Mike Lee Kanarek Blog

Haganah Draws From Elite Military and Civilian Sources to Offer Students the Most Advanced Self-Defense Skills in the World

His life reads like a movie script. An orphaned Vietnamese- American war child named Lee Van Hong is adopted by Jewish immigrants. Upon settling in Israel, they change his name to Mike Lee Kanarek, keeping the “Lee” as a tribute to his Asian heritage.

As further tribute, they enroll him in judo at age 6, setting him on the path to earning black belts in five systems. Even though he’s not required to serve in the military because of his adopted status, he volunteers —and demonstrates sufficient intelligence and skill to be selected for an Israeli special-operations force in the Golani Brigade. He later immigrates to America, where he crosstrains in numerous martial arts. He uses his unique background and experience to found a progressive fighting system that addresses the needs of everyone from housewives to homelandsecurity professionals. He secures the endorsement of the father of American kickboxing, Joe Lewis, a veteran of the same war that produced him.

His system, called haganah, is now taught at more than 50 locations across the United States with additional instructors set to begin operations in the near future.

Kanarek has certainly overcome the odds, and he’s developed a system designed to do the same. Haganah is able to accomplish that goal, he says, because of the following fundamental qualities that went into its construction.

Composition
Haganah is a mix of the right stuff.

Israeli krav maga techniques were combined with hisardut, the no-holdsbarred fighting system of Israel, to form the core of its hand-to-hand tactics. Lotar counterterrorist tactics were added to form the basis for its weapons skills. Kapap, a style of military training based on British SAS methods, influenced more than a few of its strategies and tactics, and Brazilian jujutsu and Russian sambo have left their mark on its groundsurvival curriculum. Kanarek’s experiences in the Golani Brigade and various martial arts schools provided of Israel and from information provided by its American instructors.

Structure
Haganah is composed of combatproven methods and techniques that cover all aspects of self-defense, including ground fighting, stand-up fighting and weapons. Each part of the art benefits from and builds upon every other part as if it were a block in a pyramid.

the unifying element.

When he blended those components, only the most tactically sound approaches from each system were used. He had no vested interest in perpetuating any specific art or style, so he was free to keep the best and discard the rest. That philosophy remains in place to this day; haganah is still being enhanced by state-of-the-art tactics flowing out At its base lies Fitness Impact Training (FIT). It’s composed of conditioning programs and tactics that use haganah techniques combined with objective-specific exercises to prepare practitioners to succeed. Elements of FIT are incorporated throughout the self-defense and weapons programs.

Above that layer are two hand-tohand self-defense specialty programs for people of all ages. One, called Self-defense And Fast Escape (SAFE), is designed for situations in which fleeing is an option. The other, called Fierce Israeli Guerrilla Handto- hand Tactics (FIGHT), is intended for situations in which escape is not a viable option and victory must be pursued after initial self-defense reactions are used.

Next in the progression are two weapons-training programs: Israeli Combat Shooting (ICS) for personal defense and Israeli Tactical Knifefighting (ITK) for blade combat.

Finally comes Israeli Professional Tactical Training (IPTT). Reflecting haganah’s combined military and civilian heritage, it incorporates tactics that are used to train various law-enforcement and military units—mostly in counterterrorism and worst-casescenario street combat.

Objective-Oriented Strategies
All haganah tactics, whether handto- hand or weapons-based, are designed to flow toward the accomplishment of specific objectives.

In sport fighting, the objective may focus on scoring points or achieving a knockout or submission. In hand-tohand combat, it may be a matter of escaping, restraining or incapacitating.

In a weapons engagement, it could mean neutralizing or terminating.

Haganah teaches practitioners to select an objective at the outset of an encounter. Its tactics allow for an easy shift from one objective to another, if necessary, to enable students to adapt as they become aware of additional factors. Because they know where the engagement is going and how it will end, they enjoy increased confidence and operational flexibility.

Technique Flow
A key concept in haganah is “funneling” its hand-to-hand tactics into a point of reference. That refers to a position practitioners battle for while they’re fighting, a position of momentary dominance and control. Kanarek’s system teaches four primary points of reference. Three are used in hand-tohand engagements, and the fourth in empty-hand-vs.-knife defenses. While there are many possible attacks, most haganah self-defense reactions funnel to a point of reference within one to three movements regardless of the initial offensive technique.

By combining this concept with objective-oriented fighting, practitioners are required to learn fewer tactics.

Their training is accelerated, and they can attain proficiency more quickly.

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