About Krav Maga and Northern Krav Maga

Krav Maga is a realistic self-defence system developed from military applications in the Israeli Defence Force. Developed by Imi Lichtenfield in the 1950s based on his experiences surviving the oppression of Nazi groups in 1930s Bratislava; where he was unfortunately involved in many violent confrontations as a result of his heritage. After leaving Bratislava prior to the beginning of World War II, Imi joined the IDF in Israel and eventually rose to be the head of the IDF's hand-to-hand combat division. Imi worked closely with others in Israel, including some of his earliest and most promising students, to develop the military version of Krav Maga for civilian application. Northern Krav Maga teach the most up-to-date evolution of Krav Maga for civilian purposes.

Krav Maga differs from other self-defence systems and traditional martial arts because it deals solely with self-defence in the context of reality. Krav Maga teaches a combination of preventions and solutions from common self-defence problems, highlighting to students the importance of self-preservation and the need to consider whether fight or flight is the safest solution to a range of problems.

Northern Krav Maga

Every lesson at Northern Krav Maga is based on this philosophy and aims to equip students with a 360-degree approach to self-defence in the simplest and most direct manner possible.

Founded by Jamie Birtles, the Head Instructor at NKM, the club has grown from small beginnings thanks to a key focus on our six core club values:

Inclusion: everybody is welcome to train at NKM and everybody is equal
Encouragement: we adopt a positive approach to teaching and training that instils in students a positive mindset and creates a positive self-image that extend beyond the training floor
Achievement: we encourage all our students to aspire and achieve the very best that they are able, to reach their goals and, in line with the Krav Maga mindset, achieve even when the odds are not in their favour
Loyalty: it is important to NKM that both Instructors and students are committed to the club, the IKMF and, most importantly, each other
Work ethic: we ensure that all students understand the value of hard work; and that achievement is built on it
Fun: we bring fun into everything we do and every lesson that we teach. When students enjoy their Krav Maga lessons, they learn more effectively and consider training a joy rather than a chore

Jamie has no doubt that NKM is the best club in Manchester to learn Krav Maga. NKM is directly linked to Israel and all our Instructors undertake weekly training with the club and quarterly training updates direct from the Israeli IKMF Global Instructor Team. All our lessons are designed with the student in mind and we teach aiming to gain the best learning outcomes for students.