What Is Krav Maga?
Krav Maga is a modern, practical and proven system of self defense, carefully conceived for today’s volatile world. It is not a martial art or combat sport. Instead, it is a highly refined survival system designed for the personal safety of ordinary people. It is characterised by a logical and coherent approach to self defence and fighting confrontations that enables one to achieve a relatively high level of proficiency within a short period of instruction. The system has consistently earned the praise of experienced fighters, martial arts experts, and military and police officers for its highly practical applications, but in essence it also appeals to beginners because of its simple, no-nonsense and realistic approach to personal safety.
Krav Maga, meaning in Hebrew “contact combat”, is the official system of self defence and hand-to-hand combat of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Israeli National Police and other security services. Krav Maga is taught extensively in public schools and educational centres affiliated with the Israeli Ministry of Education.
Since the early 80’s Krav Maga has spread outside the borders of Israel and is now also widely practiced throughout the world, being particularly strong in Europe and North America. In those regions, Krav Maga is part of the official defensive tactics syllabus for many military, police and security organisations. Krav Maga is also practiced by many thousands of civilians of all ages in more than 30 countries throughout the world, including in Australia.
It is important to note that all the Krav Maga techniques have been thoroughly tested in real-life situations, improved upon and refined accordingly. With training methods that have been proven effective under the harshest conditions on the battlefield and on the street, Krav Maga is widely regarded as one of the most credible self defence systems available in the world today.
What Makes Krav Maga Unique?
The emphasis of Krav Maga is on pragmatic self-defence for the civilian and efficient defensive tactics for security and military professionals. Apart from a core of empty-hand striking, grappling and ground-work, training places heavy emphasis on defending against the full range of real-world threats and attacks: from common strikes, grabs, chokes, headlocks and other holds through to high risk situations involving weapons including knives, sticks and firearms. Training is conducted where the danger is against oneself or a third party (eg VIP Protection or hostage situations). These problems are trained in any position – front, side and rear – as well as standing, seated, grounded and moving, and in all those contexts against multiple opponents. Just as important, Krav Maga training teaches people to respond and function correctly during the enormous stress and shock of a sudden, real-life violent encounter.
Krav Maga students train in using common, everyday objects as weapons, such as chairs, backpacks, pens, coffee mugs, etc. Krav Maga teaches multiple-opponent defence as part of its syllabus emphasises environmental training (field training – eg. in open and confined spaces, in and around cars, in water, etc) and contains many exercises and drills to put students under physical and psychological stress in order to acclimatise the student to the stressors of real self defence. However, our objective is for all trainees to participate in all types of training without getting hurt – and so we place a premium on safety-in-training.
