Most likely he’d chuckle at your “Bad Cop! No Doughnut!” bumper sticker, maybe ask you for a bagel instead. And you can dump the stereotypes; watch what Jason does in his spare time and you might realize that not only is this gym-rat in better shape you’ll ever be, he’s a martial arts expert capable of kicking your butt twenty which-ways-to-Sunday and you might even feel stupid for having that bumper sticker in the first place.
“See, that works too! Use everything you got. And whatever you do, don’t stop. If you stop, you’re dead…” Moments later he’s demonstrating escape from an up-against-the-wall strangle: “J-move…one arm up, turn and dip…good, Sue…ok, Steve’s tall…whatcha gonna do? Right -go in low! Make him a soprano…” Let’s get something straight: Krav Maga is as ugly as it sounds.
All the stuff you’re not allowed to do in the other martial arts- groin kicks, eye gouges, elbows to the throat, aren’t only encouraged in Krav Maga, they’re taught, practiced.
“There aren’t any rules in Krav Maga except one: don’t get hurt,” says Ernie Kirk, owner of the busy Kirk’s Martial Arts Academy in Kennett Square, where Jason also instructs.
“This is about survival, so anything goes.” Unimposing, though solid, Ernie wears glasses and is soft-spoken, evoking more his former school-teacher self, than a whup-meister who holds fourth-degree black belts in Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido, a black belt in Goju-Kai and advanced brown-belts in aikido and judo.
While Ernie lacks Jason’s constant bulldog frenzy, his ferocity-coefficient turns on a dime.
That pretty well sums up where Krav Maga stands in relation to other martial arts disciplines.
Ernie, who was for years the first licensed Krav Maga instructor on the East Coast, acknowledges that a lot of the things he loves about martial arts would get him killed on the street: “There are inherent self-defense weaknesses of these other arts since they’re geared to sport and competition.” One may wonder how he’s able to separate them in practice, considering that such a level of reflex leaves little time for thought.
One moment you’ll be doing conditioning drills and calisthenics, the next, punching or kicking a pad held by a partner, then practicing escape from a particular hold or attack.
“So you don’t have to think about which of a dozen moves to use. If someone grabs you by the neck, your instinct is to grab his wrists. So we use that instinct -it’s called a ‘pluck-‘ and make it work as an escape. It works for anyone, from any direction. And it sets you up for counter-attack. All Krav Maga moves do that: one escape, multiple counters. Whatever you do must be instantaneous and followed by disabling strikes.” Since the moves are so simple, the learning curve is minimal.
Unlike other martial arts where the beginner may spend months punching and kicking the air or performing stances and other seemingly pointless rituals before squaring off with an adversary, Krav Maga emphasizes contact from day one.
Since there’s no competitive hierarchy, Krav Maga classes democratize the learning process: at Kirks’ you’ll find neophytes pairing off with advanced, the instructors urging everyone to switch around and “Experiment with different body-types.” A beefy kid with a shaved head glares down at a slender woman old enough to be his mom: “I want that pencil! Gimmee that pencil!” He pounds on the pads she’s holding.
Sometime later there’s a stress/fatigue drill where one student, surrounded by four others, must kick and punch at their pads non-stop, while harassed from behind by yet another.
Is it any wonder that Krav Maga is taking the country by storm? Initially embraced by the military and law enforcement, it has caught the attention of the media and gone mainstream, helped in no small part by recent events.
Ernie’s even been invited to teach Krav Maga at elementary schools.
Saturday, 1pm, Kirk’s Martial Arts Academy: It’s nearing the end of a three-hour seminar.
One of Ernie’s Philadelphia instructors is present, a petite 19-year-old Temple film-major named Greta who also holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Though she’s suffering a cold which has left her near groggy, Ernie repeatedly calls Greta to the front to demonstrate.
She’s something of a star at Kirk’s -the other instructors rave about her- and Ernie likes to show her off.
Ernie lets her go and begins handing out rubber knives.
“Ok, pair off! Knife-attack with wound simulation. Forget the movies -you will get wounded in a knife encounter. Guys, I apologize in advance to your wives and girlfriends. We’re putting lipstick on these. And turning out the lights…” Ernie’s a funny guy too.
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