Krav Maga North Bristol – Beginner Foundational Course – 2025 Intake

Your guide to starting Krav Maga in Bristol in 2025.

WHAT IS KRAV MAGA?

In the leadup to the Second World War, Bratislavan Jew, Imi Lichtenfeld, created Krav Maga as a means for everyday people to defend themselves against horrendous violence. Imi realised what most martial arts even today forgets, that real-world violence is fast, lethal, and heavily dependent upon psychology, not raw technique. Krav Maga focusses on developing a small set of instinctive movements and flinch reactions alongside a program of psychological conditioning to help practitioners develop resilience in the face of fear and violent assault.

So successful has Krav Maga become that it is now the most widely used system of hand to hand combat in the professional world today. It is standard syllabus in a vast array of military and law enforcement agencies worldwide. Its success is due both to its effectiveness not only physically, but psychologically as well. Practitioners of Krav Maga, who vary widely, all share one thing: The iron will to fight.

You may not think you have it in you, but you do. You just need to be taught to find it!

WHAT MAKES KRAV MAGA DIFFERENT?

• No rituals, no belts, no bowing. We train in everyday clothing and shoes, focussed on realism and real-life situations.
• We train in sports halls, but also occasionally in stairwells, corridors, and even cars.
• There isn’t an endlessly complex syllabus. Just a limited number of highly effective techniques chosen for their simplicity and ease of learning.
• While most Krav Maga practitioners choose to continue training to keep their sharpness, it doesn’t take years to become an effective self-defence weapon. Competence with dedication can come in just a few months.
• Heavy focus on the psychology of combat – we don’t just pay lip service to fear, we train to innoculate against it. As Instructor, Will James’ research shows, technique doesn’t matter if you’re frozen in fear. We have a series of proven teaching techniques to safely and progressively build confidence and resilience in students.

Bristol is an amazing city, but like any city it comes with challenges.

• Busy nightlife areas like Clifton, Harbourside, and the City Centre are seeing a sharp rise in violent offences.
• Knife crime is up nationally, especially in youth communities. over 25% of all recorded knife offences are committed by under 16s.
• Student populations in Bristol University and University of the West of England attract predatory behaviour from the criminal underclass, especially in the nightlife areas listed above.
• Training in Krav Maga is statistically proven to reduce your likelihood of being selected as a victim, just as a function of gait – how you carry yourself as a person who trains.
• Awareness skills mean the capacity to detect threat long before it reaches you.
• A solid understanding of the law around self-defence enables you to act with moral and legal confidence when your life and the lives of your family depend upon your actions.

When you join our Bristol Krav Maga sessions, you’ll be met by your instructor, Will, who will select and pair you with a mentor. Your mentor will be an experienced student or assistant instructor who will work with you over your 4 week foundation to ingrain the necessary skills, safety, and knowledge for you to properly and successfully begin your Krav Maga journey.

This isn’t just a business to us. We are a friendship group as well as a training group. To the last man and woman we all respect and enjoy each other’s company. For that reason, we restrict membership. You can expect and depend upon small classes, personal instructor attention, and a good learning curve.

WHAT DO I WEAR / BRING?

When you come along to your beginner session with us in North Bristol, you should wear any comfortable clothing and trainers. We recommend against wearing shorts, and instead recommend leggings, joggers, anything that covers the knee. We often use knees for striking, so clothing protects the skin.

Also bring a bottle of water, as any Krav Maga class is good exercise. If you’re prone to low blood sugar when you exercise, you should also bring a banana, nuts, or any rapidly absorbed calorie source, but we recommend not eating directly before a session.

DO I NEED TO BE FIT?

You’ll get fit training with us, but you don’t need to be fit to start. There is no pressure in our sessions – until you want it, that is. In the beginning you are in control of how hard and for how long you train. No judgment, no bullshit, just support and instruction.

Waiting to be fit before training is silly. Fitness is one of the side benefits of Krav Maga training. Most of our members are combat fit, but they didn’t arrive that way. We’ve seen amazing transformations over just a few months of training.

HOW DO I START?

To secure one of the just 15 spaces between now and the end of November, please message or call on 07866417618, or use the contact form below.