When It Really Counts
By Moshe Katz
CEO
Israeli Krav International

September 10, 2017, Georgia

Its time to head out to Krav Maga class but you are feeling tired, you think, it's OK, I will miss tonight's class. 

You are planning on attending a Krav Maga seminar but, well, you are just really not in the mood for the drive, so you tell yourself that your skills are good enough. After all you already attended a few seminars. 

You are in class and thinking to stay for a little while longer to practice what you had just learned but then tiredness (laziness?) sets in and you find a "reason" why you really should head back home. 

God forbid, you are in the wrong place at the wrong time; someone puts a gun to head or a knife to your throat. Now every minute that you spent training counts. Now is when it counts, you really need those skills, but...all those excuses, (sorry, reasons) for not training come to mind. You realize that you are not at the level you hoped to be at. The lack of practice and repetition now translate into a lack of confidence. You are not sure you can pull this off. But ....there is no time left. 

Damn! Why hadn't I trained more when I had the chance?!?

Life is full of regret. I know so many people who are angry at their parents for not pushing them more when they were younger. They are angry that they cannot speak another language, that they are in a boring, unsatisfying dead end job. Really it is their own fault, why did they not push themselves enough?

I have seen the enemy and it is us. 

We and our laziness are the reason for our lack of success. We failed to go that extra mile. 

Back to that gun, knife, pointed directly at you. This is it, the moment of truth, when it really counts. This is what you have trained for, but have you trained enough?

Don't you wish now that you had taken a little more time to train? Don't you wish you had made the effort to come to the seminar? With a gun pointed at your head and no other options at your disposal, wouldn't a little more training have made a difference?

I think back to my early days of martial arts training, to the Oyama dojo in New York. Many things may have changed but the fundamental values are the same. We were taught; "Push yourself to your limit, and then push yourself a little more". Or as Rocky would say...the body says stop but the spirit cries NEVER.

When it really counts do you think you will be ready?

Now of course in the back of our minds most of us are thinking, Yeah, sure, we train but really, nothing is ever going to happen, so it's OK if I miss this seminar, or this class.

True?

Admit it.

Back to traditional karate, Gichin Funakoshi said, always imagine your opponent in front of you.

Now remember that, now imagine that gun pointed directly at your head. You are facing your killer, don't you wish you had trained a little more?