Don’t be surprised if you see a Goa Policeman single-handedly tackle a terrorist in a street fight in typical Hollywood style from now on.
They may just, because the Goa Police’s anti-terror squad have just gotten themselves trained in Krav Maga, an Israeli street-fighting martial art that has now gone global. In a bid to make the State police force “tactically, technically, physically and mentally” better, through Krav Maga techniques, a day-long workshop in the martial art organised by Krav Maga Global (KMG), the same outfit which has also coached the elite Special Protection Group (SPG), was conducted by the Goa Police for its men.
Coached by Elroy Vaz, an instructor who conducted the training session, the police are now learning to develop muscle memory, an asset considered key in self defence and combat. “Our body has a natural response to situations. How Krav Maga helps is in adding a layer of practiced ease to this natural response mechanism,” Vaz said. Krav Maga the martial art developed by Israeli forces said to be a lethal combination of several martial arts, as well as wrestling, boxing and street-fighting bunched together has been gaining popularity worldwide for its efficacy in most real life situations.
As opposed to other more classical martial arts like karate or taekwondo, which are fought in more sanitized conditions and bound by rules. Krav Maga was initially developed as a close combat (Krav Maga in Hebrew literally means contact combat) craft used by the Israeli defence forces. However, its use by Hollywood celebrities in action stunt scenes of movies has given the martial art global exposure as well as popularity.
Vaz stresses that the art form was catered to both situations where police hesitate to the use of arms as well as for police to defend themselves without using arms. “There are situations where the police have to disarm an armed suspect or handcuff a person who is resisting their attempts. Krav Maga has a way out for this,” he said. Police Officer D Gad, who had been appointed to organise the training sessions was all praise for the technique and said that the trainees have already begun to start liking it.
“The boys saw it as a very beneficial exercise,” he said. Rather than have just a day-long thing, Vaz is now looking more long term for the future. “We are in talks with the Goa Police for sustained training programmes. It is on track. Training the trainers in the police force is also crucial because, some of the physical drills still practiced in the police force are around 20-30 years old,” Vaz said.
Earlier KMG, has also trained the elite Indian Navy’s marine commandos aka MARCOS, known for their anti-terror action following the 26/11 strikes in Mumbai. And there are other Ministry of Defence assignments which are classified. In the recent James Bond flick, Skyfall, actor Daniel Craig’s moves in the opening train sequence as well as in other combat scenes.