Why Krav Maga?
Posted by BadReligion
In my study of close quarters hand-to-hand combat I have become quite familiar with a vicious fighting technique called Krav Maga.
To describe Krav Maga briefly, Krav Maga is easy to learn, hard to master, the strikes are often lethal and the overall goal is to avoid harm, even though this often means leaving your attacker incapacitated.
One of the most important attributes that I have found in Krav Maga as a self defense mechanism is that Krav Maga is easy to learn. The main reason this is true is because Krav Maga builds off of our initial instincts, thus cutting out all the rigorous training to restructure the way our mind and body reacts to high stress, high danger situations. Krav Maga, for the most part, avoids using complex movements that are difficult to understand and remember. The reason this is so important is because the majority of people who want to learn to defend themselves do not have enough time or ability to learn such difficult and time consuming tactics.
Another piece of Krav Maga that impresses me is the focus on eliminating the threat quickly and efficiently. Once the area is freed of threats one is to immediately leave the area. It may seem cold if the assailant is hurt maybe even terminally, however consider that the assailant may have been trying and still might try to cause equal or greater harm.
Lastly Krav Maga addresses issues that many other hand-to-hand combat techniques have neglected to assess. Often assailants are bigger and stronger than the victim in physical attacks. It is not particularly easy nor safe for an average sized female to try to execute a hip toss on a 200 pound man. In the same situaton that other hand-to-hand combat systems may teach a hip toss, Krav Maga would prefer more lethal attacks that provide ultimate stopping power. For example a hard forehand chop to the neck, hammer fist to the clavicle, or a backhand like chop to the front of the throat.
Although I appreciate all martial arts, I have boxed for many years and even had a taste of MMA, for raw hand-to-hand combat survival I would put my trust in Krav Maga.
Krav Maga can teach discipline but most important of all the system design is largely geared toward self preservation. Krav Maga enables a victim to deal with multiple opponents, weapons like blunt objects, knives, even guns. Krav Maga like any combat system is not easy to master, it is however easy to learn and understand well enough to use in real life situations, after all that is what it is designed for.
Plenty of great resources and instructional videos are available just give a quick search on YouTube or Google Video.
