Keysi Fighting Method (KFM) is an ‘anything goes’ martial art so to speak, similar in many aspects to Krav Maga – which is used by Israeli special forces. It was a relatively obscure martial art until it was featured in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Batman Begins’ and it’s subsequent sequels, making the general public aware of it’s use and effectiveness in many different self-defense scenarios.

According to the video, it was stuntman Buster Reeves who got the word out on the set of Batman about this cool new gritty martial art that ended up being the perfect fit for Nolan’s dark, realistic adaptation of the Batman story. The old cheesy ‘ka-pow!’ fight scenes wouldn’t cut it in today’s world. They needed something that was brutal and simply looked cool and Keysi fit the bill.

In this video we get an interesting demonstration of KFM and you instantly see the influence it had on Batman’s fighting style in the movies. They use a lot of close range attacks as well as making good use of elbow strikes, particularly downward elbows which are very devastating blows.

According to David Forman, the fight choreographer for the film “It’s like what do you want to do? Do you want to kill this man or do you want to maim him? And that comes to you as a person so you know it is a lethal art.”

You even hear Batman himself, Christian Bale, chime in on the martial art at the end of the video and he says it is very practical and is about using what is available to you which is seen displayed in the Batman films.

“Keysi Fighting Method is a system of self defense and fighting that was created by Andy Norman and a man named Justo Dieguez. It was known for its close range techniques and using a double arm cover over its head which was known as The Pensador. [Source: theselfdefenseexpert]