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How does one become a Krav Maga instructor in the United States?

More precisely:

  • Is there a federal authority who fix the necessary requirement for teach as instructor?
  • If there is one, what is the minimum belt needed for become an instructor?
  • If there is, what is the minimum time that you have to train in Krav Maga before become an instructor?
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    Roughly the same way you become an instructor in any other system: keep studying until you are given partial responsibility for the training of others and accumulate enough experience in that task to be ready to handle students on your own, no? – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten May 26 '12 at 17:50
  • Yes, but what level is needed ? Do you need a black belt for start to be an instructor or can you instruct with only brown belt ? Can you be an instructor in 3 years ? – ucsky May 27 '12 at 15:55
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    @BillyTheWind It's the "governing body" of a KM school; essentially all KM schools are part of a KM association. (Many, many other martial arts schools are as well.) The association determines how one becomes an instructor that represents that association. Only each association can give you specifics on how to become an instructor for that association. – Dave Newton May 30 '12 at 16:47
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    @BillyTheWind Whether or not you think it makes sense doesn't matter to the associations: each determines how they confer rank and status. They may do it the same, they may do it different, but they're the ones who make the rules they follow, and they're the ones best equipped to explain those rules to you. – Dave Newton May 31 '12 at 9:16
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    @BillyTheWind Also, any given style is likely to have only one or possibly a few associations. They exist so there is a common, unified source of answers to questions like this. Otherwise anybody could go around calling themselves a teacher of style XYX. You may not like that this is how things have gone, but in general, it is. There are also plenty of unaffiliated schools (my gong fu school, for example) but a ranking or belt conferred by an unaffiliated school will carry little weight outside of that school. – Dave Newton May 31 '12 at 10:37
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I am an official licensee of Krav Maga Worldwide, a sanctioned organization of krav maga. I own and operate two schools in my area & have been teaching for close to 10 years, but I am not a black belt in krav maga. I am what they rank as Expert III/IV in black belt preparation and will have up to 2 more years before qualifying to test for black belt.

When I began, I was already a higher level student & entered what we call Phase training in LA, at their nat. training headquarters. This consists of 7 days of physical, mental, and teaching type of training with a final phase testing. Having previous krav maga training, I went through the program at an accelerated pace but still had to do each phase & then enter Expert & do each of them passing each test.

As far as your question, you can definitely become an instructor in krav maga in three years, but you will not be a black belt nor the nor the best instructor you can be. On average, it takes 5 to 7 years to test for a black belt in krav maga (by US standards as opposed to Israeli standards when I started my krav maga training in NYC).

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You become a certified instructor, which means passing an instructor's course supervised by a certified coach. Once you're an instructor you can grant belts up to blue if you're ranked two belts higher.

Instructor in three years? Sure. I'm leery of people who ask questions like that, though.

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  • Did you try to discredit me ? What are you leery of ? Can you explain your said ? – ucsky May 28 '12 at 14:54
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    @BillyTheWind "Did I try to discredit you?" I'm not sure what you mean. I believe that people that ask questions like "Can I do X in Y time" have motivations outside of what I prefer to deal with. Learning an art shouldn't be about time compression. For example, if I ran a dojo and someone asked me a question like that, I'd answer truthfully, but suggest they might be happier somewhere else. – Dave Newton May 28 '12 at 14:59
  • ok thanks for this explanation, no problem so. Just a precision, KM is not strictly speaking an art. You advance an interesting information in your reply about the belt. Do you have any reference for it ? – ucsky May 28 '12 at 15:14
  • @BillyTheWind israelikrav.com/…, see the "belt or ranking system" question. Other KM orgs may do things differently. – Dave Newton May 28 '12 at 15:21
  • Just a precision about what you write before, you let let think that I ask "can I be an instructor in 3 year". As an example, I wrote "Can you be an instructor in 3 years ?". Maybe I'm not interested at all by be an instructor, I'm just curious about the formation of the Krav Maga instructor ... – ucsky May 31 '12 at 7:46
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Well, if you're going to believe a website called kravmaga.com, there are instructor certification programs. I linked you to one under "law enforcement / military".

It seems to be very much documented and regimented.

[Edit - or check out krav-maga.com - these give you more information on prerequisites.]

Either way, in the end, you'll probably just end up with a piece of paper that says you can teach Krav Maga.

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  • Just have a quick look but didn't find necessary requirements. They said to call for more information. – ucsky May 27 '12 at 16:27
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    Would you like me to call them up? – Anon May 27 '12 at 16:31
  • nice irony. There is several reason why I don't want to call. One of them is that the owner of the website have a commercial interest in the certification of the instructor. Just look at the price section who is very well documented. I would prefer something more unbiased from another source. – ucsky May 27 '12 at 23:00
  • I doubt you'll find that, to be honest. – Anon May 27 '12 at 23:26

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