Article by cipriana sorenson

KravZone A Community

By Cipriana Sorenson

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he test begins with a bow, and ends with a belt. From the time he steps onto the mat, the tension in the room is palpable, punctured only by the sounds of 5’9”, solidly built Derek blocking and disarming at a whirlwind pace, and the occasional shout or comment from the instructors. Derek’s aggressors are upper level students helping with the test by being surrogate attackers and sparring with him in turn.

Having finished disarming an attacker, Derek pivots, only to have more aggressors flood him. He moves through the techniques fluidly but forcefully, simultaneously saving himself from wouldbe injury and proving his knowledge of Krav Maga. Even as Derek tests for his black belt in Krav Maga, he uses techniques from several other martial arts, revealing the scrappiness, practicality, and

resourcefulness that ‘It should be a system in are intrinsic to the which it’s really easy to discipline.

Krav Maga is a learn as fast as possible form of self-defense and implement it in a that first began to be developed in the real life situation’ ghettos of Europe before World War Two broke out by Imi that its practitioners be a Lichtenfeld, a Jewish man who certain age, gender, or body saw the need for a brutally type. At KravZone, students effective means of defense ages four to sixty-three of all that did not require weapons. genders, professions, and Krav Maga was refined during walks of life train to become the latter half of the twentieth more fit, better fighters, and century in Israel by the Israel to improve their ability to Defense Force (IDF), and later defend themselves. In addition adapted for civilian students. to teaching students of all Krav Maga is rightfully known backgrounds self defense, as being a powerful, no-frills KravZone also helps its martial art. However, Krav students become the most Maga’s benefits don’t extend holistic fighters they can be. only to significant efficiency Instead of adhering rigidly to - Krav also makes for great one discipline, the instructors exercise that manages to be recognize the advantages both mentally engaging and of other arts as well as the physically taxing. Moreover, shortcomings of confining Krav Maga does not demand training to only one range. At

Shlomi and Tomer give Derek feedback at the end of his black belt test.

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KravZone, students train in for a wider range of situations. matter who the attacker is.

Krav Maga, Brazilian Jujitsu, Since then, the discipline Over 70 years after Krav and kickboxing, giving them has grown and been adapted Maga was born, Shlomi Katz the skills to be able to defend for civilian use but the core founded KravZone in 2010 themselves in all ranges. purpose and goals of Krav with the same principles in During the mid-1930s Krav Maga have not changed. mind. Katz had moved from Maga originated in ghettos Rather as Guy Sarfaty, a Israel two years prior in 2008. across Europe in response teacher at KravZone who Before studying business to a visceral need for Jews to holds a black belt in Krav and finance at The Hebrew be able to defend themselves Maga, explains, “the idea with University, and Ben-Gurion against anti-semitic thugs the martial art is to make it University, he served as head when no one else would come one, very effective; two, allow of Krav Maga and hand-toto their aid. Imi Lichtenfeld, a weaker person to defend hand combat at LOTAR, the who grew up IDF’s Counter practicing Terror School.

Gymnastics, Shlomi began Boxing, training in Wrestling, self-defense and Savate at twelve in his years of age father’s gym, and started recognized teaching Krav the urgent Maga in the need for IDF when ordinary he was 20. people to be KravZone able to defend grew out of themselves.

Shlomi’s love He and of teaching many others Krav Maga, Shlomi demonstrates a techniqe during Advanced Krav Maga class. pooled their Muay Thai, knowledge and Brazilian and varied Jiu-Jitsu. For skill sets together to create a themselves against a stronger Katz, who worked as a CFO new form of self-defense that person and … [three], it should before starting KravZone, would allow people to protect be a system in which it’s it was a big decision to take themselves against attackers, really easy for somebody to a leap of faith and quit his who were often bigger and learn it as fast as possible corporate job to teach selfstronger than them and would and implement it in a real life defense full time. Shlomi usually carry weapons. After situation” (Sarfaty). By virtue explained, “I found in myself Imi Lichtenfeld immigrated of this philosophy, Krav Maga that I really like to teach and to Israel, he joined the IDF caters to people who want to want to teach and when it (Israel Defense Force) and be able to defend themselves started working pretty nice I developed Krav Maga further in dangerous situations, no decided to … make [teaching]

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full time” (Katz).

Shlomi, Tomer, and Travis, who are KravZone’s main teachers and integral to the fabric of the gym, began working together somewhat serendipitously. Travis Latham

to Israel any time.

The support of the preKravZone community, made up of friends and students who trained with Shlomi before KravZone, was a significant part of what convinced

‘ There’s a sense of trust that you build by working with them. You get a good sense of who they are by how they work with you. ’

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came across Shlomi’s website while he was pursuing a degree in Criminal Justice several years before Shlomi started KravZone. Travis began training with Shlomi and studying to be a Krav Maga instructor in 2009. After Travis finished his degree and earned his black belt in Krav Maga he worked full time teaching KravZone’s fitness classes and Krav Maga to both children and adults. A year or so after starting KravZone, Shlomi reached out to Tomer Davidovich, a student that he had taught in Israel. Tomer, who started Martial Arts at age 6 after his mother got tired of him kicking furniture, began teaching at age 22 in the military and came to KravZone in 2011 after multiple requests from Shlomi under the condition that he could return

asked about KravZone’s community, Ann explained, “I think the community is great. You get all sorts of people from all different walks of life so you actually get to know a lot of people who are different from who you are.

But given that everybody has a similar interest in getting healthier [and] learning some self-defense, there’s really a nice sense of ‘everybody’s got a common interest’” (Bogan).

Even across disparate age groups and cultures, people at KravZone are united by a shared appreciation for Krav Maga and the KravZone community. The community is tied together not only by shared interests and values, but also by the shared experiences of learning and

Shlomi to start the gym. That strong, vibrant community still flourishes at KravZone today and is arguably just as important as the Krav Maga it practices. For Ann Bogan, a Psychologist and mother Ann Bogan and her daughter practice an escape for a of two who choke from behind during parent-child class. holds a blue belt in Krav Maga and started training at KravZone when she was 36, community is a huge part of what makes KravZone a place where she enjoys coming to train. When

working together in a very personal way. Ann pointed out that “... it’s a very supportive environment because if you’re working with somebody on certain moves and drills, when you partner with them you’re actually using your body and they’re letting you use their body.

And so, there’s a sense of trust that you build with them and in a way Cara and Simon drill a gun defense during advanced Krav Maga class. you get to really know somebody by working with them. Without even really knowing their instructions immediately and firstly, the attacker is less background or talking about without complaint or question. likely to expect the defender to your personal life, you get a They get up and keep running, attempt to disarm him when good sense of who they are and a few minutes later the his hands are fully visible. by how they work with you” class has spread across the Secondly, it puts the defender’s (Bogan). mat to loosen muscles and hands in the perfect position joints by stretching and doing to disarm the attacker. Having n the evening, KravZone calisthenics in preparation for explained this, Shlomi pivots, buzzes. Curious onlookers the lesson. After stretching, bringing his left hand up to peer through the windows the students split into classes, push the gun away from his as the second class of the with Krav Levels 4, 5, and 6 in head and into Evan’s chest. evening bows in and warms the front half of the room and Shlomi pauses here, pointing up. Thirty people run back KravFit in the back half. out that it’s crucial to keep and forth across the mat, Today in Advanced Krav the gun from moving off of never colliding and never Maga class, Shlomi is teaching the attacker’s chest. Then he slowing. Tomer, who is leading gun defenses. The class resumes the demonstration, warm-up periodically calls out stands in a semi-circle around pushing Evan back with his instructions to his students.

Shlomi, who is demonstrating left hand, still controlling the “Ten push-ups, ten squats, the relatively straight forward gun while signing punches twenty sit-ups, keep running!” technique on longtime student with his right. He angles his His voice carries throughout Evan. Shlomi instructs Evan left shoulder toward Evan the room; over the noise of to hold the rubber handgun bringing his right hand up running on the mat, energetic at the right side of the base to curve under and around music coming from the sound of Shlomi’s head. Shlomi the gun before twisting it out system, and the low rasp of puts his hands up, explaining of Evan’s grasp. The moves breathing. The class follow his that this serves two purposes: shown must be done with

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precision, paying special attention to where force is placed and the angles used to disarm.

What brings KravZone’s students to decide they need those skills varies widely from an unfulfilled lifelong wish to train in martial arts to having been the victim of an attack.

Ann, who started attending KravZone for mostly fitnessmotivated reasons, has come to appreciate the practical selfdefense that she has learned at KravZone. “I think I started attending KravZone about four or five years ago. I had turned 36, and I was just feeling like, oh I need to start exercising because I wasn’t all that physically active and I started thinking about getting older and wanting to be energetic with my kids and doing things and keeping up. And so I decided that I needed to do something and I had tried the gym and I’d tried yoga, I’d tried a whole lot of things, and so I think this was the first one that I could stick with on a regular basis” (Bogan).

Aside from the appeal of the fitness aspect of Krav Maga, a significant part of why Ann and other students stay and train at KravZone long term is the pragmatic self-defense that the gym teaches. Krav Maga explicitly focuses on preparing students to get themselves out of high pressure, violent situations where no rules apply

by ingraining techniques like the gun defense above into muscle memory. From a purely practical and efficiency based standpoint, Krav Maga is one of the better forms of selfdefense for dealing with violent confrontations involving striking, choking or weapons.

As evidenced by the wide age range of KravZone’s students, Krav Maga is accessible and useable for a broad variety of different physical capabilities. Shlomi explains that “Krav Maga is one of the more practical martial arts for older people…

It’s more realistic to start to study in your 40s [than other martial arts]” (Katz). Many of the practical, efficient and reality based techniques taught to KravZone students are also quite effective regardless of the attacker’s size or strength.

Mastery of techniques in Krav Maga are attainable for any reasonably healthy person, in their prime years or not.

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t doesn’t seem like it at first glance, since the room is filled with laughter, smiles, and the low babble of talk, but the training that the teenagers are doing is concerned with worst-case scenarios: knives in the dark or ill-intentioned aggressors. They don’t seem to be thinking much about this at the moment, running in pairs or small groups as they warm up for class. Tomer, their

instructor paces in front of the mirror and periodically calls out instructions like “Twenty burpees!” or “Box backwards!”.

Once the class has stretched to loosen joints and muscles in preparation for the lesson, they have a short water break, and pair up to do low kicks.

Tomer gather’s the class in a circle and demonstrates how to escape a choke from the front while being pushed. The class watches attentively in order to be able to replicate the technique. They break back into pairs and the sound of talk starts up again as the teenagers practice the defense.

In a typical Teen Krav Maga class, Tomer teaches a Krav Maga technique, a kick or boxing combination, and a submission or sweep from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Adult and children’s Krav Maga classes also deliberately follow a similar pattern. In doing so, KravZone’s instructors ensure that students will have knowledge of techniques and experience with working in a wide variety of situations that an incident could occur in.

Guy explains that “We also try to make it as holistic as possible in terms of martial arts here at the gym, so we also take Judo techniques and Tae-Kwon Do techniques and Karate techniques and blend it all together so that we end up being complete martial artists” (Sarfaty). Krav Maga

Right to left: Two students practice hooks during teen class. A child laughs during parent-child class. A student does a mikazuki during while shadowboxing in teen class.

has borrowed techniques from other martial arts and changed them to fit the needs of the discipline from the very beginning, and KravZone continues that tradition today.

Compared to adult class, teen class isn’t terribly serious. As is expected in any martial art, the students pay attention to demonstrations, are on time to class, and are respectful to their instructor.

Nonetheless, there is an easy camaraderie both between the students themselves and Tomer, who teaches all of the teen classes. This more laidback dynamic, combined with teenage sarcasm and Tomer’s signature goofiness, is fertile ground for the community and friendships that make teen class fun. Guy, who previously attended teen class, explained that “KravZone, to me first of all, is the community of friends and also some people who I consider family that love to train together ... we all

want to make sure that we’re training in a safe environment” (Sarfaty). The more relaxed environment of teen class also helps students be more comfortable with training that is sometimes incredibly difficult. Students are more willing to push themselves because they know that both their peers and their instructors are looking out for them.

KravZone, in short, is a place to learn self-defense and a community. Those two facets of KravZone exist in a symbiotic relationship of sorts; without community, learning self-defense is not as fun, rewarding, or interesting.

KravZone’s blend of selfdefense and community facilitates better learning and makes practicing Krav Maga a worthwhile long term endeavor.

“I definitely think that Krav Maga is not just for the ten percent that you need to

face a real threat. It’s also to be confident enough and to be able to avoid threats and to be confident enough to behave in a way that nobody will mess with you. And if something starts to happen you can stop it before it’s happening.

And of course we take into account that if it becomes a more violent situation we’re supposed to know what to do.

We know the language, know the abilities, and we just react very very aggressively because it’s not a sport any more. The only rule that guides you is to survive” (Katz).

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Works Cited Bogan, Ann. Personal Interview. 15 March 2017.

Browning, Lynnley. “Trading Karate Kicks for Deadly Force”. Fashion & Style, The New York Times. 30 July, 2010. Web. Accessed 15 February, 2017.

Davidovich, Tomer. Personal Interview. 18 April 2017.

Goodnough, Abby. “Gym Now Stresses Cooperation, Not Competition”.

N.Y./Region, The New York Times. 05 July, 2000. Web. Accessed 16 February, 2017.

Katz, Shlomi. Personal Interview. 10 March 2017.

Sarfaty, Guy. Personal Interview. 24 March 2017.

Shutler, Natalie. “Turning an Easy Mark Into a Street Fighter”. Urban Athlete, N.Y./Region, The New York Times. 02 January, 2014.

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Author Bio

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ipriana Sorenson is a Junior at Mountain View High School and Freestyle Academy, where she studies Digital Media. Cipriana had trained at KravZone in Krav Maga, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, and kickboxing since 2012. In her spare time she travels with family and friends, reads voraciously, and writes for fun.

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