Krav Maga is a self defense system consisting of practical, hands on hands techniques. The combat system takes an approach to self defense by making use of no weapons or equipment of any kind but straightforward moves. A wide range of techniques are covered under Krav Maga and the main influences are drawn from sports like boxing, wrestling, aikido, and judo. The system also keeps realistic situations in mind which makes the techniques more practical and helpful in real life scenarios where one needs to defend oneself.
The system was developed by Imi Lichtenfeld for the Israeli Defense Forces. Imi had always been actively involved in a wide array of sports and physical fitness activities but during the time of anti-Semitic riots, he realised that contest fighting sports like boxing and wrestling were not designed to protect the person from real life threats. These sports did not cover aspects like getting stabbed in the stomach or having pepper thrown in your eyes. This is when he started to reevaluate his fighting styles. When he came to Israel with his friends and family, he started to train fighters in the techniques he had created. Soon, there were soldiers and police officers coming to him to learn and he became the Chief Instructor of Physical Fitness of Israeli Defense Forces and the unique technique of Krav Maga were added to the training course.
The basic ideas of Krav Maga are based on the following:
Counterattacking skills – when attacked, one must know how to escape the attack and make a move to hurt the opponent. Stop the attack and seize the opportunity to attack back as quickly as possible.
Attacking the soft or vulnerable points of the body – Krav Maga is not just about attacking, it is about attacking to maximise the damage to the opponent. In real life situations which call for quick action, targeting the soft points like groin, eyes, face, feet, fingers, neck etc. is what Krav Maga techniques teach you to do.
Maximising effectiveness and efficiency – One needs to be quick and efficient with their moves so the opponent can be thrown off immediately.
Maintaining awareness – one must be aware of their surroundings.
Krav Maga was soon not limited to just defence personnel of Israel and was made available to civilians who would also benefit from the hands on street fight technique. The grading system of the sport is based on the grading system of Judo as it starts in white belt and ends in black belt. However, some trainers prefer to do away with the grading system, claiming that it distracts from effective self defence training and aim to provide a complete and well-rounded syllabus from the very beginning.