Great Fighting Styles For You

Literally translated as close combat or contact combat, Krav Maga is one of the most lethally effective hand-to-hand combat techniques in the world. It was developed by Imi Lichtenfeld, a Czech-born former heavyweight boxing champion trained in self-defense tactics by his father, a police officer. In 1940, facing Nazi persecution, Lichtenfeld was forced to emigrate to what was then Palestine (now Israel). After the formation of an Israeli state in 1948, he was asked to develop self-defense and hand-to-hand combat techniques for the elite units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Over the next two decades, Lichtenfeld trained IDF fighters in what would become the Krav Maga system, a combat style featuring elements of boxing, judo, and jujitsu as well as stick- and knife-fighting techniques. After leaving the army, Lichtenfeld began teaching the system to civilians, and in 1978 he and some of his students founded the International Krav Maga Federation, a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting teaching of the fighting system in Israel and around the world. By the time Lichtenfeld died in 1998, Krav Magas popularity had spread among law enforcement and security officers, as well as civilians of all ages, both male and female, across Europe and the United States. Due to Israels near-constant state of conflict with its neighbors, Krav Maga has continually been tested and refined over the years through actual combat situations. In Krav Maga training, the same lethal …