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the deadliest killer
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
August 28 - September 9, 2024, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida - Valley Village, California, USA
Beautiful Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, USA
Wonderful cafe, so relaxing, and great coffee!!
When we grow up with martial arts, we have fantasies of defeating bad guys, the deadliest killers. We imagine ourselves as real Bad Ass heroes, as depicted in the movies. We sign up for martial arts classes, read Black Belt Magazine and Inside Kung Fu, and dream of being heroes.
Only it is all fake. Fake, fake, fake.
Ah, my friends, the truth is sad, it is a bitter pill to swallow. But that is up to you.
We train hard, we line up in rows wearing our cool Japanese uniforms, and we shout our Kiai's as we punch and kick in the air. We are the Best of the Best, or so we believe.
How I believed.
We grow up and we experience life, and yet some men do not grow up, they just grow tall, and some are so fortunate as to die and leave this world with their myths never questioned and their beliefs never shattered. And others, perhaps the more fortunate, see these false beliefs broken like seashells on the seashores, hit by the waves of reality, shattered by the waves of real life. Truth.
We imagine fighting great demons, we train to fight fighters. Some of us even compete in tournaments, and some tournaments even have names like the Ultimate Challenge and so forth, but the truth is those are not the ultimate challenges, the ultimate challenge is life.
And in life the deadliest killers are not what you think or imagine. So allow me to outline some.
Bad eating will kill you. Alcohol will kill you. Drugs will kill you. but what I wish to focus on today is the cellphone, for truly cellphones are deadly killers and no kata will prepare you for this adversary.
I begin this blog in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, truly a beautiful and peaceful place. Tourists flock to here from all over the USA. It is truly dreamlike. But there is a deadly secret - the roads.
As I drive along with my dear friend Nick, an IKI Black Belt, he tells me that daily there are deadly road accidents here. I ask him why, he says that mostly people are not careful, they are distracted, they are busy with their cellphones. Later that day I am driving with IKI Head Instructor John Liptak, and we are delayed. Frustrated by the delay I look for the source of the problem, a deadly car accident, just where Nick was telling me about such accidents. The results were devastating, and we were inconvenienced by the delay.
Of course, our inconvenience is a minor factor in this story, but the point is that just earlier that day Nick had warned of such accidents. And today, this driver is no longer among us. He faced a deadly killer, and he was defeated.
When we train in martial arts we fantasize, and much of martial arts training is fantasy, we fantasize about glorious bouts such as you would see in Blood Sport or The Quest, but the truth, the reality, is that you will face a much different kind of killer, your own cellphone that you paid for with your own money. This is your enemy, and this is one deadly opponent.
But this is not "cool", and so this part of the training is ignored by most instructors, but not by me. Yes, I talk, and I teach, because my goal is not to be a cool Bad Ass, let's leave that for Hollywood actors, my goal is simple - your survival. I am not here to impress you with my skills, I am not here to teach you the flying back spinning jump kick, although I can, and I am not here to prepare you to be in the next action film, I am here to help you survive, and that includes the boring art of ...talking.
Yes, you must learn that you are much more likely to be killed these days by your own cellphone, as Nick predicted, and as we witnessed the very next day. You are much more likely to be killed by your own cellphone than by a Ninja, a Kung Fu master or even an LA gang. But that kind of training is seen as boring.
Is your goal to be entertained, or to be saved? That is a question you must answer.
I continue this blog here in California, land of sunshine and fame, fun and games, dreams and broken dreams, beaches and blondes, Hollywood Walk and Studio talk.
I know many actors, I know movie producers and stunt choreographers, and I know screen writers. Most of them are not martial artists at all. But that does not matter, new shows are being produced as we speak, Cobra Kai takes place here, Karate Kid took place here, many great bands were born here, it is a land of dreams, but it is also very dangerous.
and this is where IKI Krav Maga comes into play. We are not actors, we are not dreamers, we are hard core realists. I am not out to impress, I don't care what anyone thinks, I know what works and I am here to share it. I am not interested in scoring a part in the next film, I am interested in saving lives.
From the streets of Florida to the streets of LA, to all around the world, I hear stories of crime, of fear. The neighborhood where I lived here in California, in "The Valley" while going to college, has changed drastically, for the worst. While I was at the House of Champions martial arts school and I told them where I was from, they say, "Oh, now we understand why you need to know martial arts. That is one bad neighborhood." This academy is located in Van Nuys, close to where I lived, and they do not allow the children to leave the dojo and wait outside, they must wait inside until their parents come to pick them up. That is how bad it is.
I meet many martial artists, and I see their techniques, they all involve multiple steps, anyone of which can go slightly wrong, and when that happens, the shit hits the fan. All it takes is a one mistake and you are defeated, and there is no second chance. The techniques involve too much precision, depend too much on speed and strength, things that are hard to come by when caught by surprise. Therefore, we at IKI reject these approaches and focus on simple moves that anyone can learn and execute under pressure. We focus on Gross Motor Moves, Body Movement and use of the entire body in our defense.
We focus on understanding our environment.
We focus on understanding our attacker.
We focus on understanding ourselves and our limitations.
We focus on reality, not on fantasy, we leave that to the Studios, they are very good at that.
we are the perfect system for imperfect people, regular people like you and me.
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.
Start Your REAL Training TODAY
Or is someone coming to save you?
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