My Experience Of Krav Maga And Israeli Martial Arts

I’ve been involved in the martial arts, in some form, since I was 8 years old. I’ve practised Judo (2nd dan Black Belt), Wrestling (Greco-Roma & Freestyle) and Submission Wrestling with bits and pieces of Vale Tudo/MMA thrown in along the way.

Despite having a sports/competitive martial arts background my focus has always been on trying to translate what I’ve learnt from the mats and training hall to something that can be used on the street.

Krav Maga And 'Real Life' Self Defense

It was really only when I started practising Krav Maga (1999) did I find a system that I believed dealt with reality based self defence in a comprehensive manner.

I initially started training in the IKMF system of Krav Maga, later becoming an instructor in this style. After training to become a KAPAP (Israeli Special Forces – Sayeret – system) instructor under Avi Nardia and David Arama, I began to see some gaps in the IKMF system, especially in the knife and gun work and began to question a lot of my previous training. I started to ask a lot of ‘What Ifs?’ e.g. what if an attacker responds to my defence like this, rather than the way I’d been taught to expect etc.

Questioning Krav Maga Systems

Soon after I started this ‘questioning’ I trained in Netanya, Israel with Haim Gidon and the IKMA (the association that the IKMF broke away from) and became even more convinced of some of the potential shortcomings in what I knew.

The problem with ‘questioning’ and analysing what you know and thinks works, is that it never stops: you start seeing/viewing everything from the attackers perspective and my real problem was not this process but that I wasn’t coming up with good enough answers, or ones that satisfied me.

This continual questioning lead to me meeting Moni Aizik (both a legendary Israeli Special Forces Operative and Trainer as well as an Olympic Judo Coach and MMA Coach) and spending a day with him in London, where I was fortunate enough to have the time to discuss reality based self-defence and his opinions on the subject as well have him demonstrate various techniques and show why some of the solutions I’d been shown to problems were unlikely to work when faced with a determined attacker.

Teaching Commando Krav Maga

A few months later I completed and passed his instructor certification and now teach his system exclusively. I teach it, not because I believe it to be the best or original Krav Maga system but because I believe it to be the best and most complete self-defence system around.

I have always attempted to apply an intelligent solution to self-defence, trying to understand why people turn violent (so as to be able to de-escalate a situation), how sexual predators work (so their techniques can be identified and intended victims can exit the scene whilst they still have a chance) etc and now with the techniques and thinking of Moni’s Krav Maga, I believe I have the ‘physical part of the self defence solution covered.

The fact that Moni’s system is still used by the Israeli Special Forces and that he trains them monthly is testament by others that the system works.

For more information/details about Commando Krav Maga, Self Defense etc, please visit commando-kravmaga.com