IKI Krav Maga Techniques
By Moshe Katz
CEO 
Israeli Krav International

October 24, 2025, Israel

Our goal with IKI Krav Maga is to create and teach an attitude, an approach and a set of concepts and principles that will get you, the average person, home alive. That is it. When I say the "Average Person", I mean you. Unless you a Mozart or an Einstein or J. Robert Oppenheimer, you are average, sorry if am shattering any illusions. You may be athletic, you may be gifted, you may be slightly above average in certain areas, but the vast majority of human beings throughout history fall into the category of average, present company included. Once we shatter our illusions and delusions, we can get to work. 

We are not about techniques, we are about an overall, holistic approach to getting you home safely, and then being safe at home. If this involves a certain degree of fitness, fine, if this involves physical training, fine, and if this involves the written and spoken word, that too is important. Class is not only physical, as the years go on I realize that the mental part is truly the more important, if we keep our goals in mind. 

The first step is to state your goals loud and clear. If your goal is self-preservation, we will work towards that. If your goal is to be an actor, a stunt man, a tournament competitor, the next McDojo millionaire, that is a different set of goals. If your goal is your goal is self-image, personal confidence, that too is fine, but we need to define our goals if we wish to achieve our objectives. All these goals are valid, but we must be clear. If your goal is to win a tournament, or impress the girls on the block, or create an image that will strike fear in the eyes of all who see you, then you must define those goals. 

I do wish to state that I do not dismiss those goals, if you are headed to a long prison term, having an image of Tough-as-Nails Bad Ass, is a good idea, keeps people away from you. It is all a matter of defining your goals. My goal in creating IKI is self-preservation, your trophy is not a beautiful corpse but to arrive home safely and see your loved ones.

To achieve this goal we must adapt our training to the reality of our surroundings. Perfect training requires understanding of the dangers you face, in your life, in your environment. 

The survival of mankind has always depended on our ability to adapt. In fact, the survival of any species depends on its ability to adapt. Climate change, forced migrations, change in habitat, all these have led to the extinction of very powerful creatures. There was a powerful creature that once lived in what is now the USA, in Arizona, the times were very dry, but he could dig deep and eat roots. He developed teeth that could easily sever a deep root. But when the rainy times came, he could not eat or digest grass, or leaves, and he became extinct. Being strong is not enough, we must learn to adapt.   

Wing Chun - Kyokushin Connection

When I was in New York I trained in two outstanding martial arts academies, one was the Oyama Dojo, which taught the hard-hitting style of Kyokushin karate. My teacher was the direct disciple of the legendary Masutatsu Oyama/Mas Oyama, in fact young Mas Oyama changed his Korean birth name, Choi Young-Eui, because the Oyama family let him stay with them from time to time. The other style I trained in was the original form of Wing Chun Kung Fu with Sifu Chun Kwok Chow of Hong Kong, from the lineage of Yip Man and a direct student of Ng Wah Sum 吳華森師傅.

Looking back, I know realize that this is where I began to blend the hard and soft. Kyokushin was about hitting hard, being hit hard, pushups and hard physical training including full-contact fights. Wing Chun was more about the flow, the energy, using balance, timing and distance. Both styles are outstanding, and elements of both are present in IKI Krav Maga. 

We do not choose softness, pliability, flexibility, because we fear physical contact or being hurt. I have fought countless full contact fights and have an impressive list of hospital visits. IKI incorporates the elements of the flow of energy because it is the most effective way to make techniques work for everyone. We are not shying away from pain. We are choosing wisdom. The aged Yip Man was able to easily defeat the young Bruce Lee, not with superior muscles but with wisdom and understanding energy. This is a higher level of training. Any brute can hit hard; it takes wisdom to channel energy to overcome a physically superior human being. 

Our techniques

Our guiding principle is that every IKI technique must meet three criteria, it must be Easy to learn, Easy to Apply in diverse situations, and Easy to Remember. Otherwise, we see it as useless. We use only Gross Motor Moves, and we operate on the principles of employing Total Body Movement, rather than just the use of hands.


Gun Techniques

At an Israeli counter terror base, we were discussing techniques, a certain very muscular man, Muay Thai champion and Israeli soldier, was demonstrating his gun disarm technique. It seemed rather complicated, involving grabbing the weapon in a very specific spot, controlling the barrel and preventing the slide from operating. This took skill and precision. When this instructor pointed the weapon at one of our students, a Dutch pilot by the name of Erwald who stood perhaps 6 foot 3 and weighed perhaps 130 pounds, the student used our IKI gun disarm technique and took the powerful man down to his knees, buckling him over. The solider, on his knees was in shock. Erwald had arrived from his country a couple of days earlier, had no previous martial arts training and had only began his training with us the previous morning. i.e. he had less than 2 days experience and not fully understanding the impact of the technique, took this warrior down to his knees in a split second. That is IKI Krav Maga.

Fort Myers, Florida. 

There was a man who attended my seminar in Fort Myers, Florida, USA, many years ago, when IKI was still in its infancy. A Jewish fellow by the name of Ira attended the seminar. He was open-minded and willing to learn, he was a powerfully built stocky fellow, a power lifting, 25-years experience as a police officer and at least as many years in traditional Krav Maga. He used the old-style technique, which I do not favor. And yet, to be honest, it worked. It worked because he was not only an  expert but had the perfect body for this technique and the real life experience. He was a poweful man and I imagine that nearly anything he would do would work. He was able to take the gun away easily, using the technique that I reject and do not teach. 

So what can we learn from this? Should we adopt this technique?

The answer remains No. Why? 

The fact that he could make it work does not prove that this is the most effective way to handle this situation, potentially a life and death situation. He was a powerfully built man, with decades of martial arts/Krav Maga training, and 25 years on the force, a street cop. Erwarld, on the other hand, was a pilot, tall, very thin, but a commercial pilot who might some day face an armed hijacker. He too needs self-defense, which method should we teach him? His entire training consists of his two weeks of Tour and Train in Israel. What we teach did not take him 25 years to master, it did not involve him doing years of body building, it took him a few hours. That is the difference, that is what IKI is all about, the perfect system for imperfect people. We are not all full-time martial artists or street cops, or body builders. Most people can barely spare a couple of hours per week; this is the reality that we face. We must offer realistic solutions based on real life situations, and that includes your own life, your financial budget, your time budget. 

There are many techniques that can work, there are few that will work reliably under stress. What we need is a system that does not require above average physical strength, does not require special coordination, does not require years of devoted training, does not require grease-lightning reactions. We have such a system, a system that works with you rather than against you. We are not overcoming fear and stress but channeling them. We are not overcoming nature but like our ancestors, we are learning to accept nature and adapt to it.

MosheB

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