Krav maga is more than a self-defence system

Rafi Kashani

Krav maga translates from the Hebrew as “contact fighting,” more or less, but at its heart, the Israeli combat system tries to avoid conflict. 

In fact, explains Rafi Kashani, if you examine it closely, krav maga embodies some fundamental Jewish values, including preserving life, not doing to your neighbours what you wouldn’t want them to do to you, respect for education and only using force when you really have to.

It’s a somewhat philosophical approach to what on its surface appears to be a brutal variety of street-fighting, but for Kashani, knowing how to avoid conflict is as important as knowing how to handle it when it comes your way.

“We do everything not to get hurt, and we use the knowledge only to use force when it’s necessary,” he said.

Kashani is founder of IKM Krav Maga Canada – Academy of Self Defence, as well as its main instructor. Now 33, he’s been perfecting his skills at the sport since he was a 10-year-old living in central Tel Aviv. He learned from one of the sport’s first instructors, Eli Ben Ami, who in turn was taught by krav maga’s founder, Imi Lichtenfeld. Kashani also counts krav maga master Gabi Noah as one of his mentors.

Lichtenfeld, a boxer and wrestler, taught a martial arts discipline to fellow Jews in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, to protect them from fascist thugs in the 1930s. After moving to Israel, he further developed the system that was to become krav maga and taught it to army units, including the Palmach, the pre-state militia.

Over the years, krav maga has evolved, changing with the times and adapting to the dangers people face. It is, Kashani said, “a street system for life.”

 In the 1940s, it could be seen as a salad, with identifiable ingredients from different martial arts disciplines. Today, it’s more like a soup with all the previous elements blended to such an extent that they barely resemble their predecessors, he said.

Krav maga offers a “toolkit” of techniques that give people the wherewithal to defend themselves. Though it has evolved into “a soup,” what’s left is a powerful combat system that is designed to protect everyone from a senior accosted on the street to a professional providing security services to VIPs, Kashani  said.

He has two Toronto-area studios where he presents the full krav maga “toolkit” to students. One is in Mississauga, the other in Vaughan. The Vaughan facility features a 2,000-square-foot space with floor mats, heavy bags for striking, padded shields for protection and even a small rock wall for climbing. That works muscles other than those used in fighting, Kashani explained.

People train in their everyday clothes, like T-shirts and sweat pants, because when trouble comes calling, that’s what you’ll be wearing. His students range in age from four to 74 and they come from all backgrounds. He has even trained police officers and recruits about to enter the police force.

Krav maga is particularly relevant for law enforcement officers, he said. “It teaches a more efficient way to arrest, to search or defend in a situation.” 

In approaching a dangerous situation, students are trained to observe, evaluate and find the best way of defusing the situation, Kashani said.

For Kashani, krav maga provided an escape route from a life of petty crime that started when he was only 10. Already running with a bad crowd, Kashani was caught by police trying to pry open a car window. His mom rescued him by hooking him up with Ben Ami, who took him under his wing and trained him in krav maga. Kashani spent long hours in his studio, working on his technique, getting fit and doing his best to please his coach. It kept him off the streets and out of trouble.

At 14, Kashani completed an instructor’s course and by 18, he was an expert. He served in the military for five years – he won’t say which unit he served in, only that he used krav maga – and in 2005, he left the army.

Later that year he moved to Canada. His first job was selling Dead Sea products in malls around town. He got married, had a son, was divorced.

Eager to find a more active line of work, he switched jobs. He worked in the construction industry until he suffered a severe hand injury. After reconstructive surgery, he was told he wouldn’t be able to make a fist again. But not content to take no for an answer, “I decided to rehabilitate myself,” he said.

Part of the rehab included trips back to Israel to train. He employed some of the self-defence drills taught by Ben Ami to recover motion in his hand. It was very painful, but it worked. His hand is now almost completely healed, Kashani said.

As he got better, he began to offer private lessons. Word spread, and the number of people eager for instruction grew.  One thing led to the other, and he now has the two studios on the go.

Although krav maga is known as an Israeli martial art system, Palestinian students train at his Mississauga studio.

“They see Israel now in a new light,” Kashani said.

They even wear Kashani’s Israel krav maga T-shirts proudly, showing that krav maga “is a bridge for peace,” he said