Sambo (martial art)

Sambo, Russian: Cамбо
International Federation of Amateur Sambo

Sport Sambo Leglock (Knee bar)
Also known as Sombo (in English-speaking countries)
Focus Grappling, Full contact fighting, Mixed Martial Arts
Country of origin Russian SFSR
Famous practitioners Fedor Emelianenko, Blagoi Ivanov, Shamil Zavurov, Aleksander Emelianenko, Vladimir Voronov, Vladimir Putin, Sergei Kharitonov, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Oleg Taktarov,umar shokhzodayev
Olympic sport No
Official website www.sambo.com

Sambo (Russian: самбо; САМооборона Без Оружия) is a Russian martial art and combat sport.[1][2] The word "SAMBO" is an acronym for SAMooborona Bez Oruzhiya, which literally translates as "self-defense without weapons". Sambo is relatively modern since its development began in the early 1920s by the Soviet Red Army to improve their hand to hand combat abilities.[1] Intended to be a merger of the most effective techniques of other martial arts, Sambo has roots in Japanese judo plus traditional folk styles of wrestling such as: Armenian Kokh, Georgian Chidaoba, Romanian Trîntǎ, Tatar Köräş, Uzbek Kurash, Mongolian Khapsagay and Azerbaijani Gulesh.

The pioneers of Sambo were Viktor Spiridonov and Vasili Oshchepkov. Oshchepkov died in prison as a result of the political purges of 1937 after accusations of being a Japanese spy. Oshchepkov spent much of his life living in Japan and training judo under its founder Kano Jigoro. The two men independently developed two different styles, which eventually cross-pollinated and became what is known as Sambo. Compared to Oshchepkov's judo based system, then called "Freestyle Wrestling", Spiridonov's style was softer and less strength dependent. This was in large part due to Spiridonov's injuries sustained during World War I.[3]

Anatoly Kharlampiev, a student of Vasili Oshchepkov, is often officially considered the founder of Sport Sambo. In 1938, it was recognized as an official sport by the USSR All-Union Sports Committee.

Contents

Styles

There are three FIAS recognized competitive sport variations of Sambo (though Sambo techniques and principles can be applied to many other combat sports).[4]

Uniform and ranking

A Sambo practitioner normally wears either a red or a blue jacket kurtka (куртка) or sambovka (самбовка) similar to a gi top, a belt and shorts of the same color, and sambetki самбетки(ru) or bortsovki/борцовки(ru) (Sambo/wrestling shoes). The Sambo uniform does not reflect rank or competitive rating. Sport rules require an athlete to have both red and blue sets to visually distinguish competitors on the mat.

In Russia, a competitive rating system is used rather than belt colors like judo and jujitsu to demonstrate rank, though some schools around the world now institute belt colors as well. The rating system is called Unified Sports Classification System of the USSR, with the highest athletic distinction known as the Distinguished Masters of Sport in Sambo.

Examination requirements vary depending on the age group and can vary from country to country. The examination itself includes competitive accomplishment as well as technical demonstration of knowledge. Higher level exams must be supervised by independent judges from a national Sambo association. For a rating to be recognized, it must be registered with the national Sambo organization.

Similar to other martial arts being promoted by 'degree' or 'dan', Sambists are promoted by 'razryad'. Each sambo rank consists of three razryads, the 1st being the highest.[7][8]

Sambo rating rank Razryad Equivalent competitive achievement Eligibilities
Novichok
(Novice)
3rd
To be able to apply self-protection. To pass a theory exam and to sign an oath. Can participate in demonstration sambo or sports sambo competitions (until straightened arm).
2nd
To gain 1 victory over a Novichok of the 3rd Razryad. To pass the exam.
1st
To gain 1 victory over a Novichok of the 1st Razryad or 2 victories over Novichoks of the 2nd Razryad. To pass the exam.
Yunosheskiy Razryad
(Junior Level)
3rd
To gain 3 victories over Sambists of the 3rd Yunosheskiy Razryad or 5 victories over Novichoks. To pass the exam. Can participate in demonstration sambo or sports sambo competitions (until submission).
2nd
To gain 5 victories over Sambists of the 2nd Yunosheskiy Razryad (2 of the victories should be clean) or 10 victories over Sambists 3rd Yunosheskiy Razryad (4 of the victories should be clean). To pass the exam.
1st
To gain 5 victories over Sambists of the 1st Yunosheskiy Razryad (2 of the victories should be clean) or 10 victories over Sambists of the 2nd Yunosheskiy Razryad (4 of the victories should be clean). To pass the exam.
Vzrosliy Razryad
(Senior Level)
3rd
To gain 6 victories over Sambists of the 1st Yunosheskiy Razryad (2 of the victories should be clean) or 3 victories over Sambists of the 3rd Vzrosliy Razryad. To pass the exam. Can participate in demo sambo, sports sambo, or freestyle sambo (chokes and crossing legs over the body and over the neck are allowed).
2nd
To gain 8 victories over Sambists of the 3rd Vzrosliy Razryad (2 of the victories should be clean) or 4 victories over Sambists of the 2nd Vzrosliy Razryad. To pass the exam.
1st
To gain 10 victories over Sambists of the 2nd Vzrosliy Razryad (3 of the victories should be clean) or 5 victories over Sambists of the 1st Vzrosliy Razryad. To pass the exam.
Kandidat Master
(Candidate for Master)
3rd
To take 1–4 place in a sanctioned competition with at least 5 Sambists of the 1st Vzrosliy Razryad participating, and gain 5 victories over Sambists of the 1st Vzrosliy Razryad (2 of the victories should be clean). To pass the exam. Can participate in demo sambo, sports sambo, freestyle sambo, and combat sambo (punches and kicks are allowed). Can also coach students of Sambo.
2nd
To take 1–2 place in a sanctioned competition with at least 8 Sambists of the 1st Vzrosliy Razryad participating, and gain 10 victories over Sambists of the 1st Vzrosliy Razryad (4 of the victories should be clean). To pass the exam.
1st
To win 1st place in a sanctioned competition with at least 10 Sambists of the 1st Vzrosliy Razryad participating, and gain 16 victories over Sambists of the 1st Vzrosliy Razryad (6 of the victories should be clean). To pass the exam.
Master
3rd
To take 1–4 place in a sanctioned competition with at least 12 Sambists participating (3 Kandidat Masters and 6 of 1st Vzrosliy Razryad). To pass the exam. Can participate in demo sambo, sports sambo, freestyle sambo, and combat sambo (elbow, punches, and knee strikes are allowed). Can hold seminars.
2nd
To take 1–2 place in a sanctioned competition with at least 12 Sambists participating (6 Kandidat Masters and 6 of 1st Vzrosliy Razryad from 5 different regions). To pass the exam.
1st
To win 1st place in a sanctioned competition with at least 12 Sambists of Kandidat Master from 5 different regions participating. To pass the exam.
International Master
3rd
To take 1–4 place in a sanctioned competition with at least 3 Sambists of International Master rank from different countries participating, and take 1–6 place in a national competition. To pass the exam. Can participate in demo sambo, sports sambo, freestyle sambo, and combat sambo. Can coach, conduct exams, and hold seminars.
2nd
To take 1–2 place in a sanctioned competition with at least 3 Sambists of International Master rank from different countries participating, and take 1–3 place in a national competition. To pass the exam.
1st
To take 1–3 place in the World Sambo Championships.
Grand Master
3rd
To win 1st place in the World Sambo Championships; or to take 2–3 place in the World Sambo Championship and win 1st place in a continental competition. Can participate in demo sambo, sports sambo, freestyle sambo, and combat sambo. Can coach, conduct exams, hold seminars, and participate in federation ruling body.
2nd
Repeated world champion; or world champion and repeated continental champion.
1st
Repeated world champion.
Uchitel
(Distinguished Grand Master)
3rd
To coach 3 Sambists of 3rd Razryad Grand Master, found school (club). To have published works. To promote sambo in own country. Can coach, participate in federation ruling body, and hold seminars.
2nd
To coach 3 Sambists of 2nd Razryad Grand Master, found school (club) with at least 500 students. To publish books on sambo. To promote sambo in the continent.
1st
To coach 3 Sambists of 1st Razryad Grand Master, found school (club) with at least 1000 students. To promote sambo in the world.

History

Origins and influences

Sambo was in part born of native Russian and other regional styles of grappling and combative wrestling, bolstered with the most useful and adaptable concepts and techniques from the rest of the world.

Over the centuries, the inhabitants of what is now known as Russia had had ample opportunity to evaluate the martial skills of various invaders: from the Vikings in the West and from the Tatars and Genghis Khan's Golden Horde from Mongolia in the East. The regional, native combat systems included in Sambo's genesis are Russian fist fighting, Tuvan Khuresh, Yakuts khapsagai, Chuvash akatuy, Georgian chidaoba, Romanian trinta, Armenian kokh, and Uzbek Kurash to name a few.

The foreign influences included various styles of European wrestling, catch wrestling, Japanese jujutsu, Chinese Kung Fu, French savate, muay thai and other martial arts of the day plus the classical Olympic sports of amateur boxing, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling. Sambo even derived lunging and parrying techniques from the Italian school of swordsmanship.

The founders of Sambo deliberately sifted through all of the world's martial arts available to them to augment their military's hand-to-hand combat system. Sambo's early development stemmed from the independent efforts of Vasili Oschepkov and Victor Spiridonov, to integrate the techniques of judo, jujitsu, and other foreign martial arts into native wrestling styles. Oschepkov taught judo and karate to elite Red Army forces at the Central Red Army House. Vasili Oschepkov was one of the first foreigners to learn Judo in Japan and had earned his nidan (second degree black belt, out of then five) from judo's founder, Kano Jigoro. Spiridonov's background involved indigenous martial arts from various Soviet regions as well as an interest in Japanese JuJitsu (though he never formally trained it). His reliance on movement over strength was in part based on the fact that he received a bayonet wound during World War I which left his left arm lame. Both Oschepkov and Spiridonov independently hoped that Soviet military hand-to-hand combat techniques could be improved with an infusion of the techniques distilled from other foreign martial arts. Contrary to common lore, Oschepkov and Spiridonov did not cooperate on the development of their hand-to-hand systems. Rather, their independent notions of hand-to-hand combat merged through cross-training between students and formulative efforts by their students and military staff. While Oschepkov and Spiridonov did have occasion to collaborate, their efforts were not completely united.

Each technique was carefully dissected and considered for its merits, and if found acceptable in unarmed combat, refined to reach Sambo's ultimate goal: to stop an armed or unarmed adversary in the least time possible. Thus, many techniques from jujutsu, judo, and other martial systems joined with the indigenous fighting styles to form the Sambo repertoire. When the techniques were perfected, they were woven into Sambo applications for personal self-defense, police, crowd control, border guards, secret police, dignitary protection, psychiatric hospital staff, military, and commandos.

Development

In 1918, Lenin created Vsevobuch (General Military Training) under the leadership of N.I. Podvoyskiy to train the Red Army. The task of developing and organizing Red Army military hand-to-hand combat training fell to K. Voroshilov, who in turn, created the NKVD physical training center Dinamo.

Spiridonov was a combat veteran of World War I and one of the first wrestling and self-defense instructors hired for Dinamo. His background included Greco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, many Slavic wrestling styles, and Japanese jujutsu. As a combatives investigator for Dinamo, he traveled to Mongolia and China to observe their native fighting styles.

In 1923, Oschepkov and Spiridinov collaborated (independently) with a team of other experts on a grant from the Soviet government to improve the Red Army's hand-to-hand combat system. Spiridonov had envisioned integrating the most practical aspects of the world's fighting systems into one comprehensive style that could adapt to any threat. Oschepkov had observed Kano's distillation of Tenjin Shin’yo Ryu jujutsu and Kito Ryu jujutsu into judo, and he had developed the insight required to evaluate and integrate combative techniques into a new system. Their developments were supplemented by Anatoly Kharlampiev and I.V. Vasiliev who also traveled the globe to study the native fighting arts of the world. Ten years in the making, their catalogue of techniques was instrumental in formulating the early framework of the art to be eventually referred to as Sambo.

Kharlampiev is often called the father of Sambo. This may be largely semantics, since only he had the longevity and political connections to remain with the art while the new system was named "Sambo". However, Kharlampiev's political maneuvering is single-handedly responsible for the USSR Committee of Sport accepting Sambo as the official combat sport of the Soviet Union in 1938—decidedly the "birth" of Sambo. So, more accurately, Kharlampiev could be considered the father of "sport" Sambo.

Spiridonov was the first to actually begin referring to the new system as one of the "S" variations cited above. He eventually developed a softer, more aikido-like system called Samoz that could be used by smaller, weaker practitioners or even wounded soldiers and secret agents. Spiridonov's inspiration to develop 'Samoz' stemmed from his World War I bayonet injury, which greatly restricted his (left arm and thus his) ability to practice Sambo or wrestle. Refined versions of Sambo are still used today or fused with specific Sambo applications to meet the needs of Russian commandos today.

As an Olympic Sport

It is often stated that Sambo was a demonstration sport at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR. Youth Sambo was demonstrated in the Games' opening ceremonies; however, Sambo was not formally recognized as demonstration sport. This common error in history books is noted in several sources including History of SAMBO by A. Makoveski and Lukashev's History of Hand-to-Hand Combat in the First Half of the 20th Century: Founders and Authors .[9] Furthermore, the official documents of the 1980 Olympic Organizing Committee do not mention Sambo as a participating sport in the Games.[10]

Today

In 1968, the FILA accepted Sambo as the third style of international wrestling. In 1985, the Sambo community formed its own organization, Federation International Amateur Sambo (FIAS). In 1993, FIAS split into two organizations, both used the same name and logo and the two groups were often referred to as FIAS "East" (under Russian control) and FIAS "West" (under US and Western European control). This split mirrored the last days of Cold War politics of the time as well as the recent break-up of the Soviet Union. In the U.S., disagreements between the sport's organizers and the rise of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the 1990s slowed down the growth of Sambo before the success of several Sambo fighters increased its popularity a decade later.[11] In 2005, FILA reached an agreement with FIAS "West" and re-assumed sanctioning over sport Sambo.[12] However, in 2008, FILA again discontinued sanctioning sambo and sambo is now notably missing from the FILA website.[13] At present, FIAS sanctions international competition in sport and combat sambo.

World Sambo Championships

The results of the past five World Sambo Championships:

Medal table (2006–2009)

 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  Russia 200 24 82 282
2  Belarus 12 11 19 41
3  Bulgaria 12 10 22 43
4  Ukraine 7 17 26 50
5  Kazakhstan 4 5 23 31
6  Mongolia 4 7 7 18
7  Lithuania 2 4 11 17
8  Georgia 2 4 8 14
9  Uzbekistan 1 8 15 24
10  Kyrgyzstan 1 2 4 7
10  Serbia 1 2 4 7
12  Tajikistan 1 2 3 6
13  Latvia 1 1 3 5
14  Moldova 1 0 5 6
15  Venezuela 0 3 7 10
16  Armenia 0 2 6 8
17  Azerbaijan 0 2 4 6
18  Japan 0 1 4 5
19  France 0 1 3 4
19  Romania 0 1 3 4
19  Estonia 0 1 3 4
22  Germany 0 1 1 2
22  Colombia 0 1 1 2
24  Israel 0 1 0 1
25  Greece 0 0 2 2
25  Spain 0 0 2 2
27  Czech Republic 0 0 1 1
27  Indonesia 0 0 1 1
27  Iran 0 0 1 1
27  Jordan 0 0 1 1
27  United States 0 0 1 1
27  Turkmenistan 0 0 1 1
27  South Korea 0 0 1 1
27  Slovenia 0 0 1 1
Total 107 111 207 425

Practitioners

Champions

Other notable practitioners

Fictional practitioners

Name controversy

Although Sambo is a Russian acronym, exponents of the sport in the English-speaking world has faced problems concerning the word's (linguistically unrelated) racial overtone. Sambo representatives were forced to choose the "politically correct" spelling Sombo, which retains currency to date.[25]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Schneiderman, R.M. (June 19, 2010). "Once-Secret Martial Art Rises in Ring’s Bright Lights". the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/sports/othersports/19fight.html. 
  2. ^ "Once-secret KGB martial art fights for recognition". Time Live. http://www.timeslive.co.za/sport/other/article416843.ece/Once-secret-KGB-martial-art-fights-for-recognition. Retrieved December 4, 2010. 
  3. ^ Виктор Афанасьевич Спиридонов (Viktor Spiridonov) – biography at peoples.ru (in Russian)
  4. ^ FIAS Rating System and accepted sports. Sambo.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-09.
  5. ^ Classic Sambo – Get the Upper Hand on Your Opponent With Nasty Leglocks by Stephen Koepfer, in Grappling magazine
  6. ^ Freestle Sambo Rules. Ussambo.com (2010-08-23). Retrieved on 2011-10-09.
  7. ^ FIAS – Ranking System. Sambo.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-09.
  8. ^ sambo federation of india. Sambo.in. Retrieved on 2011-10-09.
  9. ^ Sambo a demo sport in 1980 olympics? (Worldwide Grappling Forums)
  10. ^ Games of the XXIII Olympiad (Volume 3 – Participants and Results) (640 pages)
  11. ^ Schneiderman, R.M. (July 19, 2008). "Once-Secret Martial Art Rises in Ring’s Bright Lights". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/sports/othersports/19fight.html?scp=2&sq=%22H%C3%A9lio%20gracie%22&st=cse. Retrieved December 12, 2010. 
  12. ^ Struggling To Survive – Can FILA End Sambo's Civil War? – in Grappling magazine
  13. ^ FILA/USAW Drops Sambo (Again) – (Wide Grappling Forums)
  14. ^ Rickson Gracie Interview. Onthemat.com (2006-10-13). Retrieved on 2011-10-09.
  15. ^ "BSF Organisation". Britishsombo.co.uk. http://www.britishsombo.co.uk/bsf_organisation.htm. Retrieved November 13, 2011. 
  16. ^ Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Web.archive.org (2002-08-12). Retrieved on 2011-10-09.
  17. ^ Tatami. Worldcup.sambofrance.org. Retrieved on 2011-10-09.
  18. ^ Find What You Want. Britishsombo.co.uk. Retrieved on 2011-10-09.
  19. ^ Sombo Results 2001 till 2008. Britishsombo.co.uk. Retrieved on 2011-10-09.
  20. ^ "Faces in the Crowd". CNN. October 21, 1997. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/1997/weekly/faces/1027/index.html. 
  21. ^ Martial Arts Biography by Scott Sonnon
  22. ^ USSR. – Agentstvo pechati "Novosti". http://books.google.com/books?id=FlYiAQAAIAAJ&q=%22David+Rudman%22+judo+-wrestler&dq=%22David+Rudman%22+judo+-wrestler&hl=en&ei=8ey6Tt-kJeHf0QH13P3eCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&sqi=2&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBQ. Retrieved November 9, 2011. 
  23. ^ ".". Daily Times. November 23, 2005. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005%5C11%5C23%5Cstory_23-11-2005_pg2_23. Retrieved November 9, 2011. 
  24. ^ "YIVO | Jews in Sport in the USSR". Yivoencyclopedia.org. http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Sport/Jews_in_Sport_in_the_USSR. Retrieved November 13, 2011. 
  25. ^ Who runs International Sombo? by Martin Clarke

Sources

External links

Organisations

Other