One of the biggest and common mistakes about Krav Maga is thinking that Krav is a martial art. It is not.

A martial art is exactly that, an Art. Like any other art forms, take years to achieve perfection, with rules and focused on competition with a strong ethic component.

Krav Maga is everything but that, forget the beautiful forms (katas), fancy kicks and long fights on the floor. Krav Maga was created to be efficient and/or lethal… depends on the threat level. The response should be different if you are dealing with bear-hands fight or a gun threat, and yes, we train all that.

But I don’t want to talk about history, for that you have Wikipedia, I want to give you my top bullet points about the advantages of Krav Maga:

  • Easy to learn. Krav Maga Grandmaster and founder, Imi Lichtenfeld, designed the world’s most practical yet lethal self defense and fighting system, based on natural body movements,logical and common sense defense principles so that men, women and children of all ages, sizes and physical talents could learn how to defend themselves.
  • Easy to remember. Because Krav Maga techniques and tactics are simple to execute and highly effective, students can attain a high level of proficiency in a short period of time.
  • Quick to master. Krav Maga is the self defense / fighting system for busy people with limited time. Unlike traditional martial arts, it does not require years of study and practice to achieve a high level of self defense proficiency. Best of all, once a student achieves a high level of proficiency, only minimal review and practice is necessary to retain the ability to perform the self defense techniques and tactics at a high level.
  • Reality-based. In Krav Maga classes you train how to react  from a point of disadvantage to simulate real-life scenarios that could occur on the streets. In addition to being easy to learn, remember and quick to master, the self defense and fighting techniques and tactics of the Krav system are designed to work in violent and uncontrolled environments that a person could potentially face on the streets.
  • Battle-tested. Originally developed by Imi Lichtenfeld for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as a lethal hand-to-hand combat system, the self defense and fighting techniques and tactics that make up the Krav system have been proven lethally effective in the harsh conditions of war that occur on real battlefields and are extremely effective for civilians to protect and defend themselves against violent aggressors on the streets:
    • Hand-to-Hand combat
    • Defense agains weapons – knifes, gun, stick/bat…
    • Defense against chokes, take-downs, grabs, bear-hugs…
    • Defense against multiple attackers
    • ….
  • No holds-barred. Unlike traditional forms of martial arts,  Krav Maga is not limited by sports-oriented rules. Students are taught to defend themselves against an attack – no matter what. Anything goes – groin kicks, eye-gouging, head butts … whatever it takes!