Introduction

[dave-bluestein]

After reading some of the recent threads, I felt the need to chime in.

First, a quick introduction. As you can see from the post, my name is Dave Bluestein. I have been training in Krav Maga for over 23 years, and am one of Darren Levine’s students. I have been teaching for 15 years and have had the honor of working with several of the top instructors in both KMWW and IKMF. Jarret Waldman and I spent several weeks in Israel training with Imi, Eyal, Gabi, Eli and several other instructors. As with most of the Krav Maga instructors in Los Angeles, teaching Krav is a secondary job / hobby. I currently teach classes in Sherman Oaks, CA. I am a full time Law Enforcement Officer, as well as a father of a 2 year old boy.

While I do read the forum on a daily basis, I dont have time to read everything and respond to posts. As a moderator and senior instructor, I am more than willing to respond to questions, time permitting. I dont profess to know all, but I am happy to give opinions on exercises, techniques or other Krav related stuff.

Regarding the shake up in the leadership of Krav Maga Worldwide, I am a friend of John Whitman’s as well. He dedicated his life to Krav, its students and instructors. I respect him tremendously as a person and instructor. I am still hoping that he will decide to return as an instructor, as I fell that many people, including myself, can and will learn from him. With that said, I have been in Krav for 23 years and have seen students and instructors come and go. What remains constant though, is Krav Maga. It is bigger than any one person. If I stopped teaching tomorrow, it would still go on and students will still train.

We have to keep in mind why we do this. Much like my chosen profession as a LEO, I do this for the students. You will be hard pressed to find instuctors that do this for the money. As I said before, most instructors for KMW have a full time job as well. Teaching Krav, while enjoyable, takes additional time away from our families and other activites. We do it beacuse we believe in it, as I am sure that most of you do.

I had a female student approach me the other day and thank me. She said that she was choked from behind in a bar and performed the appropriate defense. She was able to fight off her attacker and get to safety. This is not the first time that I have had a student thank me for this, nor do I expect it to be the last. In all honesty, it wasn’t me that she was thanking. I may have taught her, but Krav Maga allowed her to go home safely. This is why I teach Krav Maga. To allow people to defend themselves in a time of need. To allow them to go home safely. To be able to affect someones life in a postive way is amazing.

I hope everyone continues to train and teach Krav in light of the leadership change. We have some of the best instructors in the world. For those of you that know Darren and have trained with him, not only is he one of the best Krav Maga instructors, but also one of the best \”teachers\” I have ever learned from. Not only in Krav, but in life. As I said earlier in this post, instructors may change, and in this case, leaders may change, but Krav Maga Worldwide will still continue to deliver some of the best self defense, fighting and fitness training anywhere.

If you have any questions that I can answer, please dont hesitate to send me an email at [email protected]. I will be more than happy to answer.

To all, please stay safe and remember why we do this.

\”So that one may walk in peace\” – Imi.

Dave Bluestein

[la-revancha]

TTT

Glad to see you posting here, compadre. Hope this means we hear from you more often.

[psyops]

Dave!

What’s up man! Hey do I still get that ride a long? Let me know when and I will come up!

[stevetuna]

Thanks for that, Dave.

I got involved in Krav Maga due to my job in law enforcement. Now, I want to teach it to make my community safer.

Best wishes.

[jburtonpdx]

Dave
You were one of the *&(*&(^ that tested me at the end of Phase A. Didn’t like you much then…. (you can imagine why) I’m over that now.

Thanks for pushing us during the test.

[vwr32]

For people like me who don’t personally know a \”senior instructor\”, this shed a bit of light into the type of people KMW has at the top and reaffirmed my decision to train with KMW in the firstplace. After reading it, I felt compelled to go put on the main theme from Rocky and attack the heavy bag with a new intensity.

Being busy isn’t a crime, and there are times I wish I could say I’m too busy to surf the net and argue with people who I’ll probably never even meet. But I do ask \”who are all these new people moderating the forum I read?\” I even went to the main page and looked under NTC instructors photos/bios link… Jarret Waldman was the only senior instructor in the photos (and also recently appointed mod) and I didn’t see any bios. Thanks for taking the time to construct such a complete and well thought out response. For the lurkers who stumble into this thread while it’s still at the top, maybe this will help confirm KMW is for them.

Now get back to work. 😛

[lumpy]

Hey Dave, Stay safe and keep the family happy. Good to hear from you.

Lynn

kravmagaportland.com

[mara-jade]

Hi Dave,

Glad to see another instructor post. We all understand you can’t be here all the time but it’s nice to know you’re around

Who?? What?? Ok, who snuck in WELCOMING COMMITTEE IN MY PROFILE?? Cmon, fess up-LOL 🙂

[mara-jade]

Miche just posted a youtube showing Dave doing choke from the front 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr0g4wqOn9U

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