Not your typical cardio technician

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Christopher Gross
  • 3rd Wing Public Affairs
ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  It's Friday night and you just got done seeing a movie with your friend and its past midnight. After you come out of the theater, you and your friend say goodbye and head home. Once arriving at your car, you are just about to get in when all of a sudden you feel a hand on your shoulder and a hard metal object pressed against your back. The stranger who's holding the weapon says not to make a sound and not to turn around and then he tells you you're not going to live to see tomorrow.

With a threat like this, knowing that the assailant is looking to take your life, would you know how to react?

Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Alf, a 3rd Medical Group cardiopulmonary technician, knows what to do and teaches anyone else who is eager to learn how to react and handle these situations.

Alf teaches Krav Maga, an Israeli close combat course, every Monday night from 6-8 p.m. at Fort Richardson's Geronimo Gym. He is an advanced force training military instructor and a brown belt civilian instructor and he teaches individuals techniques of how to react in real-life scenarios and also offers a lot of physical conditioning.

"I've always been involved in martial arts since I was a kid," said Alf.

Alf explained that Krav Maga is different from any other type of marital art, as it focuses more on close range self defense. Krav Maga is all about power, technique and conditioning. It's trying to take your assailant out with as few hits as possible, throwing as much power behind each punch and kick as possible.

According to Alf, Krav isn't something like you would see on TV, where they have officiating so if the fight gets out of hand they can stop it.

"It's what you need to survive a real life attack," said Alf. "In reality, there's two-on-one, no rules and no referees. When you train, you should train how you're going to react in a real fight."

Alf started his training in 2003 while he was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. From 2003 to early 2009, Alf was trained by some of the country's top Krav Maga experts.

Krav originated from the hand-to-hand combat called Kapap which came about in the early 1940's, used by special forces units from the Middle East. During this time of training, firearms were outlawed in these areas in order to keep them in scarce supply and away from the British.

When the State of Israel was founded in 1948, Imi Lichtenfeld's Krav Maga became the main source of self defense. Throughout the decades Krav has been modified so that the troops of Israel could be experts in hand to hand combat.

Krav has come a long ways since the 1940's and is being taught all around the world today.

While deployed to Joint Base Balad, Iraq, in 2007, Alf was awarded an achievement medal for sharing his expertise in Krav Maga. Three times a week, Alf trained approximately 50 service members, helping participants learn how to defend themselves in life and death situations and at the same time lose weight and get in shape.

Alf said that his Krav class offers an intense workout and gives a realistic view of how much energy individuals could spare in an actual fight. This way they don't have a false sense of security if they were to ever get in a dangerous situation.

"The fundamentals of reacting to certain scenarios are great," said Jeremy Robinson, who has been attending Alf's class since October 2009, and also works at the pharmacy in the 3rd MDG.

Robinson said that Alf does a great job of teaching the technique and giving participants a good physical workout.

Even though Alf teaches his participants how to react in an aggressive way, they do it in a safe manner.

"It's a lot of fun. I enjoy doing it and it's something I hope to continue doing," said Alf.