Krav Maga
קרב מגעAn Israeli self-defence system aimed at fast, simple responses to real danger rather than at competition.
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IsraelCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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About Krav Maga
Krav Maga is not a martial art in the traditional sense but a system of self-defence. It arose around Imi Lichtenfeld (1910–1998), who was born in Budapest, grew up in Bratislava and in 1928 and 1929 won Slovak titles in wrestling and boxing. In the 1930s he led a group of Jewish boxers and wrestlers that defended the Jewish quarter of Bratislava against antisemitic attacks. He reached Palestine in 1942, from 1944 he taught in the Haganah, and after the founding of the Israeli army in 1948 he was for about twenty years the chief instructor of physical training and krav maga.
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After leaving the army he adapted the system for the police and civilians. The first civilian course took place in 1971 at the Wingate Institute, and the Israeli Krav Maga Association was founded in 1978. The year he left the army differs in the sources (1964 or 1974), and we have not been able to document the exact year. The system is built on simple, repeatable reactions and on principles instead of fixed techniques: simultaneous defence and attack, a quick counterattack and an attack on vulnerable spots such as the eyes, throat or groin. Practitioners train strikes, elbows, knees and kicks, defence against holds and chokes, joint locks and ground fighting, defence against a knife, stick and firearm, and de-escalation. The original concept drew on boxing and wrestling, and judo was added to the training in 1965. Krav Maga has no usual competition system. After Lichtenfeld’s death it split among several organisations (IKMF, Krav Maga Global, Krav Maga Worldwide, IKMA and others) with their own syllabi and grades: the IKMF uses P, G and E patches, many Israeli organisations coloured belts modelled on judo.
History
Imi Lichtenfeld (1910–1998) developed Krav Maga. He was born in Budapest, grew up in Bratislava, and in 1928 and 1929 won Slovak wrestling titles and the national boxing championship. In the nineteen-thirties he led a group of Jewish boxers and wrestlers that defended the Jewish quarter of Bratislava against antisemitic attacks. According to the Slovak Spectator, as a member of the city police he taught officers self-defence. In 1940 he sailed on the ship Pentcho and, according to IKMF, reached Palestine in 1942. In the Haganah he trained elite units, and after the Israeli army (IDF) was founded in 1948 he became chief instructor of physical training and Krav Maga at the army school. He served about twenty years. The Levinsky-Wingate academic centre, IKMF and KAMI give the year of his departure as 1964, while the Slovak Spectator writes of service until 1967. Afterwards he founded a private training centre in Netanya and adapted the system for the police and civilians. He awarded the first black belt in 1971 to Eli Avikzar, and in 1978 he founded the Krav Maga association with his students. The first international instructor course was held in 1981 at the Wingate Institute by the Israeli Krav Maga Association together with the Ministry of Education, and the six-week course was led by the seventy-one-year-old Lichtenfeld.
Technique
The system rests on simple, repeatable reactions and on principles instead of fixed techniques, so organizations interpret them differently: simultaneous defense and attack, a quick counterattack and attack until the attacker is unable to fight. The targets are vulnerable points such as the eyes, throat, groin, ribs or knee. Practice includes punches, forearm strikes and hammer fists, elbows, knees and kicks, 360-degree defense, escapes from holds and chokes, locks and ground fighting, and defense against a knife, stick and firearm. According to Krav Maga Worldwide, techniques from Brazilian jiu-jitsu serve mainly for returning to the feet. The original concept drew on European boxing, wrestling and street fighting. Judo was added to training in 1965, and since the beginning of the twenty-first century some schools have been adding Brazilian jiu-jitsu, silat or the Filipino arts arnis, kali and escrima.
Training
Training is done in scenarios and under stress: stress drills, situational training, sparring and slow-fight and assault training (mugging-training) with an attacker in a full-body protective suit. A partner’s resistance differs by organisation. In some, sparring is slow and light up to grade G2, which takes roughly four to six years to reach, and only then comes simulated fighting with protectors. In the fight courses of Krav Maga Worldwide kickboxing and boxing are also practised. The Krav Maga Alliance lesson plan (2025) builds on rounds on Thai pads and does not include free sparring. IKMF Netherlands counts on 9 to 18 months of training twice a week for the first exam. A one-hour lesson had an average of 78 percent of maximum heart rate in an ACE study of 16 people.
Ranks and progression
Ranks differ by organization, and Krav Maga has no single unified system. IKMF divides its levels into Practitioner 1 to 5, Graduate and Expert, and from the expert levels onward its examination board examines in Israel. Other Israeli organizations use coloured belts, but we have not been able to confirm from an independent source who introduced them or when. Lichtenfeld awarded the first black belt in Krav Maga in 1971 to Eli Avikzar. Instructor qualification in Israel is awarded among others by the Levinsky-Wingate academic centre in Netanya, a higher education institution under the Ministry of Education and Sport. According to the school, the instructor course has three tracks: a basic one from assistant instructor to expert qualification, a course for martial arts specialists, and a course for members of security forces. It is open to practitioners of any federation, and graduates receive an official diploma. We have not been able to confirm minimum times between levels from sources independent of the organizations.
Who it suits
Krav Maga has two forms, for security forces and for civilians. Civilian training stresses self-defence, de-escalation and fitness, police training tactics, protection of persons and restraint. IKMF Netherlands divides children into Kiddies (5 to 7 years), Kids (8 to 11) and juniors (12 to 15). The youngest do games for motor skills and awareness of surroundings without examinations. It defines adults from 16 years, elsewhere on its website from 18. For women it offers the Stay Away course, whose effect is not documented. In a PeerJ study (2020), 15 minutes of instruction was enough for 16 inexperienced female university students to improve a straight punch and a defensive kick. In a study of 946 training injuries of IDF soldiers, mild injuries predominated, most often of the fingers, hands and wrists (31 percent) and shoulder (16 percent), and the head and neck were not a significant problem. A questionnaire of 109 civilian practitioners (Cureus 2024) reports the lower limbs most often and fractures (22 percent) among diagnoses, but its data partly contradict each other. We did not find a study in children or a programme for seniors.
Competition
Krav Maga is not a sport and has no civilian competitions with rules. The Israeli army has held an annual competition since May 2013, and we have not been able to document its rules or format. In the UFC, Krav Maga was represented by the former IDF soldier Moti Horenstein, who lost to Mark Coleman at UFC 10 in 1996 and to Mark Kerr at UFC 14, both bouts in the first round. He later said that he had never fought a wrestler before and that this experience had been missing for him.
Gear
It has no uniform clothing. IKMF Netherlands prescribes for exams a grey T-shirt (dark from age 16, light for younger) and black trousers with Velcro for the grade patch, it does not permit combat trousers. The exam equipment includes a mouthguard, groin guard, shin guards, boxing or MMA gloves and indoor shoes.
Philosophy
Priority is given to avoiding violence, both verbal and physical, and attack comes only as a last resort. IKMF Netherlands states the motto So that one may walk in peace and the aim of surviving an attack with a minimum of injuries, and describes the system as functional, without stylised forms and kata. An article in J. (2012) describes Krav Maga as focused on effectiveness. Joseph Isaac Lifshitz in the same text criticises it for lacking values, which is a personal opinion.
Styles and schools
Krav Maga has no styles in the traditional sense. The Israeli army distinguishes a military variant, the basis of infantry and special-forces training, and a civilian self-defence variant. According to the IDF, the system combines elements of karate, boxing, judo, aikido and wrestling: strikes come from karate and boxing, throws and ground fighting from judo and wrestling, and unarmed defences against an armed attacker from aikido. Army training is run by the IDF Combat Fitness School in Netanya. Civilian organisations arose only after Lichtenfeld left the army in 1964, when he began to teach civilians and police. He awarded the first black belt in 1971 to Eli Avikzar, and in 1978 he founded the original Krav Maga association with his students. After disputes among the senior instructors, other organisations split from it and now use different grading systems. In the USA, Darren Levine founded the Krav Maga Association of America in 1983.
Today
After Lichtenfeld's death in 1998, according to the newspaper Forward, several rival organizations arose, all claiming his legacy, among them Krav Maga Worldwide of Darren Levine, Krav Maga Federation of Rhon Mizrachi, International Krav Maga Federation of Eyal Yanilov, Israeli Krav Maga Association of Haim Gidon, and Commando Krav Maga. When Levine sued other organizations over the name in 2006, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that the term krav maga is generic and cannot be protected as a trademark. According to its reports from 2013, the Israeli army was extending training from special units and reconnaissance brigades to the infantry. The Givati Brigade included Krav Maga in the training of the whole brigade, and the Caracal battalion taught it to regular infantry for the first time. Outside Israel, according to Israel21c, police in the state of Illinois have used it since 1987, and in 2003 staff of the Washington police academy also completed an instructor course. The Indian border police ITBP launched in March 2023 a nine-week course for 50 future instructors.
In culture
Krav Maga reached film mainly through actor training. According to a Vice report, Daniel Craig trained in it with Darren Levine for the role of James Bond in the 2006 film Casino Royale, and according to Levine so did Leonardo DiCaprio for the film Blood Diamond. Israel21c reports Krav Maga training for Kristanna Loken for Terminator 3, Angelina Jolie for Tomb Raider and Shannon Elizabeth. Krav Maga is also part of the plot. In the film Enough, Jennifer Lopez's character learns Krav Maga after being abused by her husband, to stand up to him, and in the film The Debt, according to an NPR review, the young agent Rachel, played by Jessica Chastain, demonstrates Krav Maga in a flashback. According to a GamesRadar review, Niko Bellic, the hero of Grand Theft Auto IV, is trained in Krav Maga, and the game allows him powerful strikes, blocks and disarming the enemy.
Did you know
Lichtenfeld was born on 26 May 1910 in Budapest, and his Hebrew name is Imrich Sde-Or. His father Samuel was a police inspector and former circus acrobat who ran a gymnasium and taught self-defence. Lichtenfeld escaped from occupied Czechoslovakia in 1940 on the ship Pencho, which was wrecked off the Dodecanese islands. According to KAMI, his motto was "the shortest and fastest way". In 1987, the Illinois state police introduced Krav Maga into its training, according to Israel21c as the first police force to do so. The Israeli army held its first tournament between units in May 2013, with 16 units competing in three weight categories, and the Maglan unit won. According to the IDF, the capture of soldier Gilad Shalit changed the army's view that tank crews do not need Krav Maga. In 2012, the Israeli army had only three female Krav Maga instructors.
Styles & Branches
The civilian form of Israeli self-defence, adapted by Imi Lichtenfeld for ordinary people after he left the army. It has had its own association since 1978.
Self-defence system of Moni Aizik from Canada, built on judo and jiu-jitsu. His military background and founder's titles are disputed.
The army version of Krav Maga in the Israel Defense Forces. Unlike the civilian form, it assumes attack, a weapon and a mission to complete.
Frequently asked questions
What is Krav Maga?
Krav Maga is an Israeli self-defense system used by the Israeli army to train soldiers. It was later adapted for civilians. According to the IDF, the goal is to neutralize the attacker, get to safety and call for help.
Who invented Krav Maga?
Krav Maga was created by Imi (Imrich) Lichtenfeld in the 1930s in Bratislava, where he used his experience as a boxer and wrestler to defend Jews against antisemitic violence. In Palestine he taught it in the Hagana, and after the Israeli army was founded in 1948 he became chief instructor of physical training and Krav Maga.
What does krav maga mean?
Krav maga means contact combat in Hebrew. The Israeli army calls it the first martial art developed in Israel.
What are the ranks in Krav Maga?
Ranks differ by organization. The IKMF divides them into Practitioner 1 to 5, Graduate and Expert, while other Israeli organizations use colored belts. Lichtenfeld awarded the first black belt in Krav Maga to Eli Avikzar in 1971.
Is krav maga a sport?
Krav Maga is not a sport and has no civilian competitions with rules. Since May 2013 the Israeli army has held a competition between units in three weight categories, whose aim, according to the IDF, is to make Krav Maga part of a soldier's life.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.