License to Kill
By Moshe katz
CEO
Israeli Krav International

September 28, 2014, Israel

Who is going to take away his license to Kill? (Bob Dylan)

Last night I was viewing some video clips from another Krav Maga instructor, not my usual practice as I have never found anything beneficial. We have our way, developed over many years, our methods, our philosophy, our ways of examining techniques and new situations. Over the years I have not benefited from viewing other styles of Krav Maga as I have found their techniques overly complicated and not suited to reality. No disrespect intended.

But students called my attention to view clips of certain well-known instructors. I took a look. In both cases I was not able to view the entire series. Both times I became so upset by what I saw. I could not believe what passes for Krav Maga and what passes for a "Krav Maga master".

I identified the techniques as jujitsu that I myself did, for about 25-30 years. Over the years I have come to learn that these moves could not be pulled off successfully in any real-life stressful situation by a reasonable person. (i.e. not a superhero). This was the "stone age" of my training. Over the past 30 years we have moved light years ahead, and now I see this same old stuff being passed off as Krav Maga. I am outraged. I simply cannot accept this. 

I decided to share these videos with my longtime assistant, Esther. She not only has over 20 years of hardcore martial arts training, but is also an expert on exercise physiology with numerous qualifications. She has spent more than 20 years analyzing how the body works.

It was her words that inspired this blog.

The guys' techniques were awful, even when he turned around… the attacker could have run away or retaliated at any point…it was really so pathetic I could not watch the whole thing, it was too painful…people like this should go to jail for murder. They are teaching dangerous or weak and ineffective techniques; in my opinion that’s murder.

Thus, I called this blog "License to Kill".

I wish there were some objective governing board to oversee and qualify Krav Maga instructors. I wish someone would say...This man is not qualified to teach self-defense; these techniques will never work.

In a perfect world that would be the case, but in our world all we have is "Buyer beware!!" and the buyer most certainly should beware before committing to any self-defense course.

Teaching safe Krav Maga techniques, barrel pointed down, total control of the arm, attacker off balance. This is the correct way.