Tag Archives: krav maga

Strength Is In Flexibility

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I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately on various disciplines of martial arts, in order to pick one to complement the Krav Maga training I’ve been doing.

As an intermediate level belt in Tae-Kwon-Do, I’d already decided that this one was “probably not for me” as I preferred a discipline relying more on technique rather than force.

Judo was the one that most caught my eye.  Even its translation, “the gentle way”, embodies what I’m looking for — a soft martial art.  Rather than focusing on strength and force, judo incorporates joint locks and manipulations, grappling techniques — where, rather than using your own strength, you use your opponent’s strength against them.  Judo techniques became the foundation for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Last night my Krav Maga instructor and I were discussing the incorporation of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu techniques in Krav, and he  told me that although I viewed my size as a disadvantage, I had an advantage:  a lower, more stable center of gravity.  I like his glass-half full approach to my shortcomings.

So, in my research of Judo, I came across a quote by Kyozu Mifune, someone regarded as “the greatest judo technician” (after the founder).

He said:

“Judo rests on flexible action of mind and body. The word flexible however never means weakness but something more like adaptability and openmindedness. Gentleness always overcomes strength.”


I like this.  I mean think about it, flexible is not weak.  On the contrary, it is those who stand rigid and tall that will first be blown down in a storm.  We make alloys in order to counteract the brittleness of certain independent metals. When you learn to fall in martial arts, you learn to not only “break your fall” but incorporate the actual movement of falling into continuous motion.  (Rolls, throws, etc.)  You don’t just fall flat and lay there, you need to be flexible.  Flexibility of mind, that is another story; in fact its probably even harder to achieve than flexibility of body.  Adapting to situations, admitting you are wrong, accepting that there is always someone who knows more and can teach you something.

But like every muscle in your body, the mind can adapt and grow too — use it or lose it.

Other blogs of interest:  Mental Plasticity

Mr. Miyagi To An Entire Nation

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I wish all of you could read my former instructor’s note on Krav Maga, the Israeli self-defense technique I studied with her.  She is Sue Garstki, of Krav Maga Illinois.

A bit of background for those of you, and I know you’re out there, ahem, Li, who don’t know about Krav Maga, it means “contact combat” in Hebrew and is the self-defense taught in the IDF.  There are several basic principles in Krav Maga, including giving no quarter based on the pretense that your attacker wants to kill you.  The other basics are using any available object as a weapon, do as much damage as quickly as possible, change from defending yourself to attacking your opponent (sometimes at the same time), and be aware of all your surroundings.

I distinctly remember a training exercise with her where we were in our dojo and she dimmed the lights to the same level as what would be in a romantic restaurant or nightclub, turned up the music to an unpleasantly loud volume, and asked us to spar lightly with our partner.  Now, amidst all this chaos, while you were trying to defend yourself from the blows your partner is trying to land, she would walk around the dojo and at random points, pull out a “gun” (not a real one, a training one).  Basically, she was trying to simulate being in a real life situation where you may be in a dark, loud club and “busy” (talking, dancing, boxing with someone!) and someone pulls a gun.  Will you notice?  What do you do?  Where’s your quickest exit point?

It’s a lot harder than it sounds.  As a result, I find myself counting exits a lot!

Ok, back to the history of Krav Maga and why I titled my post “Mr. Miyagi to an entire nation”.  Krav was started by Imi Lichtenfeld in a Jewish ghetto in the 1930s.  He was literally defending this ghetto from the Anti-Semitics in Slovakia.  He then taught the same techniques to what would now be considered the IDF starting in the 1940s.  He trained a guy named Darren Levine, his successor and the one responsible for bringing Krav Maga to the U.S.  I credit Sue, my instructor, for the “Mr. Miyagi” quote because I couldn’t have said it better myself.  Today, principles of Krav Maga are incorporated in self-defense courses for women (those four-hour type seminars).  They are taught in other militaries.  Krav in itself embodies techniques from jiu-jitsu amongst other traditional martial arts.  I like to describe the movements learned as your natural reflexes on steroids because most of the time, you are simply combining a natural reflex (like moving back, or trying to deflect a punch) with an offensive attack.

Oh, and there are no belts in Krav Maga.  There are no formal katas or anything to memorize.  Training with Sue was a battery of hardcore cardio, strength training, and basically getting the s*** kicked out of me.