If size didn’t matter there would be no weight classes.
Krav Maga has a huge cheerleading section, but here is the reality.
Knowing in theory how to disable someone with strikes, joint manipulation, etc doesn’t translate into being able to do it to an unwilling partner. KM practitioners defend their lack of actual sparring/wrestling/BJJ sessions by saying that their “moves are too deadly to practice with” so you can only do it half speed. This is BS, IMO. And if they were actually sparring, which is the essence of any combat training, they would just be using Kickboxing/MT/Boxing/wrestling techniques...so what you would have is parts of the various fighting disciplines that are watered down, mixed in with eye pokes and groin strikes. This is pointless, because any boxer/kickboxer/wrestler/BJJ knows plenty of ways to really hurt you, if that’s what they want to do.
That is like buying a 5,000 dollar custom precision rifle and only pantomiming the shot...while making “pewwww pewwwww” sounds for every shot, and never actually firing a live round until you need it..but believing that you will make the shot every time. Do you think that will translate into actual marksmanship skills? Dry firing is a very helpful part of marksmanship training...but it is only a part. You also have to know how to read the wind, account for mirage effects, bullet drop, etc...a myriad number of little things that add up to being a great shot. This is the analogue to hand fighting...putting rounds down range is equivalent to sparring. Without either you’ll never be anything more than a well practiced mime, without the ability to use your skills in a real life dynamic situation.
The proof that KM is a marketing campaign is that there are no actual videos of it being used/demonstrated/sparring session etc. EVERY video you can find will be some goofy choreographed hype video. I personally wouldn’t buy a product that was unable to be demonstrated, even if it was with just two of your students wearing throat protectors and athletic cups, showing your deadly moves that you basically stole from all the other fighting arts.
Now I’m not great at any fighting art but I am a mediocre boxer and have a smattering of wrestling/bjj mixed in. I’m also a fat guy with a thick core of muscle. I built my monument to gluttony on a solid foundation.
So what would have really helped these kids is either A: buy me a pizza and snacks all day so I’m around to kick ass if needed or preferably, for their own sakes, B: go to a real fighting gym and learn to really fight. One of the most important parts of learning how to defend yourself is developing the mindset and the ability to receive pain. Pretending to fight for a year in a McDojo and suddenly receiving your first real blow from behind one day isn’t a recipe for success. But if you’ve spent a year sparring, except for the “from behind” part it is nothing new and you know exactly how to respond. Krav Maga is the Jeet Kune Do of the 21st century.