Rear Naked Choke Escape
Rear Tackle and Rear Bear Hugs
Rear Tackle
Rear Bear Hug—Turning Away
Rear Bear Hug—Arms Free
Rear Bear Hug—Arms Trapped
Universal Rear Bear Hug Solution—Arms Trapped and Arms Free
Rear Bear Hug with Lift—Arms Trapped and Arms Free
Unarmed Assaults—Conclusion
PART V: Throws and Pick-Ups
Preemptive Throwing—Major Outer Reap
Two-Handed Pick-Up/Reap
Throws Against Armed Assailants
Sacrifice Throws
Conclusion
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Foreword
I have been coaching Krav Maga for many years in Israel and in the world. I found Gershon, who teaches Krav Maga in Boston, and saw for myself that the self-defense system he describes in his books is very efficient, serious, realistic, and suitable for street fights and survival in various other circumstances. I am impressed by the rhetoric he chose to describe the various techniques he presents in his second book.
Over the years, many books have been written on the topic of self-defense. However, Gershon’s second book on Krav Maga Yashir is excellent in its presentation of real-life situations of assault and defense against the described attacks. It is worth mentioning that the second book is also very readable, and the material is presented very well through photographs. It can certainly be used as a training manual for every student of the various martial arts systems, and Krav Maga in particular.
I have been very impressed with this work, and am looking forward to Gershon’s future books on Krav Maga Yashir.
Miki Assulin
Israel Krav Maga
Translated from Hebrew by Oren Rippel
Miki Assulin is a Krav Maga Chief Instructor who was trained and certified to Fifth-dan rank by Krav Maga founder Imi Sde-Or Lichtenfeld. Miki has over 25 years’ worth of experience working as an instructor with the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), training special security and anti-terror squads. For many years he served as a senior coach and instructor, training military, law enforcement, and civilians in Krav Maga at the Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sports, the IDF’s primary Krav Maga training facility. He has been an instructor to many prominent Kravists, including Avi Moyal, Amnon Darsa, and Israel Cohen. One of the original founders of the IKMF (International Krav Maga Federation), Miki now runs his own organization—IKMM (International Krav Maga Miki—Imi system)—teaching specially designed programs for adults, women, children, and the disabled.
Introduction
This isn’t simply a book about Krav Maga, but one that teaches you how to use Krav Maga in real-life situations. There is a huge difference between knowing how to “mechanically” perform a technique and being able to actually get that technique to work during a real-life confrontation. If you don’t understand how violent situations occur and develop, and the situational components that accompany them, it is unlikely that you will be successful in dealing with physical violence, however many techniques you may know. Rather than simply present an encyclopedia of techniques, I have tried to demonstrate what real-world violence looks like and how Krav Maga can be used to deal with it. This is not a book about techniques, but about solutions to violence—which may be non-physical as well as physical. To this end, I have tried to employ not only my firsthand experiences of violence (and those of my contemporaries and colleagues), but also academic research I have been involved in and privy to, along with that which is available in the public domain. I firmly believe that it is important not to limit what you teach to your own experiences, however broad you may believe they are, but to ratify and compare them to those of others, and to that which has been academically proven. Too often, the self-defense and personal-safety industry teaches, and presents, what are merely good ideas and well-intentioned strategies and tactics, which may not have any solid basis in reality.
The techniques and situations described in this book are aimed at educating the reader as to how different types of violent situations develop and play out. They are not designed to be taken as blueprints that accurately describe and reflect every situation that you might encounter. In 99 percent of mugging scenarios, for example, handing over your wallet to an assailant pointing a gun at your head will be the most effective solution; however, if they have a finger on the trigger and their hands are shaking, due to either nerves or withdrawal (most muggings occur to support a drug habit), it may be safer to perform a disarm immediately in case they inadvertently shoot you. The situation determines the solution; there should never be a set of rules you blindly follow. Because of this, you need to understand the dynamics of violence, including how different aggressors are motivated and operate—the same knife threat may be applied by individuals with different motives, and so may require different solutions. If you don’t take this into account in your training, and simply treat a knife threat as a knife threat, you are not training for reality.
An aggressor’s motivation is one of five different situational components that you will need to take into consideration when determining solutions. These five different components are:
1. Location/Environment—Where does the incident take place? A public street, your house, etc.?
2. Relationship—What is your relationship with your aggressor? Stranger, acquaintance, friend, etc.?
3. Motive—What is motivating your aggressor? Financial gain, sexual satisfaction, ego, injustice, etc.?
4. State of mind—What are you thinking/how prepared are you? Are you surprised, resigned, in denial, etc.?
5. Third parties—Who is with you? Are you alone, with friends, with kids, etc.?
Not all violence is the same. A person who puts a knife to your throat may do so for a number of reasons. They may be attempting to rob you, or they may want to abduct you, or they may have just become enraged by something you have done (or they think you’ve done). This could occur on a street, in a parking lot, or in your own home. It could be committed by someone you know, rather than a total stranger. You might not be on your own; you may be with friends or family members, and if you have kids, they may be present, too. Knowing how to perform a knife control or disarm is really only one part of the story, as depending on the situation there may be more effective solutions, and a disarm may in fact be detrimental to your safety. Understanding how these different components interact and change the dynamics of a situation will allow you to choose and implement an effective solution. This book attempts to educate you about how to solve these situations safely, rather than just how to perform various Krav Maga techniques.
Krav Maga is a practical system, and our approach to using it should be practical as well. It has come a long way from the 1940s, when Imi Lichtenfeld designed it as a system of close combat for a soldier with a pack on his or her back. Where violence on the battlefield was simple and direct, the aggressive and violent situations in which modern soldiers and civilians find themselves are much more complex; the modern infantryman has to perform peacekeeping and law-enforcement roles, and civilians have to deal with muggers, sexual assailants, and drunks in bars. While the techniques of Krav Maga are still simple, the situations where they may need to be applied are far from simplistic, and Krav Maga has evolved and developed in order to remain effective and applicable.
This book is divided into four parts: the first part looks at striking and blocking; the second at armed scenarios; the third at unarmed assaults and the situations in which they occur; and the fourth at throws and takedowns. Although this book stands alone,