Editorial

Where does Operational and Professional Krav (O.P.K.) come from?

Operational and Professional Krav is intended for individuals and ordinary citizens (men, women, and young people) as well as local and state law enforcement officials, federal agents, members of the armed forces (including special forces), and correctional officers. O.P.K. is open to all practitioners, whether just beginning or previously trained in combat sports or traditional martial arts.

O.P.K. is a method of self-defense and combat both wholly complete and continually evolving, derived most closely from Krav Maga. O.P.K. is a pragmatic system, effective and simple, with tenets rooted in four very complementary aspects of the experience of its principal founders..

• The instructor's experience with physical and athletic training, martial arts and other combat sports, professional shooting, intervention techniques, close combat, and other skills for specialized missions. This experience includes the conception and the direction of curricula, courses, and training exercises, or specialized coaching for elite units, special groups, and the 3000 officers of the National Police in the Lyon region, not to mention 2000 civilians trained in different clubs.
• Real-life experience 'on the ground': in insecure environments, in hostile and violent situations, and in the operational zones for missions with specialized units and elite groups or even with non-violent groups.
• The 35 years of constant, regular education through coaching, training exercises, and courses in civil and military arenas from numerous experts from all backgrounds
• The practice and teaching of Krav Maga with experts from several schools and federations, often with very different philosophies, pedagogies, and techniques. These differences, particularities, and specificities come together in a global perspective that synthesizes the varied "styles" of Krav Maga.

The combination of these four sources of experience lead naturally to the genesis of Operational and Professional Krav as a complete and autonomous discipline of self-defense and combat and then, logically, to the creation of F.I.K.O.P.

O.P.K. has conserved certain techniques of Krav Maga, either completely or in part, sometimes optimizing them through modifications. O.P.K. has also elaborated other techniques. These form the bases for the fundamental prinicples of Operational and Professional Krav.

I pay tribute to all the experts of martial arts, combat sports, and other methods of self-defense and close combat whose knowledge has nourished the disciplines that have trained our practictioners. As O.P.K. stems from Krav Maga, I thank the different experts with whom I have come in contact and whom I have appreciated during coaching, training exercises, and courses, such as Eyal Yanilov, Philippe Kaddouch, Gaby Noah, and others whom I do not forget.

Eyal Yanilov, Pascal, Philippe Kaddouch and Philippe
Philippe, Gaby Noah, Emmanuel Ayache and Pascal	Philippe and Eyal Yanilov

Of course, F.I.K.O.P. pays special tribute to Imi Kichtenfeld, founder of Krav Maga, whose though has been kept alive by thousands of practitioners and instructors on different paths the world over.

The Federation respects all the trends, schools, and federations of Krav Maga and self-defense, indeed, of all martial arts and combat sports.

Humility, modesty, simplicity, friendship, loyalty, and moral and human values are always present at the heart of F.I.K.O.P..

Work, rigor, competence, and professionalism ceaselessy guide the flowering of the practitioners of O.P.K. in their discipline and stand at the heart of their federation.

F.I.K.O.P. goes forward with humility but also efficacy.

Philippe SIMON