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My name is Adrian Siman.
I have been training and teaching Krav Maga for over fifteen years. I achieved my expert rank through the IKMF ( International Krav Maga Federation ), and   I have trained under many outstanding masters from around the world. For the last few years, I have been training under Itay Gil from Israel; a very humble, accessible, and relaxed instructor, with no ego and who does not care for belts.
I would like to take this opportunity to talk about Itay’s unique method and approach to training.
Itay is a former Special Forces captain from the Israeli ‘YAMAM’ and brings a great deal of experience to Krav Maga; experience which he shares with his students in a very simple fashion. Many of the skills he talks about have little to do with punching, kicking or blocking, that is to say with the technical aspects of Krav Maga, and more to do with what Itay calls the first line of defence. The first line of defence will include, for example, the observation and understanding of human behaviour, understanding victim behaviour, criminal behaviour, and patterns of how people behave under pressure. Once these theoretical aspects are understood, they are incorporated into the physical training and are then tested under pressure with protective gear in small, confined spaces, or simulated with guns, or full on with batons. This is the only true way to measure whether what we are doing actually works. Everything is recorded so people can observe themselves at a later date and see whether they have done well, or whether they have failed in their self-defence, as according to Itay, when an attack comes, it will be so fast and furious that we will not be expecting something of that magnitude.

Attacks tend to be a maximum of 3, 5, 7 seconds long, yet we see when tested that there is much room for improvement in both reaction and fighting technique, even in such a small amount of time. I, and many of my colleagues that train and teach with Itay think he is the most influential and most creative innovator of Krav Maga in recent memory. Itay also brings academic explanations to the fore, and the combination of the physical, the mental and the delivery is unsurpassed. We respect all other instructors, but this is on a different level.

Dr. Howard A. Patten 

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