Krav Maga Is Not MMA (Mixed Martial Arts)
Krav Maga Books By Gershon Ben Keren
Krav Maga Yashir Boston Head Instructor
The Krav Maga Approach to Fighting
One of the biggest misunderstandings about Krav Maga is that it’s simply a collection of techniques drawn from other martial arts e.g., joint locks from Ju-Jitsu, groundwork from BJJ and striking and kicking from Muay Thai and Boxing etc. Whilst Krav Maga can be seen as a Mixed Martial Art/MMA, in that it teaches self-defense and fighting in all possible dimensions of a conflict e.g., when standing, when on the ground, when grappling, when at punching/kicking range etc. This doesn’t mean that it was created and developed by taking techniques from various martial arts who specialize in these particular dimensions e.g., the BJJ (Brazilian Ju-Jitsu), approach to groundwork and ground-fighting is very different to the Krav Maga approach; in Krav Maga the emphasis is on ground-survival - surviving on the ground (that particular dimension of the fight) but trying to get back to jour feet – so that you can ultimately disengage, rather than trying to finish the fight on the floor etc. When the goal is survival rather than competition the approach along with the techniques has to be different.
Another reason why Krav Maga doesn’t simply take/borrow techniques from other martial arts, and is very different to MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), is that Krav Maga looks to create “families” (to watch a video about this please click here) of techniques and reuse movements, so that a) the student/practitioner doesn’t have to learn a million different things but can learn and use common movements in a variety of different contexts and situations (the way Krav Maga blocks kicks from standing aggressors when on the ground is the same way that kicks are blocked when standing etc.), and b) practicing a few common movements against different attacks and threats means that the number of repetitions to “master” a movement is achieved quickly e.g., if you have to have 10 000 good repetitions to master a movement/technique and you have to learn 20 different techniques to deal with 20 different attacks and threats, to master those 20 techniques you would need to do a total of 200 000 repetitions. However, if using just four movements, you could learn how to deal with those 20 different attacks and threats because that movement/solution is reused you would learn to do so with 40 000 repetitions i.e., It would take you 20% of the time and practice to be able to do so.
The original goal of Krav Maga was to get the untrained soldier hand-to-hand combat ready in the shortest possible time. This couldn’t be achieved by simply taking a mixed martial arts/MMA approach. To cut down the time a person would be able to defend themselves meant finding common movements that could be re-used against different threats and attacks. This is at the heart of Krav Maga. For most people who have an active work and/or social life taking an MMA/Mixed Martial Arts approach to reality-based self-defense isn’t realistic; there just isn’t the time to learn different martial arts to a level of competency that would be needed to deal with a real-life confrontation. This is why Krav Maga’s approach has become so popular i.e., you learn what you need to know in a fifth of the time, meaning you can learn more in the time you have and become proficient at it faster.
At Krav Maga Yashir Boston we stay true to the approach that the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) has found effective for over seventy years; if this wasn’t an effective approach, they would have changed it as they are operating in one of the toughest environments on the planet. In a military where the stakes are high if something isn’t working you change it. This doesn’t mean that Krav Maga hasn’t evolved however it stays true to the concepts and principles such as using families of techniques, which allow it to effectively train people how to defend themselves in the shortest possible time. Krav Maga Yashir’s head instructor, Gershon Ben Keren, was trained in Israel and continues to go back there to train, as well as bringing Krav Maga instructors over from Isreal to conduct seminars etc. If you want to experience authentic Israeli Krav Maga, and not a mix of techniques from different martial arts labelled and packaged as Krav Maga, you can sign up for one of our beginner classes using the button below.
Book Class