Is there a sport aspect to Krav Maga?

Question

I'm familiar with the basics of Krav Maga (history, philosophy and approach), but not a practitioner. There's a lot to like in this martial art from my perspective, but I generally don't see any mention of a competitive/sports aspect of the art - in fact, I generally hear practitioners specifically promote how Krav Maga is not sports-oriented. All of this got me to wondering, is there a sports-oriented version/aspect of Krav Maga? And if so, how does it differ from the more self-defense oriented Krav Maga practice?

Answer 1

First, Krav Maga doesn't refer to itself as a martial arts. It's more appropriately called "Self defense tactics system." This might seem like marketing fluff, but the idea is that there is no art to it, and it want's to separate itself from traditional martial arts.

Second, there is no sports (also known as competitive) aspect to Krav Maga. Krav Maga itself takes it's learnings from many martial arts: Boxing, Tae Kwon Do, BJJ, Muay Thai etc, which do have competition and rules, but eschews them for a simplified fighting style.

If you want Krav Maga with a competitive nature to it, then I recommend MMA, which has a lot of overlap with krav maga, minus the weapon defense, small joint manipulation, and other "hurt at all cost" moves (eyepokes, ball-kicks, etc), which are generally illegal in competitive martial arts.

Answer 2

Krav Maga is a relatively new martial art which was developed by Israeli military for military applications, as such it does not have a competitive/sports aspect as with Taekwondo or Seido.