- Home
- Krav Maga Blog
- Krav Instructors
- Train in Israel
- Tour Train Israel
- Krav Shop
- DVD
- Kickboxing
- IKI Near Me
- Seminars
- IKI Membership
- On-Line Training
- Krav Maga Training
- Testimonials
- History Krav Maga
- Instructors Page
- Past Blogs
- Spanish
- Italian
- Certification
- Contact
- Holland Seminar
- Vienna Seminar
- Poland Seminar
- Italy Seminar
- Belt Requirements
War, Krav Maga, Lessons
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
August 25, 2026, Georgia, USA
"When you go to battle against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands..."(Deuteronomy, Chapter 21, verse 10)
Self-defense is difficult, very difficult. Fighting off a crazed person with a knife is difficult, dealing with a gun threat or Active Shooter is difficult, but not for the reasons you think, and not for the reasons the commercial dojos will present in their brochures. Learning martial arts will not prepare you for a violent street confrontation, even most forms of Krav Maga. I know this sounds strange, but it is true. Self-defense is not what most people think; fitness, physique, techniques, belts, trophies, all have very little, if anything, to do with your chances of survival. And that is why IKI Krav Maga takes a very different approach to self-defense than other Krav Maga schools.
Today you will receive, for free, one lesson. So please pay attention.
The Torah/Bible teaches, when you go out to war against your enemies...and the rabbis ask, why was it necessary to teach us "against your enemies"? Surely this is superfluous, would we think you are going out to war against your friends?! This begs the question, why did the Bible include an unnecessary word, a redundant superfluous word?
The answer is a clue to real self-defense and the biggest mistake most systems make.
Remember he is your enemy. Remember what he plans to do to you.
But that is only a clue. I shall continue, as you will say, Duh, I get that, what a disappointment.
When most schools teach self-defense, it is movements, it is techniques, it is grab here, move this leg, move this hand etc. and even if you train "full contact" it is nothing more than a sport. It still lacks reality. What they miss is ...when you go out to war, remember that he will do to you! That is the mistake Israel made before October 7, that is the mistake most instructors make, they forget. They do not visualize. They do not see the rape, the body mutilations, they do not feel the pain, the humiliation, the degradation. It is not real to them.
They will say it is, but it is not. So go back to the Bible, the Book of Books, and listen again. This is your enemy you are facing, and keep in mind at all times what he WILL do to you, given a chance. We have seen the mutilations, the stabbings, the guts pouring out. We have heard the cries, the screams of those being raped and abused, we have heard, and we have listened.
This is not a "technique", this is not Jujitsu, this is not a tournament, full contact or otherwise (still a sport). When you train in Krav Maga you must keep your enemy in mind at all times. Yes, I know this is an old karate saying as well, I have studied these arts extensively, with true Japanese masters, not watered-down Western versions of it, and I know the sayings of Gichin Funakoshi of keeping your opponent in front of you at all times, but here we speak not of "Opponents" but of cold blooded killers who want your wife and daughter and little boy and holy grandfather. This is how I train!
When you go out to war, when you enter the training hall, remember!
I see the victims of the Hebron Massacre of 1929, which was repeated but tenfold in October 7, 2023. I see it all. When you go out to battle.... remember, your enemy, remember what he plans to do, what he WILL do to you, if you lose. The Jewish soldiers of the Red Army, The Soviet Army, fought the Nazis with great determination and won a disproportionate amount of awards from bravery, despite the huge amount of antisemitism in the USSR and Ukraine in particular. They fought with such ferocity because they knew the cost of falling into the hands of the German army. We must always fight and train while keeping in mind the consequences of failing. That is how we approach self-defense.
This is how our training works; we do not put the emphasis on perfection of techniques, on perfect timing, but on perfection of understanding. We teach to be able to unlock your power at the moment that it is needed. This is not something we can take for granted, but all schools do, at least all the schools I have seen for the past 40+ years.
We train to be able to go from 0 to 100 in an instant, to understand the gravity and seriousness of the situation, to be able to respond real-time, to activate your tools which otherwise remain locked in a toolbox when you don't have the key.
Technical proficiency is only a scratching of the surface in terms of self-defense. In fact, without the psychological training it is utterly useless and irrelevant, and yet this is what most schools devote the bulk of their training time to. Fitness is also largely irrelevant, most attacks are over in seconds, and once you have been shot or stabbed your physical fitness counts for very little. The key is the mind, but this is dismissed by most schools as sounding like an excuse to avoid hard physical training. It is like a person rejecting a modern washing machine as a mere excuse to avoid the good old way of taking the dirty clothing to river and scrubbing for hours on a washboard!
What we focus on at IKI are real defense options for real people that can be used real time. In order to use self-defense techniques, we must be able to access our tools, our techniques, our skills, under the most intense pressure, in order to do that....remember, when you go out to war against your enemy... keep the atrocities of the enemy fresh in your mind. and know this - they are real.
The secret I speak of does not sound like a secret, but it might as well be, as it is totally ignored by most. The secret is easy to state but very difficult to implement, therefore it requires active training. It is the idea of truly, truly!! visualizing the brutality of the attack, and then the response will be the correct one. This does not mean it will make your training very brutal and send many people to the hospital, no, not at all. It means the techniques, the concepts, the strategies will be correctly matched to the reality of the situation.
To understand this better you will need to come to class.
Moshe Katz, 8th 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.
Let's Get You to the Next level of REAL Training, Starting TODAY
Or is someone coming to save you?
IKI Krav Maga online distance training - Leading to ranks and certification.
Tour and Train Israel Experience
Personal Training - If you are interested in personal Krav Maga training please contact us on the form below.
