Krav Maga, with its success as one of the most popular self-defense systems in the combat sports community, especially with different governments, in Europe, the United States, and around the world, has become extremely popular in recent years, and, like all things becoming popular and respected by all martial arts and combat sports representatives, the number of schools offering self-defense and Krav Maga courses have multiplied in recent years, in Berlin and everywhere else.
The question you might ask yourself, as a person who wants to learn how to defend himself in the street against one or more aggressors, is: How to choose the right Krav Maga school? How do you find the right Krav Maga trainer, with whom you would like to spend several days a week learning to defend yourself? How do you know if this school or that one is the best for you?
The IKMF (International Krav Maga Federation) is the world’s largest Krav Maga organization, training thousands of students around the world, on all five continents, and has been successful since its creation and development by IMI Lichtenfeld, the creator of Krav Maga.
Created at a time when the Internet did not exist, the IKMF did not become popular by videos more impressive than the others where trainers film themselves performing various self-defense techniques, but rather by the quality of its training methods, and the rigor with which trainers are trained to have the right to teach a Krav Maga class in Berlin or anywhere in the world under the IKMF banner. Indeed, to be qualified as an IKMF trainer (for the “civilian” branch of its curriculum), one must complete a 23-day training course, 8 hours per day, and pass a diploma which is divided into 3 distinct parts, all equally hard to pass a theoretical part on the basic principles of Krav Maga which will be transmitted to the students throughout the career of the teacher, a part purely related to the quality of educator of the future trainer and finally the hardest, a technical and physical part, during which the future trainer will have during several hours to show the quality of his learning of the techniques which he or she will have to teach to his future students. To give you an idea, on average, only 60 to 70% of the apprentice trainers pass these tests and are allowed to teach under the IKMF banner, the rest will have to try their luck again and work for at least a year before being allowed to take the same tests again.
Once a trainer has earned this diploma, he or she must take additional tests and attend several days of seminars every year, otherwise, he or she will be deprived of the right to teach IKMF Krav Maga. Furthermore, if a trainer wishes to teach specialized courses for children, women, or any other branch other than the “civilian” branch, he or she will have to pass additional training and the same kind of tests described above in order to be recognized as such and authorized to train children, women, or any other branch other than the “basic” branch learned during the initial training.
Since 2014, our head trainer, Sylvain, has been training with the IKMF and was able to pass (on the first try) 2017 his IKMF trainer diploma. He then opened our school “Cityskills Krav Maga Berlin” in 2018 and has, since obtaining his civilian trainer’s diploma, dedicated himself entirely to the evolution of his knowledge by passing the trainer’s diplomas for women, for children, for bodyguards, for close combat and became in 2020 officially a Lead IKMF instructor.
At the same time, we have built a strong community around Krav Maga in Berlin, and we train in Kreuzberg several times a week all together with one goal in mind; to be ready to defend ourselves in case of aggression but in a fun and strong team spirit. Indeed, despite the brutality of the topics discussed during the training, we make it a point of honor to train in a fun and relaxed atmosphere, in which everyone will be able to feel at ease and learn to defend themselves thanks to Krav Maga, in the best possible conditions.
If you are also interested in a Krav Maga trial training, don’t hesitate to contact us, we will be happy to give you an appointment and let you discover our Krav Maga community in Berlin!
