| I know this is long but please hear me out. We’ve been around since 2004. Since then, we’ve trained literally thousands of people. I make it a point to ask everyone I meet what got them interested in our training center. Over the past 20 years I’ve received more answers than I can count. But I often feel that the answers are superficial. I understand why, so I don’t mind and I don’t pry. Occasionally, however, I get an answer that I feel is from the heart. An older gentleman in his 70’s recently leveled with me. He said he’s older now and he doesn’t want to be taken advantage of. “He doesn’t want to be someone’s punching bag” is how he put it. Years ago, a college student told me he was smacked in the face at a college party. He didn’t know what to do. He said he just sat there, scared. A woman told me she was so afraid of her former boyfriend that she got a restraining order and bought a gun, but she was afraid to use it, and didn’t really know how. In 2018, a dad told me his 10 year old son doesn’t understand social cues and has become a target at school. I’m sure you can see why it’s not easy for people to tell me their “why.” It’s very personal, and the reason I don’t pry. With few exceptions, why people come (the real reason) will always be a mystery to me. But after years and years of wondering, I’m pretty sure I know why they stay. I’d say it’s curiosity. Once you start learning how to recognize and manage violent behavior, it’s hard stop. It’s a new realm of knowledge, and human nature is curious. The more we understand, the more we want to understand. And this knowledge is different. Knowing that our universe is expanding at a rapid pace is great and mysterious and wondrous all coupled together. But knowing what to do and what not to do in the face of abusive language or behavior is tangible knowledge, not abstract knowledge. It’s practice for the real world. Our entire life we’re made to feel like violence is something we should not practice in because it’s dehumanizing. But violence was baked in at the beginning of time and look around, it’s not going away. It’s part of the human experience. Learning it and understanding it doesn’t make you less human. We teach a skill that few people have. It’s used for threat assessment and threat management. If you learn that skill, you’ll feel more confident, you’ll fear less, and your actions will deter rather than invite. In 2025 – if you can get past the initial discomfort of going to a new place to participate with strangers in an activity that you’ve been led to believe is both scary and more harmful than helpful – what you’ll find, ironically, is comfort. To see what people have to say about us, click here Respectfully, Davide Owner / Chief Instructor Krav Maga New York |
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More Knowledge, Less Fear
