Krav Maga Instructor Courses – what to look for

Krav Maga has become big business. More courses mean more competition and more choices. British Krav Maga released a guide to Krav Maga Instructor courses to help you choose, here are just a few pointers to help get you started…

BIG TIP 1

Course duration is an accurate and consistant indicator of course quality. Neither the Israeli Defence Forces nor any other credible Krav Maga organisations will certify a Krav Maga Instructor in less than 15 days, you need to ask why organisations selling short courses will…

Whilst Krav Maga is indeed a simple and direct method of training, becoming an efficient practitioner is a vastly different proposition to becoming a skilled, professional Krav Maga Instructor.

Whilst there are transferable skills from coaching thai boxing/MMA etc, coaching Krav Maga is a separate and distinct skills set. The Krav Maga coach  has a wider range of issues to address than a conventional Martial Arts Instructor.

In addition to the normal variables such as such as stand up and ground fighting, the Krav Maga coach has to take into account multiple weapons, multiple attackers, working within high risk environments, specialist law enforcement or military tasks, protection of a 3rd party, use of improvised weapons, adrenalised training scenarios and so on.

Some organisations will try and obscure the issue by claiming they only teach ‘highly experienced martial artists’,  however the reality is that most organisation require the same thing – 3 years training or previous experience.

Another common tactic is to claim that Krav Maga is simple and direct system of training and does not really need that long to learn. This ignores the fact that even the Israeli Defence Force, recognised masters at training Instructors quickly, take over 140 hours to train an Instructor who is already a skilled Kravist from basic training – and that’s with an entire army to cherry pick from.

It also overlooks the fact that every single credible Krav Maga organsation takes 21-24 days to train and certify an instructor.

The most significant take away fact is this:

Short Instructor courses need significantly lower standards than full courses for candidates to be able to pass them. 

In simple terms, short course instructors wont be of a comparable standard.

In summary, if you have taken the time to read this:

1. Do your homework, find out about the organisation providing the course.

2. Look for longer duration courses 16 days or more

3.  Dont be misled about the difference between basic training and ongoing training – when can you start teaching

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