“Krav Maga isn't a martial art, it’s a fighting system.” We can say martial arts are - at some level - about fighting. Some have formalized most of the realism out of the fighting (aikido is usually the whipping boy here), others have focused on competitive rules to the exclusion of practical applications, all the way to Mixed Martial Arts, which is probably the most “about fighting,” a martial art can be while still reasonably protecting the safety of its participants. So why isn’t Krav Maga a martial art? One reason is that we are not focused on the artistry of the performance. Some martial arts have lost focus on the combative aspects of their system, and mainly practice clean, technical moves, good lines, and aesthetic proficiency. However MMA doesn’t focus on aesthetics - in fact many excellent fighters have what might be called “ugly,” technique - and it certainly qualifies as a martial art. Another more important distinction is that martial arts grow in complexity over time. Even very fighting-focused martial arts like Jiu-Jitsu expand their movesets and strategies as competitors constantly figure out how to gain advantages over each other, and over the current meta trends. Calf kicks in MMA are a great example, as it is a single move, introduced relatively recently to the sport, which have massively influenced how the fights happen, and the skill sets necessary to compete. On the other hand, Krav Maga seeks to contract. Everything we do can be broken down to a few dozen component moves, and as you progress through the system, it actually becomes less complex, not more. We do work to become more proficient, more decisive, and more aggressive in our fighting. We do learn new moves as we rank up. But those new moves are so often applications of something we already know, just in a new environment. We block a knife the same way we do a punch, because we can make one defense that works for both, so why make it more complex? Krav Maga is a system the way the alphabet is a system. We have a few dozen “letters,” some modifying “punctuation,” and everything else is just how we put it together. There’s no need to invent new letters because we can use the ones we already know to get what we need. Now, no analogy is perfect, and language is MUCH more complicated than Krav Maga! And that’s how we want it. Krav Maga is a journey towards simplicity, a systems-based approach to applying the smallest number of principles to the largest number of problems. It's not a martial art.
