Theory and Lectures

Ultimate Anti-Bullying - Krav Maga for Kids

Dear parents and young people, Krav Maga is designated to different groups. One of the major groups that we are teaching, definitely the kids…

Video transcript

Dear parents and young people, Krav Maga, the civilian section, is designated to different groups. One of the major groups that we are teaching, definitely the kids. Kids divided a great number of hours into different groups, age groups. There are the younger ones, between five and seven, up to the middle to high teens, 13 to 16. Over 16, we usually consider them as adults in the regular training.

So, when we are looking at training kids, I said there are specific techniques, exact curriculum, games, training methods, all to bring the Krav Maga in the best way, in the best appropriate manner to the children.

I would like to discuss few things of this sort. The first thing is to understand, we have kids and teens. Let’s look at three things. First of all, the group itself. Then, the risks. The risk analysis. What are the dangers and problems that kids may face?

And the last thing of course is Krav Maga. The system itself. If we take these three regions, elements, circles, see what is overlapping from all of these three circles, then we will get Krav Maga for these specific age group.

So, let’s look at the group or really, groups, we said four. Four groups like this. What are the pluses and minuses? Advantages, disadvantages? So here, we analyze what are the advantages of the kids, what are the disadvantages.

It is obvious, and I won’t analyze everything now, it is obvious that we are talking about somebody who is usually smaller, weaker than the other attackers. When we look at the risks, we see different types of problems. Really, we see kids within themselves, the same age group. So, self-defense within the same age group, so a kid of seven is attacking a kid of seven. A kid of 10 is bullying a kid of 10. That’s one thing.

The other thing is huge, or let’s say big differences between the attacker and the defender. So, here we talk about high-level of danger. High level of danger because the attacker is bigger, just by this. Naturally, when we say attacks, we talk about a slap, a push. A punch, a strike, a kick. Things like this. So, this is the first thing that we have, so physical attack.

In the past, when I was a kid, how much money did I have on me? How much property did I have on me? Maybe a bicycle, because we were really cheap. Cheap watch, usually. But when I got a watch, I was 13 or something like this. The kids of today, many of them have smartphones and this could be few hundreds of euros, few hundreds of dollars, so already a kid is walking in his head with something rather valuable, so different type of robberies, and with me, when I was a kid, mother gave us sandwiches. Today, many kids have pocket money and they’re being robbed by their pocket money.

The robberies of the pocket money and the robberies of the smartphones, the telephones. We are always as parents very afraid if somebody will kidnap the kid. Not too common, but definitely. Kidnapping.

Sexual harassment and sexual attack, definitely something that is becoming more and more common, at least very visible in the media, all over the world. Naturally, there can be like with grown-ups, attacks with a sharp object. It is known that in most countries in the world, the group age between 13 to about 19 to 20, those that are suffering the highest level of violence.

So, a lot of the kids are being attacked. Our kids need to know how to defend themselves. And before that of course, how to avoid and de-escalate problems. There’s a lot of problems with the gangs, also. Gangs.

A group of kids are attacking one. Many times, same age group, sometimes a different age group. When we look at the whole Krav Maga system, there are the techniques, there are the tactics, there’s the mental training and there’s the physical training.

So in the programs for the kids, we are touching all these and we are focusing on all these four elements. Many times, we do it with very appropriate games and drills to make it more interesting to the kids. We are focusing on values for the kids.

Like with the grown up but definitely you have to shape more the kid. And the Krav Maga instructor who is an excellent role model can inspire, can teach the kids to behave much, much better than they do. I remember Imi saying to us as young instructors, that an instructor can influence kids tremendously.

Sometimes, the Krav Maga instructor can influence the kids more than any other instructor or teacher than the kids meet in his school or in his life. Altogether, you look at that, Krav Maga on the risks and on the group, on the advantages and the disadvantages, you will see that when we wrap everything, when we combine everything together, you will see designated, specific program for children. Another thing that we see in Krav Maga training is the discipline, self-discipline eventually. I think most of us know as parents that in the education system in many, many countries the discipline in the school is at very, very low level.

In the Krav Maga training, the kids learn boundaries, learn to respect the other person. Learns about himself. Learns to control himself or herself, so we are talking about discipline at its best. We definitely recommend the kids to train, train Krav Maga to our opinion, gives values, capabilities and abilities to the kids. It’s very difficult to acquire anywhere else. All the best.

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