“Self defence should be stupid and simple”

That’s right. If you have to memorise and recall 6 steps to defend yourself against a knife stab, and 8 different ways to defend stabs from different angles, you probably would not remember any of them when the real attack happens.

Every move we teach at Protect is pressure tested. We constantly challenge ourselves to execute the moves under various conditions, environments and opponents, ensuring the ease of employment of our moves by people of any size, gender or age.

“Laboratory condition training is not enough”

Many martial arts or self defence schools teach moves that seem to work. After all, it worked on me during the demonstration, right? Pause, and think about it. Did you/the assailant really go all out on the demonstrator? Is that how he will be attacked in the real world? Just one punch or one stab, and no resistance?

At Protect, we believe in real training for the real world. Practitioners will be tested for their ability to defend themselves against realistic attacks by fellow peers, who will be allowed to go all out with their rubber knives/guns. All training is conducted in the safety of the gym with full protective gears to minimise training injuries.

“Unfortunately, we are not God”

Many people like to ask questions like “What happens if the bad guy holds his gun from ten feet away?”,”What if there were ten of them?” or “What if he was holding a knife at your throat, with a partner in crime holding both your hands, pinning you against the wall?” While it is good to be inquisitive, do understand that none of us have divine power to control what our assailants will do to us, or how many of them there will be.

Many self defence systems out there, unfortunately, claims to be able to teach you self defence against some apparently ludicrous conditions, like having two guns pointing at your abdomen from both sides. While these efforts to resolve such tacky situations seem impressive, they violate the basic principles of simplicity and fail the “real world” test we abide by. More than anything else, trying to apply such moves during a robbery will only do more harm than good.

The role of self defence is not to save you from all possible attacks that could occur, but to increase the chance of your survival in such unfortunate events. Naturally, the best way to survive is to concede to their demands (you can always purchase a new iPhone, but you cannot buy your life). Krav Maga is just a last resort for you to fight for your survival if all else fails.

“There are no hard and fast rules”

At Protect, there are no hard and fast rules as to how moves should be carried out. What we teach is basic principles for effective self defence, and basic techniques that can be employed. Practitioners are then challenged to employ these different tools as they deem fit, on a case by case basis. However, it is no surprise that most practitioners will stick to a few of the most effective techniques and play around with them to adapt to various situations.

– All philosophies adapted from
Mr. Itay Gil, CEO Protect-USA/Israel