I've been taking Krav Maga for a month now and am waiting for level 2 testing. They emphasize giving the assailant a "BEATING" or neutralizing him, in other words. They work the living hell out of you and part of testing is to NOT EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER GIVE UP. To get to level 2 you must attend the 3 hour workshop and then you get a 5 minute break then they begin the level 2 testing, which is an 1 and a half hours. They basically beat you up and then test you and you can't show weakness. I went to the previous workshop, which was my first, and the next day was aching all over. I never imagined how sore I could ever get. Lots of sparring. Practice with multiple attackers. I wish I had taken it sooner.
the reason why it tells you how to deal with grenades is because the Israeli people actually went through that stuff and everyone in that country is trained in the military ways whether women or man. I had a friend come out of Israel and his dad put him into Uechi Karate because it was the closest thing he could get to what he did to train. up all night, come chat. Regards
As said before, Krav Maga was an israeli martial art designed to be practical, no kata's or anything, and since it was always battle-tested and revised, they started involving defense things like grenades, thats why its the Israeli military's official MA.
Try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapap and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krav_Maga To Tseek Choi, Krav Maga is exhausting and painful when training with Israeli instructors, that is why it is also advertised as being a good work out. http://www.kravmagendavid.com/ Pericles
Scott194, I was interested in seeing how your training is coming. I am interested in taking KM but am wondering about the quality control. What you described is exactly what I would like to do. After been in and out of ma for 30 years I can go for some good conditioning 3x a week with some serious self defense training. What level are your instructors and did they train at the LA HQ? Thanks.
I watched a Krav Maga demonstration a few days a go and it seemed to me that all the techniques were standard jujitsu techniques. Nothing flashy, just classic self defense oriented jujitsu (this means groin strikes, eye gouges etc) with some firearms defenses thrown in. I assume that they probably train as live as possible, but what is it that sets KM apart (it is supposed to be really effective)? Do they cover situational awareness, conflict diffusion/escalation and the like?
I was thinking about taking Krav Maga, and I was wondering if someone could describe it in more detail. The information on the websites was great, but it'd be nice to have a little more info. Is it focused more on striking then grappling? Is the striking similar to boxing/kickboxing? Is there usually some form of sparring? Are there arm bars and similar things? Is there anything dealing with pressure points or nerves?
ive just begun krav maga classes - the techniques are the most practical and effective available. Hence the punching is very much boxing orientated and the kicks seem to emulate muay thai - there is sparring and locks/restraints. The creator of KM was a boxer and an expert in wrestling/jui jitsu -so it understandably has techniques from these disciplines. I couldnt say if it was more focused on striking or grappling only that it teaches elements from both. One thing i would say, it is very difficult if not impossible for one martial art to teach comprehensively all aspects of combat. Therefore, if you want to learn grappling id say go do BJJ or sambo. But if you want a system that teaches the elements of everything (strikes, restraints, weapons) - to give the practitioner a well rounded knowledge - then KM can do this. Furthermore it alludes to be nothing more than a system for self defence, therefore, there is very little tradition or rites - no particular uniform or gi/dobok is required either.
I've been involved in Krav-maga and kapap (a slightly different version used by the Israeli special forces and refined for the military) for 6 months now, if you want to learn MA to protect yourself on the street krav-maga is the MA for you, the moves are very basic and natural so it is far easier to remember than the complicated sets and patterns of MA's such as wushu or lau-gar, I train with a black belt tiger-crane kung-fu and he says the 2 years of krav-maga has been more useful that the 11 years of kung-fu. If you want to look good and break through brick walls do tae kwon do or a kung-fu, if you want to learn how to easily defend yourself in a street enviroment, learn KM. (im not dissing kung-fu or tae-kwon-do or any other traditional martial art, it's just that traditional arts are built around rules and ceremony as krav-maga there are no rules, im sure a wushu black belt could kick the crap outa a guy in a street but it would take him alot longer to learn how and will not know how to work from a disadvantaged position e.g. learn how to fight from the ground against a knifeman)
king dragon, That's a pretty broad brush. You seem to lump all traditional MAs in with TKD and cardio-kickboxing, and maybe all instructors of the above? You find a good Chinese Hawaiian Kempo instructor and see how long it takes to become proficient in self defense. Or Wing Chun. I understand the point you are making, as I have ventured into the study of CQC-type systems as an aside to traditional training. Hock Hochheim has a great one. KM looks pretty good. But not all traditional MAs are set up around tournies and kata-dance competitions. Many of them were set up for the same things the Israeli military wanted, just by Asian militaries/street fighters, etc... (To speak to the particulars of you anecdotes: I'm sorry it took your friend 11 years to find out he was in a bad system. What is the extent of your MA training, outside of the 6 months of KM? Because, I have never, ever studied a MA system whose FIGHTING was based on rules. Again, take CH Kempo. It is trained from day 1 to go for vital areas. If your fight lasts more than 15 seconds, you failed. Wing Chun, we trained from day 1 on vital, repeated blows. If you are comparing KM to point-sparring schools, fine. But that is a straw man defence.) Not to mention, KM borrowed its skillset from traditional MAs. There's something to be said for that. Not trying to break your juevos, as I DO see the point you are making. But I see enough bravado and ego in traditional MAs themselves-- much less having it creep into the offshoots. Take care!
You make a good point snow_tiger, To be fair I have a very limited knowledge of traditional martial arts so I didn't have much of a base to make comments on, Im taught in lau-Ga kung-fu and it is very regimented (and it probaly should be), plus limited amounts of Tae-kwon-do and shukokai karate,and thats all I could really compare it too, I was just basing my opinions on other Krav maga practicioners ect, and I found it refreshing to have more of a free style to add your personal strengths into, thanks for feedback
My friend ramon served in the Israeli military, and he seems to have been trained in horribly brutal fighting techniques. Strikes to the groin, eye gouging, ripping out throats and breaking limbs and whatnot.
Training in the UK Hi, Is there anyone here who's tried the Krav Maga school in Brighton, UK? I didn't know that Kapap was taught much in the UK. Do you learn both at the same place? What differences are there between them? Does anywhere in the UK teach LYNXX or CDT/LRT? I have not heard of these. Cheers
I'm not so sure about that. I've dabbled a tiny bit in silat (read Bob Orlando's book and done some kuntao silat in my eskrima classes) and also I've done some training in krav maga. Silat mubai - like some other styles of silat - is kind of modern in considering firearms as does krav maga. Bob Orlando's book "Indonesian Fighting Fundamentals" describes some general principles - adhesion, whiplash, shearing, etc - that I do not think are really in krav maga (although maybe some individual techniques use some of them). Silat is really an enormous family of Indonesian, Malaysian, Brunei and some Southern Phillipine MAs so I'm not sure how much Orlando's book generalises to them though and of course he wasn't writing about silat mubai specifically. Silat uses plenty of strikes of course but it may be a bit more grappling oriented than krav maga. Krav maga tends to keep things simple to train people up in a short time. Silat (and FMAs) uses limb destructions - krav maga doesn't really do this - at least not in a big way (as David Kahn's krav maga book does mention guntings briefly I think). Silat mubai uses jurus (basically the same thing as forms or katas) in training - krav maga does not. Silat mubai probably has somewhat more weapons training than krav maga. Krav maga does quite a lot in the way of empty-handed defences against weapons (including firearm disarms at close quarters) and use of sticks and common objects but I don't think the civilian krav maga syllabus includes use of knives and firearms although some krav maga schools may supplement the krav maga training with knife and firearm training from other systems (especially in the US where they may be able to use such weapons in self defence depending on the state, etc). Although there is probably some, I guess there is not a great deal of direct exchange of techniques between silat styles and Israeli MAs for cultural and political reasons, William
????? I have trained Kuntao for quite a few years and some Silat also. I trained KM a few years ago for a month an donly for the reason that I moved to another town and want ti to keep the training similar to Kuntao or Silat. All I can say is that I feel sorry for those that have spend many years in a style that they think it sucks for Self Defense or no-rules fighting or Street fighting. Because so far I have been able to hold myself decently against assaults by more then one attacker and grapplers and it wasn't because of the KM. KM is good but any style if trained for the reason that it was created originally not for points or to win medals or to win a cage match should give what KM offers and perhaps even more. The body can only move in so many ways. what is describe in the above quote and the authors included is only the tip of the iceberg that Kuntao and Silat can offer to anyone. I speak about the Kuntao and Silat I practice can't really say anything about other Kuntao or Silat styles since I do not know all of them.
