Emily Shearing warms up with some front kicks during Tim Kubit's Commando Kravmaga self-defense class. (Credit: Kate Melton)

Reporter goes commando

Concerned her overstuffed bag might not stop a bullet, she learns hand-to-hand combat technique

Emily Shearing

Cue Commando Krav Maga (CKM), a form of hand-to-hand combat used to train Israeli Special Forces and a means of self-defense for the average person. Even a shorty like me can learn and apply the techniques, says Tim Kubit, a certified CKM instructor.

"(They've) been engineered so we're working more with leverage and body position, as opposed to beating someone down and out-muscling them," Kubit says. "When your positioning is right, and you're able to control someone else's balance, it doesn't matter how strong you are."

The CKM class I took recently at the Jewish Community Center, which was taught by Kubit, zeroed in on deflecting an attack by an assailant with a gun — for a very real reason.

The night before the lesson, two women were threatened at gunpoint behind Buckman's Plaza in Greece, and one of the women was pistol-whipped, the Democrat and Chronicle reported. Confronted with a situation like that, Kubit says, the best thing you can do is comply.

"Nothing is more important than your life," he says. In fact, CKM teaches students to use violence only as a last resort. The goal is to take control of the situation and get away.

The first half of Kubit's class involves physical drills like jogging, kicks, crunches and squats, which definitely had me breaking a serious sweat.

"The better all-around shape a person is in will only help them to survive, should they be assaulted," Kubit says. The rest of his lesson is devoted to practicing self-defense techniques based on potentially dangerous situations involving weapons. Because of the incident in Greece, on the night I attended his class, Kubit focused on deflecting an attacker with a gun.

With the class in a circle around him, Kubit showed how, in less than 10 seconds, he could get the gun (in this case, a prop) away from his "assailant" (an experienced student) and put him at the other end of the barrel.

Then it was our turn. 'Yeah, right!' I thought. But when Kubit broke it down, move by move, it was like learning a choreographed dance. Put your hand here, grab the gun there, move your feet like this.

However, the first step in CKM is making an attacker know that you'll give him what he wants and that you don't want to harm him. Then you place your limp hands at the same level as the gun being pointed at you. "Tyrannosaurus rex hands," as Kubit calls them. After a few more moves, I was able to get the gun from my partner.

Even though you're in a training environment, the class tries to keep things real so you won't revert to a training state of mind if you find yourself in a real situation.

For instance, when we were switching attacker and victim roles, Kubit reminded us to put the prop gun in our pockets instead of handing it to our partners, so we wouldn't establish a habit of handing a gun back to a real attacker.

It seemed like a "WTF?" moment, but you can't predict how you'll react. After just one class, I feel confident enough in my skills to use them in a real situation.

On top of that, judging from how sore my legs were the next morning, I got a great workout.