Russian Sambo

Sambo is a martial art that was developed in the Soviet Union in the first half of the twentieth century by Vasiliy Oschepkov. He was a jiu jitsu practitioner who began a martial arts academy called Dynamo. But Dynamo had a couple of different styles o fighting. Some focused on a ground game, others a defensive game, and lots of in between. What came out of their collaberation became known as Sambo, which means self defense in Russian. Russian Sambo can be practiced in four different forms. There is the Sport Sambo, which is generally a form of Judo combined with amateur wrestling. The Self-Defense Sambo concentrates on educating students on how to defend them in any scenario and is very similar to other martial arts forms such as Aikido or Aikijutsu. Most military personnel practice combat Sambo as the sport teaches disarming techniques, weapons training and a more aggressive approach, including a greater variation of martial arts. Army Special Forces and Sambo fanatics usually choose the Special Sambo, as it has specifically been designed for rapid response units and law enforcement units. This form of Russian martial arts was even taught to the famous Russian Red Army, and the true form of Sambo was reserved for the military and government forces for many years. Sambo is a very important martial art to Russian and shows different aspects of Russian culture. It is very popular sport and has gone down in history as one of the most deadly martial arts of all time.