Commando Krav Maga & Reality Self Defense

(If you’re interested, specifically in female self defense please click here).

Real street fights (as opposed to those that are shown in the movies) are real, nasty affairs involving frightened, exhausted individuals who have problems thinking straight and getting their bodies to do what they want them to do. Even experienced martial artists despite their catalogue of techniques often fail to do what they’ve been trained to do, when experiencing the stress and confusion that comes with an aggressive encounter in which there are no controls.

The majority of martial arts and self-defense systems comprise of 95% techniques and 5% mindset, whereas survival on the street depends on 95% mindset and only 5% technique. This is why many systems of self-defense fail when it comes to the crunch.

Being able to execute a perfect technique in the dojo or training hall is no guarantee that it will be repeated when put under a high level of stress: witness how many quiz show contestants fail to answer questions they patently know when they’re aware of 5 million people watching them. Too many people practising martial arts have a belief that when the time comes for them to do it for real they’ll come good. The truth is that, unless you’re practising it ‘as if it is real’, you’ll never know if you can do it till you either succeed or fail and unfortunately those who do succeed are in a significant minority.

This is why military systems of self-defense are proving their worth as civilian systems: instead of concentrating on teaching a wide range of techniques, they teach a few whilst developing an appropriate attitude and mindset.

Origins Of Combative Systems

Systems that belong to this school of thought are classed as ‘combative’ systems. The characteristics of what constitutes a ‘Combative’ system was largely codified by Sykes and Fairbairn who developed a system of combat based on their experiences in the Shanghai Police in the early 20th century.

What was stressed in their teaching was: techniques that were easy to learn and remember and could be carried out when placed in extreme and possibly life threatening situations. Much of their teaching methodology concentrated on developing an ‘appropriate mindset’ i.e. a state of mind where the individual is prepared to do what is necessary to survive the situation even if such behaviour was contrary to what they perceived they would do in such a situation.

Too many people like to think how they would act and what they would do when facing an aggressive assailant; in truth when put in such a situation most people freeze and find themselves unable to act or function. This is because when facing an aggressive individual intent on inflicting pain we try and ‘understand’ the situation and make a rational decision based on our understanding of it. The fact of the matter is there is nothing to understand and make sense of there is just an individual facing us who wants to cause the maximum amount of damage they can. The only choice to make is which action is the most appropriate to ensure our survival: fight or flight.

Teaching an individual to make such a choice in an instant is what developing the combative mindset is about. Once the choice is made it then has to be carried out till its logical conclusion: if fighting, till the aggressor can no longer continue the fight because they are incapacitated or because the person defending has managed to escape the situation and put such a significant distance between themselves and their aggressor that they are no longer in danger.

Teaching The Combative Mind Set System

This mindset is the most important aspect of reality-based self-defense, without this attitude any techniques that an individual has been taught are superfluous. Developing this way of thinking during a confrontation does not mean that individuals become overtly aggressive in their day to day lives rather they get equipped with a way of thinking that they can switch on and off as the situation dictates.

This may seem to some a brutal approach to the subject of personal self-protection however one must remember that the primary goal of survival is escaping the threat/situation: not being involved is always the first option. If that fails then a person should ‘stun and run’ keeping the time spent engaging with their aggressor to the shortest period of time possible. Time should not be spent ‘punishing’ an attacker unnecessarily if that time could be used to create distance or disengaging safely from the aggressor.

In saying all of this if an attacker has to be incapacitated e.g. because there is no chance of escaping, then this end should be pursued, unquestioningly with a single mindset.

This is the reality approach to self-defense.

Commando Krav Maga is a true Combatives system: it arms the student with a set of simple re-usable techniques, teaching concepts that can be applied to a myriad of different situations. It also develops the all important mind set needed for surviving a violent confrontation.