Krav Maga in brief ...

 

Krav Maga is a self defense method elaborated firstly in Israel by Imi Lichtenfeld (Sde Or in hebrew) after the second world war.

The first aim was to help the jew community to defend themselves against hostile people (nazis and "their likers").

The founder was himself athlete and aknowledgable in Jujitsu (black Belt) , wrestling , boxe , Savate , Karate and Gymnastic ...

Krav Maga is now taught in many elite (Swat , Raid , FBI , SAS , Mossad ... ) forces because his efficience has been proven.

 

Krav Maga is not really considered like martial art because martial art by essence follow rules and restrictions. Also in Krav Maga we do not have competition. Our aim is not the competition but to survive to a threat. As consequence because our live can be in danger , we are allow to use everything , every kind of strikes (nothing is forbidden) - Kick to the groin , gouge the eyes , press the eyes balls , squeeze the testicule , destroy the knee cap ... or use a pen , knife ... (that's doesn't mean that in course there is no limit, the aim is to train safely and not send student to hospital).

 

Of course we can't apply unnecessary pain , the answer should be proportional to the threat.

Imi died some years ago and actually there is not only one central federation but dozens ...

Actually there is many kind of Krav Maga, some are good and authentic , some federations have improved some techniques, that's not forbidden because Krav Maga is evolutive and some have totally denatured the original techniques and the efficiency underlayed .

Krav Maga is also considered like commercial brand for some federations (hence you should be careful about who is teaching). Some so called teacher hail their expertise but without solid foundation and even risky techniques.

Imi had officially endorsed some representative in area and some federation are more trusty than others.

Richard Douieb has been endorsed for the Europe via FEKM ,Kobi Lichtenstein  for Brazil etc ...

Other federations have been set up with aknowledgable people as head instructor : IKMF , IKMA , KMG ... (Moyal , Noah, Gidon, Yanilov  ... )

You may found many possible defenses for one threat. There is actually many DVD and books made to have this overview from the aboved mentionned federation.

Krav Maga is dynamic , there is always improvement ongoing , its not rare that your teacher can say : this technique has been overseeded by another one better.

 

Krav Maga needs high pre-requisite ?

 

No , what you need is to not have severe health problem ,good motivation and be serious . Everyone improves at his own speed because sonme people are just more fit and maybe more talented , that's also require to be regular, because Krav Maga is about instinctive work.

 

 

Krav Maga needs good physical condition ?

 

To start Krav Maga , you do not need to be an athlete or with in very good condition. However it is need to reach a certain level of shape after a while , because you can not defend yourself efficiently if your condition is too weak.

Your condition will improve little by little and you can still pratice other sport beside to powerup.

 

 

How many hours do you need to train per week ?

 

Well I would not say TRAIN as much as you can because your body should also rest and you should not overtrain otherwise you are more able to make your body tired and trigger some injuries.

When I trained Krav Maga in France I used to train 2-3 times per week (we had 11 trainings per week - 50 % of them  done by my main teacher and others by other instructors ) + I trained 2 times per week french Savate . In Krav Maga Sofia , I propose just 2 trainings per week because I am full time employee and the group is still small. Most of people can not train always but I advise to train at least once per week. If you train not often you will not improve really fast and you will forget more easily. Krav Maga relies a lot on instincts and reflexes that you will develop.

Krav Maga is not just only kick in the balls and eyes gouge but hundreds of technique ( I think more that 400-500 ).

If you train to rarely , you will have the feeling to not improve enough fast and you will loose motivation.

I advise personaly to train other things beside , it can be another martial arts or even fitness.

Krav Maga is not a fitness course or musculation course , we try to develop many skills ( physical , technical , mental ) at the same time.

Thats not bad also to train with different teacher also , because every teacher have some specialities and stress some fields more than others.

I used to train with 2 teacher in the same week when I trained in my Club. (basically we had main 1 teacher + 4 other instructors).

 

Krav Maga is complicated ?

 

No , the technique should be easy to remember and simple , our first answer to a threat is instinctive answer so it can be not be complicated . So the simplicty matters a lot. Your brain should remember it easily.

 

 

Krav Maga is used only by special forces ?

 

No , anybody can learn Krav Maga , it doesn't require strong pre-requisite. I believe that it should be taught to people over 15 years old in general. You need also to not have cardiovascular problem or at least to do what you can do.

 

KravMaga is well designed for woman ?

 

Yes it is, because we use dirty trick and Krav Maga do not emphasize on strenght , "dirty strike" would be their only chance to escape from skilled man agressor who is often 40 kg more and 20 cm bigger. Krav Maga is designed to work for everybody. If size matter too much then this technique is not properly eligible to Krav Maga arsenal.

We work also in a progressive way without the aim to injure our partner in the drill.

Keep also in mind that its extremly difficult to defend against someone which is skilled and bigger than you. Maybe the good answer will after hitting vital part to run away and shout.

Krav Maga do not intend to make you a wonderwoman but at least to not freeze and try some dirty tricks automatically when you face such stressy situation.

 

About the Grade and instruction level ...

 

There is 2 system of Grade ( the Patch and the Belt ). The patch are used mainly in IKMF and KMG. The Belt in IKMA , FEKM , KMF-AC ...

The patch system is about 5 Level for practitioners and 5 Level for Graduate , then Expert level 5 level and Master level is 5 Level. We consider that a black belt id Expert Level 1. However the instruction grade is from G1 (almost 30 months of instruction + GIC - Grade Instructor Course of couple of week )

The Belt system is traditional one - Yellow Orange Green Blue Brown and Black and then the Darga or Dans.

The instructor level is most of the time given by a black belt ( it requieres around 6-7 years to be in general).

So be aware that an instructor grade can different from a federation to another.

It is preferable that a instructor have more than 5 years of experience in the field , of course his own personality play a role in the way that he can instruct , a good technician and fighter can be bad teacher ...

 

What kind of grade can I get with Krav Maga Sofia ?

 

First of all when we practice a martial art , it matters more what we can learn than to try to get a rank. You can have a black belt in Krav Maga but from a bad federation and it doesn't mean that you can be good fighter or deal with the stressy situation.

I do not personaly delivers any grade or patch.I am not endorsed for this , I should be an high expert. It doesn't mean that in future I ll be not able to do it. I do not have the credentials to do that. I am neither black belt or Gx or E1. I am an advanced student with several years of Krav Maga behind his backand still under instruction.My aim is not also to give a diploma without meanings.

 

Do we fight a lot ?

 

We do fight as drill (fight drill are important to develop our skills ), but most of the time they are soft it's in general 10 min per session. But we do the drill fight a slow speed and lower impact most of the time. So we do not get hurt and injuried, and we tend to learn better at slow speed and optimize our technics.

However it is advised sometimes to make hard fight (only for advanced student or the ones who wish) , it's a way to deal with the stress.

 

Can I be injuried ?

 

Yes it can happen because we are not playing card obviously. Nevertheless it's rare because the technique are taught without impact or with some retention. The aim is not to send the students to Hospital but to learn in the safest way.

Because I am careful about the safety of my students , I asked them to wear protections for sex part , shin , teeth and gloves.

After 7 years of Krav Maga, I have been injuried rarely (most of the times in other martial arts that I pratice beside ), thats happen to have a blue on body or to eyes but its rare. You try to not injury our partner or ourselves. That's why Imi was not in favor for competition in Krav Maga. Competition means hard fight and some injuries. If you re injuried you can not defend efficiently.

 

Krav Maga is the suprem martial art ?

 

No, it depends what you are looking for first of all . There is no suprem or better martial art just some are better designed for ground fight , standing fight , and some for the self defence. MMA make for example good fighter. I truly believe that Krav Maga is one of the best for the self defence. That doesn't mean that a MMA fighter can't defend himself in the street, but in MMA do we learn how to defend against knife ?

 

In the ring or Dojo , we can find really good fighter in many martial art. I am almost sure that if a Kravist play in the rules of a good boxer, this last one would surely win. To use a metaphore that my teacher use to say : "' we should be like 4x4 , able to defend in all field of fight " , we are maybe not the most resilient car or the fastest car ...

 

Krav Maga is not really a martial art and there is no competition hence we do not have so called championand there is no Ultimate fight.

A Krav Maga practitionner would rather try to handle with any kind of fight , his field of expertise would be rather average in all.

We are not the specialist of Kick , Punch , Ground fight , knife fight ... We have a set of tools in hand and we should survive.

To have technique against one kind of threat doesn't mean that we can't be injuried. By knowing a technique , we can mess it in the stress situaton or the technique can be not totally fully appropriated but we increase greatly our chance to cope with the threat.