About Krav Maga - Boston

If you have specific questions regarding Krav Maga & our Boston classes, please take a look at our "Frequently Asked Questions Pgae", which can be accessed by clicking here.

To read about Boston Krav Maga Instructor, Gershon Ben Keren, please click here.

For a complete History of Krav Maga, please click here.

Krav Maga

Krav Maga (meaning 'close combat' in Hebrew) is a system of self-defense/fighting that was first developed in Israel in the 1940's and is the current system of choice in use by the IDF (Israeli Defense Force). It is also used and taught to many of the Worlds law enforcement and military agencies including Special Forces and elite combat and infantry units.

Krav Maga is based on several simple premises, one of which being, “what's the simplest, most natural and most obvious solution to a problem.” This sets it aside from many traditional martial arts where the techniques have evolved and be added to over many years making them more complicated and involved than they were originally designed to be – because of this the skill level required to make them effective on the street is very high. Krav Maga takes the approach of constantly looking to simply, refine and reuse techniques so that what the student/practitioner is required to learn to be able to adequately defend themselves is as simple as it possibly can be.

Simplicity of techniques is extremely important for reality based self defense when the anatomy of a street fight is considered. One of the many things that martial arts and other self-defense systems fail to take into account is the mental state of the person being attacked. Real life violence is extremely stressful and under extreme stress the mind shuts down many of the functions that we take for granted when practicing techniques in the training hall or dojo. Remembering complex moves or performing fine motor skills (intricate, detailed movements) go out of the window – if you've ever tried to tie your shoe laces, or complete some other frequently performed activity you normally take for granted when stressed you'll find that it may take several attempts as your fingers fail to do what they're told. Imagine now, that you have to perform a technique that has several parts to it when confronted by a violent aggressor intent on doing you physical harm. Under this level of stress you'll never complete it successfully.

Krav Maga Stress Testing In Our Boston Classes

In Krav Maga both the student and the system are continually stress-tested to make sure that they both perform when dealing with real-life violence. If a technique cannot be proven to be effective it is refined or redeveloped till it is and if it's found that despite modification it can't be made to work it will be removed from the syllabus. Krav Maga is not a martial art that allows itself or its students to stand still. If a technique can be simplified it is. If a technique that is used to defend against one attack can be re-used to defend against another then it will be. Krav Maga constantly strives for the simplest and most effective set of techniques. The syllabus is as small as it possibly can be, so the student does not have to go through the process of trying to find an appropriate solution, out of many, to the violence that they will face on the street or in any other aggressive situation.

Krav Maga also dos not shy away from complex problems, such as finding defenses to gun, knife, stick, bottle attacks etc. In fact we constantly look for new problems to solve e.g. in the 1990's there were a spate of muggings in South Africa where the aggressors were actually sticking a knife into a person as they made their demands to that the victim was unable to make any movement, without opening themselves up. Rather than try to convince ourselves that this problem was restricted to a geographic area, we modified all our knife threat defenses to be able to cope with this type of attack. As the perpetrators of violence find new ways to cause harm, so we have to find new solutions.

In Krav Maga you will learn to defend yourself in all manner of situations (standing, seated on the ground etc) against all manner of attacks including those involving knives and firearms. You will learn to this when surprised, when tired and when half asleep because these are the states when an attacker, mugger etc will try and confront you i.e. when you are least prepared.

A timetable/schedule of classes is shown on the right of this page. If you would like to attend one of our Beginners Krav Maga Classes in Boston, please contact us by clicking here.