprise and now you are on the floor. In most cases if you are untrained and you are on the floor, it is all over for you. You will be kicked in the ribs and they will stomp on your head.

The result: serious injury,  possible brain damage, perhaps even death.

And you were not ready for this?

You see, most martial arts schools and even the vast majority or Krav Maga styles will NOT prepare you for this sort of attack.

The punch that knocked you down is the punch you did not see and not anticipate.  But what do you see at most commercial Krav Maga schools?

I will tell you what you see.

You see a lot of action, a lot of sweating, people wearing sports outfits, people wearing…not a whole lot, hitting the bag and making scary faces. No one is smiling.  They are hitting hard, they are looking tough, but… Are they necessarily preparing for the street? I don't think so.

Now consider a girl who is sitting and reading "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin De Becker or "A Woman's' Guide to Self Defense"  by Arthur Cohen, and I will say that this girl is doing Krav Maga and is in fact becoming better equipped to handle the street than those hot girls with the great abs and the invisible shorts.

Bam!

My God you just got knocked down again!

Get ready, study your environment, look around, for God's sake don't stand at the subway station late at night with your hands in your pockets.

In 1967 Israel realized that the Arab world was about to attack, Bam! Surprise attack from the air, "From the sky they battled.." (Book of Judges, chapter 5). The Israeli air force caught the Egyptians and Syrians off guard and destroyed their air force.

Krav Maga is not just physical, it is certainly not about who has more muscle. When you walk into an IKI seminar or IKI school you may happen to come in when we are doing serious hitting or serious full power knife attacks but you might also come in when we are calmly dissecting a gun situation and coming up with a new solution.

It is not about the sweat, it is about being prepared.

Ba….now this time you blocked it. You were expecting it (I hope), and the block, is actually, really in fact…quite simple.


By Moshe Katz - Israeli Krav International - Israel 

Comments

  1. Shaan Saar Krav MagaJanuary 26, 2022 at 6:19 AM

    I found decent information in your article. I am impressed with how nicely you described this subject, It is a gainful article for us. Thanks for share it.Florida Krav Maga

    ReplyDelete

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