About The Krav Maga Yashir System

About Israeli Krav Maga

Krav Maga (meaning “Contact Combat”) in Hebrew is the close combat fighting system used by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). The approach aims to get the untrained, non-athletic, new recruit combat ready in the shortest possible time. To do this, rather than focusing on complex techniques, with many moving parts, like most martial arts and combat sports, Krav Maga looks to use natural and instinctive movements that already exist e.g., the system uses the flinch/startle reflex, which everybody has, as the foundation for its blocking system etc. Krav Maga is based upon how you will naturally respond when attacked, rather than how you might think you would or should respond when assaulted. This is one of the reasons why it is looked on as the most effective self-defense systems around. It isn’t designed for the ring or the cage, but for real-life situations and contexts. To read more about some of the reasons why Krav Maga is so effective at dealing with real-world violence, you can watch a series of short videos by Gershon Ben Keren, explaining some of the concepts and principles the system uses by clicking here.

The system uses a variety of approaches to prepare people to defend themselves in the shortest possible time. As well as using instinctive/reflexive movements that people already know, Krav Maga also reuses simple movements to deal with a number of different attacks and threats, building solutions into families of techniques e.g., an almost identical approach to dealing with a gun threat from the front, is taken when the weapon is changed to a knife etc. By reusing certain body movements and changing what is controlled with the hands – when it’s a gun the weapon itself is grabbed/controlled, when a knife it is the assailant’s wrist – not only do fewer movements have to be learned, but when you are practicing the defense against a gun threat, you are also practicing a defense against a knife threat etc. This means that you get to the 10 000 repetitions to master a technique/movement quicker.

Krav Maga enables ordinary people who have never trained in martial arts or fighting systems before, to be able to successfully defend themselves against both unarmed and armed attacks, that may involve more than one assailant etc. This is because Krav Maga recognizes that in real-life situations, disengagement is the way that you successfully end a confrontation. You may need to block punches, throw strikes etc., but you don’t necessarily have to render somebody unconscious (through a choke or knockout punch), or submit them etc. In many cases to survive a real-life assault, you must protect yourself, and disrupt your assailant attack to create a disengagement opportunity, that allows you to exit the fight safely. There may be occasions when you need to use more force, and deal with a “trained” aggressor, and Krav Maga has solutions for such events, however most real-life violence involves untrained aggressors in social situations; many of which can be dealt with using de-escalation and conflict-resolution.

If you are interested in learning more, and experiencing for yourself how effective Israeli Krav Maga is, your best next step is to take one of our introductory seminars, which will both introduce you to the Krav Maga approach and prepare you for taking regular classes. You can use the button below to see upcoming seminars dates/times.