What I’ve Learned Through Israeli Special Forces Training

By Reg Scheepers

About three years ago I started Israeli Special Forces hand to hand and weapons combat training. It’s painful, but it’s made a man out of me, and continues to do so.

Since starting I’ve never been more fit. One of my instructors is Idan. He was in the Israeli Special Forces for many years and was then approached to work as part of the Israeli Intelligence, the Mossad.

If you asked me to put money on a fight between Idan, man alone, and 10 of the biggest, strongest, angriest people you’ve ever met, one at a time or all at the same time, without a moment’s hesitation I would put my money on Idan, seriously.

Idan has taken the fighting style of the Israeli military, Krav Maga, and refined it into Kalah.

Apart from the many benefits, including confidence, greater ability to defend myself and my loved ones in this dangerous South Africa, fitness, spending time with my great friend Harry, developing a marketable skill, and learning how to do random crazy special forces stuff like jumping off of a moving ship, I have learned a couple of life lessons.

Discipline

One of the most critical requirements for life success is self-discipline. Both my instructors are so fit you would be astonished.

We do these exercises called “aggression exercises”. They’re designed to drive you to exhaustion and then test your ability to remember what you’ve learned.

They’re basically various exercises that utterly drain you and make you hyper-ventilate, and when you can’t go anymore, then someone attacks you. How you perform under those circumstances is what makes all the difference.

There’s one where someone holds your legs from behind like a wheelbarrow. You then have to do 10 pushups, hope 5 meters on your hands, do 10 pushups, hop 5 meters  again, until you reach the end of the room. Then back.

Idan does this without breaking a sweat or breathing heavily. I can’t even finish, and that’s with some cheating.

They live lives of major self discipline to achieve this level of fitness.

Intensity

Another aggression exercise is where you lie on your back with someone sitting on you. Someone else holds your head back with a shirt over your face, blinding you, another pours water on your face, making it hard to breath, and then two others hit you all over your body.

Then, when the instructor says go, the guy sitting on you must try punch you in the face. Your goal is to block it, get him off you, and disable him.

It’s called aggression exercises because by the time you get the go ahead to defend yourself, you fly into action with max aggression and intensity and you’re at your most effective.

What I’ve learned is that I can go further and push harder than what I thought, that I must pursue my objectives with max intensity and push through the pain period.

Strategy

I was once confronted by the GM of Billy the Bums, a wall of a man. The waiter made a mistake and charged us for stuff we certainly didn’t order, so we paid but gave no tip.

The GM, who is white, accused me of racism. The black manager, Vusi, took a far more reasonable approach, realising that we were not obliged to pay a tip.

The GM kept coming closer to intimidate me but I didn’t turn to face him. I eventually told him politely that I wouldn’t dignify his accusations of racism with a response and carried on speaking to Vusi to find a mature solution to our little situation.

Realising his size was not intimidating me into paying, he eventually gave me the middle finger, swore at me, and fumbled away annoyed. I never showed any aggression nor did I threaten violence during the whole thing but for some reason Vusi found it necessary to warn me that if I started a fight with the GM there would be ten of his friends on me… and if that happened, this is what would have gone down:

The key to surviving multiple attackers is to try and identify and take out the “alpha male” if you will, or the group leader, and just focus on getting him into a position where you could seriously hurt or kill him.

With Kalah techniques this happens before you can blink (you don’t spa and trade punches like in the martial arts). Then while making him squeal, you advise the rest of the group to back off or risk losing their friend. It doesn’t have to be the alpha male, but it helps.

So, as it is with life and business, you don’t go on the defensive in the face of multiple problems, you go on the offensive, and target the root of the problem. We all know that problems seldom singly come. So this is a good way of approaching them when they do.

Adapt

Israel is the size of the Kruger National Park and they are surrounded by enemies far larger than themselves on every side, yet they have one of the most formidable military and intelligence forces in the world. They have developed the ability to adapt.

Don’t fall in love with the method or with your opinions. If something isn’t working, no matter how long it’s been working before, or how much sense it makes that this is the right thing to do, re-think it or discard it.

Kalah is the only combat system in existence that I know of that does this. When I am learning a technique, if it doesn’t work for me for whatever reason, Idan has taken the time to think of a better way. He’s not in love with his system. He changes a technique if he discovers weaknesses. Not so with other fighting systems.

This is why many instructors and experts from the martial arts and other military combat systems have started Kalah. It’s also why it often happens that champions from various martial arts are humbled in our studio. Because some of the stuff doesn’t work well or doesn’t work in a variety of scenarios, but because there’s decades of tradition behind it, it doesn’t change.

Assume Solutions

One thing I’ve definitely learned is that whenever I think I’m going to stump my instructor by presenting a scenario which he cannot escape, he shows me how.

No matter how impossible a situation looks, there’s always a solution if you apply yourself to find it. Sometimes psychology comes into play in your strategy, sometimes it’s just pure hand to hand fighting technique, but there’s a way to get out of any situation.

I believe the same is true of life. Many times, applying this truth, I’ve just sat back and taken a chill pill in the face of a problem, and it solves itself, or it turns out not to matter after all.

Of course you need wisdom to know when action is needed, but every problem has a solution and if you assume your problem has a solution, you’ll be in the right frame of mind to find it.

Conclusion

Just in case you think that with my Billy the Bum story I support a macho way of life, I feel the need at this point to say that in my view getting into fights is idiotic and displays immaturity, insecurity, and worst of all an inability to solve your problems through effective communication and using your mind.

Well, I hope my life experiences are benefiting you in some small way. I’m discovering that this blog is impacting people I never expected in the most random places. I would have a great time writing even if no one read it, but it’s gratifying to know that it’s reaching people and making a positive difference in their lives.

I’m realising more and more as I go through life how extremely valuable people are, and how can you not live a fulfilled life if you’re helping people!?

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