It's a FAMILY

People from all walks of life gathered to share one painful experience.  Police officers, soldiers, high schoolers, stay at home moms, lawyers, accountants, and more.  All going through the same process.  And the most amazing thing happens...they become accountable for each other, helping each other, putting personal differences aside and rising to the occasion.  Not letting each other quit or slack.  Pushing hard, pushing forward.

On February 23, 2014 seventeen students went through the longest belt test Masada Tactical has ever held: 8 hours long.  By the end of the day, 12 people earned their Orange patch, 2 earned their Blue patch, 1 earned a Red patch and 2 earned a Black one.

By the end of it all one thing was clear: Masada Tactical is more than a gym or self-defense studio, it is a home away from home, and it is a place where warriors are forged, not a belt factory, and we have standards that are met because our students recognize that when the moment of truth comes they will do the right thing ethically, morally, tactically, and they will do it at all costs.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

As always, stay safe!

Tzviel 'BK' Blankchtein

Masada Tactical

The Security Process

Safety and security, regardless of the focus, have a very specific process.  The process applies whether we discuss individual safety, the security of a building, well being of an organization, or even when planning a trip.  More often than not all are factored in.

What do I mean by that?  Assume you are a high net worth individual who feels he/she is in some sort of risk.  When you hire us to perform our security services we will examine your personal security elements at home, when traveling to and from work/school/social engagements/etc.; we will check what the security features are like at the places you frequent, including physical security, cyber security, even your reputation, and much more.  It is a complex process to say the least.

To run an effective security operation one needs a wide array of skills and expertise.  Self-defense or being able to shoot a gun is not enough.  One has to know how to identify risks, means to mitigate those, available resources and how to properly allocate those, and implementation of security processes.

All security operations begin with a risk and vulnerability assessment.  It can be done on your daily activity, or on the house you live in.  It can in depth and comprehensive or just look at a certain element.  But without a properly executed risk assessment the implementation of any security measure will be a calculated guess at best.

Take yourself as an example.  What are some of the risks you may face?  It can involve medial risks, domestic abuse, being hit in traffic, target for terrorism, and more.  you think I am stretching it?  Well tell me this: how many of you work in or by a government office, or a religious institution, or a fortune 500 company?  if you do then terrorism is a risk that is transferred to you just because of where you work or live.  Do you commute daily?  Is it a long commute?  Do you fly often?  Do you fly to unstable areas of the world?  Do you have high blood pressure?  These are just a few of the questions that you should ask yourself.

Once you identified the risks it is time to estimate the probability of the risk actually becoming a reality.  It is probably more likely that you will have a heart attack than get kidnapped (or is it?).  Based on the probability you will then estimate what would be the consequences of such events actually happening.  Will there be a loss of life (yours or others)?  Will there be a significant cost associated (ransom, loss of business, bills)?  Will it be embarrassing and/or affect your reputation?

Now is the time to see what can be done to mitigate the risk.  What is the cost associated with these safety features?  For example, altering your daily commute to be less obvious is cheeper and easier than buying a gun.  It is probably simpler to put thorny bushes outside the windows or get a dog than it is to spend thousands of dollars on high end home security features.  Is the cost of the proposed security feature worth the potential loss associated with threat it is supposed to mitigate?

You completed the assessment, identified the risks, came up with proposed solutions.  Now implement them.  Take actions to be proactive and stay safe and not wait until something bad happens.

Stay safe,
Tzviel 'BK' Blankchtein
Masada Tactical

Belt Tests: do we really need them?

Yes!

I should probably stop this blog right now, because at the end of the day, that is the short and truly only answer to this question.

But why did I ask the question to begin with?  Honestly, many do not understand the reason behind what they may consider an archaic and traditional "ceremony" in a progressive self-defense system such as Israeli Combat System.

The reasons for which we do these "belt tests" vary.  But before we get into that let's discuss the name.  Belt Test.  We wear no belts.  Well...at least none that signify a level, only ones to keep our pants from falling.  Obviously the term comes from the traditional martial arts that make some of the basis of ICS, such as Karate, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, etc.  In addition, when we first developed ICS, we used to wear belts.  At the time the belts were in recognition of the primary system that ICS is rooted in: Skornik Israeli Combat.  We also wore them because when applying to have ICS recognized by the International Martial Arts Federation, we needed to show ranks and curriculums.  Thus, our belt system was created.  You will notice that our belts are not like any other system out there.  We start at Yellow and not at White, have Red before Black, etc.  We are unique to say the least.

There was also a practical reason for the belts, or more precisely to levels.  ICS is a comprehensive self-defense system.  We teach everything from personal self-defenses to ground skills and advance weapon disarms.  But one of the main beauties of our system is that there are no "Advance" skills, we only have "Basic" skills that are applied in a different manner...one that many consider higher risk.

As the risk level of the defense increase so does the need for the skill to be executed perfectly.  If an outside defense can be somewhat "sloppy" when defending against a hook, that margin of error is decreased when defending against a knife.  So even though the skill is essentially the same, the need for precision is significantly higher.

Belt tests allow us to promote individuals we believe have the proficiency to apply the more technical aspects of their skills to address new and more dangerous threats.

Probably more importantly though, Belt tests allow us to see who has the "heart" to make it through a grueling experience and not quit.  Belt tests last anywhere from five to eight hours (depending on level and number of participants), and are torturous from beginning to end.  Our goal is to get the students to the point of physical and mental exhaustion and see them fight on.  Like we always say: "the one who will win a fight is the one who didn't give up!".  We want to make sure that our students have the will to make it through hardship and come out victorious.

Call is a tad too much if you want, but at the end of the day that is what makes Masada the special school that it is.  Our members are warriors.

And don't misconstrued the ability to sustain the pain as an automatic pass.  We are picky.  We, as instructors, are looking for perfect execution of skills even though fatigue and stress are on an all high level.  As we said, these skills will be put to use in new and more demanding contexts, so there is no "so-so", it has to be great.  We fail people if we think they aren't ready to move on.  It isn't personal, but our levels are true to what they signify, not just a prize for being a member long enough or paying for a test.

One thing is for sure though, and ask every person that ever passed our test, once you completed this test of skill and will you will feel like you earned the right to wear the next level's patch.  We don't sell or give the next belt.  You will earn it, and be darn proud that you did!

For all of those testing this month.  Good luck, and may God have mercy on your souls!

Stay safe,
Tzviel 'BK' Blankchtein
Masada Tactical.=