Urban Krav Maga

Interesting Confrontation

Aasim — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:56:28 +0000

Here’s an interesting clip of a typical street confrontation that one of my students Guy emailed me (many thanks Guy). It’s has many features of a typical street confrontation and I believe it can provide a lot of lessons for training for such situations. Both in terms of how you should behave in such a situation to defend yourself and how you should behave as someone who is playing the role of the attacker when training in the dojo.

Interesting Confrontation

I’m glad the incident resulted in the yob getting the humiliating knock down that he deserved, I have no sympathy for his plight.

Let’s take a look at the defender. In my opinion he was very lucky, there was a lot that he did wrong:

He let the yob get way too close to him. Once he became aware of the potential confrontation he should have maintained some distance between himself and the yob by putting up his fence. This would make it difficult for the yob to get close enough to grab him or to strike him.
He should have adopted a more staggered stance - keeping both his feet directly under his shoulders makes him less stable and vulnerable to being knocked to the ground. It also makes it more difficult for him to deliver a powerful strike.
The defender kept his hands clamped down by his waist. Even when the guy shoved him, or at one point grabbed his neck and gave him a mock head butt! He was like a rabbit in the headlights with his hands clamped together down by this waist. To be honest if that had happened 6 hours later in the evening when the yob had a few cans of Stella inside him he’d have been hit hard before he could’ve done anything about it. With his hands clamped together down there he couldn’t have stopped a head butt or a punch - not a chance.
That’s the downside of some school’s karate or jujitsu training - there’s no dealing with the way fights actually start. No dealing with aan attackers ballooning and posturing, swearing and tryingto psych you out.
The other bad thing from the way the majority of traditional karate schools train is seen when he finally does find his bottle - what this guy does is try to rely on a single shot to finish the fight. In karate the saying is to “finish with one blow”. But that is most likely a mistranslation. It should be “throw each blow with the intent or mind set to finish” - if the 1st one doesn’t do the job press forward and attack continually throwing high impact, high percentage fight stopping techniques. Do not give the aggressor time to regather himself for a more potent assault on you!

The one thing he did right though is that when he decided to act he kept it simple - head shots. Not great technique in those punches but he got a telling blow in on the guy’s chin and it luckily stopped the fight. He was helped by the fact the yob was not expecting the tables to be turned and was vulnerable because of it.

When drilling in class play the role of the attacker realistically (swear, be aggressive, posture, balloon, swagger!) so that you are not caught like a rabbit in the headlights when it happens for real.

People commonly talk about the “fight or flight response”. In actual fact more accurate would be the “freeze, flight or fight response” to danger. In our evolutionary past at the 1st hint of danger the limbic system’s response is to freeze. This would’ve made you less noticeable to a predator, who may move on and hone in on other prey that makes a movement (if like me you have pet cats you’ll know what i mean …. ).

Sometimes though depending on the nature of the threat freezing is not going to help, it is too late for that particular response to be of benefit! The predator is close and moving towards you rapidly, flight is the next thing in the hierarchy that our limbic system is programmed to initiate. Unfortunately some people stay frozen and get caught with a big sucker punch that might have been sent by air mail and it still would’ve hit the mark! If you find yourself in a confrontation and you get that slighty euphoric, light headed rush you may well have frozen. DO SOMETHING, anything just to force you body to move and get you out of that almost hypnotic state. One of the benefits of putting up a fence and saying someting, even something simple, like “Back Off!” is that it forces you to act! It can help bypass the freeze response as well as buy you space and time to flee or fight if you need to.

Fighting is not to be taken lightly, do it if you have no choice because you cannot flee. The chap in this clip had no choice. If things go wrong you could incur a life changing injury or worse, so try to diffuse or leave if you can - always. If this is not possible attack with full force until the threat to your sfety is gone and then leave. Stay within the law. Keep it simple. You will be forced to make the decision to attack quickly, the change from a threat that seems manageable to one that rrequires physical aggression happens fast!You can loose the window of opportunity quickly, set your triggers for action in the dojo or training hall:

If he moves forward aggressively and touches your fence - attack
If he makes a sudden, rapid change of direction towards you - burst in and attack.
If in the midst of delivering a torrent of abuse he suddenly stops, his lips tighten, his nostril flare to oxygenate his muscles for the act to come, and\or his shoulder drops or moves suddenly - attack.

If your fence is up and you fail to attack first the techniques we use for defending against attacks can still be used, you will have some time and space to play with. However you are now reacting and letting the bad guy go down the path he has practised for real, many times and made work. If you act quickly enough you can still prevail, you are better trained than most of his previous targets. But try not let it get to this stage if at all possible. Take control, reduce the risk to yourself - better to act than react.

Once again thanks to Guy for the clip. It gave me some interesting stuff to watch over the weekend while out of action with a back injury, and a good topic for a blog post!

Feel free to comment, ask questions and discuss with each other by posting comments on the blog.

Regards,

Aasim

Real Life Control and Restraint

Aasim — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:50:01 +0000

Another escapade below from one of our students, Paul Golding, who inadvertently found himself involved in an incident while at a friends leaving do in a bar in Shoreditch, London. For a change it involved some control and restraint rather than self defense but resulted in the aapprehension of a bag thief and the return of property to the rightful owners. A great job by Paul, perfect execution in a real, live environment. Well done mate, you train hard - it is great to watch as an instructor and it paid off. Good stuff!
.

“I was in the smoking area (not myself, I had two nicotene patches on and a nicotene lozenge on the go!) with a buddy of mine who’s leaving drink it was, when there was a scuffle in front of us where a couple of doormen were trying to get hold of a guy who clearly did not want to be aprehended and was flailing around, shoving them away. The altercation came our way and the guy was pushed into me, I guess I could have moved away but it was all getting very messy so remembering the part you taught me about approaching ‘under the radar’ I kept low and snaked my right hand under his chin and round to my left bicep clamping my left hand round the back of his head, it seemed to work as he went very quiet! I then moved him out of the door out of the bar and into the waiting arms of the other door staff.

The guys congratulated me and told me that two girls had seen him stealing bags from the bar, it later turned out that one of them belonged to my mate’s friend (the one who I had been outside with passively smoking) he had her bag plus another and a purse which were retrieved from the sticky fingered monkey!

Got to be honest,as much as it was a good result, and I was quite pumped after the incident I had my missus there and some close buddies so thought it best to leave shortly after in case of follow up scenario’s….paranoid? who knows? but better to be safe than sorry!

So thanks Aasim, good training brah, really changes your programming to situations!

Take care, and see you in a few weeks”

Real Life Student Experiences

Aasim — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:33:28 +0000

A few stories from the real world of our students applying what they have learnt in Urban Krav Maga classes at the City School of Urban Krav Maga!

One of our lady students was attacked recently (we’ll call her M to protect her identity, she did nothing wrong or illegal but I do not want any chance of any comebacks for her from this). She handled the situation brilliantly and the attacker was left with more than a few bruises, and more importantly she went home safe. Read the story below:

“I was just getting off the bus at around 2:30am after attending a party with some friends. I was alone as my friends were gone, and the bus was at its last stop. I stepped off the bus, walked a few meters, the bus pulled away and a man seemed to come out of nowhere. He was around 6ft 3”-6ft-5” tall, and stocky holding a beer can in his hand. He came straight towards me shouting and swearing right in my face, I was a little surprised, but was not too startled as there was really no time to figure out the situation. Before his hands came up I dropped my bag and went straight into his face with an eye gouge, gripping his head tight with a mixture of finger tips and nails, which sent the beer can flying and his hands straight up to mine. I held on but was pushing hard which sent him backwards; I got in 2 palm strikes to the nose, managed to knee him in the groin twice but it was a bit unsteady with the 1st kick and the 2nd kick was the one he seemed to feel. He fell backwards on the ground holding his nose and groin, I fell down on him too as I was leaning in towards him with more palm strikes making me unbalanced, but as I was getting up I continued on him with 4 more palm strikes to the face… as I hurried away I called for an ambulance for him.”

Let’s take a look at what we can learn from this incident:

Training these scenarios in class with realism pays off - in a real situation you will respond as you train.
If you are carrying a bag when attacked drop it as we train to do in our classes. You want your hands free to be able to defend yourself!
When you are being attacked respond aggressively, quickly and with total commitment. There is no time for second guessing yourself now. Without training for these scenarios it is very difficult to avoid simply “freezing” in such a situation. If however you have trained the scenarios repeatedly, and especially when you’ve pressure tested them in class immediately after a bout of high intensity pad work as we do, then you will be used to acting under the effects of adrenaline. Now, no situation in the dojo or gym is going to fully replicate the adrenal response you get from a real and immediate threat to your safety but it will condition you to GO with full aggression and commitment under the trigger of a similar attack on the street.
Learn to spot the cues of an aggressive attack. In this case it was very obvious, swearing aggressively, rapid ingress into M’s personal space. She did not wait to be grabbed or struck. Who knows what this guy had in mind to do once he had his hands on her?
When dealing with a bigger, stronger opponent up close (the disparity in strength is great for a woman dealing with a man) eye gouges are very effective, even if they do not finish the attacker they will buy you the time and space for harder more effective finishing strikes.
At close range palms, elbows and knees rule! Simple hard strikes with good body mechanics using parts of your body that will not get damaged against parts of his body that are vulnerable. This way you avoid injury to yourself but do plenty of damage to the opponent.
The attacker will not be a static and compliant target! M switched attacks from high (eyes and head) to low (groin) and then back to high again as dictated by the aggressor’s response to her counter attack. Again drill in the dojo to cater for the way a real attacker will respond. This way it won’t surprise you when it happens for real! You will already have a trained standard response to the situations you find yourself in, or one similar to it, and you will be able to access it under pressure quickly to keep the aggressor on the back foot.
Hitting hard and effectively doesn’t require you to be extremely muscular it just requires the use of good body mechanics and learning how to transfer your weight behind your strikes without losing your balance. Even someone weighing significantly less than their opponent, hitting hard and repeatedly, to the right targets, can get the job done!
Real encounters are messy and chaotic, in this instance M ended up on the ground with her attacker. This is best avoided - but if it happens, do whatever it takes to get back up ASAP just as M did.
Stop the attack once you are sure you are no longer under threat and if required get medical assistance for the attacker. Keep it legal and do the right thing. Keep yourself safe at all times but do not go further than required to get home safely
OK this final point is really nit-picking because I think M did a great job. But a situation like this avoided is the best defense. Try not to be in places where the risk is high, especially in the dark, late at night with no one around. Don’t get me wrong, I am not in anyway criticising M here, I’m just being really pedantic. Sometimes we all find ourselves in these situations every now and then - you can’t always avoid it. But if you’re in situations like this regularly the risk of an attack does increase. So do try to reduce the risk to yourself … but don’t let it stop you getting out there and enjoying your life as is your right to do!

Once again I think M did just great, I’m glad she got home safely. Well done M!

Another incident which was dealt with by one of our students, Guy. This is a good way for things to go. In this incident Guy had the time and space to put up a fence and talk the aggressor out of the violent action he seemed to be intent on taking. See Guy’s story below:

“Hi Aasim,
Thought I might share an incident with you last week which demonstrates the value of your teachings.
When I walk to the train station in the morning I cross a roundabout as a shortcut; last week a driver took offence at me being in the road and actually swerved his car at me.
I involuntarily shouted ‘Tw*t!’ and he stopped in the middle of the road, wound the window down and asked me to oblige him by repeating my remark. I did - twice.
The car door opened and he got out. I would say he was 5ft 9, bulky, shaven headed with an earring in both ears.
I didn’t really think about what I was doing as he approached. I moved a step back on to the roundabout because I didn’t want to fall backwards over it and dropped both bags I was carrying.
At this point he came very close and was still trying to intimidate me, shouting about me being in the middle of the road.
The whole dynamic of the incident changed when I moved put up a fence and focused on the shoulders to anticipate any possible sucker punch as you have taught us.
He already had his fist drawn back in the amateurish way some people do. But once he could see that I was not scared and I was prepared to fight his mood changed.
I couldn’t help myself saying ‘All right mate’ as I put up the fence but as he moved towards me I said: ‘Don’t come any closer.’
With that he scuttled back to the car. He looked back before he drove off and said something like ‘Next time I’ll have you.’

I believe he wanted to smack me in the face and drive off laughing. But people like this prey on fear and I was not afraid because I was prepared.
Okay - putting up a fence is hardly a move worthy of ‘Enter the Dragon.’ But it indicated to him if he did throw a punch I might be capable of something else too and he was forced to back down. It was the perfect outcome - no blows were actually exchanged, no police were called.

I think this is the essence of self-defence. No-one I’ve met at Urban Krav Maga wants to go round hitting people, but when you come across someone who does it is nice to be able to stand up to them.
regards
Guy”

OK I know what some of you are thinking - if Guy hadn’t called him a tw*t perhaps the incident would’ve been avoided all together. But in Guy’s defence, it is hard to stop yourself shouting something like that in such a situation when your life is put in danger so pointlessly. It’s pretty much an involuntary response. From that point on however Guy’s response was perfect. He made himself a hard target, the fence, putting down his bags, telling the aggressor assertively to not come any closer. He stayed safe and I ‘m sure the aggressor spent the rest of the day with his blood pressure high fuming about the whole thing - while Guy was unharmed and behaved throughout like the civilised and ethical man that he is. He is left with no psychological or physical traumas from this incident. It can be hard knowing how to act and what to say to prevent an attack, actually saying these things in class and role playing helps a lot. Hey if worse comes to worse you’ll have to fight but there’s a good chance you’ll get away without having to risk anything physical at all. Well done Guy! I agree with you mate, this is the essence of self defence. I’ve no doubt that if it came to it you would have defended yourself successfully but it is so much better to avoid whenever possible.

Another one of my students (we’ll call him IA) had an incident while driving - someone pranged his car and drove off without stopping to exchange insurance details. so he drove after him. The guy stopped in traffic and IA got out to ask the driver for his details. The driver of the other car got out. IA asked him for his insurance details. The driver became very aggressive (most likely an uninsured driver), and started swearing aggressively grabbing IA’s lapel and pulled back his fist to strike IA. IA grabbed the hand gripping his lapel and immediately hit the aggressor in the face with the palm of his other hand. This stopped the punch the aggressor was primed to throw. IA immediately moved in and grabbed the aggressor’s head in a Thai clinch and delivered 2 swift and hard knee strikes to the lower abdomen. The aggressor crumbled and IA disengaged having done enough to defend himself. He may have had to pay for the repair to his car himself but more importantly no damage was done to him by the aggressor.

IA did extremely well here. He grabbed the hand the attacker was using to hold his lapel and struck him in the face with his other hand immediately. This is a great “pattern interrupt” it stopped the aggressor’s primed punch. IA then immediately moved in and continued his counter attack with simple, effective, powerful, gross motor, fight finishing techniques. The whole incident over in 2 or 3 seconds. Also it is not always possible to strike pre-emptively. In situations like this it is quite common for drivers who are convinced they are in the right to swear profusely and be quite aggressive after a car crash. IA gave him the benefit of the doubt and tried talking to him until he was left under no doubt an attack was imminent. At which point he re-acted swiftly and decisively.

I have to say that as a self defense instructor it really makes it all worth while when you know that something you have taught has helped to keep your students safe. I believe this vindicates the teaching methods we employ at Urban Krav Maga. Certain things just become standard pre-programmed responses to violent threats. Almost like reflexes, no hesitation and a fully committed and appropriately aggressive response to the threat. Well done to all the students above who trained hard and kept their nerve in situations that could have lead to them being badly hurt or worse.

Medicine Ball Fighter’s Workout

Aasim — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:55:40 +0000

A great workout that you can do at home before going to work. A medicine ball is a great piece of kit that’s been around since the time of Hippocrates. He would get his patients to throw them at each other and catch them to improve their health. Physical exercise was considered an intrinsic part of the approach to maintaining good health. So in case you ever wondered how they got such a name now you know!

Ok here’s the workout. I do this with a 20lb (9 kg) ball but anything you can handle will do. Try not to go for anything less than 5 kg if possible. Warm up with 5 mins or so of shadow boxing before beginning and stretch all parts of your body afterwards. No resting between exercises but take 60 secs at the end of each circuit before beginning again. Go around at least twice but 3 times is better!

1. Start with ball under chest in push up position, hands either side, explsove push up to balance on ball with both hands, back to hands either side - repeat 10 times
2. Crunches with the ball held over your head - 15 reps
3. Squat and rise explosively throwing the ball straight up, catch it, drop straight into squat- repeat 20 times
4. Tricep push ups both hands on ball - 10 reps
5. Side lunges holding ball to chest - 10 each side
6. To push up position, right hand on ball left on the ground, push up explosively, keeping the ball still place both hands on the ball. Place the right hand on the ground and keep the left on the ball. Push up explosively and balance with both hands on the ball again for a moment. Put the left hand on the ground and keep the right on the ball. Thats constitutes 2 reps - do 10 reps
7. Turkish get ups - 5 reps with the ball in the left hand; 5 reps with it in the right.

Rest for 1 minute then start the circuit again.

This circuit hits just about everything cardio, explosive strenght for striking, the ability to push with the entire body against someone else when forced to deal with grappling.

Enjoy!

Awareness v Paranoia

Aasim — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:56:23 +0000

Hi Everyone

It’s been a while since the last blog post. I’ve been a little busy with the new day job so apologies for that. I’ve sratching my head wondering what to address in the next post when I got the email below from Tom. Most of you who train on Thursdays will know Tom. He asks an intersting question about awareness.

Thanks Tom, I’ve given my views below your email. It’ll be interesting to see what other people feel and what experiences they have.

Look forward to seeing you at the next class.

Aasim

Hi Aasim

This is Tom - I’m the one who wears the headband during your Thursday class !

I wanted to ask a question through your blog but I can’t work out how to post it so I hope it is OK to email you. If you feel this question is worthy of your bog please feel free to add it as I would welcome any suggestions.

I live in an area where I a quite often get people coming up to me and asking me for money. In order to avoid any problems I always walk straight passed. However, on occassions there will be people who come up to me genuinely wanting information. Yesterday, a young guy was walking towards me down a quiet road. As I approached, he stopped and started fiddling with his shoes. I was immediately aware and contemplated crossing the road. I didn’t, but continued to approach him. When I got up to him he asked me for directions to the tube. As it happened he was really polite and I had obviously misjudged him. However, as I walked away I started to wonder what I should have done to minimise any risk in case he had become aggresive. I suppose the key is to stand in such a position that would have made it difficult for him to attack me. It seems a bit unnatural to stand too far away from someone when talking to them, or standing there with my hands up in the defensive position. I tried practicing this with my wife (!) and even standing slightly off to the side resulted in her moving so that she was facing me head on. It then felt stupid constantly moving off to the side to combat this.

Do you have any suggestions? Looking forward to the next class.

Many thanks

Tom

Hey Tom,

Thanks for the email … interesting question.

I swear I saw you at Victoria station last week in a suit still wearing that headband! No I’m just kidding, who am I to talk? Trainers, cargo pants and Metallica t-shirts are right at the limit of my adventurous spirit when it comes to sartorial elegance.

A good question mate, I agree you can’t live life like a paranoid individual who sees threat everywhere. The world is not that bad a place, there are plenty more good people than bad … I personally hate them all. Good or bad! But I’m a miserable old misanthrope and you don’t want to end up like me.

In the scenario you describe here are some things I personally would do, it will be interesting to see how others approach this.

Firstly I would check his hands, can I see for sure that he is not holding or hiding a weapon in his hand. Any doubt, just cross the road and keep away from him. I’d rather be wrong and mildly embarrassed than dealing with a knife.

If I was sure he wasn’t carrying a weapon in his hands I would still bring my hands up even if not in an obvious “fence” with arms out stretched. For example, I would rub my hands together as I ask him “Alright mate? What’s up?” as I talk to him I’ll keep moving my hands and gesticulating as I speak. All the while with my peripheral vision I’ll keep an eye on any movement of his arms. If he tries to come closer I have my hands up and already moving so I’ll gently place one on his shoulder to make him keep distance, I might even say “Sorry mate do you mind keeping back?”. If he ignores this and keeps trying to move into my space then I’m going to be suspicious of his motives and I’ll just leave. Also if I’m giving him directions I won’t show him my back while I do so, If I need to point down the road I’ll stand to his side and slightly behind him, again if he keeps trying to get behind me or does anything that looks or feels suspicious I’m going to create even more distance and just get out of there.

If for some reason getting away is not possible and the situation does deteriorate to a point where you have to take physical action to protect yourself then at least you have given yourself some room, which buys you time to act.

One thing that always helps mark you out as a hard target rather than a potentially easy one for an attacker is how you look and sound. Speak clearly and purposefully with authority, use definite and purposeful gestures, have an erect and commanding body posture, maintain a generally neat and tidy appearance.

One more thing I’d like to add … dont give everyone the benefit of the doubt, if your adrenaline is telling you someone feels like trouble, keep walking, be polite and firm but don’t feel you have to stop and engage just to be polite. More tips on awareness and avoidance and how to help judge if someone has ulterior motievs can be found here.

Feel free to comment and add your opinions.

If you have anything you’d like to address on the Blog - about techniques, strength and physical conditioning, soft skills for self protection or indeed anything self protection related just send me an email and we’ll see about setting up a post.

Cheers,

Aasim

Dumbell \ Kettle Bell Workout

Aasim — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:48:43 +0000

This week’s post contains a great workout that will benefit all you martial arts techniques. Use a dumbell or kettle bell. for the exercises below. You only need one dumbell (you can use a kettlebell if you have one .. but you’ll get plenty of benefit out of it with just a dumbell). I do this routine with a 25 kg dumbell … choose a suitable weight for yourelf … anything from 16 kg upwards. IN terms of how much weight you use - err on the side of caution to begin with. Go around the circuit 3 times. Emphasize explosive power from the thighs and hips first and you’ll find you’ll be able to punch that weight over your head with ease! The same pricinple applies when striking. This kind of exercise can really improve your strength for striking as well as you understanding of good technique and helping you understand how to use your whole body to strike with rather than just the arms.

1. 2 handed kettlebell swings - 20 reps
2. Ketttle push press - 10 reps each side
3. standing Russian twist - 10 reps each side
4. deadlift - 20 reps
5. bent over row 20 reps
6. kettle squat 20 reps
7. single arm clean and push press - 10 reps each side
8. rest for 2 mins then go back to 1

For exercise definitions check out this site: http://www.mikemahler.com/kettlebell_exercises.html

Have fun with this workout .. don’t do it on consecutive days.
Always warm up before and warm down after training. Consult you physician before beginning a course of intensive exercise.

Enjoy,

Aasim
http://urban-kravmaga.co.uk/

How to strike HARD

Aasim — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:02:06 +0000

When it comes to the last resort of defending yourself in a real situation against an aggressive, violent and determined attacker there is no getting away from the fact that you will have to do enough damage to them to stop them long enough to make good your escape. One of the best ways to do this is with concussive strikes to the head. The ideal targets are the chin, the jaw line and the temple. Under stress though anywhere on the head is good! Hit hard and repeatedly until the threat is over. I prefer when possible to use the palm strike or the elbow to prevent damage to small bones of the hands and wrist. But whether you choose to punch, use an elbow, or your palm heel the basic mechanics of generating a highly impactive strike are pretty much the same.

Everything starts with the legs, imagine you are in a left lead stance looking to strike with a right palm heel. Transfer your weight to your right leg and explosively push off the ground with your right foot. It is the large muscles of the quadriceps and the glutes that are doing most of the work here. You should start relaxed not tense. Push off the ground explosively like a sprinter. This will accelerate your body mass forward in the direction of the strike, the more speed you can give your body at this point the better! Next as your weight is transferred to your lead leg rotate your torso towards your target, these core muscles are the next actuators in the kinetic link that are recruited. Again make this movement of the torso as explosive as possible, as your shoulders come close to being square on with the target, recruit the shoulder, pecs and then the triceps - again do this explosively. At the point when you begin to recruit the muscles controlling the arm you should be up on the ball of the rear foot with your weight having been transferred as much as was safely possible to your lead leg. Keep the elbow in close to the body not out wide. Aim to hit two inches beyond the surface of the target and recoil back to the starting position at the end of the strike. Always ensure that you plan to begin the recoil before you elbow reaches full extension to prevent damage. You should always begin each strike with your muscles as relaxed as possible. The arm is the last link in the chain to be activated this sequencing allows all the larger muscles in the body to contribute as much energy as possible to the strike. Each link in the chain “piggybacks” on the work done by the larger link preceeding it, riding the wave and adding more energy to it. As you strike exhale sharply, there is a reason for the kiai of the martial artist, it helps to contract the core muscles of the torso more explosively. Boxers also exhale sharply with each strike .. emulate this.

Practice your strikes on the heavy bag or on the pads with partners. Once you have the principles down pat you can vary things by striking from closer in or with less telgraphing . The principles of muscle activation are the same you will just have shorter distance and less time to play with. This means you won’t be able to transfer as much weight but you will still be transferring some weight (as much as possible under the circumstances) and exploding forwards as much as is possible to maximise power. This way you will learn to strike with power even from very close range. Remember, move the biggest links in the chain first!

I hope you find the post helpful, practice and enjoy!

Helping to Defend Others

Aasim — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:06:58 +0000

Hi there! This is the first post on the Urban Krav Maga Blog for the City School of Urban Krav Maga. I was humming and hawing trying to decide what the first post should be about when I get the email below from my sister in Glasgow:

“Hi Aasim!
Nothing to worry about as we are both OK. We had an incident here last night just after midnight. A guy was beating up a girl in the street and Jamie knocked on the window and told me to call the police. Jamie opened the window to ask the girl if she was Ok and she said ” You’d better watch, he’s coming to get you”. Next thing this guy’s broken through the security door downstairs ran up to our storm door and broken the door off it’s locks and broken through the glass in our inside door. Jamie’s pushing the door to stop him from getting through Jamie got cut by the broken glass and the guy was putting his head through the now big hole in the glass. He was shouting God knows what and finally ran off cuz he saw me calling the police. The police were here for hours and they called an ambulance to look at Jamie’s arm which thankfully only needed paper stiches. Trying to get a 24 hr joiner to make us secure was a nightmare but finally got a guy at 3am and he stayed till 4am banging away but our door’s so big it takes 2-3 weeks to order and he could only patch us up but he did with thick planks. We look like a war zone Glasgow style! Jamie says he’ll never do a good turn again as this is what happens. And the stupid girl pissed off and will obviously go back to this guy and not grateful at all. She will definitely end up in hospital from this character. I have never seen anyone so off thier nut on drugs and alcohol. We’re hoping he won’t remeber much so that he doesn’t come back. Anyhow that’s the gist of it. Clearing up all the mess today, insurance company only deals with claims Mon-Fri! Can you believe that?! Any how got the ball rolling. Can’t wait for our super new storm door which better be imprenitable. We’ll see you Sat. Been trying on saris galore and have whittled it down to two! lol. xxx”

I know what you’re thinking terrible grammar, that’s what 15 years in Glasgow can do to you!

OK, I think most people would agree that is a pretty shocking experience, and my sister lives in a relatively nice part of Glasgow believe it or not. Now this does bring up some intersting issues when it comes to self protection and intervening to protect others.

Here are a few things that come to mind:

1. There may be some pretty extreme consequences to helping people who are being attacked. I’m proud of the way by brother in law stuck up for this woman, he may have saved her from severe injury or even from death. However he probably was not expecting the response he got. The man reacted with extreme aggression and had the intent to do some serious harm to him andor his wife. It is important to note what a man amped up on alcohol (and who knows what else), couple with extreme rage is capable of. He may well be sufffering with broken bones from his assault on the doors and with some severe cuts from the glass but that was not stopping him at the time. If he had managed to get through that final door I shudder to think what may have happened.

2. I would recommend keeping an “equalizer” for such occasions somehwhere out of sight but easily accessible. By equalizer I mean something you can use as an effective weapon in the worst case scenario, a hammer perhaps. I wouldn’t go for many people’s favourite the baseball bat as there is not often the space or time to use it effectively i such situations. Keep it out of sight because you don’t want the intruder getting his hands on it and using it on you!

3. You must accept the fact that in such situations you will need to be very aggressive and ruthless yourself. In any physical encounter you must decide early how ruthless you will be, and then act!. In the situation described in the above email you would have to be totally ruthless. You are dealing with an adversary who will have no compunction about severely hurting or even killing you. You must match that. I know sometimes when I teach techniques and principles for self protection some students wince at the thought of eye gouges, stomping on the head, crushing someone’s larynx. Yet in the above situation I would have no qualms about such techniques. Now change to a scenarios where the attacker is a 14 year old getting gobby and threatening on the tube or bus, and obviously such responses would not be suitable. However put a knife in the same 14 year old’s hand or even tucked in his belt and again you need to be ruthless if you cannot leave the scene and avoid the fight. You must make the ruthless level decision early. If it is an ambush then assume the worst and be ruthless! Better safe than sorry.

4. Sometimes you will witness attacks or serious threats on innocent people or friends by scumabgs like the guy described above when your are out and about. Practice the various scenarios in your training as I am doing with my students this week. Remember you don’t have to give the other guy notice of what you intend to do. Surprise is your best ally. By the time he knows that you are going to help the innocent party, if you play your cards right, it should be all over!

5. Do not allow yourself to be intimidated by the other party’s agrression and patter! For all his bravado he is just a man with all the weakness that go with it. Concentrate on what you are going to do to him. Execute your plan and adapt as you need to.

Well that’s enough for my first post … I hope it gave you some food for thought!

If you are not able to get to lessons at my school or any of the affiliated Urban Krav Maga schools you may be interested in the UKM DVD box set that Stewart McGill put together with help from myself, Andy and Gershon. One of the 6 DVDs in the set concentrates on defending others under attack: http://www.urban-kravmaga.co.uk/urban_km_dvd.htm