Krav Maga

[CD Lee]

Ahhh, there is really no telling whether it is reasonable or not. If there are witnesses, then they will report what they see. If you took a martial stance, and as the guy reaches for you, you drove a straight right fist into his mouth, shattering his teeth and breaking his jaw in two places, you will likely lose in court.

And, if you are trained, and you did get the first strike in, with your hips turning and arm rotation, you will certainly bust something up real bad on his face.

If on the other hand as you say, you throw your arms up in a defensive position and as he reaches for you, you block him off his center, and project him away and run, you hopefully get out of the situation and stay out of court.

Obviously there is a great differene between fighting and self defense. Sometimes, you have to turn it into a real fight, but we should be aware of the issues, and what is going on.

I assure you, if you hurt the person seriously or even a little, you will be in court, and subjectivity and perception will prevail. When they find you are a trained martial artist, well more issues will be considered and you look like the bad Kung Fu guy, right or wrong.

[Former castleva]

That "kill or be killed" book I downloaded was awesome as CD Lee said,good stuff.
It actually reminds me of Krav Maga.
Very down-to-earth&somewhat practical.

[Rolling Elbow]

"realism".... on what i have seen of Krav Maga, sure it is high intensity HOWEVER, they are actually missing the "realism" aspect when they punch someone in the head 6 times and expect their balance NOT to have shifted backwards and then proceed to take them down in an arm bar FORWARDS. No concept of real movement and body reaction, TOTAL emphasis on overwhelming someone with strikes. News flash! If you hit someone hard in the head, their head will MOVE. So yes, i am sure it is useful but if they hit a punching bag now and again, they might see allot of their strikes going to waste!

[Rolling Elbow]

CD Lee..

good point, i usually don't engrain any neck techniques that involve snapping or breaking someone's neck. I see when i have them but don't even go through with the rotation or lift in the technique because it is not something i want engrained when i have adrenaline rushing through me like crazy. "kicked my car! now i'll break yer neck!"- not the way to go

I will say though, that when it comes to hitting, I wouldn't hit anyone with any less for "control"reasons. Anyone who lays a hand on you should be dealt with sufficiently so that you do not have to worry about continuously "controlling" them. Just don't stick around afterwards. You have to be an extremely high level practitioner NOT to hurt someone excessively in an altercation. Besides, the harder someone comes and the better you move, the more they end up hurting themselves. They begin running into your body weapons. Tough for them..

[CD Lee]

Rolling Elbow...

Yes I agree. The movement after a real strike is such a huge thing. You are absolutely right. I have seen videos on self defense (can't resist watching the different ideas) using in one case Karate. This one in particular sticks out in my mind. While the moves were overly aggressive, and very devastating, the series of three-four strikes in the technique seemed quite impossible if you acutally landed the first strike properly. It was obvious on this video that no account had been taken as to what would happen to a person if their face was struck violently.

Yes, the head would snap back, and the body would shift backwards. When the series of strikes would be preformed at speed for demonstration, they just looked very wrong. And that was what was wrong. It was not natural movement after the supposed strikes made contact. The person just stood there like a bag, and the karateka could land three more blows.

I don't think an untrained person could successfully land a three-four stike combination on an attacker anyways. I think a trained person is lucky to land a good two punch combination if they land the first blow in the series. And the only reason they might get the second one is because of distance control via FOOTWORK.

BTW, as far as ingraining, I have hesitated to ever ingrain the front of the throat as a striking target. While difficult to hit with a closed fist, it is three times easier, and very probable with a ridge hand or even open hand, uplifting blow.

[Yung Apprentice]

I've heard how this is some real good street self defense. But don't know to much about it.(I know this is similar to my Hapkido post)
Can anyone tell me more about it? Striking, or grappling or both?
Does it teach proper body mechanics for strong striking power?

[chen zhen]

It is an Israeli self-defence system used by police and counter-terrorism forces. From what I know it is mainly self-defence techniques like those taught on womens self-defence courses ( only more advanced, of course!), like standing joint-locks, throws and kneeing to the groin, kinda brutal, aggresive techniques.

[Yung Apprentice]

Is it useful in an actual fight? Has anyone on here ever taking Krav Maga?

[Yung Apprentice]

Is it effective? Has anyone trained in it? I was thinking about training in it, but would like to hear some of your opinions and thoughts on it. Here's the website to the school in my area. Please, feel free to tell me your honest opinion.

www.contactcombatsystems.com

[dnc101]

I've heard that it is effective, but that it is difficult to find a good school in the US. What little I've seen was dangerously inneffective. For example, trapping a knife hand/arm in the crook of your arm, or reaching straight down and grabbing his wrist. Both are good ways to get seriously cut. But if you need a quickly learned system I'd say give the school a chance. Just don't leave your brain in the dressing room while you decide if that school is effective.

[Mokujin]

Ignorance!

From what I've seen advertised, its supposed to take a newbie and transform'em to a human destroying machine. I also picked up a book and it showed a some high kicks, just above the waist. As a wing chun person myself, I shy away from that stuff unless your totally confident you won't get taken down after delivering a high kick.

Can you sit in on a class? If so, observe and go with your gut. I don't think there's any rule saying Krav Maga is free from the McDojo label. As I recall, Panther video has some demo footage on their site.

Good luck.

Peace!
Mokujin

[PHILBERT]

Originally posted by Mokujin
... As I recall, Panther video has some demo footage on their site...

Nah, Century Fitness took over Panther. If you type in panthervideo.com it'll take ya to there site and they dont have video clips there.

[Former castleva]

I think it has gained great reputation lately,as basic self-defence.
Having also been used by Israelian army.
I think their army´s famous motto sums it up pretty well,it goes;
K.I.S.S.=Keep it simple stupid?

"From what I've seen advertised, its supposed to take a newbie and transform'em to a human destroying machine. "
Mokujin is clever to point out that this is how he has seen it like.
But I think this claim also holds some water since their approach should be to enable you to find your way out of trouble in a practical&quick way in a minimum amount of time.

[chen zhen]

I have seen a book about the system, It's easy to find in martial arts stores I think. It's written by the systems founder, Imi Lichtenfeld. The basic techniques are shown in it.

[Kristoffer]

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