About Krav Maga
 Krav
Maga (Hebrew קרב מגע: "close
combat") is a self-defence and military hand to hand combat system developed
in Israel. It came to prominence following its adoption by various Israeli
Security Forces; now more widely in use including by the special forces of
other countries. The version of Krav Maga taught in civilian martial arts
classes is more often a simplified version that emphasizes personal
self-defence, and is likely to exclude the killing techniques taught to the
military, or the holds and come-along taught to police forces; there are
legal proscriptions in some countries which govern and constrain the
teaching of hazardous or life-threatening techniques to civilians.
English-speakers often shorten the term to Krav.
Etymology
The generic name in Hebrew is usually translated as
"close combat." The word maga (מגע) means "contact". The word krav
(קרב) means "fight" or "battle." A translation like "contact combat,"
though, can be misconstrued as something like "kickboxing" or "full contact
karate."
As a historical note, the original name of Krav Maga was
Kapap (sounds like "ka-PAPP") which was an acronym for Krav Panim el Panim,
face-to-face combat.
History
 The
beginning of the system that would become Krav Maga in Israel was developed
in Hungary-Czechoslovakia in the 1930s by Imi Lichtenfeld. This system was
codified and first taught in Bratislava in order to protect the Jewish
community from fascist militias.
When Imi Lichtenfeld came to British Mandate of Palestine
prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, he began teaching hand to
hand combat to the Haganah, the Jewish underground army. After the
establishment of Israel, krav maga was the generic term used to reference
the hand to hand combat taught to the Israeli armed forces and police.
When Lichtenfeld moved to Israel he changed his name to
Sde-Or, a direct translation of his surname into Hebrew. Due to the fact
that it is strictly a self-defence and military combat system, Krav Maga is
constantly changing. After Mr. Lichtenfeld retired from a long career as
chief instructor of close combat in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), he
started teaching Krav Maga to the civilian population. In this way, a
civilian version based on the principles of self-defence was developed.
Prior to 1985, all experts in Krav Maga lived in Israel.
Many schools have opened outside Israel, with the instructors being
certified by the Israeli Krav Maga Association. Since the death of Imi
Lichtenfeld, a number of different schools and associations of Krav Maga
have developed around the world. There is currently a controversy among
various organizations and individuals who claim the mantle as Imi's
successor.
In Krav Maga, there are no hard-and-fast rules. It is not
a sport and there is no competitive component. All the techniques focus on
maximum efficiency in real-life conditions. Krav Maga generally assumes a
no-quarter situation; the attacks and defences are intended to inflict or
divert the most pain possible on the opponent. Groin strikes, headbutts, and
other efficient and potentially brutal attacks are emphasized.
The guiding principles for those performing Krav Maga
techniques are:
-
avoid injury.
-
go from defending to attacking as quickly as possible.
-
use the body's natural reflexes.
-
strike at any vulnerable point.
-
use any tool or object nearby.
The basic idea is to first deal with the immediate threat
(being choked, for example), to prevent the attacker from re-attacking, then
neutralize the opponent, proceeding through all the steps in a
straightforward manner, despite the rush of adrenaline that would occur in
such an attack. The emphasis is put on taking the initiative from the
attacker as soon as possible.
Training
 Although
Krav Maga shares many techniques with other martial arts, like Savate and
Kickboxing (for the fist- and kick-fighting techniques) or Ju-Jitsu (for the
grappling and disarming techniques), the training is quite different. It
stresses fighting under worst-case circumstances (for example, against
several opponents, when protecting someone else, with one arm unusable, when
dizzy, or against armed opponents).
Training in Krav Maga is an aerobic workout, and relies
heavily on pads. Students take turns holding pads and doing combatives
against the pads. This is important because it allows the student to
practice the technique at full strength, and the student holding the pad
learns a little of what it feels like to get hit. It can be almost as taxing
to hold a pad as to practice against one.
Training may employ a speaker system blasting loud music,
stroboscope and/or fog machine meant to train the student to ignore
peripheral distractions and focus on causing as much damage as possible.
Training might also contain ways to deal with situations which could end in
fights. Physical and verbal methods to avoid violence whenever possible are
taught.
A typical Krav Maga session in a civilian school is about
an hour long and mixes aerobic training with self-defence teaching. As
levels increase, the instructors focus a little less on aerobic training and
slightly more on combatives. First, the instructor will run a very intense
drill to get the class's heart rates up. Then, after stretching, the
instructor will teach two or three self-defence techniques. In the beginning
the techniques will either be combatives (punches, hammer-fists, elbows,
knees and roundhouse kicks, for example) or grappling (breaking out of
chokes or wrist-grabs, getting out from under an opponent while on one's
back). After that, the class usually moves to a drill that combines the
techniques just taught with an aerobic technique. Finally, there is the
final drill intended to burn out the students. Depending on the class - and
on the instructor's mood - this drill may be at the very beginning or at the
end of the class.
Krav Maga, a Generalization
By Lt. Colonel Chaim Peer, Major Moni Aizik, Major Avi
Nardia, Johan Castillo.
Krav Maga is a beautiful martial art, created by one of
the most influential and leading instructors in Israel’s history. However
Krav Maga is a generalized term, and when you look it up in the dictionary
in Israel, it will say that Krav Maga is a hand-to-hand fighting system
based on close quarters combat. Maga meaning close, and Krav meaning battle.
Around the 70’s and 80’s, Krav Maga was introduced to the
civilian sector by one of the most respected Israeli instructors of Israeli
CQB, Imi Lichtenfield, or as others know him, Imi Or-Sadeh. And most of his
knowledge was based upon experience.
Because Army and Law Enforcement agencies around the
world have a limited amount of time in which to teach the participants the
program, many of the CQB systems will be based on simplicity and the
techniques will be basic, thus allowing the participant to learn and perform
the techniques in a quick and timely manner.
Another factor that comes into play is liability. What is
taught to the military sector is definitely not taught to the law
enforcement sector, and what is taught to that sector is not taught to the
civilian sector. The threat levels are simply not the same, so the
techniques must vary.
The majority of Israeli CQB instructors in the civilian
sector are not all necessarily the same CQB instructors at the Israeli
Military, Law Enforcement and Secret Service Academies in Israel. The only
common denominator is that they use the generalized term, "Krav Maga".
Ran Cohen, a former Israeli Secret Service instructor,
and also close friend of mine, uses the term Operational Krav Maga. Another
former instructor after Imi Lichtenfield, Eli Avikazar, switched the name to
Krav Magen, while others simply use the term Krav Maga. Lt. Colonel Chaim
Peer uses Kapap / Lotar, Major Moni Aizik uses Edge Combat, while Miki Erez,
Niel Farber and Moti Horenstein use Kavana and Hisardut Survival.
I was blessed with the opportunity be a Krav Maga
instructor for the Israeli defence force (IDF ) and Hagana Hatzmit
instructor for Law Enforcement at the Operational Police Academy in Israel,
and also a Lotar instructor for Israel’s top Counter-terrorism Unit Yamam.
In doing so, I was exposed to all the different concepts and levels of what
everyone is calling "Krav Maga".
While the Army uses the term Krav Maga, the Police
Academy uses the term Hagana Atsmit, which really means self-defence. The
police want to convey an image of self-defence for arrest and control, a
less lethal approach than that of the military. At the same time, the
counter-terrorism unit, which at one time used the term "Lochama Zeira",
meaning micro combat, now use the term Lotar, which is counter-terrorism.
Here we have the same situation as mentioned above about the different
sectors. A military unit that is only doing intelligence gathering does not
need the same type of CQB training as a unit that performs high-risk
procedures. The term encompasses Israeli Filipino Knife Fighting, Israeli
Judo, Israeli Jiu-jitsu (Hisardut) and more. My medical insurance in Israel
says that I cannot do skydiving, skiing or Krav Maga. That does not mean
Krav Maga, it means any martial arts at all. So now a group has left the
military and started teaching to the civilian sector, and they call their
martial art Krav Maga. And for that reason Krav Maga is now being known as a
style.
The term Krav Maga to Israel is like the term Karate is
to Japan. To be more specific, if you are training in Japanese Karate, do
you know Shotokan, Kyokoshin Kai, Wado Ryu? These styles all have different
founders and are different organizations, but they are all Karate. Anyone
who says that they teach Krav Maga is not being specific, unlike Eli
Avikazar’s Krav Magen. For this reason when I came out for civilians I
decided to be more specific as to what style I do.
I have worked with other former Special Forces
instructors like Major Moni Isaac and Lt.Colonel Chaim Pe’er, and the
experience that each of us brings to the table is different than that of the
other. For that reason we know we must be more specific. We are very
different than Krav Maga.
My father started training years ago when Israel was
created as Kapap, and it is from this that my style comes from, even if
today some people call the style Lotar. My conclusion is that there is no
way anyone can own or copyright the name Krav Maga, it is simply too
general. There has already been a case involved with the copyrighting of the
term "Brazilian Jiu-jitsu" and the person suing lost, the term was too
general.
About the Authors:
Lt.Colonel Chaim Peer the president of Kapap – Lotar (www.kapap.net)
student of Imi Lichtenfeld and from the first Krav Maga instructors in
Israel and one of top Lotar instructors for the IDF , served in Israeli
special forces and run Tel Aviv university combat club, in between his
students the top secret service instructors, Yamam unit instructors and
troops as civilians.
Major Moni Aizik served in the Israeli Special forces and
from the creators of Krav Maga and the Israeli Martial arts and Hand to Hand
Moni Aizik was teaching Krav Maga (his way of Krav Maga – Edge combat) also
at his Maccabi Tel Aviv school from 1970 to 1985!
Major Avi Nardia is one of Israel’s top Hand-to-Hand
instructors in the arts of Kapap, Lotar, Hagana Hatzmit and Krav Maga. He
served as an instructor in Israel for 24 years, training military, law
Enforcement and Special Forces units in Israel and all over the world.
Email: avi@avinardia.com www.avinardia.com www.kapap.net
Johan Castillo a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu instructor as well
as Israeli Krav Maga instructor and Kapap Lotar and Kavana instructor that
teach for army troops hand to hand program
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