Krav Maga for a beginner??

Draeger

Draeger

Draeger

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Friend of mine has booked a 4 day course for us in Krav Maga.

Done a bit of reading up on it on the web, loads of sites out there.

I have no details of the instructor on this particular course, will have in a few days.

Anyone done it from the point of view of a complete beginner?.

Apart from a bit of kick boxing years ago, I've not taken part in any self defense activity at all for a long time.

What am I in for as far as a 4 day introductory course goes, apart from having seven shades of the proverbial kicked out of me?. :eek:
 
Draeger said:
Friend of mine has booked a 4 day course for us in Krav Maga.

Done a bit of reading up on it on the web, loads of sites out there.

I have no details of the instructor on this particular course, will have in a few days.

Anyone done it from the point of view of a complete beginner?.

Apart from a bit of kick boxing years ago, I've not taken part in any self defense activity at all for a long time.

What am I in for as far as a 4 day introductory course goes, apart from having seven shades of the proverbial kicked out of me?. :eek:
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Why not learn Judo, yeah.

Honestly never heard if Krav &^**, do they beat you with sticks during training?
 
Its apparently a rather effective way of dealing with assailants.

Israeli special forces developed it I believe and it now gets taught the world over to loads of different organisations.

All about fighting really "dirty" using every means at your disposal.

There's a few vids of it on Youtube, looks quite effective. :cool:
 
It's an effective modern self defense solution that when is taught very differently when compared to other martial arts. There's a lot less for want of a better phrase "history" to it, as it's roots are only less than a century old. There (I think) aren't any grading patterns and stuff which e.g. Taekwondo and Karata both taught.

It kind of teaches you to not only defend yourself, but to disable your opponent using any force necessary. This is why a lot of military units teach it.
 
Draeger said:
Friend of mine has booked a 4 day course for us in Krav Maga.

Done a bit of reading up on it on the web, loads of sites out there.

I have no details of the instructor on this particular course, will have in a few days.

Anyone done it from the point of view of a complete beginner?.

Apart from a bit of kick boxing years ago, I've not taken part in any self defense activity at all for a long time.

What am I in for as far as a 4 day introductory course goes, apart from having seven shades of the proverbial kicked out of me?. :eek:
Click to expand...

Hope you're going to the Nottingham one, as the main instructor is one of my lecturers - really nice bloke and very aware of including beginners without beating them up ;)

I'll C&P what I posted about it from my first session in SA:

I've only been to Krav once, but I've done a fair bit of taekwondo and the thing that I loved about Krav Maga was we instantly trained real world situations. i.e. what do you do if someone comes at you with a knife, how do you defend yourself and not give your attacker the chance to headbutt you, what do you do if someone grabs both your arms to get out of it and get away.

From what I know Muay Thai and Jitsu are both amazing as fighting systems, but you're still fighting in a training environment, KM tries its best to recreate real life attack situations and get used to reacting when surprised.

An example - for the end of the session they turned the lights out and the instructors walked around randomly knife attacking people to see how they reacted. The instructor bumped into me and said 'Alright mate'. I'd come with two mates to the session and so was a half second before I realised he'd just stabbed me and I was able to defend myself.

It was fun, very physically taxing and very informative. Don't be afraid, be excited :)
 
I took lessons for about 6 months then my instructor moved away unfortunately. It's an excellent system for self defence. I learnt to defend myself when surprised with a weapon or not. A lot of the defences involve simeltaneously kicking/kneeing someone in the privates whilst punching/palming them in the face. Elbows tend to be used a lot, even biting is encouraged (not in practise obviously) for close range combat - pretty much anything goes in this system it is totally about defending yourself at any cost no matter what you have to do. When you watch someone who really knows what they're doing it's impressive to watch and shows how hard it would be to attack someone who is good at it. I learnt a lot in 6 months and if necessary I feel like I have the knowledge to defend myself if someone did try to attack me. The main problem is the fact that it tends to be a very violent system and you could seriously hurt someone (I'd be worried about getting in trouble with the police if I went 'over the top'.)
 
That's what worried me too McHaMmer, I could see it being very easy to go OTT. But tbh if somebody pulls a knife on me I'd feel like I was in a position where I'm fighting to save my life. If somebody just punched me outside a club I think I'd be able to give a slightly more tempered response.
 
You can summarise Krav Maga (in the UK) as: "use it and you're going to jail". I was messing around with a guy at the gym who did it and half the things he attempted would have landed you in jail... like testicle ripping, eye gouging, biting, palm strikes to the nose, finger breaking etc. The numerous videos I have also don't place it in a favourable context. UK law dictates you are to use minimal force to escape... not to disable or restrain your oppononent. A martial art should therefore have balance.... From my limited experience, there are better arts out there.... unless you wanna learn how to fight dirty :)

(my two cents)
 
A lot of what we drilled was knee to the balls and run away, eye-gouging etc is taught if someone is trying to strangle you not give you a love slap.
 
A2Z said:
erm are you sure? do you have anything to back up your claim?
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Not to hand. But a friend at uni got given 80hrs community service for breaking someones elbow by restraining him after he was mugged (in Lancaster). He got his wallet back and apparently should've let the guy go instead of forcing him to the ground and hold him there.
 
jdickerson said:
Not to hand. But a friend at uni got given 80hrs community service for breaking someones elbow by restraining him after he was mugged (in Lancaster). He got his wallet back and apparently should've let the guy go instead of forcing him to the ground and hold him there.
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Restraining is different to breaking their hand when they try to inflict gbh on you then leaving them, and calling the police from nearest bar\ club.
 
When i live closer to the city next year im going to be doing classes to get fit and toughen up for the army :)

And TBH i dont care if people think its fighting dirty, if someone trys to hurt/kill me as it is ill do what every it takes to stop them
 
krav is self defense and as such teaches to do and use whatever you have to, to get out of danger.

also, it is based around natural reactions as much as possible therefore making it quite effective after just a short time of training with it.
 
As has already been said Krav Maga is a self defence system developed by the Israeli army which focuses on disarms, reversals and disables. If somebody points a gun in your face, you take them down and steal their gun while your doing it.

There is a rather effective demonstration video here, courtesy of Krav Maga Birmingham. Scroll down the nav bar, select videos, select Krav Maga Demo
 
Actually, I think English and Welsh Law (and CPS guidance) says "reasonable", this is not the same as "minimal".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6902409.stm

Besides, better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.

And yeah, I've done a Krav Maga initiation, was really cool. Far more "martial" than "art". I keep meaning to pick it back up, another guy on the ZombieSquad forums I know is in a course that's local, so might join up.
 
I have done two basic courses and an intermediate course as well as a 5 hour session with the head instructor Eyal Yanilov. I found it to be an extremely effective defence system, practical and easy to learn. Don’t be put off that you are a beginner everyone starts somewhere and within a few sessions you will have picked up the basics.
 
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