Krav Maga: Use Your Body as a Weapon

The first IDF Krav Maga Chief Instructor Immi Lichtenfeld passed away. Same for the second IDF Krav Maga Chief Instructor Eli Avikzar.But the third IDF Krav Maga Chief Instructor Boaz Aviram is still with us and in 2010 he self-published a book (with black-and-white photos) focusing on proper biomechanics and technique for authentic Krav Maga. That book was republished by Skyhorse Publishing as a new 2014 edition here, with full-color photos.(Boaz also produced a DVD series in 2010 which covers the core of Krav Maga, which you should consider purchasing in addition to this book:  Pure Krav Maga - Self Defense Mastery  ) The latest version of the DVDs are sold by Amazon as a 4 and 3 disk bundle at a new webpage:  Pure Krav Maga - Self Defense Mastery If anyone knows Krav, it's Boaz. His tenure as IDF Chief Instructor was approximately 1981 - 1983, predating the more widely-known Darren Levine -- Boaz told me "I was asked to train Darren Levine upon arrival to the US in Oct 1985 to complete his training for his conditional blackbelt, but he prevented that from happening by excusing himself from inviting me during a phone conversation." So, for the contemporary student trying to capture what made Krav Maga legendary, Boaz is our direct link to the original Krav, or as he calls it, "Pure Krav Maga" (PKM).PKM looks deceptively simple but the biomechanics are sophisticated -- and NOT found in the other versions of Krav widely available to the public. It is necessary to perform and overlap actions with a particular sequence and timing, if you want an optimal result. That's the difference between a jab, and a knockout punch. The details are in the book (and his DVDs).Considering that the Japanese PKM interest group functioned for two years using just Boaz's book and video (before their instructor recently got official certification), there is enough material here to help you practice in depth for a long time, and on-target.This is the Krav you've been looking for!

The excellent first edition of this book was self-published by Master Sergeant Boaz Aviram who was 3rd in line as Chief Instructor of the Israeli Defense Force Fighting Fitness Academy. This new edition published by Skyhorse Publishing is even better! The grammatical and typographical errors have all been corrected, and the photographs are now larger and in color. This encyclopedic work lays out clearly for the reader the highly efficient method used by the Israeli Defense Force to train its soldiers in Krav Maga (or Close Combat). This is the single most comprehensive and in-depth treatise on modern hand-to-hand combat ever available. If one is looking for a single text to explain both the mindset required to survive a violent encounter AND the techniques necessary to triumph over one's adversary, look no further. This book has set not just a standard to be met but THE Gold Standard for martial arts and self-defense manuals. Well done MSG Aviram!

Many years I was introduced to Krav Maga when I was a defensive tactics instructor for my agency. I had already earned Black Belts in Judo, Jujitsu and Karate at that time, as well as being certified in several police tactics systems. The founder Immi Sde-Or Lichtenfeld and many of his instructors gave a six day intensive (8 hours a day) instructor course to us at the Illinois State Police Academy in Springfield. Over the years I have also read and reviewed numerous books and DVDs on the Israeli Krav Maga self-defense system.I purchased this volume (Krav Maga: Use your body as a weapon by Boaz Aviram) through Amazon and found it to be a fair basic introduction to Krav Maga. Its 315 pages cover a wide range of material and there are over one thousand photographs showing the techniques. The thirteen chapters cover the following information:Lessons from history, preparing for face-to-face confrontation, primary strikes and kicks, defenses vs. strikes and kicks, close range scenarios, ground fighting, club and chin, knife techniques and defenses, handling pistol threat scenarios, applications for uniformed armed personnel and civilians, other kicks, principles of defense against multiple opponents and advanced training topics.The amount of information in this text is comprehensive; however, there are a few things I did not like about this book and that is why I only gave it three stars. (1) Even though the photographs are in color, the outside background in the trees and grass take away from seeing some of the techniques as clearly as they could be. (2) I do not think the chapter on high kicks and jumping kicks was needed or advisable to use in a real street confrontation. (3) There is no way a beginner can learn this material from just reading this book. If you are taking Krav Maga from an instructor this book could be of value. (4) In my humble opinion, having read just about every book on Krav Maga I could lay my hands on, I think there are a lot better books than this one on Krav Maga. (5) Some of these techniques appear are too complex for actual use in actual street combat. (6) I know there are politics in every martial art, and I have read some in other Krav Maga books. It seems like every Krav Maga instructor claims they are teaching the “authentic” Krav Maga. However, just about all the Krav Maga books shows mostly the same techniques that I learned more than twenty years ago at an instructor’s seminar.In conclusion, if you are presently taking Krav Maga this book could be helpful.Rating: 3 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Co-Author: Monadnock Defensive Tactics System).

L'autèntic Krav maga. Res de colecció de tècniques.simple i directa.

Excellent book with a tremendous amount of information and guidance. Very practical and enlightening knowledge one should know to be able to defend ones self.

Wenn man sich mit Krav Maga auseinandersetzt wird man schnell auf den Namen Boaz Aviram stoßen - schlichtweg weil dieser Mann die Kunst oder noch besser die Wissenschaft Krav Maga wesentlich geprägt und verbreitet hat.Wenn Aviram nun ein Buch zum Thema Krav Maga vorlegt kann man sicher sein: dieser Autor weiß, wovon er spricht, und wie das hier rezensierte KRAV MAGA - USE YOUR BODY AS A WEAPON eindrucksvoll belegt hat er auch keine Probleme, dies ausführlich zu artikulieren.Ich muss sagen, dass wir das vorliegende Buch sehr gut gefallen hat. Ohne jeglichen Mystizismus und Geheimniskrämerei erläutert der Autor umfangreich die Grundprinzipien des Krav Maga, um darauf aufbauend die Techniken und die wichtigsten Szenarien zu schildern. Bei all dem ist das vorliegende Buch erfreulich umfangreich und ausführlich. Das Aviram dabei natürlich sehr (!) von Krav Maga im Verhältnis zu anderen Selbstverteidigungsmethoden überzeugt ist versteht sich wohl von selbst.Die zahlreichen Farbfotos sind instruktiv, etwas schade finde ich allenfalls das Layout: unnötigerweise werde nämlich viele Techniken in Bilderserien dargestellt, die sich über einen Seitenumbruch erstrecken. Hierdurch entstehen mitunter etwas unklare Situationen und ein nicht immer optimaler Eindruck von der Struktur der Präsentation.Von diesem sekundären Kritikpunkt abgesehen ist das vorliegende Buch allerdings uneingeschränkt zu empfehlen... es gehört zu den umfangreichsten und instruktivsten Werken zum Thema Krav Maga auf dem gegenwärtigen Markt.Von mir gibt es wegen des etwas suboptimalen Layout knappe, aber verdiente 5 Sterne.

Having owned both this book and the previous self published version of the book "Krav Maga - Use of the Human Body as a Weapon Philosophy and Application of Hand to Hand Fighting Training System" by Boaz Aviram, I have to say that this is like an encyclopedia of original Krav Maga knowledge. I own several books and DVD sets on Krav Maga including David Kahn's "Krav Maga", Immi Lichtenfeld's original book on Krav Maga "Krav Maga: How to Defend Yourself Against Armed Assault", the Ultimate Krav Maga series of DVD's, and the full DVD set by Eyal Yanilov and Darren Levine done in the 90's amongst others, but this book is my favourite. It contains so much more than just a how-to of techniques. Various sections include an overview of the history of fighting in general, the primary principles of Krav Maga (reaction time, sequential execution of techniques and situational awareness), all the pressure points, the effect on the body if these pressure points are attacked and the likelihood of reaching each pressure point during a violent confrontation, all the various techniques of the IDF Krav Maga syllabus starting with the most efficient attacks first before learning the most efficient defences, defences against punches, kicks, ground attacks, knife, guns, multiple attackers, personal insights from Master Sergeant Aviram on Krav Maga, the differences between Pure Krav Maga and the civilian syllabus and how it's taught, anecdotes about Imi (Sde-Or) Lichtenfeld and Eli Avikzar, the differences between techniques that are useable and which are learnt for training purposes only, and much more.There are a few differences between this version of the book and the original publication such as this version having been professionally proof-read, so the language makes more sense to the english reader (the original was a bit harder to understand due to english not being Mr. Aviram's first language), the layout is better as techniques don't start on the right hand page (which is why there is a difference in the page count between both versions), the pictures are bigger and in colour and the paper used is of a better quality. However everything that made the first book brilliant is retained. The fact that it concentrates on every single technique being the most efficient technique is where it excels. Compare the defence against a pistol to the head from the front to the one taught in the civilian systems and you'll see this one is much more efficient.If you only buy one book on Krav Maga, make it this one. Hopefully I can buy the Pure Krav Maga DVD set at some point so I can get the full benefit of using the DVD set in conjunction with this book as I believe that was the original intention, however the book stands alone on it's own merit.

Mi è piaciuto tantissimo, affronta l'argomento Krav in maniera approffondita e valuta il tutto anche in base all'esperienza personale, non solo sugli insegnamenti di Imi. Affronta i principi, dando molta importanza alla Biomeccanica del corpo umana. Insomma insegna la materi in maniera differente dagli altri allievi diretti di Imi, ma in maniera altrettanto valida. Lo consiglio agli appassionati e ai ricercatori dell'argomento.