reasonable concession to reality
by Moshe Katz
CEO
Israeli Krav International

July 20, 2020, Israel  

At some point in our lives, in every aspect of our lives, we all need to ask ourselves the question: What concessions are we willing to make to reality? How much is reasonable to compromise our dream?

You want the dream job, you want the dream wife/husband, you want the dream body. From what I understand none of that will ever happen. Very few of us are "Living the Dream", usually the dream ends when we wake up in the morning. Even those whom we think are living the dream usually are not. Look at all the rocks stars and movie starts who are in and out of drug rehabilitation centers, they are living a nightmare.

When you looking for a job, well most jobs I know involve some very unpleasant aspects. Even big stars have annoying little details, and major problems as well, to deal with. No one has a dream job. We are all forced to make reasonable concessions to reality. 

Now Let's turn to self-defense.

Watch a film, you will see dream martial arts, you will see perfect masters without a flaw and devoted students. You will see impeccable techniques that never fail, to subdue the opponent and to impress the audience. Now wake up, the film is over. Time for reality.

There are many martial arts that are more impressive looking than ours, IKI Krav Maga (not to be confused with traditional Krav Maga), but I have yet to see a style more effective when the "Cow manure hits the fan".

We have chosen to accept reality: that includes the often extremely brutal nature of violence, the illogical and unpredictable nature of aggression, and our own human limitations. We have made our peace with reality, we have accepted the inevitability of reasonable concessions with reality and keeping the dreams for the movies, or our sleep. (or for bar room talk and story telling). 

Our concessions include; 

We cannot depend upon lightening Speed.

We cannot depend upon Precision, i.e. grabbing the hand with the knife, grabbing the barrel of a gun etc.

We cannot depend upon Strength, out-muscling the other person. We must concede that there will always be someone stronger than us. Remember, attackers choose their victims carefully. You are a marked man!

Our concessions to reality include understanding our true capabilities as compared to our imagined capabilities. When I first began martial arts training I believed that if I only practiced my horse stance enough, my kata, my drills etc I would be able to overcome all. But there were nasty little hints that this was not my reality. Thinking of a knife to my throat late at night in a back alley, or imagining a few guys blocking the way to my car; would my training really be effective?

I reached the humbling conclusion that I was not properly prepared. And so my search begin, this search has never stopped, slowed down or abated. Last night as we were filming a Vimeo I told Baruch, pull the gun away as soon as you see my attempting to take it. We shall compare and contrast the various options and film them for all to see. That is another point; we believe in transparency. We never edit our videos, if something came out imperfect - it is there for you to see. We learn from imperfection much more than we can learn from perfection.

I always say, our style is the perfect style for imperfect people. We have made our peace with reality. We have made reasonable concessions to reality, we have adapted our techniques to suit our realistic expectations of our abilities in a time of extreme violence and shock, and by doing so we have created a better method of training. 

For the details, join us! On line, for a seminar, for Tour and Train, or with one of our hundreds of certified instructors world wide. IKI is currently in about 40 countries.

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