Bowing in Krav Maga

In martial arts is very common to start the lesson with bowing, both at each other, before and after training, before and after some practice. In krav maga we also do it. It’s really some part of history, when Imi started to teach, he adopted the judo uniforms, saw himself a bit of a martial art in the early phase. Later he understood where he is, and about the system of self-defense and fighting and third party protection. But in the beginning, he was searching his way, we had a judo uniforms, the judo gear, the karate gear and the belts.

So bowing was quite natural for us. So in the regular classes, the civilian classes, it is common, you could see this, people would say the word kida, kida is bow in Hebrew. So kida to each other. Him, his habit was to stand erect, put the palms by the side of the body. Sometimes in the front of the thighs and bow. This was his way of doing this, and of course most of us are doing that way.

So bowing in the beginning and in the end of the lesson. Many times we do this when we’re also asking for a partner, especially the instructor, to bring a partner to him before start, and to release the partner back to place, bowing is very common by many instructors. Except of this, in the non-civilian regular training, meaning military, law enforcement, et cetera, bowing is very rare, we don’t do this regularly.

So bowing, the kida, is definitely inherited and integrated in the krav maga training.