KAPAP -Israeli Martial Arts, BJJ
And How To Keep Your Training Realistic

Martial arts as a big cake with the bread, cream filling, icing and fruits on the top, and by training only one part of it, means missing the rest which will not be “eating the entire cake”.

As a life philosophy if we are choosing to study martial arts it has to have a purpose. In our case Kapap purpose is to study self defense and to survive deadly attacks whenever they might occur in our life.

Many practitioners of MA are forgetting other components of the “cake” and they tend to “bite” only one part of it, for instance they do not take care for their health. Avoiding healthy lifestyle will affect them sooner in most of the cases (heart attack) then the probability of an armed assailant attacking them on the street. So the self defense concept begins much sooner then on the mat at any Dojo.

In this column we will try to identify some of the components that are commonly being missed or misinterpreted, or bashed and avoided by heavy marketing systems just for the sake of the financial gain.

Together with Professor John Machado of the Machado BJJ Academy we, the Kapap Academy Instructors will try to explore this Idea about what is realistic training and what is the difference of the term “reality based” systems that claim to teach reality.

• Is rolling on the concrete floor of a parking garage make your Ukemi (fall/roll) better?
• Should you train only gross motor skills since “under stress“your fine motor skills will evaporate (as claimed by some military / police/CQB training styles)?
• Does keep it simple means keep it stupid?

After a period of more then two decades that we are involved in teaching Martial Arts in Israel and worldwide we came across other MA styles like BJJ that are considered only as sport.

Avi Nardia (Kapap Instructor): “I started studying under professor John Machado the art of BJJ, many of the “realistic Martial Artists” said that it is not a system for the street, since in a fight the ground is the last place you want to find yourself” – true as a wishful thinking, but what happens to you if you are a female as a rape victim or rather being attacked on the street by surprise that takes you right to the ground?

The more I trained with Professor Johan Machado, I found more and more that this knowledge is absolutely in the life of martial art and as I was involved with training of special forces in Israel and top units all over the world it shocked me to see how they could  see four five steps ahead in any move. Eventually they keep the basics and they keep it simple, but not stupid as most military / police styles! Any move is analyzed from any angle and the variations of moves your opponent can do and counter it.  Since people often confuse BJJ with sport, I asked him to demo some new ideas of self-defense and upgrade Israeli martial art ideas.

What you need to make your training realistic?

Finding the right teacher is the most important task before practicing any Martial Art

There are a lot of bad examples that represent the “shortcut” or quick path to achieve your goal; most of these examples are basing their “art” purely on ego marketed as “non nonsense Martial Arts”. Most of these arts never developed beyond the ego of their inventor or are very limited in what they have to offer, but will sell it as “keep it simple”.

A good way to find out about a certain teacher/ Instructor is to demand official credentials. There is no wrong in asking this, since this is the guy who is suppose to teach you realistic survival skills.

Professor John Machado:  training without a GI, as many think it will help prepare them for street fight is not always true, since no one walks naked on the streets. As you train with Gi you can always limit yourself to train with no GI, which is a competition style. You must study to choke and to use your Gi and your enemy’s Gi.  it will teach you to use any belt or strap that may be available. (As I write Gi it means any kind of cloths)

Make the training also fun and safe that way you will train more and not miss half of training because of injuries.

Albert Timen (Kapap Instructor): Many times when training gun disarms it is recommended to do it with bb guns, or in other cases with simmunition(realistic marking cartridges) guns, but this is often too expensive equipment and usually beyond the reach capabilities of many students (special licensing and expensive insurance policy).

Actually gun disarms training doesn’t need to go this far. You can reach the same goal by using simple water guns to train to get out of the field of fire which is the most important aspect in this kind of specific training. Than you can proceed to train with plastic guns – Yellow/Blue guns to keep the process of the disarming. To add another realistic dimension, try to think that your enemy is dynamic and will react to any of your moves.

This is the exact reason of why any gun disarms class MUST be proceeded with gun retention and firearms training (since if you don’t know to use a gun, who told you the fight is over as the gun in your hand? what if you have jammed gun and the fight keeps going on? do you know how to clear a malfunction?)

The KAPAP gun triangle is based on >>gun disarming >>Gun retention >>gun use.

Question the techniques you are learning – do they really work?

The next thing you need to know is that it is important to question the techniques you are learning. Remember you are being taught by human beings who were also taught by human beings. Understand that you are studying a reality based art so that you can deal with real situations.

• If someone teaches you to kick to the groin when you have been attacked with a knife, will your kick actually cause him to fall forward “helping” him to kill you?
• Will this same technique work with an ice pick style of attack?
• If you hit your enemy with your punch will you break the fist for example?

Claims  to have the most devastating military system now it make it only to look as pure marketing and it is surly not preparing you to survive the street but to die in the street.

More ideas of how to make your training “realistic” will come soon by our next column with Kapap Academy and Professor John Machado, until then keep it REAL.

Article written by: Kapap Academy Instructors
Professor John Machado -Johan Machado BJJ Academy.

The Article was written for Budo Magazine 2006.