Danny Williams Combat Martial Arts Program, Krav Maga

  At DWCMAP, Modern Krav Maga is an effective and dynamic self-defense system. It is at the heart of Mixed Modern Combatives because it pulls from different fighting systems, and we fine-tune our modern version to be relevant and applicable for all people in today’s world. You will find more wrestling in our system than your traditional, manual-based Krav Maga systems.

Krav Maga (lit. 'contact combat') is an Israeli Martial Art. Developed for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) it is derived from a combination of techniques used in aikido, judo, karate, boxing, and wrestling.  It is known for its focus on real-world situations and its extreme efficiency. Hungarian-born Israeli martial artist Imi Lichtenfeld, who made use of his training as a boxer and wrestler to defend Jews in  war against fascist groups in the mid-to-late 1930s, developed Krav Maga through his experiences in street fighting. After his immigration to Mandatory Palestine in the late 1940s, he began to provide lessons on combat training to Jewish paramilitary groups that would later form the IDF during the Israeli War of Independence.

From the outset, the original concept of Krav Maga was to take the most effective and practical techniques of other fighting styles (originally European boxing, wrestling, and street fighting) and make them rapidly teachable to conscripted soldiers. It has a philosophy emphasizing aggression and simultaneous defensive and offensive maneuvers, and has been used by Israeli special forces and regular infantry units alike. Closely related variations have been developed and adopted by Israeli law enforcement and intelligence organizations, and there are also several organizations teaching variations of Krav Maga internationally. Additionally, there are two forms of Krav Maga, with one type adapted for Israeli security forces and the other type adapted for civilian use.

 The term krav maga in Hebrew is literally translated as 'contact combat' – the three letter root of the first word is k-r-v (קרב), and the noun derived from this root means either "combat" or "battle"; whereas the second word is a participle form derived from the verb root n-g-'a (נגע), that literally means either "contact" or "touch".

 Like most martial arts, Krav Maga encourages students to avoid physical confrontation. If this is impossible or 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 even 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.

Ideas in Krav Maga include:

• Simultaneous defense and attack.
• Developing physical aggression (not to be confused with emotional aggression or 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 pre-emptively or counterattacking 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, such as: the eyes, neck or throat, face, solar plexus, groin, ribs, knee, foot, fingers, liver, etc.
• Using simple and easily repeatable strikes.
• Maintaining awareness of surroundings while dealing with the threat in order to look for escape routes, further attackers, or objects that could be used to strike an opponent.
• Developing muscle memory for quick reaction in fight.
• Recognizing the importance of and expanding on instinctive response under stress.

Training can also cover the study and development of situational awareness to develop an understanding of one's surroundings, learning to understand the psychology of a street confrontation, and identifying potential threats before an attack occurs. It may also cover physical and verbal methods to avoid violence whenever possible. It also teaches mental toughness, using controlled scenarios to strengthen mental fortitude in order for students to control the impulse and not do something rash, but instead attack only when necessary and as a last resort.

 Some of the key focuses of techniques in Krav Maga are—as described above—effectiveness and instinctive response under stress. To that end, Krav Maga is an eclectic system that has not sought to replace existing effective techniques, taking what is useful from available systems, for example:

• Strikes – as per karate, and boxing,
• Take-downs and throws – per judo, aikido and wrestling
• Ground work – per judo, wrestling, and jiu-jitsu
• Escapes from chokes and holds – per judo, aikido, wrestling
• Empty-hand weapon defenses – per aikido

 The IDF offers a five-week Krav Maga instructor course. It has held an annual Krav Maga competition since May 2013.

 Upon Imi Lichtenfeld's retirement from the IDF, he decided to open a school and teach Krav Maga to civilians. The first Krav Maga course took place at the Wingate Institute, Netanya, Israel, in 1971, under his direct supervision.

 Grading system

Most of the Krav Maga organizations in Israel use Imi Lichtenfeld's colored belt grading system which is based upon the Judo ranking system. It starts with white belt, and then yellow, orange, green, blue, brown and black belts. Black belt students can move up the ranks from 1st to 9th Dan. The time and requirements for advancing have some differences between the organizations.

Other organizations that teach Krav Maga in and outside of Israel use similar grading systems.

A patch system was developed by Eyal Yanilov in the late 1980s. The grades are divided into three main categories; Practitioner, Graduate and Expert. Each of the categories, which are often abbreviated to their initials, has five ranks. Grades P1 through to P5 are the student levels and make up the majority of the Krav Maga community.  After P5 are G1-G5, and in order to achieve Graduate level the student has to demonstrate a proficiency in all of the P level techniques before advancing.

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