ckm History

One of the most popular of the ICS is Krav Maga (KM) and its variant Commando Krav Maga (CKM).

Krav Maga

The generic name in Hebrew means "close combat." The word maga (מגע) means "contact" or "close" and the word krav (קרב) means "combat". It refers to combat involving physical contact as opposed to combat using a weapon from afar (although Krav Maga does teach the use of modern day weapons such as rifles, pistols and common objects integrated with self defense techniques).

Krav Maga was developed in Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the 1930s by Imi Lichtenfeld, also known as Imi Sde-Or. He first taught his fighting system in Bratislava in order to help protect the local Jewish community from Nazi militia. Upon arriving in the British Mandate of Palestine prior to the establishment of the Jewish state, Imi began teaching hand-to-hand combat to the Haganah, the Jewish underground army. With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Imi became the Chief Instructor of Physical Fitness and Krav Maga at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) School of Combat Fitness. He served in the IDF for about 20 years, during which time he continued to develop and refine his hand-to-hand combat method. In 1978, Imi founded the non-profit Israeli Krav Maga Association with several senior instructors. He died in January 1998 in Netanya, Israel.