Advanced Combat Training

What a great week in Israel. Congrats to all those who finished a tough few days of training and grading. Especially to head of our system Gavriel Schneider. What a privilege to be graded by one off the best in the world Dennis Hanover and Ran Steinberg.

Congratulations to those who graded this past weekend. Great job everyone.

I want to become certified with SAFE International because I have been in many fights and can help others learn how to fight!

Luckily, I have only heard that a few times over the past 28 years of teaching Violence Prevention & Self Defence. And the few times I have listened to that and explained what I feel constitutes real self-defence and violence prevention, they have moved on to another program.

Or I have heard something like, "I want to make money, and I think teaching self-defence would be a great way." If I am being honest, I thought that when I considered teaching self-defence around 1993. You can read the in-depth story I offer on how and why that changed by visiting https://safeinternational.biz/get_certified/ with a small scroll down the page.

Those are two different reasons to teach self-defence and violence prevention. I wanted to offer a few short replies based on the recent influx of SAFE Certification inquiries and bookings I have received in the last 1.5 to 2 months.

First, what is your goal in wanting to teach self-defence and violence prevention? If teaching how to fight, don't call it self-defence because if that is the first stage of your thinking, say you want to teach people how to fight, not avoid a fight. That is the complete opposite goal of what we offer. There is nothing wrong with teaching people how to fight if that is what you want to teach. Well, I do have issues with that, but at least if you are honest and not teaching it under the guise of self-defence, go for it.

One funny, but not funny, story was many years ago. I had a gentleman contact me, and no word of a lie; he wanted to teach the SAFE program because he felt qualified. He told me, "I would be an excellent addition to SAFE because I have been in over 1000 documented fights!"

My first apparent thought was, "Who the hell documents their fights?" My second thought was, "Why are you getting into so many fights?" Not exactly the type of person I feel might see the importance of avoiding a fight at all costs before resorting to doing whatever is necessary to get home to the loved ones.

Secondly, there is nothing wrong with earning a living and making money by teaching self-defence, but if there is one thing I learned quickly, was that if that is your primary motivator, good luck! Yes, you can make a good living teaching self-defence, but many do it with a compromise of quality content, leaning towards promoting flash and glam as if self-defence was a showcase of one's ego.

Self-defence and violence prevention has ZERO to do with the instructor's ego but has everything to do with the changing and saving lives of those who might seek you out. So could you take a moment and think about it? Teaching violence prevention and self-defence has life and death consequences for most people, if even remotely small.

The clients are potentially putting their lives in your hands. If what you teach is more about how you use your hands than how they might use their hands, you are lying to them. Even more critical is that how you teach them to use their hands should be the last area of exploration in self-defence.

How they use their mind, how their life experiences have shaped their minds, how they get through day to day after suffering possible years of abuse, how they might want to help others avoid what they have been through, down to those who might just want to feel a little safer, these are things to consider if you teach self-defence.

So, before you begin any self-defence course, whether for yourself or to teach others, get a firm understanding of why you want to learn, why you want to teach, and who you might want to help.

https://safeinternational.biz/get_certified/

Good advice here for us as instructors!!

Hit Harder, You Hit Like a?

If I had a dollar for each time I heard a self-defence instructor yelling or screaming at the students to hit harder, I would have a few bucks.

Before people jump down my back, I understand that for most, the attempt is to motivate. Still, often without knowing it, the instructor may have the opposite effect, particularly when a client is singled out in a class or a private lesson.

The generic approach of yelling is motivating to many. Still, in teaching self-defence, you need to be very careful and understand that while you might have twenty students, twenty individuals have different life experiences that may include abuse over a short period or many years.

One client may interpret that simply as hit harder, and they do, whereas another may hear it as they are weak, vulnerable, and not strong enough, according to the "expert" teaching them. They may have listened to this their whole life and heard it as another confirmation of their weakness.

I am not saying it is easy, but it is critical to listen, watch, and understand as fully as possible how your clients perform and not jump to simply yelling at them, thinking you are a master of motivation.

This is a simplistic post, but there are many more levels to it that are important to consider.

https://safeinternational.biz/get_certified/

Short article on the secret killing techniques of Krav Maga...

https://www.bostonkravmaga.com/blog/krav-maga/secret-killing-techniques.html

Some people won't like this😉👊

The martial arts and self defense industry are service providers, we provide training, instruction and education. Unfortunately, our clients are often composed of victims of various types of violence and abuse including bullying, both in children and adults making our clients vulnerable by nature due to trauma.

This vulnerability is often taken advantage of by instructors who use it against their students to manipulate by offering a sense of belonging via tribal brotherhood which is more of a gang mentality.

They have creeds, axioms, cool t-shirts/uniforms to unify their groups and they demand loyalty at all cost in return. They refer to themselves as your 'coach', 'mentor', 'teacher' and the likes and they begin to take credit for your strengths and development and make you feel like you owe them something for it and that debt is a forever one.

The leader is never wrong, never at fault and there is always an exterior, uncontrollable reason for any perceived shortcoming (they had a rough life of some kind and pulled through on their own, you're lucky to have them).

Everyone else is inferior. Anyone who leaves is a traitor. Pu***es. Losers. Anything anyone else does that is similar or the same was stolen from them or were formerly trained by them. You're the best with them but you were the worst once you left.

They cannot be questioned as any confronting, challenging or revealing question is shut down with threat and aggression.

They always have a lapdog they usually refer to as their 'second in command' the one who does their dirty work and lives off their scraps which they completely accept for the trade off of being hailed by the rest of the tribe which are always bullied, beaten down and abused disguised as "realistic training" in order to defeat all the evil street bad guys perpetually hunting them at every corner.

They also have their tribes fighting their battles for them as any criticism or question of validity are vehemently attacked by their spineless followers.

Sound familiar? Besides the plot for Cobra Kai I mean?

What a legend!

Dennis Hanover The Human Weapon Dr. Dennis HanoverYou are the father of Israeli Martial Arts. You have given your hands to so many people to make them not only great fighters but also bette...

Vast majority of combatives and krav instructors on social media fancy themselves to be some variation of a John, be it Wick, McClane, Rambo, Wayne, Matrix or whatever bad ass variation.

Most, unfortunately, only see violence as a one on one injustice to be righted with extreme brute force. They are fueled by trauma and misdirected anger. Former bullied children who act on fear disguised as anger and self righteousness and can't fathom violence beyond the proverbial stereotypical street fight.

They can't see, reason or grasp anything beyond the physical manifestations of violence as they are not capable of understanding violence from any other perspective than their own myopic point of view, anything outside their own personal experiences with violence doesn't seem to exist.

These types are stuck on the stereotypes, the Hollywood versions of the street fight, the bar fight, the ground fight, the knife fight, the duel etc. Their entire systems are predicated on beating up people in social violent altercations that are, over 90% of the time preventable and avoidable.

These are not systems of self defense or protection or violence prevention, they are self titled "Combative" and promote violence, not deter it.

For more info, and it's completely free, go to www.studyofviolence.com and learn what violence actually consists of and how to prevent and manage it strategically and not out of fear and misdirected rage

For FREE.

Being the Warrior in the Room means taking it as your responsibility to make the people around you safer because you are trained and ready. Like the bulls protect the herd, we all have the responsibility to protect each other. Everyone can do their part, even if it is just learning trauma medicine. So learn to shoot, fight and do trauma medicine. Get fit and strong. Be the Warrior in the Room.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/be-warrior-in-67037207?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=postshare

While the vast majority of self protection systems train for the proverbial streets and generic Hollywood street violence, the reality of violence and abuse is that it rarely happens in the streets.

When it does, it is either social violence gone awry, gang related, or roughly 10% of the time where a civilian will actually face a pure and applied self defense situation that can be avoided most of the time with proper awareness skills.

Over 90% of violence and abuse are committed by people known to their victims, roughly 30% of that 90% are immediate family members.

The physical assaults mainly come in the form of ambushes predicated by a personalized behavioural delivery system making technical applications moot for self protection.

Over 90% of victims worldwide (including r**e and murder) are victimized at home, school and work, not the streets.

If learning self defense is your goal, worry less about the strangers in the hoodies in the alleys, as the enemy is much more often, closer than you think.

Learn the differences between self defense, combatives and martial arts, it could save your life and loads of lawyer fees.

There is sometimes a bit of confusion about what Krav Maga is and isn't e.g., I've heard it be said that it is basically MMA for the "street" etc. In this article I want to look at a couple of the principles upon which the approach sits, and demonstrate the uniqueness of the method.

https://kravmagatraining.online/blog.php?BlogId=555

Short article on certain aspects of the victim selection process https://www.kravmagablog.com/kravmagablog-August-2021.php

There is no "all you have to do is".

Size and strength DO matter.

There is no, "if he does this, you do that".

Failure is an option.

Violence is scary.

It will be hard.

You might get hurt.

I can't empower you.

Violence sometimes is the answer.

Anti-grappling isn't real; learn to grapple.

"Reality-based" is often code for "we don't spar".

A weapon is only a potential option. Sometimes you need a hammer, sometimes you need a screwdriver, and sometimes you need to choke the hell out of someone.

Training matters.

Stronger people are harder to kill.

BDUs/camo/fatigues/tacti-whatever does not make you a badass.

The answer is almost always, "it depends".
..to be continued.

Please teach your children that it’s always OK to tell.