David Melker question answer - History Of Kapap By Avi Nardia KAPAP (Krav Panim el Panim -face to face combat) is martial art from Israel mostly considered as modern and reality based martial art. Those two meanings of KAPAP as a modern and reality based martial art has made certain confusion in the market lately. So let’s clarify it. The early days of KAPAP takes us back to the old days in Israel (1930 and 1940) . when it was a generic name for face to face / Hand to Hand combat. The name was used even before Israel was declared and established as an independent state in 1948. Until late ‘60s it was used as a generic name by different Israel security forces. The system was based on judo, Jiu jitsu which takes as back to the Japanese understanding of martial art with teachers such as Yehuda Markus, Gerson Kopler, Michel Horowitz and many others old time trainers and teachers. It is interesting that in Israel most of the old people would be more familiar with the term Kapap while the young generations would be more familiar with the name Krav Maga. Krav maga was one of many systems to born out of old days. On my return to Israel from far east where I was studying Asian martial arts for eight years I was asked by the army lieutenant colonel Harush Avi to create a form of Krav Maga for young recruiters as a part of preparation for military service. In the same time Israel top counter terrorism unit YAMAM have recruited me as a member of the unit and the trainer for the CQB and hand to hand program. My task was to rewrite and reprogram the old program and to incorporate new training methods. In this mission I teamed up with lieutenant Colonel Haim Peer who was well experienced in military and other security forces. The system was later recognized as reality based mostly for the idea that ” It is better to be student of reality than master of illusion “ . Most of the moves and training were connected and tested in reality based situations. In the same time the true idea and meaning of Kapap were missing. That was not Kapap we had in our minds. Kapap is system which consists of three aspects: traditional, sport and combative. A whole system could not operate without those three dimensions. It’s like a family tree. The tree with no roots falls easily down and brunches that fall off of the main tree dry and die quickly. For the last ten years Kapap is at the civilian market and we try monitoring the quality of it by denying 75% of students who apply for it. And even by having that filter we feel many times as getting completely wrong people. In the old days student should have asked for admittance to the school. What we face nowadays in this modern life style is a massive advertisement and many attempts by students to get into the school and teachers who are ready to sell certificate even by e-mail without ever seeing the students just in order to build up a system. In Kapap we do it in the old days style. Our students need to ask for the admittance into the organization. They must regard us as teachers and we teach them as same as in the old days. Lately I start considering KAPAP more as a ZEN teaching. It could be since I spent many years practicing kendo in Japan which is very noble Zen swordsmanship. In this modern era the sword was changed by fire arms but the value of moral and ethic which should be passed to the students through the martial art is the same. The gun is modern archery. During the knife fight it is important to keep the right distance and to reach for the vital points of the opponent in order to win and in the same time keep him out of your safe zone. In order to solve the distance problem people have created the spears and bows and arrows. The gun could be seen as a small spear which is a bullet filled with black powder and explosion as a string power. And again… if the Zen was way of the archery there is no reason why the gun should also not be part of it. Once I started teaching surveillance I noticed that most of the people talk about gun disarming, but none of them has ever used a gun in life. It was a red alert light to me that so called master could not even take the magazine out of the gun or clear the malfunction of the gun. It was scary to see that those “masters” actually teach people. Only by merging the following three aspects you might get understanding and knowledge of the gun. Gun usage, gun detention and gun disarming are those three significant aspects that bring you to that level. By missing only one dimension of it you will fail in the reality. All those ideas took me more into the research of Asian way of fighting. In the old days a true master was not recognized as such by himself but by the others. Today people are self proclaimed grand masters. Therefore I want to emphasize the importance of ‘Gaku” , “ Jutsu ” and “ Do ” - the traditional way to teaching and learning martial arts. Gaku means academic learning which occupy our mind. Jutsu is practice and studying of the actual technique in order to defeat the opponent. And the Do is the way, the spirit we all try to attain in our lives in order to gain the true knowledge of ourselves and the world. That’s the main idea of Kapap-always student sometimes teacher. That’s why the martial art teacher was also known as “Shinan – Jaku”. It means “pointing to the south” like a compass because in the Japanese tradition pointing to the north was considered bad luck. The teacher was considered to be a compass pointing to the right directions to his student. Those three aspects of learning martial art occupy mind body and spirit. Jutsu is something that’s the most basic and it is introduced first in the art for physical methods are the most basic, root methods of an art, but it’s not the most important goal. Training is followed by Gaku, which is a study of the historical and technical. There follows the philosophical and spiritual implications. A beginner will have no idea about the physical movements so he has to go through a lot of techniques first to integrate the movements into one’s own body. If the goal is purely for sport, winning contests, or for pure physical health or self-defense, it can stop here, and that’s fine for what it is. As the student improves his technique he has to realize that there’s some kind of technical underpinning. He needs to study and take his own initiative to read books and research into why the techniques are done a certain way. To some people this would seem like waste of time but knowing a bit about the history of kendo will enlighten a kendo competitor. Theoretical and historical knowledge adds to the physical capabilities of the student. Gaku and jutsu work hand in hand. Eventually every advanced student would come to the point of asking himself some deeper questions about meaning of the training and how does this activity fit into our lives and change us as human beings. Here we see the influence of the art on spirit. This is the Do! The most important part of the learning process. We see our lives being changed by the art into a positive direction and giving us larger perspectives. Without any concern for Do, budo training would be merely recognized as a system whose only purpose is beating up or killing someone else. It is not necessary to divide the three as you train. Jutsu is informed by Gaku, and both are enveloped by Do. While in the beginning gaining technical mastery is most important, as one progresses, Gaku and Jutsu also begin to take center stage, although Jutsu should never be neglected. In the end, a balance between the three is struck, where feedback loops move back and forth between the three categories, increasing the knowledge of all three.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:05:38 +0000
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