Krav Maga, the Israeli self-defense technique, is gaining popularity worldwide due to its practical and efficient techniques that focus on real-world scenarios. Unlike traditional martial arts, Krav Maga doesn’t have strict rules or sport-based competitions. It emphasizes decisiveness in self-defense situations.
Krav Maga is known for teaching techniques that are useless in competitions but can be invaluable in real-life situations. These techniques include eye pokes, groin strikes, and throat punches, which are outlawed in combat sport federations, including in the Unified MMA rules used by UFC.
Recently, a sensei had the brilliant idea of focusing on the ear during what we strongly suspect is Systema training. This was inspired by the idiom, “why ignore 5% of the body?”
Systema, a Russian martial art, has been criticized for its lack of structure and questionable training techniques. In contrast, Krav Maga is a more established and respected self-defense technique that has been adopted by law enforcement and military personnel worldwide.
The sensei could be seen in footage manipulating his uke’s ears to subdue them. While this may seem trivial or even comical, it’s an interesting technique from a grappling perspective.
Most of us already have mangled ears, so twisting them would be more annoying than painful.
Not to mention that it leaves the 95% of our body willing and able to counter this type of bullshido technique.
One small comfort is that he didn’t attempt the infamous ‘double ear clap’ technique in this elaborate demonstration. But the ear clap did work at least one time – unlike this.
BJJ black belt and self-defense expert, Stephen Kesting, shared a while back that there is only one known example of an MMA veteran, Genki Sudo, who had his eardrum ruptured during a bout in Pancrase from a similar technique. However, there are no other real examples of this technique being used effectively, especially in high-level MMA.
