Stop the muggings, learn krav maga!

[richyfingers]

Since I’ve joined here I have noticed that there has been a fair number of mugging/people getting kicking threads, this sort of thing really gets me going, it happened to me when I was younger but luckily I didn’t have anything of value on me at the time.

Many of my friends have also suffered from random acts of violence, one was stabbed and one was hit with a hammer, both totally unprovoked. After my mate got stabbed I thought it was time to do something about it. I read an article in the news paper about a self defence system called Krav Maga.

It’s a practical and effective form of defence that works on the principles of your existing reactions to certain situations, i.e. someone throws a punch at you, generally you throw your arms up to protect yourself, Kav Maga builds upon this and shows you how to counter attack and deck your opponents by any means possible, its not pretty, it involves eye gouging, head buts, kicks/knees in the groin, basically anything goes. It originates from Israel and has been adopted by many armies and security forces due to its effective and easy to learn nature.

I’m halfway through my second course of this and I know I could defend myself and kick the carp out of anyone that tried to mug or pick a fight with me (it’s happened). Even doing a single course or the odd lesson now and then will give you basic techniques allowing you to effectively defend yourself. It’s a quick easy system to learn and it’s a good cardio workout too, I really would recommend it to anyone that was thinking about learning some sort of martial art or defence system.

Sorry for the longish post, got a bit carried away. You can read more about it by following the links below.

http://www.krav-maga.org.uk/
http://www.kravmagascotland.co.uk/Krav-Maga-Scotland.aspx

 

[richyfingers]

It will be useful when you have to protect yourself in prison...because thats where you are going if you use it on the street...

Its a military doctrine and should be used as such...if some bloke goes to punch you and you gouge his eyes out and crush his throat, youre going to prison...

You respond to threats with the appropriate action, I’m not going to gouge someone’s eyes out because they tried to punch me, on the other hand if someone is trying to stab me and I’m fighting for my life then I am going to do whatever is necessary to get out of that satiation, be it run away to seriously harm them.

Don’t mistake me for an idiot please Balddog, and as for being a military doctrine it can be just as easily applicable to civilian’s especially with the increase of stabbings and gun attacks.

 

[richyfingers]

Yes AJUK it is geared towards real life situations, you don’t learn katas or any other such nonsense which is going to be useless in street fight. I can personally vouch for the use of krav maga in a fight as I have actually been in a situation like that since learning it. The techniques are simple to learn and easily picked up.

Learn some western boxing - for punching techniques
learn some muay thai - for conditioning
learn some judo for ground work

learn to spot trouble before it happens and remove yourself from the threat before it even becomes one

learn to run like linford.

Fair enough but think about the time and effort not to mention cost of learning each of these disciplines, krav maga has it all rolled into one. Also when punching someone your just as likely to break your own fingers and knuckles as you are breaking their jaw, krav maga teaches you to strike with palms, elbows, forearms and so on.

 

[richyfingers]

Depends on the severity of the attack and how many people attacked me. If the guy came at me with a knife then I would make sure he wasn’t getting up anytime soon and the knife no longer available to him. If it’s just a “normal” attack then once they were down I would make a sharp exit.

Where possible I would try to avoid any situation like this, I would rather run away, I will defend myself as a last resort. If you can run away then do it.

 

[richyfingers]

That's true to an extent but as long as it's not ultra-violence in retaliation I am sure you can quite easily self defend yourself. To say that you'd go to jail a la the whole Tony Martin thing is just media scare mongering in my opinion.

I don't usually participate in these threads as it brings out a whole macho image which is usually thuggery hidden behind a self-defence front but this looks like quite a good system, especially as it's designed by the Israelis...they sure don't **** around!

I’m with you on that one Che, I didn’t start doing this for bragging or macho rights. I just wanted to learn how to defend myself properly. I don’t go around starting fights or anything like that and will avoid confrontations wherever possible.

 

[richyfingers]

time is irrelevant

you can learn a lot by books and instructional dvds. seem to recall one of the top UFC fighters is self taught. it's all about motivation.

Your trying to tell me that you can learn more by reading a book and practicing the techniques yourself as opposed to being taught by a qualified instructor along with a group of people? This I very much doubt. I'm sure its possible but not for me.

Yes Zip anyone can learn it, infact there is a woman who does one of the basic classes who must be at least 60 years old.

 

[richyfingers]

The whole premise of krav maga is to train your body to react without thinking...The idea is that you respond with what will render that person harmless in the quickest time...You dont get to choose an appropriate response.

Perhaps your trainer is doing things differently, but if its the real thing and not some get rich scheme then its supposed to be devastating..You get attacked, you put them down...for good. You keep hitting until they cant get up to hit you back. You do whatever it takes to make sure they are no threat to you ever again..Thats how the Israelis teach it :dunno:

I don’t think it’s really fair to make these comments unless you have participated in the training programs. And no it is not a get rich quick scheme it is all done through the official krav maga association, in fact the chief and highest ranked instructor in the world, Eyal Yanilov is coming to the UK to do some basic sessions, one in London and one in Glasgow, £25 for 4 hours if I remember correctly. It will cover the basics and give you and idea how it has been adapted for civilian use.

 

[richyfingers]

Your clearly dont know what Krav Maga is really about. Look into the system some more, read the literature...Ive never done it myself but ive been involved with someone who taught it over in Israel....

You train your body to react immediately and instinctively...Its not a thinking mans martial art.

It's not a martial art....it's a defence system

 

[richyfingers]

If it's as good as you reckon, I might learn it & start mugging

Now that IS an idea..

/goes off to mug some folk