When deciding which martial art or fighting system to study for self-defence, it’s important to take an open, honest look at your options. Not all martial arts are created equally, or for the same purpose.

One of the most common martial arts in Australia and the world is Karate. In fact, it is not uncommon to hear novices refer to any martial art as Karate.

There is a big difference between Krav Maga and Karate. While both styles may market themselves for common purposes such as fitness and self-defence, when you take a hard look at Krav Maga vs Karate, the differences soon begin to outweigh the similarities.

Starting At The Beginning

When comparing two disparate styles of the martial arts, it helps to learn a brief history of each. By understanding where they started and the path they took to the modern form as currently taught, you get a better feel for the philosophy each one has. This is extremely evident when looking at the history of Krav Maga vs Karate.

A Brief History Of Modern Karate

Karate was developed in what we today call Okinawa as a mixture of native and Chinese martial arts. After Japan annexed Okinawa, it swept through the country, a pattern that would repeat itself after World War II as occupying Allied soldiers learned Karate and returned home to teach it.

Pop culture icons drove mass adoption as students flocked to schools to learn the flashy moves they saw in movies and TV shows.

Karate evolved into a form of point fighting, with participants working, much like in amateur wrestling to outpoint their opponents. As mixed martial arts became popular in the late twentieth century, some dojos began training for full contact or MMA-style competitions.

A Brief History Of Krav Maga

Developed by Imi Lichtenfeld from his experience as a boxer, wrestler, and streetfighter, Krav Maga was intended to help people have a means of defence against fascist groups leading up to World War II.

Post World War II, Imi moved to Israel and became the head instructor for the Israeli Defence Forces. Working with Eyal Yanilov one of Imi’s top students, the Krav Maga syllabus was created and started the framework of modern Krav Maga through Krav Maga Global.

Krav Maga remains a self-defence system grounded in real combat.

Krav Maga vs Karate In Practice

When evaluating Krav Maga vs Karate, it is important to understand that while Krav Maga instructors certified by Krav Maga Global may offer a consistent training regimen, many Karate dojos use either a style, regimen, or skill set particular to that school or chain of schools. As such, we can only speak about Karate in very broad terms. That being said, let’s take a look at some common differences.

Krav Maga

• As it is a system based around real combat, its tenets are practicality, efficiency, and aggression
• Emphasizes tactical thinking
• Subdue or incapacitate your opponent as quickly as possible
• Focus on simultaneous attack and defence
• Target the body’s vulnerable points for maximum damage
• Defence that has been tried and tested against armed attackers
• Stress tested techniques and variations 
• Third party protection
• Scenario drills, which help the practitioner be better prepared for unknown situations

Karate

A golden groin kick opportunity.

• Based on point fighting, its tenets are proper form and striking to score points
• Emphasizes philosophical concepts such as wholeness of being
• Uses set defence routines and maneuvers in attacking and defending
• Focuses on copetitive fighting against the same or similar style
• Targets scoring areas for competition

Weapons AND Krav Maga vs karate

 Anything can happen on the street – including weapons. 

 

If you have never faced a knife attack or baseball bat attack before – even with years of martial arts training, how do you think you will respond?

 

Quite often – unless these weapons have been a primary focus of your martial art, you will (most likely) not know how to properly respond. Knives, baseball bats and guns are a major part of Krav Maga and quite often the techniques used are similar to the same drills we use for defending standard strikes – with a slight variation.

 

This keeps the entire Krav Maga System both simple and effective. HOWEVER what we normally teach is – with weapons you must at every instanced look for a way out rather than engaging. It is so easy to become the victim of a weapons attack because few of us face its intensity in real life.

 

But when comparing Krav Maga with other martial arts such as Karate, Kung Fu or Taekwondo ( given the same training time) – Krav Maga wins hands down. Because of the simple but effective disarm methods that are drilled over and over for COMMON street weapons – the chances of making the right decision (i.e. either run – or engage with intensity and knowledge) is much greater.

So WHICH IS BEST? IS KRAV MAGA BETTER THAN KARATE?

If you are being attacked by a spaceship full of wooden planks, Karate wins.

Jokes aside, the short answer, yes, Krav Maga is better than Karate if you are looking for a realistic and effective self-defence system. However, this is dependent on who is also teaching you, as not all instructors are created equal.

Krav Maga is great for someone who wants to get up to speed on self defence ASAP – and one could think of Krav Maga as the original MMA direct due to its no nonsense manner and no rules approach to fighting.

If you are bullied or feel threatened it can be a disabling and horrible mental state to deal with. You can deal with it and face it head on by learning something like Krav Maga.

It will give you confidence, empower you, it will provide you with fitness and it will bring out instincts you never knew you had.  

Krav Maga is a more modern self-defence system that ensures that only effective techniques are taught.

There is no reverence within the system for tradition and as such, the system is capable to adapt as new attacks and problems show themselves out in the real world.