Is Moshe Katz, Israeli Krav International, legit?

[selfdefensestudent]

Moshe Katz presents his style of krav maga as designed especially for untrained and less fit people, and his critique of regular krav maga is that it puts too high demands on physical fitness and therefore does not work that well in real life. Also i hear others that have been bodyguards critique mainly regular krav maga's tecnique regarding disarming knife/guns, less so on the other aspects of defense.

Living in europe, im not really worried about firearms, i kind of see that as being put "checkmate" if it ever happens and it is not something i see worth spending alot of time training, but knife and stick defense is good to know a little bit (not alot) of. Also good to know is learning use of tactical flashlights, self defense sprays etc, things that average people have access to and might use or face.

Also we that have been subject to violent assauts know this rarely ever happens when we are physically fit. But if we break an arm or have something else reducing our physical abilities, thats when violent assaults tend to happen. Im in my 40s and want to learn something simple but effective primarily for my older years, and that means it have to be effective for an old fairly weak man. Spending lots of time training to get fit, stretching so i can do high kicks etc, is the same as wasting time in my view.

There is 1 krav maga school here that fits my schedule, thats Moshe Katz system which atleast fits the bill in theory regarding what i want to learn, im just put off a bit when i see the students there they seem to have soft bodies and beer bellies, and on demonstration videos they focus disarming handguns, which i think is a waste of time. I know how they look shouldnt matter regarding what im looking for, but when i used to do martial arts in my 20s, it was kickboxing and that ment mostly young muscular men, i was one of those myself. Also, Moshe Katz says he has background from "real" krav maga and other martial arts but put little emphasis on its founder Imi Lichtenfeld, and says its more a defensive system jews gradually developed themselves when they started moving back to Israel and needed to adapt to the agressive arab culture. That sounds plausible but it also sounds like he's putting himself outside of the "true" krav maga system.

All this makes me a bit sceptical, and i dont have experience with krav maga and "normal" self defense, only kickboxing and tae kwon do. So i have to ask especially other krav maga practicioners that might know about this, just to be sure: Do you know if this is an effective system, and is it worth it?

 

[selfdefensestudent]

Let me add i do plan on doing more than 3 hours a week with krav maga, i have a home gym and specifically want to tranin strength in addition to the krav maga. Physical strength is something i find quite easy to gain with a fairly low volume of training, and i find it really helps in real world violence. So its something i want to add to krav maga, and its useful not just regarding self defense but for other things aswell and it improves my overall health which is important when looking at growing old.

So thats that. This is what im willing to spend time on related to self defense ahead. You can forget suggesting that i dedicate my life to martial arts and be at the gym 4-5 times a week to learn BJJ, MMA or something like that after cardio and lifting weights, im just not that kind of guy, i have limted time i want to spend on this. Thanks for listening!

 

[drop bear]

There kind of is no style designed for unfit people to beat fit people. In the same style the more athletic people will dominate the less athletic.

But all good styles should make the most of efficiency and mechanical advantage.

What generally happens is the training is designed for unfit people to receive false feedback. And they succeed where they probably shouldn't.

You can be unfit and do a style with athletic guys. You will just not do as well in class.

 

[Bujingodai]

Kind of like getting a participation badge when you are standing beside the athletic winners. Don't forget that age applies as well.
I'd like to be able to handle people I could 30 years ago. It's just not to be. As much as we like to think the old person has what it takes, most times we just don't