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The Strike Zone
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
September 13, 2025, Israel
The legendary Boston Red Sox star Ted Williams, and the Strike Zone, Williams was one of the greatest hitters of all time and the last baseball player to have a batting average of 400, actually 4.06
The strike zone is individual, it depends upon your body, not the pitchers'. Likewise, your self-defense strike zone is also personal, depending upon your body, not the attacker's.
Images of the baseball strike zone, very relevant for understanding IKI Krav Maga
In baseball, the batter/hitter, must protect the plate. For non-baseball fans allow me a brief explanation and soon you will see the relevance to Krav Maga and personal self-protection. The batter must hit the ball or allow it to pass if the pitch is not to his liking. But if the pitch is in the Strike Zone, and he does not swing at it, the umpire can make it "called Strike", i.e. you should have swung it and now you are penalized for a strike as if you swung and missed. Now if the pitch is outside the Strike Zone, the umpire will call it a "Ball" i.e. you were correct for not swinging at that pitch, it was outside the strike zone and would be difficult to hit properly, thus you are awarded a "Ball", if there are four "Balls", you get a free pass to first base as if you had hit a "single".
Now if the batter is facing a 3 and 2 count, i.e. there are 3 called Balls and 2 Strikes, he can no longer allow a ball to pass, unless he is positive it is a ball, i.e. outside the strike zone, for fear that that pitch could be a called Strike 3 (3 strikes - you are out). If it is in, or questionably close to, the strike zone, and yet he feels that pitch is not to his liking, i.e. he does not want to swing at it, he will "fight it off", i.e. try to foul off the ball, thus not really swinging and yet not letting it pass for a potential called third strike and an out. I hope this makes sense, if not, please continue reading and the Krav Maga analogy will still make sense.
There are a logic and science to all this, it is an intelligent game. The batter is waiting for a good pitch to hit and yet the pitcher does not want to give him what he wants. The last thing the pitcher wants is for the batter to have "his pitch" as he will hit it hard, score runs and lead his team to victory. The goal of the pitcher is to get the batter to either strike out, or hit the ball poorly so that the batter, turned runner, will be tagged out, or alternatively the ball will be caught by one of the pitcher's teammates, the fielders.
Now to the Krav Maga relevance. When I was a young player, our coach told us - never chase the ball, wait for your pitch. This means if the ball is outside your strike zone, and note this - as you can see in the photos I have attached, the strike zone is individual! It is based on your height, not the height of the pitcher, not some standard height but your personal individual height. It is the same with self-defense. When people say, but what if the attacker is taller? So what! His height does not matter, it is your height, your Strike Zone that matters. His aim is to hit your face or body, thus, that is your personal strike zone, and that is the area you must defend, much as the batter defends his strike zone in the game of baseball.
Only your life is not a game.
The analogy is as follows: the old "360 Defense" that is used in Traditional Krav Maga, chases the attack, or as my coach would say, chases the ball. The Defender is looking, moving his arms and trying to block an incoming strike by going out and greeting it/blocking it. But that makes no sense, that is the same as the goalie in hockey or soccer leaving his post to confront the kicker or hockey player about to slap the puck at the goal, thus leaving his zone and moving into the playing field. Stay in your post, protect the goal.
We believe that we must remain balanced and ready to defend, that will not happen if we are trying to anticipate where the attack will take place and go out and block it. Rather, we stay, like the batter, or the goalie, in our zone, we are protecting our literal Strike Zone.
Now let us be clear - this is not a passive approach, not at all. It is no more passive that a goal tender/goalie staying in front of the goal. It is a logical approach. Here the attack will be so fast, that our Universal Block, our "defending our strike zone", is far more effective than chasing the attack, or the 360 trying to respond to an attack. We are not responding, we are protecting.
I use the analogy of the baseball strike zone because I believe it truly captures what is difficult to put into words. Come to a class and I can make my argument more cogent.
We will not be tempted to chase after a punch thus becoming off balanced and open to another attack. We must protect all angles, we cannot do that if we are chasing after a punch that might be a "Ball" or a decoy punch, or outside the Strike Zone. As long as it is outside our strike zone, it cannot hurt us. We protect the Strike Zone, we cover the Strike Zone, we prevent the enemy from entering this zone.
In baseball the pitcher will often through a ball deceptively close to the strike zone in order to tempt the batter to go off-balance and chase the ball, and thus strike out or hit the ball poorly. The same is true in personal attacks. Often an attacker will feint a strike, pretend to strike in order to draw the defender off balance, out of his zone. Or an attacker will throw a punch to lure the defender to use both hands, and then the attacker will either stab, or grab the Defender's handgun. This is how it works on the street, and I have seen this many times.
The pitcher is trying to tempt the batter out of his zone to become off balanced. The attacker might use a feint to trick the Defender and then grab his handgun, go for a takedown, or stab him. Stay in your zone! Be like the goalie protecting your goal. Cover your strike zone, if it is outside your strike zone, don't chase it, it could very well be a trap.
Come to a class and I will convince you in person.
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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