Again I don't know the situation in US (krav maga schools), but at least here KM schools are very "law-sensitive", ie. teaching what would be the correct action in different situations according to local laws.

A simple example: when we were training what to do when someone grabs your wrist, it was pointed out that the simplest and most effective action is to punch the other person to face with your free hand, and/or kick him to groin area. Simple and effective.

But we were not training that because it was pointed out that it would in most cases get you into trouble with police, and/or you might not even want to hurt the person, just get free of the grasp (e.g. if it was your friend or boss who is jokingly grabbing your wrist). Someone merely grabbing your wrist does not grant you the right to punch them in the face, unless there is something else involved and you really should be concerned of your well-being (like he is dragging you by the hand to the bushes in order to show you his willy, or he has a knife in the other hand).

So instead, we practised a few different simple ways to free from such a wrist grasp, without punching or kicking the adversary.

Also there are different forms of krav maga:

- civilian krav maga: what I mentioned above

- military krav maga: the techniques are more effective and even lethal, and quite much of the training is with the idea that you and/or the adversary also have some military weapon with you, e.g. an assault rifle. E.g. how to hit someone with your rifle in case you can't fire it, or how to try to prevent the other one doing that, or how to try to disarm him from his weapon... In civilian krav maga, such training is more about handguns only.

- police krav maga: it is more about control and holds (while e.g. civilian krav maga is more about "hit and run away"). I think defendo is also quite much like this.

With krav maga in particular, the trademark owners (in Israel) are quite protective of someone claiming to teach krav maga, so someone just training something and calling it krav maga would probably be revealed quite soon. I guess it is a good idea to ask that to which KM association the gym belongs to (there are several, I think American schools are usually in a different KM association than e.g. European ones, but they are all legit).

So it isn't the same as some school just claiming to teach "kung fu" or "ninjutsu" as it may be harder to prove it right or wrong. Ok, for "ninjutsu" there is the Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu association so as long as a "ninjutsu" school is part of that...

I've been involved with martial arts for a long time, but this is the first I'm hearing that "ninjutsu" is actually a thing :) Do they give you a ninja certificate as well? That'd look cool on my wall.

Unrelated: 10 years ago or so I found this crappy but legit institution that was giving some sort of online Masters degree in "Universe Studies" -- something to do with space, don't remember. The point is, you could actually earn the degree "Master of Universe". I'm pretty sure that would catch the attention of hiring managers looking at your resume.

Now the soundtrack is playing in my head. And I don't even like Pokemon!


I want to be the very best...

There was no good reason to resurrect this thread from its grave.

Ah, now I see it was a spammer.