Essential Mistakes Krav Maga
By Moshe Katz
CEO 
Israeli Krav International

May 3, 2025, Israel

I was not sure how to name this blog. I wanted to say there is a need to incorporate mistakes into our self-defense training, but how should I put this: Mistakes that are essential in your training? Essential mistakes that you must take into account? Mistakes happen, how to get around that? or, How to train with the understanding that mistakes WILL happen and cannot be avoid?

Hopefully you get the idea of what I am aiming at. If you got this far it means that title was enough to grab your attention for a minute, please keep reading as this is important. 

I have often repeated the story my brother told me about the job interviews at his Hi-tech company. An applicant is asked to describe a mistake he made at a previous place of employment and how he handled it, how he salvaged the situation once he realized that he messed up, how he coped with having to face up and admit that he messed up big time. In truth it was a trick question; if someone answered, "Well, Sir, I am at outstanding person and I have never made any such mistakes". That would be a red sign that this person is not to be hired, "Well, young man, you see everyone makes a big mistake sooner or later, and I certainly would not want your first big blunder to be at our expense. We prefer someone who has already had experience, real-time, coping with a major mishap."

This blog was sparked by a comment made by a top Israeli military expert. We are still demanding answers: What led to the massive screw up, intelligence failure of October 7? How did our brilliant world-class experts not see this coming, after all we know we are surrounded by blood thirsty savages who dream of destruction, they were allied to the Nazis, but these days have exceeded them in brutality. The people demand answers, and now private groups are conducting thorough investigations. In addition, we are analyzing mistakes, key strategic mistakes that have taken place since October 7, 2023, mistakes that have cost us many lives. 

Now there were mistakes that were made because of political calculations. Sadly, one cannot separate war from politics. If we wish to receive ammunition and spare parts from certain allies, we need to keep them happy, this means we are not really fully independent, and difficult choices must be made, or put off. 

It is easy to criticize from the outside, to ignore the political challenges, most leaders do not have the courage to say - I will do what I know and believe to be right, and I will not worry about what anyone else thinks. Most leaders are like street cats, before taking a bite of the food they have just found they look all around to make sure they are not being watched, to make sure there are no predators who will attack them while they are enjoying their meal. This is reality. 

Another reality is that no matter what you do, you will upset some people. If you found the cure to the common cold, you will destroy an entire industry. There was a fabulous British comedy called, "Yes, Mr. Minister" that mocked this entire system. Whenever the well-meaning minister tried to so anything, anything at all, he was surrounded by "influencers" who explained to him what damage would be done by his activities. I.e. corrupt politicians stopped a well-intentioned leader from getting anything accomplished. Often truth is found in comedy. 

And yet, putting aside the ideological misconceptions, the political calculations, and the stifiling international environment that does not want to see us ever win, there were still many mistakes that must be addressed. 

Idealism often overlooks Reality.

In one of the interviews with a top military expert, I heard the following admission, yes, we committed mistakes, there is no such thing as a war without mistakes, whoever thinks you can fight a war without making mistakes is living in LaLa Land. And this brings me to the point of this blog.

Most martial arts ignore this truth, "whoever thinks you can fight a war without making mistakes is living in LaLa Land". They train as if it is a paint-by-numbers coloring book, everything is expected to run smoothly. Step one will be followed by step two and so forth, there is no expectation that this perfect step-by-step defense will be interrupted by the opponent, by unforeseen resistance, by unforeseen strength, by unforeseen obstacles. They are living in LaLa Land. 

It is not a question of if mistakes will happen, but only of when. There will come that moment when the crap hits the fan and you have a huge stinky mess on your hands, and that is the reality of self-defense. And that is now we train.

There is none of this nonsense of - I will hit here, and he will react this way, and then I follow with a..etc.. We make plans, we have a strategy, but we must train with the expectation that often things will not go according to plan. Not only can we expect to encounter the unexpected but under stress, pressure, anxiety of a real attack, we will make mistake, no matter how much we trained. There is so thing as the common mantra "train to the point that you cannot make a mistake." I disagree with that. 

I believe that self-defense must include the knowledge that we will make mistakes, we will encounter the unexpected, we will have to think on our feet. In Israel our leaders made some mistakes, it cost us dearly, we must learn from this, on a national level and on a personal level. I repeat again those words, "Whoever thinks you can fight a war without making mistakes is living in LaLa Land", and therefore we must train to respond quickly, to think on our feet, to cope with mistakes, to thrive in Chaos. 

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