Krav Maga Weapon Defenses by David Kahn – A Review

Krav Maga Weapon Defenses by David Kahn is an excellent addition to anyone’s self-defense library, especially those who practice or want to know more about Krav Maga, in particular, weapon defenses from this combat system from the Israel Defense Forces. (Read the review of the video series that compliments this book: Mastering Krav Maga Volume II: Impact & Edged Weapon Defenses.)

The book’s introduction describes not only a bit about Krav Maga, but street violence in general, and I found this to be a very good beginning of the book.  Next, the first chapter covers some control holds found in the system that are used in various weapon defenses throughout the text.

Chapter 2 focuses on Impact-Weapon Defenses and contains some good advice when faced with someone who wants to cave your head in with a crow bar, bat or any other blunt instrument.  The only problem I had with this chapter is with a picture on page 31 that appears to show a block of a crow bar with the forearm.  Since I didn’t talk to the author about this, and I understand it is hard to describe and use pictures for techniques, I’m not going to dismiss the book for this, but it did draw my attention.  You do not want to take a crow bar to the arm, albeit, it would be better than one to the head, but neither is going to be very good.

Chapter three focuses on leg defenses against edged weapon attacks.  Some of these are going to be difficult for the person who doesn’t practice Krav Maga or another kicking art.  As part of the Krav Maga curriculum, I’m glad they are included in this book.  However, for the person just looking for practical self-defense skills, without kicking experience, they will most likely be the techniques skipped over in this book.  And that is okay, because kicking is harder skill and takes practice to become good.  However, if you do practice kicks, this book will show you ways you can utilize them against a knife wielding attacker.

The forth chapter covers hand defenses against edged weapons and does a good job of illustrating the Krav Maga defenses.  Some of the techniques are very simple, while others, such at the technique with a jumping scissors kick on page 105, take considerably more practice before you could perform the technique in an actual self-defense situation.  My own Hapkido curriculum contains easy and more difficult techniques as well, so I am glad that Kahn included the various degrees of techniques.  It shows a more complete picture of Krav Maga and provides more possibilities for training.  I also liked that in many techniques, after the initial evasion of the weapon, there is a brutal counter attack before going for a control. It goes with the old philosophy that if you hit a guy hard enough for him to drop the weapon, that’s a disarm.

Chapter five covers handgun defenses and contains some very good information in regards to this subject. Some of the techniques are very similar to what I teach, and others a bit different.  I liked seeing the variety, even if I teach differently,  and I enjoy learning how others teach to make myself a better instructor.

The next chapter, six, focused on rifle and submachine gun defenses.  It was a shorter chapter and contained various defenses against these longer firearms.  The book then concludes with the seventh chapter, which is a short chapter with some information on training drills.  There is also a short Appendix with some tips on vehicle safety, road rage and carjacking.

Bottom line, facing any type of weapon, especially a knife or gun, is bad news.  It is risky and scarey even for the best trained.  However, in our modern world, it happens and being prepared is why we train.  David Kahn has created an excellent reference in book form to help deal with weapons and how to defend against them.  He’s an accomplished Krav Maga instructor, and he’s put the Krav Maga Weapon Defenses into a book resource that will enable you to train and prepare for the worst.  Learn from this book and train safe and train hard.