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Krav Maga: Ultimate art or overrated art?
Lately, many martial art magazines are claiming that Krav Maga has the best gun defenses and is the most efective style there is. Do you guys agree? Or do you think it will turn out to be another one of those styles that is believed to be "the best" for a period of time, only to beproven otherwise.
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I have a long time student that joined the israeli army. He would periodically beat the tar out of his krav maga instructor and point out the weak points of his point of view. That doesn't mean krav maga sucks but it does mean that no art can really claim to be the ultimate. In the end it boils down to time and experience.
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Hi, I'm a senior lead instructor in Krav Maga and a friend just pointed toward this discussion group.
KM has never claimed to be the "best" -- I'm not even sure what that means. We do believe we are one of the most complete systems, and we do claim to have the most realistic training approach. In fact, it's for this second reason that we never claim to be the "best." We use techniques that work for everyone. You don't have to devote a lifetime to training or be an incredible physical specimen to perform them. If someone devotes a lifetime to physical conditioning and training every day, then at the end of a lifetime of training they might be able to perform techniques that MIGHT work better than ours.
My personal belief, having studied several systems, is that most other techniques won't work better, but that's a very personal opinion, not the position of KM as a whole.
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Welcome aboard John. I don't think we've ever had a KM person here before. It'd be nice to hear your perspective on things. Can you point us to any good KM sites, books or videos?
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John, welcome, it's nice to finally meed a KM person....
What I have seen of KM doesn't seems suited to "everyone". They seem very well suited to a fit, adult, male (I assume the target audience of a millitary combat system) but looked prone to being overwhelmed if there is a size/strength deficiency in the practitioner.
What I have seen of KM also looked less sophisticated than similar arts, again, I assumed this was because of the focus of the training to make competent fighters out of adult males in short time rather than extreme fighters out of anyone in a great deal of time.
I could go into greater detail, but so far, no one has ever continued a discussion after asking for opinions on KM, so I'll save the keystrokes to see if this topic continues.
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I have only seen a little of Krav Maga, but my Dad met a few Isreali Special Forces guys when he was in Saudi Arabia for Desert Storm. He said the **** is effective and brutal. Some of the stuff is executed on pure balls and adrenaline. Breaking their arms while ripping out their windpipe, stuff like that. A survival art. My Dad is/was a US Army Ranger with wrestling and Judo experience, so I would assume he knows a little about what he's talking about. Any comments johnw?
[This message has been edited by Iron_Monkey (edited 08-19-2000).]
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Brutal, cruel, nasty, hateful, evil....just plain mean? Don't throw me in the briar patch! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
Chris
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Those are descriptive of what I have seen. Though if you have ever looked at arts like Harimau or Puter Kapala or Madi, they are worse (better?).
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It is a proven system and one I respect. As far as gun defense techniques go, I have seen dozens of styles that are a joke... I only have ssen a couple that are REALTIVELY effective and I consider KM among these.
I would like to hear what the instructor has to say about this as I have never trained in KM and only sparred with people from the Isreali Military. They have the mind-set down and believe me that is one of the best advantages a fighter can have.
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i have only read about it but it looks pretty good. i have to say it looks alot like ving tsun, except its lacks abit in steping.
in a mag it has a picture of a knife defence were they use a technique like a reverse tan sao but he stepped straight at him giving the attacker an easier way to stop it. by striking down he would have sliced his arm. if he had used the ving tsun step at the angle it would give him a better chance of not getting cut.
but thats just my opinon.
see ya
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Having trained in several other martial arts, and now training in Krav Maga, I thought I would add my 2 cents to the discussion. KM is by far the most practical/realistic MA I have practiced. As JohnW pointed out, I agree that one of the strengths of KM is the "real world" training. KM training is also based on instinctive movements... thereby making the techniques easier to learn and to remember under the stress of a street attack. Furthermore, we always train from a disadvantage (i.e. eyes closed, neutral/relaxed position when attacked) to help develop effective responses in the worst possible scenarios.
As for the weapons defenses, KM tries to keep things simple but effective. The more decisions you have to make in a fight, the longer the lag time in your response, and the greater the risk of harm. For example, the defense to a gun in the middle back is the same, regardless of the height of the weapon or whether the gun is being held with one or two hands. If I have to spend my time thinking of how the gun is being held, and which defense to use if the gun is at my shoulder blades or down by my lower back, then I am wasting precious time.
Finally, although I have only been training in KM for about 5 months now, I have more confidence in these techniques than I have ever had from 4 years of training in other systems. Again, nothing against other martial arts which each have their own benefits, just a note of support for Krav Maga.
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DUDE...all those MAGAZINES claim there system is the BEST! Krav Maga is a very good self defense system...it's applications from other styles...basically it teaches you how to TOAST someone and ball out! Disarming seems to be key in this art...
Is it the BEST???
It's pretty effective but the BEST is up to your own attributes and so forth!
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That site didn't seem to have much actual info. The pictures looked like serak without the pukilan or foot skills.
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There is a Krav Magna studio down the street from me in Costa Mesa, CA. I have always been a little curious about it, maybe I'll check it out one day. As a side note and I don't know if this is true or not, but I heard Krav Magna students never spar, can anyone back this up?-ED
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