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.  

Early History

The earliest examples of martial arts goes back to 3400 BC in places such as Egypt. It was in the form of wrestling and practiced as a sport and a leisure activity. However the first well structured and defined form of martial arts was created in 648 BC by Alexander the Great. It was known as pankration and was a cross between todays jiu jitsu and boxing. As attention was brought to the art, it became very popular in the Greek Olympic games. With virtually no rules and fouls it gained a reputation for its extreme brutality and severely bloody competitions. However its creation wasn't intended to entertain the Greeks, it was to make Alexander the Great's soldiers ruthless killers. During this time warfare was often fought within spitting distance your enemy and cold steel clashed all around you. So if you were disarmed or thrown to the ground by your enemy, you still had a fighting chance with the new techniques of pankration. In the end it saved many lives and struck fear into the enemies hearts knowing that their enemy was a deadly warrior wether they had a weapon or not. This art of pankration became the structure and blueprints for many other forms of martial arts to come.

Overview:

Martial Arts has a very colorful past and differs from culture to culture. It has been used to defend, destroy, and find inner peace. But have you ever wondered where it all began? I mean lets face it there wasn’t an AJ’s karate right down the street from Alexander the Great’s palace. No every form of martial arts has its own unique roots and traditions that defines the core of that particular art. Perhaps you don’t even know different forms of martial arts (No its not all called karate). Well in the following weeks I am taking it up as my goal to educate those who want to learn all about martial arts and its history. I will dive into different forms, the history of forms and weapons, vocabulary, and everything that has to do with martial arts. By the end of my blogging period I hope to peak the interest and enshroud my readers so that they can share the same love I have for martial arts.  I hope you will embark on this journey with me and take it up as an adventure full of learning and fun because it will be new to me too. But by the end I promise you that we will both as the author and reader have a greater respect and bigger love for the one thing that ties cultures together…Martial Arts.