Keysi Fighting Method
A Spanish self-defence system for close quarters and against several attackers. Its "pensador" guard is familiar to viewers from the Batman films.
Quick Facts
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Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
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About Keysi Fighting Method
The Keysi Fighting Method is a self-defence system created in Spain in the early 1980s by Justo Dieguez and Andy Norman. This entry previously named only Dieguez; Norman is a documented co-creator, and the text therefore names him. The exact year of origin is not documented, so this page leaves the year field empty. The name comes from the Spanish "qué sí", roughly "what if". That question is also the system's principle: instead of a fixed set of answers, one works with whatever the situation offers, and the syllabus is built on the natural reactions a person under pressure will make anyway. Its best-known element is the guard called the pensador, "the thinking man". The forearms and arms enclose the head and protect it from every side, while the elbow stays in a position from which it can strike at once. The guard was devised for close-quarters encounters and for facing several attackers — that is, for a situation in which the attack does not come from one direction and there is no time to select a technique. The system reached a wide public through film. Dieguez and Norman prepared the choreography for Batman Begins in 2005 and for its sequel The Dark Knight in 2008; in the third film the approach was modified because of the character's age and condition. That cinematic fame both helped and hurt: it brought attention, but also expectations no self-defence method can meet.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.