Krav Maga TermsPlain-English Glossary
Every major term you’ll hear in ETKM training — written the way it would be explained standing on the mat. No fluff. No jargon for jargon’s sake. Just straight answers.
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Address the Threat
The moment you stop reacting and start responding. You’ve recognized the danger, made a decision, and are taking action — whether that’s creating distance, de-escalating, or defending yourself. The shift from passenger to driver.
Aggressive Mindset
Not angry — decisive. The mental posture that says “I will not freeze, I will not wait, I will act.” Hesitation costs you. An aggressive mindset is trained into you so your body knows what to do before your brain finishes processing.
Attack Mentality
The counterattacking mode. Once a threat is real and unavoidable, you’re no longer playing defense — you’re neutralizing the problem. This is what makes Krav Maga different from a purely defensive system.
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Balance
The foundation of every technique. If you can’t stay on your feet, nothing else works. Balance in Krav Maga is about staying grounded under pressure, recovering quickly when hit or grabbed, and moving without giving up stability.
Bear Hug
A grab where an attacker wraps their arms around your torso — from the front, side, or behind. One of the most common real-world attacks, especially against women and smaller individuals. We train against all variations.
Breakfall
How you hit the ground without getting hurt by hitting the ground. Absorbs impact by distributing it across a wider surface area using controlled movement. A proper breakfall means you’re still in the fight — not stunned on the pavement.
Building a Fence
Using your hands, forearms, and body language to create a managed buffer zone between you and someone pushing into your space. Looks conversational from the outside — doesn’t telegraph aggression — but keeps you in position to act if the situation escalates.
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Checking Hand
The lead hand used to monitor distance and apply light pressure on an opponent. Real-time information — it tells you what the threat is doing before they fully commit. Also controls their range of motion.
Choke
Any technique where an attacker restricts your airway or blood flow using hands, arms, or objects. Chokes are emergencies. We train defenses against front chokes, rear chokes, and chokes against a wall — each requires a different response.
Combat Mindset
The operating state you want before, during, and after a threat. Not panicked. Not frozen. Calm, alert, and ready to act. A trained mental baseline — you can think clearly because you’ve put in the repetitions.
Combat Stance / Fight Stance
The ETKM ready position. Feet shoulder-width apart, non-dominant foot forward, hands up, weight slightly forward. The position that gives you balance, mobility, and protection all at once. Everything starts here.
Combatives
The offensive tools — strikes, kicks, elbows, knees. What you use to neutralize a threat once defense alone isn’t enough. Surviving an attack usually means you need to do more than just block.
Control Tactics
Techniques used to manage or restrain without causing serious injury. Relevant in situations where the goal is containment rather than incapacitation — protecting someone without escalating to lethal force.
Counterattack
The immediate offensive response to an attack. In Krav Maga, the counterattack happens simultaneously with or immediately after the defense. Speed and aggression in the counterattack is what makes this system work.
Create Space
Any technique that puts distance between you and a threat. Space is safety. Whether pushing off, moving laterally, or throwing a distraction strike — creating space gives you options.
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De-escalation
Resolving a confrontation before it becomes physical. This comes first, always. Verbal tools, body language, tone, positioning — de-escalation is not weakness, it’s intelligence. Avoiding a fight is always better than winning one.
Defense
The protective response to an attack — blocks, redirects, evasions, and counterstrikes. In ETKM, defense is always followed immediately by offense. Standing defense alone leaves you exposed to the next attack.
Distance Management
Controlling how close a potential threat gets to you. The closer someone is, the faster your response has to be. Distance management buys you time, and time is everything.
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Elbow Strike
One of the most powerful and versatile tools in Krav Maga. The elbow is dense and hard — at close range where most real attacks happen, it generates enormous force. Used to the head, face, and ribs.
Escape
Getting out. Breaking a grip, clearing a hold, extracting yourself from a bad position. Every escape technique is built around leverage and timing over brute strength.
Footwork
How you move your feet determines everything else. Good footwork keeps you balanced, mobile, and off the target line. In training it looks boring. In a real situation, it’s what keeps you standing.
Front Kick
A straight kick forward, typically targeting the groin, midsection, or knee. One of the fastest kicks in the arsenal and one of the most effective for creating immediate distance.
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Get Off the X
Move. When someone attacks, the attack has a specific line — staying on it is the worst thing you can do. Get off the X by moving laterally, diagonally, or backward to disrupt targeting and take control of the angle. Reflex-level training.
Grappling
Close-range fighting involving holds, clinches, and physical control. We train grappling defenses, not grappling itself — because the goal is to get out of a hold, not stay in one.
Ground Fighting
What to do when you’re on the ground — and how to not stay there. Covers maintaining distance from someone standing over you, protecting yourself from strikes, and getting back to your feet as quickly as possible.
Guard Position
Hands up, protecting your face and vital structures, ready to block or strike. Your guard is your default — where you start and where you return after every action.
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Hammer Fist
A strike using the bottom of a closed fist — like driving a nail. Effective downward against the base of the skull, or laterally against the side of the head. Harder to injure your hand than a traditional punch, and devastating in tight quarters.
Headlocks
Attacks that use the head and neck as control points. We train specific defenses because headlocks are common in real assaults and can escalate quickly to something much more serious.
Instinctive Movements
Responses built so deeply into your training that they happen before conscious thought. The goal of repetition drilling — not memorizing a technique, but wiring a response into your nervous system so it’s available under real stress.
Knee Strike
A powerful close-range weapon, especially effective when clinched or in tight spaces. Typically targeted at the groin, thighs, or midsection. Often the strongest tool available when distance collapses.
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Neutralize
The goal. Not to punish, not to compete — to stop the threat. Neutralizing means the attack is over, the danger is ended, and you can go home. Everything we train is in service of this.
OODA Loop
Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. The decision-making cycle originally developed by military strategist John Boyd. The faster you cycle through OODA, the faster your response. Training accelerates this by reducing “Decide” time because the action is already wired in.
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Palm Strike
A strike using the heel of the open hand. Targets include the nose, chin, and jaw. Reduces the risk of injury to your own hand while delivering significant force to sensitive structures.
Personal Space
The buffer zone you maintain and defend. Awareness of your personal space is the first layer of self-protection. When someone enters uninvited, your threat assessment should begin.
Plucking
The technique for removing a choke. Hook both hands deep under the attacker’s grip and explosively rip outward and downward. Done correctly, it breaks even a strong grip in a fraction of a second.
Principle-Based System
Krav Maga doesn’t give you a memorized response for every possible situation. It gives you principles that apply across situations. Understanding why a technique works means you can adapt when the situation doesn’t look exactly like training.
Punch Defense
Techniques for stopping, deflecting, or evading incoming strikes. In ETKM, punch defenses are always paired with a simultaneous or immediate counterattack.
Reaction Time
How quickly you respond to a threat stimulus. Shortens with training — not because you’re physically faster, but because the decision-making step shrinks. You’ve already decided what to do.
Rear Choke
A choke applied from behind. High priority in our curriculum because you often won’t see it coming. The defense is specific, time-sensitive, and must be trained to the point of reflex.
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Self-Defense
Legally and practically: actions taken to protect yourself from imminent physical harm when no safer option exists. We take the legal and ethical context seriously — training is only one part of being prepared.
Simultaneous Defense and Attack
One of the defining principles of Krav Maga. Rather than blocking and then striking, you do both at once. This collapses the attacker’s decision cycle and doesn’t give them a reset window.
Situational Awareness
Knowing what’s around you — exits, people, behavior changes, warning signs — before anything happens. Most attacks are avoided entirely by people who recognized the warning signs early. We teach this as a trainable skill, not a personality trait.
Soft Techniques
Defenses and control methods that use minimal force. Used when the goal is to stop and control rather than incapacitate — protecting someone escalating, managing an impaired person, or situations where lethal force would be disproportionate.
Stomping Kicks
Kicks using the flat of the foot — front, side, and back variations. Used to create distance, damage, and deterrence. Particularly important on the ground and in confined spaces.
Stress Drills
High-intensity training scenarios that simulate the physiological and psychological conditions of a real confrontation. Heart rate elevated, time pressure applied, cognitive load increased. Where techniques stop being academic and start being real.
Redirection
Using movement or contact to guide an attack off its intended path — without needing to stop it with force. Efficient: you use the attacker’s energy against them rather than trying to overpower it.
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Targeted Strikes
Strikes aimed at specific anatomically vulnerable areas — eyes, throat, groin, knees — to maximize effect with minimum force. What allows a smaller person to effectively defend against a larger attacker.
Threat Recognition
Reading behavior, posture, language, and environment to identify danger before it becomes an attack. A trained skill, not an instinct. We teach the behavioral science behind it so you know what to look for.
Vulnerable Targets
Areas of the body where strikes are most effective regardless of attacker size: eyes, throat, groin, knees, ears. These don’t discriminate by size. Training to target these areas is one of the primary reasons Krav Maga works for smaller individuals.
Wrist Grab Defense
Techniques for breaking free when an attacker grabs your wrist. Built on leverage, rotation, and exploiting the weakest point in any grip — the gap between the thumb and fingers.
This Is Where Training Starts
Reading a glossary gives you language. Training gives you capability. These terms will feel like second nature after a few weeks on the mat.