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I just recently started my own “school” at the University of Miami, teaching Krav Maga and was interviewed by the school newspaper.
One of the questions was, Why did you choose krav maga? As opposed to Karate, JKD, etc…..
My answer was geography. Let me explain:
I was reading a newspaper article back in 2003 and it mentioned a prominent athlete(can’t recall) and his israeli bodyguard, who was an expert in Krav Maga. I said, WTF, is Krav Maga and started reading up on it.
As a side note, I came across combatsurvival(Moni Aizik) and it suddenly changed to commando krav maga. Not implying anything, just throwing out facts!:banghead:
My research led me to look at a map of the middle east, and I saw tiny israel surround by countries that hate them and for the most part, deny their right to exist. I said to myself, “these ****ers must be pretty good” at defending themselves.
I researched some more and found that one of the original US instructors and Krav Maga pioneers in the US(Rick Blitstein) was teaching at UM and got together with him.
Small world note: David Kahn of the IKMA also got his start at UM with Rick about 5 years before me.
Anyway, here we are almost 10 years and hundreds of hours later, and I have come full circle, teaching at the place I started. The roof still leaks, the carpet looks the same, but it’s home!
I thought this would be a cool thread and see people’s response.:beer:
Re: What made you pick Krav Maga?
For me, I had trained in a few other things before KM and wasn’t really out looking for anything new at the time (because I was still trying to get better at what I was already doing LOL). Got sworn and started helping out our force training units in Custody Division and at our south Academy. Now I don’t remember what year it was and how exactly it came about but the guys at the Academy (the training unit that I’m currently assigned to) “got together” with KMWW (I’m pretty sure it was through Darren Levine and Jon Pascal) and started training in KM and adopting a lot of KM into our defensive tactics curriculum. Because I was helping teach, I had to learn what we were teaching so I guess you could say it was kinda thrust upon me. My department now enjoys a close and great relationship with KMWW and I am a better instructor and practitioner from having met and trained with a bunch of outstanding people that I met through our relationship with KMWW (I don’t want to list names for fear of leaving someone out!). 🙂
Re: What made you pick Krav Maga?
I did TKD for a few years in middle school, nothing for high school and then joined the Corps and learned MCMAP. After doing something practical and immediately applicable to reality, and an amalgamation of several traditional martial arts and reality based self defense systems, I could not just go to a traditional martial art. For me much of the teaching at the lower levels was a little behind where I felt I was, and I’d been living the values they intend to instill in a student for 8 years and under fire. I needed something that was just as much about mindset as it was about practicality. I heard about Krav while I was still in, did some research and hooked up. Love it, wish I would have found a school sooner to supplement my MCMAP training, and definitely before deployment.
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