Krav Maga Weapon Defenses. David Kahn

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СКАЧАТЬ state. Therefore, your self-defense reaction must be instinctive and reflexive. Krav maga training prepares you for just that. Your subconscious mind will turn your instinctive trained responses into immediate action. Instinct assumes control. This autonomic response is vital because your instantaneous reaction will occur just prior to your natural adrenaline dump that can momentarily or permanently interfere with your fine and gross motor skills—your defensive capability. In other words, optimally, you won’t have time to think. You’ll make the defense before you even realize what is happening just as your adrenaline dump reaches its apex.

      One of the most effective tactics krav maga can teach you is not to be taken by surprise in the first place. Developing recognition of pre-violence indicators along with impending attack identification skills are instrumental to krav maga training. Once you develop an awareness of your environment—any environment—you will notice at all times who and what surrounds you. By recognizing a potential threat, such as the bulge of a handgun sequestered in a waistband, before the assailant can deploy it, you can avoid a life-threatening situation. The best defense against any attack is removing yourself from the situation before the attack can take place. Only awareness of your environment can help you do that.

      Situational awareness is all-important and common sense should prevail. In an unknown environment, keep your head subtly swiveling by shifting your eye movements, using your peripheral vision, and panning for potential threats. Constantly survey your surroundings. In a worrisome situation, always watch a suspicious person’s hand movement. Let’s say you are watching a potential adversary’s hand movements. You notice that the hands are hidden in a pocket about to pull out a weapon—stop him. Along the same lines, recognition of a bulge on a potential assailant’s body—a possible weapon—also allows you to take the initiative.

      Remember, a weapon can be sequestered in many places and concealed from view even when an assailant is grasping it. Krav maga trainees scrutinize how someone can conceal a weapon, such as holding an edged weapon in a reverse grip with the blade parallel to the forearm and shielded from view. An impact weapon, edged weapon, or firearm could be placed behind an assailant’s leg ready for immediate use. Also sensitize your hearing for clues such as the lock-back of a folding edged-weapon clicking or the sound of a round being chambered in a firearm. Awareness and mental conditioning are integral to krav maga training.

      Other indicators might be someone who seems distinctly out of place, loitering, or who is mirroring or following your movements. Criminals can telegraph their intent through nervous or abnormal behavior leading up to an attack. It cannot be emphasized enough the need to watch a suspicious person’s hands. A hand concealing a weapon will usually be stiff, contorted, or move in an unnatural way. This can be particularly noticeable when a potentially dangerous person is approaching you and his arms swing or don’t swing—another indicator. If someone’s arms are crossed concealing the hands, you should also take note. In addition, an assailant could also distract you by speaking to you, or asking you question such as the time to force you to look at your watch, phone, etc. to catch you by surprise while he simultaneously presents a weapon to threaten or attack you. Be especially aware of someone turning his back to you in close proximity as he pulls his hands in front of his torso; another preferred stealth method for weapon deployment.

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      Three seminal works, Meditations on Violence (YMAA 2008) and Facing Violence (YMAA 2011) both by Rory Miller along with The Little Black Book of Violence by Lawrence Kane and Kris Wilder (YMAA 2009), provide comprehensive insights into the psychology and physiology of violence. Reading these works will further develop an understanding of street violence’s underpinnings. Each of these works also provides a strong foundation for how to best extricate yourself from harm’s way before you have no choice but to engage in counter-violence. Many of these authors’ key points dovetail extremely well with the krav maga’s holistic self-defense approach:

      • Understanding the warning signs of impending violence

      • How predators operate

      • The brutal reality of a violent encounter

      • Violence’s aftermath including first aid and legal redress or ramifications

      To harm you with an edged or impact weapon, an attacker must close the distance. To have better accuracy with a firearm, an attacker may also close the distance. If you see the attacker brandishing a weapon before he can close on you, naturally you would try to escape when possible. The assailant usually knows this and will conceal the weapon until the opportune moment to present it. In addition, a criminally-minded assailant would prefer not to have witnesses or as few as possible up until the very last moment of the attack. Note: If you witness a crime, you may be the next victim because the attacker wishes to eliminate anyone who can identify him.

Human Emotional Responses in a Life-threatening Encounter

      One of my best friends, Sgt. Major Nir Maman (res.), provides a superb explanation of the range of human emotional responses when encountering a life-threatening encounter:

       “Do not become a victim of shock. When confronting a life-threatening situation, shock can be more of a problem than fear. If you go into shock while under attack, you will freeze and not do anything. The reason people go into shock when attacked is a lack of response preparation. The mind is divided into two sections, the conscious mind, and the subconscious mind.

       “The conscious mind is your cognitive thinking process. The conscious mind engages when you have the time to assess a situation thoroughly and respond deliberately. If you are caught off guard and are overwhelmed with stress, your conscious mind shuts down and transfers all thought process to your subconscious mind.

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       “This happens because your mind does not have the time to thoroughly go through its four steps of reaction due to the overload of information and stress. The mind short circuits and shuts down. Your subconscious mind is nothing more than an instinctive response command or a data bank of muscle memory. If your subconscious mind has no concrete muscle memory stored to engage the immediate problem, it simply makes your body defend itself the best way it knows how. Often, this is to throw your arms up in front of your face and chest to protect the body’s vital areas and crouch down to become a smaller target.

       “If your subconscious muscle memory cannot summon an instinctive response, your conscious mind will still make your body respond with its own primitive defenses described above. Instincts will always dominate over cognitive response under stress.

       “You may be familiar with the expression ‘I saw my life flash in front of my eyes.’ Many people experience this response when they are in a situation where they think they are about to die. This response happens for a very specific reason that is geared at helping you survive under stress. The reason you see your life flash in front of your eyes is simple. When overwhelming stress shuts down your cognitive or conscious mind, responsibility transfers over to your subconscious mind. If your subconscious mind has no proper muscle memory stored, it is confounded with no solution. Your subconscious mind scans the entire data bank of your life, from the day you were born to the present second, to evaluate if you were ever in a similar situation and how you responded. If there was a similar or parallel situation, your subconscious mind will take that same response and implement it to the current situation to help you survive.

       “To avoid going into shock under stress, like in the training to deal with fear, constantly visualize yourself in every possible attack situation you may find yourself in and train yourself over and over in your mind until you have effective solutions for those situations.”

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