Frequently Asked Questions About Krav Maga

Either click on one of the questions below or scroll down the page to read them all:

Real street fighting/self defense is a combination of 3 things: simple techniques, aggressive mindset and physical fitness. Up your ability/level in any one of these three areas and you increase your chances of dealing with and surviving a violent encounter

It would be nice to think that physical fitness isn't important and indeed many martial arts claim it isn't - they try and argue that technique and a calm mind will enable you to deal with any situation. These people obviosuly have never had to deal with an armed and aggressive gang at closing time on a Friday night/Saturday morning. In real life violence your heart rate will be up at 180 BPM, you will be gasping for air and exhaustion will soon set in.

If certain instructors and systems want to peddle the myth that fitness doesn't play its part so they can appeal to more people, so be it but I would rather teach the honesty of the situation.

you DON'T HAVE TO BE FIT to attend classes but we will get you fit. You will work at your own pace and level and be given progressive exercises etc as you get better. I am a qualified/certified personal trainer and I know how to develop an individuals and a groups fitnesslevel. A lot of the time you won't even notice this is happening!

Absolutely! The system was designed and developed with the smallest and weakest practicioner in mind. Also we spend a lot of time in classes talking about situational awareness, sexual predator identification and profiling etc. For more details please take a look at our female self-defense/krav maga page, which can be accessed by clicking here.

My injuries to date in Krav Maga are smaller and fewer than any I picked up in other martial arts I've studied. They basically have comprised of bruising and over-stretched muscles (compared to Judo where I pronated a disk, broke three of my toes etc, MMA where I cracked 2 ribs etc).

Safety is a premium for us. There is little point in getting so beat up in training that it equates to the punishment you would receive in a street fight. You can never promise someone that they won't get hurt but the chances are a lot less than in almost any other sport, hobby where there is physical contact.

People are often very surprised when they see how we train, using drills to develop the skills people need before they move to the next level.

No. feel fre to just turn up and train. For a schedule of Public Krav Maga classes in Boston please click here

No. Loose fitting clothing/gym wear is appropriate. At our Cambridge location you will need to wear trainers/sneakers. At our Sommerville & Medford Krav Maga Center, which is matted you will train in bare feet (please make sure toe nails are cut short etc).

Sparring only trains certain dimensions of a fight (striking and kicking at certain ranges) and has its limits. We do spar however there is no pressure for a student to take part in this type of training (we do it seperately to the main class).

There are other ways to train realistically than just sparring and we incorporate these methods into our training/classes.

Yes. We have a belted system in Krav Maga though there is no pressure on students to grade. We teach reality self-defense, that is how to survive real-life violence and what color your belt is matters little to an attacker. Belts/Grades are agood way for students to understand their progression but apart from that they are limited and so we don't pressure anyone into grading.

Like anything, the more you practise the better you get. Students who train less than twice a week often fail to see the gains that other students training more achieve. Students who train 3 times a week seem to make the most impressive gains - there seems to be a big jump between training twice and three times.

Sometimes due to work and family commitments, students supplement their classes with private Krav Maga classes. For details of these please click here.