Krav Maga essentially means "contact-combat" in Hebrew and is a military self-defense and fighting system developed for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israeli security forces that derived from a combination of techniques sourced from boxing, wrestling, Aikido, judo, and karate, along with realistic fight training. It is known for its focus on real-world situations and its extreme efficiency. It was developed from the street-fighting experience of Hungarian- Israeli martial artist Imi Lichtenfeld, who made use of his training as a boxer and wrestler while defending the Jewish quarter against fascist groups in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia during the mid-to-late 1930s. In the late 1940s, following his migration to Israel, he began to provide lessons on combat training to what was to become the IDF. From the outset, the original concept of Krav Maga was to take the most simple and practical techniques of other fighting styles (originally European boxing, wrestling, and street fighting) and to make them rapidly teachable to military conscripts.

Like most martial arts, Krav Maga encourages students to avoid physical confrontation. If this is impossible or unsafe, it promotes finishing a fight as quickly and aggressively as possible. Attacks are aimed at the most vulnerable parts of the body, and training is not limited to techniques that avoid severe injury; some even permanently injuring or causing death to the opponent.