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Rules and Reality and Krav Maga
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
April 17, 2026, Israel
I recall my early days of martial arts training. I remember them with fondness and nothing but respect. I respect and honor all my teachers. But this does not stop me from exploring and growing. In fact, when one of our Krav Maga black belts met with my karate teacher, the aged master was very interested in seeing a demonstration of the "system Moshe developed". Sadly, it was not to be as he passed away in the interim. But for me that was coming full-circle and a great honor that he showed this interest. And I recall the moment where, many years earlier, after a grueling series of fights he shook my hand and said, "You good fighter". That was one of the highlights of my journey.
I recall our Three-Step-Drills, which were never explained to us, but I imagined them to be the recreation of actual fighting scenarios, but it was not. This does not negate the value of those drills. One just must understand how to interpret them. And such it is in life that nothing truly prepares you for anything, if anything at all - our training can prepare us for being prepared.
Now that may sound confusing. It is.
There is not much I can quote from my many years as a university student, but I do recall the rare moments of brute open honesty from certain professors. One such moment was this...a plumber can be trained to fix all sorts of problems, and when he begins his work, he will have a fairly good idea how to proceed. There may be some adaptations necessary from time to time, but basically, when he graduates, he is ready. But you, students of Business, Finance and Economics, when you graduate, you are not ready to work. You are not prepared for anything at all. You are only prepared to be prepared.
I am paraphrasing, it was over 40 years ago. Having worked myself as an assitant plumber for some time, I am not certain that his analogy was perfect, but the point was clear. When my classmates and I were graduated from university, we were not ready to work but we were prepared to be prepared, in other words, we had the educational foundations to be able to begin work and learn on the job, to pick up the skills we needed. We were not ready to "fix the toilet" so to speak, but we had the foundation to learn. and so it is with IKI Krav Maga. We are preparing you to be prepared, but there is no way to know every possible situation that any of us may encounter.
I review real cases of violent crime on a regular basis. I watch police videos, closed circuit cameras, and our members from around the world send me footage of actual crime. As much as it may seem that it is all the same, it is not. There are always some nuances' which can change everything and be the difference between life and death. We need to train so that we are prepared to be prepared. We need to train so that we have the tools to adapt to unforeseen violent encounters and respond correctly. We cannot possibly have a ready set "Kata" or "Three-Step" karate move to counter this attack. The problem is we prepare for cases that may never happen, that may not even exist. But reality is an unforeseen chaos.
I am reading again the classic psychological drama "Crime and Punishment", perhaps one of the greatest applications of psychology woven into a novel. but this is far more than light reading, on a second reading, and then a third, ideas, truths, messages begin to emerge. The story itself is not the purpose, even the names of the characters hint (in Russian) at deeper meanings.
The Typical Case
The renown interrogator, (fictional character of course) Porfiry Petrovich, says to the suspect, or not yet named as a suspect, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, the following words, "The typical case, for which all our rules exist, does not exist. The minute a crime has been committed it becomes a special case bearing no relation to any precedent crime. Some cases can even be very funny. "
These of course are the words of the author, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and they apply so well to our approach to Krav Maga. When I read these words, I thought to myself, wow, my thoughts exactly but expressed so well!
There is no such thing as a typical case. We prepare, we train, for certain cases but these may never happen the way we expect them to. Such a profound and true thought expressed so succinctly by the imaginary prosecutor the typical case, for which all our rules exist, does not exist. All our rules, all our training is ineffective. There is no standard attack. You cannot predict the kind of attack based on the location, or the ethnicity, there are no rules as what to expect in certain regions. There are no rules! That is why we must be flexible, never to say....in my region such an attack does not happen, my region is different from all others, here we don't have ...or we do have...etc. All false!
Dostoevsky in this classic work offers a criticism of rationalism. In fact, Dostoevsky pinpointed the dangers of both utilitarianism and rationalism.
In Russian, the word nigilizm (Russian: нигилизм; meaning 'nihilism', from Latin nihil 'nothing') came to represent the movement's unremitting attacks on morality, religion, and traditional society.
There are no rules, there are no "typical cases". I have seen so many different versions of the "same" knife attack, all - over - the - world. The individual stabber is not bound to follow any rules, (this is how we stab in England, this is how we stab in the USA, in Israel, in South Africa, in Brazil). And once an attack takes place, and we say, Aha! Now we know what to expect, we are told, No, no, that is not true. For The minute a crime has been committed it becomes a special case bearing no relation to any precedent crime. Some cases can even be very funny.
What he means by "funny", is not really funny, but different, or odd, or totally unexpected. That is the art of humor, to say the unexpected, to speak at an inappropriate time, that becomes funny. In our case, Funny becomes, out of the ordinary, or unexpected and thus dangerous.
The idea that once a crime has been committed, it becomes a special case bearing on relation to any precedent crime, or any future crime, is indeed wise and echoes what I heard years ago from my mother, and my Economics professor.
My dear mother, may she rest in peace, said, you raise one child, think you got it all figured out, and then another child comes along who is totally different and you find yourself compeltyl unpreared, as if is your first child once again. What you learned from one child, does not work, or even backfires on another child.
So much truth in that.
My Economics professor said, by the time the ink is dry on the business pages, the information contained therein is no longer relevant for anything but history. But why can't we predict the future behavior of the markets based on yesterday's reports? As Dostoevsky said so many years ago, once it has taken place, it becomes special, unique.
Now of course there are similarities, of course many acts of violence bear a certain resemblance, in fact there is a phenomena of copying a "successful" crime, an act of imitation, and yet, the small differences, the nuances, are the key. Thus, each case becomes unique.
I have analyzed knife attacks and gun threats where just a small change in position, height, angle, relation to the surroundings, changes and totally negates any "Classic" knife defense or gun disarms techniques you may have mastered over years of training. That is why we train concepts rather than techniques, principles rather than specifics, applications rather than memorization. The detective uses concepts to catch Raskolnikov, he does not follow a well-rehearsed pattern. He uses "no way as the way". I feel that Dostoevsky would completely grasp our concept of Krav Maga, the defense must match the attack, rather than train with an attack that matches our preconceived notion.
not everyone will get this.
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
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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