Give no quarter.
Krav maga is a Hebrew phrase; it means "close combat" or literally "contact combat." It is a fighting style that is taught to the Israeli army, and if you have seen any of the BOURNE movies with Matt Damon, then you've seen krav maga in action.
I just started training in krav for self defense, and I find it intense, draining, and addictive. There's little that is elegant or spiritual about it, the way you might find other traditional martial arts. The goal is to "Go Home Alive," which means fighting however hard and with whatever is available in order to survive. It's about crippling your attacker (not "opponent") as rapidly and thoroughly as possible, and then escaping. The training also seeks to teach neutrality in the face of an attack, and to use maximum efficiency in the face of real-life danger. "Neutralize and escape" would be a short n' sweet way to put it.
A link for your curiosity pleasure: http://www.kravmaga.com/
Training in krav is bringing up a lot of weird stuff for me. I've been sexually assaulted, so I'm dealing with the residual fear and anger that these classes drag out of me. And it is definitely fighting in close quarters. When fighting, I am not supposed to give an inch. I stand my ground. My attacker gets close: we punch each other, sometimes we grapple on the floor. It is discomfiting, being so thoroughly and aggressively in a stranger's personal space in a setting that is not truly lethal. Combine that weird vibe with my own stale anger, and I come out of class feeling like I've had a grill brush strenuously applied to my psyche.
Rule #1 in Krav Maga is: there are no rules in a fight. I find my Peanut Gallery of inner voices LOVES this rule. My inner cast of thousands is mostly composed of those aspects of my personality that I don't feel are fit for public consumption, so there's an Inner Republican, an Inner Puritan, an Inner Anarchist, an Inner Witch, an Inner Hedonist. The list goes on and on. (Yes, perhaps oddly, most of my buried stuff is male. I am not certain what that means, although I am sure it does mean something.)
The Inner Puritan is usually the star; he gets the most solo performances, but lately, my Inner Hunter has come forward for his 15 seconds of fame, and he's lobbying hard for us all to go out and shoot a gun soon. Apparently the krav training is bringing lots of my more aggressive aspects out, and the timing either could not be worse or is the most fortuitous ever. It all depends on my perspective, I suppose, and what I want any outcome to be. Outcome of the krav training, and overall LIFE outcome.
Outcomes? I've gone blind in any ability to look down the road and and anticipate a future outcome, but I do know some things without thinking:
1) I want to be able to be able to not just defend myself, but to go confidently into situations that I might have avoided in the past out of fear.
2) I want to be stronger, mentally and physically.
3) I want to use this training to foster confidence in other areas of my life.
Other than these three things, I think I'm just along for the ride over the next several months. A ride that is equal parts physical exertion and emotional extraction. Who knows what I'll be when I come out on the other side.