Forum: martialarts.stackexchange.com
Tags: <aikido><history><krav-maga>
Title: Does Krav Maga have any roots in Aikido?
Question: Looking at  this video , it seems that Krav Maga has a lot in common with Aikido, suprisingly!  A lot  of the techniques demonstrated here seem to be from Aikido, and also, the keikogi is almost identical. Is this a general property of Krav Maga, or is it specific to this practitioner's style?

Answers:
sents: text: Imrich Lichtenfeld - the founder of Krav Maga - does not appear to have any formal asian martial arts roots that I can find.
text: His bios state that he learned wrestling and grappling from his father, and later honed his skills fighting on the street.
text: ( wikipedia , kravmaga.com ).
text: Once he immigrated to Israel he joined the para-military forces and started teaching self-defense techniques.
text: During that same time Aikido was being developed by Morihei Ueshiba.
text: He based Aikido off of his years practicing Daitō-ryū, Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū, Gotōha Yagyū Shingan-ryū, and Judo.
text: ( wikipedia )
text: He continued to refine the art throughout the duration of his life.
text: I watched the video.
text: These are the techniques I felt were similar to Aikido.
text: Kotegaeshi - There were a number of examples of this Iriminage - Several examples which looked very rough.
text: Nikyo - The angle was not good.
text: It might have been nikyo.
text: Sankyo?
text: -
text: At one point (After the supposed nikyo) it looks like he does a sankyo against his chest.
text: Looking at the techniques: Kotegaeshi is probably just a natural development of anyone experimenting with joint locks.
text: There are only so many ways to bend the wrist.
text: Iriminage in this video is akin to a close line, and it doesn't have the fluidity or grace of most Aikido styles I've seen.
text: Those may be nikyo and sankyo, but again, there are only so many ways to hurt a wrist.
text: They are probably variations on the same principles.
text: Because Imrich Lichtenfeld continued to evolve Krav Maga it is not impossible to say that Aikido may have eventually started to influence a few of the techniques, but there is nothing in his online biographies to suggest that.
text: The two martial arts have very conflicting philosophies.
text: Krav Maga has a philosophy emphasizing threat neutralization, simultaneous defensive and offensive maneuvers, and aggression.
text: wikipedia Aikido is often translated as "the Way of unifying (with) life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit.
text: " Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury. wikipedia
answer_details: author: martialarts.stackexchange.com/users/9/Jack B Nimble
score: 21
sents: text: There are only so many ways the body can be manipulated, off-balanced, locked, thrown, etc.
text: Put a bunch of students in a room and they'll argue about systemic differences.
text: Put a bunch of masters in a room and they know they're the same (but different).
text: I see an amazing number of similarities in seemingly-disparate arts.
answer_details: author: martialarts.stackexchange.com/users/13/Dave Newton
score: 6
sents: text: This video you linked to isn't just Krav Maga.
text: A lot of it is Israeli Ju Jitsu.
text: Krav Maga is generally very static or 'rough' in it's movements, while Aikido (or at least the pieces of Aikido I have seen) is very fluent, and the fighting mechanics has an aesthetic focus.
text: The guy from this video (Roy Elghanyan) has another video where it's Krav Maga only, but his style is a bit different from the style I know best from the branch IKM (International Krav Maga).
text: In IKM you do not want to take the fight to the ground even though you train groundfighting, so Roy Elghanyan's takedowns are not to be preferred here.
text: I should mention that IKM has a big focus on police and military training.
text: This footage is from civilians taking a police course to get a taste of it.
answer_details: author: martialarts.stackexchange.com/users/924/Christopher T
score: 2
sents: text: That's clearly a man that has been practising a lot of martial arts, not just krav maga.
text: There's lots of Brasilian Jujitsu in those videos, as well as typical aikido stuff (especially direct irimis, which are not found in almost every other martial art).
text: Summing up, it has not to be krav maga just because the video title says so.
answer_details: author: martialarts.stackexchange.com/users/10/tacone
score: 1
sents: text: There were two other creators of Krav Maga (beside Imi L) , who were Aikido black belts, so that's why you can see so many similarities.
text: Eli Avikzar and Rafi Algrisi
text: (the two other aforementioned krav maga creators) both had black belts in aikido and judo.
text: Elis Bio: http://www.wincol.ac.il/lp/kami-eli Cant find any info on the internet about Rafi.
text: Everybody knows that Imi was a skilled boxer and wrestler, but you can clearly see that there is much more of other martial arts techniques in Krav Maga.
answer_details: author: martialarts.stackexchange.com/users/1301/Arek
score: 1
sents: text: Krav Maga has indeed incorporated techniques from Aikido since the 1970's: In 1968 Eli Avikzar began learning Aikido underneath the guidance of an Englishman named Mike and became his coaching partner after a year.
text: Mike was astounded by Eli’s fast progress and allowed him to go abroad for his Black Belt training in Aikido.
text: Following mike’s advice, Eli left for France in 1971, passed the test and received a brown belt in Aikido.
text: Before his tour, Eli received his Black Belt in Judo, additionally to the first Black Belt ever given in Krav Maga, which he got from “Imi” in 1971.
text: Upon his return, Eli started working alongside “Imi” in Netanya and Tel-Aviv training centers.
text: Furthermore, they trained Soldiers and volunteer units.
text: In 1977 Eli went to Germany and received a Black Belt level in Aikido from the European Federation.
text: About the Founder - Eli Avikzar ( kravmagen.ca )
answer_details: author: martialarts.stackexchange.com/users/8910/brazofuerte
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
Imrich Lichtenfeld - the founder of Krav Maga - does not appear to have any formal asian martial arts roots.  There were two other creators of Krav Maga (beside Imi L) , who were Aikido black belts, so that's why you can see so many similarities.  Krav Maga has indeed incorporated techniques from Aikido since the 1970's:   In 1968 Eli Avikzar began learning Aikido underneath the guidance of an Englishman named Mike and became his coaching partner after a year.
Krav Maga does have roots in Aikido, as he was an Aikido blackbelt and has incorporated techniques from Aikido since the 1970s.