This is the documentary I chose to watch for my project. It talks about Muay Thai, about its history and there is also three interviews; one to one of the first women muay thai fighters, the second one to a young men that talks about his situation and why he does muay thai and the thirst one to Sam Sheridan (author of my book), an American man that talks about how his life in Thailand is and it ends with his first fight. It is 50 minutes long, but it’s totally worth watching.
Kung Fu Fighting- Carl Douglas
The father of the best known song about Kung fu, Carl Douglas wrote this song in 1974 and rose to the top hit list in Great Britain and North America. The song actually talks a little about the history of Kung fu, that is an ancient Chinese art and a lot of little kids fight it since they are young. By the time they are the age of ten maybe, they are just so good at Kung Fu, they kick so fast “it’s a little bit frightening” as it says in the song. I love this song, because it is so friendly and sounds so calm you don’t even notice it talks about fighting until you pay attention to the lyrics.
How you learn to fight, by Rachel Bunting (Favorite Poem)
This poem talks in great detail what training feels like, you are insecure all day, looking everywhere to spot the guy that is teaching you, he always gets you by surpirse, always choking you from behindm, making you feel like you are not worth it. But still, you kep going, because thats what fight is, learn how to stand back up, being strong, not being scared of making a fool of you. What he is doing is not love, what YOU are doing is love, love for the sport, love for learning, love for standing up for yourself. You will not have that necessiy of always having to call somebody on your way home because you are scared. Not anymore. After learning this art, you will feel like you can take anything mother nature puts in front of you, in the poem it says; “You chew up everything in your path, spit it furiously back: gardens, huoses, highways. You are fearsome and alive” You see the world different, everybody sees it as something scary to death, you just see it as another obstacle on your way.
Short Krav Maga Demonstrations,
I found this video, and it is really interesting. At first when you see it for the first time it looks really really fake, but the second time, when you look further in the technique you can actually see what they are doing; how they kick in the knee to make the opponent lose his/her balance and make it easier to fall andd be able to escape the situation. I really recommend to watch it, it is really short so it won’t take too much time. Enjoy!
What everybody thinks vs. What actually I do
I’m still laughing about this. People thinks when we start Krav Maga we are just like ninjas, obviously there is always our moms freaking out about if we get any bruise (my mom freaked out so much because I got two bruises on my hip my first day she told the trainer that if I got another one, she would take me out of the class), and obviously we all think we are so good we would totally start a fight and be fine. Well, actually what most of us would do, is run, funny huh? I thought when I learned slef defense; I would have no trouble fighting, I would be the tough girl, but if a guy comes right at me I would try to escape, I do not want to die to feel like I can take anything
Isreaeli Self-Defense Goes Global (Article)
Also a self experience, this article tell us how, somebody prefers to spend his vacation trying to learn how to defend themselves rather than be just chilling in the beach. David Kaufman explains that today, in the present, there are instruction camps or classes of Krav Maga teaching in 17 different countries and 500 law enforcenment agencies in the US (in those are Swat and the FBI) use it too as a defense method. It has gotten so famous, because of its army connection and also because of its usefulness in real life situations (like carjacking, flee from attacks in water or defense against knifes and guns). There is a program in the Holy Land (Jerusalem and Dead Sea) that a decade ago, when it started, it was for teaching the people from the real students of Lichtenfeld, but now they say it is more touristic, people wants to see demonstrations of real life of how they work, and after that, train with them. In between all these people, there are first timers fighters, but also people that want to feel confident they can take care of themselves even when they have bodygards protecting them 24/7. I think this article is really interesting, because it gives a lot of accurate information like dates and number of people training and everything.
Los Angeles Times Article about Krav Maga (1993)
This article was written in 1993, when Imi Lichtenfeld was still alive. It is told by the writer David Haldane, that explains his own experience about going through Krav Maga training to feel more “like a man” because Haldane states that he has always been one of those people that always are chosen the last ones for the team in gym class, those that, instead of watching the football game on TV with some friends while drinking some beer, prefer stay hoome reading some magazines. But either way, he decided to start training, to feel more secure. But don’t get confused, Krav Maga is not for weaks people, this is why it is part of the Israeli Defense Forces. This article made me realize something I never thought about; the most difficult part of Krav Maga is definitely get out of a chokehold situation, because the intention of doing that is to stop the supply of oxygen that goes to your brain, not letting you think or act. And there is the problem, you have to think to fight. But if you practice it a lot you may be lucky and know how you work under pressure and know how to naturally react.
Keep Calm, you know Krav Maga
This picture made me laugh A LOT. You know there is this tendency all around the world that goes “Keep Calm and..” I think this one finally makes sense. You should be totally calm if you know Krav MAga, because at the end of the day, you will know what to do if anything happens. I just thought it would be funny to post it.
North Knoxville: Krav Maga self-defense class is easier done than said (Article)
James Bailey and his family own a gym and they give nine classes A WEEK of Krav Maga. That is crazy! And they dont only work that, they also give one free class every first Saturday of every single month, summer and winter. It is specifically for women, so they would know what to do in any situation because “Krav Maga is about natural reactions” Bailey says. There are some people that afer the free ‘trial’ decide to keep going regularly twice or three times a week, but apparently James Bailey is really dissappointed about that. Why? you would ask right? Well, he thinks that one class that goes over the basics of Krav Maga should be more than enough to know how to defend yourself against, I don’t know, maybe a drunk guy that wants to do something to you after a party. But I don’t think is like that. I think Krav Maga, like any other self-defense art, takes time (not years if the only thing you are looking forward is know how to get out of that situation) but a few weeks, maybe some months? I think you have to do several stress exercises, know how your body would react when you have a gun at your head, or a knife against your belly. You have to know how to deal with that, not freak out because that would be worse. You have to know how to avoid the situation if there is any chance (1st thing learned in Krav Maga) or attack back if you already have your opponent on you. Either way, I think this article shows that women, no matter what, we can be as strong as any other man.
Disabled women learn self-defense (Article)
I read this article and wow, it’s crazy. It talks about how people with mental disabilities have been always bullied, and this made me think. Is this what we, the society, are doing now? Take advantage of the ones that are in worse conditions than us? It is really disappointing actually. But anyway, these “adult children” as they are called in the article, live in Boca Raton, and they normally spend all day at home, which makes harder for them to have friends, because “they are too old to go to school and there are few ways for them to maintain friendships and develop social skills” as it says at the end of the article. These classes of Kra Maga doesn’t only show half an hour of personal defense, but they also have half an hour discussion with a clinical social worker that helps them telling them safety tips.But, of course, we all wonder; where does all the money come from to pay a teacher and everything? Well, actually the Jewish Women’s Foundation gave money away and created what is called SAVVY, a self-defense program, and the class are offered for women from the age of 17 up until they are 50, so everybody is able to do it.
I think this was really nice from them, to take so much care of people with disabilities, because, theyy don’t have a lot of people doing that, a lot of them don’t have a family or nobody cares about them. And suddently, they have a program that teaches them how to react to the bullies they have been afraid of all their lifes. This article made me still have hope on people.
Krav Maga and some other martial arts 