About

Eyal Yanilov (born in 1959) studied Krav-Maga under the personal tutelage of its founder, Imi Sde-Or (Lichtenfeld), and has served as the Grand master’s closest assistant and foremost disciple since the early 1980s. Active in this field since 1974, he is now its most senior instructor. Mr. Yanilov is the only individual who carries both the highest grade ever given by Imi (Master level 3/Expert level 8) and holds the unique “Founder’s Diploma of Excellence”.

Imi regarded Eyal as family and as the natural heir to lead the system. He initiated him during 24 years of training. For this purpose Imi had awarded Eyal with the founder’s certificate of excellence and for the first time awarded the rank of “Expert 8” – the highest level he ever awarded to a Krav Maga practitioner. In1991 Imi prepared the first diploma of this level for Eyal to be his highest heir, and in 1996 he gave another one to Eyal, after the IKMF was founded.

Imi Sde-Or (Lichtenfeld) passed away in 1998 at the age of 88. To the day he died, Grand Master Imi served as a mentor and spiritual guide to Eyal, and together they formed and improved and modern Krav Maga.

Eyal Yanilov started his Krav-Maga training with Mr. Eli Avikzar (one of Imi’s top students at the time) and soon after- wards began to study directly with the founder himself. At an early age, Eyal was instructing at the training studio that Imi had entrusted to Eli Avikzar, and on many occasions assisted and substituted for the Grandmaster in lessons and preparations with instructors and students who were to be tested for grades of expert level. At a later stage, when Imi appointed him Head of the Krav-Maga Professional Committee, Eyal was responsible for preparing and updating the Krav-Maga curriculum. In this capacity Eyal had the task of imparting the new developments and accumulated knowledge, changes in techniques, and the latest training methods to the other senior instructors.

In 1984 Grandmaster Imi Sde-Or placed Eyal in charge of preparing the complete and comprehensive series on the Krav-Maga discipline. Since then, and until the system’s founder passed away in January 1998, the two were deeply engrossed in the task of writing down the principles of Krav-Maga and clarifying its various techniques.

Since directing the first self-defense instructors’ course for American citizens, in 1981, Krav Maga Master Instructor Eyal Yanilov has been teaching a large number of Krav-Maga and self-defense instructors’ courses in many countries around the world, some even under the auspices of the Israeli Ministry of Education.

In 1996, together with some of his higher level students and with the Imi’s support and blessing, Eyal founded the International Krav-Maga Federation (IKMF). The goal was to spread the system and the knowledge outside the boarder of Israel.

Eyal and his students have put Krav Maga in over 40 countries. With the growing popularity of Krav Maga in the world, a number of new Krav Maga organizations have sprung up trying to take advantage of Krav Maga’s growing popularity. The quality of training and the links of the leaders of these organizations back to the source and the founder of Krav Maga, Imi Sde-Or (Lichtenfeld), vary.

The best way to deal with this new competition is to provide a superior product and service. Eyal has the obligation, the need, the necessity as well as the opportunity to make another leap using the knowledge Imi and him have developed, including more recent advancements. There was the need to operate and spread the modern Krav Maga with the kind of organization that will be able to work efficiently all over the globe, giving the appropriate support to its directors, instructors and students.

The structure of the IKMF and its model of operation (a sport association with general meetings and voting) did not permit nor allow such developments or professional progress.

So, after over two decades of traveling all over the globe, Eyal, and with his close team of instructors and directors decided to create a new organization. An organization that will keep the true spirit and knowledge of Krav Maga and Imi, and within it all will be able to develop, spread and monitor the knowledge and the advancement of students and instructors. The KMG – Krav Maga Global, was created early 2010.

Now as before, Eyal, together with his most advanced students who serve as local directors or chief instructors in their countries, are the key force in spreading Krav-Maga teaching throughout the world. Mr. Yanilov is currently serving as president and chief instructor of KMG – Krav Maga Global, and heads the International School of Krav Maga. In this capacity, he is in charge of the development, definition, and dissemination of the system.

Mr. Yanilov is a graduate of the School for Trainers and Instructors at the Wingate Institute for Sport and Physical Education, and also holds a degree in Electrical Engineering. He has spent years training fighters of elite units and members of special anti terrorist squads, while also teaching at colleges for physical education instructors. As a teenager, since the mid 1970’s Eyal has been teaching Krav Maga. From the 1980’s he started intensive teaching of different groups, in various seminars and courses: ordinary civilians coming to learn self-defense, military units, police units, executive protection personnel, special units, SWAT teams, and other security-oriented groups in Israel, East and West Europe, South America, Australian, South East Asia, and the United States. Within this context, he specializes in improving the fighting skills and general abilities of members of these groups.

Mr. Yanilov’s main objective now is to strengthen the KMG, to train his Global and International Teams of top instructors and to educate Krav Maga students and future instructors around the world.