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
The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) has always acknowledged the link between fitness and fighting. To be effective in a real-life violent confrontation – of any nature - an individual must be equipped with three things: an aggressive mindset, simple techniques, and good/appropriate fitness. Fighting is a tiring and exhausting business, especially when the effects of adrenaline wear off, and the body starts to go into recovery mode. After 15-20 seconds of first becoming adrenalized, the body will naturally want to go to sleep in order to recover, as adrenaline takes a fairly severe toll on muscles and organs etc. The fitter a person is the more able an individual is to be able to fight through this. This doesn’t mean that performance isn’t affected but if the other individual(s) a person is fighting with begins to suffer from the same effect and their fitness and mindset is not as strong, then it may be that the difference in fitness is what determines an individual’s success at surviving the assault.
Krav Maga is designed to work when tired and exhausted. This is why its techniques are simple, straightforward, and easy to recall and implement under stress and duress. The Uzi SMG (sub-machine gun) was designed around one simple concept: that an exhausted infantry man could change the magazine when running. This idea of being able to perform in sub-optimal physical conditions is ingrained in the Israeli military psyche, and fitness training that is specific to combat is stressed. This fitness helps power the Krav Maga mindset of “Never Give Up!” i.e., you will always have the proverbial “gas in the tanks” to keep going, and know, and have experienced powering through when the mind rather than the body tells you it is time to give up.
Like all types of fitness training, training to fight is specific to fighting. A marathon runner may be good at running marathons, have a low resting hear-rate and have the stamina to run long distances, however this doesn’t mean that they have the specific type of fitness needed for fighting. This solid, base fitness developed from running puts them ahead of somebody who has never trained, however it doesn’t fully prepare them for dealing with a real-world confrontation – even the way they breathe will have to change because fighting soon becomes an anaerobic rather than aerobic endeavor. Cosher Kravi training looks to develop the specific type of fitness needed for fighting. If you have ever seen a real-life violent encounter between two untrained individuals you will have noticed that the punching never lasts long, and both parties soon clinch up in order to get their breath back and avoid being punched. If at this stage of the fight one individual had the fitness to keep going this would have given them a massive advantage.