By SBS video-journalist Patrick Abboud
Having done some Krav Maga workshops herself, Ms Alvisse feels it's difficult to measure the impact in a civilian context because there is little governance of the training.
“I think how it's delivered needs to be monitored because not everybody has the capability to take that information and use it wisely," she says. "There is just not a lot of knowledge behind Krava Maga in terms of what people know."
At one of Ron Engleman's recent Sydney workshops most of the men and women attending said they were looking for self-defence techniques that are quick to learn and easy to implement.
One participant, Szilard Balogh is from Hungary where Krav Maga is believed to have originated.
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“The more you do it the less aggressive you feel. People always talk about a certain level of aggression that you have to put into exercises or the conditioning part, yeah - and it is part of it but I've got this idea that the more you do Krav Maga the milder you become if you like - because you are safe – you know that anything can come your way and you are safe – you will get out of it”, he says.
Hungarian-Israeli man Imi Lichtenfeld is said to have created the first Krav Maga techniques from street fighting skills developed while defending the Jewish quarter of Bratislava against fascist groups in the 1930's.
There are now around 40 Krav Maga schools in Australia.
Ron Engleman's school in Sydney is one of the biggest and he's in the country frequently running specialised Krav Maga workshops.
