Is Krav Maga a hybrid art?

[sonsage]

If so, specifically what are the arts that it utilizes techniques from? To me, the sparring sessions look like boxing and muay thai. I also seen videos of more advanced students, and they are doing choreographed fight sequences which resembles Ed Parker's kempo. I've seen photos of the Krav Maga creator wearing a judo gi. Is there judo in it?

 

[Xue Sheng]

http://www.answers.com/topic/krav-maga

 

[girlbug2]

"Although Krav Maga shares many techniques with other martial arts, such as karate, boxing, savate, muay thai, jujutsu, judo, kobudo and wrestling, the training is often quite different. It stresses fighting under worst-case conditions or from disadvantaged positions (for example, against several opponents, when protecting someone else, with one arm unusable, when dizzy, or against armed opponents). Unlike Karate there are no predefined sequences of moves or choreographed styles"

That excerpt from xue sheng's link is the best summary I've seen yet.

As somebody with American Kenpo experience, I can attest to the fact that so far in Level One I have excecuted techniques in Krav Maga that suspiciously resemble Kenpo techniques but then American Kenpo is also a hybrid art-punches, kicks and all kinds of "dirty" tricks.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

I need to research it again, but if I remember right, Krav Maga came from the British teaching the Israli army Japanese Ju Jitsu back around 1930 or so.
The British then left and what they taught them changed into what we know now as Krav Maga.
That's off the top of my head without going online to check it.
Am I close?

AoG

 

[arnisador]

I believe the founder's background emphasized boxing, jujutsu/judo, and wrestling, but that otehr elements, including military combatives, made their way in. I'd agree based on my limited knowledge of the system that it doesn't have the appearance of a hybrid due to the specific training methods used.

 

[tellner]

I need to research it again, but if I remember right, Krav Maga came from the British teaching the Israli army Japanese Ju Jitsu back around 1930 or so.
The British then left and what they taught them changed into what we know now as Krav Maga.
That's off the top of my head without going online to check it.
Am I close?

AoG

You're way, way, WAY off.

Israel came into existence in 1948. The British systematically disarmed Jewish villages while arming Arab ones during the period of their Mandate. In fact, the British resisted the creation of Jewish units like the Jewish Brigade Unit in the UK's armed forces until well into WWII. They did not want trained cadres of soldiers forming the nucleus of a Jewish military force in Palestine.

Imi Lichtenfeld learned rough-and-tumble fighting from relatives in the Police. He wrestled, boxed, got in a lot of scraps due to anti-Semitic persecutions in his native Hungary. I can't recall if he learned some Judo. After 1948 the Israeli Defense Forces did the sort of research that all militaries do into new tactics and technologies. Krav Maga developed in light of this and in light of the threats that the military had to deal with.

 

[Yaagil]

Krav Maga is hybrid, more than that. Krav Maga is evolving.

I consider Krav Maga being a way of life. Also a state of mind. It's a system based on some simple and fast to learn principles using usefull techniques from different "martial arts".

Muay thai has some devastating kicks, combined with Retzev and the right state of mind makes the kick technique even more usefull.

I hope you understand what I mean because my English is not 100%.

Yaacov G.

 

[girlbug2]

Krav Maga is evolving.

I consider Krav Maga being a way of life. Also a state of mind. .

True, I think that's the key to really practicing any martial art, isn't it, the state of mind. The more one can be in the correct state of mind for self defense, the more effective one's art becomes.

 

[Guardian]

I don't believe it's a Hybrid Art for one thing, do they call it a art? I'm not sure on that. As far as Hybrid, it's an ever (as put here) evolving system, just like the Reality Personal Protection Systems. They get down to the nitty gritty of self-defense as opposed to the MAs which get there, but go a different route. Just my view.

 

[David Weatherly]

I don't believe it's a hybrid art in the sense that we use that term.
Like Tellner said, it came from a rough and tumble street fighting. It took what worked in extreme situations and systemized it.


David

 

[chav buster]

the founder of krav maga was an expert in boxing, wrestling and judo the judo being as much ju jitsu as judo as we would recognize it today. theres alot of karate in there to. the throws groundwork and lot of the releases are mostly from judo/ju jitsu theres alot of punches evasion footwork from boxing and most of the kicks blocks, and nastier techniques like knife hands are from karate or something karate like .

theres alot of other stuff that i dont recognise but most of the techniques are directly from boxing ju jitsu/judo and karate.