The Source Of Krav Maga: Truth or fiction

The source of Krav Maga!

Is there such a thing? I don't think so. While the IDF and Wingate institute can certainly be considered a governing body for the system. I don't think that any civilian organization in the U.S., Israel or any other place can make such a claim. There are two reasons that organizations and their leaders claim to be the source of Krav Maga. Money! Ego!

The phenomenon of systems splitting and having multiple organizations is not exclusive to Krav Maga. In fact this is quite common in martial arts. As much as Krav Maga practioners and instructors do not want to be refereed to as "martial artists", this behavior is very typical of martial arts.


Krav Maga has been around for 60 years. Even though its existence in the main stream has been a relatively new event, the system has been exposed to people of all levels. There are so many talented instructors and practioners who have had an opportunity to learn the system, how can anyone claim to be "the source"? If you add the fact that almost immediately after Imi's death, many of his higher ranking students began to publicly claim to be his chosen successor. It is easy to see that the very notion of there being one "source", is absurd.

There are so many talented instructors from all over the world who have a unique perspective on Krav Maga. To deny that these men and women have contributed to the systems development is foolish. For whatever reason though, human beings have the need to belong to a group. They want to take the part of the system that they like and discard the rest. They want to teach those portions and build organizations and curriculum to support that process. It's funny but religion has a very similar path. How can there be that many different sects of Christianity,Islam and Judaism? See the parallel?

I want to be clear. I am not suggesting that Krav Maga is not a specific system with a specific set of principles and very unique approaches to self defense and fighting. No. All of these things are evident when we are discussing Krav Maga. I am very well aware of some instructors who have been selling their own repackaged versions of Judo and Jiu Jitsu as a Commando version of Krav Maga. Individuals like this should be exposed for being the liars that they are.

What I am saying is that the various organizations and their leaders have postured themselves as "the authority" on Krav Maga. I know because I have trained with many of these men. The problem that presents itself now is that they can't acknowledge any of their counterparts and the other organizations contributions to the system because they are fearful that such an acknowledgement would give the other instructor some sort of edge. In many cases they bad mouth the other instructors because they are insecure about the validity of their own training.


As a student. Do not concern yourself with any of these types of things. Do not become bogged down by this type of stuff. You are simply seeking your own process of learning. Take the principles. Do not allow the instructors words to become Dogma! Listen, process, question, meditate and formulate your thoughts then the road will become clear. Do not train with those who claim to be the only authority on Krav Maga. This is a sign of ego centric training which will become stagnate and ole because the chief instructor refuses to grow. He is "the source" of Krav Maga. Which means that the system is limited by his ability to implement techniques, training methods and tactics. Then, when he passes away, his top students will argue about which one of them should be "the source". That organization will disband and the same vicious cycle will repeat itself.

If you are training with an open mind and the instructor is teaching and sharing knowledge with you this is all that matters. The instructor should not need to constantly remind the students or his peers that he/ she was with Imi for so many years. He/she should just be teaching.