We invite you to join our community of elite practitioners to enhance your fitness, discipline, and personal safety. About Krav Maga........
Krav Maga is for everybody. “contact combat”, is the official self-defense and hand-to-hand combat system of Israel. Krav Maga is a very modern and practical style of self-defense that is the only style worldwide known as an art of self-defense and not as a
martial art. . This wholly unique and original method was developed and refined during years of conflict. Krav Maga emphasizes easy-to-learn techniques that have been battletested in real, life threatening confrontations. There is nothing flashy about the system. Krav Maga is a proven winner with the Israeli Defense Force, military, private bodyguards and law enforcement agencies worldwide, thanks to its no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners approach to warding off both armed and unarmed attackers. Originally developed in Hungary during the 1930s to protect Jews from N***s, Krav Maga seeks to inflict as much pain and damage on opponents as quickly as possible, utilizing hands, feet, knees and elbows as well as any other potential weapon that is readily available. Krav Maga integrates instinct based self-defense tactics, with a strong curriculum that trains aggressiveness, fighting spirit, situational awareness, and verbal de-escalation of conflict. Its anti-terrorist roots make it aggressive by design, with only one objective, to eliminate the threat in the fastest way possible. It is considered a highly refined, street fighting system, designed to be utilized against street attacks, muggings, and sexual assaults. Krav Maga was developed for use in the street. When an individual is attacked in the street there is no way to know how many opponents or weapons you might encounter, therefore Krav Maga training is based on a system without rules. This Israeli system emerged in an environment where extreme violence was common has been continually refined and developed in light of actual modern combat and self-defense experiences. Krav Maga has received international recognition for its unique approach in bringing self defense to civilian, military, and law enforcement alike. Krav Maga is quite literally the most battle proven self defense system in the world. KRAV MAGA HISTORY...
Imi Sde- founder of Krav Maga, was born in 1910 in Hungary and grew up in Bratislava, Slovakia. Imi became active in a wide range of sports including gymnastics, wrestling, and boxing. In 1928 Imi won the Slovakian Youth Wrestling Championship, and in 1929 the adult championship.That year he also won the national boxing championship and an international gymnastics championship. During the ensuing decade, Imi’s athletic activities focused mainly on wrestling, both as a contestant and a trainer. In the mid thirties conditions began to change in Bratislava and Imi felt he had to take his fighting skills to the streets to protect Jewish neighborhoods from the growing numbers of fascist and anti-Semitic thugs who swarmed in Bratislava at the time. Imi quickly found however that although boxing and wrestling were good sports they weren’t always practical for the aggressive and brutal nature of street fighting and he learnt the hard way that real life fighting was very different to competition fighting. It was then that he started to re-evaluate his ideas about fighting and started developing the skills and techniques that would eventually become Krav Maga. Having become a thorn in the side of the equally anti-Semitic local authorities, Imi left his home, family and friends in 1940 on the last refugee ship to escape Europe and the tightening N**i noose. Imi joined Israel’s pre-state Haganah military organization. In 1944 Imi began training fighters in his areas of expertise: physical fitness, swimming, wrestling, use of the knife, and defenses against knife attacks. During this period, Imi trained several elite units of the Haganah and Palmach , including the Pal-Yam, as well as groups of police officers. In 1948, when the State of Israel was founded and the IDF was formed, Imi became Chief Instructor for Physical Fitness and Krav Maga at the IDF School of Combat Fitness. He served in the IDF for about 20 years, during which time he developed and refined his unique method for self-defense and hand-to hand combat. After retiring from the army, Imi felt that Krav Maga could and should be adapted to meet the self-defense needs of civilians
In 1978, Lichtenfeld founded the non-profit Israeli Krav Maga Association (IKMA) with several senior instructors When Krav Maga started to spread beyond the borders of Israel, there arose a need to found an international organization. This happened mostly because the initial Krav Maga association existing at the time was divided and not functioning efficiently, due to dissension among the higher graded instructors.[citation needed] Imi Lictenfeld’s students and second generation of students of Imi’s students resulted in forming a new international Krav Maga federation with the support of his most loyal students and respected instructors, including Eyal Yanilov, Gabi Nach, Avi Moyal, and Eli Ben-Ami. Imi was fortunate enough to escape from Eastern Europe. He arrived in the Middle East and began fighting for the independence of Israel. Shortly after the formation of the fledgling State, Imi was handpicked by the government to create a practical, highly effective self-defense and hand to hand combat system for the military.
