Your vote counts here!

We are extending the time for you to turn in your survey. Please ask at for one at the front desk, fill it out and return. So far we have only had about 50 surveys turned in and we have over 300 students. We will always improve the training center on our own, but with your help and input, we can make it better for all of you.

Remember- You can win a $100 Gift Certificate!

Turn in your completed survey by the end of October and we will have a drawing for a $100 Gift Certificate. There will be 3 winners. Thank you for your opinions and feedback.

Krav Maga DVD Preview

The KMSF Training Center is about to finish creating an dvd about the school. We interviewed teachers, students and shot footage of members training hard in self defense, fighting, yoga, cardio, and ground fighting classes. An exciting extra feature of the piece is an interview with John Murray, a Krav Maga student who is also the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Golden State Warriors basketball team. Anyone who has played or watches this sport knows that it is very physically demanding, and involves a great deal of contact, leverage, and movement within a crowd. Check out this clip (6 mb Quicktime) to see John working with the players, and describing how he improves their skills using what he has learned while studying Krav Maga.

Announcements and Events


Yellow Belt Test
Saturday October 8 - 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Orange Belt Test
Saturday October 15 - 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

"Thanks to Krav Maga"

A Home Away From Homelessness is an idea that started as an "impulse of the heart." That impulse grew into a non-profit organization that nurtures and supports the needs of homeless kids and families in San Francisco. Twice a week kids from the program come to the training center to get an hour of exercise and instruction. Recently they thanked us in their newsletter.

"Thank you to the Krav Maga Official Training Center of San Francisco for donating lessons to the School House students. Krav Maga is an effective fitness and self-defense system. It is a great workout that helps one tone up, increase strength, lose weight and relieve stress. The School House wants to address the well-being of the whole child. Krav Maga's generous assistance in meeting this goal is greatly appreciated."

Link to full newsletter: www.homeaway.org/current_events/main.html

Student Focus: Mike Naughton

I sat down to talk recently with one of our blue belts, Mike Naughton, who I've known since 1996 when he began training at my former martial arts school. Mike owns his own business in the Napa area managing vacation homes and second homes. He was heavily involved in the networking and technology world until 2001, but started this business after 9/11, when he felt like it was time to create more of a life that focused what mattered to him.

I asked him what originally caused him to seek out martial arts instruction. During his first year out of college he performed a service project at a locked down psychiatric unit for teenagers in Colorado Springs. His boss there was a Shorinji Ryu Karate Black Belt who taught at a local evangelical Christian church hall. Growing up Mike never liked sports much, and didn't feel very coordinated, but he says, "Martial arts instantly felt right." Later he sought out American Kenpo Karate (started by Ed Parker) but always felt he needed something more realistic; "I wasn't interested in theory, or martial arts that focused on katas and techniques". Upon moving to San Francisco, he couldn't find a kenpo school that he liked. "It was pre-Google'" he said with a laugh, as if we can imagine a world where search engines don't exist. He remembers walking up to the open carriage doors of our old Chinese Boxing school in the Marina district, seeing our former teacher drilling his students and chanting aloud, and thinking, "This is the weirdest looking system I've ever seen!". He took to it immediately and studied there for several years. Eventually the Chinese Boxing school incorporated Krav Maga classes. When the founder moved out of state it became completely a Krav Maga school, and moved to this location on Bush Street.

In 1998 he moved to Ireland for a year providing marketing support to an American start-up. He trained with an American Kenpo school in Dublin, but found that the system didn't work for him anymore. Mike returned to the U.S. and worked for the @Home Corporation in product marketing until late 2001. After 9/11, he called the old Chinese Boxing school and talked with Barny who told him that the shool now taught an Israeli combat system called "Krav Maga". Mike was immediately impressed with the new system and joined right away. Mike and I both agreed that Krav Maga is an excellent extension of what we both were exposed to in our earlier training, which is that formalised motion "goes out the window when you're in a fight".

After 3 and half years of Krav Maga, he finds that he appreciates the core beliefs of basing it on natural motions and instincts, and the very high intensity level of the classes. He observed that because Krav Maga is a younger system than some of the more traditional styles, Krav Maga teachers bring the collective experience of many different backgrounds to the system. Generally, he feels that his martial arts studies make him more observant, and allow him the expressiveness to bring his other styles with him and combine what worked for him.

I asked him how he feels his martial arts training overflows into other areas of his life. He responded immediately that it reflects "the overall setting of priorities in my life," and continues, "In the corporate world I was out of shape, unhappy, and I wanted to concentrate on building a life around what matters to me." He described how training in a practical self defense system carries over into other stressful situations within his own mind, saying, "It helps me to overcome situations that make me want to cut and run or bail out; it helps me hang in there."

The Attraction of Opposites

There are countless combinations of strikes and kicks you can employ in a fight. Experimenting with them all is a valuable way to train and learn the possibilities of movement that are available to you. However, in the fight itself, it is easy to be overcome by tunnel vision. It is difficult, if not impossible, to select the most effective combination from memory at just the right moment.

Simpler is always better when you are under stress. This doesn't mean just picking your strongest strikes and blindly using them whether they are going to work or not. What happens when you throw your best shot and your opponent blocks it, or moves, or counters you? You have to respond quickly, without searching your memory for just the right move. A simple way to look at putting effective combinations together is to think in terms of opposites. There are two sets of opposites to consider: inside/outside, and high/low. Breaking your decison making process into two simple sets of ideas will allow you to adjust and react without having to think too much. It can also help you to rapidly develop a strategy to get past problems, like your punches are being blocked or countered too easily, or you're getting overwhelmed by too many strikes coming at you.

Inside/outside:
A very basic example is using a straight punch followed by a hook punch. When your opponent defends the centerline on the first strike, the following hook travels around and connects from the outside. The reverse works just as well; if your opponent is covering the outside to defend your hook punch, following immediately with a straight punch can take advantage of the opening created on the inside.

Both of these concepts have an offensive and a defensive mode. For example, if your opponent is striking down the inside with a straight punch, if you can evade without too much wasted movement, it's a fair bet that you will be able to counter punch with a hook from the outside.

High/low:
A basic example of a high/low combination is a groin kick folowed by straight punches. If your opponent defends the kick by dropping his hands low, the opening is created high for the straight punches. Again, the opposite is also true, throwing or feinting a lead straight punch can occupy your opponent up high, and create the opening for the kick that comes in low. Or, imagine you are throwing punches and find that your opponent is well covered, so you kick low to an open target, or it brings his hands down, creating an opening for more punches. That would high, then low, then back up to high.

The next time you work on the bag or spar, think about these two very simple pairs of opposites. Don't get stuck fighting on one level. In the course of a 4 or 5 strike combination, try to change levels or sides several times. At a higher level of skill, it is useful to think of these two pairs as mixed together. For example, throwing a hook punch with your left, then following with a right kick low, not only changing sides but height as well. As you put these concepts of opposites to use in fighting, it will be harder for your opponent to know where the next strike is coming from, and easier for you to find openings.