This school is the real deal. Krav Maga often gets a bad reputation for not stress testing their techniques through sparring. Lions takes an incremental approach. You start out in basic Krav classes where you learn basic techniques like punching, kicking, defenses against the most common surprise attacks (rear naked choke, two handed choke) plus basic ground positions from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that most Krav schools don’t teach. There isn’t much sparring in the basic classes so you can focus on getting conditioning and techniques. But at any time you can join specialized classes with more intense positional sparring and even full contact sparring. They even have classes if you want to compete.

One of the big complaints about any specific martial arts these days is that MMA has shown that there are 3 main areas to be well rounded in a fight. Striking (boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai), takedowns (wrestling, judo), and ground fighting (Brazilian/Japanese Jiu Jitsu). Most martial arts except MMA only typically deal with one area. Lions offers instruction in all three areas.

Lions has optional classes that are included with your monthly fee that specialize in each of the areas. Plus they have extra sparring and open mat classes. You can join these classes any time to get specialization in any of the areas.

The goal of self defense is to escape an attacker safely at the beginner levels. They also have drills for situational awareness and how to avoid or prevent a fight.

At the more advanced levels you want to be able to subdue an attacker or maybe protect someone else so you cant just run away so they teach you to engage in a fight.

The mix of women and men in classes feels close to 50/50 and the culture they have created is amazing and safe.

I have recommended and will continue to recommend lions to all my friends.