I remember an email I got early on in the infancy of Krav Maga Raleigh. The person wrote in and asked, “Is there groundfighting in Krav Maga.” I answered that we did have fundamental groundfighting, but we didn’t specialize in it because we also had to work on all the other skills. I still remember verbatim his response: “What if you fight a BJJ black belt? They will take you down and then own.” I didn’t respond to that very articulate email, because it was clear he had an agenda more than he had curiosity. But I did want to ask this guy what HE would do against a BJJ black belt, because apparently the only way to win a fight is to be better at the specific skill set than your opponent. In the scenarios Krav Maga deals with, we don’t know much about our opponent. They might be great fighters, or they might know nothing. They might have specific training, or they might just have a lot of practice fighting because of their upbringing. And it doesn’t really matter. If you have to defend yourself against a skilled fighter, it will probably be harder. But we’re not stepping in a ring against them. We’re in a dynamic, unplanned situation, where our best option is to respond with speed and aggression. The more we can apply our own abilities and techniques the better our outcome gets, but it’s not a battle of skillsets. It’s a battle of mindset, intent, and adaptability under pressure. We train to stay focused under pressure, enforce our aggression, and go home safe.
