Local martial arts instructor shares his insight on self-defense
There are hundreds of movies and TV shows about the grandeur of hand-to-hand combat.
With TV shows like “Nikita,” “Chuck” or “24,” and films like the Bourne movies, how can anyone not want to learn those kick-ass moves and walk away into the sunset with just a couple of gashes and bruises?
While these movies and shows are fun to watch, self-defense is so much more than looking good and taking names. At the end of the day, self-defense is about protecting yourself from danger, not looking for a fight in the first place.
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Travis Catt (back left), the main instructor, gives warm up instructions to a group of women during a Krav Maga class at Moscow Defensive Tactics.
Travis Catt, police officer and instructor at Moscow Defense Tactics, studied martial arts for most of his life and is one of the few certified instructors of Krav Maga in Idaho.
Catt has taught Krav Maga to individuals and groups ranging to more than 100 people. He said he has taught students as young as 5 years old and as old as a 71-year-old. When it comes to Krav Maga, it is easy to learn, and it is for anyone who is willing to try it, he said.
Catt teaches not only Krav Maga, but judo and jiu-jitsu as well, and he shared his insight on why learning self-defense is so important.
“It doesn’t matter what martial arts you do — as long as you do something, you’re going to be better off,” Catt said. “The more you know about them and the more you learn about them, the better you are going to be.”
Krav Maga
This Israeli military fighting technique was created by Imi Lichtenfeld in the late 1930s as a way for defending the Jewish quarter from fascists in Czechoslovakia. Lichtenfeld, a skilled boxer and wrestler, developed the street-fighting styled martial art to focus on executing real-world defense situations effectively and against multiple attackers. Krav Maga is Hebrew for “contact combat.”
“Krav Maga is one of the newest martial arts there is,” Catt said. “The thing it’s really known for is it’s a self-defense. A lot of martial arts are basically sport driven, so you’re looking for competition, stuff like that — Krav Maga is not that at all. It’s all about self-defense.”
Catt said the goal when using Krav Maga is to stay off the ground. Krav Maga is a system developed off boxing, wrestling and several variations of other martial arts to form one effective defense tactic.
“Our main goal is to go home,” he said. “We’re aggressive, we act super-fast, we attack the attack, we do groin strikes, we do eye strikes and throw strikes. The main thing is to stop the fight as fast as you can.”
Judo
While Krav Maga is strictly focused on self-defense, Catt said judo is sport oriented — it has been an Olympic sport since 1964.
Jigoro Kano created judo in 1882 and emphasized the importance of taking an opponent down through means of throws and submission grappling. This form of martial art is much softer than Krav Maga, since there are not a lot of strikes, Catt said.
“They do strike in their self-defense version, every form has their self-defense, but that’s not what judo prides themselves on,” he said. “It’s super good in self-defense, too, if you learn it right, it’s good.”
Jiu-jitsu
Amelia C. Warden | Argonaut
Tasha Donner (left) prepares for her partner Jordan Edwards (center) to perform a kick combo under the instruction of Travis Catt (right). Travis is the lead instructor of the Krav Maga class at Moscow Defensive Tactics.
Jiu-jitsu is basically the ground version of judo, Catt said. Rather than standing up and trying to take down opponents through throws like judo, jiu-jistu is on the ground. Catt said there is still a takedown, but the attacker is not looking for throws so much as trying to take the opponent to the ground and fight them.
“Jiu-jitsu is designed to use leverage and joint locks and submissions to gain advantage, so you use big muscles groups versus small muscle groups,” he said. “It makes someone who is smaller able to compete against someone who is bigger.”
Rules of self-defense
Catt said the important thing to know before using any form of self-defense is understanding the laws of how to defend yourself and what you can and can’t do as opposed to what you can do in life or death situations.
At Moscow Defense Tactics Catt and his team of instructors teach classes and seminars about the importance of what it means to defend oneself.
“You just can’t go and beat somebody up for no reason at all,” Catt said. “Yet, you still have the right to protect yourself.”
In his seminars, Catt teaches his personal history with martial arts and Krav Maga as well as the history of self-defense tactics. He also teaches basic choke defenses and combative techniques like punches, elbow strikes, knees and kicks. He also covers other weapons that can help people get away and he teaches the importance of only using the amount of force necessary to affect the defense.
Amelia C. Warden | Argonaut
Alex Albert (left) and and Jae Bryan (right) being a 1, 2 punch combo defense tactic move during the Krav Maga class at Moscow Defensive Tactics on Monday evening.“The mindset of how you have to be if you get attacked and you want to go home — you have to give 100 percent,” Catt said. “It’s basically 100 percent mental — you are going home no matter what. It’s 110 percent total, the rest of it is technique and fighting through it, but that stuff doesn’t work unless you put into it. It’s all mindset.”
Safety
Catt said the first step of self-defense is to be aware of the surroundings, because the best way to defend any choke is to not get in it. He said if there is potential danger, don’t ignore it, but pay attention to it.
“If you get that funny feeling and you don’t act on it and something happens, that funny feeling was right,” Catt said. “If you get that funny feeling and you act on it and you leave, it’s always right.”
Emily Vaartstra can be reached at [email protected]