Itay is a legit military/YAMAM instructor but his training is in Gadi Skornick's kenpojitsu and military combatives. Thats what he teaches along with a mix of some Krav Maga techniques. It is not Krav Maga as taught by Imi Lichtenfeld and his students
Many israelis were instructors in IDF, that does not make them KM instructors. Itay Gil gave Katz a 4th degree black belt in JU-JITSU, not Krav Maga and his 5th degree was given to him in a honorary ceremony by a group of karate black belts. Moshe Katz has NEVER practiced real Krav Maga
Just an FYI @ShooterMMA - Itay did indeed go thru' the Krav Maga instructors course while in the IDF. Also, his unit "Paratrooper Recon" received MUCH advanced KM training and often under Eli Avikzar, Imi's successor and the co-developer of the "civilian Krav Maga" seen all over the place. Imi did not "invent" all of KM as purported by those who stand to make money off such claims. Imi's fame, for lack of a better word, really came from his introduction of KM to the civilian sector and making it belt ranked, adding a martial arts flare to it. The principles of KM were established before Imi entered the then called Palestine. KAPAP, as it was then called, was a system of concepts and principles. Each level of the Haganah were granted more and more info. For instance Palmach - a sort of special forces counter terror unit, did much more with learning to build "grease gun" type weapons from plumbing parts and other materials than did those who just patrolled and reported. This same concept has spilled over into the modern IDF, in fact all of Israel's many level of Polise, Security, etc.
I suppose my point is, Imi's civilian KM is not all that KM has to offer. Eli Avikzar was a strong proponent of putting more "grappling and throwing" into advanced military KM because he (commissioned by Imi) earned Black Belts in Aikido and Judo. He saw weak areas in the KM of the day and tried to strengthen them. Itay did the same when he was made the lead tactics instructor for YAMAM. KM is supposed to be a system of concepts and principles and this is evidenced in the kaf mem (Hebrew characters for K and M) symbol popularized by the IKMA and KMWW. The symbol is open at the top and bottom and also to the left and right of the kaf mem to symbolize that techniques flow into the system from many avenues, when they are no longer effective or the enemies of Israel find effective counters, those techniques are to flow out. This is the definition John Whitman and Sam Sde gave at a KMWW seminar I attended in 2001, or there about. Yet only Itay and Moshe dare to press the envelope by following this principle!! I hear that the KM Alliance has started to modify techniques as well. They recently put Nir Maman on their board. Some of Nir's techniques have evolved to look much like Itay and Moshe's since he returned to and left LOTAR in Israel. It makes me wonder if it was influenced by the fact that Itay was a senior instructor to Duvdevan (very involved at LOTAR) and that several of Moshe's students have served in Duvdevan...... maybe, maybe not.
So I would caution, before claiming that only "Imi's KM is true KM" take a look at the highest level of operators and instructors and see if they are still doing things the way they were done before Imi left the IDF. Just a thought...... no offense intended to anyone.
You have to test everything for yourself. What fits well for you may not for others, but just because a single source claims someone doesn't teach Krav Maga, that does not necessarily make it so.
