Self-Defense / ISD / Krav Maga

Self-Defense / ISD / Krav Maga

Krav Maga is a modern, and dynamic, military self-defense and fighting system developed for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israeli security forces derived from a combination of techniques sourced from Boxing, Wrestling, Judo, Aikido, Filipino Kali, Muay Thai, Jiujitsu, and Karate. Its focus on real-world combative situations and their effectiveness and efficiency.

From the beginning Krav Maga incorporated multiple martial arts disciplines, and continued to evolve until 1998 with the death of the popularly-credited “founder” of the system – Emrich “Imi” Lichtenfeld. But Imi was neither the founder of Krav training in the Land of Israel, nor did he ever claim to have invented the techniques which he standardized while serving in the Israel Defense Forces

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.

Grandmaster Taningco integrated the martial arts training and the street experience he had in Manila, Philippines, where he was born. He studied many different combative martial arts programs including Krav Maga. He uses his ISD program along with Krav Maga and most importantly his experience in fighting in the streets, and training fighters both the standup, and MMA.

After training Air Force Security, the US Marines invited him to train their instructors. He was invited by US Marine Colonel Schusko and Master Sergeant Franklin Shane. GM Taningco was awarded the “Martial Arts Excellence” after training the US Marine Instructors by USMarine Colonel Schusko. Taningco was also invited to train the SPECIAL ACTION FORCE – in Ternate Cavite, Philippines- Philippine Marine Base. He also train the NBI (equivalent to FBI), while in the Philippines.

He has taught at Wright State University, and the University of Dayton for Women’s self-defense featured in Dayton Daily Newspaper for promoting awareness of self-protection and model-mugging program. He has taught the Dayton Swat Team, Kettering Law Enforcements, US Marshal, and many other law enforcement for their safety.

Grandmaster Taningco was also inducted in the US Police Defensive Tactic Hall of Fame in 1987 in Cleveland, Ohio for the work he has done in many communities teaching law enforcement combatives and self-protection.

Recently returning from the State of Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Dr. Micah Naziri has brought his own training and experience in Krav Maga to TAMA, where he had been an instructor in our Kung Fu and Tai Chi programs for many years. 

The Krav Maga Penimi curriculum of Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri (Shifu Seng, Hern-Heng), developed with his Israeli teacher `Oseh Ben David, derives From the Following:

  • Imi’s Krav Maga, developed for the IDF and later for civilian and police forces
  • Filipino Escrima/Kali/Arnis systems
  • Indonesian Pentjak Silat 
  • CQB techniques employed by an array of U.S. SWAT teams
  • Empty Hand, Firearms, Blade Training and Disarms from several disciplines
  • Nei Jia principles of axial rotation on the spine, coiling in the “Xia Dan Tien” and pelvic “Kwa” as well as sinking strikes, and minimal retraction “Kiss and Go” clinch punches – also known as the “One Inch Punch.”

Dr. Micah Naziri is a certified and lineaged instructor in multiple martial arts systems, including the Nei Jia “Internal Family” systems of Baguazhang, Xingyiquan and both Chen and Yang styles of Taijiquan (“Tai Chi”). He is a direct student of the Chen Village and “Competitive Rules” Tuei Shou champion of all of China: Chen, Yaoze. In 2011, just before beginning his studies, research, training and teaching in the State of Israel, he was inducted into the TAMA Martial Arts International Hall of Fame. He is also a decades-long Krav Maga practitioner, having trained in schools throughout the United States and in the State of Israel alike, including developing Krav Maga Penimi with developed with Moreh `Oseh Ben David. He is SWAT-trained in all levels of Tactical Handgun training, Precision “Sniper” Rifle tactics and weapons craft, Tactical Rifles and Sub-Machine Guns, Tactical Shotgun as well as countless weapons disarms – both with empty hands and with weapons-in-hand. He has invented several Modern Weapons Martial Arts forms, featuring firearms, folding and fixed blades, etc. Perhaps most impressively, he is an internationally renowned counter-terrorism expert and conflict-resolution specialist who has taught both martial arts and peace-building in the State of Israel as well as the Palestinian Territories of the West Bank and Gaza.

Click here to read the latest blogs by Dr. Naziri, on Krav Maga, Kung Fu and more!

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