My first post ever :)

[KM-fighter]

Hi everyone

This is my first post on this forum. Nice beeing here

C ya!

[Tom Yum]

Welcome to the board.

Didn't think that Krav Maga had a belt ranking system. There's a popular gym in Houston called Kicksport which teaches KM, but I don't recall the instructor having any belt system ???

One of the guys I used to train with also studied Krav Maga and TKD there. How are rankings in Norway?

[KM-fighter]

No we don't use belts either in norway.
Black belt in Krav Maga is called Expert level...

Here's the official ranking system in Krav Maga:

Practitioner 1-2-3-4-5
Graduate 1-2-3-4-5

Expert 1-2-3-4-5
Master1-2-3

Very few has the master level. To mention some: Darren Levine, the american director has master 1, and Eyal Yanilov, chief-instructor is master 3..

I started training Krav Maga in 1997, and got my expert degree in january this year. It was a 8 hour test...hard as h***. I injured my shoulder early in the test, but i managed to pass anyway

So you are absolutely right about not using belts. I think that maybe they use belts in the Brazilian federation, but not in our organization.

I also do some cross-training...like BJJ and Shootfighting.

[Tom Yum]

Krav Maga is an interesting martial art. My impression is that it has a similar concept to JKD in that you take what is usefull from all styles.

It seems to have marketed itself into the gym-yoga-pilates scene and thus has a good way of reaching people who normally don't consider taking realistic self-defense courses.

Rock on with yo bad self!!

[THAI_FIGHTER]

You are right, here in brazil they use belts.
The main instructor is a guy named Kobi, he was in the first class of instructors in Israel with the inventor Imi , and came to brazil to teach krav maga. Kobi is the one responsable for the south american federation. Im not sure about his graduation today
He was the first black belt to leave Israel and teach KM in 1990

The belts are:
white
yellow
orange
green
blue
brown
black 1ºdan
2ºdan
3ºdan
4ºdan
5ºdan
white and red belt 6ºdan
7ºdan
8ºdan
9ºdan
red belt 10ºdan

The red belt will be given to the one that will substitute the inventor.

I am not a krav maga student but my brother is.
There are so many belts because km techniques are huge. You learn how to deal with hostage situations, with guns and lots of stuff.

[Tom Yum]

Krav Maga sounds like a good system to teach airline employees and security.

[Thai Bri]

Yes. It has moves like "Slim Hostess serves tea" and "Duty free? Duty Free?"

Sorry. Its 4am here, and I'm struggling.

[mr_clean]

just causing shit...

Holy hannah; so who wins between the BJJ guys and the Krav Magna specialists? Actually, I said that in jest - I really wouldn't want to open that can of worms...

Welcome aboard to the new guy! Mr. Clean

[THAI_FIGHTER]

I dont know how to imagine this.
Krav Maga is not martial art, its only self-defense. You cant put a km guy to fight someone with rules, because what they learn is to end the "dangerous situation" they are in as fast as possible. By breaking a bone or hitting the opponnent as hard as he can in the eye. Lol (just an example)

I dont know if he is gonna be able to achieve his objective, but thats the kind of stuff they learn.

[Tom Yum]

Krav Maga from what I understand is mostly a system of self-defense that borrows from traditional and modern martial arts and is constantly evolving.

I volunteered for an example of techniques i.e against a left hook, its parried with a palm to the bicep and simultaneous punch to the nose or chin.

You post from the parry to duck under the attacker's arm and pin his shoulder to his ear by letting your left arm hook around his neck, grabbing your right hand and pulling his head into his raised arm. This alone is a choke, but can be finished with an outer leg reap followed to the ground into several rear chokes.

If it teaches people how to defend themselves, its good.

[THAI_FIGHTER]

There are some video of km techniques here

http://www.kravmaga.com.br/english/galery/index.asp

[mr_clean]

KM

I checked out that KM site and the moves all look pretty deadly. I especially like the ease with which the KM guy destroys the attacker in the clip on the top right hand side. Also I notice that when they get the guy to the ground they finish him with a flurry of strikes as opposed to the single strike used in some other MA demonstrations. This is a pretty cool self defense system. I like things that work.
Mr Clean

[Ha_ari]

krav maga

I've been practicing KM for about 14 months now. I should add that KM is slightly different, in terms of its organizational structure, in the U.S. than in the rest of the world, b/c KM's governing body in everywhere but America is the IKMF, the International Krav Maga Federation.

In America, the governing body is KMAA, or the Krav Maga Ass'n of America, headed by the aforementioned Darren Levine. They both teach the exact same KM, as far as I know, but there's just a slightly different organization to each.

In America, they do have belts, but belts don't really matter much in KM b/c of the speed with which the system is designed to be learned.

Y'all seem to have exactly the right impression of krav maga, which is great, b/c far too many people have the wrong impression.

I tried to address some of these misconceptions, and to explain what I perceive as the theory and essence of KM in this thread, if anyone is interested.

http://www.defend.net/deluxeforums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7922

Oh, and BTW, I'm pretty sure that all new flight attendants are generally required by most U.S. airlines to take a week-long crash course in KM, so, actually, Tom Yum, you're not that far off.

I also agree with you Tom, that the spirit of KM and JKD mesh well together.

[Tom Yum]

What I've also noticed is that KM has marketed itself in the yoga-gym-pilates crowd. So its probably one of the first self-defense programs that has good lookin' bomb shellz.

But all trivia set aside, I don't think one crash course is enough for an airline employee to be competent. It should be practiced every quarter with reviews of previous techniques.

[Ha_ari]

Tom,

There is an attached cardio program to KM which, as you've noted, definitely attracts the yoga-pilates crowd. But the self-defense techniques are also terrific, IMO.

And you're correct that a week-long course is not enough. However, it is better than nothing, and a week of KM for several hours a day is better preparation for real-life self-defense than a similar amount of time in most other combat arts I can think of.

I don't mean to start the whole 'my system is better than yours' garbage--that isn't my point. Rather, my point is that KM is designed to be learned VERY VERY quickly, and that makes it more useful for a crash course than combat systems that are not designed to confer proficiency (though obviously not mastery) in a relatively short amount of time.