Filing in the Gaps
BY MOSHE KATZ 
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL

November 29, 2025, Israel

Friday night after synagogue I was talking to a friend about faith. I was saying how faith is built about Tradition and personal Experience, and that I use the same approach in Krav Maga; you have what your teacher taught you, and then you have what you experienced yourself. When I test an advanced student for instructor status and I, playing the student, ask, "Teacher, why do we do it this way and not another way?", the answer, "Because Master Moshe said so", is not an acceptable answer. The answer must be, "I believe this to be the most effective solution in the world to this violent situation, and I will demonstrate and explain why." In other words, by this point it must become your technique, you started doing this technique because your teacher taught it this way, but you continue to do this technique and to teach it to others because you believe in it. It has become your technique. 

He agreed but added, "Sometimes, despite your faith, you will still find areas which are unknown, gaps, unanswered questions and dilemmas, but as my mother said, you learn to live with those gaps and hope that at some point in the future you figure them out and fill in the gaps."

I liked the concept, but here is the difference. When it comes to faith, that may be OK, you take it on faith and figure out the rest later, but with Krav Maga, with self-defense, we cannot allow any gaps, for a gap invites a violent enemy. 

But how can we manage that? In our style of Krav Maga we deal with every possible violent situation on this planet, we are global, worldwide, international. We deal with everything from Home Invasions to terrorist attacks, from the Zulu "Stitching" to the Slovakian "Gypsy stab". It takes years to cover all these situations!

And yet a student must be street ready as soon as possible. The answer is - Combat Krav Concepts.

We teach techniques, but more than that we teach underlying principles, the concepts of self-defense. The difference is that when you learn techniques you need 137 techniques for 137 different situations, but with our concepts you might need one concept, and just a couple of techniques to cover that entire gamut of violent situations. For example, we have only two gun defenses and those cover hundreds of situations. There are one or two exceptions here and there. The same applies to our knife defense and our ground defense. We learn a principle, a concept, we delve into it deeply, we understand it and then we can apply it. If you come across a situation that we never covered in class, you can still apply the principles and defend yourself, this has happened to our students many times. We then add those new situations to our curriculum. That is why our seminars are always new and interesting, there is, sadly, no end to violence. 

We learn concepts, we develop flexible techniques are easy to learn, easy to apply in diverse situations and easy to remember. You become street ready very quickly and yet there is always more to learn and improve. It is a life journey.

Moshe2021

Moshe Katz, 7th dan Black Belt, Israeli Krav Maga. Certified by Wingate Institute. Member Black Belt hall of fame, USA and Europe.

Understand the Israeli Fighting Mentality - Israel a Nation of Warriors by Moshe Katz

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What is the cultural background of Krav Maga?  What makes it unique? What makes the Israeli military so effective? Why are Israeli security systems used all over the world?

What are the Biblical origins of Krav Maga and who was the first Krav Maga instructor?

What weapons and military strategies did our Biblical ancestors use?

How has Krav Maga developed in Israel and what are its goals?

All that and more in this unique book.

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