Walls aren’t just for hanging pictures, they’re for smashing heads

It was quite the Haganah weekend. I had the usual classes on Saturday (combat fitness, Haganah, and knife fighting), but Sunday was a 5-hour Haganah seminar specializing in trench fighting. Don’t think of muddy fighting positions protected with barbed wire, instead, think of hand-to-hand combat taking place in a phone booth.

The trench fighting seminar brought former Israeli special forces commando and founder of the Haganah fighting system Mike Lee Kanarek to the West Chester FIGHT Center. The day was spent learning how to fight in confined spaces against opponents attacking with handguns, knives, fists, knees and feet. While the trench fighting skills imparted by Sir (that’s how we refer to Mr. Kanarek) are taken directly from the Israeli army’s experience of fighting in the confined urban environment of Lebanon, they easily apply to civilians and situations that any of us could find ourselves in. You might have to fight in a narrow alley, between rows of parked cars or the hallways of your own home.

The idea of fighting in a confined space seemed horrifying at first. A lot of what you know about conventional fighting becomes unusable: there’s very little room to punch, there’s no room to employ boxing skills like footwork and head movement, even throwing elbows becomes difficult. But what Sir points out right from the get-go is that the two walls on either side of you that seem to limit your movement so much, are really your allies. So if you have to go toe-to-toe with someone in a narrow hallway, don’t think of it as one on one, think of it as three on one because you’re going to use the walls to your advantage. How do you use walls to your advantage? Mainly by smashing your opponent’s hands, knees and head into them.

There was a “trench” constructed in the gym. It was made out of plywood and two-by-fours and was padded inside, but due to the fact that there were around 50 students in the seminar, we spent most of the time practicing along the walls of the gym which were not padded. Since the walls weren’t padded, partner preservation was a top priority, especially when it came to slamming their head, which is how almost every scenario ended. The only disappointing aspect of the seminar was that I, and most of the students there, only got to go through the actual trench once. All 50 or so students had to line up, some holding dummy guns, and wait their turn to enter. For a moment it struck me as some bizzare, painful amusement ride we were all waiting to take our turn on.

At the end of the day I was tired and my right hand was sore from repeated wall slammings, but I felt good about what I learned and now I'm fairly optimistic about fighting in confined spaces and using walls to my advantage.  I know for sure I will never look at walls  merely as things to hang pictures on.