Ok after a few years of illness and, frankly, laziness I'm determined to get back into MA.

I've just moved to Manchester and have a friend here who wants to start training as well and between us we've decided to try Krav Maga, problem is that while there's a few classes here we have no personal recommendations to go on so has anyone on here got any personal experience of Krav Maga? Or any pointers about Krav Maga generally?

Cheers in advance!

Hi, my Krav Maga experiences are mainly related to instructors that I trained with in the US and I found the training to be very good. We incorporate a lot of Krav Maga concepts into our self protection training especially will and stress drills. I don't know anyone in the Manchester area to recommend.

My advice would be to try out some local clubs and see if it is what you want. There are a lot of different types of Krav Maga and substyles and unfortunately there does seem to be a lot of infighting between associations at the leadership level.

I'm guessing that you've chosen Krav because you want to do a self defence orientated art. So I think that you should keep in your mind, whether what you are doing is actually applicable for the reasons you are training.

So does the training focus on defences that are realistic to your lifestyle? For example some styles of Krav focus heavily on gun defence, which may be very applicable in the US, but is it as important as say defending from a haymaker in the UK? A few styles of Krav focus a lot on grappling, but would you prefer to concentrate on striking as you may think this is more effective or vice versa?

For me the overriding thing to look out for in a Krav class is regular stress and will drills that fatigue you mentally and physically. To me that is the defining aspect of Krav.

However, give all the classes a try and make your own mind up as to whether they offer what you want to get out of your training.

Hope this helps.

Steve

SteveBruce wrote:
There are a lot of different types of Krav Maga and substyles and unfortunately there does seem to be a lot of infighting between associations at the leadership level.

Steve

So tell in what martial arts world does this situation not exist? I have not ever met such an animal!

It can't be helped. Sooner or later since people want recognition for themeselves rather than improvements for the collective good.

Any way. Krav is more mentality than art. A mind set that must be assumed by those who truly live and die in Isreal know what is what. When you live in the civilized areas of the world (dripping sarcasam intended) then it just doesn't seem to pull off.

Damn Lawyers.

mprowe wrote:
So tell in what martial arts world does this situation not exist? I have not ever met such an animal!

Fair point, I was just wanting to make Carl aware of some of the politics between Krav styles/schools at a high level. As an outsider, I think Krav has taken it to another level with court cases and arguments about people's experience and history.

That said I think from a training point of view it can have a lot to offer.