School Address
165 (Unit E) New Boston Street
Woburn MA 01801
Krav Maga Yashir is the system/style of Krav Maga taught by 5th Degree Black Belt, Gershon Ben Keren, who in 2010
was inducted into the Museum of Israeli Martial Arts in Herzliya, Israel. He is alos the author of three Amazon
best selling books on Krav Maga. His full-time school is located in Woburn, Massachusetts, just north of Boston.
165 (Unit E) New Boston Street
Woburn MA 01801
Although the name/term “Combatives” has been around a long time, within the last 50 years or so, it has largely come to be associated with military hand-to-hand/unarmed combat. Contrary to what many people believe and think such training isn’t given that much attention to, as fighting unarmed/without a weapon isn’t the most likely scenario – more training is given to using a rifle as a “cold” weapon for striking and blocking with, than is given to training individuals how to fight unarmed. This means that any combatives taught must be extremely simple to learn and remember because of the little time devoted to them. Obviously, this is a generalization and specific units may spend more time training in unarmed hand-to-hand skills. This means that combative solutions rely more on aggression and determination than the development of complex skills. In many cases it is the aggressive mindset that military training produces that powers these solutions.
Many combative solutions involve some form of striking as this is much easier to learn and any lack of technical skills can be compensated by aggression e.g., whilst a technically perfect punch and strike may deliver more power, and imperfectly thrown punch with aggression and determination behind it, is likely to get the job done etc. This doesn’t mean that the technical aspects of striking should be ignored but rather that if time is limited, using aggression as compensation may be a more efficient way to go. In fact, what sees the day in many physical confrontations is the mindset of the individual rather than their technical ability. This is one of the reasons that bayonet practice is still taught in many modern militaries as it teaches individuals aggression and commitment. This is not to say that the bayonet isn’t still a relevant weapon but rather that training somebody to thrust, stab and rotate a blade into a straw sack (resembling a body) develops a certain mindset that can be translated to throwing punches and hammer-fists etc.
Combative solutions to dealing with violence require an aggressive mindset and a certain degree of fitness. To “crash” into somebody at 200 miles per hour whilst throwing strikes and punches etc., means that you have to have the gas in the tanks to do so, and to keep doing so. This is one of the reasons that the IDF (Israel Defense Force) puts such an emphasis on the combat fitness (Cosher Kravi) component of their training. Fitness and fighting go hand in hand. Something that many boxers and combat sports practitioners (BJJ and MMA fighters) understand. Sometimes the thing that wins the fight is the other person’s inability to continue because they have no energy. In real-life encounters where people become adrenalized, once the adrenaline wears off, their bodies go into a recovery state where they want to rest. When this happens, usually the fitter individual has a major advantage, especially if they have done some form of training when exhausted i.e., they have trained in this state.
Reality-based self-defense is founded on three things: simple techniques, physical fitness, and an aggressive mindset. These are all areas that are developed and improved through Krav Maga training.