Krav Maga Passion

Krav Maga Passion

I began my Karate training years ago with passion. My sister in law talked me into seeing this new film, just out in theaters, " The Karate Kid " with some unknown actors. I saw the film, caught the bug.

I was in yeshiva at the time, rabbinical school, but I spent as much time as I could on my new passion. The rabbis thought some physical exercise was good for me so they went along with this.

In those days I spent many hours in a horse stance, cat stance, doing katas and all sorts of traditional stuff. It helped build a strong foundation. My mantra was "overcome the threshold of pain."

Soon my life and studies caused some personal migrations. I was in Los Angeles for a while, so I studied Ninjitsu with Shidoshi Frank Dux. Then I was in New York, the Big Apple, so I studied Kyokushin Karate with Saiko Shihan Shigeru Oyama.

I was working full time, and going to college earning my MBA, and studying in yeshiva and volunteering for a Zionist organization and serving as their national director. (Run on sentence, I know). So yeah, I was kind of busy. But passion; as the Torah says true passion cannot be extinguished even by great waters.

The lessons from that Karate Kid movie are still with me. Mr. Miyagi says to his new student Daniel San. "You can be on the right side of the street, OK, you can be on the left side of the street, OK. In the middle of the street – not OK, you get crushed like grape. You karate do – yes, OK. You karate no do, OK. You karate do so so, get crushed like grape. Understand?"

Well I understand. And that is why I get frustrated at times with students who do krav maga – so so. They will be crushed like a grape.

A younger Moshe Katz, bottom row, second from left; training in traditional Karate with Roni Kluger and Patrick McCarthy, Petach Tiqwa, Israel.

When I was a teenager my older brother Michael made an observation about my "special" personality. He said, "I joined the JDL, went to one meeting. You joined and became the leader of the group. I bought one album by KISS (famous rock band at the time); you bought the entire collection of 17 albums and saw them in concert and learned to play their songs on the guitar."

Yes, that's me, if I am going for something I go all the way, no stopping me. So when I train you in Krav Maga you can expect someone who will have high expectations from you. I am looking for passion, I am looking for results and I do not, I repeat, do not want to see you get crushed like grape!

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