Archives for February 2016

Only outlaws will have shopping carts:

This is security-camera footage of a real terrorist attack as it happened. You can learn the tragic details by searching “Beit Horon” (the town where the attack occured) in recent news stories. But it’s the quick thinking of the man with the cart that I’d like to note now. A cashier in the store, he wasn’t just protecting himself; there were other people inside. Who among us would have responded so quickly and so bravely? Maybe more than we think.

All of our training, from fundamental to advanced, teaches aggression, going on the offensive. If attacked with a knife, and with no avenue of retreat, we burst forward. One arm shields against the attack, the other blasts the strongest knockout punch we can muster. But we are also taught that we have layers of defense. The outer layer is to get away, run, vacate the premises. If that’s not possible, use anything at hand to foil the attack—a bag, a stick, a shopping cart. Only when we’re reduced to hand-to-hand combat do we employ the knife defense we practice so assiduosly (or so we had better). And even then we might expect to get cut.

Krav’s defenses are drawn from direct experience. If the nature of an attack changes over time, the response evolves to deal with it. But the philosophy is consistent—attack the attack. Be explosive. Shopping cart or floor mop, broken beer bottle or cans of cling peaches in heavy syrup, flung like Randy Johnson in a foul mood (to be redundant), the store clerk had his choice of weapons (none better than the one he chose).

But so would we if we were in his position.