Krav Maga. Gershon Ben Keren

deal with both of them, when it could have been just the primary aggressor.

      How to Move

      To move backwards, move the rear foot first, followed by the front foot.

      To move left, move the left foot first, followed by right foot.

      To move forward, move the forward foot first, followed by the rear foot.

      To move right, move the right foot first, followed by the left foot.

      Your feet should always slide and feel a connection with the floor, rather than stepping. This will prevent you from putting your foot down on something unstable or slippery. If you slide and transfer your weight in a controlled fashion, you will be able to feel whether or not what is beneath your feet is solid and can be trusted to bear your weight. Stepping actions also demonstrate to your assailant a transfer of weight—if they are trained, they will be able to exploit this by easily sweeping your feet.

      When you want to move forward, simply move the forward foot, sliding it about a foot’s length, plant it, and bring the rear foot up so you are in the same stance as you were before. It should be the rear foot pushing the body which initiates the body and forward foot to move. As you move forward, be careful to keep your weight over your hips, rather than overly transferring it to the front foot. This transference could make you vulnerable to being swept before you place the foot down, it could also make your front leg a solid target for a kick, as it will be too rooted and unable to ride the movement of any strike to it.

      If you want to move backwards, repeat this process in reverse, pushing off with the front foot and sliding the rear foot, again keeping the weight centered. Every time you move, you should find yourself back in your original stance (feet on opposite corners of a rectangle, weight distributed 50/50, both legs active).

      When you move either to the left or right, the same rules apply. When you move to the left, you should push off with the right foot, slide the left foot to the left, and resume your stance. Moving to the right will involve force being applied by the left foot to allow the right to slide first.

      Other Stances

      If you are attacked without warning (most assaults are preceded by a verbal exchange), your hands may be down (we call this “Unprepared Stance”), halfway up (“Semi-Prepared Stance”) or in some other position; equally, your footing may be unbalanced and your body alignment off. It is important to train from these unprepared and semi-prepared positions, and to practice taking the first opportunity in these situations to get into a stable stance from which you can strike.

      Unprepared Stance—This is a training stance that is used to replicate our body/hand position when we are attacked by surprise. In Krav Maga, we don’t assume we’ll always be in a state of readiness when assaulted, and so train from positions of unreadiness, where our hands are down and our feet are not in the most stable position, etc.

      We also train from positions where we are seated, walking, and even lying down.

      Semi-Prepared Stance—There are times when we naturally react to movements (threatening and non-threatening) by bringing our hands up. It should also become a first response for us to start to bring our hands up as soon as we recognize that we are being assaulted.

      The Semi-Prepared Stance is a training stance that acknowledges this natural reaction, from which we train the first moments of a physical confrontation.

      Fighting Stance—This is a stance that demonstrates principles, such as keeping the hands up high when they are not being used to strike or block with. If you have the space and time to adopt a fighting stance in a real-life confrontation, you have either missed an opportunity to attack your assailant, or failed to disengage from them—otherwise you should be adopting an Interview Stance, with the goal of de-escalating the situation. Just as with the Interview Stance, your least dominant hand (and leg) should be forward. You should never find yourself in a static stance, as you should always be moving in a fight, either attacking, or preparing to attack.

      Striking, Punching, Kicking, and Throwing

      If you believe that violence is inevitable you should strike preemptively, rather than wait to be attacked. If you have adopted the Interview Stance and in talking to your assailant find them so aggressive and emotional that they don’t respond, or you understand that their motive is one that will inevitably lead to physical violence (they have a pre-planned goal they wish to accomplish, such as an abduction or mugging), you should take control of the situation and attack first.

      If disengagement is an option, and you can move behind a protective barrier such as a car and/or exit the situation, you should. If there is something in the environment you can use as a weapon then it would be advisable to arm yourself, for you should always assume that your assailant is armed, and you don’t want to have to deal with them in this capacity without a weapon of your own.

      Preemptive Striking Combination

      Following is detailed a preemptive striking combination that all Krav Maga Yashir students learn. In reality, it can be dissected and any part of the combination can be used during any stage of a physical assault, not just at the beginning, or in the order shown here.

      The combination leads with a preemptive strike. All the other techniques (the kick, the punches, the knee, etc.) flow out from there in an unbroken fashion, with each strike setting up the next. The body has three naturally weak targets that no amount of gym work and training can strengthen. These are the eyes, the throat, and the groin. A little force applied to each one of these targets will result in a great deal of pain and discomfort, which makes them excellent “first choice” targets.

      The Krav Maga Yashir system works along a continuum, referred to as Disrupt, Damage, Destroy, and Disengage. The first strike that is thrown should look to disrupt the assailant from either making an assault, or from continuing with their assault. To do this, you should attack the soft targets listed, with fast strikes that don’t require any power to be effective. If you are assaulted when unprepared and surprised, it will take you a relatively long time to get into a position from which you can deliver powerful strikes. You will be able to create this time by disrupting your assailant with an eye, throat, or groin strike and follow these with power strikes, which you will use to finish the fight.

      Lead Eye Strike

      A poor eye strike is much more effective than a poor punch, and so makes a very good initial strike. It also doesn’t rely on “body power” to be effective, and can therefore be thrown from almost all body positions. Even if it doesn’t land, it will normally cause the person receiving it to pull their head back, restricting their ability to make an attack (in that moment).

      From the Interview Stance, turn on the toes of the front foot and extend your front hand, aiming your fingers at your assailant’s eyes. The hand should flick out towards them, with the pivoting motion of the toes bringing the hip forward and turning the body, to give you a better reach. If your assailant is too far away for you to reach this way, you will need to take a small, sliding step forward to close the distance.

      If your strike connects, it will cause your aggressor’s eyes to water, disrupting them from making their own attack, and preventing them from defending themselves against your next, more damaging attack. Even if you don’t make contact, this fast movement aimed at their eyes will cause them to blink or pull their head back, giving you an opening to move in with a hard strike.

      Groin Kick

      Depending on the position of your aggressor’s stance, you may need to move before making the groin kick, as their leg position