Krav Maga, opinions and Spiritual or just self defense?

[glow]

I really don't know much about Krav Maga but I am moving to a city I don't consider the safest. I took Tae Kwon Do when I was little but it's been awhile. I am looking for something I can deffinately use to protect myself and others, and I mean protect myself not just knock someone on their *. Is there much kicking in KM? I mean I loved the kicking aspect of Tae Kwon Do and I have strong legs so I duno if KM offers that. But I am also curious if there is something more to Krav Maga. Or if it is really just a empty fighting technique.

[DeadCell]

There is kicking just from the waist down. Kneeing is more their our style. What Krav Maga does is take out all the * and gives the student an instictive way to fight meaning if someone were to say grab my throat, I have done a specific move to counter that so many times it becomes instictive. KM also goes into the psyhchology of a fight and the state of mind you need to be in. Put it this way KM is about ending the fight as quick as possible.

 

One thing, if your hood is that bad......get a gun. A Ranger told me one time " I dont care who you are, I have a .45 with 7 bullets that says your not going to get within 3 feet of me, and if you do you aint gunna be in any shape to fight me".

[Luckykboxer]

the more i look at Krav Maga the mroe my impression has turned negative about it.

 

I am going to be taking a seminar over several days so i will have some first hand knowledge, but i have a strong feeling its basically going to be what I already learned firsthand over many streetfights.

 

Good thing is for those that dont streetfight they can probably learn fairly practical manuevers to use, bad part is, if it isnt practiced like anything else it isnt going to work.

 

I am looking forward to this though and will see if it changes my opinion

[Fat Donkey]

I've just started Krav and it is pretty good. The focus is strictly on self defense and ferocity in the attacks. Like Lucky I've got a lot of styles under my belt including MT so the transition was pretty hard. But they use the best from every style including MT and we will be bringing in a BJJ guy to teach grappling. How many schools do that? Also it gets more intense as u progress and hard sparring is included. It is probably the best self defense style out there, even though I still love MT. In MT we train for 4 to 6 hrs to fight other fighters. Krav is poke in the eye, kick em in the nuts kind of style. Hope that helps. PS they have a very good organisation with only one governing body so there r no fakes or Mcdojos.

[delta1]

the more i look at Krav Maga the mroe my impression has turned negative about it. I am going to be taking a seminar over several days so i will have some first hand knowledge,...I am looking forward to this though and will see if it changes my opinion

 

I'll be interested to hear about it. The little KM I've seen, I really thought was bogus. Things like leaning way forward with strikes and maneuvers, and relying a lot on traping weapons in the crook of a bent arm (especially knives!?). But I allways hesitate to judge solely on limmited exposure. I've heard that some KM in the US is better than others, and I may have seen McKrav.

I've just started Krav and it is pretty good. The focus is strictly on self defense and ferocity in the attacks....they use the best from every style including MT and we will be bringing in a BJJ guy to teach grappling. How many schools do that?

 

That is getting to be more common to include grappling in the carriculum. Most of the TKD schools in this region do that, as well as other schools I've visited. And a lot more are cross training in other stand up arts as well.

Also it gets more intense as u progress and hard sparring is included.

 

That's a good thing. One of the things I do like about their method is that (at least what I saw) they try to induce stress and unpredictable environmental factors with hard contact sparing. Things like, on a signal, one or everyone watching will throw things at one or both fighters. We do similar things in Kenpo.

 

 

It is probably the best self defense style out there,...Krav is poke in the eye, kick em in the nuts kind of style.

 

Sounds like the Kenpo/Kempo styles.

...they have a very good organisation with only one governing body so there r no fakes or Mcdojos.

 

I wouldn't count on it. Anything that has a good rep, or is good, will be used by the charlatins to make a fast buck. KM is the flavor of the day right now, and guaranteed some jerks are going to try and cash in on it. But if it works for you, and you've found a good school, that's the important thing. Keep us updated. We'll be gentle- honest !

[gimgamgommetje]

I've done an instructor course run bij the IKMF.

 

I was quite impressed by a lot of the techniques an drills.

 

Most of the trainees on the course were already instructors in various martial arts such as muay thai, (brazilian) jiu jitsu etc.

 

All were very impressed by the style.

 

The thing is we had very great instructors (Eyal Yanilov, Amnon Darsa)

 

I think like any other style having a good instructor is the key here.

 

krav maga is a very basic self defense style. The techniques are usually very simple and short. That said, don't expect any fancy stuff.

 

When it comes to trapping with knifes. It works if done right.

 

It's not the ideal situation in witch you perform those techniques.

 

If someone attacks you from extremely close range with a knife stab into your belly area you have no time to get away or out of the line of attack. So you trap the arm while you counter attack.

 

As soon as you have enough space you do other things.

 

Krav maga in our organisation is devided roughly in civilian, law enforcement and military self defense/ combat courses.

 

You can also take VIP protection courses etc.

 

So if you like to get more advanced it is possible. Only maybe you should look beyond your own instructor, or even consider a trip to Israel.

 

It's also up to the instructor how they teach. Techniques should be pretty much the same however when it comes to sparring, inducing stress , real life scenario's etc. it's up to the instructor.

 

You can have training sessions of 1 hour with 30 minutes warm up/ cardio and 10 minutes cooling down, leaving 20 minutes for techniques etc.

 

You can have 90 minutes sessions with 10 minutes combat oriented warm up and more combat/ technique training the rest of the class.

 

So you can make it as effective or ineffective as you please.

 

so go check it out, and if your instructor is not so good,, well maybe you should consider something else with a good instructor.

[The Hammer]

From what I've seen and experienced of KM, I would say it is very effective and intuitive. Physical conditionind and training helps.

[Luckykboxer]

well from my first experience with it, I would say it puts together different offensive moves from several different styles.

 

Absolutely zero self defense, everything was offense.

 

Was interesting, but I am really not sure what to think about it at this point.

 

I cant give it a good or a bad recomendation.

 

I got the feeling that it was not so much a learned art, as much as a memorized art.

 

I am going to be meeting with them again this weekend, I am not sure if my first experience with it was simply one sided due to the limited nature of what we were doing, or if that truely is the main point of the art.

 

Will post more as i experience more

[47MartialMan]

It is just another way to streamline the sport and flashy tactics and combine many martial art systems/methods

[opnek]

You may be interested in taking kenpo. Its just about right up your alley.

 

Scientific, controlled, and very dangerous.

 

A thinking mans fighting art.