CKM is one of four parts making up the comprehensive Combat Survival family. The other branches are CKM for women (placing specific emphasis on aspects of survival pertinent to women), CKM for Children (with emphasis on awareness for this particularly vulnerable sector of society and including a physical syllabus suitable for younger practitioners) and also a system which concentrates on developing the mental and physical aspects of the self (vital to success in all endeavours). The Combat Survival ethos remains consistent throughout its various divisions.

Combat Survival is a complete system comprising of 4 components:
a) Commando Krav Maga
b) Woman’s Krav Maga
c) Children’s Krav Maga
d) Elite Combat Fitness

Opinions aside, Israel has been in a constant struggle since its inception. In this environment the Israeli military has proven itself to be amongst the best in the world. By extension Israeli fighting systems are respected around the world precisely because they have been devised to meet the ultimate need, to survive. As such they are modern, relevant , tried and tested, and retested. They work because they have to.

Krav Maga was developed in Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the 1930s by Imi Lichtenfeld, He emigrated to Israel (then the British Mandate of Palestine) where began teaching hand-to-hand combat to the Haganah, the Jewish underground army. In 1948, Imi became the Chief Instructor of physical fitness and Krav Maga at the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) School of Combat Fitness. The system was based on a combination of boxing (London Prize Ring Rules), Greco-Roman wrestling, and standard British military training.  He served in the IDF until 1963, during which time he continued to develop and refine his hand-to-hand combat method.

During the Yom Kippur War (1973) an Israeli Special Forces (Sayerat) combat officer, 2nd Lt. Moni Aizik, was one of the few survivors of an ambush in the Golan Heights. Rather than sending him to another unit, the IDF decided they needed a  program to teach their soldiers better hand-to-hand combat, and made Moni Aizik a training instructor because of his judo and ju jitsu background (at 18 years old Moni had won 7 Israeli tournaments). Imi (50) and Moni (20) were asked to work together to come up with a basic hand-to-hand combat system. Imi was teaching at the Wingate Institute for the IDF, but lacked combat experience; Aizik had the combat experience and a very strong martial arts background.

During the development, formalities of traditional defence systems were reject in favour of methodologies that valued rapid and instinctive learning. It had too be simple, easy-to-learn, and be effective in combat. With the help of other instructors, Lichtenfeld and Aizik experimented with hundreds of techniques and training methods and when the curriculum was finalised the two men debated what to call the new system. Imi wanted Krav Maga, Moni Aizik wanted KAPAP. As a result Krav Maga was taught to the IDF, and KAPAP taught to the Special Forces. Imi Lichtenfeld is credited for the creation of modern Krav Maga because of his senior status, and because he was the first official chief instructor of Krav Maga.

As a result, a popular misconception is that there is one Israeli martial art called “Krav Maga” comprised of a distinct set of techniques devised by Imi Lichtenfeld. However, ‘Krav Maga’ is a Hebrew term meaning “contact combat”, and thus has much the same meaning as ‘Wushu’ in China, or ‘Budo’ in Japan; as such it is a general term for martial systems. This has led to a proliferation of Imi’s original system with the the Israeli Krav Maga Association, (IKMA), The International Krav Maga Federation (IKMF), The European Krav Maga Federation (EKMF) and the Krav Maga Association of America (KMAA) all competing for the right to the title Krav Maga. The term Krav Maga is increasingly used less in Israel, the Israeli Police and Yamam now use the term Haganah Hatzmit (Hebrew for “self defence”) to describe the defensive tactics taught to their officers.

Moni Aizik went on to become a Major in the IDF before immigrating to Canada where he opened up a highly successful martial arts school. He was a prominent trainer of no-hold barred fighters including the former UFC Welterweight champion Carlos Newton and Japanese Shooto star Joel Gerson .

It was since 1973 that Moni has been developing CKM; incorporating Jiu Jitsu, Israeli and various other fighting styles, in constant evolution, to form what is now referred to as Commando Krav Maga. CKM combines the most useful elements taught to one of the toughest militaries in the world, the Israeli Special Forces, with the no holds barred octagon environment (like the UFC), and Olympic level martial arts and mental training. 

Kapap (Krav Panim Le Panim, “face to face combat”), whose Chief Instructor is Avi Nardia, a former student of Moni. Nardia is a former member of the Yamam, Israel’s premier counter-terror unit (equivalent to the U.S. Delta Force and F.B.I. Counter Terror units). In his 24 years of experience, he served in the Israeli army (IDF), in the Lebanese War (1982), where he earned the rank of major, and he trained armed forces all over the world whilst in Israel, he taught defensive tactics and operational behaviour at the Operational Police Academy. He is a CQB trainer in IDF, as well as a Reserve Police Sniper.

Hisardut (Hebrew for survival). In 1975 Dennis Hanover, a South African immigrant to Israel contributed to the Israeli military martial arts. With a background in ju jitsu and kyokushinkai karate, he was neither a Krav Maga or KAPAP instructor, but was brought in by the IDF to contribute to the LOTAR (name taken from the counter-terrorist school Lochama Be'Terror), because of his innovative teaching style. He created his own system called Dennis Hisardut and for the past 30 years has trained a variety of government entities, plus thousands of Israeli citizens. He has a successful martial arts school in the city of Herzliya.

Until 2004 Moni taught CKM exclusively to special military groups around the world. To this day Moni remains a very prominent figure in the Israeli Martial Arts and continues to teach IDF Special Forces.