Krav Maga Organization question

Xue Sheng

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Anybody have any information about any of these, I have found them all in my area, the order I put them in means nothing, I just listed then in alphabetical order.

  • Alpha Krav Maga
  • Aplea Krav Maga
  • Kelevra Krav Maga
 
There's a classic McDojo near me that added Alpha Krav Maga not too long ago (a few years?).

I don't know anything about Alpha, but their name associated with that McDojo just really turns me off.
 
Well here is what I learned

First there are 4 Krav Maga school in my area and I have contacted 3. The 4th, although it is a school run by a guy I know to be rather reputable and highly skilled guy in BJJ< Muay Thai and MMA....he is running 1 week long Krav Maga instructor programs so I decided to not go there.

The other 3; What I mostly learned was Krav Maga schools do not return calls or e-mails unless they are incredibly expensive.

School 1 - I called twice and sent an e-mail, and never got a call back or a response to the e-mail
School 2 - I called twice, left messages both times and never got a call back
School 3 - returned my only attempt at contact (e-mail) immediately. But they are twice as expensive as Aplea advertises on their locked from door.

School 3 does seem, at least from what I am finding, the most reputable, or at least the most responsive, it is also the most expensive and furthest away.
 
On the 1 week instructor thing... it depends. Krav Maga Worldwide does do 1 week instructor programs in their Force Protection Division. That's their LE/Military/Security program, and tbe certification earned is not in teaching Krav -- it's teaching that program. In fact, it is only teaching part of the program for each week. The whole curriculum would take about 5 or 6 weeks/courses. Something like that, I can deal with. But "full" instructor certification, no limitations... nope.

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The Krav Maga school I called twice and e-mailed actually called me back today. In a couple weeks I might just go check out the 2 free lessons to see what I think... but the one just down the street has still not called me back
 
Tuesday I give Krav Maga a try.... and yes I am a bit nervous.... have not done much of anything that was not Chinese in about 25 years.
 
there is a school near me that was once a kenpo mcdojo. they took a few weeks of one one of those instructor classes ,, now they changed the name of the school and advertise as a krav school and charge $180.00 per month. the average school charges $100.
at this point in time i think Krav is shooting themselves in the foot and wont be long before their reputation is crap. as it is i would never consider it as an option unless the instructor was an instructor in the Israeli army.
 
There are 4 in my area, of those I have narrowed that down to 2. The one I am going to does not offer short cut instructors training. The other is an incredibly reputable MMA/BJJ/Muay Thai school. They added Krav Maga a couple years ago, but they recently added a week long instructors class too, this made me wonder. The other 2; 1 looks good but it is incredibly expensive and the furthest away. The other is the closest but they do not respond to phone calls and have no e-mail address... and I have had dealings with the head instructor when he was running a Wing Chun School, he is a good guy, but his adding religion into things and then becoming a private police training academy (which still exists) make me a bit nervous.

I am on this bent of wanting to get back into some harder training of late, I'm thinking this might be my mid-life crisis (since I have not had one yet and I am closer to 60 than 50 :D ) If school 1 does not work there is school 2 to consider, If those fail and I survive there is a JKD school that is rather close and rather good I will check (I plan to check it out anyway) there is also a BJJ school, but they are as far away as the expensive Krav Maga school, and I will admit right now, I am impressed by BJJ, but I am not a BJJ guy. If I were to go to that school it would likely only be for the 3 month basic program. And there is also a Systema guy I discovered not to long ago.....And lastly there is also a guy teaching modern wushu in my area who use to teach Sanshou,, and a few years back he tried to convince me to go there.... so that to might be a possibility as well as a Chinese based style and I have been a CMA guy now for over 20 years.

I am guessing if I survive, and/or get that far, this mid-life crisis thing will be over and I can go back to my Taijiquan and Xingyiquan :)
 
I went, it was a good workout, footwork, punching drills and target pads. I may just go check out the other KM school to compare.
 
Never heard of them. The big organisations are Krav Maga World Wide (KMWW), International Krav Maga Federation (IKMF), Krav Maga Global (KMG), Krav Maga Alliance (KMA).

There are probably a few more but these are the biggest organisations.

Xue, I would seriously consider to train something different. Krav Maga will be a big let down for people with experience.



All the KM organisation have like a 180 hour instructors course to become an instructor.

You give 8 - 16 hours training to untrained people? So you should know how short courses work?

I think it's a bit ridiculous to become an instructor after 180 hours or a week of training, thats exactly why I stopped training Krav Maga at some point, the system was fine for getting fit, but I also noticed that the instructors I was training with weren't comfortable with the techniques that were being taught.

Thank You, and since this search began I discovered this and it is of some concern to me.

There are a total of 4 in my area.

Surprisingly the one I thought would be best due to its history and reputation as a BJJ/Muay Thai/MMA school, is actually not the best, they do offer the 1 week instructor course and have become a big business, and I am fairly certain his instructors are from his 1 week program. Another never responded and has changed his schedule 3 times since I started this thread, another, the one I checked, was a nice place but not a fit for me, they also offered no quick path to instructorship, mostly because they would not make enough money that way, they want you to hang around and keep coming for a long time. The one I am checking this evening, does not offer quicky instructor certifications and the teacher is legitimately retired US Special forces, none of that means it is a good school, but I do believe it is worth checking out. This is the first school I found and I thought it was the most expensive. But it turns out that he is not, he was just the most honest about the total cost of things and what you actually get for what you are paying.

If this does not work out there is a Hapkido school I am thinking about checking out and there is a guy in my area who currently appears to be only teaching modern wushu, but he use to teach Sanshou, but never advertised it. If the Krav Maga does not work out, maybe I will see if he is still teaching Sanshou.
 
I might be worth your time though, Silat and FMA isn't that tough on the body and the Pukulan and Silat I have trained adapted itself to the limitations and strengths of the practitioner. Krav Maga on the other hand made sure you did it their way and else it won't work, so making it suitable for you is very hard.

It would be worth my time, but my schedule and the schedule of the 2 schools in my area are not even close to a match.

Krav Maga was fun but my walk down hat path is over. The school last night is likely the one you want to go to, if you want Krav Maga, but I am more of a traditional guy.
 
Where are you located? If you're looking for a "hard" style that maintains tradition, have you considered Kyokushin? Uechi Ryu?
 
Where are you located? If you're looking for a "hard" style that maintains tradition, have you considered Kyokushin? Uechi Ryu?

There is a Kyokushin school north of me and a Uechi Ryu west of me, however they are a bit far away and I will be honest, I knew a couple people training Uechi Ryu and I am not about to try and put my toes through a board. However Kyokushin is of interest and I may get around to checking it out, but it is also 20 or so miles past my house. I will be checking a Hapkido school this week
 
Krav Maga will be a big let down for people with experience

I completely understand why you would say this, but I found Krav Maga to be a great addition to my traditional martial arts training. Krav filled in the self defense gaps that my traditional martial arts have. Good Krav schools teach scenario and stress training and also teach the act of running away. I used to bag on Krav Maga as being "just white belt stuff" until I began training in it. After 35 years in the martial arts the Krav philosophy was very refreshing. My Tang Soo Do training was awesome but it didn't necessarily prepare for an active shooter scenario. To be fair, most techniques are "Burst, Punch, Hammer, Hammer, Knee three times, push away and run," so I see how the techniques can be repetitive, but self defense should be simple. Krav is as much as a mindset as it is a physical art. I would suggest all traditional Black Belts study Krav to fill in self defense gaps.

There are a lot of Krav offshoots out there or "Krav-fu" schools. If you stick with the big four you should get quality training. Thanks for allowing me to share my two cents.
 
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