TENENTS & COMMANDANTS
Krav Maga’s Core Tenets:
Attacking the assailant becomes instinctive. Target the assailant’s anatomical vulnerabilities.
Defense becomes simultaneous offense. Combine your defense and offense into one complete strategy.
Continuous “combat motion.” Krav Maga emphasizes retzev, a Hebrew word that means “continuous motion.” Combine and synchronize counterattack combatives in a logical way to overwhelm the assailant, giving your opponent little or no time to either react or recover.
Understand the difference between retzev and a mere series of counterattacks. A series of counterattacks lacks continuity; your counterviolence will not flow instinctively. Retzev enables your body to move instinctively—without thinking about your next move—in combat motion to exploit your assailant’s vulnerabilities.
Decisive action. Take him out.
No fighting inhibitions. Do whatever is necessary to overcome a dangerous threat. Damage—as opposed to hurt—your assailant.
Master a few effective tactics. Learn a few core defensive movements and counterattacks.
Making your training as real as possible. Training must attempt to simulate a real attack for you to understand the speed, ferocity, and strength a determined assailant may direct at you.
Visualization and scenario planning. In addition to training with a partner, you can also use your mind to train your body to automatically and instinctively react to danger.
Israeli Krav Maga’s Tactical Ten Commandants
Israeli Krav Maga works against any attacker; the key is your mind-set. Never accept defeat or surrender. If you can breathe, you can fight. Do what you must to prevail.
Assess your surroundings. Common sense, basic precautions, and a confident demeanor minimize your chances of being attacked.
Nonviolent conflict resolution is always your best solution. De-escalate and disengage when possible.
A few mastered techniques go a long way and are highly effective in most situations.
The essence of Krav Maga is to neutralize an attacker quickly; there are no rules.
A strategy to end your attacker’s fighting ability is paramount when using simultaneous defense and attack. Fight positioning by moving off the line of attack determines your tactical advantage.
Footwork and body positioning, whether standing or prone, allow you to simultaneously defend and attack allowing for seamless combative transitions, essential to perform retzev or “continuous combat motion.”
Optimally, a kravist will move quickly to a superior and dominant position, the “dead side” to finish the fight. You dictate the fight using retzev combatives.
Dead-side strategy revolves around your capabilities and preferred tactics involving long, medium, and short combatives combined with evasive maneuvers. This positioning becomes even more important when facing multiple attackers.
Retzev is seamlessly using all parts of your body for an overwhelming, decisive counterattack. Combined with simultaneous defense and attack, retzev is the backbone of the Israeli fighting system.