On Krav Maga: The Artless Martial Art

To date, the lessons I've learned from Krav Maga and other military based arts become more simple and less numerous.  In short, the prime directive of Krav Maga is much in keeping with bear style kung fu: grow enormously muscular and aggressive while learning to mortally injure opponents as quickly as possible through sheer brutality.

For a rank beginner, these objectives satisfy basic self defense needs with minimal training time.  Almost no criminal, authority, or warrior wishes to engage a highly muscular, aggressive, efficient opponent who uses anger as fuel.

In elemental terms, the use of anger as fuel is much in keeping with fire while imposing bodily development exemplifies earth.  One might call Krav Maga magma: an unrestrained meltdown of aggression made more efficient through training.  Though the military application of such an approach is evident, the potential for moral damage to a practitioner is very real.  Magma does not cool like mere earth or extinguish like fire, but recirculates, consuming all it touches indiscriminately.

Since training in Krav Maga, this author has sometimes lost control of anger with even complete strangers.  These confrontations have remained nonphysical through sheer force of will learned elsewhere, such as through water arts.  This violent disposition is acceptable for a soldier, but not a civilian, and certainly not a warrior of disciplined self restraint.

Even in animal terms, Krav Maga's bear style leanings force some limitations on practitioners.  The bear is not known for flexibility, subtlety, grace, intelligence, or dexterity, and these limitations are evident in high level Krav Maga practitioners.

The most severe limitation of any martial system may be the exclusive focus on damaging opponents rather than improving practitioners physically, psychologically, and morally.  True warriors of the martial path hold the burden of compensating for the flaws in their chosen systems to achieve the elemental ideals of tiger or metal: a refined balance of all martial virtues.  Krav Maga exemplifies all the deadliness and none of the life of the martial arts.  It is eminently martial, yet completely artless.