Krav Maga may very well have been around since its conception
the 1930’s by a young Hungarian male living amongst persecution and oppression in Bratislava. Yet compared to other self defence or martial arts systems, Krav Maga is still largely unknown about to those outside of the self defence, martial arts world.
What I mean by this, is that if you’re talking to a group of several people or friends and you were to mention that you study Karate, or boxing or judo, they would know instantly what you were talking about. Say you study Krav Maga and I’m pretty sure someone there, probably more than one person there would ask the question “What’s Krav Maga?”
Though it was born on the streets of Europe, within a few years of its conception it was quickly adopted and taken on board as the self defence system of the IDF in Israel. Due to its effectiveness it has spread around the world mainly as a military or police self defence system that is also taught to the FBI and many police SWAT units. Yet outside of Israel it had remained largely only available to people with some type of government pay cheque.
Roll in Hollywood, the amount of war and spy films produced by the big film companies these days requires a lot of ‘technical advisor’s’ to ensure the scenes they commit to film are accurate. This is where Krav Maga Instructors were brought in, to teach the leading stars the moves they needed to play there rolls. Surprisingly a lot of these Hollywood stars during the training for their rolls realised they were discovering a very effective form of self defence and fitness training. To the point that many of these celebrities continued their Krav Maga training once the cameras stopped rolling. Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise, Daniel Craig, John Mayor, Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Leonardo Dicaprio, Hilary Swank, Danny Dyer, Sean Penn, Sam Worthington, Ashton Kutcher and Ronda Rousey even Kennie Gould does Krav Maga and he teaches in Swindon, Oxford and Reading in the UK . The list of names rolls on and on. But they can all afford an army of professional bodyguards so why? Because they have sampled it, they have discovered firsthand how effective it can be with the correct training. Now, with the pulling power these big Hollywood names have, and their ability to put the bums of their fans into seats to see them on the big screen, Krav Maga has been reborn, it’s devastating effectiveness displayed in glory on a 50ft screen, for the world to admire.
South West Krav Maga Oxford Kennie Gould