Takedown defenses (yellow and orange belts)

This course teaches how to defend against the most common takedowns from the front and rear. Tactics include preemptive combatives, evasions combined with combatives, and sprawl variations.

Takedowns and tackles are common street attacks, especially, if two attackers grapple with one another. Hence, the importance of developing your anti-takedown capabilities to remain standing. If you are taken down, you risk a second assailant or multiple assailants attacking you. To state the obvious, fighting multiple adversaries on the ground is extremely difficult. In short, do not go to the ground if it can be helped.

Krav maga ground survival techniques incorporate both defensive and offensive tactics and can generally be summarized as: “What we do up, we do down.” In other words, in krav maga, whatever is done from an upright position, is done (with modification) from a ground position. As there are no rules in an “up” fight, there are no rules in a “down” fight. Groin strikes, throat strikes, eye gouges, and biting are all viable ground survival options.

You must be able to defend against an attacker changing his level of attack. Allowing an attacker to successfully change his level provides the attacker with the opportunity to attack your legs with significant force and speed. Successful takedowns are set often set up by an attacker using a distraction (usually an upper-body strike feint). While the combative distraction may or may not connect, it will allow the attacker to lower his level with proper posture to protect his head from counterattack. Thus, a strong attack against your legs is made possible by the attacker’s gliding forcefully under your lead arm while he uses his lead shoulder to make takedown contact against your hip and thighs.

Ground survival (yellow-black belts)

This course teaches how to survive an assault while you are on the ground. The focus is on the most common types of attacks when confronted on the ground. 

Krav maga ground survival techniques incorporate both defensive and offensive tactics and can generally be summarized as: “What we do up, we do down.” In other words, in krav maga, whatever is done from an upright position, is done (with modification) from a ground position. As there are no rules in an “up” fight, there are no rules in a “down” fight. Krav maga employs many of its standing combatives on the ground including the groin, eye, and throat strikes in combination with joint breaks and dislocations designed to maim your attacker.

Movement on the ground is different from standing movement. The nature of ground fighting can allow one attacker superior control and positioning, the other attacker cannot run or evade as he might while standing. Krav maga ground survival is best defined as “what we do up, we do down” with additional specific ground-fighting capabilities.

Ground survival summary

• With proper body positioning, an adversary on the ground can be pummeled severely while giving him little defensive recourse.
• Logically, in both standing and ground fights, it becomes difficult for an adversary to fight effectively if his hands or limbs are broken, and rendering an adversary unconscious quickly ends a fight.
• Every type of lock requires moving the joint against its natural articulation with breaking pressure.
• While we teach certain core arm dislocation positions, once you have an understanding of the biomechanics, you can apply the principles to many situations. This is especially important in the fluidity of a fight.
• Optimally, you will use the entire force and weight of your body to apply pressure against an adversary’s joint. This is the key principle of joint locks.
• Remember that a joint lock, however decisive and quick, still ties you up momentarily, exposing you to a second adversary—or multiple adversaries—attacking you.

Keep in mind that while either standing, clinched, or on the ground, krav maga is designed for everyone. A smaller opponent can defeat a larger, stronger, and perhaps more athletic opponent. A well-trained kravist will possess core training in all three combat phases. In a rapidly unfolding fighting chess match, the best way to defend against an offensive technique is to know the offensive technique. Knowing an array of techniques solidifies your ability at an advanced level.

Deadside and positional control 

Once committed to a fight, your goal is to put yourself in a dominant position. Never turn your back to your opponent in any type of fight situation, especially if this puts your face down on the ground, the worst possible position. From this position, the back of your head and neck are exposed to attack. Nearly as dangerous is if the opponent secures you from behind or “takes your back” with his legs pincered around your torso or a body triangle clamp where he folds one leg under a knee creating a “figure 4.” As with dead side position in a standing fight, optimally you will a side mount or rear-mount position in a ground fight. There are four preferred krav maga ground positions:

1. Rear-mount,
2. Sidesaddle,
3. Sidemount chest-down
4. High mount while controlling the opponent’s arms.

Punishing combatives, joint break-locks, and choke options are readily available from these positions.

Krav maga rarely relies on joint-break locks and chokes without first engaging in pretzel combative attacks. Think of it as softening up your opponent. An opponent defending against combative strikes may put himself in a vulnerable position for joint-break-locks and chokes. Many fighters rely heavily on the hands for combatives and the feet primarily for movement. Keep in mind that in a ground fight the legs become highly important for gaining control over an opponent. To achieve a lock, it is paramount that you keep your hips close to your opponent’s targeted joint. Positional control is crucial. Ease of transition or ground pretzel must be second-nature.

The following table is an overview of your most and least advantageous positions with respect to an opponent. These positions specifically take into account groin, throat, and neck strikes and your ability to defend against an opponent using these same attacks: