Instructor Rita Matty on how she discovered krav maga, as told to Alice Birrell.
About six years ago a friend of mine was mugged outside our apartment. Somebody suggested self-defence so we decided to go to krav maga together. I went to support her and fell in love with it.
Women come in for different reasons; there are women who have been victims of domestic violence, women who are in lines of work where they don’t feel safe, and some to get fit. Everyone has a different mentality but the end goal is the same: you learn to defend yourself.
It was the first time I had encountered something that wasn’t just fitness. I have been fit for most of my life but attending a class and learning a skill was the best thing to come out of it because it’s a mental and physical challenge. What you learn becomes muscle memory. If you’re under duress or panicking it all comes to you because you do it so often, you repeat it – so you don’t freeze, you react. It teaches you not to falter in that moment.
Read the full article by Rita Matty at Vogue.