Krav History:

Long before Imi’s “`aliyah” to the Holy Land of Eretz Yisrael, Krav Panim el Panim, or “face to face combat” was taught to members of the Palmach, a wing of the Haganah. After the United Nations declared the State of Israel an independent country from Mandate Era Palestine, the Haganah became known as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Imi’s Krav developed in two different regions, simultaneously, in the 1930s. Fascist, anti-Semitic riots threatened the Jewish population of Bratislava in Europe. So together with other Jewish boxers and wrestlers, Lichtenfeld helped to defend his Jewish neighborhood against these fascist gangs. He quickly decided that sport fighting has little in common with real combat and began developing a system of techniques for practical self-defense in life-threatening situations.

By 1935, Lichtenfeld had visited Mandate Era Palestine with a team of Jewish wrestlers to participate in the Maccabiah Games but could not participate because of a broken rib that resulted from his training while en route. This led to the fundamental Krav Maga precept, “do not get hurt while training.”

Lichtenfeld returned to Czechoslovakia to face increasing anti-Semitic violence. Existing Jewish communities in Palestine, along with new-immigrants to the region, faced literal Nazi-funded riots. These were given the misnomer of the “Arab Revolts.” In fact, these Nazi satellite operations (documented by the Arab Higher Committee), were carried out by unelected, rejected terrorist gangs, headed by the Ottoman agent “Hajj” Amin Al-Husseini. Ghada Kharmi writes, in her memoirs In Search of Fatima, that “every family” of Palestinians had at least one relative who was murdered or disappeared, by this tiny, unelected faction of terrorists.

In Europe, Lichtenfeld organized a group of young Jewish boxers and wrestlers to protect his community. On the streets, he acquired hard-won experience and a crucial understanding of the differences between sport fighting and street fighting. He realized that the fundamental self-defense principle: “use natural movements and reactions” for defense, combined with an immediate and decisive counterattack, of the “Internal Family” or “Nei Jia” systems (which he knew of from Aikido), were essential for real-world combat. From this evolved the refined theory of “simultaneous defense and attack” while “never occupying two hands in the same defensive movement.

In the Mandate Palestine, the aforementioned Palmach wing of the Haganah were refining real-world combat techniques of Krav Panim el Panim. When Imi made “`Aliyah” to the Holy Land of Eretz Yisrael, and eventually became Chief Instructor for Physical Fitness and Krav Maga at the IDF School of Combat Fitness, he took his existing martial arts training in , and synthesized it with the Krav Panim el Panim of the Palmach and Pal-Yam units. 

Imi’s Krav Maga curriculum for the IDF derived from a combination of techniques used in Aikido, western boxing, Judo, Karate, and Greco-Roman wrestling, as well as the aforementioned synthesis with Krav Panim el Panim. So what could possibly make Imi’s synthesis better? Our instructor and the co-creator of the Krav Maga Penimi (along with one of his instructors, Moreh `Oseh Ben David), Micah Ben David Naziri suggests that the answer is found in bringing in deeper knowledge, and expertise in the systems from which Imi derived Krav principles. This includes, but is not limited to, the Nei Jia of Aikido and the Taijiquan that influenced it. In so doing, Krav Maga Penimi techniques can be launched faster, requiring less “Li” exertion of physical strength, and more explosive upon impact. Add to that elements from other world-renowned Close Quarters Combat systems and you have the Krav Maga of TODAY! 

Our Instructors:

Grandmaster of the ISD (Integrated Self-Defense) program, Manuel Taningco explains that Krav Maga is hybrid combative self-protection, much as his ISD, which is also integrated into our Krav program. Krav, he explains, encourages students to avoid physical confrontation. Yet, if the situation is unsafe, Krav training designs to finish the fight as quickly and aggressively as possible. 

In our program, the student is trained to aim for the most vulnerable areas of the body. This training is for survival, not for sport.

Grandmaster Manuel Taningco first created the ISD (Integrated Self-Defense) program when he won the contract for training the US Air Force Security in 2004. His knowledge of ISD was implemented training the Security Forces before they were deployed for combat.