Krav Maga

Krav Maga was developed in Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the 1930s by Imi Lichtenfeld, also known as Imi Sde-Or. (Sde-Or - "Light Field" - is a calque of his surname into Hebrew.) He first taught his fighting system in Bratislava in order to help protect the Jewish community from Nazi militias. Upon arriving in the British Mandate of Palestine prior to the establishment of the Jewish state, Imi began teaching hand-to-hand combat to the Haganah, the Jewish underground army. 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 about 20 years, during which time he continued to develop and refine his hand-to-hand combat method. He died in January 1998 in Netanya, Israel.

Since Imi's death Krav Maga has soared in popularity and is now taught across the globe. Several major krav maga organsations exist: IKMA, IKMF, KMWW and KMF

If you're thinking of taking up krav maga classes then you're probably interested in exactly what goes on in them.

I can only speak from my experience as naturally the exact nature of the training will vary depending on where you train.

A typical class begins with a brisk warmup, this can take the form of stretching, various 'games' to get the heart pumping, slow fighting (using combinations of combatives either against an imaginary opponent or a partner or the whole class even!) and lots of conditioning excercises such as press ups, sit ups, squats etc. The instructors usually find plenty of ways to mix things up so that the warmup is both interesting but also physically taxing. Don't worry though, if you're not in the best shape no one will shout at you if you can't do every excercise, do as much as you can. Krav maga is supposed to be inclusive, for all to be able to learn regardless of age, strength or gender.

From then on there are any number of possible drills that will be worked on depending on your level of competence and what the instructor wants to work on that week specifically. At the lowest levels you will be learning basic combatives (punches, kicks, elbows, knee strikes etc) as well as some defenses against these kind of attacks. You will also learn certain techniques such as how to release from chokes and headlocks for instance. As you progress more variations on the basic techniques will be introduced and you will learn to deal with attacks from all angles, against multiple attackers, against weapons and so on. The lesson will then often end with more stretching, games or conditioning excercises.