Krav Maga
From Karate, Kungfu, Wrestling, Mixed Fighting Information Source
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Krav Maga, Hebrew for "Contact Combat", is the official self-defense and hand-to-hand combat system of Israel. Krav Maga is a very modern and practical style of self-defense. It is a survival system dealing with personal safety issues in the context of defending oneself against both armed and unarmed attackers. It also integrates instinct-based self-defense tactics, with a strong curriculum that trains aggressiveness, fighting spirit, situational awareness, and verbal de-escalation of conflict. Krav Maga has anti-terrorist roots that make it aggressive by design, with only one objective, to eliminate the threat in the fastest way possible. It is considered a highly refined street-fighting system, designed to be utilized against street attacks, muggings, and sexual assaults.
This Israeli system, which emerged in an environment in which extreme violence was common, has been continually refined and developed in light of actual modern combat and self-defense experiences. Krav Maga has received international recognition for its unique approach in bringing self-defense to civilians, military, and law enforcement alike. The symbol of the art consists of the Hebrew letters K and M surrounded by an open circle because the system is open to improvement by adding techniques, exercises, and training methods.
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History
Krav Maga was created largely by one man, Imi Lichtenfeld (1910-1998). Born in Hungary and growing up in Czechoslovakia, he studied boxing and wrestling but soon realized that sport fighting does not work so well on the street. So he began adapting his skills to make them effective in real-life situations.
In 1940 he fled Nazi-dominated Europe and settled in the British mandate of Palestine. There, he began teaching his new art to members of Jewish militant groups for use against the British military and Arab militants. After the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948, he was hired to teach unarmed fighting and arresting skills to the Israeli military and police forces, respectively.
Training
First of all, Krav Maga is not a sport and there are no sport competitions. The intial focus of training is getting the students into shape through high-intensity workouts. This consists mainly of students taking turns holding and striking pads, which teaches the basic skills and improves the students' ability to deliver those techniques with power. Some schools also employ full-contact sparring. Naturally, most of each class is devoted to the practice of close-quarters combat.
Techniques
The basic principle of Krav Maga is "whatever works." Students are taught practical, easy-to-use strikes such as punches, kicks, and knee and elbow strikes, and also a lot of grappling, all based on the body's natural movements and reflexes. There is emphasis on using found objects as improvised weapons. As the art promotes stopping an attack by the fastest means possible, there is much focus on headbutts and strikes to the groin, eyes, and other sensitive areas of an attacker's body. Regularly tested in law enforcement and on the battlefield, Krav Maga continues to evolve, and new techniques are constantly being invented or borrowed from other martial arts.
Philosophy
The main idea of Krav Maga is to eliminate the threat as fast as possible, often by the most violent means. Students are taught to immediately stop the attack and then quickly kill or incapacitate the attacker. Traditional Krav Maga training is based on the assumption that every situation could be life-or-death, so much of it focuses on inflicting severe injuries upon the enemy in the shortest amount of time. This original Krav Maga was intended for the Israeli military, but in the 50s and 60s Lichtenfeld created a toned-down version of the art for Israeli police forces, which is based on gaining control of the adversary. This version is commonly taught for civilian self-defense.
| Middle Eastern Martial Arts | |
|---|---|
| Kapap | Krav Maga | Commando Krav Maga | Hikuta | Oil Wrestling | Koshti | |
