History of Krav Maga in Boston
History of Krav Maga in Boston
The first thing to understand about Krav Maga (meaning “Contact Combat”) is that the name does not refer to a singular, particular style – equally this doesn’t mean that everything that goes by the name of Krav Maga is really Krav Maga. This doesn’t mean those systems aren’t effective just that the name they give themselves is misleading as to what they are.
The original ideas and concepts that support what is Krav Maga today (and what isn’t) were devised by Imi Lichtenfeld: a Czecholslavakian jew who had escaped the rising tide of facism in Central Europe during the 1940’s. He saw a need for the Jewish population, of what was then Palestine, to learn how to both effectively defend themselves against the often aggressive Arab population as well as learn how to fight as freedom fighters (Imi was recruited by Yitzhak Sadeh head of the underground Haganah, resistance movement) and eventually combat troops. He understood that time was critical and that any system adopted needed to be both effective in real-life and quick to learn.
His system was based on using reflexive movements to initiate defenses to threats and attacks and build counters and offensive movements from these positions. He understood that the body’s natural reflexes respond to movement, rather than accurate “threat recognition” and so realized that many defenses to unarmed attacks would have to be capable of dealing with armed ones. This principle of re-using techniques is one of the reasons that students are able to defend themselves against a multitude of attacks using only a few simple techniques.
His system was recognized as being so efficient that it was adopted by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) in 1948 to become their official system of hand-to-hand combat. It should be noted that originally much of what was being taught was referred to as KAPAP; an anacronym that stands for Krav Panim a Panim which literally translated means, “fighting face to face”.
Imi continued to refine his program of combat whilst in the IDF and in 1963, when he left the IDF he opened a school/center in Netanya and one in Tel Aviv, teaching a civilian version/interpretation of the original system. In 1978 the system became formalized with the creation of the Federation of Krav Maga and Self Defense, which later became the IKMA (International Krav Maga Association). Like many organizations there were splits based on interpretation of technique and the way the system was to be presented and marketed. Some of the founding members left the association due to the modernized/commercialized version that was taught in the U.S. (it is to note that this aerobic workout with Krav Maga techniques has become highly popular and that the Krav Maga Association of America – the KMAA – which has created it has done an excellent job in publicizing Krav Maga in North America; they too however seem to be experiencing their own splits and divisions).
The 1980’s and 1990’s saw many of Imi’s top belts leave the IKMA, this included Haim Zut and one Imi’s other top belts Eli Avigzar who left to create “Krav Magen” a system that appears to be more in a self-defense mould than a fighting system. This period also saw a high-ranking belt (but not one of the original founding members of the 1978 group), named Eyal Yanilov leave to form the IKMF (International Krav Maga Federation) that for a brief time paired up with Darren Levine and the KMAA and ended up producing a video/DVD set. Currently, the IKMA is lead/presided over by Haim Gidon with other members of the original group, such as Haim Zut, teaching Imi’s system under a different association name.
It is interesting to note that some of the individuals that are most associated with the term Krav Maga outside of Israel are virtually unknown within the country where the system originated. These individuals, for their own particular reasons, have done little to market themselves in Israel or integrate themselves with some of the most prominent and established Israeli martial artists and self-defense instructors. In fact some who are now teaching in the U.S. no longer have any real contact with Israel at all and it is surprising how many students of their systems have never even trained there and/or are unaware that there are other Israeli fighting systems that are used by the IDF and Israeli Security Forces e.g. Hisardut (meaning “survival” in Hebrew that is referred to in Israel by its full name of Dennis Survival Ju-Jitsu).
One of the key aims of the Boston Academy of Krav Maga is to provide authentic Israeli self-defense training and for this to happen instructors must return to Israel to train and be updated in the evolution and developments of the systems that are studied. This is one of the key points that separate us from many of the Krav Maga schools in Boston and Massachusetts e.g. Gershon Ben Keren has trained/trains in Israel and has studied with Israeli Krav Maga instructors such as Haim Gidon, Eyal Yanilov, Avi Moyal etc.
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