KRAV MAGA CZĘSTOCHOWA

KRAV MAGA CZĘSTOCHOWA

Krav Maga is a combat fighting system (in close contact) which was created by Imrzich Lichtenfeld (born in 1910, died in 1998, on the 9th of January) who was a Czech Jude and a pioneer of this system. He was Samuel Lichtenfeld’s son, who was a circus strongman and a wrestler.

Young Imi followed his father’s path and practiced wrestling, boxing and gymnastics with a success. It is believed that he practiced Jujutsu techniques at that time. Conceiving a picture of the treat of the Second World War and fascism in Germany, he organized a self-defense group that tried to withstand aggressive Nazi squads. Thanks to the experience he had gained in real fights, he also developed tactic skills. It helped him create a multi-field system of self-defense and grappling. In 1940 Lichtenfeld bravely escaped to Palestine and four years later he started to teach his martial art in the squads of Haganah. (Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization.)

Then, after Israel had been established in 1948, in the forces, military intelligence and uniformed services of this country – especially in the elite special army teams. In the 1960s, he changed is surname to Sde-Or and he still trained the military squads. The system of the combat training was simple and consisted of over a dozen of defensive techniques. With the passing of time the hot wars and secret operations which were led by Israel and the necessity of standing up to terrorist attacks caused the system to expand Krav Maga and add special intervention techniques, including stopping, police arrest, fighting with knife, shooting on the plane board etc. The feeling of danger and the militarization of the Israeli society led to the need of general education. In the 1970s, Krav Maga became available for normal citizens. The Krav Maga Association was founded in Israel in 1978 – its task was to propagate and to promote Krav Maga.

Krav Maga was also developed very dynamically in the USA, which resulted in founding Krav Maga Worldwide Enterprises in 1999 which is in charge of educating trainers. After Imi Lichtenfeld had died, Darren Levine and Eyal Yanilow took the reins in the organization and have been controlling it ever since. Eyal Yanilov often visits Poland with his schooling seminaries. Krav Maga uses various techniques which are based on the natural defense reflexes. Fast combinations of low kicks, hits with knee, elbow, head and short sequences of ground fighting techniques. This system focus on its lack of schemes – just like in Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do. The main aim of krav maga is the ability to switch the stress off in the moment of danger and to make your opponent unable to fight anymore through the most efficient techniques and with the least effort.

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