What Is Krav Maga? The Israeli Self-Defence System Explained

Krav Maga is a self-defence and fighting system whose name means “contact combat” in Hebrew. It is not a martial art in the traditional, sporting sense: there are no competitions, no kata, no belts to chase for their own sake and no rules to follow in a confrontation. Krav Maga exists to do one thing — keep you safe when someone is trying to hurt you — and everything in the system is judged against that single, brutally practical standard. If a technique would not work against a bigger, stronger, committed attacker, it does not belong.

Origins and history

Krav Maga traces back to Imi Lichtenfeld (also known as Imrich Lichtenfeld), born in 1910 and raised in Bratislava. A gifted boxer, wrestler and gymnast, Imi began using his combat skills in the 1930s to defend his Jewish neighbourhood against antisemitic gangs. He quickly learned a hard lesson that shaped the whole system: sporting technique and street survival are not the same thing. What wins a regulated bout can fail badly in a real, unfair fight.

In 1942 Imi emigrated to what was then Mandatory Palestine, where he began training members of the Haganah and the Palmach — the pre-state Jewish defence organisations. When the State of Israel was founded in 1948, he became Chief Instructor for physical fitness and Krav Maga at the IDF School of Combat Fitness, a post he held for around two decades. There he refined the system to teach effective self-defence to large numbers of recruits in a short time, regardless of their athletic background.

After leaving the military, Imi adapted Krav Maga for civilians — ordinary men, women and children who would never see a battlefield but might still face an assault, a mugging or an abduction attempt. That civilian system, focused on real-world personal safety, is what we teach in Southport today.

The core principles of Krav Maga

Instinctive, natural movement

Every Krav Maga technique is built on top of what your body already does instinctively. When something flies at your face you flinch and your hands come up; Krav Maga takes that natural reaction and turns it into a trained defence. Because the movements work with your reflexes rather than against them, they remain available under the fear and adrenaline of a real attack, when complex, rehearsed sequences tend to fall apart.

Simultaneous defence and attack

Most systems teach you to block, then counter. Krav Maga compresses those into a single beat: as you deflect or absorb the incoming threat, you are already striking back. This does two things at once — it stops the attack and immediately puts the attacker on the defensive, shifting momentum to you in the critical first second.

Threat neutralisation

The goal is never to “win a fight” for its own sake. It is to neutralise the danger as quickly as possible and then create the opportunity to disengage and escape. You do enough to stop the threat, then you leave. Krav Maga is about getting home safe, not standing your ground for pride.

Retzev — continuous combat motion

Retzev is the Hebrew word for “continuous motion”, and it is one of the features that most clearly separates Krav Maga from sport fighting. Rather than trading single, discrete techniques, you launch an overwhelming, uninterrupted stream of counter-attacks that flow from one to the next without pause — giving the attacker no chance to recover, reset or regain the initiative.

“Don't get hurt” — awareness, prevention and de-escalation first

The best fight is the one you avoid. Krav Maga places awareness, prevention and de-escalation ahead of physical technique. You learn to read situations, avoid likely trouble and talk your way out where possible. Physical defence is the last resort — used decisively when it is genuinely needed, with the aim of minimising harm to yourself.

How a Krav Maga technique is built

Krav Maga techniques are reverse-engineered from the way real attacks happen and the way real bodies react. Instructors start with the natural, instinctive response a person already makes — the flinch, the cover, the recoil — and shape it into something that both protects you and sets up a counter. Because the principles matter more than any single fixed move, techniques scale across body types: a smaller person uses leverage, targeting and timing rather than trying to out-muscle someone larger.

Who Krav Maga is for

Krav Maga is deliberately built for ordinary people of all fitness levels, not for elite athletes. You do not need strength, flexibility or a combat background to begin. Crucially, women train alongside men on purpose, not in a separate watered-down stream. That is by design: in reality an attacker is usually bigger, stronger and very often male, so if your training never exposes you to that, it would be ineffective and have little effect when it actually matters. Many women train in every lesson, learning to apply the same principles of leverage, targeting and aggression against larger partners — which is exactly the situation the system was made for.

Krav Maga in Southport

We teach this complete system at Total Combat Martial Arts in Southport, with members travelling in from Birkdale, Ainsdale, Churchtown, Formby, Ormskirk and Crosby. Classes run year-round, including through the school holidays, so your training never stalls. Want to see how progression works? Explore our levels and curriculum, browse the class timetable, or read the beginner's guide if you are completely new.

Try a class free. The best way to understand Krav Maga is to feel it. Book your free trial today.