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My understanding of Krav Maga is that it's more or less formalized mixed martial arts. I studied Tang Soo Do for many years, and the really useful self defense

by eric_h 10y ago

My understanding of Krav Maga is that it's more or less formalized mixed martial arts. I studied Tang Soo Do for many years, and the really useful self defense techniques were not taught until I got my black belt, and we started learning techniques from different martial arts. This teaching was deferred primarily because the useful techniques can be extremely dangerous to practice (strikes to the throat being a good example, and grappling techniques where you maximize leverage with the intention of breaking bones).

e12e 10y ago
See my other comment on how techniques aren't all that different due to physics and biology. MMA can mean many things; I usually read it as the modern circus that is UFC etc - a sport. Krav Maga is self defence (or self offence, it's pretty violent; it's for situations where you'd be justified in using lethal force, not for "scuffles"). It's simple, and has a curriculum that's built around survival; you'll typically see something that looks a lot like Krav Maga in any martial arts self defence class (if it's any good). And you can typically find "krav Maga" techniques in any martial art. For example one of the first techniques thought in taekwondo is the straight front kick, the first movement of the kick is lifting the knee - so you start practicing a knee to the groin as a white belt. But sadly you could become a fifth Dan in taekwondo and not even realize that, because of the sorry state of self defence in a lot of taekwondo dojangs.
- eric_h 10y ago
  My point in calling it formalized MMA (by which I mean the literal definition of the acronym, mixed martial arts) was that rather than the techniques being passed down by tradition (like tang soo do, kung fu, aikido, etc), it was built up by mixing and matching techniques from various art forms with the explicit goal of a brutal, effective form of self defense. Taekwondo, I think, long ago parted ways with any intention of being an art of self defense, if that intention was ever there to begin with.

by eric_h 10y ago

e12e 10y ago

See my other comment on how techniques aren't all that different due to physics and biology. MMA can mean many things; I usually read it as the modern circus that is UFC etc - a sport. Krav Maga is self defence (or self offence, it's pretty violent; it's for situations where you'd be justified in using lethal force, not for "scuffles"). It's simple, and has a curriculum that's built around survival; you'll typically see something that looks a lot like Krav Maga in any martial arts self defence class (if it's any good). And you can typically find "krav Maga" techniques in any martial art. For example one of the first techniques thought in taekwondo is the straight front kick, the first movement of the kick is lifting the knee - so you start practicing a knee to the groin as a white belt. But sadly you could become a fifth Dan in taekwondo and not even realize that, because of the sorry state of self defence in a lot of taekwondo dojangs.

eric_h 10y ago
My point in calling it formalized MMA (by which I mean the literal definition of the acronym, mixed martial arts) was that rather than the techniques being passed down by tradition (like tang soo do, kung fu, aikido, etc), it was built up by mixing and matching techniques from various art forms with the explicit goal of a brutal, effective form of self defense. Taekwondo, I think, long ago parted ways with any intention of being an art of self defense, if that intention was ever there to begin with.