The Week Health :: Survival Instincts - Krav Maga gives instant results

(My Original Blog Post: http://vickykapoor.com/photo-gallery/the-week-survival-instincts)

The Week Magazine Health Supplement

By Vaidehee Deshpande

Welcome to the new generation of fitness workouts designed to engage your body and mind. These workouts improves self confidence and help in muscle toning and fat loss. The leader of this pack is a technique called Krav Maga. At first glance it might appear to be just another martial arts system, but, in fact, this technique targets elements that classic martial arts lack, such as defense tactics against grenades, guns, and hostage situations. Prithvi, who has been taking Krav Maga classes since last February, initially signed up with fitness as his primary goal. He soon realized that Krav Maga is more than just a workout. While this technique did help him tone his entire body fairly rapidly, Prithvi realized that the defense tactics that are a part of Krav Maga don't require a lot of strength as they utilize the body's natural movements to respond to an attack.

Krav Maga, which literally translates to 'contact combat', is the primary self defense techniques of the Israeli military. Imi Lichtenfeld, a man of many talents like boxing, wrestling, acrobatics and dancing, devised the techniques during World War II and helped integrate it into the Israeli army training. Over the years, the techniques has been adopted by the defense forces of various countries and integrated as a component of training in educational institutions and the corporate sectors. Since the basic premise of Krav Maga is 'survival in any situations', the techniques relies on a person's natural instincts and reflexes for self defense. There are no rules and no specific sequences that need to be followed. Krav Maga primarily uses speed and force to help the defendant strike at the attacker's most venerable body parts which include the groin , the chin and the back of the head. Techniques to overcome the attacker include kicks to his groin, throat or kidney, jabbing a finger into his eye, shouting into his ears or biting his neck. Mental preparation could include being attacked by several individuals at once, and trying to ward of the attack. Rakhee, a teacher was motivated to learn Krav maga after reading an article about two women who were victimized. While one succumbed to the emotional trauma or the attack, the other was able to fight off her attacker. The latter women has been exposed to Krav Maga and used her reflexes to protect herself. Previously, Rakhee felt stressed by the pressures of living in an unsafe neighborhood. After a couple of classes, she admits to feeling very confident and strong.

Frank J., who runs weekend Krav Maga classes in Bangalore for anyone over 16 years has trained under Vicky kapoor, the head of the Indian branch of the Israeli International Krav Maga Federation (IKMF) and Avi Moyal a member of Israeli IKMF. "You can't wait for the police or security personnel to arrive when you have a gun being held to your head," he says. Most of the time there is little time to second-guess the attacker, let alone wait for help to arrive. "You must use the strongest part of your body to fight." he adds. This means hips in case of women and arms in case of men. Frank emphasizes techniques to combat real-life situations in his class. While there is a loose structure to the class including a warm-up session involving kickboxing or bag work, the rest of the class is unique and full of surprises. One never knows when the instructor or a fellow student might throw a few 'grenades' at you or come up behind you with a knife. A lot of the learning happens through games. For example, the class may be asked to mimic a bombing incident with one individual playing the VIP, another playing a security guard, a third playing a terrorists, and so forth. Frank hopes to start a Krav Maga gym soon, gearing towards cardiovascular fitness and body toning to prepare the body for combat.

Krav Maga is constantly evolving. For example, when attackers in South Africa changed their tactics, using both hands to choke the victim with knife in one hand, Krav Maga instructors had to devise a method to push both hands out of the way and twist underneath the arms to get away. Krav Maga is fun, empowering, energizing and dynamic self defense and fitness regimen. So if you are looking for a new way to get fit, you may as well learn to protect yourself and your loved ones while you are at it!.