“In the end, Kapap does not teach its practitioners to rely on techniques. Instead, they must understand the universal principles behind techniques so that they can counter any move that’s thrown at them, even if it’s from another system.”

Avi Nardia, Major (Reservist)/ former elite Israeli commando

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON KAPAP, GRACIE COMBATIVES AND CATCH WRESTLINGBy KAPAP ACADEMY (SINGAPORE)

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Background

Kapap - Martial Arts of the Israeli Special Forces

Kapap is ‘Krav Panim El Panim’ or Hebrew for ‘face to face combat’. It is a personal protection/ self defence system that was first developed in the 1940s by the Israeli Special Forces to nurture courage amongst its warriors in the face of battle and possess the hand to hand combat skills to fight in life or death situations.

It is the original Israeli combat system for defensive tactics, hand-to-hand combat and self-defence. Its roots originated in the 1940's fight tactics used by the Pal mach (Jewish Strike Brigades) who were fighting for Israel’s independence, and would later become the structure and main force to form Israel's specialized units in the conventional military (IDF) for years to come. In an effort to equip its armed forces with realistic unarmed combat

skills, a boot camp style of hand to hand combat programme was created called Krav Maga. However, the Israeli Special Forces continued to refer to their own brand of fighting techniques as Kapap – to distinguish it from Krav Maga. Lt Colonel Chaim Peer, the co-founder of Modern Kapap (together with Major Avi Nardia) was one of the key Special Forces instructors credited for laying the foundation for today’s Krav Maga as well. Lt. Col. Chaim served in one of Israel's most elite units – the Matkal, and later trained other specialized units in guerrilla warfare and hand-to-hand combat tactics.

Major Avi Nardia, co-founder to Modern Kapap, served as an official Hand to Hand Combat Instructor with one of Israel’s top counter-terrorist unit, YAMAM, as well as the Instructor with the Israeli Operational Police Academy. Major Avi is also a highly skilled martial artist with several black belts in traditional martial arts such as Karate, Brazilian Jiu-Jitu, Kendo etc.

Kapap Academy Singapore is closely affiliated to Avi Nardia Kapap Combatives Academy as its founder, Master Teo Yew Chye is a personal student of Major/ Sinsei

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Avi Nardia. The international network of Kapap training centres under Major Avi Nardia is an academy of knowledge and EXPERIENCE, working to bring you the next step in real self-defence using realistic scenarios based on real experience and an understanding of today's threats.

Kapap Academy courses are designed for security companies, security departments, Law Enforcement, Military, and individuals who value knowledge and want to learn more operational capabilities. Our training system includes a well established curriculum and it is mainly based on hand-on exercises and scenarios. We believe that only a wise combination of strategy and tactical learning - with extensive and realistic training, can offer professional and

practical solutions to high stress and deadly combat situations.

We bring to our practitioners a wealth of experience and specialized skills across a broad range of areas – from stand up defense (strikes/ kicks), street style ground grappling, to use of improvised weapons in defending oneself against knife/ stick etc.

Despite its Israeli roots, Kapap today is now an international system/ philosophy of personal protection/ self defense that transcends culture, race, political and religious beliefs – focusing on imparting realistic personal protection skills to both professionals in the military, police and security arenas, and ordinary people. The international network of Kapap training centres (over 30) found in 26 countries around the world is all affiliated to the Avi Nardia Kapap Combatives.

The philosophy in Kapap is that traditional (be it sports or performance focused) martial arts play a very important role in developing the spirit of sportsmanship and should be respected for this benefit. However, Kapap is specially designed for realistic and practical street survival skills, and other complementary skills such as:

Build upon one’s intuitive responses in defending oneself (e.g. flinched response, use of palming instead of striking with fists)

Harnessing bio-mechanics and laws of physics to de-stabilize, achieve control and submission, etc

Develop one’s psychological resilience for performance of gross motor responses under stress

Flow from ‘stand up strikes/ kicks to street grappling’ seamlessly

Disarm knife, stick or handguns in life-threatening situations

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Use of improvised weapons like umbrellas, pens, torch-lights, bags, belts, jacket etc for self defense purpose.

Key Difference in Focus between Krav Maga and Kapap

The Krav Maga that evolved out of Kapap, is a well rounded system that encourages students to be aggressive and decisive in conflicts. It includes hard-hitting hand and elbow strikes, Thai style knee strikes, low kicks, knife defense, gun and rifle takeaways and intense physical conditioning. However, Modern Kapap is distinguished by its focus on use of knowledge of biomechanics and principles of physics like leverage to take on a bigger and stronger opponent. It has been said. “all Kapap instructors are Krav Maga instructors in the military, but not all Krav Maga instructors are Kapap instructors.” (page 8, ‘Inside Israel – the Martial Arts of the World’s most highly trained Fighters’, Black Belt Magazine, November 2002).

As Kapap traditionally focused on defending oneself mostly during stand up engagements, the co-founders of Modern Kapap saw the need to incorporate ground fighting into its arsenal of armed and unarmed combat skills. While going into the ground is not recommended by most self defense experts, it is however also noted that there are times where one does not really have a choice – such as falling during a scuffle. Ground fighting skills give a combatant the confidence to engage another in close quarter combat - where the risk of going to the ground is greater. Ground fighting has the advantage of allowing one to use leverage as well to either choke or maim.

To this end, Kapap Academy Singapore incorporated two world renowned schools for ground fighting – Gracie Academy (US) and Tony Cecchine’s Catch Wrestling. The next section provides some background on these two schools.

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Gracie Combatives – The Fastest Way to Street Readiness

In the late 1920’s, Grand Master Helio Gracie created Gracie or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after he realized that he was physically

too frail to utilize the traditional Japanese

techniques. Proven over the last 80 years to be the most reliable system for a smaller person to defeat a larger, more athletic opponent, the techniques of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu are based on precise timing and effective use of leverage so that virtually anyone can do them, man or woman, regardless of size or athletic ability. Although Gracie Jiu-Jitsu consists of over 600 techniques, studies of the fights conducted by members of the Gracie Family have shown that 36 techniques have been used more often and with greater success than all the other techniques combined.

Originally developed for the U.S. Army by the most established and respected grappling school in the world, Gracie Academy (US, Torrance), Gracie Combatives is the only course that entirely dedicated to the mastery of these 36 essential techniques. This system has been introduced into the US Army, US Special Forces, DELTA Force, Navy SEALs, US Air Force, US Marine Corps, US Rangers, US Coast Guards, FBI, CIA, US Border Patrol, US Secret Service, US State and local law enforcement agencies.

The 36 Gracie Combatives techniques have been strategically divided into 23 classes so that you can complete the course at your own pace. Each lesson was strategically designed so that no previous experience

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is required to participate in any one of them. As a result, you can complete them in any order. Once you complete each of the Gracie Combatives lesson a third time and you develop your reflexes in the execution of all 36 techniques individually and in every possible combination, you will qualify to be tested for promotion to blue belt. The highly coveted Gracie Blue Belt Certificate is awarded by the world’s highest ranking Gracie Jiu-jitsu instructor, GrandMaster Rorion Gracie (9th Dan) himself.

Kapap Academy (Singapore) is proud to be the first official Gracie Certified Training Centre in the Asia Pacific region.

In recognition of Kapap Academy Singapore’s standing in this field, the prestigious International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation inducted Kapap Singapore as the first and to date, the only school in Asia recognized as an official member.

Tony Cecchine’s Catch Wrestling

Catch wrestling draws its origin from the ancient Greek’s wrestling style known as Prankation. Over time, it drew influence from several wrestling styles such as Greco-Roman Wrestling, Pehlwani wrestling (modern Indian), Varzeshe Pahlavani (Iranian) wrestling, Irish collar-and-elbow wrestling and the Lancashire, England ‘catch-as-catch-can’ style.

American Catch Wrestling soon came into existence after the American Civil War, where ‘tough guys’ or carnival fighters soon developed a brutal but effective fighting system that has found its way to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) as well as street style self defence.

Tony Cecchine, rated by the respected Blackbelt Magazine as one of the top 20 toughest street fighters alive today (April 2006) is the Coach and Mentor for senior instructors of Kapap Academy Singapore. The late Lou Thez, a three times NWA Heavyweight Champion and considered as among the greatest professional wrestlers of the 20th

century, dubbed Tony Cecchine as one out of only a handful of people in the world who is a ‘Hooker’ – a title bestowed on the highest level of practitioner of the art.

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The Halo Corporation (US)

Kapap Singapore is also proud to be the partner of the world renowned HALO Corporation - a San Diego-based organization founded by former US SEALs, National Security and Intelligence personnel to provide force protection, security in high risks environments, humanitarian aids, and rapid and disaster response in disaster afflicted areas. The company was featured on Discovery Channel for their work on Kidnap and Rescue in 2010.

(www. http://www.thehalocorp.com/halo-on-discovery-channel-videos.html)

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Chief Instructor: Master Teo Yew Chye

Teo Yew Chye is a qualified Psychologist and a certified Facilitator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Yew Chye has extensive training experience and gained recognition as the Master Trainer for Building Excellence (US) in learning styles. He was a former Board Member on the International Learning Styles Network (US), and the former Chairman of the LifeSkills programme with the Boys Brigade (Singapore). Yew Chye is the CEO/ Chairman of the Centre for Cognitive Technologies, a Council member/ a Life Member of the EDB Society (Singapore), and the Stanford Alumni (US).

Yew Chye has been a martial artist for over 30 years, having received formal training in Taekwondo (blackbelt), Savate, Wing Chun, Dynamic Combat Method, SAMBO, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and Kapap. Kapap is the original hand-to-hand combat used by top Israeli Special Forces. He is a certified instructor in Dynamic Combat Method, SAMBO (Russian unarmed combat), Gracie Jiu-jitsu and Kapap. Yew Chye is the Chief Instructor and the official representative

for Kapap in Singapore, China/ Hong Kong and Taiwan.

He is the highest ranking kapap instructor in Asia (kapap level 4), and the Founder of Kapap Academy Singapore. Yew Chye was the first in Asia Pacific to be awarded the Gracie Instructorship in August 2009, and the official representative of the world’s top grappling school, Gracie Academy (US) for Singapore. Yew Chye is also a student of one of America’s top catch wrestler, Tony Cecchine (www.catchwrestle.com). Catch

wrestling, or shoot wrestling as known in Japan, is one of the most brutal submission styles (or ‘hooks’) wrestling in existence today.

He is also a certified Protective Security Details (PSD) operative/ executive bodyguard by Elite International. In 2011, Yew Chye became the first Asian to be certified as an Instructor by the world’s largest gun ownership group, the National Rifle Association - in pistol, Personal Protection in the Home, Rifle and Shotgun, and as a Safety Range Officer. He is also a certified Executive Bodyguard

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by the co-founders of Modern Kapap, Colonel Chaim Peer and Major Avi Nardia. Yew Chye was also recently made the representative of the world renowned HALO Corporation for Asia/ Singapore.

Yew Chye is also the co-founder/ President of the Kapap Federation Asia – the regional organization set up to establish and maintain standards for the practice and development of Kapap throughout Asia.

Chief Lady Instructor: Qin Yunquan

Yunquan is a Kapap level 1 instructor certified by Major Avi Nardia himself, as well as a certified Executive Bodyguard by both Colonel Chaim and Major Avi Nardia. Specialising in ladies and children self defense, Yunquan teaches the use of specially selected bio-mechanics and principles of engagement that are critical for a smaller person to defend against a much larger opponent. She instructs regularly at ladies groups such as AWARE (Singapore's premier ladies interest group), and the Girls Brigade in personal protection skills.

Yunquan is the Assistant Instructor in Kapap level 1instructorship held b-annually at Kapap Academy Singapore. She is also a Weapons instructor in the

use of knives and machetes, and in our unique street grappling with knife programme. Yunquan is currently studying with the top grappling/ Brazilian jiu-jitsu school in the world, the renowned Gracie Academy (US)/ University. She is the first lady in Asia Pacific to be awarded a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by the Gracie Academy, and is undergoing training to be a certified Gracie Combatives Instructor. She is also the co-founder/ partner of Gracie Asia – the organization that has been set up to promote the practice of Gracie Jiu-jitsu throughout Asia. Her previous martial arts background was in wushu.

Yunquan is the co-founder/ Secretary of the Kapap Federation Asia– the regional organization set up to establish and maintain standards for the practice and development of Kapap throughout Asia. She is also a Certified Rehabilitation Trainer for sports related injuries.

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Appendix A

Client list

Corporations/Organisations

Economic Development Board of Singapore EDB Society Evolution Werks Exxon Mobil Good Shepherd Centre Church of St Anthony Hewlett Packard Alumni Industrial and Services Co- Operative Society Limited (ISCOS) International Maritime Carrier (IMC) Pacific International Lines (PIL) People’s Association Lenovo Lloyds Bank Singapore China Business Association Singapore Tourism Board Starhub Temasek Holdings Union of Security Employees (USE) United Overseas Bank Security and Risk Solutions Aexis Security Temasek Holdings Tourism Promotion Board JTC Corporation Hewlett Packard Starhub National Parks Sibelco IE Singapore (in principle) Singapore Business Federation (in principle) AWARE UN Women SCWO (in principle) WINGS Shanghai Intel Capitaland Keppel Land World Fuel Services Prudential

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Collin Ng and Partners ST Micro-electronics US Navy Singapore Allen and Gledhill Partners Propnex MSIG Insurance  Philips Shell ST Technologies (in principle) Oracle Group (in principle) TSMP Ministry of Transport Tan Tock Seng Hospital

Private Clubs/ Safras Jurong Safra Cairnhill Community Centre Mount Faber Safra Tampines Safra Jurong Country Club Laguna Country Club Warren Country Club SIA Group Sports Club Hewlett Packard Clubhouse Fitness Network ( in principle) American Club Blade Club Civil Service Club MOE Recreational Club NUS Guild Club Fitness Network

Educational Institutions

Anderson Junior College ACS (International) Singapore Anglican High Australian International School Boys Brigade Bukit View Secondary School Cedar Girls School (Includes Teacher Training) Chatsworth International School CHIJ Katong Primary School Gan Eng Seng Secondary School Geylang Methodist Girls ‘School Girls' Brigade (Staff and Students Training) Haig Girls’ School Hwa Chong Institution

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Hwa Chong Junior College International School Singapore Meridian Junior College Methodist Girls’ School Nanyang Girls’ High School Nanyang Technological University (Pretty Tuff!) National Junior College Nan Chiau High Ngee Ann Secondary School Raffles Girls’ Secondary School Raffles Institution Singapore Management University (Women’s connection) St Joseph Junior St Hilda’s Secondary School St Margaret’s Primary School St Margaret’s Secondary School Tampines North Primary School Tanjong Katong Girls’ School Tanjong Katong Primary School Victoria Junior College Victoria School UWCSEA ( in principle) Yio Chu Kang Secondary School Yishun Town Secondary School Zhangde Primary School

Media Coverage FHM Her World New Paper Mypaper NSman ExpatLiving Pioneer Straits Times Channelnewasia

(http://www.youtube.com/user/KapapSingapore#p/a/f/2/VCWDgk1f9RM) Channel 8 and U

(http://www.youtube.com/user/KapapSingapore#p/u/12/fyElp7Mnt8M) North East CDC

(http://www.youtube.com/user/KapapSingapore#p/a/f/0/4YL9Faosugk)

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