People frequently ask me about Krav Maga as my choice of martial discipline and more specifically, self-defense.
I have rank in several arts, including Gung Fu, Jujitsu, Balintawak, and Moo Do Kwon – and dabbled in several more disciplines. Frankly, I love them all, and they all have a place in the martial universe. But, when it comes to self-defense, Krav Maga is my go-to system – primarily because it was developed with “TURD” in mind. TURD is my acronym for:
- Tense,
- Uncertain,
- Rapidly Evolving, and
- Debilitating – both physically and mentally
In essence, if life has served you up a TURD sandwich, you better know how to respond. And in the self-defense context, operating in an environment that’s best described as “TURD” requires an elegant simplicity that adheres to a simple set of immutable principles:
- Address the Danger,
- Counterattack (simultaneously if possible),
- Control the attacker (once softened), and
- Finish the encounter (secure your safety)
In conversations with people over the past 30 years, I have found the disconnect in the default thinking other’s may utilize in considering their approach to self-defense. This can be boiled down to a simple discernment between what is possible and what is probable (in terms of performance and response) in a self-defense situation. Valuable and effective responses can be performed at a probable level (with men and women, big and tall, short and small), and therefore have potential as self-defense techniques. Once tested (using a powerful knowledge management system, much like Imi employed in Israel decades ago), we can verify a defense (and/or a system) as worthy of effort and study as a self-defense paradigm. Finally, there is one other, larger issue to explore (I have previously written on this) about how a system is integrated to enhance the system itself – as opposed to any one defensive response (but I will save that for another day).
So, for now, remember – we don’t care what is possible, only what is probable given the circumstances (TURD) in which we must perform self-defense. In this, we can discover what has the real potential to save lives across a vast landscape of danger. For me, this is Krav Maga.
