Self Defence Krav Maga

[Abbie Buesing]

KravMaga teaches how to defend oneself from a position of weakness.The techniques we are taught were developed to work for everyone, on everyone irrespective of the size of the attacker versus defender.

What would you do if you were out with your boyfriend/girlfriend, and they started a fight, and you had to step in, and they were so worried about you they tried to prevent you from defending? Yeah. It happens. Krav Maga prepares you for that too.

What do you do with your glass? Have you considered that, depending on the situation and your judgement of what is appropriate use of force, you do have the option of using the glass as part of your defence? Yeah, me neither. Not until I trained it.

What often bothers me about martial arts and gyms that claim to offer self-defence classes is that they claim to teach self-defence but instead give their students a false, and incredibly dangerous, sense of self-confidence.

A student of kickboxing is accosted in an alleyway by a man holding a knife. Kickboxer student tries to defend themselves and gets stabbed. Probably stabbed repeatedly, since the attacker is now angry.

Granted, you may not have seen many stabbing attacks happen. Our Head Instructor kindly made us a very instructive video reel of them. They are violent, and determined, and telegraphed, and very intentional.

Notice too, that when the defence happens, how is the attacker responding? Do they just stand there like a punching bag and take the counter-punches and kicks? Or are they trained to respond appropriately to give the defender the correct silhouette?

Just like it matters whether a gym that teaches Krav Maga realizes that there is supplemental training required to truly be effective at self-defence: namely, dynamic striking and on-the-ground grappling.

SGS Krav Maga is the only gym I know of that has supplemental classes to improve striking power and technique, as well as Sambo classes. And everyone knows that Sambo wipes the floor with BJJ on the ground.

But training here I get stronger and fitter both mentally and physically, the community is amazing, I learn something new in every class, I am getting better and better, and we have an awesome time together.

Ultimately, Psychology, while it is considered the science of the mind and behaviour, is not an exact science. The often referenced checklists of symptoms are typically based on the information provided in the much debated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

This means that once you can get over yourself, and realize you want to get better, you are likely already halfway down the path to a happier life. The next step is getting off the couch and doing something about it.

I would also caution that, in most cases, if you have to see them for more than 6 months or a year, other than maintenance checkups, they may just be taking your money. A decent therapist can often give you want you need in far less sessions than you think. That is, of course, if they are decent and they are not trying to take advantage of you.

There is a reason, after all, that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), still tends to be the most effective type of therapy for treating a variety of mental health issues. As the onus is on you to do the work, on a consistent, daily basis, and re-shape how you think about the world and yourself.

In my case though, I had few, very consistent, people in my life who did offer support. The reality is for me, they did not have the skills, knowledge, or time to really help me in a more meaningful way. I suspect that for many this is a familiar experience. This is why, no matter how hard it seems, it may be on you, and you alone, to get help and get better. (Notice a theme?)

I can say that for me, someone who has always struggled to have strong connections with other people (partially due to mental illness, but also the fact I am a strong-willed person at the best of times), the majority of the people I thought were my friends essentially bailed on me because I was too difficult to deal with. You can look at this a few ways:

In a country like Canada there is little reason why you should not be able to find something, as there are many government funded resources and groups you can access. Even if they are not for you, they can often start you on a path to healing, one way or another.

Mental health it can be a difficult topic to talk about objectively, as there is so much emotion and ego involved. One thing to remember is that you are not alone. In this world there is someone else who is feeling the same as you are. This is actually, in a weird way, good news, because when enough people have the same issue it means there are resources and solutions available. You just have to start looking.

The first step is identifying that there is a problem, and which problem there is. Once you do that, you will be able to find the path that allows you to get better, so you can live a happier, more productive life.

I have met people who have had all sorts of mental health issues, some, at times, were quite serious, but they managed to get it sorted out so they too could be happier and healthier. Others struggle with the same problem for years and years because, despite being given the same advice from everyone around them, choose to stay in the shitty mental state they claim to want to move on from.

The choice is always yours. I know that if you are reading this you want it to get better. You want the pain to go away or at least lessen. And, yes, it is pain, just like breaking a leg or bumping your head, but this one is not so simple to fix; it will require hard work and change.

This series has been about the fact that self-defence is not just physical, which means I wanted you to consider other areas of your life that could take a little bit of self-defence. Our lives have become ever more complicated; more so that our nervous systems are adapted for.

If you are able to take care of yourself physically but not mentally, and your whole world seems chaotic and painful, then what good is physical self-defence if you still are struggling to see the light?

The answers are all interconnected. Whether the concern is physical, mental, digital, or financial, they are all aspects of your life. You need to live a balanced life, and seek to better yourself a little bit every day. Build one and it can build the others.

I had sciatica before and had to have operation for it; I have since recovered and have been going to the gym regularly (e.g. running, chin up, back extension machine). I am now interested to learn Krav Maga since it teaches one with practical self-defence within a relatively short time frame.

But I was being rejected by one instructor, since apparently there are slamming, jumping, landing and twisting. I asked if I can skip the slamming moves, which are the only ones I think I am unable to do, but she replied that it would not be fair to my practise partner, which is fair enough.

Most self defense and martial arts instructors do not have sufficient medical knowledge to analyze what is safe or unsafe for your condition - in this case, the instructor is erring on caution, which is completely reasonable.

That said, you'll want to talk to a physical therapist or sports medicine specialist who can look at your medical records and make a good assessment of what movements and training would be safe or unsafe for you.

That will provide you with necessary information for yourself, but also allow you to talk to instructors of whatever you decide to get into, and have them make informed decisions about how to best instruct you. (which may also include, "I will not alter my training regime, go elsewhere" or "I'm not skilled enough to adapt it accordingly." but at least it will be an informed statement at that point.)

All there is to say about 'Krav Maga' as a modern 'art' (as an independent system instead of a label) in one post/thread. Also, there is no such thing as "practical self-defence within a relatively short time". From that post:

So, if a student can pick the bits of gold out of the pile of poo [that nowadays is taught under the name of Krav Maga], they will be well served. Or, they can go do judo and boxing, which provide almost universally effective skills, and take a few seminars on SD to underscore awareness, evasion, escape, deescalation, legalities mindset, etc, and not have to worry if they've learned anything useful.

Caveat: As practical self-defence training involves full-resistant full-contact if it wants to prepare for the things you have to face in case in any way, I render it impossible to achieve remotely reliable self-defence capabilities through martial arts for you - at least before doing a considerable amount of supplemental training, see my comment (referring to Judo on both receiving and executing side) below.

Yes, you may learn some strikes. You may learn some blocks. Kicks, depending on the nature of your injury, may already put too much stress on the back. You even may learn throws if the teacher and partners organise accordingly. But without having trained all this under a stressful, potentially (hopefully not actually) harmful situation against one or more opponents that go full out - these skillsets will probably fail you in the situation you need them.

Disclaimer regarding the introduction: There are good Krav Maga teachers out there, but especially as someone without experience, it is hard to tell the difference. Even in Judo/Boxing there are really, really bad teachers. It's just that it is really easy to call yourself certified Krav Maga teacher in one of the quadrizillion organisations out there and it is a hype that is advertised and where people know it is money to make there.

It is important to understand that for any given civilian to need to use a fighting method is extremely rare. 'Self defence' can be achieve by avoiding situations where there are likely to be hostile people, by talking to the potential attacker and by running away.

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