Krav Maga Philippines to host "Gun Tactics Seminar"

(This is an article on Manila Times last Sunday November 15, 2009. The Manila Times is one of the leading broadsheets in the Philippines)

By Perry Gil S. Mallari

The Krav Maga Philippines will be a hosting a gun-tactics seminar by Swedish krav maga expert Björn Karlsson on November 21 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Krav maga is the Israeli combat system geared for survival in the battlefield. My personal experience with krav maga is that it is not an invasive system and any martial artist regardless of style can benefit from its tactical approach to combat.

The Krav Maga Philippines maintains quality tuition by having its instructors trained and screened by experts from the International Krav Maga Federation (IKMF). In an interview with The Manila Times, Björn Karlsson, an expert level 2 instructor and member of the IKMF-Global Instructor Team talks about defending against a gun and what participants should expect from his seminar. The following are my interview with Karlsson:

The Manila Times: What can the participants expect from your upcoming gun tactics seminar?

Bjorn Karlsson: It’s a one-day course, of course it’s a crash course, it would be rather intense. The idea is to learn how to defend against a gun— when you’re carrying a gun, when someone snatches it from you or when someone threatens you with a gun —how to survive threats like those.

The Manila Times: So gun retention would be also included in this seminar?

Bjorn Karlsson: A little bit defending on the participants. If the participants are mostly civilians we would probably devote more time on the civilian aspect of gun-defense. If there were a lot of law enforcement people in the seminar, we would put more attention on this subject.

The Manila Times: Are the techniques you’re going to teach work for ordinary individuals or it is geared only for people with high level of fitness?

Bjorn Karlsson: Usually a fight is less than five-seconds. So you don’t need any fitness, none whatsoever. And it’s designed to work as close as possible to your natural reaction. So these are suitable for people who are not trained in anything at all because this is not really a martial art, just self-defense. So it’s designed to work in a short period of training, and you should have a high level of proficiency.

The Manila Times: How would you differentiate krav maga gun defense from those of other martial arts?

Bjorn Karlsson: This [krav maga] works under high pressure. If you are really, really under stress, which is usually the situation in real life as in the case of gun threats, it really works. I don’t know so much about other systems, so I can’t say what is good or bad in a particular system but I’ve seen and tried the krav maga techniques that I trust them very much. Some techniques are good but I would not trade any of the krav maga techniques.

The Manila Times: Is it possible to ingrain this technique mentally so that they would still work even with minimal practice?

Bjorn Karlsson: When the threat is life threatening it is always a problem because of the high level of danger involved. Of course you need practice. You cannot read a book, or watch a video or do the technique once and think it will work. It just doesn’t work that way. With the minimum maintenance of the technique, you learn them [and you maintain your proficiency at least every now and then]. Then it will work every time.
TMT: In your opinion, which is harder to defend against in close quarters, a knife or a gun?

Bjorn Karlsson: A knife. The closer you get the more dangerous the knife is. A gun is really not that hard to defend against because it is only dangerous in one direction. So as long as you got control over the arm or the hand or the gun, it’s not a big problem anymore. But the knife is always a problem; as long as a person has a good grip of his knife you have a problem.

For more details regarding the seminar call 726-5021 or visit www.kravmaga.ph.