The Art of Manliness - #277： Krav Maga – The Self-Defense System of Israeli Special Forces

00:00:00.000 brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast developed for

00:00:19.760 the israeli military forces and battle tested in real life tactical situations by police and

00:00:23.920 military forces around the world krav maga has gained an international reputation as an easy

00:00:28.280 to learn yet highly effective combative and self-defense system today in the podcast i

00:00:32.700 talked to david khan chief instructor of the u.s israeli krav maga association the author of

00:00:37.000 several books on krav maga including krav maga defense david and i discussed the origins and

00:00:41.820 history of krav maga its philosophy and fundamental moves and how to use the systems combatives in a

00:00:46.640 defensive scenario really fascinating show after the show is over check out the show notes at aom.is

00:00:52.240 slash krav maga all one word we can find links to resources where you delve deeper into this topic

00:00:56.960 david khan welcome to the show hey brett great to be on with you uh so you are a krav maga instructor

00:01:13.220 the um i guess the the chief officer at israeli krav maga here in the united states um before we get

00:01:20.600 into talking about krav and what exactly it entails can you tell us a little bit about your background

00:01:25.200 how did you get involved in krav maga and i mean what are the types of people you train as a krav maga

00:01:31.500 instructor sure uh my first experience with krav maga was my uh first week of law school and the

00:01:39.040 experience floored me literally uh the first american to ever do krav maga rick blitzstein um i had played

00:01:45.880 ivy league football and i wanted to try some kind of um self-defense and i wanted immediate gratification

00:01:51.060 as all people seem to and uh rick look take a look at me and he thought that'd be a good example

00:01:56.820 and he took me in what we call cavalier which is a wrist takedown and he ended up with his size eight

00:02:01.640 and a half on my neck in front of all these people and while i should have been embarrassed i thought

00:02:05.720 it was the coolest thing in the world and i said i gotta do that so that's how i stumbled literally

00:02:10.840 on krav maga i i didn't know what it was i probably even mispronounced it the first uh few times i took it

00:02:16.300 um but it's become really quite popular and that that's a good thing for the most part although

00:02:21.100 obviously there are certain um criminal elements that are trying to get their hands on it as well

00:02:25.280 and um my background again i i i'm a non-practicing attorney i work with technologies i write patents and

00:02:32.920 i i love teaching krav maga um been fortunate enough to write uh five books on it uh matter of fact the

00:02:39.500 the fourth book uh just won a national book award uh as we mentioned uh in the category of sports

00:02:45.580 although it's anything but sporting uh and it was called professional tactics so that that was a

00:02:50.380 real nice award with all the major publishers uh competing for the title and uh fortunately we we

00:02:54.800 took it um we actually won a similar award exact same award back in 2010 with a weapons defense book

00:03:00.960 so um in addition to the the books we've been able to write we've done a bunch of um dvds uh four

00:03:07.260 different sets and through it all we've been contacted by um most of the major law enforcement

00:03:12.600 agencies we've trained to date um the veritable alphabet of the federal agencies fbi dea secret

00:03:18.980 service marshal service uh department of corrections uh department of justice police um department of

00:03:26.200 defense police etc coast guard and then uh fortunately all uh five branches of the united states military

00:03:32.400 uh including the uh the coast guard um we were invited down to quantico to train with the marine

00:03:38.500 corps which also then led to an fbi invitation to train their academy with them along with dea um

00:03:45.040 chain some tier one um groups and it's really just been a marvelous thing and right so i mean what are

00:03:50.480 the origins of krav magas so it's called israeli krav magas i'm imagining it originated in israel but

00:03:55.880 why why did the self-defense system originate in israel it actually originated uh in late uh or actually

00:04:02.700 early uh 1940s and late 30s in slovakia uh by a man named emic lichtenfeld who founded the system

00:04:11.920 and uh emi had a background in in boxing and in western wrestling and judo um his father was a chief

00:04:20.040 inspector for the slovakian police but it was developed and um uh invented as necessity to protect

00:04:26.860 the jewish community and the difference between the the uh nascent krav maga training and uh sport

00:04:32.880 fighting was simply that uh krav maga as it was it was really self-defense it didn't get uh called

00:04:38.240 krav maga into the late 40s but such as it was was developed again to protect the jewish community and

00:04:43.580 the key differentiator was that there were no rules in a street fight and that uh emi was always

00:04:49.820 outnumbered um along with his his colleagues who helped her and he realized right away that um again

00:04:56.460 there could be no sporting applications which mean there are no rules but most importantly

00:04:59.680 uh every uh combative or strike or um countermeasure had to count there was no room for uh wasted motion

00:05:08.920 or ineffective combatives in other words a punch had to be a knockout if it could be a kick had to

00:05:14.840 take out a knee uh a knee had to need somebody in the groin uh an eye gouge had to do the trick and

00:05:19.580 distract and then he can move on to the next opponent so um by its very nature it was visceral um it was

00:05:25.220 meant only for self-defense not to use be used offensively and uh emi ended up um emigrating

00:05:31.660 uh from or escaping the nazis in slovakia and ended up fighting for the british army in uh north africa

00:05:38.440 and uh he was wounded he was decorated and then he made his way to um what was to become israel

00:05:43.680 and the early uh israeli military leaders recognized that emi had a distinct talent for

00:05:49.880 hand-to-hand combat and a great way of teaching and they um suggested that he uh ramped this up for

00:05:56.360 the uh the fledgling um israel defense forces which had at that point been a number of organizations

00:06:01.680 including the hagana the palmach and the polyam um which were really um uh self-defense groups and

00:06:09.320 they they formed the national army which was israel defense forces and to this day krav maga is the

00:06:15.100 official hand-to-hand combat system um the krav maga that's taught in the israeli military does

00:06:20.640 differ in uh different units uh it's not uniform uh but it is still called krav maga and uh we call

00:06:28.740 it israeli krav maga because it comes from the israeli krav maga association there are many different

00:06:33.100 types of krav maga that that people have put spins on but um we refer to it israeli krav maga

00:06:38.120 because it is the original organization with the most evolved krav maga and krav maga that's a hebrew

00:06:42.800 word right yep means contact combat or close combat uh krav means a struggle uh first used in

00:06:49.340 the old testament uh when uh as my research seemed to show that gabriel uh struggled as opposed to

00:06:56.220 fought with the angel of death and it's used elsewhere and maga means uh proximity and actually

00:07:03.540 in my um fourth book i had a uh i'm forgetting it right now but i'll come back to it if you'd like

00:07:11.000 uh it's actually one of the original um uh explanations behind krav maga about preparing

00:07:17.220 one's fingers for battle and my hands for war that's one of the first references to the word

00:07:21.440 oh that's cool um so you kind of hit on some of the principles of krav maga so it's you know make

00:07:26.580 every uh strike count just basic motor movements beyond that are there some other principles that

00:07:33.180 guide krav maga yes there are um like every good self-defense it's to recognize the incipient

00:07:39.980 conflict or violence that's coming to you or you know targeting you and to avoid it it's just better

00:07:47.080 to see that this is not going to end up in a good situation and to extricate yourself but

00:07:51.120 if push comes to shove uh and we've got to react physically in other words all de-escalation the

00:07:57.820 de-confliction anything you can say is not going to uh de-conflagrate the situation uh krav maga focuses

00:08:04.480 on preemptive action in other words if you see that an attacker is winding up to hit you we're going to

00:08:09.460 deploy a weapon against you from the waistband the back or is palming a weapon um will preempt and

00:08:15.340 that could be any number of of counterattacks but they're meant to cause injury not necessarily to

00:08:20.220 hurt but to cause injury to survive the situation um coupled with that is the um the all-important

00:08:26.640 principle of simultaneous defense and attack which simply means that every defensive measure that's

00:08:32.180 taken a counterattack is also launched um so if somebody were throwing a punch at your head

00:08:36.980 uh using the preemptive self-defense you could use a straight punch because a straight attack will

00:08:42.160 always um reach the target faster than a round attack and incidentally it takes about three times

00:08:47.320 as long to land a hook punch as it does a straight punch but if you wanted to defend the straight

00:08:52.560 punch with a simultaneous defense and attack principle you would um defend with uh the near side

00:08:57.380 arm if it's a right punch you defend with your left you would block using a rotational defense to

00:09:02.540 attack the attacker's arm while simultaneously either punching or using a palm or an eye strike

00:09:07.400 to the attacker's face so you're blocking and attacking at the same time and simultaneous defense

00:09:12.720 and attack is that retzev like r-e-t-z-e-v that's um a method of counterattacking developed by

00:09:20.140 grandmaster haim gidan uh my instructor i'm very proud to be a student and that means continuous combat

00:09:25.340 motion um basically it's harnessing the body's natural movements it's using optimized combatives in other

00:09:31.760 words as i land a kick to the knee of the groin my weight is already transferring forward allowing me

00:09:36.620 to use uh that same side punch like a left kick to the groin imagine followed by immediately by a left

00:09:42.480 punch followed by a right punch and because of my weight now coming forward with the right punch

00:09:46.820 it optimizes a right knee so basically it's harnessing the body's momentum and it's creating

00:09:52.260 economy emotion and it's either recognizing an opportunity to strike a vulnerable anatomy in a um in

00:09:58.220 assailant or creating your own opportunity by a salvo of uh strikes i can put it to you this way

00:10:04.540 maybe it is the equivalent of a um a single shot from a maybe a semi-automatic rifle hitting where

00:10:11.560 you need to hit and then the rifle opens up fully automatic so it's like a single fully automatic burst of

00:10:18.060 of uh attack so that makes sense yeah that does make sense um so what do you think is the the mind

00:10:24.120 mindset shift that needs to take place for people to use krav magov effectively um compared to the

00:10:31.640 mindset they might have with other defensive uh systems well i think that all good systems share

00:10:36.440 uh the mindset that we really uh emphasize which is attack the attacker um that person intends to do

00:10:43.540 you harm you've got to react with extreme prejudice where the situation warrants it and uh i'm going to

00:10:49.540 say neutralize a threat and that people can interpret neutralize as they wish but basically um you know

00:10:54.700 i'm a lawyer by training so it's very important for civilians to understand that they've got to use

00:10:59.340 proportional force uh in other words you can you can counterattack until that uh threat that person

00:11:04.820 can no longer counterattack you but if you continue uh you know to administer punishment because you're

00:11:10.540 angry after the fact that's going to come back and haunt you legally and morally perhaps as well

00:11:15.840 um but it's really an aggressive mindset it's that i'm not going to lose this and it doesn't matter

00:11:20.720 what that other person knows i'm going to take the fight to him or her because they've given me no

00:11:26.800 choice and i'm going to end it quickly on my terms um again it's an overwhelming counterattack

00:11:31.740 and um again it's with extreme prejudice there's just you know you again you've got to reconcile

00:11:37.660 yourself that you've done everything you can to avoid this situation the attack is coming your way

00:11:42.020 and you've got to defeat it uh whatever it takes so you mentioned that part of uh krav maga is going

00:11:46.800 for inflicting damage to you know very vulnerable parts of the body um what are the those vulnerable

00:11:52.940 parts that krav focuses on and um how do you go about attacking them yeah the primary targets of

00:11:58.240 course the obvious ones uh the eyes the uh the temple uh the throat the sides of the neck the groin

00:12:05.940 the knees and then you've also obviously got the internal organs including you know kidneys spleen

00:12:10.780 um the solar plexus the um again the uh the mandible process uh the back of the skull it's really

00:12:19.360 wherever you can cause damage and what we mean by damage is uh structural damage to anatomy um either

00:12:24.840 pushing the uh the the tissue beyond its natural elasticity or dislocating joints or breaking bones

00:12:31.980 you know even uh popping out an eyeball if you've got to do it's a life and death situation

00:12:36.460 by um inserting your thumb and digging into the attacker's eye and uh gouging that eyeball out

00:12:42.580 and that that's as i said that's visceral and um thank goodness that most people are averse to doing

00:12:48.500 something like that it has to be taught to most people but um some people come by it naturally

00:12:53.700 again this is when everything else has failed and there's no choice but to defend yourself

00:12:57.040 how do you train for like gouging an eyeball out right like i see how you can train for a punch right

00:13:01.740 because you can punch a body bag a gouging an eyeball how do you practice for that well one way

00:13:07.560 of course is if you have a uh practice dummy like a bob but they're rather expensive so we can do it a

00:13:13.300 couple different ways when we actually practice with a partner we only find the eyebrow you find

00:13:17.380 the cheekbone in other words if you have a listener um trying this out in the sense you know

00:13:21.620 mentally what you would do is you take your right hand the the person who's listening i'm doing

00:13:25.420 it right now as i speak you put it on your left cheekbone and by putting the hand on the left

00:13:30.180 cheekbone in other words you're facing somebody else but you're practicing on yourself it automatically

00:13:34.540 gives you a guide into the eye it's called the rule of thumb if you will so obviously when we

00:13:38.680 practice uh like everything we've got to use extreme control which is one part of the problem

00:13:43.320 i got trained in other words i'm i'm at the level um my senior instructors are where we can actually

00:13:48.920 kick somebody's knee without taking it out we've got the control but that has to be built up over time

00:13:53.820 and that takes proper instruction um so you ask a very good question um when i was working with one

00:13:59.540 of the military branches they were going to test whether the problem got worked or not

00:14:03.120 and very very tough guys and the guy i put myself in a very bad position i put myself in a guillotine

00:14:08.160 on the ground i said okay you can choke me out and the um friend of mine i won't say which branch

00:14:15.200 but the uh the friend of mine said i i can really choke you out uh he became a friend afterwards

00:14:19.380 matter of fact i said sure if i pass out i'll pass out if i tap i tap out and again he says i can

00:14:25.320 really choke yet i said yeah you can if you can but what happened was i uh i did the defense and

00:14:30.280 uh again before i knew him well uh he said sir my eyeball is coming out i said well it's in

00:14:35.080 release as i'm gritting my teeth as he's choking me and i'm releasing so um you can put that kind

00:14:40.060 of pressure into the eye lid and people will generally relent but you got to be careful right

00:14:45.460 i know this probably sounds goofy i think i read somewhere where someone like would put like

00:14:49.240 orange slices like on a bob dummy and like practice like sticking their thumb in the orange

00:14:55.400 slice to get like get used to that could be get used to the feeling of putting their thumb in an

00:14:59.540 eyeball oh man but no that that that well could be i mean it it's similar to using a watermelon when

00:15:06.100 you're using edge weapons you know to understand how uh a um a blade is going to penetrate the human

00:15:11.400 torso it's about the same uh tension suction and uh same thing with biting you know when when we we have

00:15:18.080 biting uh sometimes you'll take a piece of fruit and orange with the peel still on it you'll use

00:15:22.040 your incisors you'll rip it out just to simulate biting if you had to you know for example bite

00:15:26.320 somebody's neck if they were choking you from the uh you know from the front or or wherever it may be

00:15:30.840 or bear hug is a better example of that um so you can definitely use all sorts of fruit or balloons or

00:15:36.300 you know anything you want to simulate um human anatomy right this is gonna be funny there's gonna be

00:15:40.680 like guys sticking their thumbs in oranges and their wives are gonna come in like what are you doing

00:15:45.760 and i'm training to gouge someone's eyeball out getting back to this idea of practicing for krav

00:15:51.100 um because it's it's a real world right in most of the situations you're going to encounter uh in

00:15:56.140 real world defense like you are not expecting it um so how do you train for an event you don't expect

00:16:04.180 right because like when you're training you know the guy's going to going to attack you so in krav how do

00:16:09.260 you train yourself to be ready uh for those unexpected moments where you have to defend

00:16:15.520 yourself great question um krav maga is built on instincts uh and we hone those instincts for

00:16:21.400 example um if something is unexpectedly thrown at your head or somebody were to swing at your head

00:16:27.320 and you saw it coming you would flinch and that means your arms would come up and you'd probably tuck

00:16:32.440 your chin raising your shoulders so krav maga uh to uh make it most effective builds on our natural

00:16:38.800 instincts and uh for example when you're caught what we call the negative five which is courtesy of a

00:16:44.460 good friend of mine near my man um who headed up the counter-terror training uh in israel for krav maga

00:16:49.680 um when you're putting the negative five you don't expect it and that's where your your trained tack is

00:16:55.380 your conditioned response has to come in so we train to do just a few things very well that will handle

00:17:00.580 uh the myriad attacks you might face uh for example the um the hook punch defense we're talking about

00:17:06.720 the outside movement to block it would be the same thing it's a sucker punch from your left or your

00:17:11.580 right we see something coming to the head we flinch we move away from it as we deflect and then

00:17:16.620 counter-attack if you can um so what it distills down to is just understanding a few core movements to

00:17:23.040 get you off a line of attack or to react and that has to come with training but the great thing about

00:17:27.640 krav maga why people seem to enjoy it so much or find it um so easy to learn and retain so again

00:17:33.160 it's built on that flinch response or for example if you were uh somebody were going to try to kick

00:17:37.820 you in the groin you know another street trick uh most people if they see it coming will drop their

00:17:41.820 hands or they'll cross their legs well we don't want to drop the hands but we will build on that

00:17:46.340 crossing the leg response to deflect it with the forward leg uh in other words if you were you know

00:17:51.040 you're standing there and somebody went at you you'd turn to the side well we build on that

00:17:54.060 by using the forward leg to deflect and turn the attacker away taking his dead side what does a

00:17:59.960 typical session look like right so you can prepare yourself for these events that you're not expecting

00:18:04.960 right like how do you train for the unexpected it actually it might be helpful to to say one thing

00:18:09.160 about the krav maga that not all krav maga training is the same and that with our specific training the

00:18:13.400 krav maga from um we practice and we train against concerted resistance in other words somebody who's

00:18:20.860 throwing a full force attack at you because if you don't train that way you do yourself a disservice

00:18:26.160 uh in in three ways one the speed of the attack or the unexpectedness of the attack

00:18:31.300 uh so it's one and two and then the ferocity of it the power coming at you so you've got to learn how

00:18:37.680 to attack uh the best way you can um in terms of simulating it and by our combatives we're actually

00:18:43.400 throwing very good combatives the most effective and optimized combatives so when you can defend against

00:18:47.800 those kinds of attacks where somebody's attracting the attacking limb very quickly to simulate you

00:18:52.420 know a trained attacker it's it's easier to defend against somebody who's not so trained um but we're

00:18:57.480 not spending a whole lot of time doing uh jumping jacks and sit-ups and push-ups and fighting in the

00:19:01.960 air um so what we can do for example is we'll have a partner stand the hands are down in a negative five

00:19:07.700 position you're not ready for a fight and we'll have that partner circle around the um you know the

00:19:13.440 practice partner who's defending and throw any kind of attack doesn't matter what it is and the attack

00:19:18.020 you know it could be a it could be a punch it could be a kick it could be a choke a push a takedown

00:19:22.660 anything and that's what we call uh open training where you know something will happen but you don't

00:19:28.080 know what as opposed to choreograph training where you say hey i'm going to throw a punch at you now

00:19:32.820 which of course we build it up beginners would do the closed training where they know something is

00:19:37.020 coming but even within the closed training we begin to build it out like for example you don't know

00:19:41.160 a great punch from the left to the right or a hook from the left or the right so it's a 25 percent

00:19:45.540 proposition for each kind of attack you can get but you've got to react um so using good you know

00:19:51.260 mma gloves and control uh we will go at each other full force in fact it's one of my favorite practice

00:19:56.400 drills um in addition we also practice from what i'll call a de-escalation stance which i talk a bunch

00:20:02.600 about in um the the late the fifth book krav maga defense where you're not putting your hands up in a

00:20:07.720 fighting stance because that's going to um basically indicate that you you're you're engaging

00:20:12.280 in uh mutual combat which where you lose your self-defense ability you know it's a fight

00:20:16.900 and you're not ready for it so um that's kind of my my favorite kind of drill we'll spar as well you

00:20:22.300 know where the hands do go up and you're fighting but that's the way we got to train um same thing

00:20:26.760 with getting choked from the rear we will walk up somebody in the class and choke him or her if we

00:20:31.860 understand they know the technique and you'll have to react uh from you know an unprepared state

00:20:35.980 because if you can react from an unprepared state if you're prepared obviously you've got the

00:20:39.540 advantage so let's kind of talk about specific uh scenarios um so the basic idea of krav you're

00:20:44.560 going to use your flinch your startle reflex use basic gross motor movements to go for vulnerable

00:20:50.140 parts of the body but let's say uh there's more than one attacker um so how do you what's your

00:20:58.600 strategy whenever you're you have two or three attackers on you because i mean they don't do it like in

00:21:03.380 the movies where they just all wait around while one attacker goes for you and then then the next

00:21:09.100 one goes they're coming at you simultaneously no no you you hit a you hit another great point uh in

00:21:14.960 fact it's the very essence of krav maga it's what emi the founder had to face uh more times than not

00:21:20.360 and the key is you do not um fight more than one person at a time and you never get in the middle

00:21:28.280 of multiple assailants you know especially if there were three assailants in other words let's say that

00:21:32.260 the uh the listener is facing three people to his or her left middle and right whatever happens the

00:21:40.080 defender is going to go to his or her left or right but never down the middle even if the attacker in

00:21:44.920 the middle comes at you and what we do is again we take the attack to the attacker again attack the

00:21:50.120 attacker and we always try to line the um attackers up and that means brutalizing the uh closest threat

00:21:58.940 the near the near threat if there's a weapon we'll take it away and use it against all three but you

00:22:02.960 never want to fight two people at once and you always want to keep moving remember you're the

00:22:06.840 target they're not the target they're trying to envelop you and you gotta work effectively now

00:22:12.280 interestingly uh one one bit a bit of tradecraft here you you get the old westerns where your people

00:22:18.640 were outnumbered and maybe it's two against four and one guy says i'll take those two you take the

00:22:22.400 other two that's not the way we do it either if they were two against four the two people would

00:22:26.420 still fight one person knock him or her down uh you know neutralize him and then continue but it's

00:22:31.720 never uh fighting more than one person and we'll we'll fight two against one four in our favor yeah

00:22:37.140 but not the other way around we won't defend against two and you just mentioned uh weapons

00:22:41.300 uh improvised weapons is that an important part of krav maga as well sure um anything that you can pick up

00:22:47.060 uh can be a weapon uh change in your hand can be held at your side it can be launched at um somebody's

00:22:53.600 face with a simultaneous kick to the groin or the knee um you know the keys are always taught

00:22:59.280 thought of as um slashing but they can actually be used as a distraction where you're you're getting

00:23:03.340 the guy to put his hands up clouding his vision and then uh taking out his knee um you know umbrellas

00:23:09.380 um mobile phones i've got i've actually got a training curriculum for mobile phone use you're

00:23:15.340 going to have a good insurance claim on claim on your hand uh i've developed a device too for that

00:23:19.580 we'll see how that turns out um and anything you can pick up um you know a wall can be used as an

00:23:26.200 improvised weapon too if you if you do what we call tai sabaki and you turn and you um channel the

00:23:31.980 attacker's momentum uh forward and you use it to ram him into the wall um you know car doors anything

00:23:39.060 and everything can be used by you keeping in mind that it can also be used against you so um the the

00:23:45.340 best defense i think all self-defense systems say is the best defense is to avoid confrontation in

00:23:50.600 the first place and you write a lot about this in your books so what are some of the pre-conflict

00:23:56.560 indicators that people should be looking out for and what can you do to avoid or de-escalate these

00:24:02.420 conflicts terrific point um as all good self-defense will tell you you know it's using common sense first

00:24:08.940 and foremost i would also say you couple that with um your intuition uh there's a great book and i

00:24:15.060 would advise all readers to pick it up if they're interested in the topic uh called the gift of fear

00:24:19.180 by gavin de becker very well-known book basically what gavin de becker is suggesting is that trust your

00:24:24.680 gut you will sense that there's a problem if something doesn't feel right it's not trust yourself

00:24:30.460 forget social mores of you know offending somebody if you're an elevator that kind of thing

00:24:34.500 um and again uh there are different hooks that people use or different provocations you know

00:24:41.200 so much of what people think of as violence is is avoidable in social violence and um again made it

00:24:47.320 made a a very important point in book number five about social violence versus raw violence and

00:24:54.280 social violence can be avoided somebody giving you a stare and hoping that you'll return the stare so

00:24:59.880 they can escalate with you uh it could be a verbal um you know provocation hey what are you looking

00:25:06.080 at for example or you know something to that effect and again those things can be uh avoided or ignored

00:25:12.340 um a couple tips maybe for for our listeners here um if somebody looks at you and you return the gaze any

00:25:20.460 um return gaze beyond three seconds uh and emotional intent is usually indicated in other words if you

00:25:28.820 look at somebody and then you look away not down and i'll explain that momentarily but if you look

00:25:33.560 away you're not um challenging him or her if you look down though you break your gaze and look down

00:25:39.960 it may be just what that person wanted to see because now you've shown you're subordinate in some way

00:25:44.040 you look down so if you can look to the side and keep panning for uh potential threats let's say

00:25:50.160 then you've introduced a degree of uh equanimity in other words you're you're not challenging the person but

00:25:56.520 you're not backing down either um verbal challenges can be uh forgive the pun a bit more challenging

00:26:02.180 simply because it's directed at you it's a direct um challenge or provocation and you know you got to

00:26:08.900 rehearse this ahead of time and say hey you know somebody gave me a problem hey you know it looks

00:26:12.740 like you had a tough day i i did too or a sincere apology may be in order even though you may not have

00:26:18.680 anything to apologize for if you just want to avoid it and much of this is just posturing it's it's a

00:26:23.740 form of social dominance where somebody wants to show off to uh either a peer it could be a

00:26:28.760 girlfriend it could be even his or her own children or you know group setting uh young males are more

00:26:34.760 susceptible to it obviously and um you know to that point you just have to think about what you would

00:26:40.700 say to uh to try to be conflict the situation um i had a an instance where i was on a train uh going

00:26:47.300 um from um uh newark new jersey and for whatever reason this hard-bitten guy with a tattoo

00:26:53.580 uh on that you know on his face uh teardrop in fact you know took issue with me and he used the

00:26:59.180 time monitor hey what are you looking at and i thought ah here we go but i said to him rather

00:27:04.280 than saying nothing i said is that your beautiful baby girl and he looked at me that startled and he

00:27:10.200 and i said is that your beautiful girl i said she's about 13 months and he didn't know what to say

00:27:14.260 other than smile and the mother um he's the father the mother was was smiling from ear to ear because

00:27:20.620 i talking about their child with um sincerity and i opened the train door uh or i held it for them

00:27:27.380 and rather than having a an aggressor going back and forth you know i made a cursory friend and wish

00:27:33.200 them uh have a great day when they left so it changed from his wanting to start in with me

00:27:37.560 to changing the subject um sincerely and getting him off target me right i love that it's great advice

00:27:44.640 there um so david in martial art in combative circles there's always enormous debate about

00:27:51.320 which system is the best i mean things can get really heated and um what kinds of criticism do

00:27:58.780 you think people give levy at krav maga and how do you counter those those criticism now again another

00:28:05.000 great uh question brett you know um i i'll i'll begin with the explanation that good minds think alike

00:28:10.520 for example when i was just teaching uh a um a special forces group and when we approach

00:28:17.120 these um fantastic uh fighters and these hardened wars and heroes in my book the idea is to introduce

00:28:23.660 just a few tactics that they might uh use to augment what they do it's not to replace what they do

00:28:30.000 and that's respect from um you know from us towards their professionalism um because the fact is

00:28:35.840 there are only a few things out there you're not going to reinvent the wheel with combatives for example

00:28:39.140 a thumb gouge to the eye a uh a chop to the uh you know the carotid sheath uh uh a thrush to the

00:28:45.780 windpipe a kick to the groin that kind of thing but what counts is how you deliver them and the

00:28:52.120 method in which you deliver them and um i'm not in any way going to say that krav maga is the best

00:28:56.380 fighting system in the world obviously i'm biased towards it it's what we do um but when we talk

00:29:00.980 about fighting systems you have to um equate the time it takes to get proficient which is why krav maga

00:29:06.580 is so popular because you can ramp up in a very short order versus some of the more complicated

00:29:11.020 systems which are no doubt um very very formal fighting systems but they do take a long time to

00:29:15.940 master and uh equally important not everyone may be able to do it because remember with the krav maga

00:29:21.880 um training or the evolution of it um emi and the subsequent idf instructors had to be able to teach

00:29:28.360 18 year old recruits along with um men in their 50s who were doing the reserve duty which is uh not

00:29:34.760 as old today but it's the same thing so it's got to work for everybody it's got to work for people

00:29:38.340 who are large small athletic not athletic and firm even even people with disabilities in a wheelchair

00:29:44.420 and that's where krav maga sort of stands out um the one difference i will say and i'll go down on

00:29:50.340 a limb here is that our weapon defenses may be when i say may uh be some of the best in the world

00:29:55.280 because it was developed around modern weaponry for example our handgun disarms our long gun disarms

00:30:00.340 uh you know again it's not a time-honored system from several hundred years ago now trying to um

00:30:08.140 morph itself and to uh to change the way they do things to take away an ak-47 the ak-47 uh existed

00:30:15.800 and krav maga was developed in a way to take it away um but the system does change too you know for

00:30:21.180 example the the weaponry and the idf now they're using bullpup design submachine guns you don't have

00:30:26.040 a very long weapon so the krav maga the combatants with the weapon change as well in the tactics

00:30:30.680 um so to answer your question further on on comparing systems um that's sort of like discussing religion

00:30:37.020 and best not to sometimes uh but as i say i have respect for everything whatever uh if somebody has

00:30:43.520 a very strong background in most systems and they come to a krav maga training the instructor

00:30:47.920 the krav maga instructor has got to be good and legitimate in other words uh in my opinion having

00:30:52.360 trained with one of the top guys in israel on there really about three organizations there now

00:30:56.800 uh obviously the top in my opinion being grandmaster gidon um the point is that um you've got to be able

00:31:03.460 to handle um yourself uh in any situation multiple opponents uh and you got to be um proficient

00:31:11.720 everything from weapon defenses to ground survival to multiple opponents to uh being able to roll

00:31:16.620 uh and find what we call cover in an active shooter situation or if necessary take an active

00:31:21.980 shooter down pummel them take the weapon away and hopefully get some help well david let's say

00:31:26.560 someone's listening to this uh conversation these days i want to get started with krav maga i mean

00:31:30.860 what's the best way to get started best ways to take a look uh you know what are the local schools

00:31:35.580 around you um listener and try it out and see if it's a good fit um the the krav maga that we

00:31:41.860 specifically teach um it takes it takes a long time to develop instructors we really have to master

00:31:47.280 it per the uh original israeli krav maga association guidelines as i said you know some training is

00:31:52.860 going to be better than nothing um we do have some online training which is becoming increasingly

00:31:56.540 popular uh it's basically i've succeeded in getting 90 percent of the system online and it's about 42 hours

00:32:03.920 350 lessons worth but that is meant to augment you know in-person training and so um if people do

00:32:11.640 look at our training materials they will see differences in what we do versus many of the

00:32:16.860 krav maga splinter groups out there but i'm going to you know just compliment krav maga as a whole and

00:32:21.720 um you know people should go out and try it and i would suggest that if the organization or the

00:32:26.540 instructor is good at what they do uh two things will happen one they'll invite you in for a class

00:32:32.120 as a trial and they won't charge you and two they won't require you to sign a yearly contract

00:32:38.160 which my i myself would be averse to because you have to as an instructor believe that people are

00:32:43.740 going to want because they love what you're doing you're giving them something of great value and they

00:32:47.980 want to come back as opposed to being charged every month uh and having to feel they've got to go back

00:32:53.160 if that makes sense and david where can people learn more about your works for example your online

00:32:57.380 courses uh very kind of you brett uh the website is um www mastering krav maga.com so it's www

00:33:06.380 mastering krav maga.com all one word and um our videos are very popular on amazon uh that's the

00:33:12.880 best place to get them in fact uh the first video is actually amazon's choice which simply means that

00:33:17.720 amazon because of the 250 um rating uh ratings that have come in it's about a 4.85 out of 5

00:33:24.620 uh has designated it uh its choice for anything that's typed in krav maga um along with the five

00:33:30.060 books that are available uh so that much appreciated for the opportunity to explain where to get our

00:33:34.620 stuff well david this has been a great conversation thank you so much time it's been a pleasure thanks

00:33:38.740 so much and i i just encourage everybody to to be safe and um i really appreciate the interest in

00:33:43.940 uh israeli krav maga uh and lastly any any questions about it generally can be answered on our website

00:33:48.980 www israeli krav all one word.com so that's israeli krav.com my guest name is david khan he's an

00:33:55.300 instructor at the u.s israeli krav maga association the author of several books on krav maga including

00:34:00.040 krav maga defense's latest they're all available on amazon.com he's also got some dvds which i own

00:34:04.700 which are pretty cool you can also find out more information about the u.s israeli krav maga association

00:34:08.880 by going to israeli krav.com also make sure to check out our show notes at aom.is

00:34:15.080 slash krav maga where you can find links to resources where you can delve deeper into this topic

00:34:18.580 well that wraps up another edition of the art of manliness podcast for more manly tips and advice

00:34:30.080 make sure to check out the art of manliness website at artofmanliness.com if you enjoy this

00:34:34.020 show i'd appreciate if you give us a review on itunes or stitcher really helps that a lot

00:34:37.180 as always thank you for your support and until next time this is brett mckay telling you to stay

00:34:41.420 manly

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The Art of Manliness - February 10, 2017

#277： Krav Maga – The Self-Defense System of Israeli Special Forces

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