I remember that during the 80´s the latest fashion in sports was the practice of Karate. It seemed like everyone´s child had to take Karate lessons and every other adult started going to adult Karate lessons. It was an interesting time, most notably because it opened the door to all other kinds of martial arts and self-defense techniques. Nowadays what we see is that there is such a great variety to choose from; one could practice Aikido for six months, then dabble in Judo for a bit and possibly check out Muay Tai. My personal opinion about this is that we have an amazing opportunity to learn self-defense and exercise at the same time, and we should definitely take advantage of that.
On the other hand, with so much variety the question becomes not which one you´ll choose, but which one is “better”. Strictly speaking there is no way to quantify how much better one martial art is from another; however, we can make up our minds about which one is more efficient in a real life attack. It might be obvious that swordplay might not come in too handy today, since most attacks happen without the presence of swords anyway. So the focus is brought toward your ability to defend yourself with your hands or with everyday objects, instead of on weapons.
Like I said, all martial arts deserve respect, but one art that has become immensely popular and that is owed a great deal of respect has to be Krav Maga. Krav Maga is an Israeli development, and it´s basically the art of defending your self precisely and effectively against almost any type of attack from an assailant. The great advantage this self-defense technique is that to practice means that you will also be trained psychologically. This is very important because it´s one thing to know how to punch someone, it´s another thing to actually apply the knowledge when faced with a situation that requires it, and Krav Maga means to teach its students to react under pressure and stress.

Learning is good, learning to deal with the stress of an attack is better.
This Israeli art of self-defense has becom popular, as I´ve said before, and this has become especially true in large and “dangerous” cities, such as New York. Self-defense classes in New York were already popular many years ago, but now the residents of the Great Apple can enjoy affordable Krav Maga lessons in a variety of places. Now, like I´d already said: practicing this sport will prepare you physically and mentally to defend yourself efficiently if you´re ever attacked. If you´re lucky and you never are, you get a great workout and definitely, a good sweat.

















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