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Westchester County and Orange County based Krav Maga New York hosted a law enforcement only ‘Train the Trainer’ certification course earlier this month. Officers who participated in this 40 hour long certification learned Krav Maga based techniques including side arm and long gun retention and defenses against attacks that transition to the ground. Shortly after course completion, Detective Marc M., a Police Academy Instructor, SWAT team member and course participant, stated, “Though intense and highly stressful, the course was personally gratifying and overall, a great success. Those who participated worked hard and represented their departments extremely well… and on our last day when high ranking Police officials showed up to evaluate our training, the room came alive. Everyone was giving it their all. Man, that was an amazing feeling.” Mr. M. goes on, “ I’m convinced that change is eminent statewide and that at some point in the very near future, PD’s all around us will begin to place a higher value on repetitive in-service training like this.”

Krav Maga has developed into one of the most sought after defensive tactics systems for American law enforcement (and civilian) applications. Originally created during the formation of the Israeli state, it emerged in an environment where extreme violence was common. Over time, the system has been repeatedly tested and improved upon based on real-life conditions. From the streets of Tel Aviv to the streets of Los Angeles and New York, no defensive tactics system in the world is as battle tested as Krav Maga.

Ruben C., a course participant now certified to teach Krav Maga, had this to say, “In my 22 years as a law enforcement officer, this was the best training I’ve gone through. I want to thank Krav Maga New York for bringing Krav Maga to our law enforcement community. What you guys have given us will save our lives, and that is truly a great gift”

Krav Maga training is designed to improve an officers’ emotional and physical response to danger. These instinctive, simple, effective, and aggressive defensive techniques build on one another, require minimal training time and yield maximum retention, even under stress. The system deals with scenarios where operators face life threatening situations while unarmed or face situations where higher force options can’t be accessed. From these positions of disadvantage, operators must respond quickly and decisively until the threat is under control. Krav Maga training methods not only develop officer’s ‘command presence’ in what is considered by participants a comparatively short period of training, but allow officers to recognize danger at the earliest stages, react without hesitation, and deploy, escalate and de-escalate levels of force appropriately.

When asked about the need for Krav Maga training specific to law enforcement, Davide Gristina, Krav Maga New York’s Chief Instructor, Owner and License holder replied, “Today’s breed of law enforcement is more motivated than ever. Given little or no defensive training once on the job, professionals like these will seek training on their own. This is both a widespread, admirable phenomenon as well as a risk. It result is a whole lot of officers training in a whole lot of defensive stuff, none of it department approved, and some of it, perhaps more than we’d like, outright dangerous for the officer. Things could be done better. If departments were to organize, codify and deploy standard hand to hand defensive tactics systems, officer confidence would increase resulting in a better skilled, more assertive, safer officer and that officer would be backed by a better trained, less liable department that in turn would be faced with fewer use of force complaints – because excessive force complaints are largely associated to an initial questionable command presence and an initial lack of sufficient force. So, by implementing law enforcement specific hand to hand defensive training, everybody wins”.

About Krav Maga New York:
Since 2004, Krav Maga New York (KMNY) has been featured on the Journal News, the North County News, the Record Review, LoHud.com, the Blotter, Hudson Valley Magazine, Healthy Frontiers, and News 12 Westchester. KMNY has trained thousands of civilians and hundreds of Law Enforcement Officers including members of New York Tactical Officers Association (NYTOA), members of Westchester County Police Academy and Rockland County Police Academy, PD’s such as the Waterfront Commission, as well as elite special response teams and a high profile protective services unit. KMNY is recognized and highly regarded by leading Krav Maga licensing bodies nationwide.

COSTA MESA — It’s pretty impressive whenever a student of the Gracie Barra school of Brazilian jiu-jitsu gets a black belt.

Even more impressive is when one of those students is 78.

Gene Pace was awarded his black belt Thursday night during a ceremony after his regular twice-weekly class and sparring session at the Costa Mesa studio.

More than 100 of Pace’s friends and supporters showed up to see his milestone.

“It was overwhelming. And last night…” Pace started with a pause, then laughed. “Well, it was a little emotional.”

The Whittier resident has been training under the Costa Mesa school’s founder and instructor, Mike Buckels, for more than 15 years.

“He’s Mr. Consistency. He never misses a class, not ever,” said Buckels, who holds a black belt in jiu-jitsu, as well as kru in Muay Thai kickboxing.

In those 15 years, before Pace, Buckels had only awarded one other jiu-jitsu black belt, and it was to another instructor.

“The best way to describe Gene is that he just executes what you teach him to do,” Buckels said. “If you show him a move, he will go after that move.”

Although Buckels admits that he is careful whom he pairs with Pace, as an older student Pace is not one to underestimate.

“Gene can still pick me up — and I’m a 180-pound man — and toss me to the ground,” Buckels said. “He practices with people as much as 55 years younger than him.”

Pace fell into the Brazilian practice after signing up for a martial arts course for fitness — and to humor his grandchildren.

“I thought to myself, ‘Well, OK, they can’t kill me, and besides, maybe I’ll learn something,'” Pace said, laughing.

“Once I got started, I had to think, ‘Do you just walk away [and] embarrass your grandkids?'” Pace continued. “Nah, you can’t be disrespectful like that. And everyone just stuck with it.”

Pace’s interest in martial arts transferred to jiu-jitsu after meeting Buckles and liking his style of teaching.

A lot of that style resonated with Pace’s finish-what-you-start attitude.

“The things learn you here are discipline and techniques, which you apply to situations, but you never walk around like a peacock,” Pace said. “But, as Mike says, if someone won’t back down, you finish it.”

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – GREAT KILLS – A half-century ago, George Smith got into a scuffle with another man, and though he took what he considered a beating, the lifelong Staten Islander ultimately came out a winner.

Fifty years later, that Manhattan fight is still enabling the 73-year-old man to hold his own.

On Dec. 13, at his longtime dojo, the House of Karate in Great Kills, several dozen of his former and current students gathered at a reunion to pay respects to the man fondly known as Sensei Smitty.

Smith, a New Dorp resident who opened the South Shore dojo in 1971, was surrounded by men and women who grew up as pupils. He was also joined by teenagers who currently practice martial arts under his tutelage.

Like the Advance wrote last May, Sensei Smith is a man of many parts. A grandson of a bareknuckle-fighter and son of a professional boxer who had more than 300 bouts on his welterweight belt, the young Smith bounced around North Shore neighborhoods and practiced his forefathers’ craft along those same streets.

Having fought 157 amateur fights himself, Smith, who described himself as “pretty good,” became an even better fighter after going blow-for-blow against a combatant with a different set of skills.

“Every time I went to hit him, he kicked,” said Smith. “Every time he kicked and I went to block, he punched. After the fight, I said ‘What was that?’ He said ‘Karate.’ ”

That was 1961, said Smith.

“And since then, I put a (karate) gi on and I’ve been wearing one ever since,” he added.

Sensei George Smith’s dojo rules are simple: Everyone starts at the bottom. Everyone works. Nothing is free. Sensei’s word is final. The sign has remained in place since the House of Karate opened in 1971. (Staten Island Advance/Mark Stein)

Having founded his dojo 40 years ago, Smith has encountered hundreds of people. Only a small percentage have gone on to achieve black belt status.

Jonscott Turco, through hard work and determination, is one of them. His name, along with a few dozen others, proudly hang on a wood panel in the karate dojo.

“It was a critical aspect for a lot of our lives,” said Turco, a Westchester, N.Y., resident who coordinated the reunion.

He began in 1975 at 6-years-old and trained at the House of Karate three times a week. Turco and his fellow karate students traveled to compete in out-of-state tournaments. On Saturdays, they watched Bruce Lee flicks and enjoyed a bite from Village Maria Pizzeria across the street.

“The more I grew and got into my own life, the more I looked back in retrospect and really saw the impact (Smith) had on how I grew as an adult,” said Turco. “How I handled stress and challenges, and how I became successful in my own right as an adult.”

His friend, fellow black belt David Saffran, said the sensei is like a father.

Through their experiences at the House of Karate, Saffran and other students from the 1970s, have kept in touch over time.

“We’ve always kept our connection. It’s always been like, ‘Those are our brothers.’ We used to kick the crap out of each other (during lessons) and then we left, we were all friends.”

One of the most important aspects of Smith’s instruction was that he never promoted violence. And he always kept his eye on his students’ grades.

“If they weren’t good, you wouldn’t go to karate,” explained Turco. “That was a huge motivator. It was incredibly tough. We learned to respect the hard work that went into what we did.”

Both Turco and Saffran said the House of Karate, now 40 years old, is a great community mainstay.

Smith said his lessons teach students how to survive in the street.

“I was very poor when I was young, so I know what’s out there,” said Smith. “My biggest thing is to make my young students strong to win two wars: The war of drugs, before they’re even approached, and how to defend themselves and take care of themselves, only when it’s absolutely necessary.”

Smith also taught hard work.

“I make sure they earn and work for everything they get. They don’t get nothing for nothing,” he said.

Said Turco: “I think it’s important to make an effort to honor him.”

Smith attended Saffran’s Bar Mitzvah many years ago and stood in the back. When the ceremony ended, Saffran said his sensei yelled “Yes!”

That’s the kind of guy he is, both Turco and Saffran explained. “He was always there for me,” said Saffran. “I love the man to death.”

A Green Bay martial arts instructor on Wednesday donated $7,500 to Green Bay police to help officers avoid hand-to-hand combat.

“It’s a late Christmas present for us,” Lt. Andy Lewis said of the donation, which will buy at least seven new Tasers. There are now 48 devices at the department.

Tasers deliver electronic charges to a suspect’s muscles to prevent resisting arrest, Lewis said. The use of Tasers also limits the need of officers to tussle with suspects, which can lead to injuries.

Officers deployed Tasers 56 times in the past 12 months, Lewis said.

Ed Manning, 47, said he decided to help the department when he found that there were not enough Tasers to arm all officers during Green Bay Packers home games or other large events requiring increased staffing.

“I was really amazed to find out there wasn’t a Taser for every single patrol officer. To have to be forced to choose between which officers are going to have to have it, that’s not a very easy choice to make.”

Manning said he raised the money within a week with the help of relatives.

“I got a wonderful Christmas bonus this year and I turned around and basically gave it right back to the city,” said Manning, who is employed at EDCO Food Products Inc. “The more we can support police, the better we’re going to be in the long run.”

The new Tasers should arrive at the beginning of 2012, Lewis said.