Krav Maga – the name in Hebrew means – hand-to-hand combat. Krav meaning ‘battle’ and Maga meaning ‘contact’ has come to be known as a brutally efficient fighting art used by the highly proficient and at times bloody Mossad and the IDF in their daily fight for the survival of the Jewish state.
Today, it is used by armies, including their Special Forces, and intelligence agencies throughout the world. Adapted for civilian use it has become a de rigueur for professionals in various fields, including professional bodyguards, due to its specific situational exercises and methods. The NT BUZZ speaks to Krav Maga instructor Elroy Vaz on the psychology and the essence of the deadly practical fighting style
What is Krav Maga? How did you get into it?
Krav Maga is a non-competitive self-defence system developed in Israel that comprises of striking techniques, locks and hold. Known for its focus on street situations and with extremely efficient, albeit brutal counter-attacks, Krav Maga has a philosophy that lays emphasis on threat neutralisation, simultaneous defensive and offensive manoeuvres, and aggression. Krav Maga is used by Israeli Defence Forces, including its Special Forces, and intelligence organisations like the famous Mossad and Shin Bet. Outside Israel it is used by the CIA and FBI, various police department’s SWAT teams, the French GIGN, and also the Belgian Army
What is the aim behind your teaching this fighting style?
In the civilian sector, any fighting is not about techniques only. It also includes awareness and mind training. We try to teach the techniques so that they become like second nature. The basis of Krav Maga is psychological. The opponent loses his will to attack any more. The essence is attack the person attacking you so many times that he does want to attack you again. In practice the more you repeat your techniques they slowly tend to become second nature. This is very important. Techniques have to become second nature as an attack on you can come from any angle. So when you practice it on a weekly basis it becomes second nature and then you move without thinking. In our style, 80 to 90 per cent of the time attack and defence act simultaneous.
Our techniques come from natural instincts. We take the natural instinct and then build on the technique. We do power training, blade conditioning and shin conditioning and lots of practice.
What is the emphasis of this style and the difference between this and other styles?
The main difference between Krav Maga and other styles is that it is not a traditional martial art or sport. We do not train one on one. We train you to handle multiple attackers. The difference lies in that this is practical self defence. Even the training methods are different. We train with normal clothes. And train anywhere and everywhere. According to us in 4-5 seconds you should be able to hit at least 15 times. This is important because apart from the pain you inflict on your enemy you should break his will and if you attack in the Krav Amga style, it will break.
Also no other sport teaches you to handle multiple attackers. Once you get into a fight, normally the awareness in on for at least the next one hour. We teach you all this situational awareness. But Krav Maga is strictly for defence. However, we do not emphasis on ground work as it is not practical. We believe in faster and greater number of hits. We also emphasis on hitting vulnerable areas like the groin. Knowledge of this hit is very important, especially for ladies. We also have special Krav Maga for children where we teach them special techniques. But all the time we try and drill in the fact that Krav Maga is only used for self defence and not for offence.
Tell us more about how you got into this defence form, while giving is a brief history of the style?
I have learnt Karate, first the Goju Ryu style and then the Shotokan style. I also studied Tai Chi, Whu Shu. I have been practicing Krav Maga for close to 7 years now. Goa is the first place where Krav Maga was taught in South East Asia outside of Israel. We are part of Krav Maga Global that is headed by Eyal Yanilov.
Yanilov, born on May 30, 1959, is a graduate of the School for Trainers and Instructors at the Wingate Institute for Sport and Physical Education and studied with the founder of Krav Maga, Imi Lichtenfeld beginning in 1974. He is the only person who holds both the highest level granted by the founder, Master level 3/Expert level 8 grade.
Initially thing were disorganised, but it got organised some 3 to 4 years back. Krav Maga started off as a civilian system from street-fighting skills developed by Imi Lichtenfeld. He made use of his training as a boxer and wrestler as a means of defending the Jewish quarter against fascist groups in Bratislava in the mid-to-late 1930s. In the late 1940s, he immigrated to Israel.
After making his way to Palestine Imi joined Israel’s Haganah military organisation. In 1944 he began training fighters including several elite units of the Haganah and Palmach (striking force of the Haganah and forerunner of the special units of the IDF), including the Pal-Yam, as well as groups of police officers.
In 1948, when Israel was founded and IDF was formed, Imi became Chief Instructor for Physical Fitness and Krav Maga at the IDF School of Combat Fitness. Having served in the IDF for about 20 years he retired and adapted to meet the self-defence needs of civilians.