'Krav maga, Israeli self-defence system, gaining popularity amid focus on alcohol-fuelled violence
7.30 By Conor Duffy
Updated Tue 18 Feb 2014, 3:05pm AEDT
Two men practise krav maga.
Photo: Two men practise krav maga. (ABC News)
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The national focus on alcohol-fuelled violence has seen a surge of interest in self-defence, including a controversial program used by the Israeli army called krav maga.
Proponents say krav maga, Hebrew for contact combat, is the perfect weapon for dealing with drunken thugs because it allows women, in particular, to overpower much larger opponents.
But krav maga attacks aim to inflict the maximum physical harm and criminal lawyers are warning those who use it could end up in jail.
Krav maga was designed in the 1930s to protect European Jews from fascist attacks. Later, it became mandatory in the Israeli army.
A few years ago krav maga was unheard of in Australia, but now new schools are opening right around the country.
"It can look brutal, it certainly can," said instructor Alex Trafton, who has worked as an Israeli military contractor.
"But if you look at what the need for krav maga is, it's these king hits in Kings Cross. There's a 17-year-old or 18-year-old kid who's now dead because of this.
"Ask him if he would have liked to be able to punch the guy in the throat first or kick him in the groin first and I think at this point the options are clear."
Students taught to target eyes, groin
Krav maga teaches people how to go for the throat, eyes, neck and groin, and it teaches them to go hard.
Online videos for krav maga also teach how to break bones.
"You need to target vulnerable areas [and] be very aggressive in your counter attack to disable that person. That is the fundamental principle of krav maga," Mr Trafton said.
I think that the key phrase in the article is "self-defence". The point is to defend yourself if required, and to get out of there. Leave the rough stuff for the professionals in the police force. Your job is to look after yourself, not fix the world's problems.
Criminal lawyer Andrew Tiedt says eye gouging could see krav maga students fall foul of the law, and that blinding a person could see them jailed.
"In the majority of cases I'd say eye gouging probably goes beyond what a court would see as being appropriate, in those circumstances," he said.
"I think people should be very careful if they plan on defending themselves aggressively that they do only what is reasonable to defend themselves from the fear they perceive.
"If people are going to go out there and start flogging anyone who looks at them sideways they'd be taking a very, very big risk."
Mr Trafton says he will not train people who he thinks will use krav maga for the wrong reasons.
"It's important that I reinforce that they do it always legally, and that the force is proportionate," he said.
"I will not train people who have violent history, who have violent tendencies due to mental illness, or who have a criminal record.
"I won't at all be involved in training those people because this is a tool to help people defend themselves, not to victimise people."
Former commando teaches krav maga to women, prostitutes
Former Army Commando Kevin Marshall runs a krav maga program called Fight Like a Girl, in which he teaches women how to fight in casual clothes they might wear on a night out.
"We had young mums, people who didn't feel comfortable, people who had been attacked in the past, also members of the lesbian, gay and transgender community who didn't feel comfortable training - and I saw that they needed this program," Mr Marshall said.
"We've had people come in very, very quiet and very meek and mild and turn into lionesses after the program. It's great to see."
Mr Marshall and instructor Cathy Grapsias also teach krav maga to prostitutes and strippers, acting out a range of attack scenarios.
"That's a very marginalised group in society and the people who really need self-defence skills. Those women are in high-risk occupations and they sometimes are in real risk of danger," he said.
"I remember when I originally spoke with a sex workers outreach program, their president had to cancel the meeting because one of her workers was killed the night before."
A random attack in a pub left intellectual property lawyer Blair Bevan with good reasons to learn how to defend himself.
"He picked a glass and he smashed that in the side of my face, so it was a pretty violent act, completely unexpected and unprovoked," he said.
"I was very lucky. I could have lost an eye."
Mr Bevan says he used krav maga recently to defend himself at a rugby match.
"This guy came at me pretty aggressively and I was able to block his punch and then was able to strike him in the face, which is not nice but I felt pretty threatened and that was the end of it," he said."
