Krav Maga 411

 A lot of people want to know if Krav Maga is considered a martial art or not. Here’s how Darren Levine (Chief Krav Maga instructor for the United States) and John Whitman addressed this question in the book Complete Krav Maga.

Krav Maga is not a Martial Art

… Krav Maga is not a traditional martial art - in fact, we don’t use the term “martial art” at all. Traditional martial arts tend to be ridged, dogmatic, and focused on maintaining traditions handed down from past masters. In addition, depending on the art, there is an emphasis on elegance of movement and minutia of detail. Krav Maga tries to avoid all these things. The majority of martial arts systems also tend to become trapped in a sports-oriented mentality, establishing rules that limit the fighters. Even mixed martial arts fighters, many of whom are our friends and whom we respect immensely, fight in a controlled environment with restrictions of what they can and can not do.

Some very effective systems can also fall into the sports-oriented trap. For instance, Brazilian jujitsu (BJJ) is an extremely effective system. Anyone interested in becoming highly proficient at groundfighting should absolutely spend time training with one of the many Brazilian jujitsu instructors available around the world. However, many schools teach BJJ as a sport: no striking, no biting, no eye gouging, and no emphasis on getting up and getting away from danger. The truth is, these limitations are necessary in order for beginners to practice the techniques (it’s hard to practice a triangle choke if your partner is biting your thigh), but if you never add the other elements of a street fight, you are training in a sport, not in self defense.

This is where Krav Maga is different. We certainly create training drills and training methods that limit student options… but we constantly (our students might say obsessively!) remind them that they should not be fighting by the rules. For example, they should look to disengage and run away, or find a object to use as a weapon. We have no interest in proving to ourselves or the attacker that we can do a particular technique. Our only interest is in going home safely.

Krav Maga is heavy on the “martial” and not much into the “art”. We aren’t always pretty, but we get the job done. We prefer to describe Krav Maga as a “defensive tactics system” - a tactical and logically sound approach to dealing with violent confrontations.

Darren and John to an excellent job of explaining that Krav Maga is not a martial art, and they are correct when comparing it to what is thought of as a martial art today. My thought on it is, since Krav Maga was developed by a modern, active military force, it is the most “martial” of martial arts. I think of it as a “martial skill”.