Recently I had a conversation with Dimitrios Andritsos from KMG Beligium. We were discussing the type of KM instructors out there in this community and the differences between them. We both agreed that although many people teach KM, everyone teaches it very differently.
This interesting phenomenon is in part due to the process of becoming a KM instructor. Generally KM instructors are trained through intensive 4 to 20 day courses; approximately 8 hours each day. Although that is enough hours to teach an experienced martial arts instructor the techniques of KM, it is not enough to change their behaviors and thinking, or provide full knowledge, tactics and the skill set of a KM instructor. For those who are fortunate enough to continue their training with a good KM lead instructor or organization in their local country, this issue is solved. These local organizations produce many pure blooded KM instructors with extensive knowledge of KM, field tactics, firearms, shooting etc. Israel and Serbia are the two countries that produce the purest and scariest KM instructors I have personally known.
Those who chose not to continue their KM education have to fill the knowledge and skill gap with their previous martial arts background. Hence, the KM world is diverse and different from school to school and instructor to instructor. Here are the three types of KM instructors out there:
Soldier
Due to KM’s origins and ability to be adopted into military training, many soldiers around the world were attracted to the KM community. These type of instructors have the correct mentality and tactics when comes to KM, but the skill set and techniques are generally not the sharpest. Hand to hand combat is a very different special set of skills. It needs years of training to indoctrinate these into a person’s body.
Fighter
Here I mean both martial artist and sports fighter. Most KM instructors come from this group and some are superb at transferring KM techniques and systems into their existing training database, but some bring their past martial art training into KM training. Some of these systems are compatible with KM’s mentality and training methods. Some are not. In general, I find instructors with a sport fighting background have good training methods for their students.
Fitness Guy
Some fitness professionals with limited martial arts experience also start teaching Krav Maga classes. Their classes are a hybrid of Krav Maga and a fitness workout. This is the norm for most Krav Maga classes in North America. After all, this type of class attracts the most consumers, who want to get fit doing something that is fun; however, this type of class has little value when it comes to enabling one to walk in peace.
KM is not supposed be a system that requires a long period of training, but comprehensive training should not be as fast as some schools claim. The reason why Israelis do this is because:
This is how the army does it – it takes from 1 to 3 months, depending on the unit, to develop an IDF Krav Maga instructor.
Many Israeli organizations do not have the patience to stay in other countries and tutor pupils from beginner to instructor.
Israeli people, generally speaking, are meant for KM. Do not forget, the majority of Israelis do their national military service of 2 to 3 years. The military train people both mentally and physically. A smaller amount of instructor training will work for countries that have a more militant background like Serbia, Russia, Poland etc., but for countries where average citizens do not serve and have limited access to firearms, a shorter period of training will not be sufficient.
In essence, we are all different, but one goal should be the same: that is to continue educating ourselves in every possible way on the subjects of Krav Maga, fighting, psychology, teaching, sports science, firearms, shooting, bladed combat etc. We need to recognize our strengths and weaknesses and become a hybrid of all three subject experts.
If I say Urban Tactics Krav Maga is one of the most diversified and dynamic Krav Maga schools in North America, I think there would be very little dispute. Other than having been certified under 4 International Krav Maga Federations, one of our specialties is firearm training and Krav Maga techniques related to firearms, from firearm disarms, tactical shooting to military Krav Maga. We are privileged to have extensive knowledge from our military background as combat arms soldiers and shooting instructors in the Defense Industry.
50 cal, the author’s favorite gun during his service with CDN Army
However, sometimes when we ask our civilian students at our Krav Maga school here in Vancouver if they would like to participate in some of Krav Maga seminars related to firearms or Firearm Possession Course, some of them ask “Why? What’s the point to learn about guns ? I will never use it.“ ” what’s the point of using guns as cold steel weapon? I will just shoot the guy. ” Many Vancouverites do not own firearms nor have an interest in it. I was amazed with these students’ response that they do not want to participate because they think any form of firearm training is not useful in a real life threat.
Let us be clear about something:
Armed robbers or other bad guys do not attack their targets with their bare hands. They always want to achieve superiority by having either a knife or a gun; only honorable people fight in equal amount of forces and let their skill determine who the winner is. Bad guys are not looking for a fair fight; they are looking for an easy pay day. If, unfortunately, you end up at the end of barrel and you faint at the first sight of a gun, the chance of you acting calmly is pretty slim. Knowledge is key to calmness and being collective under pressure. To know what type of firearm and the condition of the firearm is vital to survival in dealing with an armed assailant.
If you disarm someone‘s firearm you need to know how to use it, even if you want to disable the gun to prevent the bad guy from using it again. You need to know how to do so fluidly and accurately under stress. Over and over again I see Krav Maga schools or other Krav Maga instructors teach people how to disarm attackers with a gun, but their immediate actions after the disarm makes my heart skip a beat. Most of them clearly do not know how a real firearm functions, different functionality between a revolver and semi-automatic pistol, nor how to point the gun at the person if they chose to take lethal action. Just because you point a gun at an attacker does not magically make this person stop from taking the gun back or to attack you again. Do you have the will and skill to fire a gun if you chose to and, if you can hit accurately the bad guy, without hurting the bystanders or yourself? If you do not wish to shoot someone, how do you use guns as cold steel weapon and combine with Krav Maga moves ?
Since almost most Israelis have served in the IDF; firearms have always been part of general Krav Maga curriculum from Day One in Israel. After all, almost every 18, 19 old Israeli youth can take apart, put it back a M-16 and be confident with it on the range. Most North American Krav Maga students and instructors cannot rival Israeli Krav Maga student and instructors’ firearm experience. Nonetheless, In order to learn the full system of Krav Maga, you better be good at firearms. You need to learn how to shoot it, disassemble it, then finally disarm it if you have to. Firearm training is a serious issue and takes lots of training time; more so than any other aspects in Krav Maga. People generally need lots of range time with guns to eliminate the fear of the “Boom Stick“, but also be confident that guns are merely tools and be comfortable with them as extension of their limbs.
Are you Ash or Villagers ?
Last but not least, we do Krav Maga for a reason. We do it not for fitness or completion but to protect our lives. My friend, you want to ask yourself: Is there ever enough training when it comes to protecting your lives, especially about the most efficient killing tool created by man?
If you ask most martial arts instructors out there are you a Jedi master or Sith Lord it is most probable that all of them would answer, “why Jedi Master of course.”
No one in their right mind would say, well of course I am a Sith Lord. This makes complete sense, after all as martial artists are suppose to be about honor and respect, love and compassion, right from wrong. However when I look around at most schools and many of the styles what I see is models that resemble something more akin to Sith Lord’s.
This may seem rather strange but let me explain.
In order to become a Jedi master you must simply prove yourself worthy. It is the hope that all Jedi padawans become Jedi Knights and when of course ready Jedi Masters. A teacher expects their student to become the same level as them if not surpass them. As such there is a Jedi master council of masters who are equal and all have valid opinions.
In the Sith model there is usually only one Sith Master. In this model the only way to become a master is by the death of your current master usually at your own hands as this “proves” you are better. If a Sith master dies of natural causes than those below fight it out to find out to be the next master. Quite the waste if you ask me.
Any ideas yet why I consider most martial arts instructors to be Sith lords?
At Urban Tactics it is our hope and or goal that all of our students meet or exceed our abilities in Krav Maga. This choice is rather easy for us as the purpose is to teach self defense not artistic mastery. We want all our students to be able to defend themselves to the best of their abilities. If those abilities happen to be better than ours then we know we have done our job.
If I look at a traditional style, there is often a master or grand master or some equivalent title. Usually there is only ever another master if they die. While this could be due to respect and honor it seems rather silly as if a student is better then should they not be the master? or rather should they not now be equals happy to continue to teach their respective style to everyone who wants to learn?
While I cannot pretend to understand the details around the last few years of Imi’s death it is clear there was a power struggle, much like the sith lords. Now, there are many Krav Maga organizations with heads all claiming to be the head of Krav Maga. Instead of perfecting the system they diverged and keep their moves and ideologies secret, as if teaching people the most optimal way to defend themselves should be a secret. To me this is selfish and accomplishes nothing.
The result has been that everyone and their son thinks they are a Krav Maga expert. When I look around North America I continue to see sub par schools with sub par instructors all teaching different things and calling it Krav Maga. This does nothing for those who truly wish to defend themselves and gives many the false sense of security as they “know” Krav maga but can barely throw a punch let alone know the history of Krav Maga.
For comparison, lets also look at karate. When the modern founder died and named his successor a Korean the other masters were offended as karate is suppose to be Japanese, even though its origins can be traced to China. Now there are at least 5 major types of Karate and numerous offshoots all claiming to be the true form.
The reality is all this bickering and continuous splitting once an original master dies has nothing to do which style is better it has to do with ego plain and simple. If you have your students bowing down to you and running around calling you master, creating a cult like environment this is ego driven and more akin to the Sith than the Jedi.
Not to mention that all humans have a brain, two legs and two arms so how can there realistically more than one style that is truly effective. We are after all fundamentally the same. Shouldn’t all the so called masters and grand masters come together to devise one system that works plain and simple?
I mean is it not the point of martial arts to learn to defend oneself from harm? Shouldn’t we all want a perfect system and curriculum that keeps it simple and covers all types of attacks from the root of all attacks which is of course the brain?
So I ask you to really consider, as an instructor are you a Jedi Master or really a Sith lord?
If you are doing anything other than sharing information and making people better physically and mentally then I suggest that you might in fact be a Sith lord. Please, dispel your ego, dispel the theatrics and focus on what its all really about, making the world a better place one student at a time.
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Often, Bruce Lee (1940-1973) is credited with being the founder of Mixed Martial Arts.
As far as the West and the traditional East is concerned, this is true. Lee became famous in the early 70s because of his movie career. This allowed the world to see Lee’s new style of Jeet Kune Do or the “Way of the Intercepting Fist”. Lee is considered the founder of MMA because he was perceived to be the first person to take pieces of various styles and create his own catered to his style of fighting.
Historians often say that history is written by the victors and, as far as the world is concerned, Lee is the founder of MMA. However, as a Krav Maga practitioner I know this is not entirely true. Often in human history, for whatever reason, something is developed simultaneously at two different locations under different circumstances, yet the end result is the same. As a Krav Maga practitioner I know that Imi Lichtenfeld (1910-1998) actually came before Lee and developed Krav Maga as a system which took pieces of various martial arts to create a simplified self defense system.
While Lee started learning Kung Fu under the legendary Yip Man, a Wing Chung Master, Lichtenfeld started as a boxer and a wrestler, and yet they both came up with systems that were looking to simplify martial arts/self defense and strip down all of the useless techniques. There is, of course, one major difference. Lee developed his style for himself out of passion and sport, and Lichtenfeld developed it out of war and necessity. One (Lee’s) is a beautiful style designed with directness, no form and speed in mind, though I suspect was really developed for a person who has trained many years and who had developed a great amount of speed. The other (Lichtenfeld’s) was designed to work for anyone of any size under any circumstance. It is quite possible that Lee would have continued to simplify his system had his life not been cut short, but we will never know. Krav Maga under Lichtenfeld, however, was allowed to develop under his watchful eye into a simplified version of the original. I can only imagine what might have happened had the two met each other to discuss techniques.
For both, their original dream was the same and their ends, although decades apart, have one glaring similarity. Upon their deaths, there was a mad scramble to assume power as the next in line. While I am unfamiliar about the squabbles in the Jeet Kune Do world, I often hear people discuss how close in lineage their instructor was to Lee. I have heard things like, “Oh, my instructor is three people removed from Lee.” Or, “That style is not Jeet Kune Do but mine is true to the original.” This should sound familiar to all the Krav Maga people out there as now in 2014, 16 years after Licthenfeld’s death, there are at least 10 major Krav Maga organizations, not to mention the numerous independent schools that choose to stay out of the politics.
Personally, I have trained with individuals who can trace their lineage back to both Lee and Lictenfeld, and I have trained with individuals who have learned both Jeet Kune Do and Krav Maga who cannot trace their lineage directly back to the creators. The question is, should the ability to directly trace training lineage to the original creators matter. Personally, I do not think it should. My reasoning is simple. First, NOBODY ever questions the lineage of either Lee or Lichtenfeld because they were innovators. They created systems not seen by anyone else before. Their lineage did not matter, for they themselves were the reason they were famous, not because of under whom they trained. Second, how long after an originator’s death does one need to wait until a system is diluted or completely changed from what it was meant to be.
Take Tae Kwon Do or Judo for example. I am sure the original creators would be rolling over in their graves if they saw how diluted and sports-like their systems had become. For the most part these systems follow the lineage of the original founder, and yet they are nothing at all what they are suppose to be, but rather watered down systems designed for points and not the original simplified self defense systems that they were. It is quite possible that this has, or can happen, to both JKD and KM, but does this mean change of the systems is bad? Again, I do not think so. I think that change, so long as it follows the principles of remaining simple, easy-to-use and effective for real world application, is good. If, however, change of a system turns it into something for points or display, then the creators most likely would be kicking themselves in the head for not being more clear about how they wanted their systems to develop.
I have heard that the reason that Hiam Gideon was named the head of the IKMA after Licthenfeld’s death was because he was also an innovator. He adapted Lichtenfeld’s moves to further simplify them so that they were more likely to succeed. This is not something I can confirm as there are many rumours regarding the question of lineage after Licthenfeld’s death. However, if it is true then for sure it makes sense, for it is my understanding that Krav Maga, or Jeet Kune Do for that matter, were meant to be evolving styles to utilize any and all techniques that existed in the world, regardless of origin. Of course, IKMA now refers to its system as the Gideon system while IKMF, now under Avi Moyel, and KMG under Eyal Yanilov, still call their systems the IMI system. What does this mean? I am not really sure, but it certainly brings into the question of the evolution of the system. There are, of course, Krav Maga organizations headed by individuals who learned their Krav Maga from the Army, or a friend, or whatever, and though they do not follow the original lineage, certainly follow the Krav Maga mentality of keeping it simple, efficient and easy-to-use.
There are certain moves, such as the Krav Maga 360 defense, to which you will see in almost all the Krav Maga organizations. In fact, moves such as this have been spread into other self defense systems whether they realize it or not, such as modern Cimande. Other moves, however, such as how to deal with the front choke, vary from organization to organization. Is this good or is this bad? Well, the answer should be obvious by now. It depends. Krav Maga is meant to be an evolving system, but what direction that evolution takes is still up in the air. Some systems focus more on aggression, some more on technique. Some are very casual and some are very traditional. Some use belt systems and some use patch systems.
No matter what your lineage however, one thing needs to remain the same. The moves need to work and they need to work fast. I have noticed that some organizations use only one variation of a move and I have found that the variation works great for some, but not all. An organization that chooses to keep a move simply because that’s the way the Master did it seems to be missing the point of the original creation of the system, whether KM or JKD. Some moves work great for big people but not small people. Some moves work great for fast people but not slow people. This is part of the reason that aggression is so important in Krav Maga. However, this does not mean you should forget your technique. Our philosophy at Urban Tactics Krav Maga is that at the White Belt and Yellow Belt levels, we teach our students the fundamentals and a few of the various options. We then encourage them to use the move that works best for their body type and fitness level, and choose it as their main reaction under said circumstances. This does not mean, however, that they should forget the other options as you never know what may happen.
Personally I have found myself saying that Krav Maga is a system that assumes you are going to screw up and that even if that happens, you will survive. Another thing I have come to realize, after observing some of my friends whose Krav Maga training comes exclusively from the Army, is that when you remove the option to kill your attacker, your technique becomes far more important than your aggression, as a level of control is required in the civilian or police world.
I think by now you should have figured out what my thoughts are on lineage. It depends on who your instructor is and how good they are at teaching you the fundamentals, regardless of lineage. At the end of the day, at least with Krav Maga if you go home and sleep safely every night then your instructor has done their job. Criticizing an organization just because of lineage is ridiculous, especially if what they teach follows the original principles and, most importantly, works. At Urban Tactics Krav Maga we train with individuals from all organizations in the Krav Maga world, and we encourage our students not only to do the same but also to train in other styles. You can never know too much as we are always learning. Evolution is a part of humanity, and fighting over who came first or who has the closest tie to the original founder of a system seems rather petty to me. At the end of the day, any instructor should not put their loyalty into their organization but should put their loyalty into their students. Getting caught up in the politics of lineage in the Martial Arts I am sure would drive any founder nuts. To me it really doesn’t matter that Lee is seen as the founder of MMA over Lichtenfeld because they both have wonderful legacies and gave the world two great systems and ways of thinking.
So, The Chicken or the Egg? Which Came first? Really, it does not matter, because in the end we are all here, we are all alive and we are all safe.
So far, 2014 seems to be a year of injuries for me. In January I broke my nose while sparring with a Muay Thai fighter, and on February 9th, the day of my birthday, I was rear-ended by a mini-van in an intersection. As a 30 year old I fully understand how fragile the human body is, but as a fighter and Krav Maga instructor this was a very, very foreign idea.
Since my teenage years I knew I had incredible physical prowess and athletic abilities. I competed in Judo and Tae Kwon Do at the Provincial level, and in my mid-20s I trained in Mixed Martial Arts at the professional level and competed in any national and international tournaments I could possibly enter. While serving in the military I underwent tough physical training, ranging from marching in -40′ temperature for 20 km in Ontario to passing the fitness selection for a spec-op unit that specialized in field intelligence gathering and undercover work behind enemy lines. I recovered from every injury with ease ranging from dislocating my shoulder to having a broken ear drum. I felt that I was Apollo himself: Strong, Athletic, Powerful and Indestructible.
In Canada forces, you are huskies. ” Wolv “
Slowly, I realize how fragile our life and body can be. In the world of Krav Maga, we learn to deal with the deadliest attacks from knife to firearms; any wrong move and we then go to see our creators instead of our loved ones. (or go directly to your next life depending on your belief.)
We train hard in Krav Maga but we do not want you to push to the limit that your body breaks, because your mind can always go further than your body. A human’s mind is limitless yet the human body is very honest about its limitation. There are moments in life when we have to fight though the obstacles despite our pain and injuries, but everyone will be broken if we go to the extreme in every training session. You push it overboard too many times, and it will break. When you spar and do your conditioning, it is ok to stop and not participate for the right reason. Pain is good injury is bad, some pain are signals to prevent you from injuries some pain are just signal weakness leaving the body. Listen to your instructors. We can tell when you are pushing yourself too hard when you are not. We do not become Krav Maga instructor by just reading books, taking classes and write fancy articles. My Krav Maga mentor Avi Moyal once said Krav Maga is ” Experience + Science. ” What you are learning in the class of Urban Tactics Krav Maga is based upon knowledge, experience and medical bill. You are only human and don’t make the mistake I made.
We understand that there is a specific need when comes to female self defense, so we designed a specific program for our female students. This class teaches all the foundation of Krav Maga as our regular Warrior & Defense Classes and techniques against threats specifically toward women. We also take notices on women’s physiology so we can teach techniques that will work very well for our female students. The aggression drill and sparing at this class will be SEMI contact only class. The Women Self Defense Class focus a lot on techniques instead of aggression. Occasionally, we will have assistant instructors in both gender suit up with protection gear and attack our students with extreme realism to give our students a chance to react to real life dangers.
