Should Throws, Throwing & Takedowns Be Part of Krav Maga?

Most times when I make a post or put up a video that contains some form of throwing, somebody will contact me, and/or make a comment, that throwing is too complex a skill, takes too long to learn, and therefore shouldn’t be taught. There’s also usually an assertion that throwing is something that only the strong can do, and isn’t appropriate for weaker and smaller people, etc., and therefore shouldn’t be included in any Krav Maga syllabus. Rather than fall back on the simple argument that Imi taught and practiced Judo, and incorporated various throws into the Krav Maga that he taught, I would rather address some of the arguments that people make regarding throwing and its appropriateness to reality based self-defense, and why throws, takedowns, sweeps and throws can be incorporated into a Krav Maga syllabus – I’m not saying that they always should; if an instructor lacks the appropriate training, skills and knowledge, they shouldn’t be teaching their students something that they don’t know/understand, and I’d make the same argument about striking; if somebody doesn’t understand the mechanics behind striking, and how to move, generate power – especially if it is a smaller/weaker person – transfer weight effectively, etc., then they probably shouldn’t be trying to teach and develop this skill in others (simply telling a person to be aggressive when they strike, isn’t teaching them effective striking).

Are throws, takedowns and reaps, appropriate for the smaller person? When Jigaro Kano, created and developed Judo, this was one of his goals; minimum effort, maximum efficiency. He wasn’t creating a system that relied upon brawn and strength, but one that utilized movement, weight shifts, and the taking of balance, so that an aggressor who is thrown, falls without having to be lifted. In a well-executed throw, there is no effort expended, and weight differentials don’t matter. In fact, once balance has been taken, a heavier attacker, will have a harder job trying to regain it than a smaller/lighter person, making throwing a very effective strategy to adopt when dealing with a much larger opponent. If somebody doesn’t understand the mechanics of a throw, then they will have to use strength and force, and this is why I wouldn’t advise an instructor who doesn’t understand these things to teach throws, reaps, sweeps and takedowns. However if they do, then being able to equip a smaller person with a way to defeat a much larger aggressor, is certainly something they should do; in fact they will be able to cause much more damage to an attacker using a throw – and the ground to hit with – than they will with their striking.

When I did my first IKMF (International Krav Maga Federation), Instructor course, there was time devoted to learning and practicing break-falls or fall-breaks. It was well understood by those running the course that if you didn’t know how to fall, and were thrown to the ground, or knocked down in the fight, there was a serious risk of injury. Let’s turn this around for a moment, and look at ourselves as the person throwing, or knocking the other person to the ground, etc. If they don’t know how to fall, they are probably going to get injured. If we teach our students how to break their fall, and insist that this is an essential self-defense skill to avoid injury, why not teach them how to cause this type of damage to the other person? Although there’s not a straight comparison, it’s almost like teaching somebody to block and/or take a punch, without teaching them to strike.

Throwing, and throwing well/efficiently, is a skill that takes time to develop (but then so does learning to strike/punch well), and it’s not one that I introduce to my students straight away. It is quicker and easier to teach somebody to punch/strike in a way that will have an effect, than it is to teach somebody effective throwing, and the syllabus I teach acknowledges this e.g. you’re going to learn eye-strikes, and hammer-fists before you learn any type of throw, sweep, or reap. However, my goal is to get my students to adopt Krav Maga for life, not for a few weeks or months, and given a lifetime, there are many areas of combat that they can spend time practicing, learning and developing skill in, and this doesn’t just include throwing e.g. ground-fighting, offensive knife and baton (useful skills if you practice any form of weapon-disarming), flying knees, high kicks, etc. If your goal as an instructor is to teach a basic syllabus, without a focus on skills development, equipping students with rudimentary self-defense skills relying on aggression and mindset to be effective, there is nothing wrong with that; it’s the approach I take when teaching seminars, short courses, and corporate training events, where I have limited time with the students to develop their skills. However, if you have longer, the way to improve your students’ fighting abilities is to develop their skills and attributes. My school’s Black-Belt program is around 10-years, throwing is a fighting skill that really starts to be developed around years four to five. This is how I teach, and if people offer shorter or longer paths to Black Belt that is for them, not me, to decide.

One of my first Krav Maga instructors told me that it is worth knowing how to, and to be able to kick head height. His two reasons were as follows: so you would be able to teach and practice blocking high kicks, and so when advocating that high-kicking is a potentially risky strategy in a real-life conflict, nobody could make the argument against you, that the only reason you weren’t teaching high-kicks was because you yourself couldn’t do them. Is your only defense to a throw or a takedown to break-fall? If it is, you will quickly find yourself coming undone against a person who knows how to grapple – and there are grapplers who know how to negate strikers very quickly. If you don’t know how to throw, I would argue that your ability to defend against these types of attacks, might be lacking; admittedly, they are not the most common types of attack, and if your goal is to teach a basic program, with a reduced syllabus, that is fine, however there are those Krav Maga instructors who want to offer a more comprehensive approach to dealing with violence, and to say that to do this isn’t in line with the original intention of Krav Maga would be wrong. Imi believed that it was important that a practitioner could defend themselves from those skilled in other arts and systems – this is especially true for military personnel who would be going head-to-head, with other trained military personnel.

There are many ways to teach Krav Maga, and to me that is the beauty of the system. When I teach a 90-minute seminar, it’s basic, simple strikes, a focus on aggression, and a large dose of personal-safety and self-protection, so those attending learn to predict, prevent, and avoid violence. At my school, my program is much more comprehensive, and once students become effective at striking, punching and hitting, other areas of combat and fighting-skills start to be developed. If other instructors want to stop at this point, and have students simply continue to practice what they have learnt, I’m not going to claim that this isn’t Krav Maga, however at the same time I’d expect the same courtesy extended to myself, and other instructors and associations, who try and equip our students with other fighting skills, such as throwing, sweeping, reaping, and groundwork.