I learned to gouge someone's eyes out in less than an hour.
In my three years at MSU, I don’t think I have ever learned as much as I did in just an hour taking Spartan Krav Maga’s level one class, which apparently requires students to pass a three hour in person test just to advance to level two or three classes.
Krav Maga, meaning “contact combat” in Hebrew, is a martial art with a clear emphasis on self-defense and practicality. The discipline was founded by Imi Litchfield. The former head instructor and fitness instructor of the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) from the 1940s who combined multiple different martial arts to create Krav Maga. A martial art that anyone could learn which at the time was the perfect basis for their soldiers, many of whom were common citizens at the time.
Today, Krav Maga is a defense basis for multiple countries' militaries, and employed in law enforcement. And it’s all while still serving as the same practical self defense that the common person can learn.
“Imi’s main goal was so that one may walk in peace,” said Justin Moore, the owner of Spartan Krav Maga. “He believed that everyone should have the ability to protect themselves, to have the wherewithal, the knowledge and the skills to be able to do that.
“The system is not strength dependent. You don't need the biggest and strongest person to do it. It's really a skill set that is built and learned. That skill set is developed easily because a lot of the movements are based off natural instinct,”
And while Spartan Krav Maga can teach some of the most violent techniques you’ll ever see, they also teach and emphasize the importance of self control.
“Our No. 1 rule we teach is we win 100% of the battles or the fights that we're not in… If I can avoid it, I want to avoid it. If I can find a way to talk my way out of it or de-escalate it, I want to do that first,” said Moore “Using violence or combatives is always the last thing we want to do, but having the knowledge and skill set to do that and defend yourself is an important aspect of it,”
Anyone really can learn Krav Maga. When I took the class, I took it with two men in their 30s (one with chronic health issues), and a 68-year-old by the name of Dan.
I was genuinely concerned for Dan when we started warming up, only for me to learn that this was his 42nd class in the past year and that he could neutralize me if he needed to.
But, in my defense, I think the initial concern was warranted, even I - a normal college student - was left breathing heavy and sweaty after the first 10 minutes of class which consisted of a number of dynamic movements, stretching, mountain climbers, push-ups, sit-ups and ab curls with no real break in-between.
Fortunately, a quick water break followed before we got into practicing our first three techniques. Hammer fists, calf kicks and the most brutal of the three, kneeing someone in the stomach. All three were definitely violent,but the way we threw the knee - with a clear purpose to make the subject cough up blood as quickly as possible - gave me the closest feeling to being a UFC fighter I’ve ever had.
It’s a technique, despite having a foot of padding in front of my stomach, would still make me gasp for air each time - especially if I got the breathing pattern wrong when getting hit.
What we learned were things that would get any UFC fighter banned for life.
“(Krav Maga) really has real world applicability. It's not a sport. I think that's one of the things that really differentiates from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or even some of these other mixed martial arts,” said Frank Nagy, my class's head trainer. “There's no performance aspect. It's all about practicality… You just want to survive, you want to be safe.”
Nagy deemed what we were about to learn as the 14 techniques, and although we only got to seven of them, I learned the techniques to several aggravated assault charges. All with a clear emphasis on hitting the “soft spots” of the human head.
The seven techniques were split into two combos. The first consisted of poking your attacker in the eyes, quickly punching them in the nose and then using the skin between your thumb and index finger to hit their throat (serious emphasis was placed on the fatal potential of the third technique.)
But that really felt like nothing compared to the final four techniques we learned that class. A surprisingly smooth four hit combo that felt like something from the Mortal Combat video game.
I began with my shoulders squared towards my partner who was holding a foam head that was already ravaged in all its soft spots.
Then bursted forward in a leap towards the foam head while cupping and clapping my hands on its fake ears. Quickly moving my hands from the ears to the back of the head, while I began to look at the ground, only to drive the foam nose into the top of my skull. After that I brought my thumbs towards the eyes and drove them through specifically the small holes between their eyeball and nose, and only after that did I finish the combo with an elbow to the foam head, as I drilled the most primal thing I’ve ever done in my life for five minutes straight.
The final 10 or so minutes of class consisted of a drill reacting to sudden situations and knowing what attack to use in the situation. Practicing the real life scenarios, when to apply the techniques they learned, was a driving factor in many of the students’ reason to come to these classes.
Dan, who would only give his first name, got into Krav Maga classes just over a year ago in search of self defense classes and now attends classes weekly.
“I felt that I wanted to have (some sort of) self-defense if I’m with my wife or if I were out somewhere with my grandkids,” said Dan. “I don't want to kill somebody just because they're drunk and obnoxious and trying to hurt us… I want to be able to neutralize them and stop them, grab my wife, leave and go home safely,”
Although he has no interest in trying to advance to a level two class considering the required three hour in person test, he finds confidence in what he’s acquired already in his year with Spartan Krav Maga.
“I feel confident that I've got some tools. I don't feel I'm confident enough to handle anything, but I've gone from like zero to where I am today,’’ Dan said.
Student Frank Downey has been taking classes for just under a month at the advice of his doctor.
“One of my doctors said I should do it for relaxing my fibromyalgia pains and just to work my body out,” Downey, 38, said. “It’s been a big workout every time I come in.
“If you want to build yourself like a soldier, that's the best way to do it, because it's actually what a lot of military and police use. It’s straight to the point, no extra flashy martial art jumbo… Deliver the blows and get out of the situation.”