קרב מגע

Last night I participated in my first Krav Maga class.
How ironic, huh? A staunch anti-Zionist like myself learning the combat skills of the Israeli Defense Forces. It was quite a brutal yet enjoyable experience.

I entered the class with absolutely no experience in martial arts of any kind. My parents never enrolled me in karate classes. I never wrestled in school. I enjoy watching MMA on television but never thought of taking any training. Although I have been weight training for a few years now, I have no practical skills in regards to combat. Even my personally driven cardio routine didn’t serve to prepare me for the Krav Maga warm-up.

After the aforementioned brutal warm-up (to which I had to walk off cramps), our instructor, Steve, gave me some one-on-one attention. He showed me proper fighting form etc. Then we moved into learning some choke defense-into-offense moves. It is a lot like choreographed dancing. My partner was a dude A LOT larger than me (which is good for practice and exemplifies the ideology of Krav Maga). The class ended with us four students taking turns being “attacked” by eachother (practicing punches/jabs, kicks, and choke defense/offense). It was a lot of fun.

My bad back didn’t suffer too much from the class. My tendonitis got a little sore but it went away rather quickly. My dominant knee is bruised and sore from kneeing my partner as are my delts/lats from the choke moves. My traps are also bruised slightly from being choked. Haha Somehow during all of the class, I got my nose broke. It isn’t too painful and I have no idea how/when it happened.

I do hope to go back to Krav Maga Berkeley somewhat regularly.

(thanx Frank)


I chose Krav Maga over other martial arts because I feel that it is the most practical and best suited for my build.
Krav Maga is not a sport. It was developed by Imi Lichtenfeld to defend Jews from racists in Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the 1930’s. Lichtenfeld fled Europe to Palestine where he taught his techniques to Zionist Fascists. Eventually, the state of Israel adopted Krav Maga for IDF combat.
All the techniques focus on maximum efficiency in real-life conditions.
Krav Maga’s guiding principles are:
• neutralize the threat
• avoid injury
• go from defending to attacking as quickly as possible
• use the body's natural reflexes
• strike at any vulnerable point
• use any tool or object nearby