Kalah - Self defence

Hello my Friends,

Today's post has nothing to do with fibre or happy hours in my studio - but it does have to do with a friend (who happens to knit) and another studio I visited this morning so I think it can pass.

As I'm sure you're all aware, I have a wonderful group of friend that I get together with once a week. We meet at a coffee shop for breakfast, tea, lunch and knitting. One of these good friends has been talking about Kalah (the Israeli Special Forces Combat System)for some time now and trying to encourage the rest of us to join a class. Since I'm more into fiberous persuits, which generally involve much sitting and not much exertion resulting in a pretty unfit me and thinking it's just another martial art thing, that I'm not into all that physical kicking and punching air, punch bags etc.. I have been pretty much just ignoring her invitations.

Well, my son and his girlfriend are over on holiday and I know he enjoys these martial arts things and he hadn't heard of Kalah in the UK so I arranged with Heidi that we have an introductory lesson today - was I ever pleasantly surprised! (and so was Ken) This is not your normal martial arts training - this is real, effective self defence training. Heinrich, the instructor taught us how to get out from underneath an attacker (rapist) even if our arms were being held down, how to disarm (and do in) a gunman pointing a gun against our head (and even one sitting on us with a gun at at our head), how to do the same if the assaillant has a knife or is strangling us and how to punch properly to knock someone out. All these moves were amazingly easy enough to be done by yours truly and I've spent the rest of the day in wonder that I can actually do that.

I'm going to be going for regular classes now and would strongly encourage everyone who would like to be able to defend themselves to consider Kalah . Have a look at what you can learn on their website - http://www.golani.co.za/