Krav Maga - History

History

Imi Sde-Or (formerly Imrich Lichtenfeld) was born in 1910 in Budapest, Hungary and grew up in Pozsony (today: Bratislava, Slovakia). Imi became active in a wide range of sports, including: gymnastics, wrestling, and boxing. In 1928, Imi won the Slovakian Youth Wrestling Championship, and in 1929 the adult championship (light and middle weight divisions). That same year, he also won the national boxing championship and an international gymnastics championship. During the ensuing decade, Imi's athletic activities focused mainly on wrestling, both as a contestant and a trainer.

In the mid-1930s, anti-Semitic riots began to threaten the Jews of Bratislava. Imi became the leader of a group of Jewish boxers and wrestlers who took to the streets to defend Jewish neighborhoods against the growing numbers of fascist and anti-Semitic thugs. Imi quickly discovered, however, that actual fighting was very different from competition fighting, and although boxing and wrestling were good sports, they were not always practical for the aggressive and brutal nature of street combat. It was then that he started to re-evaluate his ideas about fighting and started developing the skills and techniques that would eventually become Krav Maga. Having become a thorn in the side of the equally anti-Semitic local authorities, Imi left his home, family and friends in 1940 on the last refugee ship to escape Europe.

After making his way to Palestine, Imi joined Israel’s pre-state Haganah paramilitary organization to protect new-coming Jewish from local inhabitants. In 1944 Imi began training fighters in his areas of expertise: physical fitness, swimming, wrestling, use of the knife, and defenses against knife attacks. During this period, Imi trained several elite units of the Haganah and Palmach (striking force of the Haganah and forerunner of the special units of the Israel Defense Forces), including the Pal-Yam, as well as groups of police officers.

In 1948, when the State of Israel was founded and the IDF was formed, Imi became Chief Instructor for Physical Fitness and Krav Maga at the IDF School of Combat Fitness. He served in the IDF for about 20 years, during which time he developed and refined his unique method for self-defense and hand-to-hand combat. Self-defense was not a new concept, since nearly all martial arts had developed some form of defensive techniques in their quest for tournament and/or sport dominance. However, self-defense based strictly upon the scientific and dynamic principles of the human body was. Before retiring from the military, Imi elected Eli Avikzar his military successor. With Imi's blessing, Avikzar went on to strengthen Krav Maga with the addition of new techniques which maintained Krav Maga's central principles of maximum effectiveness and efficiency. Boaz Aviram succeeded Avikzar as Chief Instructor, and was followed only by a handful of others.

After retirement, Imi opened a school to teach a civilian and youth form of Krav Maga, based upon the traditional but popularized martial arts dojo model. The dojo model allowed for Krav Maga's quick assimilation into martial arts schools around the world, top-down control/patronage, and the safe-guarding of IDF military Krav Maga secrets. For better or worse, numerous Krav Maga schools and associations have formed in the years since Imi's Israeli Krav Maga Association started in 1978. Some teachers and organizations purport to have improved the Krav Maga system by including techniques from other martial arts, while others have markedly different styles, forms, and techniques unseen in Krav Maga since its founding. Some of the first students to receive a black belt in Imi's civilian Krav Maga Association of 1st Dan, were: Eli Avikzar, Rafi Elgarisi, Haim Zut, Haim Gidon, Shmuel Kurzviel, Haim Hakani, Shlomo Avisira, Vicktor Bracha, Yaron Lichtenstein, Avner Hazan and Miki Asulin.

In 1978, Lichtenfeld founded the non-profit Israeli Krav Maga Association (IKMA) with several senior instructors. Lichtenfeld died in January 1998 in Netanya, Israel.

When Krav Maga started to spread beyond the borders of Israel, there arose a need to found an international organization. Imi Lichtenfeld's students and a second generation of Imi's students resulted in forming a new international Krav Maga federation with the support of some of his most loyal students and respected instructors, including Eyal Yanilov, Gabi Noah, Avi Moyal, and Eli Ben-Ami.

Other formal Krav Maga associations exist, as well as some unaffiliated instructors whose knowledge and skill in Krav Maga is equivalent to, if not superior than some of those teaching in prominent Krav Maga organizations. The important thing is to compare the organizations and teachers out there in order to ultimately decide which one fits your needs.