Krav Maga. Gershon Ben Keren
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Krav Maga teaches a “survival” mindset of never giving up, however insurmountable the odds against you may seem. In the IDF, the system has one goal: To get a new recruit combat-ready, both emotionally and physically, in the shortest possible time.
Krav Maga is constantly evolving, simplifying, and improving techniques, developing and evolving new ones, and making others redundant and obsolete. This makes it the most up to date and relevant system of self-defense available.
Based on systematic concepts and principles, Krav Maga teaches the practitioner how to think, understand, and assess a situation dynamically, and to choose existing techniques to deal with a problem, or create “new” solutions as necessary. It is not just about learning and memorizing techniques, but empowering the individual to act as the situation dictates. This makes Krav Maga a realistic system of self-defense that can be used by civilians, law enforcement officials, and military personnel to deal with any potential threat, attack, or violent situation in which they may find themselves.
Krav Maga Yashir
Krav Maga is an umbrella term that is used to refer to a variety of fighting systems that adhere to the concepts and principles first laid out by Imi Lichtenfeld in the 1940s. Krav Maga systems are not so much defined by their techniques (as different units within the IDF may have different responsibilities and remits) as by the principles upon which these techniques are founded. This means that while different Krav Maga systems may share similar techniques, they may also include significantly different ones—and also teach different solutions to the same situation, depending on various situational factors.
Krav Maga Yashir (Yashir meaning “direct” or “straight” in Hebrew) is a system of fighting and self-defense based on the blueprint that Imi Lichtenfeld first laid down in the 1930s and 1940s. It operates according to the five basic principles that are shared by all Krav Maga systems:
• Attack should be as close to defense as possible.
• Make yourself safe before attacking.
• Movements should be instinctive and reflexive.
• Attacks should focus on vulnerable target areas, e.g., eyes, throat, groin, etc.
• Use the environment to assist in your defense/attack.
These common Krav Maga principles are the foundation of certain distinct concepts that are used within the Krav Maga Yashir system (and that will be referred back to and elaborated throughout the book):
• Action is Preferable to Reaction
• Disrupt, Damage, Destroy, and Disengage
• Every Defense is an Attack
• Control the Environment, not the Individual
• Assume the Assailant is Armed, Assisted, and Able
Action is always preferable to reaction—it is always preferable to be the assailant rather than the victim. If violence is inevitable, then it is better to be the person initiating the assault rather than receiving it (when first hit, most people will crumble emotionally—you want this to be your assailant rather than yourself). If you miss, or are denied, the opportunity to make a preemptive assault, and are therefore assaulted, your first step must be to disrupt your assailant’s initial attack, preventing them the opportunity to follow it up. You must next look to inflict damage on them before destroying them and/or disengaging. No movement you make should ever be seen as purely defensive. If you have to block an assailant’s strike, your block should be looked on as an offensive response that can cause pain or damage to your attacker. This could act as a disruption to their attack, giving you the opening to launch your own damaging strikes—attack should be as close to defense as possible.
Aggressive and violent confrontations don’t happen in a vacuum, they happen in an environment that has objects in it that you can use, both as weapons and as barriers. The environment will also contain objects that can be used against you, and possibly other individuals that can cause you harm. A fight is not just about you and the individual you face, but about everything else within the environment. At the same time, you should never underestimate the primary assailant you face, and should assume that they are both armed and able to deal with you.
The Krav Maga Yashir system takes this situational approach to dealing with violence and trains it accordingly, putting attacks and threats into their appropriate contexts and altering situational components—such as location, assailant motive, relationship with the assailant, etc.—to demonstrate how these components can alter the solutions you choose to use. This book will describe and demonstrate Krav Maga techniques within this context, not just showing how a particular technique should be performed, but also how the attack or assault developed and was carried out, and which non-physical solutions could have been put in place to avoid having been targeted in the first place.
The book is organized into three parts. The first looks at the basic fighting skills you need to develop in order to survive a violent confrontation (how to move, position yourself, block and strike, etc.); the second part describes various armed and unarmed assaults and the situations in which they occur; while the third part looks at some of the dynamic factors that can occur within a fight, such as being caught in a headlock, ending up in a clinch, etc., and how to deal with this.
Gershon Ben Keren
The Krav Maga Yashir system was developed by Gershon Ben Keren, a Krav Maga instructor who has spent the past 20 years training with a variety of Krav Maga and military trainers in Israel, and in 2010 was inducted into the Museum of the History of Martial Arts in Israel by Dr. Dennis Hanover (founder of Dennis Hisardut). He also holds a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Kodokan Judo, and a 1st Degree Black Belt in Kosen Judo. Gershon Ben Keren has an academic background in Psychology, with particular regard to aggression and violence. He combines this with his experiences in the security industry to present Krav Maga in a contextualized way, rather than by simply demonstrating/explaining physical techniques. The system referred to in this book is the product of Ben Keren’s training and reflects the different approaches that various IDF instructors have taken in teaching Krav Maga. The strength of the Krav Maga Yashir system is that it is influenced by the experiences and teachings of several different senior IDF instructors and trainers, and builds on their combined experiences and approaches, rather than simply reflecting the ideas and methods of one.
The system looks to stay true to the principles, concepts, and ideas first laid down by Imi Lichtenfeld, while at the same time looking to incorporate the teaching and training methods of more traditional martial arts. Krav Maga Yashir is also influenced by modern security training protocols, advocated by various military, law enforcement and private security agencies.
PART 1
Basic Skills (Stances, Movement, Blocking, and Striking)
Stances and Movement
A street fight is not a fight, it is an assault. Nobody who attacks you actually wants to fight; they merely want a victim that they can physically punish, rape, or steal from. A “fight” would imply that an aggressor wants to give you the opportunity to participate and “fight back”—but no aggressor wants to be met with resistance. This is the reality of violence. This is why real world violence differs so markedly from combat sports and sparring, which are voluntary (and controlled) acts of violence, in which both participants willingly agree to engage. Real life violence is something that is forced upon you, not something you consent to—usually in locations and situations which are designed to inhibit your movement and ability to disengage and which are advantageous to your assailant.
The only time that you will have the opportunity to adopt a stance is when you have picked up on any available pre-violence indicators in the situation, such as a person moving towards you in a purposeful and aggressive manner, or someone becoming verbally abusive towards you. You will be able to adopt an Interview Stance, for example, in the Pre-Conflict phase of violence (see below).
The Timeline of Violence
All violence happens along a timeline and can be broken down into five distinct