A local self-defence instructor recently named the national director for Krav Maga in Canada has become the first – and only – Canadian instructor certified to teach children and teenagers.
And that’s something Laurent Mougeot intends to do.
The Maniwaki resident, who currently teaches two classes a week in Ottawa, will begin offering, for the first time in Canada, classes for teens aged 12 to 16 this spring.
A self-defence technique employed by the Israeli army, the FBI and the Los Angeles police, Krav Maga is rapidly growing in popularity here in the capital.
Using moves based on the body’s natural reflexes, Krav Maga teaches people how to survive confrontation, Mougeot said.
Recently, there have been a number of swarming cases in Ottawa, he said.
“In most assaults, people get attacked by more than one person,” he said. “They have four or five people to get the upper hand.”
Krav Maga, said Mougeot, “teaches people the best way to escape and basic principles on how to align your opponents to take one person on at a time, so they can disable the opponent very quickly and escape.”
Eighty per cent of martial arts students are children and teenagers, said Mougeot. And while children usually don’t have to face the same issues as adults, Krav Maga for children will teach safety, self-awareness and how to deal with bullies and harassment, he said.
