Principles of IKI Krav Maga
BY MOSHE KATZ 
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL

January 1, 2026, Israel

IKI Krav Maga is the latest evolution of Krav Maga. While I have written about this extensively over the years, people still ask me to summarize the key differences, on paper, in words. This is challenging, it is much easier and more effective to demonstrate this in person, as I have done countless times all over the world, but I shall try and comply with this request. 

My background in martial arts, and other sources of wisdom, is extensive. I say other sources of wisdom because wisdom can be found anywhere and applied anywhere. The lessons that I apply to our style of Krav Maga come from my many teachers, and my life experience. These teachers include martial artists, rabbis, students, university professors, all this wisdom of the ages can be applied to self-defense. One need not be a martial artist to have wisdom that can be applied to martial arts. Or as the late Professor Amos Funkenstein said to me, "One does not need to be a triangle to teach geometry." (Funkenstein was recognized and regarded as a true genius.) 

I have applied my extremely diverse martial arts training, the wisdom of my teachers and parents, a lifetime of study of Talmud and history, including degrees in political science and economics, all to the art of IKI Krav Maga. And I must thank and acknowledge my students, my team who have stood by me for close to 20 years of teaching, experimenting, and testing, often at the costs of pain and injuries to their own bodies. Everything we do is analyzed, questioned, tested full contact with full resistance, and then periodically tested again. That is why we do not invest money in fancy video productions. When one invests thousands of dollars in DVDs and videos, one must stick to that program until a profit is made. We do not invest money in this, and we drop and modify techniques as needed. We are slaves to no man, nor to the almighty dollar. We pursue truth at all costs.  

Easy to Learn, Easy to Apply, Easy to Remember - During my years in martial arts I learned countless techniques, but then, unfortunately, I forgot most of them. When I was at Karate College, I was known as "the guy who took notes", Renzo Gracie jokingly asked if he could borrow my notes to write a book. When I questioned participants at the end of the course, most "had a great time", but "could not remember much". Bottom line, most people forget most of what they learn. Of course, they remember the foundations, a karate man will remember his kicks, a boxer will certainly not forget his punches, a Judo man will not forget this O Soto Garei, but when it comes to self-defense techniques, against a knife attack, a gun, Multiple Attackers, Active Shooters, knife threats, Hostage Situations, Airlines self-defense etc. Oh yes, it is very difficult to remember and as a student, and as an instructor of many years, I can tell you that most people forget most techniques. 

While a student, and then instructor, at the gym of Itay Gil in Jerusalem, I conducted a certain experiment: Many of the young men who came to train were seeking to improve their chances of being accepted to top military units. After some time training, they were all drafted. From time to time, during vacations, breaks, they would return to train. I would watch them and take note: how much, and what, did they retain? What did they forget? I found that they retained very little. After a few months of not training actively in martial arts, they could not remember most of the Judo throws, the knife defenses or the jujitsu joint locks. But they could remember their kicks, elbow strikes. With those their form was excellent. My conclusion: Focus only on techniques that people can remember. Techniques that take months to learn and weeks to forget, are a waste of time. 

Gradually, over many years, this involved into a key principle of IKI. All techniques, in order to qualify as an IKI technique, must be Easy to learn, Easy to apply in diverse situations and easy to remember even if you have not trained in a while. I will elaborate a little. 

Easy to Learn - A technique should not take months to learn. If a reasonable person cannot become proficient in the technique in a reasonable amount of time, then we drop the technique, not the student. This is not the norm in martial arts. The norm is - keep training, a year, ten years, eventually you will get it. That is not our approach. Techniques must be easy to learn, or we drop them. 

Easy to Apply - If you learn one technique and you can only apply it to one specific situation, we are not interested, we drop it. With IKI, you learn one concept, and then you learn to apply it an infinite number of related situations. You might encounter a situation "out there" that we have never covered in class, yet you will know how to apply the concept we learned in order to successfully defend yourself. This has happened many times over the years. Learn a concept (more on that soon), a simple technique, and apply it. If the technique/concept cannot be applied to other situations, we drop it, it is a waste of storage space in your brain. 

Easy to Remember - Life happens, most people are not full-time martial artists. I am a full-time martial artist and yet I too had trouble remembering techniques. Unless it was something I practiced regularly, I forget it. As an instructor I had to teach the basics to all students, but only few students reached the higher levels, as such, I did not get to review the more advanced techniques, and I forgot them and had to check my notes and drawings. Remembering a technique under the stress of a real-life violent attack is much more difficult than remembering it in class, or for a belt test. Thus, I made the decision, if a technique was not easy to remember, I dropped it from our curriculum. Martial arts must adapt to the people, not force people to adapt their lives to martial arts. Most of us are not monks living in the Shaolin Temple. We have lives, jobs, families, studies, religious and civic obligations. We adapt the art to the person. 

Concepts, not Techniques - Most styles of martial arts are a collection of techniques. A student might have a notebook, or even a published book, with the list of techniques. We do not. We do have techniques of course but they are secondary to the concepts. Some of these concepts will be explained further on in this article. The techniques are built upon concepts, simple body movements that are not only easy to learn and remember but that are repeated throughout our curriculum such that as a student learns a "new" technique, he will notice the similarity. I often put it this way, with the first technique, "Wow", that is amazing. After 3 - 5 techniques, "I see a pattern here", after 8 - 10 techniques, "I get the concept, I can know create my own techniques as situations arise, teacher, you are dismissed."

Now of course we still need our teachers, but the idea is that once the student understands the concept, he can solve the problem himself. I, myself, will sometimes forget a technique for a particular situation, but then I apply the concept and "recreate" it, or come up with an improvement. Thus, it becomes not memorizing endless techniques but rather understanding a few basic concepts. The difference is a total game changer, but this is no game.  

The Three Amigos - Speed, Strength, Precision. We call these the Three Unreliable Friends, the term Three Amigos coming from a popular movie and I use it as memory device. Most style of Krav Maga pride themselves on power. Women are trained to be like men. In fact, on one of the TV shows one of the women elbows a student in the face. Great for entertainment, but that is not our way. Speed, Strength and Precision are great qualities to possess, but if your technique depends on them, relies upon any of these qualities to be effective on the street, then we reject it out of hand.

Why? 

Speed - Under the stress of a real-life violent situation you will be nervous, it will be difficult to be fast. In addition, why would you assume that you can be faster than your attacker?  Speed is an unreliable friend. 

Strength - If a technique requires "muscle" to make it work, simply put it is not a good technique. Anything can work when you force it, assuming you are stronger than the other person. When I see students "forcing" a technique, I know that they have not yet understood the technique, if our techniques are done correctly, they don't need extra muscle. The assumption is that your attacker has chosen you for a reason, most likely he is stronger than you, now if your technique relies upon strength, muscle, to make it work, you will be outmuscled and out of luck. If a technique only works with extra muscle, we reject it. What use is a technique that only works if you are stronger than your opponent? In my opinion, of none-whatsoever. 

Precision - When we are nervous, we lose the ability to be precise with our movements. I learned this years ago while being fired upon by some antisemite, simple tasks like inserting a key into a lock, normal everyday activities, become nearly impossible. Thus, when we learn complicated techniques that involved grabbing a certain point on a person's hand and twisting it a particular way, well, under stress, that becomes impossible. Even Hollywood stunt actors often need to redo such techniques over and over until it comes out right. Life is not a movie; you cannot do a "retake". If a technique requires precision in order to work, we drop it. We only use gross motor movements, no grabbing, no twisting of hands or wrists. We leave that for the movies and actors.

Perfect style for imperfect people - Even Olympic athletes and professional tournament fighters, have trouble pulling off complicated techniques under stress. We accept the fact that we are not perfect, we are not Olympic athletes or world champion fighters, we are ordinary, average, human beings with our faults, our good days and our bad days. Thus, our style is designed for the average person, with average abilities, and an average amount of time and income to devote to self-defense training. If you are above average - good for you! You will master our techniques even faster.   

A style for all ages - All conditions and body types. A continuation of the previous point. We grow old, if we are lucky. Great athletes shine in their prime and then, the retire. Sixty-year-old men do not play professional baseball or basketball, but sixty-year-old men and women do need self-defense. Our bodies and our abilities change as we grow older, and many of us suffer injuries or illness along the way. At IKI we recognize this, our techniques are designed for all ages, all sizes, men and women of all types and abilities. We are an inclusive style.  

APC - Ability, Purposes, Circumstances - This refers to the way we handle an attack. Do we block and run? Block and Control, or Block and destroy? In the Israeli military one of my students came back and told me, "We were taught never to retreat but always to finish off the attacker, to destroy him."

I said, OK, your sister is 4 foot 11 and petite, do you think she can disable a terrorist high of drugs and religion? Answer: Ah, I hadn't thought of that.
Me: And what about if it were not a terrorist but a soldier cracking down under pressure and attacking with a knife or pointing his rifle at other soldiers, do you want to break his neck? Answer: ah, no, not really. Me: OK, then, let's begin the lesson. 

I teach an initial defense, and then after that, after the immediate threat has been removed, we have different options for a follow up.

The Concept of Awareness and Imaging, a key to survival - Not just the physical. As I grow older and grow in life and martial arts experience, I realize that the mental role is far more important that I was initially led to believe. Whereas years ago, it was standing in a row, punching and kicking in the air and shouting our "Kias", now I realize that most of self-protection involves paying attention, noticing what is around you, seeing problems before they happen. In a word, as Mr. Miyagi said, "Best defense - not be there." This is a great truth. Situational Awareness is not just a slogan with us, it is a way of viewing the world, a way of life. In addition, we use Imaging, which means if I am standing at a bus stop, I am taking note of everyone around me and imagining attacks. What if that man pulled out a knife, what if that person pulled out a handgun, what if...it is more than just being aware of our surroundings, it is playing out scenarios in your head. Psychological studies have proven that when an attack takes place, those who have already "experienced" these attacks in their imagination, are better able to respond, and faster. 

This training was ignored in nearly all the styles I had studied, but we believe it to be an integral part of our training. 

Psychological Readiness - 

Real Life Case Studies - Our techniques are not "dojo" techniques, or tournament techniques, or art or exhibition techniques. All our training is based on real life violent cases, as reported by eyewitnesses, the victims or heros themselvs, or surveillance cameras.   

The Defense must begin Immediately - 

Respond to attacks before we have the full picture - Operate in Chaos. 

Total Body Movement - 

Flow of Energy - 

Use Surprise to your Advantage - 

Dont' fight the body, learn to work with it - Do not learn to "overcome" your body, your natural hard-wired system. 

One movement, many techniques - Universal Block, The Ginga. 

Trust Fear - 

Summary

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Moshe Katz, 7th dan Black Belt, Israeli Krav Maga. Certified by Wingate Institute. Member Black Belt Hall of fame, USA and Europe.

Understand the Israeli Fighting Mentality - Israel a Nation of Warriors by Moshe Katz

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What is the cultural background of Krav Maga?  What makes it unique? What makes the Israeli military so effective? Why are Israeli security systems used all over the world?

What are the Biblical origins of Krav Maga and who was the first Krav Maga instructor?

What weapons and military strategies did our Biblical ancestors use?

How has Krav Maga developed in Israel and what are its goals?

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