Krav in the News

The Good Fight by Lee Smith

Krav Maga, and why the martial-arts world loves Israel

Krav Maga training in Philadelphia.

Most U.S. media outlets have carefully considered positions on Israel. But the martial-arts press—everything from magazines like BlackBelt, the bible of martial arts, to the producers of books, videos and and even two recent TV programs, The Human Weapon and Fight Quest—have a straightforward stance: they’re staunchly pro-Israel. That’s not to say they’re anti-Arab or anti-Muslim, but they’re not at all conflicted about the skills, competence, and integrity of Israel’s fighting men and women. The Israeli commando is regarded as the martial ideal.

Krav Maga, the Israeli martial-arts form, is what impresses the observers. It was the brainchild of Imi Lichtenfield, a boxer and wrestler in his native Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, who in the 1930s taught self-defense to that city’s Jewish population, under siege by local fascist gangs. When Lichtenfield moved to Israel in 1942, he worked with the Haganah and Palmach and later the IDF ( Israel Defense Forces ) to develop a self-defense system that borrowed from other systems, like the Japanese arts judo and karate.

Where most martial arts take years of training to become proficient, Krav Maga, which translates as contact combat, was suited to the exigencies of a growing community of non-professional soldiers that needed to learn how to protect itself and fight in a hurry. Its emphasis is less on form than efficiency, and it instills a spirit of heightened aggressiveness, where practitioners are taught to attack and defend at the same time and use any available object as a weapon.

Krav Maga made its first U.S. appearance in the early 1980s, when a number of Israeli trainers arrived to instruct military and law enforcement personnel, including the FBI, and civilians. Krav Maga wended its way through mainstream American culture, featured on nightly news broadcasts and talk-shows, and interest culminated with a 2002 film, Enough, starring Jennifer Lopez, in which her character, after an intensive course in Krav Maga, throttles her abusive husband with a series of well-placed knees, elbows, and eye-gouges.

Hardcore martial artists have remained smitten with Israeli martial arts and Israeli culture. “Israelis are a different type of people, tough as nails,” says Doug Anderson, co-host of the 13-part martial arts odyssey Fight Quest . “They’ve witnessed serious violence. And while it hardens people and makes them tough, it also makes them more jubilant, and willing to live for the moment.”

As an example, Anderson cites the trainer he worked with on the show’s Israel episode, an Israeli woman, Avivit Cohen, with more than 20 years of martial arts experience who while explaining a technique delivered an unexpected elbow to Anderson’s face. The lesson: Be ready. “She was just a savage,” says Anderson. “A bulldog who would beat anyone—and also total sweetheart. After throwing sand in my face all day, she’d come up to me and say, ‘How are you, Doug? Can I cook you some food, do you need your laundry done?’ I think this is a side effect of the way they live there. You have to be willing to change your mentality on a dime.”

Anderson, an Iraq war veteran, suggests that many members of the U.S. military admire the Israeli fighting style for similar reasons. “Our guys respect Israeli martial arts and its military,” he says. “They both have a reputation for effectiveness. Our military is huge, so it’s not surprising they can push people around. But these guys, it’s like a 120-pound guy walking into a bar and taking everyone on.”

Americans aren’t the only ones who’ve come to admire Israeli society through their experience with Israeli combat techniques, says one Israeli trainer. “I was training German military in Munich,” he says. “And then someone asked me to come out to teach a gym in Dachau. I could see the towers of Dachau from Nazi days, and in the gym the German guys are wearing our black Krav t-shirts with a yellow Star of David. They’re proud to wear it. Sixty years ago they wanted to kill us, and now they respect us.”

Israeli martial arts is not a self-defense technique; it’s a combat art. “Israeli arts are reality-based,” says Dana Stamos, a martial artist who runs USADOJO.com, a major martial-arts website. “Israelis are fighting every day,” she says. “So people think this will be up to snuff, like Navy Seal training. We don’t have combat in the United States, so we don’t comprehend it. Many dojos today are about developing character, not training you how to stick a knife in someone and kill them. But a combat art is a killing art.

”Anderson agrees. “There’s a real difference in intensity,” he says. “Most martial arts is for pride or sport, but this is life or death. If I don’t get this right, it’ll be my death.”

Police Learn Israeli Defense Tactics

Daily New, Effingham, Illinois,

Police officers occasionally find it necessary to defend themselves against aggressive suspects. Thursday a group of officers from varoius agencies learned how Israeli police stay safe in potentially lethal situations.

Moshe Katz of Maaleh Adumim, Israel, conducted a pair of training workshops in the Israeli self defense skill of Krav Maga at National Guard armory in Effingham. Katz, head instructor at Israeli Krav International, is a fourth degree black belt.

Sheriff John Monnet in Krav Maga Class

"Krav Maga" is the Hebrew term for close quarter combat, something anybody who watches police reality shows sees on a semi-regular basis.

Katz said the defense form is easy to learn and effective.

"It's very simple," Katz said, "People can pick up certain techniques in as little as 30 seconds."

He said Krav Maga is so easy to learn because it involves more gross motor skills than other forms of self defense. He added there's some versatility involved, as well. "It can be applied to different situations," he said.

Krav Maga is particularly useful in close quarters that render other martial art forms useless.

"The sad and cruel truth is that you can be attacked anywhere," Katz said. "You can be attacked on the stairway, which completely eliminates all your fancy kicking techniques.

"You can be attacked in the snow by a guy wearing a heavy snow suit, which completely eliminates your Jujitsu wrist locks. None of this will be at all similar to the training you did at your karate or judo school."

Krav Maga training focuseson realistic situations that police coudl fact at any time, Katz said. Effingham County Sheriff John Monnet said the art can help deputies face down sticky situations.

"We come fact-to-face with many altercations," Monnet said, "We need this kind of training all the time."

The Effingham County Sheriff's Department and the East Central Illinois Law Enforcement Training Team sponsored Thursday's training session. But the Sheriff said he plans to continue the training within his department.

"If we didn't continue to practice, it won't do us any good," he said.

Illinois state trooper Chad Smith, a control and arrest tactics instructor, said attending Thursday's workshop will enable him and other instructors to provide more varied techniques to their students.

This enhances our hand-to-hand combat skills and gives us more things to learn." Smith said.

Virginia Commonwealth Times

'Krav Maga Israeli black belt packs a punch with students

Media Credit: Cynthia K. Merchant Personnel in various government agencies have received training in Krav Maga, including the FBI; the Marine Corps; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Treasury Department; and the CIA. Police departments in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas also have utilized Krav Maga techniques.

Sweating bodies slammed into the carpet. Amid shouts and grunts, a panting man fought to escape a chokehold. With wide eyes and a broad smile, a woman pulled a knife to her friend's throat.

It was all in the name of self-defense.

Israeli fourth-degree black belt Moshe Katz taught "Krav Maga," a mix of different martial arts techniques, to a class of 48 students on Sunday afternoon. Working in the University Student Commons, Katz imparted the wisdom of practical self-defense he normally shares with Israeli special forces and police officers.

Using simple techniques complemented by hitting pressure points, clawing faces or kicking groins, Katz emphasized that Krav Maga is about simple self-defense moves that work.

"With Israelis, it is, 'If it doesn't work for me in the next five minutes, give me my money back. I am getting the hell out of here,'" Katz said. "Literally that is how it works. When I teach security guards, not one of them will comply. They will resist. You have to prove it to them every time and show them that it works.

"It has to be easy to learn, easy to apply and easy to remember," he said.

Numerous moves Katz taught had names he made up to better remember them. The "Barber Shop" means stepping on the back of someone's calf, forcing the person to squat down. With a fake gun pointed at the back of his head, Katz advised using the "Dreidel Move," in which he put his hands up and then suddenly spun around, knocking the attacker's arm and gun away with one of his arms.

"I Dream of Jeannie" describes what to do when an attacker grabs one's shirt. The victim is supposed to lay his or her arms over the attacker's hands and push them down to force the attacker to release.

The "Twist and Shout" refers to what Katz recommended doing when bear hugged from behind: hit the attacker where it hurts.

"I grab, twist," he said about the genitals. "He shouts."

Slovakian boxer Imi Lichtenfeld first developed Krav Maga, which loosely translates from Hebrew to "close combat," in the 1930s to help Jewish people in his country defend themselves during anti-Semitic riots. Finding that boxing moves did not help in real fights, he pooled ideas from various styles of martial arts and self-defense. After fleeing to Israel in 1940, Lichtenfeld began teaching the hand-to-hand combat of Krav Maga to those in the Haganah, the Israeli underground army.

"Whatever worked stayed; whatever did not work did not stay," Katz said. "Krav Maga has always been evolving. There is no loyalty to tradition. If it does not work effectively now, drop it."

Katz taught last spring a similar Krav Maga class at VCU, only this one included storytelling, including the story of David and Goliath.

Noting El Al Israel Airline's perfect record against hijacking, Katz told of two suspicious passengers on a flight in 1970. After being profiled and kicked off the plane, the two boarded Pan Am Flight 93 and promptly hijacked it. Katz said El Al stays safe because it dares to discriminate, a technique necessary for effective self-defense.

"It is not politically correct," Katz said. "In Israel we profile, we discriminate, because we have to."

After sharing anecdotes, Katz taught the class "yad-mul-yad," or "hand against hand." In a situation where a stranger grabs a person's arm, the move requires quickly twisting the arm and pulling it free.

"It is a common technique we work on, because often in Israel somebody will grab a hitchhiker and pull him into his car," Katz said after the class finished. "There have been incidents of people being captured, taken to villages, tortured for days and then killed."

As a result of the unexpected nature of many street attacks, Katz said self-defense techniques must be able to work in the worst possible conditions, noting that Krav Maga is often taught to police officers and soldiers.

"Israeli martial arts is trained in a way that is based on fatigue," Katz said. "You have to be able to fight when you are wearing heavy equipment, when you are exhausted beyond belief, when you are bleeding and so forth."

Katz said he recently spoke to a former student, now training to be in the Israeli army.

"He said they stand in a room where they are attacked by 30 guys, and then they do it again and again and again," Katz said. "You are doing it when you are half asleep, when your eyes are covered in blood. That is effective self-defense. If it can only work when you are well rested and you have a complying partner, it is useless."

While such examples of the need for self-defense may seem extreme, Katz noted numerous examples of the need for protection in everyday life.

"One out of every four women that go to college will be sexually assaulted at some point," he said. "One student in New York told me she was held at gunpoint twice and knife once. That was pretty scary."

Although Katz normally teaches self-defense classes to police officers and citizens in Israel, he has toured colleges across the United States over the past year and a half.

After visiting New York University and VCU as part of a 17-day U.S. trip, he will teach similar courses at Florida State University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others, he said.

Sophomore mass communications major Patrick Kraft said using fake orange guns and plastic knives for demonstration was his favorite part of the event.

"A lot of kids get in fights and get in chokeholds but (being held at gunpoint) never happens, so it's nice to practice just in case. I mean, it is Richmond. You never know what's going to happen," Kraft said.

Fellow Krav Maga attendee and junior social work major Abigail Sedaghatfar said she felt the same way.

"Richmond can be a dangerous area," said Sedaghatfar, adding that she worries sometimes about her safety while walking in Oregon Hill, where she volunteers at William Byrd Community House.

Sedaghatfar said yad-mul-yad was especially effective, and she will probably remember it better than other moves.

"It is good to know just in case you get yourself in a bad situation," she said.

Although he said he thought the class was interesting, freshman music major Jordan Rothenberg said he did not feel a need for self-defense in the real world.

"I don't get attacked on a regular basis, so I think I'll be fine," he said.

Since Katz began teaching self-defense classes, he has heard from two former Israeli students who were attacked. One person was grabbed by a stranger and another nearly raped, but both evaded the threats by utilizing Katz's techniques.

"Krav Maga has always been evolving. There is no loyalty to tradition. If it does not work effectively now, drop it." -Moshe Katz

Craig Hoovler, a second-year masters student in biomedical engineering, organized the event with Hillel @ VCU, with Hasbara Fellowships cosponsoring it.

Although the event was sponsored by Jewish groups, Hoovler noted the mostly non-Jewish crowd that attended.

"There are only about 10 Jewish kids here," Hoovler said. "The majority of those showing up to these events are non-Jews who want to become more educated about Israeli culture."

Arizona Krav Maga Featured in Martial Art Magazine

An Israeli Krav International school, owned and operated by Tim Hillis, was asked to be featured in Martial Arts Experts Magazine - a product of In-Tys Media Group. This magazine is reported to be the leader in it's industry for Canada.

Mr. Hillis was very happy to give the world a new look at Krav Maga as taught by Israeli Krav International (IKI). The evolution Krav Maga has taken under founder Moshe Katz and President Itay Gil is exploding as people recognize the tactical soundness of not only the techniques, but the bio-mechanical science behind them (a phrase first coined by IKI president Itay Gil).

With the combined experieince training Sayeret Duvdevan, YAMAM, the Israeli Presedential Security staff, the Israeli Prison Service, elite security personnel working throughout old city Jerusalem and et cetera Moshe Katz and Itay Gil have developed a Krav Maga for the 21st century. Taking into consideration collateral damage, ease of use against skilled opponenets and while under extreme stress, IKI Krav Maga can and does work for any body-type against a myriad of threats not before considered in most Krav Maga programs.

What if a person finds themselves in an airliner and needing to disarm an gun wielding attacker? Using the older methods, every person opposite the dead side of the weapon will be muzzled by the gun. Not so with IKI Krav Maga, the gun is immediately redirected downward - NO ONE gets muzzled except the bad guy as you complete the bio-mechanically correct disarm.

Cottonwood Combat is authorized and available for affordable seminars to : Martial Arts Schools, Law Enforcement Agencies, Military Installations and etc.

Cottonwood Combat is the Verde Valley's ONLY source for Krav Maga, the Official System of Self Defense for the Israel Defense Force. Our Chief Instructor has nearly 10 years experience teaching Israeli Self Defense systems. Cottonwood Combat is an affilate of Israeli Krav International founded by Moshe Katz and headquartered in Maaleh Adumim, Israel. Itay Gil (from the Human Weapon episode on Krav Maga) is the President of IKI. See our KM Video page to watch the Human Weapon for Free!

Cottowood Combat - Martial Arts Experts

Military Krav Maga

An Introduction to Israeli Martial Arts

Rory Michelle Sullivan, Class of 09, Harvard

Along with funny sports metaphors and quips about the Boston Red Sox (“I love teaching workshops in America, because everyone gets my baseball references here!”), Moshe taught a small group of Harvard undergraduates — some who self-described themselves as “living in Hillel” and some who had never stepped inside the building before — the basic Krav Maga techniques. Moshe gave individual pointers as participants learned to jump out of the way of danger while using their bodies as leverage to force themselves out of an attacker’s grip.

Moshe taught us the art of twisting out of a hold, rather than pulling out. It worked miraculously! Even our football player friends from Quincy house, Ablorde Ashigbi and Gino Gordon, were amazed at how easily Molly Moses, one of our more delicate participants, slipped out of their strong grasps using the techniques Moshe described! Given Krav Maga’s highly effective and time-efficient training method, it is no small wonder that these Israeli techniques are taught to police, security teams, and military — including the United States military.

Harvard Hillel is extremely lucky that Moshe Katz made a special effort to share these techniques with us in Beren Hall last February. We are equally lucky that The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership generously supported Moshe’s workshop. The David Project (see www.davidproject.org) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and inspiring strong voices for Israel through dynamic educational seminars, workshops, and curricula. Harvard Hillel hopes to have Moshe’s effective, entertaining, and extremely useful workshop return in future years.

Defending Yourself - The Southern

For the requirements of his belt, Katz would have to learn judo and jujitsu. Gil also introduced his student to another form of combat, Krav Maga.

"I almost came into it almost accidentally," Katz said.

Although he was intially interested in the sporting aspects of his training, the more he studied Krav Maga the more he felt it was "the real thing."

"If you're in a self-defense situation, God forbid, you're not going to wrestle the guy for half an hour," Katz said. "You're not going stand up and box with him or kick box with him. It's all over in a few seconds."

Katz brings his 20 years of experience in the martial arts, including karate, kung fu, Muay thai, judo, jujitsu, ground fighting and Krav Maga, as well as his time with the Israeli Defense Forces, to Southern Illinois next weekend. Katz will present a seminar on Krav Maga at Black's Martial Arts Academy in Carbondale.

This particular form of self-defense is a reasonably new art. In Hebrew, Krav Maga means close quarters combat. It's a series of techniques taken from many different forms of combat stripped down to the bare essentials.

"It's not like judo or traditional Japanese karate with rules and regulations; it's an evolving system" Katz said. "If a technique doesn't work in reality, doesn't work on the street or in the army, it's analyzed and modified to make it work."

The origins of Krav Maga trace back to the 1930s when Jewish communities were under persecution in Eastern Europe. Its philosophies of combat continued to be observed in the training of Israeli forces when the country was formed in the 1940s, after World War II, and was characterized by an aggressive mindset as opposed to a defensive one.

"Every martial art is affected by the culture in which it was developed," Katz said.

The practical nature of Krav Maga techniques is one of the reasons it's being taught in America for self-defense, especially for women. Actresses Jennifer Lopez, Angelina Jolie and Hillary Swank have all trained in the art for film roles in which they have fight scenes.

"What we've done is chipped away and gotten rid of anything that's not the most brutally effective," Katz said. "When they train people in Krav Maga in the army, the number of techniques is so minmal, what they work on is aggressiveness, motor skills; they do it to do it when you're dead tired if it doesn't work then, what use is it?"

The effectiveness and ease in which the techniques are taught gave Master Thomas Black of Black Martial Arts a reason to bring Katz in for the seminar.

"It's an important art, especially in self-defense for women, young people and senior citizens, as well," Black said. "It's quick, it's easy to do."

brent.stewart@thesouthern.com / 351-5074

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