'Brutal' Israeli combat technique a civilian hit

22 Oct 2012, 8:55 am   -   Source: Patrick Abboud, SBS
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Ron Engleman teaches a hand-to-hand combat called 'Krav Maga' to Israeli soldiers and now he's bringing the technique to civilians in Sydney. 

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By SBS video-journalist Patrick Abboud

Ron Engleman is a senior combat instructor in the Israeli Defence Force. He teaches Krav Maga as a fighting tool to soldiers in warfare. Fresh from military drills in Israel he’s in Sydney to run a series of Krav Maga workshops with civilians in Sydney.

Described as one of the world’s deadliest hand-to-hand combat training systems, Krav Maga is growing in popularity across Australia.

Developed within the Israeli Defence Force, the general principle is to neutralise your attacker as quickly as possible and get away.

The targets are the body’s most vulnerable points - some examples being - the eyes, jaw, throat, solar plexus, ribs, and the groin.

In a civilian context, fists, palms, the instep, forehead and shin become your weapons.

Ron Engleman trains soldiers in Krav Maga on the frontline.

“It’s about protecting yourself - if I’m in a warzone or if I’m walking on George St and someone is attacking me with a knife - it’s still a knife coming to attack me - the technique is not going to change” he says.

Fresh from military drills in Israel he’s in Sydney to run a series of Krav Maga workshops with civilians.

“Some things that maybe differentiate in the training is that we utlilise our situations - so with civilians most of it is we are using the bare hands - with police sometimes they might have a pistol, they might have a taser, soldiers sometimes might have a firearm or long arm that we can utilise to protect themselves as well so there are slight variations in what we teach but the basis and ground work is pretty much the same”.

Although there are three variants of application; for the army, for the police, and self-defence for civilians - Krav Maga is not considered a traditional or sport-based martial art. There are no competitions or regulations and there is no code of conduct.

Jean Alvisse is a Pan Pacific champion in Brazilian Jiujitsu - a comparable style of self-defence.

"It is brutal because there is striking involved - there’s hitting, there’s taking to the ground there’s locks as well - and there is a lot of debate in the martial arts field about its effectiveness but having said that every martial arts thinks that it’s the best so no doubt Krav Maga would be pushing that".

Ms Alvisse explains that in some parts of the martial arts community the intensity of Krav Maga has been likened to the full body contact sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

“When I speak about MMA there is that combative competitive form that’s always up there for everywhere to view and there’s a lot of people that see it and go well that is just very brutal where as Krav Maga – a lot of people talk about it but you’re not actually seeing how brutal it is other than in a war zone which we don’t see as civilians” she says.

Having done some Krav Maga workshops herself, Ms Alvisse feels it’s difficult to measure the impact in a civilian context because there is little governance of the training. 

“I think how it’s delivered needs to be monitored because not everybody has the capability to take that information and use it wisely," she says. "There is just not a lot of knowledge behind Krava Maga in terms of what people know."

At one of Ron Engleman’s recent Sydney workshops most of the men and women attending said they were looking for self-defence techniques that are quick to learn and easy to implement.

One participant, Szilard Balogh is from Hungary where Krav Maga is believed to have originated.

“The more you do it the less aggressive you feel. People always talk about a certain level of aggression that you have to put into exercises or the conditioning part, yeah - and it is part of it but I’ve got this idea that the more you do Krav Maga the milder you become if you like - because you are safe – you know that anything can come your way and you are safe – you will get out of it”, he says.

Hungarian-Israeli man Imi Lichtenfeld is said to have created the first Krav Maga techniques from street fighting skills developed while defending the Jewish quarter of Bratislava against fascist groups in the 1930's.

There are now around 40 Krav Maga schools in Australia.

Ron Engleman’s school in Sydney is one of the biggest and he's in the country frequently running specialised Krav Maga workshops.

Self Defence , Israeli Military , Patrick Abboud SBS

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Your Comments

Human Rights Abuses

John - from Artarmon, Sydney, 7 months ago

What about the human rights abuses by the Israeli Defense Forces on the occupied territories?

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