In High School I took Krav Maga for 3 years. After High School I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (you are now Brother Ramsey to me) in the Bogota Colombia North Mission. I served in a really ghetto area in a city called Bucaramanga and while I was there a man tried to stab me with a BIG butcher knife. So I did what I was trained to do, I hit him and ran away. I wasn’t cut or stabbed and I lived to tell the tale. REAL Krav Maga works, don’t let fake Krav Maga ruin the rest of it. Dedicated full contact training, getting the crap beat out of me, and fighting through 3 years of hard constant work saved my life that day. Now if I went to a fake Krav school, I could be dead right now. Just be mindful of that:-)
That is the thing. Both of my instructors have background in different styles- one is out of Boxing and Muai Thai, the other had Kickboxing and some sort of Wrestling(or Jujutsu, i don't know- quite honestly dicking on what specyfic technique said style possess is idotic to me) and it shows. And what is more- i know for a fact, that, when they were younger, they weren't... "nicest" of people, so they got quite the experience. They even discarded some stuff from "classic" Krav Maga, that they didn't think worked and added stuff that they liked- we actually spent some time drilling stuff like head butts from Lehtwei(i hope, i didn't butcher that name) we trained BJJ techniques etc. As somebody said somwhere over here- it depends on the teacher. If he/she is a good one- Krav Maga can be great. I sparred with my MMA friends- and while i didn't use most destructive techniques, they loved few escapes i showed, and asked me to teach them, let that be the recommendation of my coaches :)
A good self defense course like Krav Maga is good as long as you don't think of yourself as an MMA fighter after the course. It does not make you a professional fighter or even an armature fighter in the ring. Nor should it. KM teaches you a little about a lot of things to help you escape and attack from the average guy on the Street . You have to take more to get better than that. I would say you are correct that most people taking a self -defense course want to be able to survive an attack. That is not a bad goal or skill to gain in life. Yeah there are bad schools for KM or any martial art or Mixed martial art. No KM school will meet the standards for MMA fighting unless the guy is just damn good.. I am sure the average KM guy can't come close to competing with someone you train but then that is not the goal of KM. The average KM student does not put hours and hours for years into training. Nor should he even consider it. since his life does not evolve around KM. It is only a tool not profession.
Love your vids, Coach Dewey. You inspired me to get off my ass. At age 50, I started MMA and BJJ. 20l lbs dropped and one year later, I'm a better human being for it. Thanks for all the work you do.
Im 33 yr old fresh bjj white belt who trains with younger ppl and older who have gotten a somewhat earlier start. Once otr twice ive thought"wish i got into it sooner" your initiative should be recognized by all who meet you
American Mormon of British descent living in China teaching Mixed Martial Arts and putting inspirational videos on the internet for the world to see My brain hurts
Lawrence Hamm that's why everyone watches his videos, since spreading wisdom si what his channel's about No one's here to see his great super mario speedruns
Lawrence Hamm it's nice to get a representative of martial arts that isn't either: martial arts are fake, only my street fighting system is good for fighting; or my martial is the best and can beat everyone no matter what Usually you only get one or the other
Hey Dewey, Police Officer here. Also love your content. I'm a Krav Maga practitioner I train at a IKMF school in Pensacola Florida. My instructor who is a veteran from the French Foreign Legion trains us more like a MMA fighter. We use the bursting and the 360 defense. But for the most part we train boxing,judo techniques and BJJ grappling with a lot of Muy Thai thrown in. He doesn't sugar coat it, he will say IKMF teaches this, but this works better then teaches the way he would do it. I think the Krav community get stuck in a certain curriculum instead of adapting and learning how to fight instead of checking boxes.
This has actually helped me a lot :). I'm actually a lad by the way, I just think goth birds are fit. I liked what you said about how it could go in the next 20 years, for all we know, it might have a sport of it's own develop :) knowing how to fight would be the main essential for it, then all the mcdojo instructors will have have no choice but to bugger off. Thanks for the video mate. :)
I have found some great Krav Maga instructors, who are not at all about the money, but teach us simple skills and encourage us to push our limits. The people I found there are the best, and I hope that more people like them get into Krav Maga, and become instructors :-) I get where Ramsey is coming from, so I consider myself lucky to have found this brilliant place where I live!
I've practice and taught Krav Maga for several years. I even got invited to train in Israel 6 years in a row. Just didn't have the time or money to go. Krav Maga is a very effective system when taught right. But some of the problems I've seen, especially within the school that I taught at was that curriculum was watered down. I tried to change it in order to make it more practical and effective for the current class of students but the owner wouldn't have any of it. I had to stick to his class plans. The classes were only 30 minutes long also. I tried to make them longer but nope. When I started, I was fortunate to have some really great instructors within the system who taught not only how to solve problems but how to actually fight. But the curriculum stated getting watered down. I felt that the attitude was "let's show them something so they get a good workout and pay us". That's not why I got into teaching it. I want the Krav Maga I taught to be able to save someone's life. Plus the school was more focused on teaching kids than adults. I tried teaching kids but I wasn't as good with them as I was with adults. Sorry this is so long. I could keep going on this. But the bottom line is Krav Maga is effective if you learn and use it correctly.
My experience is that it is much more important who is your teacher then what you train. Training Krav Maga with good teacher is better then training MMA with bad one. And other way around.
My guess would be the one that specificqlly teaches you to deal with knife/gun armed opponents. Even if your best self defence is your 100m sprint, if you're out with friends/family, being mugged by an armed opponent who might just feel like fucking someone up more than taking your wallet.... If everythings considered equal, Id go with krav.
There's some _ideals_ that krav maga has that are worthwhile. The ideals of situational awareness basically, can work and help in a lot of situations, and should be considered even by those of us who train in combat sports in a good gym. However the problem is, much as you say, is that many people who train in krav cannot actually _fight_. Train countering violence with whimpy violence is about the best way to put it. There is good krav out there, just as there is bad BJJ or Dutch kickboxing. In fact, I think MMA McDojos are going to be an increasing problem going forward, we're already seeing this here and there, it's going to increase. If the technique one is training is *good* than that's great, krav or not. We have a local krav place that is actually pretty legit or seems to be, they don't turn out competitive fighters (but that's not their goal), but when some have come in to cross train they are not inept, and every single one of them seem to be quality people, respectful, polite, and pretty chill all around. You say something that I really like, 'we are all in the pursuit of truth, and effective martial arts/combat sports is a very high truth.' If their training is letting them pursue that truth, then more power to them.
Ramsey Dewey Wow what an amazing video! I also like your statement about countering violence with wimpy violence. Your videos are one of the most insightful I have found on youtube, please keep them coming! I was lucky enough to train Goshinkwai in the early 90’s, I think today the modern term would be military martial arts. It was self-defense but not as you would know it today. The philosophy was make sure it is not an even fight. If someone is being violent towards you, the only way to stop them is to be even more violent. A good example between what I learned and todays self-defense classes is a woman was showing me some moves she learned in her “Modern” self-defense class. The move was a simple arm lock, twist the wrist apply pressure on the elbow joint and bring the person to the ground. She was proud her instructor gave her an add-on where she applied her elbow on the back of the attacker to add more force to counter the size difference she would face if attacked by a man. My response was if your lucky enough to be in a position to put tension on the elbow joint and your in a self-defense situation just break the joint with a strike. You don’t need much force, I have seen it done, less technical and less accuracy needed and joints don’t have muscles so you counter the size difference, also a good chance the attacker will go into shock when they see their arm pointing in the wrong direction. She looked at me as if I had just showed her my turd, and said that’s disgusting that is too violent. My response was, if a guy is attacking you, likelihood he is going to rape you or kill you, size and weight does matter. So you if intend to be kind to this person and gently take them to the ground with an arm-bar, that is technical, needs time and size is against you the likelihood of failure is high. Instead, if you get the chance to have a small joint under tension just break it. My point here is about self defense classes using fear to get people to pay, but then toning down the truth to keep the students coming back. In the Dojo the students are giving half brained simple front attacks and nice care bear soft techniques to bring the sesame street attacker to the ground The instructors shout a lot as this makes it seem more effective. But actual strikes and damage are soft like toilet paper. In real fighting there is no nice toilet paper just sand paper! These very same students are horrified with the idea of learning techniques of putting your nail into a person eye ball, striking the back of their head near the brain stem. I also loved your technique of using a car key as a stabbing weapon, very simple and effective. Yes horrible stuff but if you are fighting for your life that is the kind of things, you need to learn to make sure its not an even fight. Of course you also need years and years of training to build up muscle memory. But we are now in the world of the APP when someone wants to attack you just down load your self-defense app! Thanks again for a great video.
Had a BB in Kyokushin, brown in BJJ, red in TKD and am a P4 in KMG. I really liked to practice KMG (thanx to Global folks) but I fell that combat fighting (and self defense) became a real bad business to the practitioner. I live in Brazil, a kind of violent place... the thing is: If you fight you eventually end dead or arrested... nobody wants that... and there are no real situation in my whole life that I needed to fight. Ok, its better to know something that you will not use that need something that you will not know... but real and efficient KMG training demands a lot of time. The technics and the mindset are for real, but for you to have some efficiency will need months or even years... and especially when facing armed foes, it's not even a guarantee of success (the real deal instructors admits that the efficiency is really eventual). Our modern society have no space to martial arts as a civil combat mechanism. It's better to have a gun or became good in evading danger. But martial arts are a much better sports option than ever. Today is the better time to start in a martial arts as a sportive activity, cause we have more information about the dojos (and McDojos), stiles, have more and better organized events (amateurs and professionals) and much less prejudgment from society (for exemple: today is more ok for girls to even became professionals).
I teach Krav, although we are moving away from the name for the reasons you mention. Wouldn't disagree with anything you've said but would add there's a middle ground between combat sports and the kind of self defence you mention. This is where you're training people who don't want to be involved in violence, but can't just run away either. Examples include the emergency services, nurses, bar staff, and (sadly) just about anyone who deals with the public on a Sat night. These people have to manage the situation with enough violence to get the job done, but not so much that they lose their livelihood. That's a field of study in its own right, with techniques that would be inadvisable, or just plain stupid, in combat sports or a stereotypical 'mugging in an alley' self defence scenario. As I said wouldn't disagree with anything you say, especially as I've also met my share of muppets flying under the banner of KM, but would encourage you to think of these other scenarios as well...
Good comment, but in the fields you mentioned where people can't run away from it, I would say less lethal techniques would work if you have numbers. If it's one on one and this person wants to do you harm, the most effective way and highest likelyhood over coming out of it is to use as much force as possible not caring in anyway what the outcome is for the other guy. You can't win against a person intent on extream violence with weak violence. Arms locks don't work in real life when some is flying at you with multiple punches you have got to take them out with strikes and then go in with choke holds, neck strikes etc.
@@sixbells99 you can overcome extreme violence with lesser violence when (for example) you are twice the size of the other guy, or they are swinging with zero training or focus, or they have lost most of their balance due to alcohol. Remember the law will hold you accountable for everything you do, so surviving the aftermath is as important as surviving the incident.
Good comments Garth Gilmour you are right, what if the person is drunk? Fights like a Telly tubby on weed and the response is a Samurai head twist with pulling out the eyes and feeding them with it. Excessive force for sure. But to me the deeper question is what is self defense? What if this person knows how to fight? What if they have a knife? By the time you find out the odds could be against you and you may not win? What does not wining mean? I was taught that an attacker is not a person it’s a thought, and their thought is to impose on you with violence their will. The only way to stop them is to destroy their thoughts and their will with pain. Pain with no mercy, pain with no compassion, just ferocious pain until that thought in their mind is destroyed. To do that you must have no thoughts, no rules, no boundaries, no future no past, just do whatever it takes to take that person out, if you kill them so be it, if you don’t so be it. The purpose is neither to kill nor let live, the purpose is annihilation of that persons thought to do you harm. You take whatever technique is presented to you in the fight and you use it, no restriction, no thought of consequences, no holding back. This is the best mindset to win against a random attacker where you have no idea who you’re fighting against. I can also say that mindset saved me two times, one time a guy came up to me and my brother in the street, the guy asked me if I had money. By brother became scared as he knew him as a bully and a robber. I just looked directly in the guys eyes and the thought in my head was I’m going to ripped his throat out if he tries to rob me. He saw I showed no fear and just walked away, and then tried to rob someone else down the road Now of course the Aikido guys would think much more in your lines that we should not aim to give excessive force. But the funny think is I learned this mindset from the founder of the UK Aikido club, Kenshiro Abbe and the Warfield brothers Paradox as it maybe this mindset can actually avoid a fight, yes you could go to prison, but you could also end up a vegetable Billy no brains. Each person has to make their choice. But for sheer effectiveness and fighting for your life, no strike or choke should be off limits in a fight.
@Philip wrong..any Israeli army instructor wont stand a chance against any MMA coach or fighter..i am an IDF soldier from Haifa..i love Krav Maga but we need to be realistic on this..
Awesome. I have the exact same goal and the exact same inner conflict after watching your videos. Very happy someone raised the question and very grateful you brought it up!
I've trained Kung Fu for about 9 years, and Krav Maga since April. I don't think Krav Maga is the holy bible, but for self defense there's some good gross motor skills based techniques, and most importantly, the instructors do so much to simulate stress and chaos. 4 vs 5 sparring, when the instructor yells 1 half the people bring out a rubber knife and you have to block evade or trop the knife, if the instructor yells 2 it's the other half pulling the knife... all the while in between you are sparring and it's 3 vs 4... that's just one example of the craziness. Kung Fu was always fun, Krav Maga is sometimes fun, other times painful (the 360 blocks are painful especially), or stressful... but it's definitely good training. Nick Drosssos also has great self defense content, so if self defense is your primary concern, I recommend subscribing to his channel. :)
Krav Maga techniques were previously and still should be based on boxing, wrestling and old school judo. The karate organisation I was previously affiliated with introduced a Krav Maga syllabus. It was rolled out by tactical (equivalent to state level SWAT in the US). The mental training was the best part, a lot of situational awareness. They also actively encouraged people to practice Muay Thai and BJJ. I’ve been lucky to train under good people, but I would bet there are terrible practitioners out there.
zidman201 definitely. The live sparring of Muay Thai, and groundwork of BJJ is a great combination. Just make sure the Krav is good too. Who is instructing it? Have they been in a fight?
Ben Glasby for I havbt started any due to Covid lockdown but straight after I’m gonna start it . Although I know someone that does Krav Maga training and I’ve seen one season but It looked like they sort of know what they’re doing but I don’t think it’s their specialty due to the instructors switched to another martial art and the person I know said it was a lot better . Do you know where you can find better instructors due to the ones in my area I don’t think are that good
zidman201 I’m in Australia. I’m only familiar with 2 schools here. I reckon if you can find a school that teaches Muay Thai, BJJ and Krav, you’ll be sweet there
Hella fan of Mexican krav maga... It was the Mexican martial art of all Mexican martial arts.... I feel like not many people will understand this inside joke tho
Krav Maga for self-defense is the most effective real-world system taught today. Originally developed for protection in the Bratislava ghetto, it was later refined and embraced by Israeli Defense Forces. Today, it is the preferred system for law enforcement agencies and U.S. and other military units. Make no mistake: MMA is designed as a sport. While the move set is designed to incapacitate opponents, the goal is to do so without serious injury. Modern Krav Maga is intended to keep you alive in actual emergency situations by any means necessary. This philosophy leads to a different training style and movesets than sport fighting. Weapons - Most MMA competitions usually do not rely on weapons. The few that do start opponents on even footing, equally armed and armored. Krav Maga weapons drills are designed to give their practitioners the ability to work from a disadvantageous position against an armed opponent and survive. This is a powerful method of preparing for real-world self-defense scenarios, and is a prime example of what Krav Maga vs MMA training prepares you for. Rules, Rules, Rules - Sports need rules to maintain fairness and limit injury. Assailants in the real world don’t play fair. While certain moves and holds, such as groin strikes or fishhooking, are forbidden in MMA, Krav Maga has one rule: survive. Small Differences, Big Problem - While MMA may pull from different styles, it has become a style all its own. A fighter using techniques their opponent is not familiar with has a huge advantage. A good example of this is Lyoto Machida’s Karate-point-fighting style on his run to the UFC Light-Heavyweight Championship. It lasted until opponents began to specifically train and prepare for his techniques. One difference in Krav Maga vs MMA is that Krav Maga provides training for a greater variety of threats. You will be better prepared to defend against unfamiliar styles after training with Krav Maga. The bottom line is that while both disciplines can give you useful self-defense skills, MMA and Krav Maga are not designed equally for self-defense. Real fights happen in alleys and outside bars, not in cages. In a real survival situation, you can bet that your attacker has not trained to fight just like you. MMA has its place as a sport, but can quickly fall short of the tactics that may be required for real-world survival.
I love your self awareness and how you differentiate between what your experiences have been most of the times, but how a group not necessarily defines every individual. I try keeping an open mind for everybody, and I understand where your suspicion about Krav Maga comes from. Let me just, one more, confirm that there are awesome schools and amazing instructors are out there as well, and your videos make me realize just how lucky I am to have found such a group, and I appreciate these people even more :-)
The martial arts community needs more people like this man. He is honest without disrespecting other disciplines. And what he says is very true. There are bad instructors in any style and bad experiences with instructors or their students keep others from training. I have explored many styles over the years, one of which was Krav Maga. In my area there are two KM schools; one of which is a commercial Kung Fu school that added the KM program and is mediocre, and one which is a dedicated KM school populated with positive, skilled, and hard working people. I observed a beginner and intermediate class at each school. What did I learn? The level 1 class had several obese people; the intermediate class had NO obese people. A good KM school is not a bad thing. When I trained in traditional martial arts, many school owners or black belts were either obese or close to it. I never liked that, and is one area KM is above average. But if more of us can be positive like this, instead of the "us vs them" mentality, the martial arts community will become stronger.
Krav Maga is not self defense, Karate is not self defense, boxing is not self defense, MMA is definitely not self defense. True self defense starts with the avoidance of conflict, emotional intelligence, awareness of your environment, escape, and physical resistance only when necessary and with the sole intent to survive and escape. The only way to win a street fight is to not get into one.
Hi there, the middle paragraph of your comment is basically the whole premise of Krav Maga. That’s what any Krav Maga instructor worth their salt would say in introductory lesson number one. Kind regards.
Nice video, as usual. I've been watching your videos for a while now. I have also joined an Mma gym recently. And I think I may have found faith. I would love if you make a video on the place of faith in everyday life.
I love your self-defense discussions. I've spent the good part of 50 years learning a variety of martial arts, but I've also spent a lot of that time theorizing and researching the history of many of them. It's a real mixed bag, with lots of people jockeying for lineage positions and legitimacy in a sea of frauds and crackpots. I'm in one group that is rife with phonies, it's almost painful to watch the videos they put up. And of course all the Hanshi's and Soke's who founded a Japanese sounding version of something. I think originally much wasn't for self-defense unless it involved a weapon.
You mentioned in your podcast self-defense puts you in the worst case scenarios but in actuality you will never be in them. When it comes down to it you can avoid putting yourself in danger. However, learning a martial art or having a CCW are ways to protect yourself if needed.
There's one point i want to mention. "us vs them Situations". Just turn on TV and you can watch what i mean. It's like hell broke loose everywhere in the world. My heart is breaking! 😢
Ramsey your a good man and I love it when you cut through b.s. i started in tkd as well now I practice krav maga but I went in with your kind of mind set. And again thanks for your time and advise.
I fully agree mate, very well put indeed. I made a similar video on the topic myself prior. It is all dependent on utility, context and personal goals; and that stretches beyond Krav Maga and to the wider world of martial arts, self-defence and fighting systems.
I love your channel your no nonence take on things and pure honesty witch sadly is not always seen or spoken you sir are a breath of fresh air along with you training partners at your gym .
I lived in Guatemala for three years. I made friends with several of the Mormon missionaries because they spoke English. I found Mormons to be some of the nicest people.
During warm up, I would have the kids do short sprints sometimes to get the blood pumping. "This", I said once, "is the superior self defence technique!" Some of them looked at me funny, then. "Get away, run screaming, run for your very lives! Only if you fail at this should you try any other thing we teach you here!" The flowchart goes deescalation --> evasion --> violence, and we've always been clear on that. My only actual use of a martial arts in "self defence" was a judo throw I'd seen on the TV, once. Bully went flying, came down laughing, said it was cool and never bothered me again XD The self defence I taught my sister before she moved to the big city was very basic stuff like "Don't appear drunk, wear reasonable shoes, don't put your thumb in your fist, if someone chokes you, punch them in the throat" and so on. There are no guarantees, just try to not be worth the struggle. My father got mugged once since he looks about 30 years older than he is from the back, due to premature graying. The mugger ran like a bitch when my father turned around and suddenly turned into a big and angry man in his late 40s.
The difference between Krav Maga and other martial arts is that in Krav Maga there are no rules and no respect for your opponent. What does it mean? This means that a Krav Maga will take advantage of the opponent's weak points no matter how cruel or painful it is just so that you can get home to your children in peace.
Krav Maga was my entry into martial arts and I still go to Krav Maga classes in addition to the boxing and Muay Thai training . I've trained at a few different Krav Maga places and seen lots of variability in the training. What Krav Maga did for me, due largely to one very good instructor, give me a solid punching mechanics as well as a few defenses and counters that have been handy in boxing and Muay Thai due to their unexpected nature.
Pardon me for making a comment similar to one I made on another post, but maybe it's helpful to some teachers and students. I draw a big line between teaching and training. Teaching is the bridge to training, as learning the alphabet is the bridge to writing. Regardless of the name and intent of the art , you start with teaching. Then , to make it work, or see if it works at all, you train with it. You put on the gloves and go at it. I think as long as an Instructor is honest with themselves and their students about that process the name of the art isn't the point at all as Mr. Dewey says. I do both and I'm perfectly ok with it. I teach some people that may never take more than one class , they may be elderly or have PTSD and all I can give them is 1 or 2 tools that I HOPE will help. They will likely never train past that point.But I don't lie to them and say that they are now a killing machine either. What you are providing is your character and experience and if they are both true and you have tested and trained in the content you are sharing, the name shouldn't matter. By the way, I have a background in one of the largest "McDojo" systems in America, and i also walked away from it to do what i thought was right for me. But I still LOVE it, and it's a part of what I teach to this day. In the end, it's really all just movement and concepts and how you , as an individual, make that work. Sorry for the small novel! But i just love this subject, it really hits home with me.
Would you advise that I train people? A little about myself, I grew up with a natural aptitude for fighting even before I ever stepped in a gym. I have tapes of myself as a youngster performing pretty advanced moves when sparring my friends and brothers in our backyard (e.g. pull counters, shoulder roll counters, and above average inside fighting). I eventually did join a gym my freshman year of high school and stuck with it till I moved out of my parents' house in my early 20's. My record was 27 - 2. I also joined wrestling in high school and proved to have a natural aptitude for that as well. My record was 26-6. I recently joined a muay thai gym and have once again shown a natural aptitude for it (outside of my inflexible legs). I've proven to be pretty creative and dangerous with kicks from the waste down. No record, just sparring so far. That being said one thing I'm not sure of is my ability to teach. Though I'm confident I know what I'm doing as a fighter, I don't know if it would be ethical for me to try and transfer my knowledge to others. I could be teaching them the wrong way and giving a false sense of confidence. I also notice when I give people some tips, it takes them a long time to understand it and I have to keep repeating myself which frustrates them and makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. Anyway, so far I've only "taught" a couple cousins and a few friends, I have fun doing it, but I just don't know if I should without taking some kind of class or something. What do you think?
I'm not Ramsey, but I'm interested in how teaching works, and I have realised something that may help you. Genius are (usually) very bad teachers, because for them, everything makes sense from the begining. They understand a lot of things without trying, so they have no idea why other people don't see what they see. However, if a student who has a lot of troubles understanding something, but finally gets to understand it, becomes teacher, he usually would be a great teacher, because every problem his students may have, has been suffered first by himself. A teacher is a guide. You, as a student, want someone who has been where you are, and can guide you forward. You would not want to learn from someone who hasn't faced the problems you are facing, because your teacher wouldn't be able to help you solve those problems. He himself would not know the answer. Because of that, if you want to teach, I would suggest the first thing you need is to understand the problems of the average student. Why not all your training partners are as good as you? What mistakes are they making? Can you see them? And can you comunicate those mistakes to your training partners, with a solution to fix them, in a way they can understand? Do they get better? When you can answer this questions, I would say you are ready to teach, and you will probably be a good teacher and coach. Oh, and of course, when I say training partners, could be also your students, but I would teach for free until I become good enough to don't feel that I'm cheating them. I myself started teaching friends and family, and I have seen how they become better. I have learn a lot about how to teach, and besides, now I have "proofs" of how good I am as a teacher/coach.
Although I don't agree with your general distain for self defense courses, I love that you made the point that bad instructors are everywhere, mcdojos are everywhere, belt factories are everywhere, in literally every city and involving every martial art. The majority of the hate I hear, is bad schools, bad instructors, it's about money...not it's useless, not when taught right it's useful, and lord forbid anyone, ever, us able to answer...what's a better, easily available self defense system? Nobody can give me that answer. Not everyone has 20 years to master various martial arts well enough to use them in a fight, not everyone wants to compete in sports, not all of us can afford the injuries that come with that, or the gym membership fees to learn various arts. Some of us have lives, jobs, kids, other hobbies, other priorities etc. And let's be really honest, the chances of me needing to defend myself against an amateur or pro mma fighter are pretty much 0.0000000000000001. So training to defend myself against the tweeker on the way home, the mugger, the car jacker, the drunk guy in the bar....much more useful to ME.
I've been studying krav maga for years my instructors are retired and active law enforcement officers we are taught to get home safe my favorite instructor is a NYPD inspector who once told me not worry about belts but instead train I have recently began to teach a self defense course for women and 1 man who is physically a beast but didn't understand footwork correct punching technique or distance I've started with basic jab ,cross,hook next class will be a frame kicks into a natural progression. Fortunately I've never had to use my training but I'm confident I could hold my own I'm 57 years old and understand what it takes to fight growing in central Harlem will do that for you .I believe it I'd is the practitioner not the art that determines what happens in a fight understand your view points on krav lucky for me my instructors are exceptional
Ramsey, I am a new subscriber and I thoroughly enjoy your ethos and content. I just watched your video looking at weapons training and some of the problems with, how unrealistic it can be, and I have to agree. Kendo, olympic fencing, are both comically suicidal/kamikaze if you picture what a real sword fight would look like. So here is my question; have you read any of the medieval sword-fighting treatises such as Talhoffer and Fiore-De Liberri? I would be interested to get you take on these historical fighting treatises written for people who actually faced the possibility of a judicial duel to the death. Regards, Gareth from South Africa.
ASP 26" and longer batons, bear spray, taser, backed up by lethal works pretty well for a lot of people who are involved in no rules combat on a regular basis. Weapons training IS necessary. Without it, you are just pretending..
@@brattraining9510 those tactics helped me work the graveyard shift alone at a gas station, right across from the freeway on ramp, and one block from a mental hospital where violent patients escaped regularly and paid me visits. Just the bat and mace being raised into view from behind the counter was enough to make a would be criminal think better of it, along with the size, strength, and intent driving the folly of their actions home. Even a crazy person knows that dodging a bat while blinded and choking on mace is not a good time I suppose.
@@The_True_ Haha.. yes, choking on cs/cn and OC is fun enough without getting broken bones to boot. I don't understand the dreamers who think self defense without weapons is helpful. Rarely is real life one on one. Multiple attackers changes the rules quickly.
@@brattraining9510 unarmed and armed self defense are best used combined, unless you walk around with a weapon in hand at all times. More likely to be empty handed, at least when getting jumped suddenly in the streets, and proper martial arts *definitely* can make a big difference to give you an opportunity for escape and/or defend against incoming attacks. Nothing like seeing the confidence drain from an attackers face when they can't easily hit you. Be careful out there.
@@The_True_ Good weapon systems instructors include the tactics you mention. Weapons training is mandatory, unarmed is optional. I am not world class but I'd be very confident against ufc fighters on the street. Spray to the face surprise followed by tactical baton strikes of necessary and backed up with firearm and edged weapons. Worked for me every time and I've been in many doozies. Not always one on one. Train weapons first as it gives you a realistic chance of successful outcomes protecting yourself and others. Keeping strong and fit are givens. Remember in real weapons training there is weapon retention training (jits/muay Thai). May all of us be safe. Take care
Hi, I'm from Chile, currently traveling, I have a taekwondo background and I'm fond of martial arts. I am currently in New Zealand learning Krav Maga for the first time and I'd like to share mi experience so far (notice that my english is not very good yet) In this month that I've trained I think the instructor is quite good, (he knows Muay thai, and I understand he was a fighter) always teaches us to be aggressive but also run away from the fight as much as possible, avoid it, always makes the difference clear between a contact sport and Self defense, as very well Ramsey explains. Naturally I am in the beginners class and we are taught mainly fists, and some kicks, knees and elbows, also positions but nothing of "rare" techniques that seem ineffective. On the other hand I feel that the academy is quite commercial, classes are booked online, "packages" are bought, and sometimes we change the instructor, it makes me feel that they are not following closely your progress. My class belongs to the beginner level, there is also intermediate and advanced, in beginner you can see a lot of students and every week new students appear and others leave , I assume that while you level up the classes will be more serious, personalized and effective.
What I'm getting from this video is that it's more about the quality of instruction than the style itself. "Good" styles taught poorly will fail you. Less "good" styles taught well may or may not be good for self defense, but a good instructor at least won't lie to you about your capabilities. Seems more honest, at least. Also, of course, how dedicated the student is makes a huge impact.
I see these kinds of videos all the time the answer is all martial arts are worth it if the individual knows how to use it if the instructors know what they are doing and have you pressure test then yes all of them are effective and worth it
Question: I train Hospital staff how to do simple self defense, Slip a punch, release a grab with the intent of not harming the attacker since they may be not thinking correctly. Most of the training is focused on de-escalating the situation with respect but when a patient is on drugs or psychotic, de-escalation may not work. We also teach how staff they can effectively gain physical restraint of the individual in crisis. These techniques were developed by Algene Cariula in the early 80’s and seem to use many Aikido techniques with wrist locks and such. I have taught them blindly following my training for many years. Over time, I have modified my teaching to improve the techniques. Recently, your description of seeking truth has me wanting to work with a coach to see what I can improve within the legal constraints I have to work with. Ethically we can not intend harm to a patient even if they are trying to hurt me. I can not use any technique that interferes with breathing. I am interested in your thoughts. What type of martial art would be compatible in your opinion?
I would like to also suggest that many people who work in security, in schools or rehab might be in the same situation, as they want to be able to protect themselves, but also are concerned about legal issues when physically managing someone against their will as part of their job.
This guy is 90% of my morning on late weeks and 90% of my evening on early weeks. Thanks so much mate! Btw I would love to hear you commenting in MMA :)
It was interesting, I agree with a lot of thoughts, not with everything for 100%, but most of them. Just two comments. I train Krav Maga, I like it very much, but I am not fanatic. And unfortunately there are a lot of bad instructors, who just teach techniques but not really self defense. I had the opportunity to participate in seminars with some well known names in the industry, there is a huge difference between them and these "instructors". On one of the seminars there were a lot of participants in instructor T shirt from different krav maga schools. The seminar was stopped at least 4-5 times that whats going on. Some guys in instructor T shirt were just terrible. Zero fighting spirit, knowledge of some techniques but nothing near to reality.... and they teach. what I really liked and I appreciate your honesty that you do not teach self defense. My opinion that this is a different system, however all my instructors had martial arts background before, but all learned and had exams, official certificates of any self defense system, or Krav maga, or Police Self Defense. They teach the techniques how can you get out a situation, avoid fighting, deescalate a fight by communication and body language, but if you have to fight, then fight dirty (there are no weight categories on the street) but fight back proportional to avoid prison. But I see a lot of instructors who teach self defense without any formal training, exams.. For example kick boxer or jiu jitsu instructors, who are good in their area. BUt I don´t know why, a lot of them feels, that they teach self defense. Please, I did some ground fighting, I have seen bjj videos on youtube, I would not teach bjj... or any other different martial arts where I did not went through the levels. Near to me a bjj girl teaches women only self defense. I recognize her medals, belt, knwledge in bjj, I have seen one of her video of a class, if I would like to learn bjj, definetly would go her classes. BUt the technique what she shown on the video as self defense technique is just called the "common mistake". Just does not work on the street with a bigger guy who really wants to hurt me. And she is selling this as self defense...
Bjj doesnt work on syreets rly dude, the guy who made mcmap had a bjj bb tge army have a lot of grapplkng competions, i agree with you that to fight on the ground sometimes can be a deadly mistake but bjj is very efficient and every form of ground grappling is from luta livre to catch but you need to be a complete fighter grappling is not enough. I have a friend that go to km and he say tnat was legit they say to me that 360 and all this techniques i saw on videos are fake and that real km is street mma with train in attack senarios with some specific techniques p.e headlocks. Most km schools are just bullshit thats the problem with this art. Search for gracie jiu jitsu that actually the self defence bjj is term for the sport not the art. Gjj traditional judo and sambo self defence are very similar and way better than every civilian system. Btw krav maga has jujutsu and judo techniques from the start and now some put and bjj ground in it.
Ramsey Dewey, I fully agree with you. I don't think that Krav Maga alone is enough, but it has its place. Self defense against a gun or against knife is the last card on the table. The best deference is not to get into trouble in the first place. If someone has a knife, run away. If someone has a gun cooperate. But when everything else fails, I think that some of the techniques taught by Krav Maga give you a better chance of survival, because they target vital body parts such as the balls, eyes, ears and throat. These things aren't allowed in MMA so they won't train for that. With Krav Maga they drill these techniques into you so it becomes second nature. Something like muscle memory. So see Krav Maga as a supplementation to MMA. In real life I've used it twice as a last means of deference so don't underestimate it. Better to know something in a bad situation then to know nothing at all right?
Another thing I used to teach especially when it came to knife and blunt object defenses. I used to tell my students not to waste time on fancy techniques of trying to disarm someone with a knife. I used to say "an unconscious attacker is easy to disarm".
Definitely feel this. Probably better to fight violence with toughness and control 95% than violence when you're talking about unarmed. If you're talking about armed, violence is more than justified but not necessarily effective; escape is the only really good option
It’s great that you said that Self Defense instructors are those that prey on fear. That’s where we live. I served in the military. I like to know how to take care of myself or someone else. I live in a violent city. I want to know what is going on and how to fight. You’re correct though!
In Krav we do all the same combat sports. We build a good foundations of basics, boxing, grappling, Muay Thai. And then we focus on weapons, knife, stick, gun. We spar and practice for multiple opponents, with weapons. We try to address real world violence and scenarios that most commonly occur. What I’ve learned is how difficult it really is, to deal with things like knife attacks. If you can get away, do it. With all due respect Coach Dewey, a lot of times you say “run away” from things like knife attacks. But it’s not that simple or easy to do, a testament to this is all the people who have died from this kind of violence. Surely you wouldn’t tell their loved ones “they should have just ran away”
Sorry Ramsey, but you're not entirely right. While I agree with you that performing a hip escape with the head cocked to one side is more effective, there is nothing inherently "wrong" with the way Master Wong is doing it, because if you watch carefully... HE'S ONLY BRIDGING ON ONE HIP! This offsets the angle of the roll 20+ degrees to one side. This makes it harder to post up with the opposite hand. And if they do, you can slide out around it. I've used a similar bridging hip escape, but have since used the "over the shoulder" escape you depict here, or a combination of both.
Ramsey Dewey I love your explanations and thougts on Martial Arts in general and your view on wannabe-trainers and mcDojos. Now I do have two questions for you: What are your thougts on "traditional" martial arts like the Muay Thai Boran-Styles which where developed for actual combat and less for sports/competition like K7-Thai Boxing or Kickboxing? Which one would you recommend to learn to somebody who has no interest in competing in tournaments and likes? You mentioned in another video that you also learned Capoeira at some point in your live. When I speak with people of different martial art styles, the huge majority looks down on Capoeira at it just is "dancing around" and has 0 praktical use. Is it really like that? Or are there elements which are usable in martial sports or self defense? Thanks in advance if you are going tho answer to (one) those questions.
As far as self defense its mainly about providing safety tips/survival and the basic principals of fighting it will likely not grant you all what you need to win at combat sports but it could posibly give you a sense of enrichment and skill that could posibly get you out of a jam.
If the person asking the question has used their art to protect themselves, and also questions their art rather than accepting it all as the truth, he or she is the kind of instructor we need to see more.
I am not really training martial arts, but a dozen years ago I was to a Krav Maga course. I got some health problems or I would have continued, it was really fun. I am not really competent to have an opinion, but the place had both a lot of police training and serious people that had trained a lot of other stuff before. (Let me put it like this -- other students looked a bit upset when I said that I was there just for fun, not for getting work skills. :-) ) I remember thinking quite often that I would rather be beat up than do THIS to anyone for real. :-) Well, that was my experience. It is a bit funny to see the discussion about how KM has become a fashion thing now. :-) I should add that we had some Israeli army guy up for training a weekend, he almost looked like a taller Woody Allen. :-) And also, I don't know if it was generally so fun before it became "popular", it seemed the other local club wasn't as fun to train at.
My funniest story about the KM term was when an old work friend, that had trained a bunch of Chinese stuff and jujutsu, asked me about how it was -- I answered that it was very practical, you hit without turning your hands, you were aggressively in a hurry ("someone might be killing your friend next to you"), etc. He nodded and wasn't surprised, until he asked about stances; then he disgustedly muttered "depressingly linear". :-) One of the military training was a quite new female officer, I really looked forward to sparring with her next term -- she was really fast, an old fencer, so I could have shocked my old mother (active for decades in a women's house) by calling her to say that "I got beat up by a little girl yesterday". :-) Damn health, I wish I could have continued.
My kids both go to a "Krav 4 Kids" club run by Krav Maga Central in Birmingham. Sure, it all starts out with drills, learning to punch, learning to kick, doing bag work, doing conditioning, but the crucial thing for me is that he gets the kids to get their mouthguards in, get their gloves on, & spar. That to me is the litmus test - does it work when people are resisting? Without sparring, there's no progression beyond the early belts. You have to fight to get that black belt.
As a former krav maga instructor in the idf. I can say that for self defense you should learn MMA as your main focus and for time to time train krav maga for the stuff MMA dont teach you knife fighting and defence again gun or several attackers. Krav maga should be simple aggressive and with live resistance.
My taekwondo techniques have got me out of some street fights. Just because some people give the system a bad name doesn't stop me from training to get better. But you're right there are a few holes we need to fill in
Its really very simple, it either works or it does not and a lot of that has to do with who is teaching/practising it and their mindset.....Krav Maga seems pretty practical and that's often the key.....
Mr. Dewey, I think your perspective on self defence is a bit too pessimistic. There are some legit programs and teachers out there. If you'd like to know more I can wholeheartedly recommend "the little black book of violence" by Kane and Wilder. It's a self defense guide aimed specifically at men and has taught me a lot. And I have seen a lot of coaches who use similar or even the same concepts in their teachings of self defense.
A Russian man who used to go to my local pool. Saw me reading a krav maga book. And laughed. He told me, you'll get killed. He said when he was in Russia in Moscow late at night in winter, he was coming home from work or a bar, but he got jumped by a gang. He said he used some kick boxing. He said, without him hitting tires, trees, getting conditioned, he would have died that day. He barley made it home. He said he actually broke his arm during the fight. So yeah. Understand that when your life is actually in danger. He told me, you need to fight on the grass, the ground, get hit in the face, etc. That's why judo got so huge because 1. It was simpler to learn compared to the traditional jiujitsu from Japan (this was in the late 1800s or early 1900s), you couldn't really train to break someone's neck unless you fought on the battle field, it just wasn't that practical. And guns had a huge advantage: distance. 2. It was something you could fight with, but also compete and practice with, and hence combat sports where born. But yeah, not only that, gun disarms are pretty useless. Because no guy is going to just hand over his gun. You're going to be wrestling the fucker and try to pull it out of his hands hoping after you do that he doesn't do anything else to you in desperation.
At my gym, they advertise Krav Magra and all it is, is during a self defense class, which consists mostly of sparing and other techniques, our coach will throw down a fake knife or gun during the class and that's the gist of that because it's all about Muay Thai Kickboxing and traditional Muay Thai, with some added Jun Fan and Taekwondo in the mix.
I think the issues with Krav are an issue across the board with all martial arts not just any one specific art. If it's too hard people leave and injuries are a part of martial arts and some folk can't afford to be injured for their day job. As the person running the club if it's your livelihood that's a tough one. How do you decided between no compromise and making money. I think there's a option to hit a middle ground, for those who want the fitness element just do martial arts themed fitness classes and then have sepwrate classes for those who want to do the more brutal and gritty stuff. You can hopefully still retain people then without compromising the integrity of what you do.
I don't know how I stumbled upon your channel, but I did and this is the 2nd video of yours that I have watched and enjoyed. Oh, time to sub. Okay, I'm back. I love the part about instructors. I grew up a huge (American) football fan. I played only two years in high school, though. Why? The (then) new head coach was such a horrid coach and teacher of the game that I came to hate it, and I walked away after my Junior year. Even more, that experience left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I wouldn't even watch college or NFL games for couple of years after. It matters who is teaching you, and this applies in all areas of life.
I think all martial arts styles are good, I do agree,it is not the martial art style that is not good.It those bad instructors that give it a bad name. Ramsey Dewey is keeping it real.
I am aware of what u mean. The fault is on the lack of physical training . The techniques work just fine. But if you have a very compliant partner. You will learn them wrong. Some schools mix mma workouts and sparring along krav for physical ability
I got my first computer in 2008 for my birthday. I searched the martial arts videos and soon discovered massive hate for aikido. Every year or so I would check out the martial arts videos. I didn't feel "safe" typing about internal martial arts and philosophies. I stopped searching about 5 years ago and I dropped back in in 2121 and discovered three teachers who could feel, articulate and explain more than one could assimilate. Goldenball, Journey and Coach. See what happens if you keep on living. This is a community? Is it safe? Kidding, but not.
In High School I took Krav Maga for 3 years. After High School I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (you are now Brother Ramsey to me) in the Bogota Colombia North Mission. I served in a really ghetto area in a city called Bucaramanga and while I was there a man tried to stab me with a BIG butcher knife. So I did what I was trained to do, I hit him and ran away.
I wasn’t cut or stabbed and I lived to tell the tale. REAL Krav Maga works, don’t let fake Krav Maga ruin the rest of it. Dedicated full contact training, getting the crap beat out of me, and fighting through 3 years of hard constant work saved my life that day.
Now if I went to a fake Krav school, I could be dead right now. Just be mindful of that:-)
That is the thing. Both of my instructors have background in different styles- one is out of Boxing and Muai Thai, the other had Kickboxing and some sort of Wrestling(or Jujutsu, i don't know- quite honestly dicking on what specyfic technique said style possess is idotic to me) and it shows. And what is more- i know for a fact, that, when they were younger, they weren't... "nicest" of people, so they got quite the experience. They even discarded some stuff from "classic" Krav Maga, that they didn't think worked and added stuff that they liked- we actually spent some time drilling stuff like head butts from Lehtwei(i hope, i didn't butcher that name) we trained BJJ techniques etc.
As somebody said somwhere over here- it depends on the teacher. If he/she is a good one- Krav Maga can be great. I sparred with my MMA friends- and while i didn't use most destructive techniques, they loved few escapes i showed, and asked me to teach them, let that be the recommendation of my coaches :)
A good self defense course like Krav Maga is good as long as you don't think of yourself as an MMA fighter after the course. It does not make you a professional fighter or even an armature fighter in the ring. Nor should it.
KM teaches you a little about a lot of things to help you escape and attack from the average guy on the Street . You have to take more to get better than that.
I would say you are correct that most people taking a self -defense course want to be able to survive an attack. That is not a bad goal or skill to gain in life. Yeah there are bad schools for KM or any martial art or Mixed martial art. No KM school will meet the standards for MMA fighting unless the guy is just damn good..
I am sure the average KM guy can't come close to competing with someone you train but then that is not the goal of KM. The average KM student does not put hours and hours for years into training. Nor should he even consider it. since his life does not evolve around KM. It is only a tool not profession.
This just supports my theory that all Mormons know how to fight. If you didn't, you'd get your bikes stolen all the time.
wow 3 years of training for a nut kick
Bad ass quote of the day. “Go toward the danger, and be the danger”
I’ll take my T-shirt now.
I want it.
T1Oracle Awee, someone has a case of the Monday’s.
That's basically what krav maga is as I understand it, it's offense not defensive it's more about agression
Love your vids, Coach Dewey. You inspired me to get off my ass. At age 50, I started MMA and BJJ. 20l lbs dropped and one year later, I'm a better human being for it. Thanks for all the work you do.
Guess that gives my 41 yr old excuses a spinning side kick to the gut! 👍 Now I have to train harder, thanks!
Im 33 yr old fresh bjj white belt who trains with younger ppl and older who have gotten a somewhat earlier start. Once otr twice ive thought"wish i got into it sooner" your initiative should be recognized by all who meet you
American Mormon of British descent living in China teaching Mixed Martial Arts and putting inspirational videos on the internet for the world to see
My brain hurts
He speaks well and has some wisdom to share. That's why I watch some of his videos.
Lawrence Hamm that's why everyone watches his videos, since spreading wisdom si what his channel's about
No one's here to see his great super mario speedruns
I discovered his videos while looking at some BJJ videos and realized that Ramsey has a lot of common sense.
Lawrence Hamm it's nice to get a representative of martial arts that isn't either: martial arts are fake, only my street fighting system is good for fighting; or my martial is the best and can beat everyone no matter what
Usually you only get one or the other
He is right about a lot topics, dont judge a man by just a video
Get this guy on Rogan.
Real fucking talk
Joe"right on dude"Rogan
They should fight!
lol!
That would be awesome.
No. Get Rogan on Ramsey.
Hey Dewey, Police Officer here. Also love your content. I'm a Krav Maga practitioner I train at a IKMF school in Pensacola Florida. My instructor who is a veteran from the French Foreign Legion trains us more like a MMA fighter. We use the bursting and the 360 defense. But for the most part we train boxing,judo techniques and BJJ grappling with a lot of Muy Thai thrown in. He doesn't sugar coat it, he will say IKMF teaches this, but this works better then teaches the way he would do it. I think the Krav community get stuck in a certain curriculum instead of adapting and learning how to fight instead of checking boxes.
I could listen to your wise words for hours. Thanks for keeping it real. Much love from the UK
He should read children's books, and publish them at Audible. I would use them to fall asleep every night :D
It takes hours to listen to a few of his words
This has actually helped me a lot :).
I'm actually a lad by the way, I just think goth birds are fit.
I liked what you said about how it could go in the next 20 years, for all we know, it might have a sport of it's own develop :) knowing how to fight would be the main essential for it, then all the mcdojo instructors will have have no choice but to bugger off.
Thanks for the video mate. :)
This man is so deep from the UK that he's almost incomprehensible
@@bigt9745 he is easily understood
@@maccyboi8551 magnum dong has a point to be fair
@@brokenradio9590 you're right, he does lol
I have found some great Krav Maga instructors, who are not at all about the money, but teach us simple skills and encourage us to push our limits.
The people I found there are the best, and I hope that more people like them get into Krav Maga, and become instructors :-)
I get where Ramsey is coming from, so I consider myself lucky to have found this brilliant place where I live!
Wow. What a differentiated, reasonable and mature video. Is that still RUclips?
Made my day. Honestly. Thank you.
I've practice and taught Krav Maga for several years. I even got invited to train in Israel 6 years in a row. Just didn't have the time or money to go. Krav Maga is a very effective system when taught right. But some of the problems I've seen, especially within the school that I taught at was that curriculum was watered down. I tried to change it in order to make it more practical and effective for the current class of students but the owner wouldn't have any of it. I had to stick to his class plans. The classes were only 30 minutes long also. I tried to make them longer but nope. When I started, I was fortunate to have some really great instructors within the system who taught not only how to solve problems but how to actually fight. But the curriculum stated getting watered down. I felt that the attitude was "let's show them something so they get a good workout and pay us". That's not why I got into teaching it. I want the Krav Maga I taught to be able to save someone's life. Plus the school was more focused on teaching kids than adults. I tried teaching kids but I wasn't as good with them as I was with adults. Sorry this is so long. I could keep going on this. But the bottom line is Krav Maga is effective if you learn and use it correctly.
My experience is that it is much more important who is your teacher then what you train. Training Krav Maga with good teacher is better then training MMA with bad one. And other way around.
obviously, the question is which is best if theyre both equal instructors
My guess would be the one that specificqlly teaches you to deal with knife/gun armed opponents.
Even if your best self defence is your 100m sprint, if you're out with friends/family, being mugged by an armed opponent who might just feel like fucking someone up more than taking your wallet.... If everythings considered equal, Id go with krav.
TheStaniG are give you tip try Krav maga on MMA guy see what happens, you soon change your tune,
Fighting Fisherman Now try to use MMA against a knife wielding opponent. You will soon change your tune.
@@th3comb1ne13 My money is on the knife wielding opponent...
There's some _ideals_ that krav maga has that are worthwhile. The ideals of situational awareness basically, can work and help in a lot of situations, and should be considered even by those of us who train in combat sports in a good gym. However the problem is, much as you say, is that many people who train in krav cannot actually _fight_. Train countering violence with whimpy violence is about the best way to put it. There is good krav out there, just as there is bad BJJ or Dutch kickboxing. In fact, I think MMA McDojos are going to be an increasing problem going forward, we're already seeing this here and there, it's going to increase. If the technique one is training is *good* than that's great, krav or not. We have a local krav place that is actually pretty legit or seems to be, they don't turn out competitive fighters (but that's not their goal), but when some have come in to cross train they are not inept, and every single one of them seem to be quality people, respectful, polite, and pretty chill all around.
You say something that I really like, 'we are all in the pursuit of truth, and effective martial arts/combat sports is a very high truth.' If their training is letting them pursue that truth, then more power to them.
The whole Idea of Krav is to Escalate the violence in order to stop it
Ramsey Dewey Wow what an amazing video! I also like your statement about countering violence with wimpy violence. Your videos are one of the most insightful I have found on youtube, please keep them coming! I was lucky enough to train Goshinkwai in the early 90’s, I think today the modern term would be military martial arts. It was self-defense but not as you would know it today. The philosophy was make sure it is not an even fight. If someone is being violent towards you, the only way to stop them is to be even more violent. A good example between what I learned and todays self-defense classes is a woman was showing me some moves she learned in her “Modern” self-defense class.
The move was a simple arm lock, twist the wrist apply pressure on the elbow joint and bring the person to the ground. She was proud her instructor gave her an add-on where she applied her elbow on the back of the attacker to add more force to counter the size difference she would face if attacked by a man. My response was if your lucky enough to be in a position to put tension on the elbow joint and your in a self-defense situation just break the joint with a strike. You don’t need much force, I have seen it done, less technical and less accuracy needed and joints don’t have muscles so you counter the size difference, also a good chance the attacker will go into shock when they see their arm pointing in the wrong direction.
She looked at me as if I had just showed her my turd, and said that’s disgusting that is too violent. My response was, if a guy is attacking you, likelihood he is going to rape you or kill you, size and weight does matter. So you if intend to be kind to this person and gently take them to the ground with an arm-bar, that is technical, needs time and size is against you the likelihood of failure is high. Instead, if you get the chance to have a small joint under tension just break it.
My point here is about self defense classes using fear to get people to pay, but then toning down the truth to keep the students coming back. In the Dojo the students are giving half brained simple front attacks and nice care bear soft techniques to bring the sesame street attacker to the ground The instructors shout a lot as this makes it seem more effective. But actual strikes and damage are soft like toilet paper. In real fighting there is no nice toilet paper just sand paper!
These very same students are horrified with the idea of learning techniques of putting your nail into a person eye ball, striking the back of their head near the brain stem. I also loved your technique of using a car key as a stabbing weapon, very simple and effective. Yes horrible stuff but if you are fighting for your life that is the kind of things, you need to learn to make sure its not an even fight. Of course you also need years and years of training to build up muscle memory. But we are now in the world of the APP when someone wants to attack you just down load your self-defense app!
Thanks again for a great video.
Had a BB in Kyokushin, brown in BJJ, red in TKD and am a P4 in KMG. I really liked to practice KMG (thanx to Global folks) but I fell that combat fighting (and self defense) became a real bad business to the practitioner. I live in Brazil, a kind of violent place... the thing is: If you fight you eventually end dead or arrested... nobody wants that... and there are no real situation in my whole life that I needed to fight.
Ok, its better to know something that you will not use that need something that you will not know... but real and efficient KMG training demands a lot of time. The technics and the mindset are for real, but for you to have some efficiency will need months or even years... and especially when facing armed foes, it's not even a guarantee of success (the real deal instructors admits that the efficiency is really eventual).
Our modern society have no space to martial arts as a civil combat mechanism. It's better to have a gun or became good in evading danger. But martial arts are a much better sports option than ever. Today is the better time to start in a martial arts as a sportive activity, cause we have more information about the dojos (and McDojos), stiles, have more and better organized events (amateurs and professionals) and much less prejudgment from society (for exemple: today is more ok for girls to even became professionals).
Hi! Where did you find KMG in Brazil? Mind sharing their contact? Peace!
I teach Krav, although we are moving away from the name for the reasons you mention. Wouldn't disagree with anything you've said but would add there's a middle ground between combat sports and the kind of self defence you mention. This is where you're training people who don't want to be involved in violence, but can't just run away either. Examples include the emergency services, nurses, bar staff, and (sadly) just about anyone who deals with the public on a Sat night. These people have to manage the situation with enough violence to get the job done, but not so much that they lose their livelihood. That's a field of study in its own right, with techniques that would be inadvisable, or just plain stupid, in combat sports or a stereotypical 'mugging in an alley' self defence scenario. As I said wouldn't disagree with anything you say, especially as I've also met my share of muppets flying under the banner of KM, but would encourage you to think of these other scenarios as well...
Good comment, but in the fields you mentioned where people can't run away from it, I would say less lethal techniques would work if you have numbers. If it's one on one and this person wants to do you harm, the most effective way and highest likelyhood over coming out of it is to use as much force as possible not caring in anyway what the outcome is for the other guy. You can't win against a person intent on extream violence with weak violence. Arms locks don't work in real life when some is flying at you with multiple punches you have got to take them out with strikes and then go in with choke holds, neck strikes etc.
@@sixbells99 you can overcome extreme violence with lesser violence when (for example) you are twice the size of the other guy, or they are swinging with zero training or focus, or they have lost most of their balance due to alcohol. Remember the law will hold you accountable for everything you do, so surviving the aftermath is as important as surviving the incident.
Good comments Garth Gilmour you are right, what if the person is drunk? Fights like a Telly tubby on weed and the response is a Samurai head twist with pulling out the eyes and feeding them with it. Excessive force for sure. But to me the deeper question is what is self defense? What if this person knows how to fight? What if they have a knife? By the time you find out the odds could be against you and you may not win? What does not wining mean?
I was taught that an attacker is not a person it’s a thought, and their thought is to impose on you with violence their will. The only way to stop them is to destroy their thoughts and their will with pain. Pain with no mercy, pain with no compassion, just ferocious pain until that thought in their mind is destroyed. To do that you must have no thoughts, no rules, no boundaries, no future no past, just do whatever it takes to take that person out, if you kill them so be it, if you don’t so be it. The purpose is neither to kill nor let live, the purpose is annihilation of that persons thought to do you harm. You take whatever technique is presented to you in the fight and you use it, no restriction, no thought of consequences, no holding back. This is the best mindset to win against a random attacker where you have no idea who you’re fighting against.
I can also say that mindset saved me two times, one time a guy came up to me and my brother in the street, the guy asked me if I had money. By brother became scared as he knew him as a bully and a robber. I just looked directly in the guys eyes and the thought in my head was I’m going to ripped his throat out if he tries to rob me. He saw I showed no fear and just walked away, and then tried to rob someone else down the road
Now of course the Aikido guys would think much more in your lines that we should not aim to give excessive force. But the funny think is I learned this mindset from the founder of the UK Aikido club, Kenshiro Abbe and the Warfield brothers
Paradox as it maybe this mindset can actually avoid a fight, yes you could go to prison, but you could also end up a vegetable Billy no brains. Each person has to make their choice. But for sheer effectiveness and fighting for your life, no strike or choke should be off limits in a fight.
fair fucking play mate
@Philip wrong..any Israeli army instructor wont stand a chance against any MMA coach or fighter..i am an IDF soldier from Haifa..i love Krav Maga but we need to be realistic on this..
To paraphrase Rory Miller: "self defense is the small set of tools that will save your life when you're already screwed"
Hi, nice quote, do you mind saying where you paraphrased it from?
@@myveryunprofessionalvideop5830 it’s from a book by Rory Miller called meditations on violence. I recommend the book highly.
@@kamilpawlowski6576 Thank You!
Awesome. I have the exact same goal and the exact same inner conflict after watching your videos.
Very happy someone raised the question and very grateful you brought it up!
I've trained Kung Fu for about 9 years, and Krav Maga since April. I don't think Krav Maga is the holy bible, but for self defense there's some good gross motor skills based techniques, and most importantly, the instructors do so much to simulate stress and chaos. 4 vs 5 sparring, when the instructor yells 1 half the people bring out a rubber knife and you have to block evade or trop the knife, if the instructor yells 2 it's the other half pulling the knife... all the while in between you are sparring and it's 3 vs 4... that's just one example of the craziness. Kung Fu was always fun, Krav Maga is sometimes fun, other times painful (the 360 blocks are painful especially), or stressful... but it's definitely good training. Nick Drosssos also has great self defense content, so if self defense is your primary concern, I recommend subscribing to his channel. :)
F’In awesome video, dude.
Content : A+
Delivery: A+
Relevance: A+
You got yourself a new fan, boi!
Great video. again I agree with your point of view. You are one of the few martial arts youtubers out there with common sense.
I concur. There is a huge difference in combat sports and self defence. One should train what one needs or likes. Wise words once again.
Krav Maga techniques were previously and still should be based on boxing, wrestling and old school judo. The karate organisation I was previously affiliated with introduced a Krav Maga syllabus. It was rolled out by tactical (equivalent to state level SWAT in the US). The mental training was the best part, a lot of situational awareness. They also actively encouraged people to practice Muay Thai and BJJ. I’ve been lucky to train under good people, but I would bet there are terrible practitioners out there.
Would u say Krav Maga , muay tai and bjj is a good combination due to that’s the combination I was thinking of starting but idk if it’ll work
zidman201 definitely. The live sparring of Muay Thai, and groundwork of BJJ is a great combination. Just make sure the Krav is good too. Who is instructing it? Have they been in a fight?
Ben Glasby for I havbt started any due to Covid lockdown but straight after I’m gonna start it . Although I know someone that does Krav Maga training and I’ve seen one season but It looked like they sort of know what they’re doing but I don’t think it’s their specialty due to the instructors switched to another martial art and the person I know said it was a lot better . Do you know where you can find better instructors due to the ones in my area I don’t think are that good
zidman201 I’m in Australia. I’m only familiar with 2 schools here. I reckon if you can find a school that teaches Muay Thai, BJJ and Krav, you’ll be sweet there
Hey Ramsey big fan of your videos thanks for all the hard work you put in. You've inspired me to change the way I live my life.
Forget krav Maga. Mexican krav maga is what you need to learn.
Venezuelan Krav Maga is the best.
Hella fan of Mexican krav maga... It was the Mexican martial art of all Mexican martial arts.... I feel like not many people will understand this inside joke tho
Grandmaster Jesse
I have been interested in attending a class in Krav Maga. However, I'm planning on joining a BJJ gym.
shitmeme dankpost Wassup everybody my name is Jesse, and you're watching MMA, Mexican Martial Arts
What I like about Ramsey, is that he is a thinker and he makes you think... much respect to you, Sir. Keep the videos coming.
Your videos are food for serious thought. Thank you for this! You re a really great guy
Krav Maga for self-defense is the most effective real-world system taught today. Originally developed for protection in the Bratislava ghetto, it was later refined and embraced by Israeli Defense Forces. Today, it is the preferred system for law enforcement agencies and U.S. and other military units.
Make no mistake: MMA is designed as a sport. While the move set is designed to incapacitate opponents, the goal is to do so without serious injury. Modern Krav Maga is intended to keep you alive in actual emergency situations by any means necessary. This philosophy leads to a different training style and movesets than sport fighting.
Weapons - Most MMA competitions usually do not rely on weapons. The few that do start opponents on even footing, equally armed and armored. Krav Maga weapons drills are designed to give their practitioners the ability to work from a disadvantageous position against an armed opponent and survive. This is a powerful method of preparing for real-world self-defense scenarios, and is a prime example of what Krav Maga vs MMA training prepares you for.
Rules, Rules, Rules - Sports need rules to maintain fairness and limit injury. Assailants in the real world don’t play fair. While certain moves and holds, such as groin strikes or fishhooking, are forbidden in MMA, Krav Maga has one rule: survive.
Small Differences, Big Problem - While MMA may pull from different styles, it has become a style all its own. A fighter using techniques their opponent is not familiar with has a huge advantage. A good example of this is Lyoto Machida’s Karate-point-fighting style on his run to the UFC Light-Heavyweight Championship. It lasted until opponents began to specifically train and prepare for his techniques.
One difference in Krav Maga vs MMA is that Krav Maga provides training for a greater variety of threats. You will be better prepared to defend against unfamiliar styles after training with Krav Maga.
The bottom line is that while both disciplines can give you useful self-defense skills, MMA and Krav Maga are not designed equally for self-defense. Real fights happen in alleys and outside bars, not in cages. In a real survival situation, you can bet that your attacker has not trained to fight just like you. MMA has its place as a sport, but can quickly fall short of the tactics that may be required for real-world survival.
I love your self awareness and how you differentiate between what your experiences have been most of the times, but how a group not necessarily defines every individual.
I try keeping an open mind for everybody, and I understand where your suspicion about Krav Maga comes from. Let me just, one more, confirm that there are awesome schools and amazing instructors are out there as well, and your videos make me realize just how lucky I am to have found such a group, and I appreciate these people even more :-)
The martial arts community needs more people like this man. He is honest without disrespecting other disciplines. And what he says is very true. There are bad instructors in any style and bad experiences with instructors or their students keep others from training. I have explored many styles over the years, one of which was Krav Maga. In my area there are two KM schools; one of which is a commercial Kung Fu school that added the KM program and is mediocre, and one which is a dedicated KM school populated with positive, skilled, and hard working people. I observed a beginner and intermediate class at each school. What did I learn? The level 1 class had several obese people; the intermediate class had NO obese people. A good KM school is not a bad thing. When I trained in traditional martial arts, many school owners or black belts were either obese or close to it. I never liked that, and is one area KM is above average. But if more of us can be positive like this, instead of the "us vs them" mentality, the martial arts community will become stronger.
Krav Maga is not self defense, Karate is not self defense, boxing is not self defense, MMA is definitely not self defense.
True self defense starts with the avoidance of conflict, emotional intelligence, awareness of your environment, escape, and physical resistance only when necessary and with the sole intent to survive and escape.
The only way to win a street fight is to not get into one.
Hi there, the middle paragraph of your comment is basically the whole premise of Krav Maga. That’s what any Krav Maga instructor worth their salt would say in introductory lesson number one.
Kind regards.
"How do you call this Martial Art?" "I don't know... Taekwondewey?" :D (I'd be surprised if I was the first to do this pun...)
Be surprised: you are the first and only!
Nice video, as usual. I've been watching your videos for a while now. I have also joined an Mma gym recently. And I think I may have found faith. I would love if you make a video on the place of faith in everyday life.
I love your self-defense discussions. I've spent the good part of 50 years learning a variety of martial arts, but I've also spent a lot of that time theorizing and researching the history of many of them. It's a real mixed bag, with lots of people jockeying for lineage positions and legitimacy in a sea of frauds and crackpots. I'm in one group that is rife with phonies, it's almost painful to watch the videos they put up. And of course all the Hanshi's and Soke's who founded a Japanese sounding version of something. I think originally much wasn't for self-defense unless it involved a weapon.
this sage wisdom is truly amazing bro.. keep it real, thanks for the vids
Seriously like the content. So detailed in your explanations. The gym story was deep. It's just stuck with me.
You mentioned in your podcast self-defense puts you in the worst case scenarios but in actuality you will never be in them. When it comes down to it you can avoid putting yourself in danger. However, learning a martial art or having a CCW are ways to protect yourself if needed.
There's one point i want to mention.
"us vs them Situations". Just turn on TV and you can watch what i mean. It's like hell broke loose everywhere in the world. My heart is breaking! 😢
Ramsey your a good man and I love it when you cut through b.s. i started in tkd as well now I practice krav maga but I went in with your kind of mind set. And again thanks for your time and advise.
I fully agree mate, very well put indeed. I made a similar video on the topic myself prior. It is all dependent on utility, context and personal goals; and that stretches beyond Krav Maga and to the wider world of martial arts, self-defence and fighting systems.
I love your channel your no nonence take on things and pure honesty witch sadly is not always seen or spoken you sir are a breath of fresh air along with you training partners at your gym .
The best defence is an attack. I train in taekwondo krav maga and MMA for the last eleven years now under great instructors and I love it.
Explain
I lived in Guatemala for three years. I made friends with several of the Mormon missionaries because they spoke English. I found Mormons to be some of the nicest people.
Good video. I like how you say get out there and train at the end too.
During warm up, I would have the kids do short sprints sometimes to get the blood pumping. "This", I said once, "is the superior self defence technique!" Some of them looked at me funny, then. "Get away, run screaming, run for your very lives! Only if you fail at this should you try any other thing we teach you here!" The flowchart goes deescalation --> evasion --> violence, and we've always been clear on that.
My only actual use of a martial arts in "self defence" was a judo throw I'd seen on the TV, once. Bully went flying, came down laughing, said it was cool and never bothered me again XD
The self defence I taught my sister before she moved to the big city was very basic stuff like "Don't appear drunk, wear reasonable shoes, don't put your thumb in your fist, if someone chokes you, punch them in the throat" and so on. There are no guarantees, just try to not be worth the struggle. My father got mugged once since he looks about 30 years older than he is from the back, due to premature graying. The mugger ran like a bitch when my father turned around and suddenly turned into a big and angry man in his late 40s.
krav maga is a legit and useful style, the problem is finding a legit school with legit instructors.
The difference between Krav Maga and other martial arts is that in Krav Maga there are no rules and no respect for your opponent. What does it mean? This means that a Krav Maga will take advantage of the opponent's weak points no matter how cruel or painful it is just so that you can get home to your children in peace.
Krav Maga was my entry into martial arts and I still go to Krav Maga classes in addition to the boxing and Muay Thai training . I've trained at a few different Krav Maga places and seen lots of variability in the training. What Krav Maga did for me, due largely to one very good instructor, give me a solid punching mechanics as well as a few defenses and counters that have been handy in boxing and Muay Thai due to their unexpected nature.
"Thank you Ramsey Dewey". Very Honest n straght forward. A lot of years of knowledge. Thank you for your insight.
Wise words once again, Ramsey.
Pardon me for making a comment similar to one I made on another post, but maybe it's helpful to some teachers and students. I draw a big line between teaching and training. Teaching is the bridge to training, as learning the alphabet is the bridge to writing. Regardless of the name and intent of the art , you start with teaching. Then , to make it work, or see if it works at all, you train with it. You put on the gloves and go at it. I think as long as an Instructor is honest with themselves and their students about that process the name of the art isn't the point at all as Mr. Dewey says. I do both and I'm perfectly ok with it. I teach some people that may never take more than one class , they may be elderly or have PTSD and all I can give them is 1 or 2 tools that I HOPE will help. They will likely never train past that point.But I don't lie to them and say that they are now a killing machine either. What you are providing is your character and experience and if they are both true and you have tested and trained in the content you are sharing, the name shouldn't matter. By the way, I have a background in one of the largest "McDojo" systems in America, and i also walked away from it to do what i thought was right for me. But I still LOVE it, and it's a part of what I teach to this day. In the end, it's really all just movement and concepts and how you , as an individual, make that work. Sorry for the small novel! But i just love this subject, it really hits home with me.
Been doing KM at Gabi Noah’s IKM for 4 years now. My instructor is pretty much agreeing on ALL YOUR POINTS ON KM.
Love your videos man great information always
Would you advise that I train people?
A little about myself, I grew up with a natural aptitude for fighting even before I ever stepped in a gym. I have tapes of myself as a youngster performing pretty advanced moves when sparring my friends and brothers in our backyard (e.g. pull counters, shoulder roll counters, and above average inside fighting). I eventually did join a gym my freshman year of high school and stuck with it till I moved out of my parents' house in my early 20's. My record was 27 - 2.
I also joined wrestling in high school and proved to have a natural aptitude for that as well. My record was 26-6.
I recently joined a muay thai gym and have once again shown a natural aptitude for it (outside of my inflexible legs). I've proven to be pretty creative and dangerous with kicks from the waste down. No record, just sparring so far.
That being said one thing I'm not sure of is my ability to teach. Though I'm confident I know what I'm doing as a fighter, I don't know if it would be ethical for me to try and transfer my knowledge to others. I could be teaching them the wrong way and giving a false sense of confidence. I also notice when I give people some tips, it takes them a long time to understand it and I have to keep repeating myself which frustrates them and makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong.
Anyway, so far I've only "taught" a couple cousins and a few friends, I have fun doing it, but I just don't know if I should without taking some kind of class or something. What do you think?
I'm not Ramsey, but I'm interested in how teaching works, and I have realised something that may help you. Genius are (usually) very bad teachers, because for them, everything makes sense from the begining. They understand a lot of things without trying, so they have no idea why other people don't see what they see. However, if a student who has a lot of troubles understanding something, but finally gets to understand it, becomes teacher, he usually would be a great teacher, because every problem his students may have, has been suffered first by himself.
A teacher is a guide. You, as a student, want someone who has been where you are, and can guide you forward. You would not want to learn from someone who hasn't faced the problems you are facing, because your teacher wouldn't be able to help you solve those problems. He himself would not know the answer.
Because of that, if you want to teach, I would suggest the first thing you need is to understand the problems of the average student. Why not all your training partners are as good as you? What mistakes are they making? Can you see them? And can you comunicate those mistakes to your training partners, with a solution to fix them, in a way they can understand? Do they get better? When you can answer this questions, I would say you are ready to teach, and you will probably be a good teacher and coach.
Oh, and of course, when I say training partners, could be also your students, but I would teach for free until I become good enough to don't feel that I'm cheating them. I myself started teaching friends and family, and I have seen how they become better. I have learn a lot about how to teach, and besides, now I have "proofs" of how good I am as a teacher/coach.
Although I don't agree with your general distain for self defense courses, I love that you made the point that bad instructors are everywhere, mcdojos are everywhere, belt factories are everywhere, in literally every city and involving every martial art. The majority of the hate I hear, is bad schools, bad instructors, it's about money...not it's useless, not when taught right it's useful, and lord forbid anyone, ever, us able to answer...what's a better, easily available self defense system? Nobody can give me that answer. Not everyone has 20 years to master various martial arts well enough to use them in a fight, not everyone wants to compete in sports, not all of us can afford the injuries that come with that, or the gym membership fees to learn various arts. Some of us have lives, jobs, kids, other hobbies, other priorities etc. And let's be really honest, the chances of me needing to defend myself against an amateur or pro mma fighter are pretty much 0.0000000000000001. So training to defend myself against the tweeker on the way home, the mugger, the car jacker, the drunk guy in the bar....much more useful to ME.
I've been studying krav maga for years my instructors are retired and active law enforcement officers we are taught to get home safe my favorite instructor is a NYPD inspector who once told me not worry about belts but instead train I have recently began to teach a self defense course for women and 1 man who is physically a beast but didn't understand footwork correct punching technique or distance I've started with basic jab ,cross,hook next class will be a frame kicks into a natural progression. Fortunately I've never had to use my training but I'm confident I could hold my own I'm 57 years old and understand what it takes to fight growing in central Harlem will do that for you .I believe it I'd is the practitioner not the art that determines what happens in a fight understand your view points on krav lucky for me my instructors are exceptional
Ramsey, I am a new subscriber and I thoroughly enjoy your ethos and content. I just watched your video looking at weapons training and some of the problems with, how unrealistic it can be, and I have to agree. Kendo, olympic fencing, are both comically suicidal/kamikaze if you picture what a real sword fight would look like. So here is my question; have you read any of the medieval sword-fighting treatises such as Talhoffer and Fiore-De Liberri? I would be interested to get you take on these historical fighting treatises written for people who actually faced the possibility of a judicial duel to the death. Regards, Gareth from South Africa.
ASP 26" and longer batons, bear spray, taser, backed up by lethal works pretty well for a lot of people who are involved in no rules combat on a regular basis. Weapons training IS necessary. Without it, you are just pretending..
@@brattraining9510 those tactics helped me work the graveyard shift alone at a gas station, right across from the freeway on ramp, and one block from a mental hospital where violent patients escaped regularly and paid me visits. Just the bat and mace being raised into view from behind the counter was enough to make a would be criminal think better of it, along with the size, strength, and intent driving the folly of their actions home. Even a crazy person knows that dodging a bat while blinded and choking on mace is not a good time I suppose.
@@The_True_
Haha.. yes, choking on cs/cn and OC is fun enough without getting broken bones to boot. I don't understand the dreamers who think self defense without weapons is helpful. Rarely is real life one on one. Multiple attackers changes the rules quickly.
@@brattraining9510 unarmed and armed self defense are best used combined, unless you walk around with a weapon in hand at all times. More likely to be empty handed, at least when getting jumped suddenly in the streets, and proper martial arts *definitely* can make a big difference to give you an opportunity for escape and/or defend against incoming attacks. Nothing like seeing the confidence drain from an attackers face when they can't easily hit you. Be careful out there.
@@The_True_
Good weapon systems instructors include the tactics you mention. Weapons training is mandatory, unarmed is optional. I am not world class but I'd be very confident against ufc fighters on the street. Spray to the face surprise followed by tactical baton strikes of necessary and backed up with firearm and edged weapons. Worked for me every time and I've been in many doozies. Not always one on one. Train weapons first as it gives you a realistic chance of successful outcomes protecting yourself and others. Keeping strong and fit are givens. Remember in real weapons training there is weapon retention training (jits/muay Thai). May all of us be safe. Take care
Hi, I'm from Chile, currently traveling, I have a taekwondo background and I'm fond of martial arts. I am currently in New Zealand learning Krav Maga for the first time and I'd like to share mi experience so far
(notice that my english is not very good yet)
In this month that I've trained I think the instructor is quite good, (he knows Muay thai, and I understand he was a fighter) always teaches us to be aggressive but also run away from the fight as much as possible, avoid it, always makes the difference clear between a contact sport and Self defense, as very well Ramsey explains. Naturally I am in the beginners class and we are taught mainly fists, and some kicks, knees and elbows, also positions but nothing of "rare" techniques that seem ineffective.
On the other hand I feel that the academy is quite commercial, classes are booked online, "packages" are bought, and sometimes we change the instructor, it makes me feel that they are not following closely your progress. My class belongs to the beginner level, there is also intermediate and advanced, in beginner you can see a lot of students and every week new students appear and others leave , I assume that while you level up the classes will be more serious, personalized and effective.
What I'm getting from this video is that it's more about the quality of instruction than the style itself.
"Good" styles taught poorly will fail you. Less "good" styles taught well may or may not be good for self defense, but a good instructor at least won't lie to you about your capabilities. Seems more honest, at least.
Also, of course, how dedicated the student is makes a huge impact.
I see these kinds of videos all the time the answer is all martial arts are worth it if the individual knows how to use it if the instructors know what they are doing and have you pressure test then yes all of them are effective and worth it
thank you man.. you're inspiring
Question: I train Hospital staff how to do simple self defense, Slip a punch, release a grab with the intent of not harming the attacker since they may be not thinking correctly. Most of the training is focused on de-escalating the situation with respect but when a patient is on drugs or psychotic, de-escalation may not work. We also teach how staff they can effectively gain physical restraint of the individual in crisis. These techniques were developed by Algene Cariula in the early 80’s and seem to use many Aikido techniques with wrist locks and such. I have taught them blindly following my training for many years. Over time, I have modified my teaching to improve the techniques. Recently, your description of seeking truth has me wanting to work with a coach to see what I can improve within the legal constraints I have to work with. Ethically we can not intend harm to a patient even if they are trying to hurt me. I can not use any technique that interferes with breathing. I am interested in your thoughts. What type of martial art would be compatible in your opinion?
I would like to also suggest that many people who work in security, in schools or rehab might be in the same situation, as they want to be able to protect themselves, but also are concerned about legal issues when physically managing someone against their will as part of their job.
This guy is 90% of my morning on late weeks and 90% of my evening on early weeks. Thanks so much mate! Btw I would love to hear you commenting in MMA :)
It was interesting, I agree with a lot of thoughts, not with everything for 100%, but most of them. Just two comments. I train Krav Maga, I like it very much, but I am not fanatic. And unfortunately there are a lot of bad instructors, who just teach techniques but not really self defense. I had the opportunity to participate in seminars with some well known names in the industry, there is a huge difference between them and these "instructors". On one of the seminars there were a lot of participants in instructor T shirt from different krav maga schools. The seminar was stopped at least 4-5 times that whats going on. Some guys in instructor T shirt were just terrible. Zero fighting spirit, knowledge of some techniques but nothing near to reality.... and they teach.
what I really liked and I appreciate your honesty that you do not teach self defense. My opinion that this is a different system, however all my instructors had martial arts background before, but all learned and had exams, official certificates of any self defense system, or Krav maga, or Police Self Defense. They teach the techniques how can you get out a situation, avoid fighting, deescalate a fight by communication and body language, but if you have to fight, then fight dirty (there are no weight categories on the street) but fight back proportional to avoid prison. But I see a lot of instructors who teach self defense without any formal training, exams.. For example kick boxer or jiu jitsu instructors, who are good in their area. BUt I don´t know why, a lot of them feels, that they teach self defense. Please, I did some ground fighting, I have seen bjj videos on youtube, I would not teach bjj... or any other different martial arts where I did not went through the levels. Near to me a bjj girl teaches women only self defense. I recognize her medals, belt, knwledge in bjj, I have seen one of her video of a class, if I would like to learn bjj, definetly would go her classes. BUt the technique what she shown on the video as self defense technique is just called the "common mistake". Just does not work on the street with a bigger guy who really wants to hurt me. And she is selling this as self defense...
Bjj doesnt work on syreets rly dude, the guy who made mcmap had a bjj bb tge army have a lot of grapplkng competions, i agree with you that to fight on the ground sometimes can be a deadly mistake but bjj is very efficient and every form of ground grappling is from luta livre to catch but you need to be a complete fighter grappling is not enough.
I have a friend that go to km and he say tnat was legit they say to me that 360 and all this techniques i saw on videos are fake and that real km is street mma with train in attack senarios with some specific techniques p.e headlocks. Most km schools are just bullshit thats the problem with this art. Search for gracie jiu jitsu that actually the self defence bjj is term for the sport not the art. Gjj traditional judo and sambo self defence are very similar and way better than every civilian system. Btw krav maga has jujutsu and judo techniques from the start and now some put and bjj ground in it.
Ramsey Dewey, I fully agree with you. I don't think that Krav Maga alone is enough, but it has its place. Self defense against a gun or against knife is the last card on the table. The best deference is not to get into trouble in the first place. If someone has a knife, run away. If someone has a gun cooperate. But when everything else fails, I think that some of the techniques taught by Krav Maga give you a better chance of survival, because they target vital body parts such as the balls, eyes, ears and throat. These things aren't allowed in MMA so they won't train for that. With Krav Maga they drill these techniques into you so it becomes second nature. Something like muscle memory. So see Krav Maga as a supplementation to MMA. In real life I've used it twice as a last means of deference so don't underestimate it. Better to know something in a bad situation then to know nothing at all right?
6:17 to 6:31 - Thanks man, that gave me some clarity what combat sports and self-defense is.
Every label has certain expectations assiocated with it.Even the word MMA has certain assiocations with it whether they be positive or negative.
I'm a Kravist and I love this video! I like how you broke this down
Another thing I used to teach especially when it came to knife and blunt object defenses. I used to tell my students not to waste time on fancy techniques of trying to disarm someone with a knife. I used to say "an unconscious attacker is easy to disarm".
self expression. and being the best you can be
Definitely feel this. Probably better to fight violence with toughness and control 95% than violence when you're talking about unarmed. If you're talking about armed, violence is more than justified but not necessarily effective; escape is the only really good option
It’s great that you said that Self Defense instructors are those that prey on fear. That’s where we live. I served in the military. I like to know how to take care of myself or someone else. I live in a violent city. I want to know what is going on and how to fight. You’re correct though!
I'm planning to take Krav Maga. But I will mix it with boxing (I spar in the gym).
"Self defense is move away from the violence" - what a word
Excellent thoughts and very well stated.
Really interesting things you said, thanks.
In Krav we do all the same combat sports. We build a good foundations of basics, boxing, grappling, Muay Thai. And then we focus on weapons, knife, stick, gun. We spar and practice for multiple opponents, with weapons. We try to address real world violence and scenarios that most commonly occur. What I’ve learned is how difficult it really is, to deal with things like knife attacks. If you can get away, do it. With all due respect Coach Dewey, a lot of times you say “run away” from things like knife attacks. But it’s not that simple or easy to do, a testament to this is all the people who have died from this kind of violence. Surely you wouldn’t tell their loved ones “they should have just ran away”
And surely you wouldn’t tell their loved ones “they should have just learned Krav Maga!”
Sorry Ramsey, but you're not entirely right. While I agree with you that performing a hip escape with the head cocked to one side is more effective, there is nothing inherently "wrong" with the way Master Wong is doing it, because if you watch carefully... HE'S ONLY BRIDGING ON ONE HIP! This offsets the angle of the roll 20+ degrees to one side. This makes it harder to post up with the opposite hand. And if they do, you can slide out around it. I've used a similar bridging hip escape, but have since used the "over the shoulder" escape you depict here, or a combination of both.
Ramsey Dewey I love your explanations and thougts on Martial Arts in general and your view on wannabe-trainers and mcDojos. Now I do have two questions for you:
What are your thougts on "traditional" martial arts like the Muay Thai Boran-Styles which where developed for actual combat and less for sports/competition like K7-Thai Boxing or Kickboxing? Which one would you recommend to learn to somebody who has no interest in competing in tournaments and likes?
You mentioned in another video that you also learned Capoeira at some point in your live. When I speak with people of different martial art styles, the huge majority looks down on Capoeira at it just is "dancing around" and has 0 praktical use. Is it really like that? Or are there elements which are usable in martial sports or self defense?
Thanks in advance if you are going tho answer to (one) those questions.
As far as self defense its mainly about providing safety tips/survival and the basic principals of fighting it will likely not grant you all what you need to win at combat sports but it could posibly give you a sense of enrichment and skill that could posibly get you out of a jam.
If the person asking the question has used their art to protect themselves, and also questions their art rather than accepting it all as the truth, he or she is the kind of instructor we need to see more.
*I think it's basically like having a degree in the history of yarn.*
Brendan Jackson but yarn is useful
I am not really training martial arts, but a dozen years ago I was to a Krav Maga course. I got some health problems or I would have continued, it was really fun. I am not really competent to have an opinion, but the place had both a lot of police training and serious people that had trained a lot of other stuff before. (Let me put it like this -- other students looked a bit upset when I said that I was there just for fun, not for getting work skills. :-) )
I remember thinking quite often that I would rather be beat up than do THIS to anyone for real. :-)
Well, that was my experience. It is a bit funny to see the discussion about how KM has become a fashion thing now. :-)
I should add that we had some Israeli army guy up for training a weekend, he almost looked like a taller Woody Allen. :-) And also, I don't know if it was generally so fun before it became "popular", it seemed the other local club wasn't as fun to train at.
My funniest story about the KM term was when an old work friend, that had trained a bunch of Chinese stuff and jujutsu, asked me about how it was -- I answered that it was very practical, you hit without turning your hands, you were aggressively in a hurry ("someone might be killing your friend next to you"), etc. He nodded and wasn't surprised, until he asked about stances; then he disgustedly muttered "depressingly linear". :-)
One of the military training was a quite new female officer, I really looked forward to sparring with her next term -- she was really fast, an old fencer, so I could have shocked my old mother (active for decades in a women's house) by calling her to say that "I got beat up by a little girl yesterday". :-)
Damn health, I wish I could have continued.
Your diction is amazing and the way you talk is entertaining.
My kids both go to a "Krav 4 Kids" club run by Krav Maga Central in Birmingham. Sure, it all starts out with drills, learning to punch, learning to kick, doing bag work, doing conditioning, but the crucial thing for me is that he gets the kids to get their mouthguards in, get their gloves on, & spar. That to me is the litmus test - does it work when people are resisting? Without sparring, there's no progression beyond the early belts. You have to fight to get that black belt.
As a former krav maga instructor in the idf. I can say that for self defense you should learn MMA as your main focus and for time to time train krav maga for the stuff MMA dont teach you knife fighting and defence again gun or several attackers. Krav maga should be simple aggressive and with live resistance.
My taekwondo techniques have got me out of some street fights. Just because some people give the system a bad name doesn't stop me from training to get better. But you're right there are a few holes we need to fill in
Its really very simple, it either works or it does not and a lot of that has to do with who is teaching/practising it and their mindset.....Krav Maga seems pretty practical and that's often the key.....
Mr. Dewey, I think your perspective on self defence is a bit too pessimistic. There are some legit programs and teachers out there. If you'd like to know more I can wholeheartedly recommend "the little black book of violence" by Kane and Wilder. It's a self defense guide aimed specifically at men and has taught me a lot. And I have seen a lot of coaches who use similar or even the same concepts in their teachings of self defense.
A Russian man who used to go to my local pool. Saw me reading a krav maga book. And laughed. He told me, you'll get killed. He said when he was in Russia in Moscow late at night in winter, he was coming home from work or a bar, but he got jumped by a gang. He said he used some kick boxing. He said, without him hitting tires, trees, getting conditioned, he would have died that day. He barley made it home. He said he actually broke his arm during the fight. So yeah. Understand that when your life is actually in danger. He told me, you need to fight on the grass, the ground, get hit in the face, etc. That's why judo got so huge because 1. It was simpler to learn compared to the traditional jiujitsu from Japan (this was in the late 1800s or early 1900s), you couldn't really train to break someone's neck unless you fought on the battle field, it just wasn't that practical. And guns had a huge advantage: distance. 2. It was something you could fight with, but also compete and practice with, and hence combat sports where born. But yeah, not only that, gun disarms are pretty useless. Because no guy is going to just hand over his gun. You're going to be wrestling the fucker and try to pull it out of his hands hoping after you do that he doesn't do anything else to you in desperation.
Once again, well said!!!
At my gym, they advertise Krav Magra and all it is, is during a self defense class, which consists mostly of sparing and other techniques, our coach will throw down a fake knife or gun during the class and that's the gist of that because it's all about Muay Thai Kickboxing and traditional Muay Thai, with some added Jun Fan and Taekwondo in the mix.
I think the issues with Krav are an issue across the board with all martial arts not just any one specific art.
If it's too hard people leave and injuries are a part of martial arts and some folk can't afford to be injured for their day job.
As the person running the club if it's your livelihood that's a tough one.
How do you decided between no compromise and making money.
I think there's a option to hit a middle ground, for those who want the fitness element just do martial arts themed fitness classes and then have sepwrate classes for those who want to do the more brutal and gritty stuff.
You can hopefully still retain people then without compromising the integrity of what you do.
Insightful thank you
I don't know how I stumbled upon your channel, but I did and this is the 2nd video of yours that I have watched and enjoyed. Oh, time to sub. Okay, I'm back. I love the part about instructors. I grew up a huge (American) football fan. I played only two years in high school, though. Why? The (then) new head coach was such a horrid coach and teacher of the game that I came to hate it, and I walked away after my Junior year. Even more, that experience left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I wouldn't even watch college or NFL games for couple of years after. It matters who is teaching you, and this applies in all areas of life.
I think all martial arts styles are good, I do agree,it is not the martial art style that is not good.It those bad instructors that give it a bad name. Ramsey Dewey is keeping it real.
See, perfect example of what everyone should do. Admit when they're being biased instead of being all (stupid) prideful and being blind to the truth
I am aware of what u mean. The fault is on the lack of physical training . The techniques work just fine. But if you have a very compliant partner. You will learn them wrong. Some schools mix mma workouts and sparring along krav for physical ability
I got my first computer in 2008 for my birthday. I searched the martial arts videos and soon discovered massive hate for aikido. Every year or so I would check out the martial arts videos. I didn't feel "safe" typing about internal martial arts and philosophies. I stopped searching about 5 years ago and I dropped back in in 2121 and discovered three teachers who could feel, articulate and explain more than one could assimilate. Goldenball, Journey and Coach. See what happens if you keep on living. This is a community? Is it safe? Kidding, but not.
Excellent arguments,👍
Great voice for narration and voice overs.