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Overview

Krav Maga is not a traditional martial art. It was developed in a hostile environment in which combatants could not devote many hours to hand to hand combat training. Therefore, the Krav Maga system was created to bring students to a high level of proficiency in a relatively short period of time. There are no forms or rules or set combinations as reactions to attacks. Instead, Krav Maga training focuses on teaching simple self protection techniques which are specifically catered to reality based attack situations.

Basic Principles

The art of Krav Maga is much more of a survival system dealing with personal safety issues. It is considered to be a modern, highly refined, street fighting system, designed to be used against armed and unarmed attackers. Krav Maga addresses a wide variety of aggressive acts which include:

• punch
  • Jab, Cross, Hook, etc.
• Kicks
• Chokes
  • Front, Side, Guillotine
• bear hug
• Headlocks
• Grabs, as well as defenses against multiple attackers and assailants armed with a firearm, edged weapon, or blunt object.

Krav Maga training stresses the ability to react when surprised. Techniques and training methods emphasize the ability to function from a poor state of readiness, and to move from a passive to aggressive state immediately in order to fight back and survive. Training methods teach students to react effectively under stress and to move efficiently from a position of disadvantage to a position of advantage.

Basic Training

In addition to self-defense, Krav Maga teaches hand to hand combat. This is a more advanced and sophisticated phase, and shows how to neutralize an opponent quickly and effectively. It embodies elements related to the actual performance of the fight including tactics, feints, powerful combinations of different attacks, the psychological dimensions of the fight, and learning how to use the environment to your advantage.

Krav Maga has borrowed many techniques from other martial arts and includes elements from:

1. Boxing
2. Muay Thai
3. Aikido
4. Judo
5. Jujutsu

Most instructors emphasize two training rules:

• There are no rules in a fight
• Partner preservation - one must not injure oneself or one's partner when training

History

Krav Maga was developed in Hungaryand Czechoslovakia in the 1930s by Imi Lichtenfeld. He first taught his fighting system in Bratislava in order to help protect the local Jewish community from Nazi militia. With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Imi became the Chief Instructor of Physical Fitness and Krav Maga at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) School of Combat Fitness. He served in the IDF for 15 years, during which time he continued to develop and refine his hand-to-hand combat method. In 1978, Imi founded the non-profit Israeli Krav Maga Association with several senior instructors.[[3]]

Krav in the United States

Prior to 1980, all experts in Krav Maga lived in Israel and trained under the Israeli Krav Maga Association. That year marks the beginning of contact between Israeli Krav Maga experts and interested students in the United States. In 1981, a group of six Krav Maga instructors traveled to the US to demonstrate their system, primarily to local Jewish Community Centers.

The New York Field Office of the FBI and the FBI's Main Training Center at Quantico, Virginia saw it and expressed interest. The result was a visit by 22 people from the US to Israel in the summer of 1981 to attend a basic Krav Maga instructor course. The graduates from this course returned to the US and began to establish training facilities in their local areas. Additional students traveled to Israel in 1984 and again in 1986 to become instructors. At the same time, instructors from Israel continued to visit the US. Law Enforcement training in the US began in 1985.

Current Situation

Krav Maga is the official system of self defense and unarmed combat for the Israeli Defense Forces. All Israeli soldiers, including all Special Forces units learn Krav Maga as part of their basic training. Further, Krav Maga is the defensive tactics system used to train the Israeli Police, Israeli Intelligence and all Security Divisions. Krav Maga is also taught to civilians, military, law enforcement and security agencies around the world. [4]