Krav Maga? “Ephman do you have something stuck in your throat?” you might ask. No, however it feels that way when you say it. Krav Maga is a very effective hand to hand combat system. Don't think it should be labeled a martial art though. There doesn't seem to be any real “formal” stuff going on. Which is great for Ephman.

 

At this point I bet you're asking “What is this Krav Maga you speak of?” KM for short is a hand to hand combat method taught to every Israeli when they enter the Army. And for the most part, unless your Orthodox Jew, or faking anorexia, you go into the Army.

 

And if you've been living under a rock for most of your life, Israel is in a pretty dangerous neighborhood. So you can only imagine how effective this combat system must be. It can help get you out of any close encounter. If you have a fist or foot coming at you, bhow, you got a reply. A knife, there's something for that too. Even if you have a gun poking the back of the head... Like there's tons of quick and effective moves to get out of that crappy situation.

 

Plato put it right when he said “Necessity is the mother of invention”. This dude Imi Lichenfeld wasn't having the easiest time of things back in Bratislava in 1930's. See back then there were way more ignorant anti-semites. And if you don't know any anti-semites, they don't like Jewish people. Imi went out and with his boxing and wrestling background developed Krav Maga to defend himself. But Ephman doubts it was called Krav Maga back then. When he started teaching the system, it was probably just called survival.

 

KM is really easy to learn and remember. “Why is something so effective so easy to learn and remember?” OK too good to be true you're thinking right? Easy. The system is logical. You move the way your body naturally moves. Bio-mechanics baby, bio-mechanics. So muscle memory really sticks. The whole thing is about getting down to business quickly, and taking care of business quickly. Know what I mean?

 

And on that note. You're not bound up having to do any of that fancy ceremony stuff to waste time with. And no uniforms too. Ok you do need to wear a cup, because you will get kicked in the balls (if you have them) at one point. Actually for Ephman that was the first thing he learned. Ephman sees some people bowing to his teacher Rhon Mizrachi. Anyways, regardless of the bowing thing, everybody in that room respects him. Rhon is probably the best person outside of Israel to learn Krav Maga from.

 

Ephman trains at the Krav Maga Federation. Under Rhon Mizrachi. Visit the website to read all about him. But anyways, the class usually starts off with a CrAzY intense cardio session. 10 minutes of running in one spot, jumping, jumping side to side, pushups, situps... all at the hardest you can go until you almost just want to throw up. Then Rhon will teach demonstrate something. A kick, a punch, something like that. Then we'll practice that move pretending there's somebody there. After we've learned the motion, he'll put into a real world situation. He'll demonstrate how to get out of choke hold, surprise grab, etc... We'll pair off and practice it. He's always walking around telling people what they can do to be better. And listen to him. Once he told Ephman to hit him, and Ephman didn't give it his all, Ephman got hit instead. So lesson learned. Then it's question answer time. So at this point two things are going on... you're either throwing up all over, or you're getting thrown up on!