defence. Some new instructors set up new schools or rent space
in order to start to teach. Most of them who join the Instructors
program are already instructors who want to enrich their knowledge
and get jobs as security officers or police or army personnel.
PMCI: Without going into specifics, who do you, and your
successful trainees, work with?
I can give Fabian Garcia from Argentina as an example. He
is working with the Argentinian army Police and prison guard
system and has also spread KAPAP all over south America in
countries like Peru, Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay. Diogo from Brazil is
working with BOPE in Brazil and also with other police units.
For me success is not measured by working for the police or
army only. We have a great example of Sam Markey from UK who
was working with handicapped people and this is very important
to me to bring KAPAP close to civilians and also to civilians with
disabilities so we can change their lives and make them feel
strong and better prepared for life.
PMCI: Where do you see KAPAP Combatives evolving in the future?
I can see KAPAP Combatives more under the A.N.A.; Avi Nardia
Academy. As I already said 20 years ago no one has even heard
about the KAPAP but I have been working really hard ever since
and I haven’t been always easy on my students who weren’t
promoted that easily and I also haven’t allowed people to teach
unless they went through all four levels of KAPAP. Only in some
rare cases I have agreed to let some people teach with Level
One only. Today there are so many people who have earned
the KAPAP Level One and saw their chance to take advantage of
KAPAP’s good reputation and credibility to make easy money and
sell certificates to anyone who wants to pay. This is why I have
decided to set the program under my name, Avi Nardia. It is the
only way to stop this upcoming avalanche and continue working
on my agenda the way KAPAP is meant to work and function.
My goal is to include MORE civilians and kids and women into
the system and to present KAPAP more as a self-defence system
and less as an assault military system. I like thinking about KAPAP
as an Israeli Jiujutsu.
PMCI: If someone reading this article likes the sound of what
you offer, what should be their next step?
My goal is not to have anyone who will read this join KAPAP
tomorrow! I’m looking for integrity first of all. My goal is not to
have opportunist students who change their teachers every few
month and so organisation and ranks... I am not looking for these
guys. I’m looking for people who are ready to do research, to go
to youtube to watch video clips, to take a look at a few DVDs
and then contact me and come to see the training to get their
own impressions. I am not looking for students who are into
rumours and only want to wear T Shirt with Commando or Army
or Special Forces logos. It’s a joke that many people go with an
army uniform to the city mall to do their two hours training and
go home. If someone wants to be a solider or commando he
needs to join the army! There are no wannabees in my school
and I kindly ask all of them not to waste my time as I am very
busy and my goal is to spend my time on students who want to study.
PMCI: Master Avi, thank you for taking the time to speak with
us and give an insight to what you do. I’m certain that there
is something you offer that would be pertinent to
each and every one of our readers!
www.avinardia.com
www.kapapacademy.net
www.avinardiablog.com
VES
door and so on but all this cannot be done without being hundred
percent sure that safety is first and last. A year ago one Russian
instructor nominated himself as the deadliest person ever and
published lots of Rambo style video clips. One of them was a
clip with 5 students in the shooting range where he shoots his
student four times by accident! Where ego is high and safety low
the accident can always happen.
PMCI: Do you train just military and police personnel or
civilians too?
My goal and agenda in the last couple of years is to move
my teachings more to teaching civilians. The main problem with
civilians is that they fall for marketing and since all web sites
today look the same it’s difficult for them to know who is who.
Any former solider can become an expert or hero, but people
forget that after all having a yellow belt in Karate even if you’ve
been a soldier doesn’t meant that you can’t teach hand to hand.
Every day I see 22 years old guys that have just left the army
and have never been instructor in army and for sure not in the
police calling himself expert and grand master. They thrive from
the fact that many students only want a certificate and rubber
stamp to set them as instructor. I always say that if you set a
crown on a clown it doesn’t make him a king. This is the main
reason why the market is not up to the highest standards but
run by low level expectation mostly also because of the instant
gratification that became a modern trend that everything needs
to be achieved in few months or weeks only. People are used to
getting what they want in an easy way and very fast and this is
opening doors to many so called instructors who are willing to
sell illusions instead of real knowledge.
PMCI: Do you offer training in specialized equipment?
We offer different training including stick fights, swords fight, fire
arms, gun disarming , knife fighting and disarming, and from time
to time also special trainings like parachuting, or boats assaults
survival skills, arctic survival that some time need some gear BUT
at our main and regular training all you need is cloth.
Some trainings are done in the field under the sun and some
inside a gym where most of the time you don’t need any gear
PMCI: Do you have all the equipment available as part of your
courses?
Students don’t need any special gear unless it’s some special
training when they get a list of equipment needed. At the regular
training we offer most of the gear and pads, but for boxing
for example students need to have their own gloves, mouth
protectors and so on for hygiene purposes.
PMCI: Once trainees have successfully completed one of your
courses can they buy the equipment from you or are you able to
direct them to the correct supplier?
Yes we have organized a seminar called “Knife Only” where
students get the knives and use it and could also keep it after
the training. We organize also “Spikey” training where students
get the tool as part of the course. We have a store on my web
site where you can find the KAPAP book and gear and where you
can also get books and DVD by Amazon. I’m not a big marketing
expert person and not a big salesman but we have a store at the
website in order to help students find everything they need.
PMCI: Once trained, how do those successfully attending your
courses go about finding employment?
Most students who attend my Instructors program have
already their own schools and only want to incorporate the KAPAP
program into their school as another way of combative and self-
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