Krav Maga

Krav Maga or MMA?

There’s an idea in the martial arts that if you want to become the “all round” fighter, you need to train in the martial arts/fighting systems that are recognized as the “best” in that dimension of the fight e.g., if you want to get good at punching you should study boxing, if you want to get good at grappling you should study wrestling, and if you should want to be able to fight on the ground you should study BJJ (Brazilian Ju-Jitsu) etc. This is the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) approach that makes sense for professional fighters competing in competitions such as the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). If you have 8-10 hours a day to train then it makes sense to spend a few hours a day boxing, a few hours a day wrestling etc., because your pay-day/living depends on you being the best fighter when standing up, when grappling and when on the ground, especially as you’ll be up against trained fighters, who are training in a similar fashion. However, if you are working a regular 9-5 job (and what job is actually 9-5 anymore?), have social and family commitments you may be able to allocate a few hours a week to get good at one of these combat sports, such as boxing or Muay Thai etc., but to try and get good at all of them is going to be an uphill/mammoth task, and take many, many years.

The other issue with taking an MMA approach to self-defense, is that along with training all of these different combat sports you are going to have to spend time learning how to transition between them e.g., going from stand-up striking with Muay Thai, into going to ground with BJJ. All of these systems were designed to be distinct fighting system in their own right, and so you will have to spend time learning to combine them. If time isn’t a precious resource, then this isn’t an issue but if you only have the time to take a couple of martial arts classes a week – which is what most people taking martial arts classes do - then this will be an issue.

In some ways Krav Maga is the original Mixed Martial Art, not in trying to combine different martial arts but in recognizing that you need to be able to punch and kick, that you need to be able to grapple and work on the ground, and more importantly you need to be able to do these things when your opponents are armed and assisted by others. Krav Maga also recognizes that training time is limited and that it is not possible – unless training full time – to become an expert in all the different dimensions that a fight may be comprised of, and so the system uses common movements that can be replicated in each one of these dimensions e.g., the same movement is used to defend against a stomp kick when standing as when on the ground etc., and that same movement is also used to defend against a knife stab to the face and upper torso etc. Training in Krav Maga is efficient. It will not train you to beat an experienced boxer in the ring, but then an experienced boxer may well get sucker-punched in real-life when there isn’t a referee to announce when the fight begins etc.

Combining linear arts (those that specialize in a particular dimension of a fight) is not a particularly effective method for self-defense i.e., dealing with real-life violence in a legally permissible way, as none of these fighting systems are designed to work in a real-life context. They may teach and develop effective fighting skills, but stepping into the ring or the cage, is a very different proposition to dealing with an aggressor or aggressors on the street or in a bar, where there is no defined format for the fight, and no rules. Boxing, MMA, and Muay Thai does not train an individual to deal with the unknown, where there is no set end to the fight and no referee to over see it etc. Krav Maga teaches individuals how to fight when/where there is no format to the fight. At our training center just north of Medford, Massachusetts, we teach ordinary people how to deal with such situations and survive them (we prefer the term “survive” to “win”). If you want to learn how to effectively defend yourself using a proven system of self-defense you can attend one of our beginner classes by clicking the button below.

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