Krav Maga Blog - Oct 2015

It is possible to have the strongest punch on the planet, and never be able to land it with any force in a real-life violent encounter; not because it lacks power and/or commitment but because the person who is the intended target has not been positioned so that they receive the full impact of the strike. This is something I see a lot of in sparring; a person believes that they are in a good position to throw a kick or a punch but haven’t checked or taken into account whether the person they are sparring with will be able...

People will often simplify self-defense to the point where it becomes so simplistic, it’s almost ridiculous. I hear this often when teaching women’s self-defense, where there’s a common misconception that an eye or groin strike will quickly end a fight, or immobilize an attacker, whilst these are useful strikes, they can be difficult to pull off in real-life, dynamic and fast-paced assaults e.g. if you lack the skills and attributes to create time and space to respond with such strikes, and can’t position yourself accordingly, you may not have the opportunity to hit these targets – or possibly with enough...

One of the most common questions I get when teaching self-defense, is the “what if” question. This can be a frustrating question to an instructor who is wanting to keep a class focused, and on-track, with a particular point or technique that they are teaching. However the “what if” question, can give an instructor a great insight, into the mindset of the student who is asking it, and what particular needs that have to be addressed in their training to make them truly effective in a real-life situation. Firstly “what if” questions shouldn’t be discouraged; in fact no student questions should...

This blog article is in response to a “post” that is going around that is trying to draw a statistical comparison to mass shootings in the US and knife violence in the UK. The term/phrase comparing apples to oranges comes to mind. This short article looks at some of the differences between knife and gun violence in the UK and the US. It is not advocating for either gun or knife control/legislation, but instead looks at why such a comparison is flawed and unhelpful in dealing with either country’s issues. Not all violence is the same; a mugger has different motivations,...

The first UFC fight took place on November 12^th, 1993. That’s nearly 22 years ago. In its original format it looked to pit fighters from different martial arts against each other, regardless of weight category, to determine which the most effective martial art in a fight was. At its inception there were only a few rules, now there are hundreds. In the old days, fighters tended to have trained in one particular style, and supplement their training with that from other systems that specialized in areas that they didn’t (Mixed Martial Arts – MMA), now MMA has almost become a...