Last updated on January 22nd, 2025 at 04:57 pm
Author Re-Edited : Specialist Franklin Joseph
Safety Specialist Guruji Franklin Joseph, a Social Entrepreneur established the Franklin Joseph Krav Maga Self Defense Academy in Bengaluru and Dharwad, where he currently serves as Chief Instructor. Along with being its CEO, Guruji Franklin Joseph (alias ‘Dr. Safety’) leads the Indian Institute of Strategic Threat-Intelligence Analysis and Combat Tactical Science.
Our Core Belief is Different
Every institution has a set of code and conduct. Example – We envision a martial arts training centres with white uniforms students standing in lines and punching in the air with war cries rumbling the atmosphere.
Well… many Krav Maga centres still follow that vision to entice more students/clients as well as many Krav Maga Self Defense instructors who have prior martial arts background still practice the same as they truly believe in that methodology of training. However, my beliefs are different… as my background is built from the experience from the raw reality of streets that is around 25 years of abuse or violence – whether it was from local teen gangs or a rough or sometimes violent world of college student elections or locality or turf war. No, our level was very very amateur not what you see in gangster movies. Nevertheless, that no-rules code of the streets has bled in my institution & my training methodology.
Our Focus is born out of your Weakness
Most of the new recruits or new students are very concerned by their insecurities or weakness like young or old age, small or big size, different levels of anger or fear, low levels of strength or lack of fitness level. Looking at the role models from movies or TV – what they see is that these ‘hero’ are big, muscular, strong & perfect for martial arts stunts. So, most normal people believe, they not perfect for stunts or martial arts or self-defence tricks of what they see in movies or in martial arts videos. Especially, most girls or women who are thinking of joining a self-defence class, totally seem lost as they don’t have physical size & strength of men nor they have a clear concept of warfare or combat or violence.
Let’s take an example from a different world. In the jungle, a bison (victim) has more muscles than a tiger (predator) but a since tiger only views bison as food material, he/she will use cheat with fear or panic as a strategy to overpower bison strength. All predators victims also have advantages over tiger-like size (elephant/giraffe), speed (deer/wild boar) or strength in muscles or numbers (bison) etc. So, the eye of the tiger does not see the victims advantages – ex. bison group or strength but choose to exploits the weakness of his/her victim under fear or panic based on a strategy of the hunt.
In the same way, a predator from the human world only looks at your weakness or what you perceive is your weakness or insecurity and exploits that very weakness or insecurities for his/her advantage of committing the crime. So the perception of one’s weakness is somewhat limited to oneself only. And since Krav Maga Self Defense (Bengaluru, India) training is based on reflex action based tactics, these limitations of size, strength, age or fitness levels are somewhat not relevant to our training. Of course, during the course of training, these weakness are not only exposed but come into play to help you grow better in your training.
Our Methodology of Training is raw gangsta
Every teacher brings his/her personal traits in his/her professional execution of imparting his/her knowledge. In my class, based on my 25 years of street exposure to abuse & violence, I am able to see you the same way how a criminal or a bad element would see you. And I can foresee – How you might behave in a potential crime situation, as the predator would use your own weakness, fear or panic etc. created in a situation to help break your mind or make you surrender with fear so he/she can have his way with you – whether it’s will be a rape (men or women) situation or murder or robbery or terror etc.
Human Predators don’t care if you are old, young, girl or women, boy or man, big or small, strong or weak or have the fitness or not. A knife, stick, rock, more attackers etc., is much stronger, faster & effective than a biggest or strongest person / or tricks of martial arts.
So while teaching the tactics of Krav Maga to you, my aim is to also force you to get out of your comfort zone and deal with any unpredictable issue thrown at you under threat of a fatal violent assault.
I will challenge you after analyzing your weakness or failure. I will keep throwing these insecurities at your face in training while you are practising your tactics. One cannot ignore that learning any tactics is still a choreographed routine that can be triggered by certain conditions.
Our Tactical Knowledge is Dynamic not Choreographed
Another issue of street crime is unpredictability. What tactics you learn in class, there is no guarantee that the bad element would do the same. Example: If a person punches you from the front, you will be taught to do the tactics A, B, C & end up in D. And this set of techniques can only be effective if you and the predator are standing face to face and the assault is a straight punch aimed at your face. But if the predator attacks your body instead of your face or from an angle not standing in front of you or from the ground or top or with other weapons like knife, stick or rock etc. instead of hand punch, this particular tactic would not work at all.
So, one cannot miss out the fact, that one big part of your training is to understand the tactics inside out so under different conditions of the assault, you will have to customize your tactics by either combining two tactics or re-order the techniques etc. Oh Yes! Sometimes you will have to create whole new tactics based on prior knowledge of other tactics. And the timeline of the crime is still a few seconds of the primary assault! So you can see dealing with crime is not just about physical aspects but also Psychological.
So I believe in Combat Science – the knowledge I give you is – what science is in your tactics based on, is a very important of your training as it will help you create your own solutions when everything else fails.
Another area I emphasis is Neuro-Behavioural Reprogramming in a critical combat situation. As now, you aware that nearly every assault first strike happens only in seconds. Slap, punch, stab or anything. And in that few seconds, your brain will shut down in fear and panic. Whatever tricks you have learned, you will not be able to remember them properly. Second, our emotional baggage based on past incidents where we faced failure would also creep back & create more fear & panic.
Hence as they say it’s mind over matter. In combat without rules, the reflex action is the only option. And only that reflex action which is based on training in a simulated stressful chaotic situation. And that can only be achieved if the teacher pushes the student out of his/her comfort zone to deal with the psychological chaos given by stress along with personal insecurities of physical limits given by repetitive physical exercises.
Overall, my aim & objective as a teacher is to help share my practitioners –
- Use non-traditional, non-conventional training methods so practitioners are spiritually, mentally and physically equipped to deal with a unpredictable crime situation.
- Use Combat Science to help the practitioner learn how to generate strength & techniques with little or no prior combat backgrounds.
- Help prepare a Neuro-Behavioral level Reprogramming which focuses on Prevention, Avoidance to possible threats & if needed Tactical elimination to escape.
In short, get ready for a transformation from inside out. Not just a fighter but a Franklin Joseph Krav Maga Warrior.”
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