Can anyone advise me on Krav Maga?

I saw a demo on the net and wondered what the benefits are?Can anyone advise me on Krav Maga?
it's a crude form of self defense developped by the israeli army that has found it's way to the general public





the main advantage is that it's a real no nonsense system. anything is allowed and taught (eye gauges, strikes to the genitalia,...)





disadvantage of the system is that it is and remains a crude system with no underlying fundamentals.


to explain a little more simple, like a famous warrior said studying martial art is like building a house. most important part of your house are it's foundations. without good foundations your house will fall apart.





most martial arts start with a certain basic idea or philosophy, from which the art is built up. and with a strong focus on good balance krav maga doesn't have this, and often a seasoned martial artist will clearly be able to identify and abuse the weak spots in the system and break it down from there





i've had one brief introduction to it and found some things to be quite interesting but even after a short session I could definately find some imperfections in the systemCan anyone advise me on Krav Maga?
I have trained and do train when I can in Krav Maga.





Peter Gunn gave a good answer, I will elaborate.





Krav is great if you are at a great Krav place. There is a lot of quality control issue amongst this system, guys teaching Krav that really are just teaching cardio kickboxing with eye gouges.





Then there are real schools, that spar hard and do applicable training.





The idea behind Krav is to take back the advantage in a given situation with quick, brutal, response.





You literally attempt to hone your ability to recognize, and react to a threat. But the idea is for you to essentially gain the initiative by the element of surprise.





Essentially untrained guy threatens you, you react with overwhelming force before he has a chance to recognize what is happening.





It uses simply strikes, punches, kicks, knees, elbows, eye gouges, rakes and so forth. Very minimal locks, or chokes, or takedowns. The idea is to basically blast through a guy, and get away or eliminate the threat.





The cons as Peter Gunn said is that it lacks fundamentals. Having a background in other arts are definately a major bonus.





For example time is spent punching in Krav, but not a lot of time is spent on HOW to punch, how to make your punch stronger. The same with virtually any technique. So having a background that already has refined punching, kicking, elbowing and kneeing type of techniques is a definate advantage as not a lot of time is spent on the fundamentals of the technique themselves.





More just the delivery of a technique in combination with speed.





Krav isn't really meant to take on people in a one on one, ego fest. Or for challenge matches against skilled opponents. It's mainly for quick, intuitive self defense, with the ideology of basically blind siding a would be attacker with your reaction time, and continuing on him like white on rice until he is removed from the fight entirely, or incapacitated enough to facilitate your escape.





Just my two cents on it.
Hi krav isn't big here in australia but i've kumite a couple in open MMA bouts and 3/4 are all bull but one Mark Clayse if I remember correctly perfect blocks and was an enduro machine I'll let you play the fight in your head...karate vs krav *it's YouTube time*
No .... this ^ PeterG ^ dude above is all wrong!!!!!





The Krav Maga was a self-defense Technique originally used by Cro-Magnon Man. When threatened by Pterodactyl's ... Krav Maga Master would hurl Wooly Mammoths at the flying pests.





Of course only the HULK-iest of Cro-Magnon men were Krav Maga Masters .... ummmmm . Vin Diesel would be less than a white belt!
as many know it's used in the army


it teaches alot of knife disarms,gun disarms %26amp; how to kill.





its street practical too as long as you don't steal the gun and shoot the guy lol.


overall it looks good if you got it near you try it out


if you like it join.
I've been wanting to do it for a while - no one teaches it in my area though.


I guess it's like kick-boxing on speed.


A GREAT way to tone up, and yes, it's also a form of self defense.
it's strictly self-defense. No tournaments, no real fitness. Just straight practical application.
I had to look it up as I've never heard of it.


It's a form of self defence so presumably it'll be a good way to keep fit.
Do you enjoy raging %26amp; screaming?