Combatives & The Combative Mindset

Gershon Ben Keren

Sun 25th Aug 2013

Those of you who have trained with Dave Ashworth, this time, or previously will have heard and/or me talk about and use the term “Combatives”, and I thought it would be worth writing a Blog post on exactly what “Combatives” is/are, and how the term relates to Krav Maga in general, and Krav Maga Yashir specifically. The traditional martial arts approach to fighting and self-defense, is one that takes a long term approach to building the necessary skills and abilities needed to become a competent fighter – in many arts the techniques and the system is not really tested as to...Click To Read More

Personal Responsibility, Blame & the One Stop Martial Arts Shop

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 19th Aug 2013

We live in a society where entitlement, rights and personal freedom trump reality. This week I conducted a series of external classes/seminars where the people attending the sessions were possibly only doing so because their organizations had deemed it necessary for them to undergo some form of personal safety and self-defense training. When you train groups, with members who haven’t voluntarily elected to be there you sometimes get a mixed response when you suggest that it is an individual’s, personal responsibility to ensure their own safety. Whilst I will be the first to acknowledge that the blame for an assault lies...Click To Read More

Meeting Violence With Violence

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 12th Aug 2013

Civilized people want a civilized response to violence – a solution that avoids harming or injuring their assailant, or at the most, causes their attacker just enough pain and discomfort that it dissuades them from continuing further. Such ideas come from the media’s presentation of violence, where assailants make singular, clearly identifiable attacks, which can be dealt with in a clean and crisp manner, using definable defenses that have been created with such specific attacks in mind. In reality, violent assaults are simply that; a continuous and often repetitive use of force, with each attack merging and flowing into the...Click To Read More

Some Lessons From The Terrorism Awareness Course

Gershon Ben Keren

Tue 6th Aug 2013

I firmly believe that a good 85 % of all potential violent crimes can be detected and prevented if a person has good situational awareness (SA) – a further 10-12 % can be dealt with using effective de-escalation and disengagement strategies, demonstrating that physical self-defense (armed/unarmed) represents only a small, albeit a very important, piece of the total personal safety/defense package. Having just had David Ashworth conduct a TAC (Terrorism Awareness Course) at the school, I thought I’d write a blog piece, on some of the aspects of personal security that were reinforced to me by his teaching. One of the...Click To Read More