
It takes a good three or four years for a White Belt practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to develop an effective skill-set and to even really understand what is going on in a training session. The techniques are open to interpretation in terms of how a practitioner sets them up and applies them, which is an element of its artistry. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu requires body control, timing, and anticipation, which come from thousands of hours of hard training. Training against a skilled Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner as a novice is a confusing and confounding exercise in futility. When you see a skilled Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner in action, it’s amazing. On the other hand Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as a martial art, takes much longer to learn and to perfect. Someone who is training in Krav Maga can learn an effective technique after their first class and develop an effective skill-set and mentality in just a few months. The system is based on principles that don’t deviate so techniques should look the same almost every time they are practiced or applied. Krav Maga is designed for people to become proficient in hand-to-hand combat in a very short period of time. When Israel was first becoming a nation after WWII and training people to serve in the IDF, they had to take people from all walks of life who were immigrating to Israel and teach them to fight…fast. Krav Maga, as a system, is designed to be learned very quickly, by anyone.



BJJ is that Krav Maga is a self-defense system and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art. The biggest contrast in considering Krav Maga vs. What is your why? When considering that, there are contrasts between the styles that have to be taken into account. BJJ for your own training you have to further examine what it is that you want to train for.
