What is Krav Maga?

Krav Maga (pronounced "Krav-mah-Gawh") is a military self-defence and fighting system developed for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The name in Hebrew can be translated as "contact combat". The root word 'krav' means "combat" and 'maga' means "contact".

It is derived from 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 in the world of martial arts.

Krav Maga originated from the street-fighting experience of Hungarian-Israeli martial artist, Imi Lichtenfeld. He made use of his training as a boxer and wrestler while defending the Jewish quarter against fascist groups in Czechoslovakia, during the mid-1930s. In the late 1940s, following his migration to Israel, he began to provide martial arts lessons in combat training to what was to become the IDF.

The original concept of the art of Krav Maga was to take the most simple and practical techniques of other fighting styles such as European boxing, wrestling & street- fighting, and to make them rapidly teachable to military conscripts. Like most martial arts, Krav Maga encourages students to avoid physical confrontation, if possible.

Krav Maga has been used by the Israel Defense Forces' special forces units, security forces and by regular infantry units. There are several international martial arts organizations teaching many variations of Krav Maga.