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Krav Maga was developed in 1930 by Imi Sde-Or (Lichtenfeld).
Imi was born on 26 May 1910 in Budapest and grew up in Bratislava. He had an unusual upbringing by his father, that created the man he would become. His father was a Senior Police Inspector in Bratislava, the founder of the local gym, a self-defense instructor and a former circus acrobat. Imi’s father urged him to become a multi-talented athlete specializing in a wide range of sports, including swimming, boxing, wrestling and gymnastics.
While growing up in Bratislava, Imi participated in the protection of the Jewish quarter and quickly realized that combat sports had little in common with the real threat conditions and began to develop a system of practical self-defense techniques. Through sports and his knowledge of a range of martial arts and systems, he created a system to specifically provide effective solutions to a real life threats.
By 1944, Imi had arrived in Palestine and was recognized for his combat skills. He began training soldiers in fitness, swimming, wrestling, using knives and defending against knife attacks. During this time, Imi trained many special Hagana and Palmach teams, as well as police teams. In the late 1940s, he was appointed Chief Fitness Instructor of the Israeli Army and his combat system became known as Krav Maga. In the years that followed, the techniques and tactics he invented were constantly tested on the battlefields of the Middle East and became an increasingly effective self-defense system.
In 1964 he retired from the Israeli Army and began adapting Krav Maga to the needs of citizens to provide solutions to everyday men, women and children who may be experiencing aggressive behaviour.
Ever since, its system has been adopted by special military corps, law enforcement agencies and security units around the world. In recent decades it has also gained a growing global popularity among the self-defense techniques of citizens, women and children.
During his life Imi tried to perfect and promote Krav Maga worldwidly. The principles he created and his followers are still the basis of Krav Maga today. Imi's hope was that Krav Maga would give everyone the knowledge and skills to "walk in peace".
He described the Krav Maga system as follows:
"The concept of the art is based on the simplicity of movement and conservation of energy. The Krav Maga system is uncompromising and effective. It has no rules and codes of sports values, because by following the rules in a real condition the student is limited. The student must learn to attack his opponent's most vulnerable points in order to neutralize him as quickly as possible and prevent him from harming him. Make progress so you don't have to take a life. In other words, the first thing a trainee should do is try to avoid confrontation, however if he finds himself in an attack mode, he should respond with the least amount of force, and with the least amount of impact, in order to neutralize the threat and get himself out of danger. "
Imi passed away on 9 January 1998 at the age of 88.
