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Why don’t the higher levels of Krav Maga compete in Vale Tudo style competitions? Before responding with the the ole’ groin strike, eye gauge, brachial stun stuff that is not my point.
Just your basic Krav maga style punches, kicks, blocks and counterpunches vs. other styles that do well in competitions such as Muay thai. Then, if there is room for improvement, adopt the technique(s) into the curriculum and still keep the “maiming” techniques previously mentioned.
Thoughts?
Re: Why not compete?
Well, because Krav is just too deadly for the ring. Every Krav fight ends in the utter destruction of testicles and eyes. Oh wait, you said you didn’t want that.
There is a lot of stuff in Krav that is just not applicable to a typical ring fight (choke defenses, weapon defenses, multiple attackers, etc). Any time spent learning that is time spent NOT learning how to straight-up fight.
If the goal is to compete in MMA, then the best training for that is…well…MMA, not Krav.
Re: Why not compete?
I don’t think competition is impossible, but participants run the risk of losing focus on the spirit behind krav, and instead start focusing on beating the other opponent in mutual combat. That isn’t really the way it works; avoid, de-escalate, survive, escape. I personally would do a timed fight/sparring match just for the sake of practicing survival skills and getting some time with hands-on opponent. One doesn’t learn to roll in BJJ without rolling.
Re: Why not compete?
Krav is fun but translates terribly into the ring.
A guy with a 3-6 months of just MT experience would easily defeat a Krav fighter who has been training for many years.
Why?? Because Krav does not focus on the types of strategies and combinations needed to win in a ring.Re: Why not compete?
quote TacticalTimmy:I don’t think competition is impossible, but participants run the risk of losing focus on the spirit behind krav, and instead start focusing on beating the other opponent in mutual combat. That isn’t really the way it works; avoid, de-escalate, survive, escape. I personally would do a timed fight/sparring match just for the sake of practicing survival skills and getting some time with hands-on opponent. One doesn’t learn to roll in BJJ without rolling.Quoted for Truth!
I have a few instructors who have competed in MMA. It all depends on the practitioner and what they want to do. The point of Krav is not to build fighters for the ring but to build the fighting spirit… never give up, finish the fight (if you get into one).
My good friend and training partner in Krav is beginning his journey in the competition realm. He is fighting his first amateur fight this Saturday and he’s repping Krav (although it’s a Muay Thai fight…). Because of the fight, he’s only been taking the fight classes at the Krav center (no more Krav classes) and has been training at an MMA gym as well.Frankly, if you want to compete, I would not train at a Krav gym primarily because it’s not focused enough on competition. And that’s what seems to happen: people start at a Krav gym, love it but discover that they have the drive to compete in the ring, leave the Krav gym to join an MMA gym because they can spend their 2+ hours focusing on mitt work and sparring. Krav we have the fight class but it’s only 1 hour a day. There is only one day out of the week (at my center) where you will get a nice rounded day of training: back-to-back class of grappling and kickboxing, a cardio bag class and then boxing. 4 hours give or take but you have to take out time for the warm ups of each class… so that’s probably 30 minutes wasted in total as you’re already warm from the first class!
Krav in competition looks pretty much like Muay Thai/kickboxing/MMA depending on rule set so why not call it that? It’s not going to be Krav since you can’t do any of the illegal strikes.
Re: Why not compete?
Yes Krav is design for street survival not glory in the ring.
MMA schools which are easy to find is for competition and glory. Sure most students will be in there 20’s in most MMA schools. Not a middle age sport lol
Re: Why not compete?
If a Krav Maga fighter who has been training for many years gets his ass kicked by some who trained Muay Thai for a few months than that KM fighter has not been trained properly.
Re: Why not compete?
I agree Kravists are generalists. They are not ring fighters. I’m sorry, except for some naturally good fighters, I really don’t see a Kravist being able to go toe-to-toe with say a Muay Thai guy…. assuming they have been training even the same length of time.
One year of Muay Thai way exceeds one year of Krav in the striking department. Muay Thai = striking specialists.
But hey, in that same year an average Kravist would have learned striking, ground, how get out of choke holds and even some weapons defenses in some places.
Re: Why not compete?
Great responses. There’s a good KM video from Israel posted on Youtube by the Fight Quest gentlemen that pretty much sums up my own question.
(Fight Quest S01E09 Krav maga)Re: Why not compete?
IF you want to compete then you should be enrolled in MMA classes not Krav.
Krav is about survival and MMA is about how to fight in the ring or cage. OF course MMA works on the streets too as most MMA guys are extremely tough and well trained.
However, KRav addresses far more areas of self defense such as weapons, multiple attackers, basic standing chokes and other holds and escapes. We are taught to use other striking surfaces other than fists and our taught to hit the weak spots of the body. We learn about hitting with palm strikes, groin kicks, chops, head butts , hammer fists and eyes strikes to name a few.
Plus most importantly most people who do Krav Maga tend to be more professional types and the injuries in class are very rare. While MMA has a much higher rate of injuries. So Krav is much safer on the body.
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