Krav Maga Blog - Aug 2018

When it comes to trying to control a limb and/or a weapon, large movements can be bad. Too much movement gives an assailant something significant to react and respond to; the smaller the movement, the less there is to react to. I see a lot of firearm controls/disarms where the person defending, moves the firearm as far away from themselves as possible, giving the person holding the weapon ample time – even if not trained in retention – to pull the weapon away. We are born with a natural grab reflex that sees us pull away from any grab, whether...

There are a lot of books, and articles, that exist about how to detect deception through a person’s body language i.e. the non-verbal cues they exhibit when lying. Whilst the information given is usually physiologically correct, it is often presented in simplistic terms e.g. if somebody looks up when asked a question they are lying etc. There is a tendency for the eyes to roll upwards when somebody is thinking about how to answer a question, if it requires significant cognitive processing. This could indicate deception i.e. the person is considering whether to lie or not, and what details the...

Human beings are not good at detecting deceit – we often think we are, however our ability to detect when somebody is lying is not much better than chance. Professionals, such as those working in law-enforcement have been found to be only slightly better at detecting deceit, when there is nothing evidential to suggest someone is lying (once there is evidence to suggest someone is hiding the truth, modern interviewing techniques are usually quite adept at uncovering further lies, etc). This inability puts us at a severe disadvantage when we are dealing with predatory individuals who may want to gain...

Some people have a perception about personal safety and self-defense, that it’s really just about common sense and a few simple moves, and most of it can be covered in an hour or a little more. I’ve been training in the martial arts, and systems of self-defense since I was eight, and recognize that I am far from the finished and complete product, both in my understanding of violence, and my physical capabilities to deal with it. Personally, I don’t believe there’s a point where I’ll ever stop learning, and adapting what I do e.g. as predatory individuals educate themselves...