The Keysi Fighting Method

The Keysi Fighting Method (KFM) is an explosive and dynamic fighting art developed on the streets of Spain. As a film fan myself I was chatting to someone about the fight scenes in films. They mentioned that Christian Bale studied the Keysi Fighting Method as part of the fight choregraphy in the recent Batman movies.

What is the Keysi Fighting Method? Well it has its origins on the streets of Spain from around the 1950′s .  It is not an offshoot of any traditional martial art so it isn’t limited by those all too familiar rules and forms. Indeed it is still evolving into a dynamic modern artform.

The story goes that the founder, Justo Diéguez Serrano, was dissatisfied with his present martial art, at the time Hapkido, and so left after challenging the ruling body to a streetfight. He went on to form KFM. Andy Norman was also responsible for the co-founding the art and he says that, “Keysi is a method of fighting for people looking for a street application. Keysi was born on the streets and it’s almost a reflection of life itself.” Both Serrano and Norman had experience with Jeet Kune Do having studied with Dan Inosanto.

The word “Keysi” is Spanish for “from the heart”, the childhood nickname of Serrano. The Keysi Fighting Method itself is based on street survival and personal protection. It makes use of the full range of hand to hand combat strategies including kicking, punching, trapping, grappling, takedowns and ground fighting as well as hand held weapons techniques. In some ways it is similar to Krav Maga techniques in its focus on real world fighting techniques.

It is concerned with extreme close quarters attack and defense with the idea that the victim of attack can turn that around and become the predator instead of the prey. Classes for the moment are concentrated mainly in Europe but it seems to be spreading. With the attention garnered from the association with Batman it looks like the Keysi Fighting Method will grow and grow.