Krav Maga combat training gains popularity in city

New Delhi: Despite being developed for Israeli military combat during the Second World War, “Krav Maga” — a self-defence and fighting system — has began adapting and modifying to suit civilian needs. The combat system is making its presence in India and attracts youths in Delhi-NCR to be adopted as a self defence technique. The Indian Armed forces has adopted “Krav Maga” for decades.

Veena Gupta is a certified Krav Maga instructor in Gurgaon. She also provides training to women in self defence in the NCR region.

“I learnt Krav Maga in 2011. Since then, I have been providing training to corporate offices and other institutions. This is an Israeli combat technique. It is for everyone. The techniques of this combat are designed to be effective regardless of a person’s size, strength, or gender. This is a straightforward approach to self-defence. Krav Maga doesn’t require years of training to achieve self-defence proficiency. It is easy to learn, easy to remember, and easy to apply,” said Ms Gupta.

Master (Sensei) Pradeep Negi, who runs the MMA training centre at Indirapuram, said: “I have been an instructor for the last 18 years and my expertise is in martial arts with various disciplines including kick boxing, tae-kwon-do, street fight, karate, kung-fu, and Muay Thai. Lately, a number of students have asked me to train them in ‘Krav Maga.’ I am going to learn it soon. This is a combat technique which has been attracting the youths.”   

Imrich Lichtenfeld, the founder of Krav Maga, had many encounters and he quickly realised that other combat techniques had little in common with real combat. He began developing a system of techniques for practical self defence in life-threatening situations.

In 1964, Lichtenfeld retired from the Israeli military and began adapting and modifying Krav Maga to suit civilian needs.

The method was formulated to suit everyone, especially those who might need it to save their life or survive an attack while sustaining minimal harm irrespective of the background of the attack — criminal, nationalistic, or other.

To disseminate his method, he established two training centres — one in Tel Aviv and the other in Netanya.

 He trained teams of Krav Maga instructors, who were accredited by him and the Israeli ministry of education. He also created the Israeli Krav Maga Association in 1978.