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The Heart of Krav Maga
by Moshe Katz
CEO
Israeli Krav International
February 9, 2015, Traverse City, Michigan
Life is not a movie.
If it were then all war heroes would look like Hollywood stars; tall, well-built muscular men. Reality however is quite different. Often the muscle guys are covered, carried and cared for by skinny short guys.
Sometimes it is all about heart.
Yesterday I was teaching a Krav Maga seminar in Grand Rapids Michigan. We were working on techniques for hostage situations, how to deal with armed terrorists aboard a passenger plane. And then I felt the need to tell a story.
As always it was a story from the heart, it it the reason I teach Krav Maga, it comes from the soul. It is the heart and soul that goes into real life self-defense.
And then something amazing happened.
Students came over and said the story deeply affected them. There was no comparison of their technique before the story and after the story. The heart of the practitioner changes everything.
Krav Maga, fighting, warfare, is not only muscle, and it is not only technique, what you feel inside affects the way you do the technique.
It is not a matter of overcoming fear, it is not a matter of just being aggressive, it is not a matter of not caring whether you live or die. It is something else, something that comes from deep inside, from our history, our culture, our experience. It is the heart of a true warrior, not a killer, not a Spartan, not an MMA sports fighter, not a thug, not a "Bad Ass", but a true warrior.
This heart is not something you can buy on a DVD. You can learn it by experiencing it through someone who has lived it. That is why you need a true teacher. You can learn it by traveling through Israel and learning our history. It cannot be taught but it can be experienced.
Over the years when watching students, I will often see that some of them just don't get it. They are doing it correctly technically, but something is missing. It does not work for them, and they reach the incorrect conclusion that the problem is the technique. No, this is not correct, the problem is them, and their lack of heart. To know the technique is one thing, to be determined in your heart that you are going to live another day, you are going to help others, that takes heart. You need to develop heart. That is part of the way I teach.
eBook, Israel: A Nation of Warriors
