Traditional Krav Maga Old or outdated?
We are in a moment in the history of Krav Maga where an infinity of organizations are being born that presume to be modern and innovative when it comes to developing Krav Maga. Many come to ask themselves Traditional Krav Maga, old or outdated?
Many of these «new» organizations are run by people who have very few hours of practice as students of Krav Maga and instead, in just a few days, have become overnight true GURUS of the system.
Many of them, pretend to be champions of Krav Maga giving a superiority to their way of working at a technical level and throw everything else to the ground claiming that it is old or outdated. Actually, this type of instructors who have not followed a logical «pattern» to get to lead a group of students (first learn and then teach), due to their lack of a good knowledge of the system, cling to teach their students technical movements that have nothing to do with the philosophy of Krav Maga.
It is better to be a student of reality than a Master of fiction.
To begin with, to say that when we talk about a traditional Krav Maga, we are not talking about an old or outdated system, but about the way in which each of the techniques and defensive movements that have made our Krav Maga so famous should be developed.
I’m going to talk about how we do it in Israel, the place where Krav Maga was born and where today it is still trained and developed in the same way since the founder IMI officially created the system in the late seventies.
To begin with, when we talk about traditional Krav Maga, we are not talking about an old or outdated system, but about the way in which each of the techniques and defensive movements that have made our Krav Maga so famous should be developed.
I’m going to talk about how we do it in Israel, the place where Krav Maga was born and where today it is still trained and developed in the same way since the founder IMI officially created the system in the late seventies.
How the Krav Maga Techniques are developed.
First of all, each of the organizations is perfectly structured. Each one of them has a founder or successor of the original founder who is in charge of directing them. This school director has a team of Instructors in charge of training other Instructors or students around the world.
Every five years, both the leader of the organization and his team meet to discuss their current technical program. They begin to look at the Pros and Cons that may arise from new types of aggression or attacks that have evolved in those five years.
The data to know which are these new types of attacks or aggressions are extracted through their own personal experiences as that of other members of these organizations that have suffered them in their own flesh.
They also rely on the advice of private security, police and military personnel, who report through the dissemination of their experiences, often providing video material that helps enormously to see the problems almost in real time and which are studied in detail.
They try to see if the techniques included in their programs could provide answers to these new aggressions. Those that can cover a very high percentage of the new attacks are left as they are, while those techniques that have become somewhat outdated and could cause more harm than good, are those that begin to vary to make them more effective or are changed 100%.
During days, weeks or even months, the technical team of each organization begins to elaborate the different solutions that have to be submitted to the approval of a majority. Once the new techniques have been developed, the approval phase begins.
This phase sometimes becomes very convulsive and even aggressive between the various debaters in the group, because some offer a vision of the solution with too many embellishments or even with too many problems that can result from bad execution moves.
It must be remembered that there is a logical structure when creating a new technique in Krav Maga:
- The Krav Maga technique should be Quick to learn
- Simple to perform
- Effective when it is put into practice.
- Suitable for any person regardless of age, sex or physical build
Therefore, it is not about creating techniques for Spartans but following the idea of its founder, techniques should be created that serve as real working tools so that all students of Krav Maga can perform them without difficulty.
It is clear to us that if a person who trains Krav Maga, in addition to knowing the program perfectly, has a good physical condition, then it will be easier to put it into practice than those whose physical condition and fitness is much worse.
Approval of the Final Program
After days, weeks or months, in which each of the solutions provided has been discussed both orally and physically, and after a consensus among all members of the organization, then the new program is approved, which may contain new techniques added to the previous program or substantial changes in each of the techniques or movements that were practiced previously.
Dissemination of the new Krav Maga Program
In this final stage, all the instructors of the organization are brought together. A course is held to inform them of the new changes that have been developed and the ways in which they should be taught to the students.
At this point, instructors who are not part of the technical committee are not given the option to discuss the techniques, but simply learn and then teach.
Maybe someday, these instructors will be part of the Technical Committee and will be able to be protagonists of the new changes.
What do you think about what we have discussed in this article? I invite you to share with us your experiences or comments that will help us grow as members of our beloved KRAV MAGA.