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
US and Western/English Law allows for the use of pre-emptive striking in incidents where a person is assaulted. For an assault – from a legal perspective - to occur, two things need to happen: a person must fear for their safety, and their aggressor must be in a position where they can physically make contact with them (even if that is just to touch them – unwanted touching is legally referred to as “battery”). If these conditions are met i.e., a person is in imminent danger, then they are legally entitled to make a pre-emptive strike/attack, using reasonable force, in order to defend themselves. They do not need to wait for the other person to initiate a physical attack e.g., if a person were to point a gun at you, placing you in imminent danger, you would not have to wait till the person holding the firearm pulled the trigger before making a physical defense/attack.
Pre-emptive striking has several tactical advantages. Mike Tyson famously said, “everybody has a plan until they are punched in the face.” By being the first to land the punch/strike, you gain the element of surprise, interrupting whatever “plans” the other person has. Most people don’t recover from this, not because they are rendered unconscious but because they are overwhelmed by the shock and awe of what has happened to them. By striking first, you also are given the advantage of controlling the pace and rhythm of the fight with your aggressor being placed in a role where they are responding to, rather than driving, the fight. It is also possible with the element of surprise to quickly end the fight in the first few seconds of it, whilst your aggressor is caught off guard and in disarray. By finishing the fight quickly, you limit the risk of serious injury to both you and your aggressor. Whilst it may seem irrelevant to think about the physical condition of the person who assaulted you, the potential injuries that you cause them may lead to a claim of “excessive force”, which may negate your own claim of acting in self-defense. It should be noted that when talking about ending a fight, this doesn’t necessarily mean physically incapacitating an assailant, as it could involve simply creating an opportunity when you can safely disengage from the confrontation. The other potential dangers involved in a prolonged confrontation include the risk of others coming to assist your aggressor, and them remembering and/or resorting to pulling a weapon etc. Whenever dealing with an aggressor it is worth making three basic assumptions: that they are armed, that they are assisted, and that they are physically able to deal with you.
A good way to think about pre-emptive striking and its effectiveness, is to think how you would actually act and respond if somebody managed to land the first strike/punch. How quickly would you recover? How would this effect you emotionally? Whilst we might believe that we would rise to the occasion it is worth remembering the Mike Tyson quote and realize that we might want to be the one who strikes first.