My Krav Maga Story

I started taking Krav Maga classes at the age of 16. There has been nothing else more fulfilling, educating, and empowering that I have ever done.

My parents decided to put me in self-defense classes for the reason of me being able to defend myself as a more vulnerable person in society. I am a very small, born female. In our world today, people like me are way more susceptible to being attacked or assaulted. 

We found a dojo about 10 minutes away from my house. I started attending. It seemed friendly, legitimate, and welcoming.  I instantly fell in love with the family atmosphere and how we all supported each other in our growth. I did not see any of the red flags that I would eventually fall victim to. 

I started making friends and becoming a regular. I started out as just a beginner white belt, but then I started progressing. Not only progressing in my strength and agility but progressing very fast in my rank. The coach there seemed to be giving out stripes and belts very quickly. I didn't see a problem, since I had never been in any martial arts before. I thought it was normal to go from a white belt to yellow belt to orange belt in six months' time. In the year and a half that I was attending this dojo, I got up to the rank of advanced blue belt. Knowing how the Krav Maga system works now, that seems very much unachievable.  

Our belts were bracelets. Kind of unconventional, but okay. 

The fact that we even had the rank of "advanced blue" is a red flag in itself. Krav Maga doesn't have that rank normally. It seemed like the curriculum our main coach had was something he had completely came up with. Coaches and masters do come up with their own curriculums, but finding evidence of approval from an official Krav Maga association was impossible. 

This advanced blue belt test was the most grueling test of my life. It was almost four hours long, and I was only supposed to rank up to blue belt. But the coach decided that we had all done so well that he would rank us up twice. Not how that works.

As I progressed, I was promoted to attending the advanced class. I attended four days a week for two hours two days a week, and an hour and a half the other two days a week. The dojo was my life. It led me to neglect my family and my friends outside of Krav. But the atmosphere at the dojo was very tight knit, like these people are your family, what happens in the dojo stays in the dojo, that kind of thing. I was loyal to them no matter what. It started to become very toxic. Inappropriate things happened that were swept under the rug. Injuries, men going too hard during sparring with minors, a coach who worked there being creepy, etc. But we were all family, so it was all okay, right? 

Things got even worse when the owner and main coach started having problems with his wife. He claimed that she hit him, but we never got her side of the story. She was a fierce momma to their 6-year-old daughter, and I just know she would do anything to protect her. I am not saying that it is okay to hit men. Not at all. I am only saying that the coach was someone who liked to blame everything on everyone else and he never took responsibility for anything. 

The owner disappeared. For a long time. Many people started leaving the dojo, and I didn't know why. I kept going because I loved the people, and when the coach came back, I thought it would get better. But the energy kept getting weirder and weirder. Then, someone who used to attend the dojo reached out to me and told me the whole truth. There was plain evidence of this owner's past and how he had gone from town to town, starting dojos, and then running away; changing his name, and starting the cycle all over again when the people of that town found out who he really was. He was a scam artist. It is very likely that he was not certified in his black belt rank at all. He stole people's money, put younger people in dangerous situations, and many other things. I was distraught. This dojo had been my home for so long. But once the curtains were pulled back, there was no unseeing the truth. 

I left that dojo. But I did not want to stop training. I loved working out with other people and working towards a goal as a team. So my parents and I found another dojo for me to go to. I began going there in December of 2022. It was a way smaller dojo, but it was legitimate. The curriculum, Vanguard Krav Maga, could be proven and although the instructors aren't black belts, they are certified instructors tested by a black belt. It takes way longer to progress and is more difficult. They are not just handing out belts.