Fighting terror the Krav Maga way

An Israeli hand-to-hand combat technique is finding more takers in the wake of the Mumbai attacks
Source: Livemint

New Delhi: There were many in Mumbai on those three nights it was hostage to ten terrorists who would probably have prayed for knowledge of some sort of self-defence. The Israeli technique of Krav Maga or Hebrew for Contact Combat, teaches how to fight off an armed kidnapping or defeat a potential rapist and even counter terrorists. It’s a technique that sharpens reflexes and reduces reaction time. The practical approach to a potentially violent situation, has suddenly seen more takers for Krav Maga.

Says Vicky Kapoor, director of Krav Maga India, “urban warfare is totally different, thinking is different, fight is different. You are not fighting regular soldiers, you are fighting only a surprise. So you have to prepared for everything.”

Learner Nitin Bhasin says, “it mentally prepares you to be aggressive in situations that demand you to be aggressive.” However, be warned that Krav Maga cannot help you survive bullets indiscriminately being fired at you. “If I am standing 10mtrs away from you and then I start randomly shooting, then there is no solution. But if somebody is only pointing a gun at you and is asking how many people are inside, and is holding you very close then Krav Maga is the ideal solution for that”, Kapoor says.