Sagi Dovev: Training Israel's wounded to rise again

Yahoo

02-06-2025

A look into a former IDF major's unpaid, unfettered mission to rebuild the nation's warriors.
On October 7, while most of Israel was glued to the news and braced for the unknown, Sagi Dovev headed straight into it. It wasn't as a soldier, though once one of the IDF's most elite, but as a lifeline for the wounded. Since that fateful day, Dovev has been volunteering full time at Sheba Medical Center, training amputees, trauma victims, neurological patients, and released hostages – helping them regain not just strength but a sense of purpose.
Dovev, an expert in resilience training, does not take a single shekel for his current mission. 'This is my duty,' he said simply. 'Everything in my life brought me to this moment.'
As a former military careerist, Dovev has spent the past 20 years training elite units in Krav Maga and close combat. He retired two years ago, planning to bring the same resilience-building tools and techniques to civilians.
Together with two fellow officers, he spent more than a year creating and developing SORTEAM – a company specializing in resilience training workshops. Contracts were signed and the launch was set. Five days later, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel.
'We were all called back to reserves. We had to close the company before we opened it,' he said. 'But I don't feel sorry. Life is what happens when you're making other plans.'
When disaster struck on October 7, Dovev was on his way to his base when he received a flurry of calls informing him that his former unit had suffered casualties. He immediately turned his car around and headed for Sheba Medical Center.
'We had 10 officers die that day and scores more wounded,' he recalls. Dovev assisted however he could. 'I called their families, got them to surgeries, fed them, and helped them shower.' After two months, he was called back to base. He refused. 'I couldn't leave. I felt like I was needed,' he says.
When wounded soldiers began asking to train again, Dovev stepped in, doing what he knows best: rebuilding warriors from the inside out. What started as one-on-one boxing and wrestling with his unit's wounded quickly spread to other units as well.
Today, he trains between six to eight soldiers daily, customizing exercises around physical limitations and recovery. 'I want to make them feel like fighters again even in a wheelchair or on prosthetics,' he says.
Dovev's path to resilience training has its roots long before his military service and career. As the son of a diplomat, he grew up abroad, living in South Africa, Germany, and the US, and often feeling like an outsider.
'In seventh grade in America, I was verbally and physically attacked for wearing a kippah. I was hospitalized, bruised, and humiliated,' he recounts. Despite the traumatic incident, Dovev claims it was the best thing that happened to him.
'It was in that moment that I decided no one is ever going to hurt me or anyone I love again,' he said defiantly. He began martial arts and went on to become Israel's national champion 10 years in a row. Later, he joined one of the IDF's most elite reconnaissance units – Sayeret Matkal.
Continuing on that trajectory, Dovev started training the next generation of warriors and not just physically. 'It's not enough to train an 18-year-old to fight. You have to train their minds and make them believe,' he posits. 'I want to be the voice in their heads when things get hard.'
Dovev now also documents many of his trainees' recoveries online. His Instagram has amassed a following of over 20,000 and has become a living archive of resilience.
'I barely sleep. When I am done training, I spend the nights editing and uploading their inspiring stories,' he said.
One such video shows Michelle Rokbotzin, the most severely wounded female soldier from October 7. Shot seven times, including in the head, she lay bleeding for over 14 hours before being rescued and confined to a wheelchair.
'She was paralyzed. Now, after months of training, she's standing,' Dovev exclaimed. 'That moment when she stood up at the bars… that was an amazing accomplishment.'
Another video features Dor Almog, the sole survivor of an RPG attack that collapsed a building in Gaza, killing 21 of his Givati comrades instantly. Having once trained Almog as an amateur MMA fighter, Dovev describes the shattered version who showed up in the hospital. A far cry from the fighter seen in his videos today.
'He was severely wounded. All his bones were broken, and he had burns practically over his entire body. He told me that the pressure and choking feeling that he remembered from our training helped him survive.' Today, they train together two to three times a week.
Every few months, Dovev accompanies amputees to the US for prosthetics. Using his connections and often at his own expense, he assists in building presentations and arranging speaking engagements to share their stories.
'All the training I have done, the resilience building, it was all so I could be put in the right place at the right time. It fills me with so much privilege, honor, and pride that my life's mission matters and makes a difference,' he says. His dream going forward is multiplying that and continuing his resilience training. He aims to construct a permanent rehabilitation gym or dojo near Sheba.
'I want to build a community for our wounded warriors to train both amputees and able-bodied fighters.'
He added: 'A holistic space where I can bring psychologists on board as well.' To do that, he needs help – financially, logistically, and publicly.
You can follow more of his vital work and be in contact with him through his Instagram account at @sagidovev. In a country reeling from trauma, Dovev offers more than physical training; he offers proof that an all-encompassing recovery is possible. He doesn't simply rebuild bodies. He saves lives.