Too Fast
By Moshe Katz
CEO
Israeli Krav International

March 13, 2016, Israel

We advocate using as few techniques as possible with as many applications as possible. In other words, not have ten techniques for one situation but one technique for one hundred situation.

Why?

Simply because that is the reality of life. For example I advocate the same single defense for a hook punch, a straight punch, a stick attack and an overhead knife attack. Why? because in most cases we will not know what kind of an attack it is until it is too late.

As with most information by the time the information reaches us it is useless. The trick is to know beforehand, that is called inside information. You can get it in business by cheating but you cannot get it when it comes to an attack. No one knows when or where the next attack will take place.

I often see great defenses against a knife attack but....they depend upon that inside information. They depend upon you knowing ahead of time what kind of an attack that is.

Now there is no way to test this. If you say, OK, attack me and I will show you my great defense. No, sorry, that does not work. It does not work because now you know I am going to attack and you are know how I am going to attack, but that is not reality.

The reality is, as all recent victims testified, that you are caught off guard, overwhelmed, "it came out of nowhere".

So what can we do???

The best we can do is try to find one simple defense that we can do so that it becomes instinctive, over time. Thus one defense will put us in the best position to defend ourselves when we do not know ahead of time what kind of attack it is.

Now if for some reason you do know what kind of attack it is, yes, you can tailor your defense or modify it accordingly. No problem there. But I am training people for that total surprise, that feeling of "I was totally overwhelmed" described by the lucky victims who actually lived to talk about it.

The reality is that people are attacked suddenly, if we can teach them one simple instinctive movement - we will have saved many lives. For those who somehow see the attack coming, there are of course more options.

What I want to develop is a habit, that becomes an instinct, that will come into play when we are caught off guard, when our mind is not functioning.

More variations = more confusion = lack of ability to respond = serious injury or death.

Basic rule...keep it simple.

About the author

Moshe Katz

The Collection

Knife found on Arab in the Old City of Jerusalem, sharp and deadly. Please do not mess around. Keep it simple.

Please note that all fields followed by an asterisk must be filled in.