training offered by krav maga west midlands

The History of Self defence

If you're interested in learning self defence and have
started researching the subject you will probably have
heard of the names
Fairburn
Sykes
Barton-Wright
Applegate
Turton
Thompson
And of course Lichtenfeld

Many martial arts are derived from military combatives; the study of hand-to-
hand combat and martial arts in warfare. After all, the term "martial art"
means "art of warfare." For example, the sport of judo comes from jujitsu,
which comes from samurai grappling, which was part of the training
Japanese warriors received as preparation for battle.

Many weapon-oriented martial arts, such as ado, keno, kiddo and naganata-
do originated in schools of martial techniques for warriors. These weapons,
the sword, bow and arrow, and pole arm, were the assault rifles and
machine guns of their time-the default weapons of military fighters-and as
such were key components in combat training.

The Western interest in East Asian Martial arts dates back to the late 19th
Century AD, due to the increase in trade between America with China and
Japan. Relatively few Westerners actually practiced the martial arts,
considering it to be mere performance.

Edward William Barton-Wright, a railway engineer who had studied the
martial art Jujitsu while working in Japan between 1894–97, was the first
man known to have taught Asian martial arts in Europe. He also founded an
eclectic martial arts style named Bartitsu which combined jujitsu, judo,
boxing, savate and stick fighting.

William E. Fairbairn, a Shanghai policeman and at the time a leading
Western expert on Asian fighting techniques, was recruited during world
War II by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to teach UK, U.S. and
Canadian Commando and Ranger forces jujitsu.

The seminal self-defence book Kill or Get Killed was written by Colonel Rex
Applegate, who worked closely with Fairbairn to train the "First Special
Service," a joint U.S. and Canadian army unit; it became a classic military
treatise on hand to hand combat and created the reality based martial art
"Defendu."

Modern variations that can still trace an authentic lineage to Applegate are
very few . The undisputed "father" of Modern close-combat in the USA is Carl
Cestari who had a direct relationship with both Colonel Applegate and WWII
self-defence pioneer Charlie Nelson.

Imi Lichtenfeld

Krav Maga was developed in Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the 1930s by
Imi Lichtenfeld, He first taught his fighting system in Bratislava in order to
help protect the Jewish community from Nazi militias. 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. He died in January 1998 in Netanya, Israel.

How Krav Maga developed outside Israel

Prior to 1980, all experts in Krav Maga lived in Israel and trained under the
Israeli Krav Maga Association. That year marks the beginning of contact
between Israeli Krav Maga experts and interested students in the United
States. In 1981, a group of six Krav Maga instructors traveled to the US to
offer demonstrations of the system, primarily at local Jewish Community
Centers. This, in turn, led to demonstrations at the New York Field Office of
the FBI and the FBI's Main Training Center at Quantico, Virginia. The result
was a visit by 22 people from the US to Israel in the summer of 1981 to
attend a basic Krav Maga instructor course. The graduates from this course
returned to the US and began to establish training facilities in their local
areas. Additional students traveled to Israel in 1984 and again in 1986 to
become instructors. At the same time, instructors from Israel continued to
visit the US. Law Enforcement training in the US began in 1985.

Krav Maga has been taught in the UK for around 4 years with instructors
courses being ran every year and lasting 30 days.

Seeing the need to bring these legitimate and proven techniques and
method of close-combat back into the Modern world of "hobby" Martial Arts
(Karate, Kung Fu, Capoiera, Aikido, etc.) and "sport" Martial Arts (Judo,
Brazilian Jujitsu, Wrestling, Kick Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, Ultimate fighting ,
etc.), Krav Maga West Midlands aims to provide students with as broad a
range of experience as possible from as many different disciplines as
possible, using Krav Maga as the basis to do this.

Dave Turton
We don't think any UK based Self Defence training system can go without
recognition of the man who is known as the father of Self Defence within
the UK, Mr Dave Turton. Dave is based in the Yorkshire area and has been
training for over 40 years in Martial arts during which time he has developed
his own style of Self Defence which he has developed the Self Defence
Federation as the owner of the system. To read more about this
remarkable mans life please click on his image. The main systems taught
within KMWM are obviously Krav Maga and Self Defence Federation
syllabus.

Geoff Thompson
Similarly to Dave above, no club certainly no West Midlands based club,
should list the greats of self defence without mention of Geoff Thompson.
Geoff has over 35 years of experience of the martial arts where he honed
his skills learned in the dojo on the street working as a doorman. Geoff
setup and ran the British Combat Association and produced numerous
books and DVD's on self defence. Geoff then developed his skills with the
pen and is now a Bafta award winning writer but fortunately he still
occasionally graces the self defence world with seminars and master
classes.