INTERVIEW with AMNON MAOR
My martial art background is Judo and Karate (Dan 5). In the army in Israel I was tought Krav Maga. I studied in the Wingate institute in order to learn how to teach people.
I worked for many years in the special forces of the border police in Israel. I then was a head coach in the school of the border police where I tought Krav Maga, shooting and fitness.
When I officially retired, I opened the Maor Center to focus my teaching on self-defense.
I created the videos for people who want to learn fast, who don`t have 25 years of time required in many martial arts in order to be an efficient fighter, respectively to defend themselves.
The videos help to understand and to get to know my self-defense system, MAOR SELF DEFENSE. The videos are perfect for home training with a partner. It is good to watch them over and over again, but it is not enough just to watch them, you have to train physically and these videos give you the perfect instructions for that.
- Has self defense always been an interest of yours?
Yes. I realised in all these years of teaching in the army that I had to develop a system which is good for literally EVERYBODY and not only for sportive people, athletes or the military: MAOR SELF DEFENSE is perfect for everybody, this includes women, children and elderly people. I also teach police and security people in special courses. My system emphasizes de-escalation and supports proportionality of attack and defense. It is a logical method which teaches to understand the right timing and considers the reflex of the enemy and the particular circumstances of street fights.
- Did any particular incident cause you to research the subject further?
In my job in the special forces I fought many fights and I had to witness many aggressive acts, like knife fighting and other terrorist attacks. From these reality based experiences and observations I developed my system «MAOR SELF DEFENSE».
I realised that I have to teach the people to block and to move and then to fight and to explain them WHY they have to do what I teach them. I teach the people how to defend themselves and not to be aggressive in the first place. Only if the attack gets aggressive I tell my students to switch and to defend themselfs at the same level of aggressivity.
I also teach people how to help third persons who are attacked.
- Why is self defense so important and who can benefit most from these skills?
If you don`t know how to defend yourself you have NO chance to get out unharmed of a dangerous situation. If you apply my method you have a realistic chance to do so.
EVERYBODY can benefit from my system, even people who are at first sight not strong: women, children and elderly.
- Tell us about your teaching style and how you developed your own method:
My training is short, simple and very effective. I teach methodically and always explain the reason of the movements ; I explain why I block the way I do, why I move the way I move, why I grab etc
The reality based experiences during my time in the army and the thousands and thousands of students I have been teaching so far, are the base of my own method „MAOR SELF DEFENSE“. Additionally I saw countless restricted videos of real fights involving kives and all kinds of weapons and punches and I analysed them carefully in order to improve my method continiously.
In other words: I constantly learn from reality and pass the information to my students
- Please tell us here what success stories you've heard from former students of your self defense series:
Many students were able to stop an aggression by verbally de-escalate them and mainly by showing self confidence and move into a ready stance to show the attacker that they are no easy victims. There are many other cases I got knowledge of -in the army, the special forces and in real life- where a fight was necessary for people I have been teaching. I just mention here the case of a student, Hugo, who was able to defend himself and his girlfriend from an aggression in the underground in Paris against two attackers. He blocked and punched first one, then the other attacker to their very surprise and then escaped with his girlfriend without any damage.
- And finally please feel free to cover any other topics here that we may have overlooked. We are eager to hear about your story! Thank you.
I now teach for 17 years MAOR SELF DEFENSE in seminars and courses in Israel, Europe and the whole world. I also still teach in the army and the police in Israel.
My mission is to constantly improve my method which is based on reality.
I developed a 7-level program to learn the base of MAOR SELF DEFENSE.
I also teach advanced courses, train instructors and give special courses for security personnel and police.
I also developed special tools for self defense and training, like the hand shock, the Maor pin and the Maor stick, items which can be purchased on www.selfdefensemaor.com