Krav maga effective for self defence?

[Who Dares Win]

So I've been looking around on how to fix the security problem all of us have in our lifes and still deciding whats the best option, till now Im for krav maga since according to what I learn its focused on fight itself with nothing else than whats strictly effective and necessary.

The choice was between mma and krav maga, Im considering not only in term of efficiency but also in time needed to reach a decent level to fir the purpose, what do you think?

 

[Bible_Belt]

The problem with KM is that there are no competitions in it. So you never know who's really good and who is full of sh!t. I think the majority of martial arts instructors are scam artists; you have to be very skeptical.

mma has also become watered-down. There's a lot of moves that work in a nice padded cage that you would never want to do on the street. Go read the unified rules of mma - all the things you are not allowed to do are like a how-to manual for a real fight. But at the same time, I don't think any of the guys I trained with ever lost a street fight. Most of them could fight three on one and still win easily. One of them is now 35-0 as a heavyweight pro boxer, and he's going to get his shot to be world champ.

My mma trainer's background was in Japanese jiu-jitsu. That's the real samurai warrior stuff; it's how Japan defended itself for almost a thousand years. Many of the moves are similar to KM, crotch-kick, eye gouge, throat punch, and then you just start snapping bones. Every joint in the body can be bent the wrong way as a fighting move.

So to answer your question, it really depends on the quality of instruction that you can get. I'd rather train Tae Kwon Do under one of the world's best than KM under a fraud.

 

[Who Dares Win]

The problem with KM is that there are no competitions in it. So you never know who's really good and who is full of sh!t. I think the majority of martial arts instructors are scam artists; you have to be very skeptical.

mma has also become watered-down. There's a lot of moves that work in a nice padded cage that you would never want to do on the street. Go read the unified rules of mma - all the things you are not allowed to do are like a how-to manual for a real fight. But at the same time, I don't think any of the guys I trained with ever lost a street fight. Most of them could fight three on one and still win easily. One of them is now 35-0 as a heavyweight pro boxer, and he's going to get his shot to be world champ.

My mma trainer's background was in Japanese jiu-jitsu. That's the real samurai warrior stuff; it's how Japan defended itself for almost a thousand years. Many of the moves are similar to KM, crotch-kick, eye gouge, throat punch, and then you just start snapping bones. Every joint in the body can be bent the wrong way as a fighting move.

So to answer your question, it really depends on the quality of instruction that you can get. I'd rather train Tae Kwon Do under one of the world's best than KM under a fraud.

Thats what actually makes me doubt about krav maga otherwise I would be sure, there is no sparring involved so you dont know if stuff works on an hostile rather than a collaborative partner.
I've been doing wrestling years ago and it makes hell of difference to try the move with your friend rather than against an hostile opponent.

over the two, for strictly self defense i'd go with km.

I think km deals more with real life situations and more importantly, with training you how to respond quickly to a threat rather than just standing there and absorbing an attack and getting stabbed or whatever before you even realize what's going on.

I've never taken mma, but i would imagine it's more focused on the sporting aspect of conditioning and winning in the ring. Not like this can't be transferred to a real fight, i just think that km would spend more time teaching you actually effective street defense techniques, as mma has a lot of rules that prevent you from making the most of the defenses available to you.

Yeah that was a point considering that thugs around could point a gun at your back and try to nail you with a knife if the money they are stealing you are not enough for their taste.

Plus I really want to go straight to the point , no unnecessary things.

Have you considered visiting both locations, and seeing what you like?

Well its not so much what I like since personally I dont like classes with lot of people which require to focus on someones lead for any single movement, its more of a necessity than a pleasure.

 

[FairShake]

I personally think things like Krav Maga, choreographed dances with barely resisting opponents, are mostly crap. It's bad boxing and bad judo with IDF flags attached to it for legitimacy sake.

Before someone tells me about the Israeli Commando who will wreck my sh!t with Krav, I know they are out there but they study a lot of things, most of which are better than Krav. The military hand-to-hand combat isn't the most advanced on the planet. Very little military fighting is done hand to hand, hence it's demotion in regards to firearms, team work, military strategies.

People who make MONEY from hand-to-hand combat and have reason to only use the best available do not use Krav Maga. They use MMA, boxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, bjj, and judo. Concentrate on those if you want real resistance sparring and techniques that work against people trying to hurt you. I've done Krav sparring at a friend's school. It's basically unsophisticated boxing.

I've done boxing and judo myself. A good clean right cross and a simple Kouchi gari are enough to stop your attacker enough for you to run and get the hell out of there.

 

[Rave18]

People who make MONEY from hand-to-hand combat and have reason to only use the best available do not use Krav Maga. They use MMA, boxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, bjj, and judo. Concentrate on those if you want real resistance sparring and techniques that work against people trying to hurt you.

Is this what a novice should go for ?

 

[FairShake]

Yeah. Boxing is really all I ever needed to defend myself. It was dirt cheap where I lived too, about 20 a month.

 

[Tictac]

KM is essentially battlefield fighting adapted for personal threats. It is not choreographed Asian style martial arts. Both KM and MMA have their strengths and weaknesses.

Krav is not pretty, it is efficient and effective for managing both armed and unarmed attackers as well as multiple attackers. MMA is more a training discipline and for one-on-one matches.

For whoever said that KM has no competitions, your POV is limited. I have seen several matches at a studio near me.

 

[Bible_Belt]

For whoever said that KM has no competitions, your POV is limited. I have seen several matches at a studio near me.

And the participants were kicking each other in the crotch full-force? gouging eyes? breaking fingers? I think you saw a demonstration, not a match.

 

[Die Hard]

Oh boy, this discussion could take a while....

Look, man. When you get into a fight, it means you and your opponent are gonna throw your limbs at each other, also called punching, kicking, elbow'ing, knee'ing or headbutting. If this is not happening, then it means you are gonna grapple (either standing or on the ground).

That's it:

1. throw limbs at each other
2. grapple

MMA focuses on both of these. I'm not saying KM is useless but it tries to find a shortcut around the above basic elements of fighting. Don't just throw leg kicks, but kick right under the knee so it will break... Don't just punch, but punch your opponent's adam's apple... Don't just grab him, but bend his arm so the elbow breaks. Etc. etc.

Newsflash: You're not gonna pull those things off with a moving person who is actively engaging you in a fight!! Go ahead, try kicking his balls. Oops, your kick was one inch to the right of his balls and it just hit the inside of his leg. Which hardly has an incapacitating effect, so right after your kick landed, the opponent threw a punch directed at your face. It lands... You go down... You wake up in the hospital.

"But hey, I learned deadly moves at KM training? Why didn't I win?"

Seriously, not even a Shaolin monk training from when he was an infant has the precision to hit a small specific spot on the opponent, like eyes, balls, adam's apple, knees. Perhaps if the opponent stands completely still or moves as slow as a turtle, you'll succeed... But a moving person, no way. And sure not with FORCE. Take a marker and draw a spot on the wall, then try hitting it with force, put some real power in your punch. Not as easy as it seems.... You'll see people first hitting that spot in slow mo a few times to get a feel for where the spot is and how to throw the punch, then eventually doing it with force.
Guess what? You can't do that in a fight, lol. And we're talking about a stationary spot here, not a moving person!

Long story short: It's very unlikely that you hit those spots, and even if you did somewhere in the fight, it won't be the first punch or kick that you throw. So there will definitely be an EXCHANGE of punches, kicks etc. And that's what kickboxing (basically the standup part of MMA) focuses on, and it does that better than KM.

When you and your opponent get closer to each other during the exchange of pucnhes/kicks you'll end up grabbing each other. Ever watched a boxing match and counted the times they get into a clinch? Boxers do very little damage from the clinch, they want some distance so they can throw their punches at each other. And STILL they end up in the clinch very often! That's just what happens when you're in a fight... So then you either take your opponent down or the other way around. Which MMA focuses on, much more than KM!!

I could go on for a while but whatever. You'd be a fool to choose KM over MMA if you want to improve your chances of surviving a streetfight...

 

[Fatal Jay]

mma > any form of martial arts.

Everything else is only for belt ranking, which doesn't matter when your about to get jumped by a group of knuckleheads

 

[Bokanovsky]

Relying on martial arts for self-defence is foolish. If your attacker is armed, you will be at a distinct disadvantage, no matter how proficient you are. And let's face it, if you find yourself in a situation where your life really is in danger (as opposed to getting involved in an unnecessary fight over some stupid sh!t), chances are very high that your opponent will indeed be armed.

If you live in the U.S. or some other country that permits civilians to carry firearms, buy a gun and learn how to shoot. As an added benefit, it'll motivate you to stay out of unnecessary confrontations.

 

[Rubirosa]

I always seem to jump into these martial arts threads ha ha.........

Any martial art that teaches you how to FIGHT is good IMO.....

Martial arts that rely on a cooperating partner in executing moves give the practitioner a false sense of confidence......

You have to go in and "get your hands dirty".....sparring, grappling, whatever...You have to go against someone who is resisting and trying to do to you what you are trying to do to him.....

For this reason, it's important to find a place where the instructor has a good grip on the students.....Making sure that the upper belts are not bullying the beginners.....

And get strong !!! Not necessarilly buff, but strong !!!

 

[Fatal Jay]

martial arts doesn't teach how to get out of headlocks

boxing teach you how to throw a punch, but don't teach you what to do once your on the ground.

Like most martial arts, it doesn't touch you how to fight once you get knocked down to the ground

mma teaches you what to do all over

 

[Rave18]

Sent a message to the Krav Maga instructor, asking him

1. If he or any of his students have applied the techniques of KM in an actual fight

and

2. Is there any sparring in class

No reply so far. So based on it and this thread, think it may be a good idea to go for something else.