The Hindu :: Fighting fit

The Hindu :: Fighting fit
(My Original Blog Post: http://vickykapoor.com/delhi/the-hindu-fighting-fit/)
Offbeat Krav Maga expert Vicky Kapoor on how he packages the combat technique for specific problems.

Combating challenges

Vicky Kapoor is driven by three goals. Propagating Krav Maga as a weapon against terrorism, a fitness regimen and a system that is equally good for kids.

His organisation has made packages specific to these goals. Besides security personnel attached to Government organisations, Vicky's team works increasingly with the hospitality industry. Vicky considers Krav Maga most relevant to situations in hotels, because it sharpens a practitioner's mind and trains him to size up people.

Vicky calls Krav Maga a holistic health solution and is excited by its growing popularity among corporates whose work-force is largely deskbound.

His third goal of reaching the system to children often leaves him frustrated. “Krav Maga is not a sport, but a system. Schools don't show interest in anything that does not lend itself to competition.”

A fter gruelling drills in the dojo, Vicky Kapoor sits his students down for a talk. With that, the curtains come down on a two-day session of Krav Maga in the city; Vicky is now more of an older friend offering general advice than a coach cracking the whip. He tells his students to be greedy for knowledge. “Knowledge is one thing that can't be stolen from you.”

During the free-wheeling interview that follows, he explains how infected he is with this form of greed. “In August, I'll complete 36 years in martial arts,” says 46-year-old Vicky. “I have learnt quite a number of martial arts and done many fitness courses, but I have not lost the appetite for knowledge. Only recently, I completed the Spinning Instructor Certification course offered by the U.S.-based Mad Dogg Athletics.”

For Vicky, Krav Maga provides the opportunity to synthesise a diverse range of marital arts and fitness regimens. When Vicky makes Krav Maga packages for specific problems, he consciously or unconsciously runs through techniques of Okinawan gojuryu karate, judo, taekwondo, akido and kubudo. He also draws upon his experience as a fitness trainer.

“While devising defence techniques based on Krav Maga, we have to assume that the attacker is trained in all the traditional martial arts. Our techniques must be effective in combating threat from such a person.”

Since Krav Maga is a highly flexible combat system, Vicky has licence to constantly innovate and evolve new techniques or refine old ones. Krav Maga India, which Vicky heads, is credited with creating a technique that could be used when an attacker places a knife under the victim's nose. “This technique was shared with the Krav Maga bodies in other countries. A Krav Maga technique evolved in one part of the world is shared with practitioners in other parts,” says Vicky. “Krav Maga is a dynamic system with a wide scope for improvement. A solution to a problem leads to a new problem. There is constant research and learning."

Vicky says he has many options in life, but chooses to stay dedicated to Krav Maga because the system constantly challenges the student in him. “Not only Krav Maga, anything that challenges me to keep going further draws me. I can't resist a challenge." Tasks that seem impossible attract him more.

As a mountaineer, he has scaled an impressive number of peaks in the Himalayas. He undertakes four-wheel drive expeditions in this massive mountain range. And, he is into power lifting for the sheer difficulty of the sport.