Krav Maga Book Club

While Krav Maga is about using your natural reaction to protect yourself, it's also about using tactics, situational awareness, and your intuition to avoid trouble in the first place. While we can talk about it, there are a number of books available for you to read while you're on your winter break, on COVID quarantine, or just want to work on your mental Krav Maga as much as your physical.

This holiday season, we're recommending 100 Deadly Skills: Combat Edition by Clint Emerson. Not only will you get great information, but Krav Maga Expert Marcus Torgerson helped create a chapter of this book.

Some of the things you can learn about in 100 Deadly Skills: Combat Edition (pulled straight from the website!):

• Weaponizing your non-violent posture
• Delivering damaging body strikes
• Accurately throwing a knife
• Quick drawing and shooting a handgun
• Tactically deceiving your enemy
• Surviving a multi-threat ambush
• Understanding non-lethal and lethal options

You can pre-order the e-book now on Amazon.com.

Here's a handful of other books that we highly recommend to anyone looking to up their mental game while we're stuck indoors this winter.

For Instructors:

The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Almost every instructor can give you a story about a student who has had a traumatic reaction to a Krav Maga class or movement.

At Valley Self-Defense, we've worked with a local trainer on trauma-informed care to help understand and work with those who have experienced trauma who find their way to our mat. VSD can help set up a workshop for you and your school if you're interested in learning more - just email us at valleyselfdefense@gmail.com. But if you'd like to get a primer before contacting us or you're looking for a book on trauma, you have to start with The Body Keeps The Score.

This book describes what trauma is, how it works in the body, and what we can do to help those we love and care about work through trauma.

For Women:

Unbreakable Woman: Compassionate Self Defense & Empowerment by Maura Barclay

While I don't necessarily agree with everything in this book, there are a number of great things: the words to use to yell during an attack; how to use situational awareness; consent; and more.

For instructors, there are also good nuggets for when it comes to working with women: using words like "opponent" rather than "attacker" to remove fear from a situation and the best ways to work with women to empower those who have grown up with fear and the belief that they are weaker.

For Everyone:

The Gift Of Fear: And Other Survival Signals That Protect Us by Gavin de Becker

Gavin de Becker gives you tools to help you defend yourself with something you already have - your intuition. He points to clients that he's worked with and goes through their stories, pointing out the red flags that his clients noticed before whatever bad thing happened.

Outside of using your intuition, he also discusses questions you can or should ask your babysitter, your employer/employee, or your date.

This book also gives techniques on how to listen to your inner alarm and to soothe the false alarms that modern life have set into our systems - because if you're listening to false alarms, you may not hear the real alarms as they go off. It also includes an epilogue that describes ways in which people have used the book to protect themselves and their loved ones using their inner alarms and the warning signs found in this books.

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All Valley Self-Defense instructors have been trained in trauma-informed care and how to help those handling trauma in a Krav Maga class. For anyone with anxiety about trying Krav Maga, we are happy to meet with you in person or speak with you over the phone. To connect with us, email us at valleyselfdefense@gmail.com.

Krav Maga near me? There is! If you're looking for a Krav Maga class near you, Valley Self-Defense is a proud member of the International Krav Maga Federation with schools located across the United States. To find a school near you, visit the IKMF USA website.

Order 100 Deadly Skills: Combat Edition by Clint Emerson on Kindle on Amazon.com.