9 Things You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Teaching BKMO Krav Maga Self Defence: Guaranteed to skyrocket your adult numbers

Have you ever been to a class and the instructor starts with umms and erms. Does that instil confidence in you that they know what they are doing. There is a large amount of martial artists that are world class practitioners that just wing it or improvise when they teach. Some instructors may plan a little, such as on the day or at worst not plan at all. Some of these instructors plans may just be a scrap of paper with a few combos on but does this suffice as a professional approach to imparting knowledge or developing skills.

To be a professional instructor we need to be more scientific in our approach. Planning on the day or not, is not a way to run a successful class not to mention a successful martial arts business. To be a successful professional teacher we need to be more scientific in our approach. Here is a few tips on making your classes sky rocket with new students or retain the ones you have:-


1. Teach with a learning outcome in mind

Learning outcomes are what a student will be able to do as a result of learning. Clearly stated learning outcomes help students understand what is expected of them and help instructors focus on precisely what they want students to achieve. Before you plan your class, think about what you want your students to get out of it.  An example of a learning outcome could be; you want you students to be able to escape from strangles. You may have to broaden out on your objectives by looking at the variety of strangles such as being pushed back while being strangled, pressed against a wall, standing still, from the side, face pressed into a wall, etc. 

Now you have fully established your goal, learning outcome or what you want to achieve in a clear and concise fashion then you have a foundation to deliver a great class.

2.  Take into account the needs of your students

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How to produce a Self Defence Program For your Dojo

If you’re a martial arts school owner or run a club you may find that 90% of successful school owners owe their success to teaching kids.  Well I hope at the end of this blog you will become more confident at attracting more adult member’s through teaching your own  self defence program.

Martial arts over the years has become more sport and fitness orientated and less about self defence for many schools. Now there is a slight difference between Dojo sparring and self defence but does that mean this makes them less likely to defend themselves on the street.

I would guess someone who does well out-pointing, submitting, over powering or knocking out  opponents in the gym or in the competitive arena has a more than average chance of defending themselves against an aggressive untrained person on the street however it will still be determined by the circumstances.  Determining circumstances could be things such as, people involved for example age, size, weight and numbers. Objects that could possibly be used as weapons and the place they’re in will also determine how an encounter may end up.

Now it is true there are no refs or tapping out in a street fight so preparation for the street needs to have a difference but how big a difference?   Krav Maga has filled a huge gap where training for the street is concerned, but the concept of training for the street was here well before this concept became popular in the early 2000. One of the problems we have in the UK is when Krav Maga came to the UK, some of the pioneers were unaccomplished martial artists who did these short courses and never had any serious hand to hand combat experience prior. Many of these teachers of so called reality based self defence  systems have mislead  the public into believing the uk’s modern military have a substantial amounts of experience in hand to hand combat. One of these associations has swelled their ranks of instructors with these military types with only 18 days experience, with the public none the wiser and having the belief that military guys make better self defence instructors.  Can I make clear Military guys could make amazing instructors if they had prior martial arts experience due to their courage, discipline and willingness to put it on the line.

Why do good martial artists make better self defence instructors?

1. Martial artists make the best self defence instructors because they are used to having punches and kicks thrown their way.

2. They are used to pressing up against each other and trying to impose their will on an opponent.

3. Used to playing the physiological game versus an opponent.

4. They are strategists for whatever discipline they are involved in.

5. They are used to being hit and hitting back to overcome an attacker within their discipline.

6. They are open minded and willing to learn and cross train to complete themselves as a fighter.



So how does a martial artist teach self defence?

1. Develop a strategy for common attacks

In 2010 the Security Industry Authority made a recommendation to the home office that all front line security staff should go through physical Intervention training to deal with violent or disruptive customers. The SIA listed a couple of common scenarios or problems and left it up to training centres to put together a system and submit it to an awarding body such as City and Guilds, Edexcel, HABC to give it their stamp of approval so as to roll out 1 day QCF accredited and approved courses.  These courses were written by some ex prison service guys, mental health intervention companies and so on. Whether these systems are effective is debateable but what it has done for the first time is brought regulation to a system of self defence.

A dojo, organisation or association can do exactly the same thing for their school or schools. List out all the common attacks or problems on the street and scenarios and put together a system of combating them i.e, strangles, holds, strikes, short bludgeon weapons, sharps and more.

Once (or during) the system is produced you can stress test them.  Many of your chosen solutions may have already been stress tested through experience, but it does build confidence in students to have an animal day, adrenalized training or in layman’s terms a good old hard session to separate the wheat from the chaff.

A good starter for any self defence system is to choose extremely easy solutions for each problem. Easy is like basics in a competitive fight. When the going gets tough in a competition, basics is what is always dependable.  Teaching easy to learn basic instils confidence in students very quickly and is more likely to be useful in a real situation.

2. Train realistically

As a lover of all martial arts and defence systems it has to be said that if a person fights within the confines of their style with blatant disregard for realism they can be setting themselves up for a fall. Confrontations need to be simulated according to the problem presented.  In the heat of a fight keeping the hands up may be a good idea. Before a fight kicks off showing non aggression may be a good idea. Practicing caught off guard with hands down is equally as good as being ready with your hands up.

In the information age we have the gift of Youtube and other social media to see real confrontations and threats.  What we should not do is take for gospel any defence until you have worked it. Train realistic but remember to be safe and take precautions to avoid serious injury.

3.  Don’t do away with sparring

It is a going trend where some individuals would want to get to black belt without sparring. It is equally a common thing where some reality based systems view sparring as a bad thing as they believe it develops bad habits and is irrelevant for a real confrontation.  As a security trainer of door supervisors we have found guys that spar are more equipped and confident to engage an attacker if need be than someone who hasn’t developed the reflex action of slipping, moving, ducking, blocking and covering up from the onslaught of an aggressive person.

Sparring needs to be an option for a self defence class whether you have a separate class or include some safe play at some point during the class as you go through the curriculum.

4. Cross train and always keep learning

Never ever stop learning. Drawing another example from competitive systems I can remember clubs that never did well at comps but turned up religiously for every event. These clubs invited outside instructors and attended squad trainings and before long they were doing just as well as the more established clubs if not better due to an open minded and humble approach to growing there competitor base.  Although we know competition does not pay the bills, the thing we need to take away from this example is that standards are grown through our appetite for learning and gaining more knowledge from other people as opposed to staying in our own comfort zones.

We tend to be afraid of cross training as fears it will change what we do.  Far from it.  Your self defence strategy is to offer simple solutions for violent problems that may occur and what you pick up on the way has to be an added benefit to your all round knowledge of the Martial arts.

5. Competition

Competition was a form of pressure testing techniques and systems. As more emphasis went on winning as opposed to what was practical a lot of competitions lost their purpose as far as self defence was concerned and took on new meanings. However the evolution of competition has benefited us all in some ways as competitive events can be extremely entertaining.

We feel competition or show casing what practitioners do should be an option. The BKMO have four optional disciplines that is not pushed on its members.:- Stand-up,  MMA, Grappling, Demonstration Self Defence and a tetrathlon (combination of all four events).


What BKMO Self Defence Training offers

To put together your own system takes time and effort, and as full time instructors we may not have time to do this and run a full time school. If you already have a workable system you may be happy where you are.  I must admit I was the same with my martial arts program.

My Martial arts school was run off 4 programs. Positive Start, Masters, Leaders and Certified Instructor training. Having a one fits all system was taught for over a decade however as we checked our needs analysis sheets from all our present, past and prospective students there was a huge need for total self defence focused classes. A mixed system can be adapted to self defence but to tick the box for many adults who were after either increased confidence, fitness or self defence and the 5% who wanted to compete was hard.

In 2012 we implemented a total self defence program and now approaching 2015 our adult program including the participation of parents and grand parents of children that train in our school has shot up due to this approach. Our retention has shot up too.

We put together a fantastic program, video recorded it and put together an instructor training program to roll-out this system.  We put together a weekend program so as to not disrupt your working week too much and have regular networking and training events every 6 weeks.

Business wise we put together our own marketing and recruitment process and have ran with it and made it work.

Services Offered:-

. BKMO provide seminars at you Dojo or hall

. Provide affordable Instructor training

. World Class Self Defence instructors and coaches

. Regular training and Networking events

. Current open minded approach to training

. and Much More


I hope I have given you confidence to set up you own Krav Maga Self Defence program in your school but if you need any help I can provide you with a written curriculum and take you through it on a series of weekends that is guaranteed to change the way you teach and increase your adult numbers.

Keep Kickin’,

Wayne Edwards

Useful links:-

http://www.siacoursesmanchester.com/Krav-maga-instructor-course.html

http://www.siacoursesmanchester.com/Krav-maga-training-for%20military-and-forces.html

http://www.siacoursesmanchester.com/Krav-maga-cpd-training.html

Wayne Edwards
https://www.facebook.com/WayneVEdwards
masteredwards@hotmail.com

The Forming of the British Krav Maga Organisation

The BKMA Experience and the Forming of the British Krav Maga Organisation

We have run full time schools for over a decade and have been successful for a very long time. Krav Maga has been a passion since we went to Jacksonville to visit Master Bill Clark of Karate America in 2004. Bill Clarke is a well respected figure in Krav Maga Worldwide. Our Martial Arts Curriculum is a Freestyle curriculum that incorporates Sport, Self defence and fitness. Since our visit to Jacksonville, we have studied and taught Krav Maga techniques as additions to a mostly sport and fitness program. In early 2013 we approached Paul Grey of Bristol Krav Maga about his instructor training program so we could get an apparent Krav Maga instructor stamp on our soon to be total self defence program. Mr Grey told us he was a life-long martial artist that had taught Wing chun for many years and came across Krav Maga which he found more useful. He claimed he was high up in the IKMF and when he realized they were just out for themselves he left and started up his own Association. After a chat with Mr Grey I decided to attend his course so as to get his qualification.

The BKMA Qualification

This is an 18 day course. The Training Program is heavily aimed at the military due to present funding opportunities through what is known as LCAS. In order to get LCAS funding Mr Grey has added on a teacher training qualification known as PTTLS that can be taken separately from most learning providers for £250+. The military would not normally fund a Krav Maga instructor course because it is not a recognised course. Paul Grey advertises his course as a Level 4 qualification which is misleading as he hands out a basic certificate to candidates. The level 4 is the Pttls qualification which is useless for instructors who have no intention of teaching a QCF accredited course. Mr Paul Grey charges over £2000 for this course. Military Personnel The requirements of being on a BKMA Krav Maga course apparently was 3 years martial arts experience or equivalent military or police experience. Before the course I thought this was a great idea however I have recently discovered military and police do not have much hand to hand experience if any. In today’s modern armed forces hand to hand combat is obsolete due to modern technology. Being a security trainer I have numerous ex-police, and ex-military friends who have verified that fact. So why do the BKMA Krav Maga Group accept military personnel on a course where these guys will be teaching physical self defence skills to the public who are none the wiser and just a few days behind there trainers. The answer is Marketing and financial reasons. Most of the general public believes from the movies that the military are specially trained in all aspects of self defence. They couldn’t be further from the truth. The armed forces is giving out £2500+ per year for each leaver, that is easy pickings for training companies and the BKMA Krav Maga offer something new to leavers who believe they can teach the public self defence after a 18 day course.

My Experience of the Course.

Phase one The course was held at a MMA gym in Somerset which had the EDL flag plastered everywhere. On my course we had two military guys Chris and Will. We had a personal trainer Paul who was the most experienced, Martial arts wise but had no idea of running a school as he was a personal trainer by trade. We had a South African by the name of Sean who claimed had not much experience but was looking for a new direction. We also had two Taekwondo guys Mark and Michael and last of all a kickboxer by the name of Kai. In all I was the only one with business experience and a good grounded knowledge of multiple martial arts styles.

Day one was what Paul Grey called the arse hole filter. He beasted the guys with Burpees, press ups, sit-ups, squats, runs and more. At the end he got us all sparring. Throughout Day one we worked on mainly 360 blocking which is the most practiced defence system in Krav Maga. After Day one I was beginning to question the abilities of Mr Paul Grey as for me the course was about knowledge and not doing a whole day of cross fit training and a few drills.

The whole 9 days of phase one was much of the same. Fitness and small amounts of krav maga such as 360 blocking and a few knife techniques. On day 8 I had the chance to spar again and with a few visiting instructors of Mr Paul Grey. It was apparent that I was paying for what I already knew, it was like sucking eggs. I am in my 40’s and these guys were being hit at will. Chris one of the RAF guys started to call me Master E and said I should have been teaching the course it was that bad.

At the end of day 8 Mr Grey decide to get us all full contact sparring. I began to really question Mr Greys experience when I was sparring with Will Maunder Taylor who is a large Military guy. I picked Will off with a simple Jab and Paul Grey shouted at him to go forward as he was the bigger guy. So what Will did was to put his head down and plough forwards which exposed him to an onslaught of vicious hooks and uppercuts. Will turned up the next day unable to spar as he believed he may have concussion, I shook my head as it was Mr Grey that put him in danger and I was just defending myself. The lack of sparring ability for instructors was put down to it being too dangerous to really spar Krav maga. I was told it was different for me (in other words I could spar) as I have competitive sparring experience, which was just sport but not reality based. This concerned me as this meant BKMA Krav Maga instructors were untested and never would be, based on that way of thinking.

 Day 9 we covered one gun technique and the business side of running a professional school. To my dismay I knew more than Paul did on all aspects of running a school. He was a member of United Professionals which is a consulting and billing company that went bust some years ago. He explained he’d left them before they went bust due to their inability to help him with his curriculum. For me this was the final nail in the coffin. United Professionals have helped 100’s of Martial artists to run very successful schools. For an individual to leave based on the fact they could not help him with his curriculum meant not so long ago Mr Grey was still finding his feet so therefore this is a case of the blind leading the blind.

I was also unhappy with the course when he began to ask me about my class planning as he wanted some fresh ideas. Mr Grey invited his Bristol university, Glouster and Swindon instructor Will Bayley to give us a testimonial on his time with the BKMA. From what I gathered Will had done a little Ninjitsu and went on to do Paul Greys Instructor course. Will was ecstatic that he had 60 students in 5 months. From a professional background 60 students amongst 3 locations one of which being a university group was a bit low. I suppose to the guys with no experience at all 60 students was an amazing number. We see double that in one day of the week at one location.

Phase Two This phase was very much of the same cross training and bits of Krav Maga except we covered baseball bat defence and his version of stick defense. We also covered stick verses knife. Apart from that we continued to cover mainly 360 blocking, some knife and sparring. There was nothing new and the whole 2 phases made it clear the BKMA Krav Maga syllabus was 80% cross fit and 20% self defence drills. From what I gathered about Krav Maga it was a mixture of Martial arts aimed to provide self defence solutions for all possible attacks. Paul Grey seemed to provide bits of Krav Maga with classes padded out with fitness. By giving little bits a potential instructor is tied to keep going back to Paul Grey for updates while teaching watered down classes of fitness and bits of Self defence.

BKMA Instructor Exam that I attended

On the day of the grading I was greeted by Mr Grey with indifference and also by his equal opportunities officer Mark Edwards. Mark is one of those that yes’s and no’s for Mr Paul Grey and I just knew the fix was in, I even called my wife before the grading kicked off to let her know that it looked like there was no way I would be passed no matter how hard I tried. Paul Grey looked at me as very much a threat and was concerned that I didn’t want to affiliate to the BKMA based on the fact I was already established.

My Paul Grey felt he had trained a competitor. We asked two of his Bristol Krav Maga instructors prior to the exam taking place what would be expected on the day of the exam. We were told lots of drills and sparring. Mr Paul Grey for the first time decided not to have sparring. At the end of the session the decision was obvious before i even started. I went ballistic and made it clear how corrupt his system was. He refused to give me a retest and I threatened to sue.

He then changed his tune and gave me my money back but has not yet recompensed me for my time, loss of earning and accommodation from my time spent doing his 18 day course. Passing novices to teach Krav Maga, and most clearly not having 3 year continued martial arts experience was not a problem for him. I immediately texted the guys of what I thought and you can see for yourself there answers. (Click on the image and it should get bigger)

   

Mr Grey thinks he’s in a fine position. He can hand out certs to whoever will line his pockets and thinks he can kill competition by just failing them and publishing the fact if they set up a rival business.

As a fighter and a champion I was not going to stay down and hence began my own Krav Maga classes and association. Validity of a BKMA Qualification A QCF accredited qualification such as NVQ’s and Btec quals require a sector specific qualified tutor, assessor and internal verifier as well as an external verifier from an awarding body.

The BKMA Krav Maga Qualification does not have this infrastructure. Mark Edwards was down as the examiner but in reality he was just an accomplice as with what seems little experience then what he received from Paul Grey and no accomplishments martial arts wise he would pass who he was told too. The testing method is open to corruption. In reality there is no proof of competence on a BKMA Krav Maga instructor exam as there is no video evidence. All we have to go off is the word of a competitor and rival that I did not meet their standards.

The birth of the BKMO

 Sat in my office I was pondering what to do now. Do I go to Israel where I can get a qualification. I wasn’t prepared to do this. I have a wealth of experience and have all the ingredients to give justice to a true British Krav Maga system. I hold an instructor red arm band in Muay Thai, 5th degree Kickboxing black belt, 1st dan in Karate, 1st Degree black belt in Escrima and practice Krav Maga syllabus for 9 years. I am the World Fight Martial Arts England President and been a national coach for 9 years. Sat in my office with my team we started the English Krav Maga Association. A week later a friend of Mine Everton Smith of Newport Martial arts approached me about coming on board.

Everton being Welsh made me think bigger and we became the British Krav Maga Organisation as BKMA and BKMF was already taken. 18 Days or 8 day Courses The BKMA Krav MAga system is about getting total novices in to a position to teach some form of class that will keep them entertained until the instructor gets some updates on their CPD events.

I feel 18 days is not enough to get a novice teaching true self defence. At first we tried the 18 day thing and realised a competent Martial artsist can grasp the syllabus a lot quicker as 80% would have been covered by most styles. “The striking is all the same just the rules are different.” We will not take novices on as instructors. All our guys are accomplished martial artists. Krav Maga is a syllabus that takes out all the complicated techniques and gives students something workable in a short space of time.

Krav Maga defences are taken from other martial arts and as said before 80% of accomplished martial artists would have covered the techniques at one point in their training. Escapes from chokes and holds are all generic amongst most martial arts. Punches and kicks are very much the same. Accomplished martial artists provide a polished element to Krav Maga as opposed to 18 day novice instructors who deliver some pretty poor striking techniques which learners copy.

I liken teaching to a baking tin. If there is a dent in the tin all the cakes that come out of it will have dents. Paul Grey passes the unpolishedness of the instructors with the phrase Krav Maga is not made to look pretty. As our instructors are accomplished we only require them to do a 8 day course to get them started. Anyone can view our syllabus on our website and see what we cover as well as understand there is ample material to go through.

Paul Grey at present has not published a syllabus on his site and from what I experienced on the instructor course I understand why. They want to give a little and hope people keep coming back. One of their instructors Mark Papiani mentioned this as he criticised there website that there was no syllabus.

Paul Grey I have been combing the web to find out more info on Paul Grey and cannot find much apart from this popular quote he writes about himself:- “My name is Paul and I am a professional Martial Artist. I have trained and taught all over the UK for various organisations and run Bristol Krav Maga. I have trained to advanced and expert levels and teach the British Krav Maga Association’s 18 day Instructor Course through to advanced Krav Maga Instructors. I am a certified personal trainer and a crossfit certified trainer. My work has taken me from a range of conflict management roles including trainer and specialist conflict trainer drawing up programmes for institutions.” Paul never talks much about his martial arts experience. From talking with him he is very much unaccomplished as a martial artist. He is a wing chun teacher who went on a Krav Maga course when the Israelis first came over to England and he began teaching after the short course. From talking with Paul he has never been in any one to one confrontations. He was a Psychiatric nurse in a prison I gathered.

A bit about Myself

 I am a fully qualified trainer who teaches conflict resolution and personnel safety, Security training, first aid and more. I have worked with schools, colleges and firms to provide personal protection training. I have worked for the Olympic games providing Assault and avoidance training for civilians and joint armed forces (This can be verified) I am very much an accomplished Martial artist. I am:-   WFMC England President (This can be verified by visiting the WFMC Website) National Coach for many years (This can be verified by contacting Master Curtis Page)  Kickboxing 5th Degree Black Belt (This can be verified by contacting Master Curtis Page)   Systemized Escrima Black Belt (This can be verified by contacting Tony Sykes) §  Freestyle Karate Black Belt (This can be verified by approaching Dave Breed) Fung Sau Street fighting Kung Fu (Grand Master Malcom Chamberlain is now deceased) Muay Thai Red Arm band (Master Sken can verify this) I came across Krav Maga and how the syllabus was taught on visiting Karate America in Jacksonville in 2004 and that can be verified by my traveling Partner Tony Higo of the National Martial Arts college, Everton of Newport Martial Arts, Stephen Thompson of Kaizen Dojo or Bill Clarke the owner of Karate America.

The self defence system was incorporated into my class from then. After our run-ins, with a poorly run course by Paul Grey it is was apparent Krav Maga needed a professional approach with more polished practitioners. Paul Grey claims he teaches authentic Israeli Krav Maga . Our claims are we teach British Krav Maga. True brits teaching a very much home grown style of Krav Maga. British Krav Maga has adopted a generic Krav Maga syllabus which is devised to cover all aspects of self defence in the style of Main stream Krav Maga.

We are very open with our syllabus for all to see and use. We video what we do and place clips on the web so it can be compared to other Krav Maga groups. Like Brazilian jujitsu or Western Kickboxing our style is very much home grown and has no claims to have foreign affiliations as we are accomplished home trained instructors.

Similarities with BKMA

 The BKMA have made claims about site similarities and the name, site and certificates. The BKMO sites are word press sites and so are ours. It is a fact Black is the most effective colour so we chose black too. Our logos are totally different. They have chosen the Hebrew symbol of Krav Maga and we did not as we are British and we recall the BKMA had issues with another organization for using the symbol in the first place (Hence there’s is slanted as opposed to normal krav symbols). Check the sites and make comparisons.

The similarities of certificates are a coincidence as we designed ours in our offices after numerous drafts however the certs are very much our logo and refers to our Organisation and have no interest in having links to the BKMA.

What Makes the BKMO different from the BKMA

I honestly believe we are  better in every way. We only have accomplished martial artists teaching our classes as opposed to fresh no experienced guys who depend on us month by month for more material. We map out our curriculum to black belt and have published it. We are open minded and do not require a cult following of inexperienced guys.  Our Instructor courses are not drawn out with cross training and we see no need to teach experienced guys how to suck eggs. We are willing to take on other Krav Maga trained instructors and not put them through a full instructor training program as long as they pass our short cross over course.

 We do not charge 8% of instructors earning plus vat. We are not forever putting our hands in instructors pockets. From what I gather we have been running professional schools and instructor training for a lot longer than Paul Grey and so have a huge network and wealth of knowledge to make you a success. Currently working on a QCF accredited Krav Maga self defence program. BKMO Krav Maga provides a testing ground for students who wish to see if what they do is effective. Not through just pressure testing events but comps that can help them to develop the grappling side, stand up side or even demonstration of self defence techniques. British Krav Maga puts back the martial arts into Self defence. Remember all this is optional. We now have full time schools in Gloucester, Manchester & Newport

Choosing a Krav Maga School

1. Ask about the instructors Martial arts background. Get specifics. Paul Greys instructors are known to say they did the martial arts thing and now they are a graduate Krav Maga instructors. Get dates and their previous instructors and accomplishments.
2. Judge how much time you are actually learning as opposed to just working out.
3. Focus on who will be teaching you and not get sucked into a brand. Ask yourself the question. “Does the instructor look the part, do they walk the talk?”
4. Don’t mistake the work out and the games for what you came for. If you came for self defence do not get side tracked.
5. Ask for an idea of what you will be learning and over what time frame.
6. Make sure the instructor is insured to teach Krav Maga.
7. Be open minded. If you are offered a chance to try out a class do it. Feel free to compare. If you like it then great and if you don’t then no harm is done.

Never be dissuaded due to the prejudice of a few small minds.

Conclusion

In the words of Jobs: Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

If you thought BKMO was just Wayne Edwards then your wrong he has a several well respected BRITISH INSTRUCTORS to give you the best course you can imagine.
Click Link To Meet Our Instructor Training Team

If you have a busy lifestyle and would like to spread your instructor training then click this link for more details of his next course which is taught over weekends

If You are ex, current or about to be  in the Military or Police the BKMO has a program for you. Check this link to get more info on our next course


Check out the other blogs BKMO has put up as you may find it useful suchs:-

Fake Krav Maga in the UK

How to Produce Your Own Krav Maga Self Defence Program

9 Things you simply must do to succeed in teaching BKMO Krav Maga Self Defence: Guaranteed to sykrocket you adult numbers

Fake Krav Maga in the UK

History of Krav Maga in UK

Approximately in early 2000 Israeli practitioners came to the UK to do short courses for Krav Maga Instructors. The requirements were Martial arts experience or a Military background, some okay and some exceptional.  After these short courses Krav Maga started to spread.  Like any service some are very, very bad and some are exceptional, for example KMG’s Nick Maison is flying the flag for how Krav Mag should be taught.

What Krav Maga did for the World of Self Defence

Krav Maga brought back the reasons why people trained in Martial Arts in the first place.  All Martial Arts styles sell self defence to some degree.  Karate, Jujitsu, Kung fu, Taekwondo, freestyle, judo and more will proclaim self defence applications and people flock to these styles in droves to learn self defence.

Years ago traditional styles had competition to pressure test what they had practiced. They fought unknown competitors locally, nationally and internationally. The problem within Martial arts is that over the decades the emphasis on self defence went for many and they became totally sport or fitness based with self defence as a by-product.

Krav Maga turned everything on its head. The practitioners totally denounced the sport aspect and focused on Self Defence. Krav Maga founders and innovators looked at all the common attacks and set up a standardised system for combating them. To make it even more effective they made sure any techniques taught were easy to learn, simple and did not take a lifetime to learn.  Krav Maga basically adapted the Israeli training soldiers in a quick turnaround fashion for the battle field for teaching civilians who needed to be empowered yesterday.

The rise of New Krav Maga Associations in the UK

In less than a decade  of those early courses UK Krav Maga instructors  broke away from the original groups such as the IKMF and set up themselves as authorities on all things Krav Maga, even though before learning Krav Maga held no true successes or authority in a hand to hand combat style prior. These associations still kept their identity as being authentic  Isreali styles.  I wonder who gave them the authority to certify  other UK trainers as being an authentic Israeli Krav Maga coach, surely these guys have lost their authenticity by going off on their own.  In a recognised vocational  course that would be recognised by awarding bodies such as City and guilds, Btec, HABC etc a teacher would have to complete a level 3 train the trainer qualification to teach  instructors. They would also need an internal assessor and an external verifier to ensure quality. Based on this reasoning there is not a qualified person in these new associations with a qualification to provide a Nationally recognised instructor qualification from there own self appointed associations.  So the most recognised Isreali instructors are KMG, IKMF and a few others who have a total linage to the innovator of the system designed by Imi Litchfield (apologise if you are not mentioned).

Is Isreali  Krav Maga the only System  that provides Realistic Self Defence Techniques?

Back in the day when a person would talk about self defence there were names such as Gary Spires, Dave Turton, Geoff Thompson who were god fathers of self defence training who would be mentioned. If a Krav Maga practioner looked them in the eye and told them  what they did was not self defence  it would not end well as these guys were the authority within their field of self defence.  However there is a small minded few in the Krav Maga industry that will say they are the only authority on modern self defence.

Some of these UK Krav Maga Instructors who were qualified in  early 2000 would have the public believe the difference between what they do and what anyone else did was like lawn tennis and table tennis. Far from it, all martial arts has the ability to be applied to self defence.  The rise of the MMA world proved that styles all seem  the same when the application is similar or cross paths so too does self defence if focused on realistically.

Predominantly, if you look at Krav Maga releases of a hold and go to another style for their simple answer for the same problem 9 out of 10 times they would not differ.

So in conclusion to the question:- if the style focuses on self defence in a realistic way they can provide the same results . In many cases a person with a solid martial arts background may do a better job than one track ponies with no credible martial arts backgrounds or combat experience who believe it is too dangerous to spar in their art. What this also means is a credible martial artist can teach effective self defence because they have had their striking, movement and defences tested in a competitive setting. 

So What is Fake Krav Maga?

Numbered below are a few definitions for fake Krav Maga:-

1. The club or associations teaching of Krav Maga  was not authorised by a group that set themselves up as an authority on Krav Maga due to previous links with an Israeli association.

As the point was made before.  There are groups in the UK that are no longer affiliated to Isreali Associations but still sell their krav maga programs as authentic Krav Maga. These same groups will get upset if any other long term martial arts groups call there self defence programs Krav Maga even if they follow the same or similar syllabus  and have coaches with years of experience.  Based on this test there are very few authentic groups.

2. The group did not follow the lineage of an Israeli Krav Maga group.

There have been so many debates on lineage of Krav Maga and who Imi Litchfield appointed as his successor to carry on the art. There was one story of Krav Mag Worldwide’s  founder Darren Lavine suing Eyal Yanilov for the use of the word Krav Maga.  In view of the fact Krav Maga means close quarter combat and cannot be patented just as we cannot patent Karate, Kung fu or kickboxing it is absurd to put a label of fake on any system which is refered to as Krav Maga. Does a linage of a self defence system make an experienced instructors system fake?  Isn’t it not true to say that anyone can set up their own linage?  All systems started somewhere and every man under the sun has a right to express themselves if they so choose.


3. The group Leader did not train for a certain amount of time with a Krav Maga instructor from an Israeli.

Men have developed styles through the history of time. Bruce lee never reached the age of 40 yet he fathered Jeet Kune do. Wing Chun was designed by a Buddhist female monk, Keysi  is not 20 years old and so on.  As mentioned before Krav Maga was introduced to the UK in early 2000 through short courses to people with some martial arts experience or military experience.  In the UK hand to hand combat in the military is virtually none existent and this can be easily be verified by speaking to the first squaddie you bump into. On this basis  If an instructor wishes to call his version of a great concept Krav Maga, what makes his fake compared to a person who did an 18 day instructor course.

4. The Group leader did not receive a qualification from an Israeli linked group.

There are no nationally recognised certifications for Krav Maga in the UK. What will happen is one man will get a following then pass himself off as an authority and issue certs from there on.  In mainstream qualifications such a security qualifications an individual would have to write a course and get it QCF accredited  by a nationally recognised body such as BTEC, City and Guilds and so on. All UK associated Krav maga certs are pieces of paper awarded after short courses by self-appointed men.

The UK Krav Maga myth is that we need to have freedom papers from some all-knowing association to teach self-defence. Far from it!  As a kick is a kick and a punch is a punch.  Releases, throws, boxing, grappling, movement, timing and pressure testing are achievable in any experienced circle and there is no need for a certification. The beauty of combat is the proof of the pudding is in the eating and we can be convinced or dissuaded by words but what really matters is putting on the gloves and putting it to the test. Talk is cheap but actions speak louder than words.

Some UK based Krav Maga groups will have the public believe they do not know what they are getting.  When it comes to laying hands on each other it is very apparent whether something works or not and under pressure all is revealed. If an individual samples a style and does not feel they are getting what they need they can always move on.


The Rise of the British Krav Maga Organisation

Brazilian Jujitsu is known as a Brazilian martial art with its founder only dying recently. However is jujitsu not a Japanese word and a Japanese style. Brazilian Jujitsu is the most dominant form of submission fighting in the MMA game.  An MMA fighter would need a strong stand up game such as Muay Thai, take downs and take down defences from wrestling, superior hands from boxing and the submissions of Gracie Jujitsu.

British Krav Maga has no Israeli links. British Krav Maga models itself off mainstream Krav maga as the system has listed out most common attacks and threats and produced a syllabus to teach simple to learn and easy solutions to the common person off the street.
The concept of British Krav Maga is to employ or work with fantastic practitioners of other arts to refine teaching practises and training. An example of refining training is the fact all the ground combat on the syllabus is taken from Krav Maga Worldwides syllabus and is scrutinized and taught in some cases by BJJ and Judo practitioners.  The instructors are taught Escrima basics to provide a better reference training for traditional Krav Maga’s blocking system.  Fung Sau Street kung fu which was taught by the late Malcom chamberlain who’s Grand father was a tactical instructor in the British army when hand to hand was taught  gives a better meaning to knife defences and disarms.  Akido practitioners also help with the Cavaliers, wrist locks and joint manipulation techniques. British Krav Maga also has Army weapons experts to give authenticity to gun training and disarms. British Krav Maga has an excellent stand up game so that it’s practitioners will be able to hold their own in a competitive scenario if they wanted to as it has a strong  Muay Thai, kickboxing  and boxing reference.

British Krav Maga does not wish to set its self apart from mainstream Krav and will welcome to work with other KM groups but wants to give a great concept the quality it deserves.


I heard one of the founders failed a Krav Maga Instructor training Course

When Bill Gates came out with windows he was accused by Jobs of ripping off Steve Jobs design. If Jobs had issued a course and found out Bill Gates wanted to one day produce his own operating system I am sure he would have not passed him with an Apple certificate.  Wayne Edward is a victim of a competitor whose course he attended - His own account can be found if you google it or just ask him to email you the link. For Wayne Edwards to have failed their course would have meant this association has some very special people coming out of there training courses. Searching through youtube and comparing what Mr Edwards has produced compared to his competition says it all.  In life we need to give actions more weight than words and it is clear to see he knows what he is doing.

It has taken a lot of guts to stand up and be counted and not be deterred from his goals. Mr Edwards surely has a lot of self-belief. Mr Edwards set out to teach Krav Maga, was disillusioned with a course and not only began his classes regardless, set up his own instructor training program, teaching team and support.

Mr Edwards knows that he is asking for a lot of trust for martial arts practitioners to come on board with the BKMO as his competitors are established so he is coming out with an irresistible offer to get people started without a huge capital outlay as before so as to prove his service. If you wish to be a BKMO pioneer and you fit the criteria of 3 years martial arts experience then get more details. (The offer may not be on the website so contact him)

If you wish to know more about the British Krav Maga Organisation and its aims to get an honest effective  system of training in towns, villages and cities just visit:-

Useful links:-

http://www.siacoursesmanchester.com/Krav-maga-instructor-course.html

http://www.siacoursesmanchester.com/Krav-maga-training-for%20military-and-forces.html

http://www.siacoursesmanchester.com/Krav-maga-cpd-training.html

Wayne Edwards
https://www.facebook.com/WayneVEdwards

 masteredwards@hotmail.com

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