As part of a thrilling trilogy, Krav Maga Leeds instructor Mike shares his first-hand accounts of being mugged.

“A human can stab another up to 7 times in a single second, were my cards really worth the risk of prolonging my time in contact with these guys?.”

Mike

Krav Maga Leeds: Mugged.

I have been mugged 3 times in my life. Only once in my adult life but I thought I would share all of my experiences, in separate blogs, plus what I learnt from them and also add in a little of what I know now through my training and experience as a little food for thought..

Krav Maga Leeds Blog. Mugged: April 2001 – 15 years old, mugged on the street

Krav Maga Leeds: Mistake 1

Heading to the shops to buy sweets crisps and pop was what me and my friends did every lunch time and today was no exception. At the time myself and my friends had just taken up Thai boxing and believed ourselves to be Jean Claude Van Damme. We headed down to the shops excitedly chattering and messing around without paying the slightest bit of attention to what was going on around us. As we got to within 10 metres of the shop we found ourselves surrounded by a group of 10-15 young lads.

Krav Maga Leeds: Mistake 2

We were instructed to empty out our pockets and hand everything over. I did this but stopped first to remove all my cards and keys from my wallet.

Krav Maga Leeds: Mistake 3

I believe I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I am a notorious procrastinator. I have made an art form out of it, and so it was that I had put off taking £20 of my dads hard earned cash over to the head of year to pay for my end of School Prom Ticket and that money was stolen from me.

It was all finished very quickly and we took shelter in the shop until our School sent a teacher to escort us back to school and the police were called.

You’ll notice less mistakes here! People do learn evidently, but some lessons take a while

Krav Maga Leeds: Learning points

Krav Maga Leeds Mistake #1 – Not being aware of my surroundings! I could read any number of mugging, assault or attack stories and this will always be the first mistake. The reason for this is that if you are aware of what is happening around you and pay attention, you can avoid almost all of these incidents. Had we paid attention to the fact that a large group were loitering around the shops we may have gone elsewhere.

Krav Maga Leeds Mistake #2 – Stopping to remove my cards was ridiculous. What if the mugging was a ruse to attack us? I’ve just given these guys a great excuse to dish out a beating through defiance. A single human can stab another up to 7 times in a second, were my cards really worth the risk of prolonging my time in contact with these guys?

Krav Maga Leeds Mistake #3 – Now that I follow the rule of compliance, I try to carry as little on my person as possible which would be worth stealing. I may comply but I’m a Yorkshireman (if you drop a penny near me it is likely to hit me on the back of the head) and losing money is not acceptable so I try not to carry any cash with me any more.

Mugging number 2 laid bare for you all there, I hope you’re learning from these as much as I did. I would love to see similar stories in the comments if you have any!

If you think Mike and Krav Maga Leeds can help you in any way, please get in touch!