Episode 83 – Ron Rotem is a Top Israeli Krav Maga Instructor who has intimate knowledge of Krav Maga History, It’s approach and Politics

Ron Rotem is a Top Israeli Krav Maga Instructor who has taught in all aspects of Israeli Life from the IDF, Prison System, and Civilians. His start in Krav Maga was very much like something out of a Hong Kong Fight movie where a would-be street fight ended up in a pursuit where Ron found himself in the others Krav Maga Gym. The then Instructor told them to put gloves on and fight. Though it did not happen Ron found him staying and ended up moving up the ranks eventually becoming an assistant instructor under Eli Avikzar one of Imi's top students. This led him to be a Black Belt prior to his IDF Service where he served in an Anti-Guerilla Unit. There he was introduced to Military style Krav Maga which was quite different than his Civilian Experience. From there he became the head of the training for the Israeli Prison System which was also quite different. These differences lead Ron to begin researching the history of Krav Maga and which is now his lifelong passion. Ron is the Admin of the Facebook group Krav Maga History and culture which has well over 10,000 members. In this podcast, we discuss the history of Krav Maga, Krav Maga Principles, Concepts, and approaches as well as our own teaching Philosophy. A notable line from Ron is, "Krav Maga builds out of two subjects. Self Defense which is the main subject. And hand-to-hand combat, with time Krav Maga became very very good at the self-defense... but it became, maybe the hand-to-hand combat section was a little bit neglected. But we know self-defense very good." Ron is referring Boxing, Kickboxing, wrestling, Judo, MMA with regards to hand-to-hand combat, Or as UTKM would consider the skills needed for a back and forth fight. Ron now runs his own school Israeli Krav Maga Institute.