Krav Maga as a system of self defence has suddenly gained a lot of significance in India, couretsy media and those in the business. Well, nothing bad about it …..amrketing is good & is very much needed in every thing one does. This highly effective & practical system is slowly getting tarnised, read on …………..
In the late 1980s, Krav Maga was also being taught to the Israeli public.Since almost everyone in that society serves in the military, most of the population had been exposed to it anyway.In fact, the name of the art became so common that it was used as loosely in Israel as the word “karate” is used in America. Variations sprang up everywhere.By the 1990s, everybody was claiming to be a Krav Maga master or a 10th degree black belt.Some of the original instructors of Krav Maga—men like Dennis Hanover —got so fed up with people claiming that their Krav Maga was the “true version taught to elite units” that they dropped the term Krav Maga from their vocabulary altogether. Hanover ended up calling his art hisardut (meaning “survival”) and taught Special Forces units under this new name.Hanover, along with his sons Guy and Yaron, also instructed civilians under the same system name. One of their greatest claims to fame was having taught at the prestigious Israeli Military Counter-Terrorist School (Lochama Be’Terror).With so many people laying claim to the Krav Maga system, many veteran instructors felt a need to regulate what was, and was not, pure Krav Maga. Several organizations stepped up to the plate: the Krav Maga Association, Krav Maga Federation, Krav Maga Union, Israeli Krav Maga, International Krav Maga Federation, Krav Magen (run by the famous instructor Eli Avikzar) and so on. A few years ago, the Wingate Institute, a respected Israeli sports organization, claimed to have the exclusive rights to Krav Maga for licensing and curriculum purposes. Although it was recently defeated in court, the organization is appealing to the Israeli Supreme Court. Many in the military community are outraged at the Institute’s attempt to gain control of the name.Since the commercialization of Krav Maga and hisardut in Israel, there has been a movement away from using these terms altogether. Many elite military units still refer to their hand-tohand combat as kapap, but a new acronym has also made its way to the counter-terrorism community: lotar (derived from the counter-terrorism school Lochama Be’Terror). All kapap/ lotar instructors are Krav Maga instructors in the military, but not all Krav Maga instructors are kapap/lotar instructors.Many teachers now call themselves madrich le’chima (meaning “combat instructor”). Even the Israeli police are switching; they now call their defensive tactics haganah atmit.In addition to the fighting skills of Krav Maga, kapap/lotar includes terrorist- takedown techniques, assassination techniques, pressure-point methods and a new component called “boilpressure training,” which refers to physical and psychological pressure training designed to help students deal with combat stress……………..
Well I love Krav Maga & have gained a lot from it but once an art starts getting politicised for money, it gets corrupted & tainted. This is one of the few reasons that I have tried to learn as many fighting forms as possible but apply the best or the one that works for me best out of them all!
Till next time…….stay safe !!