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Testing Techniques
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
September 18, 2025, Dan Business Class lounge, Lod Airport, Israel
There is a problem with expert martial artists, they are experts, they do the techniques well, fluid, naturally, effortlessly, and they forget...
they forget what it is like to be an awkward beginner.
They perfrom the technique and might be a little frustrated with the beginner, Why can't they get it? What is wrong with them? like an NBA all-star causally making a free throw basket and hearing the swoosh as the ball goes through the net, like what is so difficult about this?
We need to be beginners again. We need to understand that if it takes too long to master a technique, that technique should not be used for self-defense classes. Leave that technique for martial arts classes, not for those seeking realistic self-defense. (and be careful not to confuse the two). We need to understand that when the student sees how easy it is for the instructor and yet how difficult it is for them, they become frustrated, most will casually disappear. They will not make a big announcement, but they will not be there for the next class. You lost someone. You failed someone who needed self-defense training, someone at risk.
It is so easy to forget. I keep an image in my mind of my younger self, as the guy chosen last for soccer in third grade, as the kid who was not even considered for the basketball team, the kid who was ignored and left behind. The limosine at the airport in Paris with a driver holding one of those name signs with my name! Being taken to fancy hotels, seeing my name on the "big screen", I remember the little boy that no one cared about, that was left to walk around in circles while the better athletes played soccer.
I remembered that tonight as we worked on some new techniques and I saw how the beginners, and those trying a new technique for the first time, Got it!
I too tried a technique for the first time tonight.
I do not wish to embarrass anyone so I will not provide details. However, when it was tried by another person, with no experience, she failed miserably. So, I decided to try it myself after watching it a few times. It is different from what I offer, a technique which I have been teaching lately, a new development from IKI, and which students learn very quickly, even the first-time students, so I tried this other technique. I failed, miserably. I tried it with Baruch, just before class, and not only that I failed to get the release/escape that was promised but my damaged right elbow reacted immediately to the pain and I remained in pain for the next 2 hours, which made it more difficult for me to teach. Fortunately, the techniques that I taught tonight did not hurt my sensitive elbow in anyway! In fact, my elbow felt better after an hour of our IKI defenses, which work naturally, with the body. As I wrote earlier today, injuries improve our techminques. I wrote the Advantage of Injuries, how injuries help us develop better techniques, those that do not depend upon being fit or strong, those that work with the body, rather than against it.
If after 40 years of martial arts training, I cannot get a new technique correct on the first or second try, I drop it. I base our system on the abilities of the average human being, of any age. Therefore, if it is too difficult for me to learn immediately, how can I expect beginners with no marital arts experience to learn this technique fast enough, and to use this technique to save their lives! No, I cannot.
We have a tough standard at IKI. Every technique must be Easy to Learn, Easy to Apply in Diverse situations, Easy to Remember, if not - it does not make the cut.
IKI Krav Maga, for the average human being.
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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