I do Krav in Denver CO and have a great time. The history of Krav is pretty straightforward and you can read about it on the kravmaga.com website. Krav has changed over the last thirty years, though, and it has picked up elements of other styles of fighting. Still, it's very western in its approach. Punches and elbows are thrown the way a boxer would do them. Knees tend to look a little like Muay Thai. Some of the kicks have a Savate feel to them. The workout is supreme and we do our drills when completely exhausted, so we have them instinctively by the time it comes to a test (or a real-life attack, for that matter).
I'm not sure I agree with Colinz account of the "types" of Krav Maga, though. There is a huge difference between the things police and non-police learn in their classes, namely because police seem to be limited in the sort of force they are allowed to use on suspects. But our civilian class is about as brutal as it gets. As the levels progress, the scenarios become more "warfare"-oriented (rifle defenses and grenade scenarios), but there's nothing a soldier would do that we don't do. In fact, since the goal in a fight is to finish one's opponent, all that remains is to train the fighter to go for the kill once the enemy is incapacitated (something we don't focus on).
We do a lot of groundfighting, Raptor, the idea being that we have to know what to do when we end up there, but we certainly don't want to go there by choice (concrete is hard!). We also have a knife class that all students can attend on a drop-in basis. Note that the knife class is not associated with Krav Maga. The school has a number of different classes and the knife fighting is not billed as part of Krav. Generally, Krav Maga teaches how to use a knife in the most basic ways, but it doesn't really claim to train knife fighters.
Finally, JonesMan, I would say that there is NO sporting aspect to Krav Maga. We train to "diminsh the enemy" with every tool and skill at our disposal. There must be no possibility that he can get back up to hurt me (though sometimes that means my running away, if possible). When we do a knife disarm, we finish with a cut to the opponents knife wrist, rendering him unable to use that hand for a weapon (lest he take the knife back away from me). I would not call Krav Maga a martial art, either, but a "fighting system." It's a nitpicky distinction, but having done traditional Chinese styles for fifteen years or so, it is a real difference to me.
Folks who want to chat about Krav can email me at
thezieg@earthlink.net
Zieg