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Why Most Self Defense Systems Fail
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
April 3, 2026, Israel
Life is a journey; martial arts is a journey. For me it has been a long journey, with many twists and turns. There are moments that stand out as "Aha" moments, when suddenly new revelations appeared to me, such as when I saw the advertisement of Charlie Nelson, a man pushed against the wall and a knife to this neck, or when Itay Gil said to me, 95% of martial arts are useless. Or When a guy from Brooklyn challenged me to show him my best fighting stance and my Karate stance failed the street test completely, or when the guys from the JDL, Jewish Defense League, and the Guardian Angels told me of their street experiences, the School of Hard Knocks, and we learn that life is not easy, and that classic martial arts are not really self-defense systems.
But we believe what we what we want to believe, what we want to be true. We want to believe that movie martial arts are real. And that is what the industry wants us to believe, because that sells tickets and fills dojos.
Let us look at some martial arts myths.
The longer you train the better you get. You must be very devoted; with time you will increase your speed. I was once told "you need to hit the sandbag (punching bag) 500 times per day. (which will lead to quick arthritis). You need to stand in a horse stance for hours, you need to learn to stand on one leg, you need to increase your fitness level, you need to lift weights, do cross training. You need to improve your flexibility. You need to be able to kick high and maintain your balance. Your moves must become sharp, precise. In time you will be able to break wood, and then bricks. This is self-defense.
All this, we are told, is necessary to become a martial artist and to be able to defend yourself.
The expectation here is that you will see the attack coming, and you will be so well trained, your skills so honed, your reactions so fine-tuned, that you, the "lean, mean fighting machine" will be able to respond effectively to the attack.
I disagree
I have come to disagree with all of this. I believe these ideas are pure Fantasy, "the king has no clothes". I have seen the truth, and life is not a movie, and self-defense is not a martial arts movie, as fun and entertaining as they are. The truth is hard to swallow, and violence is sudden and brutal.
This is what I have come to believe.
You will never be fast enough to respond, action beats reaction. You will be psychologically unprepared; you will be caught off-guard and unable to activate your defense. You will most likely be hurt or killed. The truth is that these martial arts were either not designed for self-defense, but for disciple, art, sports, spiritual pursuits, or that they are outdated and not suited to modern urban violence and modern life. We are not Shaolin monks; we are busy people with jobs and families. We cannot train all day every day. We need a system with which we can become proficient in relatively little time.
There are many important concepts that will make your self-defense more effective.
We use only logical instinctive movements, you do not need to learn these, you do not need to "train" your body or modify your natural movements to achieve this, these are your natural movements. You already know them, you just need to learn how to apply them to self-defense.
We do not rely upon Precision; we use Gross Motor Moves only.
We use synergistic movements. i.e. various body parts working together to create greater energy, force and impact.
We use the body, not just the hands, thus rather than waiting for the hands to arrive, as they are rarely in the closest area, we use the body part which is nearest to the attacker. This is more than "Nearest weapon nearest target", it is more than that, it is using the body in ways that other styles to do not use. The nearest weapon is not just the legs (kicks) or the hands (punching, striking), it could be any body part.
We use very few techniques, but we apply them to an infinite number of possible scenarios.
We are not based on techniques, we are not based upon memorizing specific moves, but rather we are based on Understanding concepts and applying them. Not Memorization of Techniques but Understanding of Concepts.
Krav Maga is not a Fighting System, nor is any real self-defense system.
Most martial arts are ineffective for self-defense, and this has been proven over and over again in real-life with tragic results, because they do not take into account that self-defense is not fighting, it is reacting to a surprise. And in most cases, it is the initial strike, or stab, or shot, that will cause the deadliest damage. Therefore, trained responses, which is what martial arts are, will rarely work. Rather we work on natural instinctive reactions, and we try to hone, or modify these to suit our self-defense needs. In other words, we take the way your body responds and then we train it slightly to meet the challenge of real-life brutal violence. We are not "retraining" the body, a process that takes many years and rarely, if ever, works. Thus, expressions like "Be the Tiger", will never work because you are not a tiger and you will never have the instincts of a tiger. But you are human, so with IKI we say, Be the Human, or Be Yourself.
We need to lower our expectations of what a normal, average human being can do under stress, and then use what we have, what we naturally possess, to defend ourselves in the best possible way.
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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