Krav Maga or Taekwondo?
Krav Maga is not like most other martial arts. Krav Maga has no rules and rituals. It follows no rigid form. The main principles of this combative style include maintaining awareness of the surroundings to avoid untowardly attacks and to overpower the attacker when necessary.
Some martial arts focus more on a certain technique. Taekwondo, the national sport of Korea, is known for its emphasis on kicks. The leg is considered the longest and strongest weapon of the martial artist. With that, kicks can produce very powerful strikes.
In learning taekwondo, the students take part in learning the self-defense techniques, breaking, sparring, meditating and other similar exercises and performing patterns or forms.
Unlike the other martial art, Krav Maga is highly adaptable. According to Houston Krav Maga, the techniques used for combat and self defenses do not rely on the strict forms and stances. There are no sets or routines of techniques or forms. Instead, combat depends on what is necessary for the situation. It also leans to the reaction of the human being in the incident or scenario. Krav Maga enables the person to quickly find a way to avoid any violence or attack, to escape from a possible attack or to disable an attacker when the situation calls for it.
Krav Maga practitioners are not trained only for self-defense or fighting. Krav Maga training equips the student with mental and physical alertness. They are taught to be more aware of their surroundings. Such mindset prepares the person from any unfavorable incidents.
Though initially created as a combat style during war, taekwondo developed into a competitive sport. The competitions include sparring, breaking and patterns or forms.
The sports development of this martial art is further divided into two styles according to the organizations, the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) and the World Taekwondo Federation(WTF). The difference mainly lies on the rules set by these organizations.
Though similarly created from a combat system during war, Krav Maga did not develop into a competitive sport. Krav Maga may have evolved as a part a fitness program by incorporating the combat techniques in strength training and cardiovascular endurance through repetitive drills and punch-kick combinations. However, Krav Maga remained as a reality-based practical method of self-defense that is now taught in law enforcement agencies, the military and the civilians.
Martial arts aim to instill techniques and skills to the students to condition them in defending themselves to whatever scenario they could be lead into. With that in mind, Krav Maga effectively reaches this aim.
