Articles Written by Danny Zelig

Originally, Krav Maga was created to prepare a soldier for face to face combat on the battlefield. If a fight is viewed along a timeline (from all the time in the world to no time) face to face is a critical and brutal moment for a soldier.  Therefore, the techniques must be direct and aggressive in order to increase the likelihood of success. 

But techniques are just a strategic expression of a soldiers will to survive. Without will, a solider stands little chance of survival. How then, can a solider’s will be enhanced and improved?

In general, most people are born with the same level of will. What changes our will (either strengthening or weakening it) is the social and physical environments in which we grow up.

For soldiers, Krav Maga is a vehicle to develop the mental strength in order to perform to the best of their abilities in order to prevail and win in combat.    
A focused and clear mindset geared towards the completion of specific tasks. This mental training is equally applicable to life outside the military.

The goals of civilian self defense may differ greatly from the goals of face to face military combat, but the techniques, will to survive, and mental training are part of both systems. We at Tactica stress the importance of mindset training in addition to the training of techniques and physical skills. Imagine how beneficial this mental strength and ability can impact our daly lives on and off the mat?

Train smart, train hard, and grow,

Danny

PANIC.

A panic attack is a sudden surge of overwhelming anxiety and fear. Your heart pounds and you can’t breathe. The mind does not function at its regular capacity. Surroundings look different, they sound different. This leaves the mind overwhelmed and limits its decision-making capacity.  The panic I would like to write about is the one caused by experiencing an unexpected violent action. A physical attack made upon us by the outside world -  a car accident, a natural disaster, or a terror attack.
 

Here we are again, witnessing another mass shooting that has taken 17 souls from this world and left many injured - both physically and mentally. For many law enforcement (LE) agencies, the “writing was on the wall” long before the atrocities of that day occurred.

I would like to talk not about the reasons that nothing was done ahead of time or about another person who was flying under the “radar” of LE authorities. Instead, I would like to talk about how we, the regular civilians on the street, can deal with such things without relying upon others. Can we be prepared and prevent these things from happening?

Some train to learn new and cool techniques, some train to learn how to fight.
 
I do not believe in training for either of these. Not for myself, and not for my practitioners. If I were to carry the mindset that I train to fight, I will engaged in a mental process that will reach its goal. In other words: the fight will find its way to me.
 
What is the goal in this? What am I trying to achieve by fighting?
 
Our physical actions are the expression of our sub-conscience. If my actions are not clear to me, this lack of clarity can lead to destructive behavior. We fight.
 
Fighting becomes a method to express anger and rage, frustration and imbalance.  When we decide we want to fight, it means we want to express our action through some period of time. By fighting, I want to hurt, break, teach, or maybe appeal to my ego.
 
Here at Tactica, we do not train people to fight, we train to solve a problem in the best way possible.
 
We drill technique as options, or tools, that we may use to reach our goal. But the main thing here is this mindset: We do not fight, we put an end to a problem.
 
So that may one walk in peace.
 
Kida
 
Danny Zelig