Krav Maga Blog - Aug 2020

One of the things that first drew me to Krav Maga was its emphasis on aggression. I’ve always believed that fighting/self-defense was a mix of three things: simple techniques, physical fitness and an aggressive mindset – the last one being the most important of the three. I also liked the fact that Krav Maga training had a “Cosher Kravi”/Combat Fitness element to it, though in some styles and systems this is often over-emphasized, and/or gets confused with self-defense/fighting e.g. 100 punches on a tombstone pad, followed by 50 Burpees etc. is a great fitness workout – and obviously has its...

Richard Felson, who has done some of the most comprehensive research into violence, uses the “potato chip” principle, to explain decision-making as it relates to crime and violent offending. The idea is that no one can eat just one potato chip; once you’ve started eating one, you are going to continue to a certain point, and at some point you may lose control, and continue eating even when you know you should stop i.e. you make a decision to continue, even when you know you shouldn’t – it’s bad. From a crime/violence prevention perspective, the trick is to stop somebody...

At the macro level, security (to be secure), comprises of two facets: the absence of threats, and the absence of fear i.e. to be truly secure, there must objectively be no apparent dangers that we will have to face in our daily lives, and subjectively, we must be able to go about our business, and live our lives without feeling/believing that we are in danger – the UN in 1994 developed a fairly comprehensive definition of “Security” that included the rights and freedom for individuals to develop their full potential etc. From a risk management/mitigation perspective at the personal –...

A fight is a dirty business. Real-life confrontations are messy, and are rarely solved in one go e.g. you perform a particular technique, it works, and you’re safe, etc. In reality, you fight, bit by bit, to gain an advantage, you build upon it, and gradually you start to improve on your situation. If someone ever tells you, that you just do this or that, and then suddenly you’re in command and control of everything, be very suspicious about that person’s actual experience. In most instances “tools” rather than “techniques” are what you use to protect and extricate yourself from...

There are two general ways to look at crime, including acts of violence: we can study, investigate and look at those things which make an offender a criminal, or we can look at the situational components that contribute to incidents of crime. Most habitual offenders, like most people in general, spend most of their time engaged in non-offending activities, and so for preventing crime, it may be more profitable to look at what things need to occur in order for an offense to take place, rather than analyze the psychological and social history, etc., of the offender; an interesting pursuit,...