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PART 1

Basic Skills (Stances, Movement, Blocking, and Striking)

Stances and Movement

A street fight is not a fight, it is an assault. Nobody who attacks you actually wants to fight; they merely want a victim that they can physically punish, rape, or steal from. A “fight” would imply that an aggressor wants to give you the opportunity to participate and “fight back”—but no aggressor wants to be met with resistance. This is the reality of violence. This is why real world violence differs so markedly from combat sports and sparring, which are voluntary (and controlled) acts of violence, in which both participants willingly agree to engage. Real life violence is something that is forced upon you, not something you consent to—usually in locations and situations which are designed to inhibit your movement and ability to disengage and which are advantageous to your assailant.

The only time that you will have the opportunity to adopt a stance is when you have picked up on any available pre-violence indicators in the situation, such as a person moving towards you in a purposeful and aggressive manner, or someone becoming verbally abusive towards you. You will be able to adopt an Interview Stance, for example, in the Pre-Conflict phase of violence (see below).

The Timeline of Violence

All violence happens along a timeline and can be broken down into five distinct phases: The Non-Conflict phase is one where there is no sign of harmful intent in the environment; the Conflict-Aware phase is where you initially become adrenalized, but have not yet ascertained if the danger is directed towards you; the Pre-Conflict phase is where you have recognized and assessed that an aggressor’s harmful intent is towards you but they haven’t yet made a physical assault, e.g., they may be verbally abusive towards you; the Conflict phase is the assault itself; and the Post-Conflict phase is everything that occurs once the assault has ended (such as disengaging to safety as well as seeking medical attention, getting legal advice, etc.).

The Interview Stance

The point of the Interview Stance is to get you into a physically strong position, while at the same time not appearing overly aggressive—you don’t want to escalate the situation at this point by giving your aggressor a reason to pull a knife, gun, or other weapon. Neither do you want to appear overly timid or fearful. Instead, you want to communicate through your body language that you don’t want any trouble, but at the same time you are confident in your ability to handle any attack. Your goal should always be to avoid a physical confrontation, and if you can, you should either try to discourage your assailant from attacking or de-escalate the situation. You should also put yourself in a position to be able to make a preemptive assault if you recognize that a physical confrontation is inevitable because you were unable to de-escalate or disengage from the situation.

Most violent encounters involve a verbal confrontation that precedes any physical assault. Depending on the motive of the aggressor and their emotional state, it may be possible to de-escalate the situation and resolve the conflict without having to engage with them physically.

An aggressor’s body language and their ability to communicate verbally will indicate whether they are about to launch an assault. If they respond to a question such as, “What can I do to sort this situation out?” with silence, with jumbled up words, or by simply repeating their complaint over and over again, you should take this as an indication that they are about to make an attack.

Key Points Regarding the Interview Stance

The aim of the Interview Stance is twofold: firstly, it should present you in a non-threatening way to your aggressor, and secondly, it should prepare you for a physical confrontation. If a person is verbally aggressive towards you, you don’t want to escalate the situation by balling your fists and trying to intimidate them—if they are carrying a weapon, such as a gun or knife, they may feel that your aggressive posture necessitates them pulling their weapon (once somebody pulls a weapon it is very unlikely that they will put it away without using it). Your goal should be to present yourself in a non-threatening, but confident way. Your aggressor is probably used to people either cowering or posturing back when threatened, so presenting them with a different image can cause them to question the situation.

Your head should be directly over your hips, so you are stable. If your head moves forward or backwards from this position you may still be “balanced,” but you won’t be stable, and this increases the risk of you being taken to ground. Your arms should protect the space in front of you, creating a “No Man’s Land” that your assailant’s strikes would have to cross to reach you.

You should appear non-threatening but in control. By using a hand gesture (open palm facing forward) that is the international signal for both “Stop” and “I don’t want any trouble,” you are sending a confusing message to your aggressor. When this is coupled with an upright and “dominant” posture, you are presenting yourself in a way that most assailants are not used to being met with, i.e., you are not cowering or acting submissively, but at the same time you are not acting aggressively or appearing to posture back. You are also in an excellent position to both defend yourself physically and launch any necessary preemptive assaults. Obviously if you are attacked by surprise then you will not have time to adopt such a stance; however, if somebody verbally threatens you or acts in a manner that makes you uncomfortable, this should be your first response.

1. The foot of your least dominant hand should be the one you lead with. This keeps your dominant hand at the rear, from where it is able to generate the most power (for ease of communication, the techniques in this book will default to right hand dominance going forward).

2. Your feet should be on opposite corners of an imaginary rectangle, with your toes pointing towards your assailant—the feet control the direction of your hips, and it is the movement of your hips which will give power to your striking. This stance will also make you stable in all but two directions, meaning that if you are knocked from the front, side, or rear (you must always assume that there is more than one attacker), you will be able to stay on your feet.

3. Your head must be over your hips. Your head controls the direction of your weight, and if you are leaning forward or backwards you can easily be thrown off-balance in those directions. For the same reason, your weight must be evenly distributed between both feet. Make sure you hold your head upright and stand tall, so that you appear confident and in control.

4. Both legs should remain active. That is, they should be able to create movement without having to shift weight first. Keep the knees bent and the legs relaxed, so that they don’t have to be unlocked in order for you to move.

5. Your weight should be on your toes. Toes are for moving, heels are for braking. Don’t lift the heels of your feet too high, as when you move you will want to make sure that they can be placed down quickly if necessary, e.g., to be able to strike with power.

6. Your hands should be placed out in front of you, with the palms of your hands facing your aggressor. Unlike clenched fists, this hand position is non-aggressive, and is understood in all cultures to be a non-threatening gesture. It is also the international sign for “stop” and “stay back.”

Controlling Range

If you are too close to a potential assailant, they will be able to strike or grab you without having to make any prior body movement. Therefore, you should always keep a suitable distance between yourself and your assailant, forcing them to have to move before they make an attack. If they make a movement forward, to move into attacking range, you should make a corresponding movement backwards or away, to maintain your original distance. If you don’t, and you stay within their range, you will be attempting to counter the speed of their arm/punch, rather than the relatively slower speed of their body. In most cases action beats reaction, so you will be unsuccessful in countering their attack if you don’t force them to reposition their body, first.

Forcing them to move their body before making an attack will give you a larger movement to respond to, rather than having to react to somebody’s arm speed. If they can punch or grab you without having to move first, you are limiting your chances of identifying the attack.

When you face someone who is acting aggressively towards you, you should attempt to control the range. You want to position yourself at a distance where, if they want to strike or grab you, they must move their body into range first. This larger body movement is easier to detect than an arm movement alone.

If an assailant is already in range, they can punch you or grab you without having to make any prior body movement. In this instance, you will have to react to the arm movement alone, which is a much faster and smaller movement than that of the body coming forwards—and so much harder to detect and respond to.

The simplest way to learn how to control range—before it becomes an inherent fighting skill—is to make sure that when you look at the center of your aggressor’s chest, you are able to see some of the ground or floor in front of their forward foot with your peripheral vision. If the person is holding a knife, you need to roughly add the length of the blade to this distance, as the length of the weapon will give them a greater range (than a fist alone).

You need to be close enough for them to believe that they can, with one movement, reach you. If you are too far away they will simply close the distance on you first before making an assault. If violence is inevitable, you need to draw out your assailant’s attack in such a way that it will commit them to their attack, and put them in a disadvantageous position.

This control of range should force them to commit all their weight forward when they make an attack. With their weight forward, they are both vulnerable to a counterattack, and at the same time slowed down in making further attacks, as they will have to readjust their weight to do so.

Relative Body Positioning

Aside from controlling range, you should also attempt to control your assailant’s movement by continually moving offline. Power is derived from the hips, and people are at their strongest when their hips are lined up facing you—this is also a position which allows them to step directly towards you and take advantage of this movement of mass to add power to their strikes.

When you stand directly in front of an assailant, you are facing all of their “weapons” (hands, feet, knees, etc.) in a position where they are able to deliver strikes with full power. You should always avoid facing an assailant’s hips (the source of power in striking).

By moving off at an angle, you are getting “offline,” while at the same time forcing your attacker to turn towards you before making an attack. At the moment they turn, they are vulnerable to any attack you may make. You are also forcing them to take an extra step before they can assault you, slowing down their attack.

Maintain your control of range as you turn, so that your assailant is unable to reach you without moving…

…This forces them to move, as well as having to turn, slowing down their attack and giving you a lot of time to respond, either by blocking their attack, or making your own while they do this.

You should always try to force your assailant to do several things before they can attack you:

1. Shift weight before they can turn their body;

2. Physically turn towards you;

3. Take a step towards you.

If at the same time you only have to do one thing, i.e., attack them, while they complete all of these actions, you should always be faster than your assailant.

If you move offline, you are no longer directly in front of your aggressor. This means that in order to attack you, they must shift and readjust their weight and then turn so that they are facing you again. Relative Body Positioning combined with range control means that an assailant must do three things before they can assault you:

1. Shift their body weight before re-aligning their body.

2. Realign their body before moving.

3. Move towards you before being able to attack.

Whoever controls the movement of the fight, controls the fight. You should move in such a way that it is difficult for your attacker to synchronize their movement to yours. If you keep moving to your left, for example, your attacker will eventually realize that the next time you move, it will be to your left, and attack you as you move there. Move in an unpredictable fashion.

Violence is dynamic, and you should always be moving, whether it is before the fight or during it—you should never be a fixed, static target. If you’re not moving, you’re not fighting. Your movement should always accomplish at least one of the following three things. If it isn’t doing so, you are moving without purpose:

1. Your movement should be away from danger.

2. Your movement should be part of an attack/assault.

3. Your movement should create an attacking opportunity.

Ideally, every time you move you should be creating attacking opportunities, or be attacking. If you move defensively it should be to a position from which you can attack. Every movement in Krav Maga should either be an attack, or one that facilitates an attack. Being defensively minded is no way to deal with an attacker.

Relative Body Positioning with Multiple Assailants

Always assume your assailant is armed (even if you can’t see a weapon, or have disarmed them of one), always assume they are as good as you, and always assume that they have third parties nearby who can come to their assistance.

It would be wrong for us to assume a fight simply involves one attacker. A fight is about controlling everything in the environment, including entrance/exit routes, objects that can be used as weapons, objects that can be used as barriers and obstacles, along with any other individuals with us, and/or individuals who may assist our primary aggressor.

If you are dealing with an aggressor, either verbally or physically, you should assume that any movement coming towards you is aggressive in nature. Don’t assume it is somebody about to intervene on your behalf, e.g., a friend, a security person, etc. Your job is to “line them up,” so you are only facing one person at a time.

If the third party/secondary assailant tries to move round the person in front of you, you should move so that you keep them directly behind the primary aggressor.

Once your assailants are lined up, you should do everything you can to maintain this structure. In a physical confrontation, your goal should be to take the person who is directly in front of you out of the fight as quickly as possible, then face the next attacker and do the same, until all assailants are dealt with.

Focusing and dealing with one person at a time, when possible, is a much more effective strategy than moving between multiple attackers with your assaults. Concentrate force on each one in turn, taking them out of the fight one by one.

When you move you should scan and look around, to get an understanding of your environment. Are there objects you can use as weapons? Objects you can use as barriers, such as cars or tables? Are there people moving towards you? Uninvolved people usually move away from confrontations, not towards them, so someone moving towards you and your assailant should be seen as another potential threat—don’t assume it is someone coming to help you.

If you are dealing with multiple assailants, or can see people coming towards you, you do not want to be caught in the middle of them—rather, you should line them up so you are only facing one person at a time. This person will act as the pivot point of the group—as the others try to reach you, you will keep them in line by moving in the same direction, around the central person you’ve selected to deal with first. If you are in a situation where you have a choice of who that person is, you should choose to face the most aggressive first, as they will definitely want to be involved in the fight. Choosing to deal with a less aggressive person, who may have been content to stay out of the fight, will mean that you will have to deal with both of them, when it could have been just the primary aggressor.

How to Move

To move backwards, move the rear foot first, followed by the front foot.

To move left, move the left foot first, followed by right foot.

To move forward, move the forward foot first, followed by the rear foot.

To move right, move the right foot first, followed by the left foot.

Your feet should always slide and feel a connection with the floor, rather than stepping. This will prevent you from putting your foot down on something unstable or slippery. If you slide and transfer your weight in a controlled fashion, you will be able to feel whether or not what is beneath your feet is solid and can be trusted to bear your weight. Stepping actions also demonstrate to your assailant a transfer of weight—if they are trained, they will be able to exploit this by easily sweeping your feet.

When you want to move forward, simply move the forward foot, sliding it about a foot’s length, plant it, and bring the rear foot up so you are in the same stance as you were before. It should be the rear foot pushing the body which initiates the body and forward foot to move. As you move forward, be careful to keep your weight over your hips, rather than overly transferring it to the front foot. This transference could make you vulnerable to being swept before you place the foot down, it could also make your front leg a solid target for a kick, as it will be too rooted and unable to ride the movement of any strike to it.

If you want to move backwards, repeat this process in reverse, pushing off with the front foot and sliding the rear foot, again keeping the weight centered. Every time you move, you should find yourself back in your original stance (feet on opposite corners of a rectangle, weight distributed 50/50, both legs active).

When you move either to the left or right, the same rules apply. When you move to the left, you should push off with the right foot, slide the left foot to the left, and resume your stance. Moving to the right will involve force being applied by the left foot to allow the right to slide first.

Other Stances

If you are attacked without warning (most assaults are preceded by a verbal exchange), your hands may be down (we call this “Unprepared Stance”), halfway up (“Semi-Prepared Stance”) or in some other position; equally, your footing may be unbalanced and your body alignment off. It is important to train from these unprepared and semi-prepared positions, and to practice taking the first opportunity in these situations to get into a stable stance from which you can strike.

Unprepared Stance—This is a training stance that is used to replicate our body/hand position when we are attacked by surprise. In Krav Maga, we don’t assume we’ll always be in a state of readiness when assaulted, and so train from positions of unreadiness, where our hands are down and our feet are not in the most stable position, etc.

We also train from positions where we are seated, walking, and even lying down.

Semi-Prepared Stance—There are times when we naturally react to movements (threatening and non-threatening) by bringing our hands up. It should also become a first response for us to start to bring our hands up as soon as we recognize that we are being assaulted.

The Semi-Prepared Stance is a training stance that acknowledges this natural reaction, from which we train the first moments of a physical confrontation.

Fighting Stance—This is a stance that demonstrates principles, such as keeping the hands up high when they are not being used to strike or block with. If you have the space and time to adopt a fighting stance in a real-life confrontation, you have either missed an opportunity to attack your assailant, or failed to disengage from them—otherwise you should be adopting an Interview Stance, with the goal of de-escalating the situation. Just as with the Interview Stance, your least dominant hand (and leg) should be forward. You should never find yourself in a static stance, as you should always be moving in a fight, either attacking, or preparing to attack.

Striking, Punching, Kicking, and Throwing

If you believe that violence is inevitable you should strike preemptively, rather than wait to be attacked. If you have adopted the Interview Stance and in talking to your assailant find them so aggressive and emotional that they don’t respond, or you understand that their motive is one that will inevitably lead to physical violence (they have a pre-planned goal they wish to accomplish, such as an abduction or mugging), you should take control of the situation and attack first.

If disengagement is an option, and you can move behind a protective barrier such as a car and/or exit the situation, you should. If there is something in the environment you can use as a weapon then it would be advisable to arm yourself, for you should always assume that your assailant is armed, and you don’t want to have to deal with them in this capacity without a weapon of your own.

Preemptive Striking Combination

Following is detailed a preemptive striking combination that all Krav Maga Yashir students learn. In reality, it can be dissected and any part of the combination can be used during any stage of a physical assault, not just at the beginning, or in the order shown here.

The combination leads with a preemptive strike. All the other techniques (the kick, the punches, the knee, etc.) flow out from there in an unbroken fashion, with each strike setting up the next. The body has three naturally weak targets that no amount of gym work and training can strengthen. These are the eyes, the throat, and the groin. A little force applied to each one of these targets will result in a great deal of pain and discomfort, which makes them excellent “first choice” targets.

The Krav Maga Yashir system works along a continuum, referred to as Disrupt, Damage, Destroy, and Disengage. The first strike that is thrown should look to disrupt the assailant from either making an assault, or from continuing with their assault. To do this, you should attack the soft targets listed, with fast strikes that don’t require any power to be effective. If you are assaulted when unprepared and surprised, it will take you a relatively long time to get into a position from which you can deliver powerful strikes. You will be able to create this time by disrupting your assailant with an eye, throat, or groin strike and follow these with power strikes, which you will use to finish the fight.

Lead Eye Strike

A poor eye strike is much more effective than a poor punch, and so makes a very good initial strike. It also doesn’t rely on “body power” to be effective, and can therefore be thrown from almost all body positions. Even if it doesn’t land, it will normally cause the person receiving it to pull their head back, restricting their ability to make an attack (in that moment).

From the Interview Stance, turn on the toes of the front foot and extend your front hand, aiming your fingers at your assailant’s eyes. The hand should flick out towards them, with the pivoting motion of the toes bringing the hip forward and turning the body, to give you a better reach. If your assailant is too far away for you to reach this way, you will need to take a small, sliding step forward to close the distance.

If your strike connects, it will cause your aggressor’s eyes to water, disrupting them from making their own attack, and preventing them from defending themselves against your next, more damaging attack. Even if you don’t make contact, this fast movement aimed at their eyes will cause them to blink or pull their head back, giving you an opening to move in with a hard strike.

Groin Kick

Depending on the position of your aggressor’s stance, you may need to move before making the groin kick, as their leg position may prevent you from reaching your target.

Although extremely simple and effective, groin kicks can be relatively difficult to pull off in real life situations. This isn’t because the kick is performed badly, but because people have a natural tendency to pull the hips back, and drop their hands to protect themselves when there is movement towards the groin. The groin is a relatively small and well-protected target.

Although groin strikes can be difficult to pull off, the effects of a good groin kick can be devastating—whether it is the in-step of the foot or the shin that connects. Even if a connection is light—or possibly nonexistent—a person will pull their hips back in response, setting them up for other attacks, and putting them in a disadvantageous position.

If the person is standing square to you, simply pull back the hand that made the eye-strike (using the body/pull of the hip), and push the other hip forward, while raising the knee by pushing off from the toes of the rear foot. Then rapidly extend the foot—and shin—upwards into your attacker’s groin. This is not a flick, it is a powerful kick, delivered with full force. You should lean back slightly as you make the kick, so your body and leg make a see-sawing movement over the hip.

Understand how one hip pulling back assists the other in coming forward, so that both hips are involved in the kick. This is how real power is generated. This double-hip motion is common to all Krav Maga Yashir power strikes, whether they are kicks, punches, hammerfists, or slaps.

If the person is standing with one leg forward, you will need to move to their opposite side in order to attack the groin—e.g., if they are standing with their left foot forward, you will need to move to their right (your left) in order to expose the groin.

Step out diagonally with your left foot, which will now position you offline from your assailant and them square to you, as if both legs were on the same line. As you take this step, deliver the kick.

Putting Your Assailant in a Disadvantaged Position

When an assailant facing you has one leg forward and the other back, they are in a relatively strong body position. If you can move to a point where your assailant’s legs are spread out on a line directly in front of you, they are in a very weak position and are not particularly stable. If a person is leading with their left leg, stepping to your left will expose them this way, and vice versa, if they lead with their right leg you should move to your right.

If a person is standing before you with both legs spread wide, you can make a groin kick without having to change your body position. However, if they are standing with one leg forward, the groin will be protected and it will be necessary to move to a more accessible position first.

If the person’s left leg is forward, you will need to move to your left, in order to expose their groin.

Push off with your right foot and take a sliding step to your left. The pushing off motion of the right foot will initiate the kicking action of the right leg (all kicks should start with a pushing motion from the floor).

Pull the heel of the right foot back towards your right buttock as you transfer all of your weight onto your left leg. At the same time, bring your arms across your body to maintain a high guard to protect yourself.

Once the heel has reached the buttock and can go no further, the snapping motion of the kick can begin. The toes should be pulled back, in order to protect them, and contact should be made with the instep of the foot or the shin. It is wise to aim with the lower shin, so if the person pulls back the hips further than anticipated, you will still be able to make contact with the instep.

Start to extend/straighten the leg, as you swing the shin/foot through towards the groin.

As you extend and straighten the leg you should push the hip forward into the strike—this will involve you leaning backwards somewhat. This added hip movement will give power to the kick, and help knock the arms away if the person has brought them down to defend themselves.

Whenever you kick, your supporting leg (in this example, the left) should always have a bend at the knee. This will allow you to straighten up, adding more “lift” to the kick, as well as allowing you to move after making the kick, without having to readjust your weight. This is something that is difficult to do with a straight leg, i.e., it would have to be bent first before it could move.

With the right amount of force delivered with the leg and hips, you should be able to “lift” the person up. This puts them in an extremely weak defensive position to deal with any follow up attacks you make (you should never rely on one strike to finish the fight).

Lead Hand Punches and Rear Crosses

As you bring the kicking leg back, return to your original stance, pull your hands back into a more defensive guard. This will not only put your hands in a better defensive position, but will also set them in a position from which you can deliver strong punches (keep your hands open, rather than in fists, as this will keep the arms relaxed and allow you to tighten your fist fully on impact).

The lead hand punch should be delivered with full force and commitment—it should not be considered as a “jab” or set-up punch, but one that has enough force to be effective in its own right.

A common expression in Israel regarding lead hand versus rear hand punches is, “hospital/ graveyard,” i.e., your lead hand punch should put your aggressor in the hospital, your rear hand punch in the graveyard. This is because a rear hand strike can harness the power of both hips and all of the back muscles, along with a complete transfer of weight, and has more space to accelerate.

Whenever you hit somebody with a closed fist, you are attempting to hit them with full force and power. There is never any point in throwing a punch if it doesn’t contain power—and by power we mean all of the force that your body is able to generate. When a punch is thrown, it should not be done as a distracting or disrupting strike, but as a blow that will cause damage. In order for this to be effective, two things must first occur:

1. You must to be in an optimal position that will allow you to generate full and maximal power (you can use a strike to a soft target to get into such a position);

2. Your aggressor has to be in a disadvantaged position, where the full force of your strike will be felt (if you hit them as they are moving back, for example, the full force of your strike may be lost as it is translated into additional backwards movement, rather than being absorbed by their body). If you can attack them when their feet are planted on a straight line in front of you, they will be in a seriously disadvantaged position.

Starting from a fighting stance…

…Start to move your weight forward, pivoting on the toes.

Push the hip forward, and extend the arm (elbow tight).

Straighten the arm, and tighten/clench the fist.

Recoil the arm by pulling the left hip back.

At the same time drive the right hip and arm forward.

To attain full power with the rear hand punch, both hips have to be involved. The left hip should pull back from the lead hand strike and help push the right hip forward. This double hip motion, coupled with the engagement of the back muscles (notice how in the photo the torso is twisted somewhat), means that the whole upper body and hips are powering the punch. If the power of the right leg is added, pushing the body weight forward, the sheer amount of force generated can start to be appreciated. Whenever we strike with full force, all of our body should be utilized to generate maximum power.

By the time the arm is fully extended, your weight should have transferred to the point where 65–70 percent is on the forward leg and 30–35 percent on the rear leg. The head should still be over the hips, rather than leaning forward, with both front and rear legs bent. Your hips should have dropped and feel “heavy,” while the feet should feel light (sinking the hips will also help you avoid over-reaching the strike and lifting the back foot off the ground). While full commitment must be given to the strike (both emotional and physical), you should still be able to move and readjust your body position without major readjustments in body weight first.

For any punch to contain real power:

1. Weight must transfer from the back leg to the forward leg.

2. The hips must turn (one pulling and the other pushing).

3. The back muscles must pull and engage to turn the upper body.

4. The shoulder of the striking hand must turn over.

5. The hand/fist/arm must time the transference of the power and momentum into the target.

It is important that all of your striking and movements have the feeling that it is the body that moves the arms, and not the arms or hands that lead the body. It is the body that propels the arm forward when punching, and the body that pulls it back when recoiling and re-setting the strike. The power of the punch comes from the synergy produced by combining the push of the rear leg with the turn of the hips, along with the pull of the back and the added rotation of the shoulder. The extension/straightening of the arm is merely the means of timing by which this power is transferred into the target.

From your stance, push off from the floor with your rear leg and start to shift your weight forward onto the front leg. At the same time, turn and pivot on the toes of your front foot, pushing your front hip forward and pulling your rear hip back. You should feel your hips sink as you do this—you want to feel heavy in the hips and light on your feet as you strike. As this is happening, your arm should begin to extend. You should extend the arm as if you had a wall on your left side preventing your elbow from moving outside of your “silhouette.”

You should always try to strike out from the body in a way that doesn’t cause your shape to change or “break.” If you move your elbow laterally away from your side, the shape that you present to your assailant will change, giving them advance warning of your punch. We refer to this as “Breaking Shape.” To avoid this happening, we maintain the idea of keeping the silhouette our aggressor sees the same. Conversely, you should try to put your assailant in positions where they are forced to break their shape as part of their attack.

When striking/punching, we want to give as little warning as possible. To achieve this we want to change our body shape as little as possible. You can see in the following sequence that when an attacker throws a big “circular” strike, their whole body shape changes. First they pull back their striking arm—this is when you should start to respond.

Here, the attacker’s shape has completely changed, or “broken,” as their arm comes out to start the strike. Compare this with the minimal change in shape of the body in the sequence demonstrating “straight punches” (see pages 30-31).

Although big, circular strikes are extremely powerful, they are much easier to spot than straight strikes, as the body shape needs to change so much in order to deliver them. This is one of the reasons why, when we deliver straight strikes, we need to keep our elbows close to our body.

This position demonstrates the point where a block would have to intercept the punch. As you can see, there is a relatively long period of time, and several phases, before the punch gets to this point. This makes circular strikes much easier to deal with than straight punches. They are also much more common amongst untrained individuals.

By guarding our silhouette, i.e., putting our arms out in front of us (as in the Interview Stance), we make it difficult for assailants to deliver straight strikes/punches. This can force an attacker to throw circular strikes in order to hit us. Forcing our assailant to break shape in this way improves our chances of blocking their strikes.

As your arm extends, turn the shoulder, making sure that your shoulder isn’t lifted/shrugged up. Don’t lean into the strike, but rather keep your head over your hips and bend your knees slightly to drop your weight. When you judge that your strike will hit, tighten the fist. Make sure you throw your strike from a distance from which you can drive your punch through the target, rather than just connecting with it (this is not a “push,” but a conscious delivery of power into your aggressor). As soon as you feel the power dissipate, recoil the strike.

The recoil is achieved by the body/hip pulling the strike back, not simply by bending the elbow and pulling the arm back.

As you pull the left hip back, shift the weight so that it is more evenly spread between your feet. At the same time, drive the right hip forward—pushing off from the ball of the right foot. As your right arm starts to pass your left arm, begin to extend it, making sure that you keep the elbow down. As it starts to close in on the target, rotate the fist so that the knuckles are up and the shoulder engages—just as with a lead straight punch, keep the shoulder down, seated in the socket. Just before your fist impacts into the target, clench it tightly.

Rear “Crashing” Elbow

To deliver a “crashing” elbow, recoil the right hand by pulling back the right hip. The hand and hip move together. The pull should be strong enough that you pivot on the left foot, as if you were throwing a lead hand punch. Once both hips have turned to face to the right and your weight is on your rear leg, unwind the hips towards your assailant, and start to transfer your weight forward (if your aggressor has moved back as a consequence of your punches, you may need to step forward to reach them—this movement can help you transfer weight forward). Make sure your head remains over your hips.

The body’s most devastating natural weapons are the knees, elbows, and head.

The Rear “Crashing” Elbow utilizes forward movement and weight transference, coupled with a strong turning motion of the hips, to transfer force through the elbow into the target. This coupling of forward motion and hip turn is extremely powerful.

From the right rear punch, pull back the punching arm.

The punching arm should be pulled back using the hips—notice the change in position of the toes from the last photo. The right arm, shoulder, and hip should be pulled all the way back. The left shoulder and hip should be forward.

Launching yourself off the rear foot, take a step forward with your left foot. You must step at least the distance of the length of your forearm (this is because the last strike was a rear hand punch, which needs a longer reach), closing the distance to your attacker.

At the same time as you move forward, your hips should be turning—the left one pulling back, and the right one pushing forward—while you swing your elbow towards the target.

As you land, finish the turning motion of the hips to strike through the target with your elbow. Your other hand should remain up to guard your head, and possibly prepare to throw another elbow towards your assailant.

The targets for the Rear “Crashing” Elbow could be either the head/face, or if dealing with a much taller person, the xiphoid process located in the lower part of the sternum.

You want to connect with the tip of your elbow, and make sure that your chest is neither in front or behind, but rather level with the elbow. As with every strike, recoil your elbow after impact. Pull the hips back so they are now in a neutral position.

If your aggressor is significantly taller than you, and you don’t believe they are wearing a suicide vest filled with explosives, you can attack the xiphoid process, a small piece of cartilage that hangs at the lower end of the sternum, as an alternative to the face.

Driving Knee

When delivering knee strikes, you need to make sure that power is transferred forward, rather than simply upwards. To have full power, a knee strike needs to have forward momentum to it, generated by a forward movement of the hips. Striking straight out with the knee, rather than upwards, also makes it a much more difficult strike to block.

Reach forward and take hold of your assailant, raising your knee straight up, but not towards them (if you raise it upwards towards your aggressor, they have a good chance of blocking it with their forearms), then push it straight out explosively, towards your assailant. This forward motion is extremely powerful and difficult to block. You should pull your opponent towards you as you do this.

Your knee strike now sets you up in a very strong position, from which you can execute a throw/takedown.

There are many ways to deliver knee strikes. One of the most powerful is to push the knee forward rather than upwards—this also makes the strike harder to block, e.g., when knee strikes are thrown in an upwards direction a block can be made against the large upper thigh muscle (quadriceps), but when the strike comes forward the only part available to perform a block against is the knee itself.

After throwing the rear crashing elbow, slide the rear foot in a little, in preparation for making a knee strike.

Start to bring the knee forward. You should visualize the hands coming up to grab on to and control your assailant. As well as striking them with your knee, you want to pull them onto it, combining both movements to generate power.

Raise the knee high. This is in preparation for driving it into your assailant. At this point, your knee should be facing the body part of your assailant you want to strike, e.g., lower ribs, sternum, face, etc. Your hips should be pulled back, ready to drive the knee forward.

Explosively drive your hips forward, pushing your knee into your assailant. At the same time pull back (with your hands), dragging them onto your knee.

Throws and Takedowns

Being able to put your assailant on the floor while you remain standing not only puts them in a very painful and disadvantaged position (hopefully unconscious or dazed), but it also makes a strong statement about who is controlling the fight. This is why the Krav Maga Yashir system contains a wide array of throws and takedowns—along with an extensive ground survival/fighting system.

After throwing the knee strike, step back with your right foot. You should still be holding on to your assailant.

Whenever you attempt to throw or take somebody down, you should use striking to put them in a disadvantageous position.

Take a step past the leg you are going to “reap”—in this example step past your assailant’s right leg with your left (your left foot needs to be level with or beyond their right foot). Start to bring your right leg past theirs. You should be close to them, with little distance between you.

As you do this, catch their chin with your forearm, and tilt their head backwards. This movement should be used to direct all of their weight onto their supporting right leg, while at the same time taking them off balance.

While they are off balance, bring your right knee up high. All of their weight should be on their right leg—the one you are going to reap.

Forcefully swing your right leg backwards, catching the back of your assailant’s knee with the back of yours. Your leg should swing like a pendulum and you should continue to lift your assailant’s head, with your forearm, directing it towards the ground.

Continue to swing through with the leg, lifting the right leg of your assailant. You should aim to swing your right leg back as far and as high as you can. The more forceful the swing and the higher it goes, the harder the fall will be for your assailant.

Here is an alternate view, demonstrating the height of the reaping leg.