Old school vs present krav maga

[petern]

I read Boaz Avirams blog and it got me wondering. From what I understand of what he writes, the original krav maga program was a 21hour long crashcourse, where all teqniques were introduced at once. So…

First of all I ask if this is correct? I might misunderstand.

If it was the case, I am curious of how that curriculum looked if anyone knows? Kevin Mack seem to know a lot of krav history but any of you with info please spill your beans.

And, is our recent krav maga (as taught by kmww, ikmf, kmg etc… the legit orgz) much different than it was originally? If it is, in what ways?

[kevinmack]

Re: Old school vs present krav maga

Krav Maga has it’s origin in the military(IDF). It was a basic hand to hand combat and physical fitness course. It had a small amount of techniques that were appropriate for the soldiers needs. It developed out of the techniques that were already being taught to the haganah and palmach before the IDF was founded and Imi’s techniques,philosophies and ideology. When Imi retired from the military he wanted to expand the Krav Maga in to a full martial art and educational system for civilians. he opened two schools to teach his method calle Krav Maga. He chose his top student Eli Avikzar to replace him as the top KM instructor in the IDF. When Eli left he chose Boaz Aviram to replace him in that job of running the short IDF Krav Maga course.
While Krav Maga grew out of the military and is highly influenced by thise roots it blossomed in its civilian form. Imi along with his top students such as Eli Avikzar and Ralpy Algrissi who were his first two black belts and who also held black belts in Judo and Aikido. Eli’s school was one of the largest along with Haim Zut and his students.
Krav Maga in civilian life was never “watered down” in fact quite the opposite it allowed the students to learn more techniques and principles to cover a wider variety of threats and it has continued to develop in this manner to remain relevant.
Imi’s students such as Eli Avikzar(R.I.P), Haim Zut,Haim Gidon, Eyal Yanilov,Rick Blitstein,Darren Levine and my instructor Alan Feldman have all taught KM according to the wishes of their teacher and they all teach KM according to their realizations.
Boaz is teaching a condensed version of Krav Maga that was developed for the military. It is what he was trained to do and it is what he feels comfortable teaching according to his realizations. Other people do not.
In my opinion one is not better than the other.There is no perfect spaghetti sauce.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIiAAhUeR6Y

[petern]

Re: Old school vs present krav maga

Thank you for the info Kevin! Is there any place to see how the original curriculum looked? Is Boaz version it, or had he too added stuff?
A little OT: yes, I am aware the civilian evolved krav is “no less” than it was back in the days, rather the opposite which is great. But I sometimes wonder… when krav covers so much in present curriculums, it feels like it is easy to miss the fact that it is principle based. I have heared instructors say about tevhniques that you will understand why we do this or that like this when you get to G-levels to beginners. No wrong in that, but that kind of stretching of the learning curve creates a bit of doubt in the stuff one trains at the moment. Like it is always around the next corner you will get the really good stuff. Not sure if I have a point here, but perhaps others think the same?

[lions2011]

Re: Old school vs present krav maga

Krav maga is becoming like Karate and Kung Fu . With new schools or branches poping out every few months. In another few decades they will probably be 100 types of different Krav schools and all will claim full influence by the founders.

Krav WW is the biggest in the USA by far . However in Europe and Israel they are other schools that are bigger.

Confussing follow all the new branches and which ones are good or not.

[Author]

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