Resiliency

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 27th Apr 2020

Resiliency is a key fighting attribute. To be able to quickly recover from the shock and surprise of an initial assault and bounce back to your trained personality and mindset is an important and essential skill to have, in order to survive a confrontation. However, resiliency isn’t something that we just want to have in one area of our life – such as being able to deal with violence – it’s something we want to have in all areas, whether it’s loss of employment, the breakdown of a social relationship, or even something like surviving an extended lockdown period; and...Click To Read More

Civil Unrest

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 20th Apr 2020

During this period of lockdown there has been much speculation in the media as to whether we will enter a period of civil unrest. There have already been protests concerning social distancing, and the need to re-open the economy, and some have interpreted these as signals of future mass civil disobedience, and possibly social unrest, etc. As unemployment checks and relief payments fail to come through, and with many foodstuffs running out, it is easy to see some of the reasons why society might breakdown and how we might enter a period of civil unrest, etc. Past natural disasters have...Click To Read More

Premeditated Violence – The Fantasy, Planning & Preparation Phases

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 13th Apr 2020

Violence can be categorized as either being spontaneous or premeditated i.e. preplanned. The criminal justice system also treats these two types of violence differently, with premeditated acts, being judged far more harshly than spontaneous ones e.g. somebody who plans to commit a murder, is more likely to get a longer sentence, than somebody who takes a life in the heat of the moment, even if their act was deliberate, etc. It is worth noting, that if you always train to “finish” your assailant, by kicking them in the head whilst they are on the floor (which is only going to...Click To Read More

The Flinch or Startle Reflex

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 6th Apr 2020

Krav Maga and certain other systems, aim to work with the body’s natural responses to attacks, rather than prescribing a set of “artificial” and trained movements as a response. In my opinion, recognizing how the body will respond under stress, accepting the limitations of what is possible in the moment you are attacked makes a lot of sense, and is a great starting point and foundation for any self-defense approach/method. Unfortunately, this way of working sometimes breeds an air of over-confidence in what we are actually capable of i.e. there is a belief that our “automatic” response to certain movement...Click To Read More