Krav Maga      

Krav Maga (contact combat) is a military self-defense and fighting system developed for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), using a combination of techniques sourced from boxing, wrestling, aikido, judo, and karate along with realistic fight training. Krav Maga is known for its focus on real-world situations and its extreme efficiency. The name, in Hebrew, can be translated as: The root word krav (קרב) means "combat", and and maga (מגע) means "contact".

Krav Maga is derived from the street-fighting experience of a Hungarian-Israeli martial artist, Imi Lichtenfeld, who made use of his training as a boxer and wrestler, while defending the Jewish Quarter against fascist groups in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia during the mid-to-late 1930's. In the late 1940's, following his migration to Israel, Lichtenfeld began to provide lessons on combat training to what would later become the IDF.

From its start, the original concept for Krav Maga was to take the most simple and practical techniques of other fighting styles that could be quickly taught to new military conscripts. Krav Maga's philosophy emphasizes aggression with simultaneous defensive and offensive maneuvers. Like most martial arts, Krav Maga encourages students to avoid confrontation. If this is not possible or is unsafe, it promotes finishing a fight as quickly and aggressively as possible. Attacks are aimed at the most vulnerable parts of the body, and training is not limited to techniques that avoid severe injury. Some techniques can permanently injure or cause death to the opponent. Students learn to defend against all variety of attacks, and are taught to counter in the quickest and most efficient way.

To that end, Krav Maga is an eclectic system that chose to use what is useful and efficient from currently existing systems, rather than re-invent or replace them. Examples of this, in Krav Maga techniques are strikes (from karate and boxing), take-downs and throws (from judo, aikido, and wrestling), ground work (from judo and wrestling), escapes from chokes and holds (from judo, aikido, and wrestling), and empty-hand weapon defenses (from aikido).

Ideas Of Krav Maga Include:

• Simultaneous attack and defense.
• Developing physical aggression (not to be confused with anger), with the view that physical aggression is the most important component in a fight.
• Continuing to strike the opponent until they are completely incapacitated.
• Attacking preemptively or counter attacking as soon as possible.
• Using any objects at hand that could be used to hit an opponent.
• Targeting attacks to the body’s most vulnerable points (eyes, neck, throat, face, solar plexus, groin, ribs, knees, foot, fingers, etc).
• Maintaining awareness of surroundings while dealing with the threat in order to look for escape routes, other attackers, or objects that could be used to strike an opponent.
• Recognizing the importance of, and expanding on, instinctive response under stress.

Training can also cover the study and development of situational awareness to develop and understanding of surroundings, learning to understand the psychology of a street confrontation, and identifying potential threats before an attack occurs. It may cover physical and verbal methods to avoid violence whenever possible. It may teach mental toughness, using controlled scenarios to strengthen mental fortitude in order to allow students to control the impulse to do something rash, but instead only attack when necessary and as a last resort.

Book Krav Maga lessons with Ehud, in Dayton, OH and surrounding areas (Beavercreek, Centerville, Kettering, Miamisburg, etc).