What is Operational and Professional Krav (O.P.K.)?

O.P.K. is defined as a method that continually evolves to assert the functional, effective, and pragmatic essence of the discipline, as it is based in experience on 'the street' in public spaces, and with real professional work in Anti-Crime Brigades (BAC) and other special law enforcement teams.

While wholly maintaining the heritage and human values of martial arts and combat sports, the O.P.K. method offers new, contemporary perspective to actors in operational interventions by developing a body of very polyvalent techniques, a mode of tactical reasoning that is adaptable and scalable to the threat, and a high level of pedagogy.

The path to competence in the techniques of O.P.K. begins with bare-handed combat (based on natural movements and reflexes) to which is added the use of specific individual weapons, management of the environment, and tactical issues. O.P.K. emphasizes the indivisible and coherent character of an endeavor that is both physical and mental, performed under (individual and group) stress against one or several armed or unarmed adversaries. Therefore, the method promotes understanding the psychological dimension of hostile acts as much as learning the physical and biomechanical concepts of combat.

Adapting instruction to the forms and modes of contemporary violence requires instructors who can use their knowledge of violent and dangerous situations-the realities on the ground-to define and implement new systems of training. In addition, O.P.K. relies on an analysis of tactical situations that constantly reevaluates techniques in light of past experience. O.P.K. also adjusts instruction to the target audience (civilians, law enforcement personnel) and the context of self-defense.

How is the disciple of O.P.K. organized?

The discipline of O.P.K. is organized into two principle parts:

• Self-Defense
• Combat

Self-defense is the heart of the discipline and the first step at the moment of physical confrontation. In effect, every time hand-to-hand combat is initiated by an aggressor, the practitioner adopts a defensive posture, takes evasive action, and reponds with an offensive move. Self-defense consists of a vast array of techniques in response to all sorts of aggression

It includes defensive moves against punches, kicks, grabs, tackles, locks, holds (including strangleholds) and against threats or attacks from various objects (knives and combat blades, clubs, baseball bats, brass knuckles, bottles, chairs, firearms, etc.) The practitioner will work in all positions (standing, seated, prone, while dropping, on the ground, etc.) in diverse situations, expected or unforseen, and against one or multiple adversaries.

Combat Combat takes over when self-defense has not resolved the situation and when an offensive posture will better ensure the practitioner's survival. Combat is the putting into practice of tactics that combine techniques of defense and attack, feints, and the use of an adversary's own weapons or any object able to incapacitate or neutralize the adversary. .

The practitioner will also learn to operate continually in the psychological and mental dimension of combat. He will especially develop his acuity in visualizing the agressor(s) and the environment. Furthermore, combat extends the discipline of O.P.K. by adapting it to the operational particulars of practicing professionals. In the legitimate context of service to a government authority, combat can reach the final step of physical confrontation.

The discipline of O.P.K. strives to draw upon all means to exit a conflict without harm.

Are you able to give some elementary principles of O.P.K.?

• O.P.K. (Operational and Professional Krav) is a complete and polyvalent discipline developing the physical, mental, and technical aptitudes of its practitioners
• O.P.K. emphasizes pragmatism and efficacy in resolving problems 'on the street' or 'on the ground' (for private individuals as well as law enforcement personnel). Therefore, training is always conceived with real conditions in mind and realized in conditions as close as possible to the real thing.
• Situation determines technique. Technique determines state of mind. State of mind determines success or victory.
• O.P.K. relies equally on skill in perception, tactical analysis, and rapid reaction.
• O.P.K. is distinguished from traditional martial arts by the spare aesthetic of its technical combinations, which ideally eliminate all unnecessary moves to gain speed, and thereby efficacy, in responding to and controlling an adversary. Simple and reflexive moves lie at the heart of O.P.K.'s techniques
• O.P.K. favors work under stress in the most varied and unforseen situations.
• The practitioner of O.P.K. practices in narrow and confined spaces, in darkness, in all positions, and in the most diverse circumstances of aggression. O.P.K. modulates and adapts combat to the setting at all levels of the discipline.
• Practitioners will work with knives, clubs, baseball bats, chairs, bottles, etc. from the beginning in parallel or combination with their bare feet and hands
• Learning to recognize and manipulate different weapons forms an integral part of O.P.K. training, with hand-to-hand combat serving as the last line of defense for a fighter who has been disarmed or runs short of ammunition. While a citizen may act in self-defense to disarm an aggressor who menaces him, how can he accomplish that if he does not know the funtion, characteristics, and maneuvers of the weapon or has never fired a gun?
• O.P.K. seeks to defend the physical safety of its practitioners during a conflict. By opposing the adversary with mental toughness and technical skill in all circumstances, the practitioner can exit the situation without harm
• O.P.K. teaches that knowing to anticipate and evade or retreat from a confrontation constitutes the first tenet of tactical resoning. But, if this is not possible because of the physical contex or a sense of civic responsibility, the techniques of self-defense or combat may be used against one or several hostile persons. (Novices often freeze during a conflict or in the face of aggression, but training and experience will prevent this.)