Welcome to Krav Maga Yashir! We are located just North of Somerville (a 20-minute drive I-93/Route 38) and teach authentic Israeli Krav Maga. Our Head Instructor, Gershon Ben Keren, is a 5th degree Black Belt, who has both trained and taught Krav Maga in Israel. He has also written three Amazon Best-Selling books on Krav Maga and is a 2010 inductee into the Museum of Israeli Martial Arts, in Herzliya, Israel. If you live and/or work in Somerville, and are looking to learn effective and proven self-defense, authentic Israeli Krav Maga will meet your requirements. Being continuosly tested in the Middle East by the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) it has proven to be an effective fighting system in one of the toughest environments on the planet.
We teach a complete program – that doesn’t need to be supplemented with Muay Thai, BJJ, MMA or other combat sports (click here to find out why these fighting systems, although better than nothing, don’t meet the needs of dealing with real-life violent confrontations) – that involves striking, grappling/wrestling, and ground-fighting, against both single and multiple assailants who may be armed (knife, stick, gun etc.) or unarmed. Krav Maga has been proven, time and time again, to be an effective system of hand-to-hand fighting system. Located only a short drive from Somerville (Massachusetts), Krav Maga Yashir teaches an authentic Krav Maga program that comes direct from Israel, with a Head Instructor who received his teaching certifications and belts there.
If you are looking to get started – or are just interested in finding out more – use the button below to find out when our next adult beginner/introductory class/seminar is.
Great school if your looking to learn from one of the best Krav Maga Instructors in the USA. Then look no further from Gershon, his classes are dynamic, and the instruction is excellent. highly recommend. Peter, D.
If you are interested in our Kids and Teens Krav Maga program, please use the button below to find out more about these Krav Maga classes.
To learn more about what Krav Maga is and why it is so effective keep reading.
Krav Maga is the hand-to-hand fighting system of the IDF (Israeli Defense Force). It is based on the premise of what you will do, rather than what you may want to do, or think you will do. Most martial arts including combat sports such as Muay Thai and MMA, teach techniques that you have to learn, and spend a long time learning before you can recall them, and this recall really only occurs in the environment in which they have been trained e.g., when you step into the ring or the cage etc. If you are caught by surprise and/or when unaware they won’t be automatically recalled and applied, because you weren’t ready and had not prepared and got yourself into a position to apply them. Krav Maga works with a person’s natural reflexes and instincts e.g., if somebody tries to sucker punch you, you will naturally flinch, and Krav Maga uses this flinch to intercept and block the punch (See the video below).
Krav Maga also assumes that you won’t perform optimally in such situations e.g., your block probably won’t be made perfectly, so Krav Maga techniques are designed to work when performed imperfectly, and the system has the idea/concept of a 200% defense, which combines a hand-defense component, and a body-defense component. This means that if each component is only performed 50% well/correctly then you still have a 100% defense (see the video below).
Unlike most martial arts/self-defense systems Krav Maga is not defined by its techniques. In traditional martial arts such as Karate and Tae-Kwon-Do, the system’s techniques are contained in Katas and Forms. These are pre-set movements that contains: kicks, punches, blocks, escapes from holds etc., and are largely set in stone. Krav Maga is defined by its concepts and principles, such as the idea of having both a hand-defense and a body-defense for dealing with threats and attacks. By approaching fighting and self-defense this way, the system can evolve and change to deal with new things e.g., in the 1940’swhen Krav Maga was being developed due to the limitations of weapons at the time it was possible to grab the barrel of a rifle, however with modern weapons the barrel is often too hot to grab – using the idea of hand-defense and body-defense, the solution was able to be changed to accommodate this, whilst still being “Krav Maga”. When Krav Maga is taught properly, it is taught using its core principles and concepts to guide and explain its techniques. The Head Instructor of Krav Maga Yashir (located just 20-minutes north of Somerville, Massachusetts), Gershon Ben Keren, stays true to this approach. If you want to learn more about the history of Krav Maga, and it's development and evolution click here. If you are interested in taking a closer look at why Krav Maga is so effective and possibly start training in authentic Israeli Krav Maga, you can sign up for a beginner class using the button below.
After several years of writing his Krav Maga Blog, Gershon (Head Instructor at Krav Maga Yashir), was approached by Tuttle Publishing in 2012, to write an introductory book on Krav Maga. To date he has published three books on Krav Maga with them. He has also presented two Google Author Talks, on the first two books which can be accessed by clicking here.
Gershon Ben Keren started writing his weekly blog in 2012. Originally, it just contained articles on Krav Maga, however drawing on his work as a criminologist and security specialist it has expanded with article of personal-safety, self-protection, legal aspects of self-defense, and crime-prevention etc. The blog is updated weekly and sometimes looks at true crime events which have happened in Boston, Medford, Somerville and other Massachusetts cities. Drawing from his experiences working in the security industry and combining this with the latest academic research, Gershon gives a unique perspective on both preventing violence and dealing with it. The blog is searchable and can be accessed using the search box below or it can accesseed in a heirarchical structure by clicking here.