Why Krav Maga?

People often ask, “Why Krav Maga?” Krav Maga offers the most practical answers to the most questions. I never speak poorly of any traditional martial arts, but what I will admit is that, for most, they’re impractical. Deep stances and low-chambered punches don’t cut it in the street. So, what does Krav Maga do differently?

Krav Maga, firstly, operates off of principals, rather than techniques. I am not saying that Krav Maga lacks techniques, because there needs to be a technique to teach students. However, when technique breaks down under stress and fatigue, it is the principal that saves you. The principals guide the techniques, and they are identifiable in each technique. So, what are these principals?

1. Identify The Immediate Threat
2. Remove The Immediate Threat
3. Deliver A Simultaneous Counter Attack (or as close to as possible)
4. Continue To Attack As Necessary
5. Disengage To The Next Target Or To Safety

Identify The Immediate Threat – When you’re faced with real-world attacks, you’re often faced with multiple attackers, and it can be both scary and difficult to decide which threat to handle first. A rough example would be this: Imagine you’re stuck between two attackers, 3 meters apart from you on both sides. One has a baton, and the other has a knife. Which should you address first. Krav Maga’s problem solving principals teach you to attack the person with the stick, so that you can disarm and use the stick’s reach against the person with the knife, making it difficult for the knife attacker to reach you.

Remove The Immediate Threat – The perfect example for this principal is the standard strangulation front choke. Once you’ve identified the Immediate Threat as their thumbs crushing your trachea, removing the immediate threat becomes hooking your hands over their thumbs, elbows high, and plucking their hands backward.

Deliver A Simultaneous Counter Attack (or as close to as possible) – A simultaneous counter attack, following the last example, would be the kick to the groin at the same time you pluck the hands from your throat. As an example of an “as close to as possible” counter attack, we can look at Gun Threat from the Front. If a gun is pointed at your face, and you’ve redirected the weapon, your counter attack follows immediately after, but not simultaneously.

Continue To Attack As Necessary – This is a simple principal to follow. Once you have initially defended yourself from your attacker, you simply need to continue attacking until you have either incapacitated your attacker or stopped the conflict.

Disengage To The Next Target Or To Safety – Once you have resolved the conflict, disengaging is the most important thing to do. Disengaging to the next target is for the situation that you are confronted with multiple attackers, because running away from an aggravated attacker can become your downfall – what if they can outrun you or have a weapon on them. Disengaging to safety means finding the closest and safest exit. This ultimately comes down to situational awareness before, during, and after a conflict.
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At FearLess Nation, all of our programs follow these basic principals; they are fundamental to realistic Self Defense. If you find yourself in a compromising situation that you don’t know a technique for, follow these principals, and you just may find yourself with the ability to save your life!