Krav Maga is a complete self defense martial art.....Becoming the attacker quickly and finishing the other fast.

There's other style that are complete too.... like Hapkido.....Similar for the joint locks,takedown,pressure points etc ...different with kicks and jumps.

I've been doing martial arts for many years. Doing Hapkido now but i also did for many years : Shorin Ryu Karate,TaeKwonDo and Ninjutsu. But never Krav Maga. Still, know friends who did and my master knows a lot about it.

They all have something different. It all depends on what you seek.

Good luck.

I started krav maga last summer but stopped because I was out of cardiovascular condition and couldn't keep up. So I stopped so that I could improved my cardiovascular strength and started KM again and found that I could keep up with the classes much better.

I enjoy it but then I don't have any previous experience with martial arts. One thing i've noticed is that many people cross-train with boxing which allows them to punch harder, faster and better than I do. Their conditioning is better. I've begun to think about taking up boxing so that I can slow things down and learn the refined techniques. KM doesn't focus on complete proper technique, at least not at my school. Also, from what i've read, different schools teach different things. Some are more about conditioning and others are more about aggressiveness, fighting and thwarting an attack.

I train a couple times a week in a class that integrates Krav Maga with other styles. It's fun and interesting. It's not really (in my personal experience) a style that is going to translate to the cage well. However it seems to be a style that works well in real life situations. If you're not interested in training to compete then I think Krav Maga or some modified version of it is a great idea.

I have trained in a few styles (aikido, hapkido, karate and Krav) and over the last few years I 've been training in Krav on and off. I love what Krav teaches and it is a very complete system that pulls from a few arts. It's teaches you how to be the attacker if you are put in a life and death situation. It's a very aggressive system and it does put a big emphasis on cardio conditioning so, be prepared for that because one of the core rules of Krav is the fighter often in the best shape has the best chance of surviving an attack.

Going from a relax state to an aggressive one takes good conditioning. The techniques are relatively simple to learn because it focuses on movements that don't require a lot of muslce memory but, are highly effective in a self-defense situation. Muscle memory is great for some arts but, under stressful condition you may have limited motor skills so, it tries to teach basic movements to counter being under duress and yet still ward off the attacker.

Great for self-defense, it will cover stand up fighting as well as grappling. So, you do cover both in Krav as well as weapon dis-arming because this system was used in War. Hope that helps some and good luck with your journey. Enjoy the process of learning Krav or any art for that matter.

In the 1990s two people, Pat Tray (longtime US Navy SEAL team commander) and Steve Grody, went to Israel to teach. Thereafter KM looked completely different. Do you know what it looked like before? It was reverse punches and forward stances. Although it is true that KM draws from many different sources, that those many sources were so thoroughly distilled by those instructors prior to being received by the Israelis is not as well known.

The concept of intellectual property does not translate well to the martial arts. Throughout history people constantly research new methods, reduce complex system to more simple forms and add their own spin. But a bit of intellectual honesty would be appreciated. And the lack of it has not gone unnoticed by Mr. Tray, Mr. Grody, nor their colleagues.

I'm a Judo 3-stripe brown (1 notch below Shodan, 1st Black) and X-train BJJ. I am not a testosterone-filled meat head, need to make that clear before this....

I have had a bit of experience with Krav at a couple different places and it is going to vary wildly from place to place with intensity, focus, instruction, etc. I"m sure there are great KM places out there but I have never really been impressed with what I have seen. It's very much a 'jack of all trades, master of none' thing, as is any discipline that tries to cover all the bases. The grappling instruction I have seen (including online by reputed 'master teachers') makes me want to pull out what little hair I have left out. I don't feel qualified to comment on the striking but I feel confident that it would make a Boxer/Muay Thay/Kyokushin etc. person shake their heads as well based on the quality of the grappling.

I do like the philosophy and the aggression, those are great, but there has to be real sparring. All apologies if there are great KM places out there that really make their people fight, but if you aren't really sparring it's just not going to be worth a heck of a lot. Boxing isn't necessarily great because it has wicked awesome punches, it's awesome because a boxer can read from real experience exactly what you're going to do and put that simple punch right where it needs to be at that moment. Same thing with Jud/BJJ etcetera, it's the practiced instinct, timing, and feel that make them amazingly effective. I will teach someone a simple shoulder throw in an hour with the hope that in the next few months of practice they'll develop the ability to use it for real on a real resisting opponent. Imagine asking someone to learn baseball purely through drills and swinging at imaginary pitches.... how good are the really going to be vs. someone who just got on the field and played?

In the end, if you really are looking to know how to defend yourself, aka fight, you need to go somewhere where you are going to fight. Not practiced repetitions with a compliant or semi-resistant partner, but two people genuinely trying to defeat each other. Without that, it's just dance class. If you aren't interested in actually fighting but want to be safer, get your running shoes and hit the road, because nothing in the world is more effective at keeping you safe than simply being able to run away.

You are right about the sparring. As my instructor tells us you can have great technique but if you have no actual sparring experience your training kind of goes out the door in an actual fight. We do spar a lot as part of our Krav Maga training and I will admit I don't like to spar but it is necessary. There's nothing like taking your first hit and trying to recover and remember all of your training.

The value of each school is usually dependent on the training and aliveness and not an element of the style, although there are some styles that have tendencies towards effectiveness, in both directions.

Real, "alive" sparring and limited rules competitions can be used as a quality control elements.