Re: Krav Maga, are you kidding me?

[Damian (Instructor)]

Welcome to the forum!!!

My Kung fu is the best…hey, I’m guilty of it too sometimes. We all invest a lot of blood, sweat, tears time and of course$$$$$. The problem exists because they are still a martial art. The depend on techniques NOT tactics.

There are a few things I look at when evaluating a system regarding self defense. Simplicity of technique, aggressive movement, do they pay attention to distance and position and do they consider the 8 cardinal rules of self defense:

1. It must work on an assailant that is much larger and stronger than you.
2. It must work against both armed and unarmed assailants at the same time.
3. It must work against multiple and single assailants at the same time.
4. It must work against determined and capable assailants.
5. It must work when you are distracted, older or injured and appear to be a good target of opportunity.
6. It can’t have specific defense for each individual situation.
7. It must work in every possible environment (the same method must work in snow, sand, parking lot, woods, jungle, your living room, etc.).
8. It must become instinctive and convulsive as quickly as possible.

Under these guidelines ANY system can work. A karateka who develops a good reverse punch and adopts the correct attitude will be incredibly effective.

Where all these guys (and gals) lose me is the specific defense BS. If he attacks this way, you do defense one, another way you do defense 2.
It operates under a false set of principles that you only have in the training hall.

It’s like training with snakes.

Let’s say we’re snake handlers. We start with rubber snakes. No problem, we just walk over and pick it up. Next we use garter snakes, a little trickier, but no problem.

One day, you’re in the woods and you come across a rattle snake. Is it really the same as the garter snake?

This is where most systems lose it. They start pontificating on what could happen instead of just keeping it simple.