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KRAV MAGA, A GENERALIZATION
By Lt. Colonel Chaim Peer, Major Moni
Aizik, Major Avi Nardia, Johan Castillo
Krav Maga
is a beautiful martial art, created by
one of the most influential and leading
instructors in Israel’s
history. However Krav Maga is a generalized
term, and when you look it up in the dictionary
in Israel, it will say that Krav Maga is a hand-to-hand
fighting system based on close quarters
combat. Maga meaning close, and Krav meaning battle.
Around the 70’s
and 80’s, Krav Maga was introduced to
the civilian sector by one of the most
respected Israeli instructors of Israeli
CQB, Imi Lichtenfield, or as others know him, Imi Or-Sadeh. And
most of his knowledge was based upon experience.
Because Army and
Law Enforcement agencies around the world
have a limited amount of time in which
to teach the participants the program, many of the CQB systems
will be based on simplicity and the techniques
will be basic, thus allowing the participant to learn and perform
the techniques in a quick and timely manner.
Another factor that
comes into play is liability. What is
taught to the military sector is definitely
not taught to the law enforcement sector, and what is taught
to that sector is not taught to the civilian
sector. The threat levels are simply not the same, so the techniques
must vary.
The majority of Israeli CQB instructors in the civilian
sector are not all necessarily the same
CQB instructors at the Israeli Military, Law Enforcement and Secret
Service Academies in Israel. The only common denominator is that
they use the generalized term, “Krav
Maga.”
Ran Cohen, a former Israeli Secret Service
instructor, and also close friend of mine,
uses the term Operational Krav Maga.
Another former instructor after Imi Lichtenfield, Eli Avikazar,
switched the name to Krav Magen, while others simply use the term
Krav Maga. Lt. Colonel Chaim Peer uses Kapap / Lotar, Major Moni
Aizik uses Edge Combat, while Miki Erez, Niel Farber and Moti Horenstein
use Kavana and Hisardut Survival.
I was blessed with the opportunity
be a Krav Maga instructor for the Israeli
defense force (IDF ) and Hagana Hatzmit
instructor for Law Enforcement at the
Operational Police Academy in Israel, and also a Lotar instructor
for Israel’s
top Counter-terrorism Unit Yamam. In doing so, I was exposed to all the different
concepts and levels of what everyone is calling “Krav Maga.”
While
the Army uses the term Krav Maga, the Police Academy uses the term Hagana
Atsmit, which really means self-defense. The police want to convey
an image of self-defense for arrest and control, a less lethal approach
than that of the military. At the same time, the counter-terrorism
unit, which at one time used the term “LochamaZeira”,
meaning micro combat, now use the term Lotar, which is counter-terrorism.
Here we have the same situation as mentioned above about the different sectors.
A military unit that is only doing intelligence gathering does not need the
same type of CQB training as a unit that performs high-risk procedures.
The
term encompasses Israeli Filipino Knife Fighting, Israeli Judo, Israeli Jiu-jitsu
(Hisardut) and more.
My medical insurance in Israel says that I cannot
do skydiving, skiing or Krav Maga. That does not mean Krav Maga, it means
any martial arts at all.
So now
a group has left the military and started teaching to the civilian sector,
and they call their martial art Krav Maga. And for that reason Krav Maga
is now being known as a style.
The term Krav Maga to Israel is like the term Karate is to Japan. To be more
specific, if you are training in Japanese Karate, do you know Shotokan, Kyokoshin
Kai, Wado Ryu? These styles all have different founders and are different
organizations, but they are all Karate.
Anyone who says that they teach Krav Maga is not being specific, unlike Eli
Avikazar’s Krav Magen. For this reason when I came out for civilians
I decided to be more specific as to what style I do.
I have worked with other
former Special Forces instructors like Major Moni Isaac and Lt.Colonel Chaim
Pe’er, and the experience that each of us
brings to the table is different than that of the other. For that reason we
know we must be more specific. We are very different than Krav Maga.
My father
started training years ago when Israel was created as Kapap, and it is from
this that my style comes from, even if today some people call the style Lotar.
My conclusion is that there is no way anyone can own or copyright the name
Krav Maga, it is simply too general. There has already been a case involved
with the copyrighting of the term “Brazilian Jiu-jitsu” and the
person suing lost, the term was too general.
About the Authors
Lt.Colonel Chaim Peer the president of Kapap – Lotar ( www.kapap.net
) student of Imi Lichtenfeld and from the first Krav Maga instructors
in Israel and one of top Lotar instructors for the IDF , served
in Israeli special forces and run Tel Aviv university combat club,
in between his students the top secret service instructors ,Yamam
unit instructors and troops as civilians
Major Moni Aizik served in the Israeli Special forces and from
the creators of Krav Maga and the Israeli Martial arts and Hand
to Hand Moni Aizik was teaching Krav Maga ( his way of Krav Maga – Edge
combat ) also at his Maccabi Tel Aviv school from 1970 to 1985 !
in between his student Yael Arad –Israel Judo champion and
olimpic games Siver medal, Carlos Newton Pride and UFC and Vale
Tudo Champion ,Avi Nardia from the leading Israeli hand to hand
Email
jiujitsusamurai@hotmail.com
Major Avi Nardia is one of Israel’s top Hand-to-Hand instructors
in the arts of Kapap, Lotar, Hagana Hatzmit and Krav Maga. He served
as an instructor in Israel for 24 years, training military, law
Enforcement and Special Forces units in Israel and all over the
world.
Email
avi@avinardia.com
Webs
www.avinardia.com
www.kapap.net
www.lotarslefdefense.com
Johan Castillo
A Brazilian Jiu-jutsu instructor as well
as Israeli Krav Maga instructor and Kapap Lotar and Kavana instructor
that teach for army troops hand to hand program
Email
johnnyjiujitsu@yahoo.com
http://www.stompingass.com/
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