Krav Maga is a self-defense system developed for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that consists of a wide combination of techniques sourced from aikido, judo, boxing and wrestling, along with realistic fight training.

 

Krav Maga is known for its focus on real-world situations and its extreme efficiency and brutal counter-attacks. It was derived from street-fighting skills developed by Hungarian-Israeli martial artist Imi Lichtenfeld, who made use of his training as a boxer and wrestler as a means of defending the Jewish quarter against fascist groups in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia in the mid-to-late 1930s.

 

In the late 1940s, following his migration to Israel, he began to provide lessons on combat training to what was to become the IDF, subsequently going on to develop the system that became known as Krav Maga. It has since been refined for civilian, police and military applications.