Krav Maga TamilNadu - Self Defense Fitness Courses

Yesterday, I went to a small rural hamlet Karumarapakkam, somewhere in between Kalpakkam on ECR and Thirukazhukundram. I was there to do KravMaga self-defence workshop for women. For the third year I was going there to do a workshop for rural women, who suffer domestic violence and sexual harassment, due to rampant alcoholism. I started doing this workshop in a classroom of the local school. The girls were mostly between 13 to 17 years. While I was slowly warming up to the task at hand, I noticed 2 small girls peeping through the window.  After a few minutes, I noticed these 2 small girls have quietly slipped into the classroom and were sitting in a corner. Especially the smaller girl looked sharp and intelligent, and she was listening very intently to my talk. When the workshop entered into the kicking and punching phase, I could sense this kutty girl was eager to kick the bag.  I called her to come forward and kick the bag. She and her slightly bigger fri...

I have been writing only about the pretenders so far. Enough of those negative characters! Now let’s talk about identifying a teacher, who can even become a mentor for you. This is not only relevant to the martial arts teacher, but anyone who is in the business of disseminating knowledge. The signs of a true teacher - 1.        He has long years of dedicated practice  I read somewhere that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in any field.  So, if somebody puts in say 10 hours a week in pursuing his passion, he would have totalled only 500 odd hours in a year. At that rate it would take 20 years to claim to be an expert in any field of interest. Most of the great teachers I have come across put in not less than 30 hours a week in practice..and they have been at it relentlessly for at least 20 years! 2.         He has a clear road map for the student's progress The teacher is ab...

Recently, in Brazil, UFC Featherweight champs Maiqul Falcao and his training partner Kaue Mena was beaten up by a gang outside a gas station. Kaue Mena is now in critical condition at a hospital. The video clearly shows Falcao hitting a girl unprovoked, which brings to the scene a gang of local youth. The gang vastly outnumbers these 2 UFC fighters and they proceed to make mincemeat of the fighters, with rods and merciless kicks to the head. So these heroes of the ring become pathetic zeroes on the street. What's the net take? What are the signs that differentiate a victim of his own Ego, Ignorance and Stupidity? What makes a guy a stupid street fighter? Asking to be hit ?! 1) Tendency to initiate brawls Some people have a negative cloud hovering over their heads always. They keep on goading others by being rude, provoking and abusive. They get away with it when they are in dominant positions, inside their home or office cabin. But once outside the safety of t...

In my recent blog I criticized the technique of a guy  in Chennai,  who claims he is a martial arts teacher . He also wrote a rejoinder, which without mentioning the art by name, criticized every aspect of KravMaga. This guy was also intelligent enough to make his prejudiced bile sound like a dispassionate comparison of martial arts.  But ... ... Why is it NOT intelligent to compare different martial arts? This half-baked guru's comparison of different methods itself is misleading, like comparing  apples  and  oranges , to use a cliché. What he missed to understand was the fact that every method is different, because they evolved in different environments, and for different objectives. When analyzing any particular fighting art one has to look at the anthropological, sociological and sometimes even the political aspects of the environment in which that art evolved.  Another major differentiator in a method of fighting is, for what j...

WARNING to WOMEN! After the Guwahati molestation and Delhi gang rape, more women are enquiring about self-defense courses. This blog post is to warn those women. They could end up with martial-arts schools which will actually put them in greater danger, when they try to repel a sexual aggressor. REALITY NOT REALIZED BY MARTIAL-ART TEACHERS Many martial arts instructors DON'T understand the specific problems of women, like - 1- The average Women is SMALLER than the average Man 2- The Woman will be under extreme FEAR and STRESS during a sexual attack 3- Most Women are PUT OFF by Violence; so, learning to fight does NOT appeal to them 4- Most Women DON'T see themselves as capable of fighting a bigger & aggressive Man The martial-arts instructor should factor in this reality before making a curriculum for women. But do they? The emphatic answer is a big " NO " ! HOW WOMEN ARE MISGUIDED BY HALF-BAKED GURUS Recently I saw a video of a self-promote...

Bystander Effect - In the recent Delhi gang rape case, this appalling social habit was glaringly evident. The girl and the boy were thrown out of the bus by the rapists. They were naked and injured, lying on the road in the bone chilling 2* Celcius cold night of Delhi - for more than an hour. Many passing vehicles only slowed down but none stopped.  2 days back a woman accident victim was lying bleeding during day-time for 45 minutes on Mount Road, Chennai; no body came forward to assist her. She died on the way to the hospital. Accident victim pleading for help More such incidents in this video, convey that  callousness  is not limited to India. Public apathy is a socio-psychological phenomena all over the world. Video -  The Bystander Effect: Real incidents Kitty Genovese  Social Psychologists who studied the infamous 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese - said " That contrary to common expectations, larger numbers of bystanders decrease the likeli...

Since the Delhi gang-rape, so far 18 people have asked me -   " Will self-defence techniques actually work for an 'average girl' against a group of men.?! " My answer is -  " Those who keep asking "Will this work?!"  die without finding out whether it will." ................................................................... Learning provides you the tools. Practice makes you an expert. Pushing yourself out of the comfort-zone makes you superior. and above all.. Introspection makes you realistic That's too true of all arts.   The same hierarchy applies to learning to fight also.  So, every input in learning has an output in application ... ... which is reasonably proportionate.  Whether its Singing, Tennis, Medicine, Drama, Astronomy or KravMaga.  If you have a natural aptitude to that field, the progress will be better than your peers. Decide at which level you want to play..and put in the required effort . Yo...