Should you start training Krav Maga? An introduction for the curious:

By: Glen Flanagan
Something has sparked your interest in Krav Maga. It could be a desire as common as wanting to get more active and build your fitness or it could be an experience as scary as having come through a violent encounter and wanting to make sure you have the self-defense skills to protect yourself and your family in the future. As you evaluate whether you should find a Krav Maga gym near you and begin training, here are some things to consider.

Who should train Krav Maga?

Those who are interested in self-defense

We all want to live our lives peacefully and never be forced into a situation involving violence. And a key part of Krav Maga training focuses on avoiding and escaping bad situations, as well as de-escalating a situation verbally and through body language if at all possible.

Unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that it’s not always possible to avoid a bad situation or de-escalate. Consider that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department reported in July 2024 that homicides had increased from 45 year to-date in 2023 to 61 in 2024. Looking at the same time period, there was an increase in aggravated assaults from 2,620 to 2,844. Now, these are just a couple statistics touching on a complex topic. I’m not painting a picture that you’re very likely to be involved in a violent crime — but this does illustrate that there are real, tangible reasons one might seek out self-defense training.

As someone who trains with the safety of my family in mind, I value that Krav is a self-defense system encompassing a wide range of scenarios. We work to hone our situational awareness with the goal of spotting contextual cues and leaving before an interaction goes bad. But we also drill a combination of striking, grappling, and weapons-focused techniques in case you have no other option but to fight for your life or the lives of family members with you. If this kind of reality-based self-defense training appeals to you, joining a good Krav Maga gym can empower you to protect yourself and those who are most dear in your life.

Folks who want to get in better shape

You don’t have to be in great shape to start Krav training. In fact, attending classes regularly is a great way to get your fitness on track. While workouts will vary by gym, you may participate in some of the following cardio- and endurance-focused exercises if you take a Krav class:

• Jogging as part of your warmup.
• Striking pads and kick shields until the instructor calls time.
• Competitive games to build coordination and control.

The workout component of Krav is meant to build mental toughness in addition to physical fitness. For example, you might be told to strike pads until your training partner calls “down,” then you must do a burpee and go right back to hitting the pads. Some gyms may also offer a fitness-specific class in addition to the technique-focused classes. HIIT (high-intensity interval training) is a popular type of workout you may encounter, with brief bursts of activity using bodyweight exercises or equipment like jump ropes and medicine balls followed by short periods of rest before another burst of exercise.

People looking for a community

Training combatives safely requires good communication, respect for your training partners, and a willingness to set aside your ego. It also requires a willingness to get out of your comfort zone — you’re going to look awkward at times, you’re going to feel awkward at times, and that’s OK.

Stick with it, and you’ll be well on your way to becoming part of a close-knit community. Some of the days I enjoy most are the ones where we work out hard, give each other a few knocks during sparring, and then head out after class for milkshakes or a barbecue platter.

You have to be ready to put in the work, of course. A Krav gym shouldn’t be a social club. You’re going to sweat, you’re going to end up with some bruises. But the old saying that iron sharpens iron holds true here. If you’re in the right place with the right people, you’ll grow to consider your training partners as your comrades-in-arms.

How does Krav Maga compare to other systems?

Krav Maga pulls extensively from other combat systems. When Imi Lichtenfield was teaching Israeli fighters what would eventually become formalized into Krav Maga in the 1940s and 1950s, he combined knife fighting techniques, boxing, and jujutsu, as Dr. Izhac Grinberg explains in his 2014 article “Israeli Martial Arts: A Brief Timeline.”

These days, many Krav practitioners cross train in popular fighting styles such as boxing, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. There’s value in the techniques you can learn and in how frequently these systems encourage sparring and rolling.

But there are at least two key differences between Krav Maga and many popular martial arts and combat sports: Krav should include scenario-based self-defense training and is also typically trained with the assumption you’re fighting in an environment where weapons could be involved.

Scenario-based training

As an example of what I mean about scenarios, consider a group sparring drill. You might be part of a team of three, sparring against another team of three.

In this case, it’s not enough to have to do well on your own, you have a responsibility to your partners. If one of them is getting overwhelmed, you must have the situational awareness to come to their assistance, as well as the fighting skill to deal with threats from multiple sides as you do so. This type of training prepares you for situations where you aren’t just fighting for yourself against one opponent, but must look out for friends or family in a dynamic and rapidly changing situation.

Weapons-based environments

Lastly, let’s come back to what I said about Krav techniques assuming weapons might be involved. This becomes more apparent the longer you study the discipline. If your instructor seems picky about how you’re performing a block against a punch, for example, there’s probably good reason for that — you may be shown at a later point how the block must be done to protect your vital areas in case there’s a blade involved.

If you’re more interested in competition on the mats and in the ring, these scenarios and Krav’s focus on defense against weapons might not be what you’re looking for, and that’s OK. But if you’re seeking a system designed to help you get out of a dangerous situation and go home to your family at the end of the day, Krav might be exactly what you’re looking for.

Is Krav Maga effective?

The answer is yes — with some obvious caveats. No one can guarantee the future, particularly when something as dynamic as fighting is involved. And, the effectiveness of any system will depend on the quality of the instruction, the consistency with which the practitioner trains, and the appropriateness of the solution you opt for if you have to defend yourself.

Good Krav Maga training will use a variety of methods to help you learn to effectively defend yourself. For one thing, you should get many, many repetitions of simple techniques designed to work when you’ve got adrenaline coursing through your veins and your fine motor control goes out the window. Spend enough time in the self-defense world and eventually you’ll hear about the “OODA loop.” This stands for observation, orientation, decision, and action, and delineates the processes that happen in your brain before you can decide on and take an action.

Drills that train for the real world

In the context of protecting yourself, the OODA loop means you’re at a disadvantage if a bad guy attacks you from ambush, because you’ll be trying to take in information and decide what to do with it while he’s already hurting you. There’s an excellent explanation of how this works and some things you can do to try to train for it in “Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected” by Rory Miller, a longtime correctional officer (later sergeant) and martial artist.
One of the ways Krav training addresses the OODA loop is to train certain techniques — simple enough to be applicable in a broad set of situations — repeatedly, with the aim of turning them into instincts. A drill I’ve done numerous times throughout my time with Treadstone Defensive Tactics has been “bursting in.” In this drill, one training partner is instructed to suddenly smack and beat the other, not hard enough to cause injury but certainly hard enough to be uncomfortable. The partner being attacked must respond by raising his or her arms into a shield position and crashing energetically into the other person.

What is this accomplishing? In short, it simulates an ambush. The goal is that if a violent criminal makes you his target, your instincts will kick in and you’ll be able to go on the offensive with your first action. The OODA loop will still cycle after that, and you may have to force your brain through what folks in the self-defense world term “the freeze,” but at least you’ll have bought a little time by taking the fight to the bad guy right away.

How do I find a good Krav Maga gym?

Sparring

One of the top ways to evaluate Krav gyms, in my opinion, is whether or not their training includes sparring. If you’re not learning to execute techniques under pressure, and you’re not learning to get hit and keep moving, you’re not training effectively to be able to defend yourself.

If you’re a fresh student with no prior training, you probably won’t spar immediately. For instance, some schools require that you pass your P1 rank test first. This helps ensure safety for you and your training partners, as you’ll have some familiarity with basic techniques and a measure of control over how much force you’re using, which you typically don’t have if you’ve never trained before. But, eventually, sparring should be a regular part of your Krav training.

Affiliations

Some students may prefer to look for affiliations with major Krav Maga organizations. These include Krav Maga Global (KMG), Krav Maga Worldwide (KMW), and the International Krav Maga Federation (IKMF). As someone who trains at an independent school, I take affiliations with a grain of salt — but they can be a helpful starting point if you are new to the world of combatives and martial arts and aren’t sure how to evaluate what you see in class.

Culture

One thing I can’t overstate is the importance of culture. You should like the people you train with and feel that your safety is a priority both for instructors and for your classmates. While you should be pushed hard in training, it should never be careless or reckless. One of the reasons I keep coming back to Treadstone is because I trust how the owner runs classes here — I know I’ll be asked to work hard, and I may end up with bumps and bruises from time to time, but I also have confidence he’ll immediately call out anyone behaving unsafely or with bravado.

And, speaking of instructors, be skeptical of anyone who acts like they’re the ultimate tough guy or tries to sell you on the notion that the techniques they’re teaching will always allow you to get out of a fight victorious and unscathed. Fights are dynamic, and particularly when there are weapons involved, you could get hurt badly even if you successfully fend off an attacker.

Finally, good Krav Maga gyms should encourage cross training. If you want to train Krav alongside another system, say BJJ for example, your Krav instructors should be able to show you how to incorporate what you learn elsewhere into a self-defense context. But if cross training is discouraged, that’s a sign you might be in a place where egos and branding are valued above effective training.

Conclusion

If you’re interested in Krav Maga, I hope this post has provided information that will help you make an educated decision. The next step is to find a gym and take a trial class, because no amount of theory can replace real experience on the mat. Good luck and good training!