Krav Maga

A few weeks ago, my trainer and another instructor at my gym provided a self defense class at my company.  Besides being fun, it was very informative and a great eye-opener for me.  It gave me some awareness that if someone tried to attack me or my son, I wouldn’t have known what to do and I probably would have made for a great victim.  You can’t rely on being able to think things through quickly because your senses get distorted, and you’d better not rely on being stronger than the attacker (he wouldn’t attack if he thought you could take him, right?).

The class opened my eyes to more vulnerabilities and more ways someone could attack than I expected.  Some of the things we practiced in the class would never have crossed my mind even in a pretend attack that would allow me time to think of a strategic response.  Without continued practice, I might not even do those things in the event of a real attack.  That’s a scary thought.  Not paralyzing, but an interesting revelation.

So I decided to try some of the Krav Maga classes at my gym (in addition to my normal workouts and personal training).  Krav Maga is an Israeli self-defense system, used by the Israeli Defense Forces, that also relates extremely well to real-world situations.  Rather than simply defending yourself and trying to avoid/minimize personal harm, you also learn about counter-attacks – whatever you have to do to neutralize the threat, including offensive tactics.

I assumed these classes would mostly consist of women, considering my expectation that women are more likely to be targets than men.  But the first class I attended, it was all men.  In fact I’ve been the only woman in several classes, and even when I wasn’t the only women there were always more men.  It certainly doesn’t bother me to be the only woman, and I can understand a lack of awareness or hesitancy from other women, but I didn’t get why men were taking the class.  It’s not like they’re small men who might be afraid of getting picked on.  If I was an attacker, these men certainly wouldn’t be my first targets.  So what was driving them to take Krav Maga?

I decided to ask a few men why the classes were dominated by men rather than women.  They started responding by saying not to feel bad and that sometimes there were women there too.  I realized that was the wrong question because I don’t feel bad and that wasn’t the point of my question.  So I asked why THEY personally were there.  Did they think they could/would be a target?  I loved their responses which ultimately came down to wanting to be able to protect family and community if the need ever arose.  Though it might be unlikely to be a personal target (at least to the extent or for the same reasons as a woman), how many times do we hear about a shooting at a restaurant, movie theatre, school, or other public place?

This point came particularly close to home for me (literally) this week.  There was a shooting at a nearby grocery store which I happened to be at only an hour earlier.  These classes address more than hand-to-hand combat, and also include situations where the attacker pulls a gun or knife.  What would I have done if I had been at that store near the attacker?  What if I was there with my son??  I’m not saying this makes me fearful, but I do want to be better equipped to handle things this like this.  It happened to someone; it could just as easily happen to me.