Sambo (martial art)
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The logo of the International Federation of Amateur Sambo |
Sambo () -- (also called Sombo in the US and sometimes written in all-caps) is a modern
martial art, combat sport and
self-defense system developed in the former
Soviet Union.
The word Sambo is an abbreviation of meaning "self-defense without a
weapon" in Russian.
According to the
International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA),
Sambo is one of the four main forms of amateur competitive
wrestling practiced internationally today, the other three being
Greco-Roman wrestling,
Freestyle wrestling and
Judo.
There is no single recognized founder of Sambo. Although Sambo has its roots in traditional folk
wrestling styles of the place, this martial art became a sport only on
November 16,
1938. The sport was recognized by USSR National Committee of Physical Culture and became part of the military drill of every soldier.
Although it was originally a single system, there are now three generally recognized versions of Sambo:
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Sport Sambo (Borba Sambo) is stylistically similar to
amateur wrestling or
Judo. The competition is similar to Judo, but with some differences in rules, protocol, and
uniform. For example, in contrast with Judo, Sambo allows all types of
leg locks, while not allowing
chokeholds.
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Self-defense Sambo, which is similar to
Aikijutsu, jujitsu or
Aikido, and is based on
self-defense application, such as defending against attacks by both armed and unarmed attackers.
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Combat Sambo (Russian: Boyevoye Sambo). Utilized and developed for the military, this is arguably the root of Sambo as it is now known, and includes practice with weapons and disarming techniques. Competition in combat sambo resembles modern
mixed martial arts, and includes extensive forms of
striking and
grappling.
A Sambo practitioner normally wears either a red or blue jacket
kurtka, a
belt and shorts of the same color, and
sambovki (Sambo shoes).
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Book cover of a book about Sambo released in 1973. |
The founders of Sambo sifted deliberately through all of the world's martial arts to augment their military's hand-to-hand combat system. One of these men,
Vasili Oshchepkov, taught
judo and karate to elite
Red Army forces at the Central Red Army House. He had earned his nidan (second degree black belt out of then five only) from judo's founder,
Jigoro Kano, and used some of the Osensei's philosophy in formulating the early development of the new Russian art.
Sambo, however, was 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.
As the buffer between
Europe and
Asia, Russia had more than ample opportunities to sift through the martial skills of various invaders. Earlier Russians had experienced threats from the
Vikings in the west and the
Tatars and
Genghis Khan's
Golden Horde from
Mongolia in the east. The regional,
native combat systems included in Sambo's genesis are
Tuvan Köräş,
Yakuts khapsagai,
Chuvash akatuy,
Georgian chidaoba,
Moldavian trinta,
Armenian kokh, and
Uzbek Kurash to name a few.
The foreign influences included various styles of European
Wrestling styles, oriental
jujitsu, and other martial arts of the day plus the classical
Olympic sports of
boxing,
Greco-Roman and
free-style wrestling. Sambo even derived
lunging and
parrying techniques from Italian scherma
fencing.
Sambo's early development stemmed from the independent efforts of Oshchepkov and another Russian,
Victor Spiridonov, to integrate the techniques of judo into native wrestling styles. Both men hoped that the Soviet wrestling styles could be improved by an infusion of the techniques distilled from jujitsu by
Kano into his new style of
jacket wrestling.
In
1918,
Lenin created
Vseobuch (
Vseobshchee voennoye obuchienie or
General Military Training) under the leadership of
N.I. Podovoyskiy to train the
Red Army. The task of developing and organizing Russian 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, Free style wrestling, and many Slavic wrestling styles. As a "combatives investigator" for Dinamo, he traveled to
Mongolia and
China to observe their native fighting styles.
In 1923, Oshchepkov and Spiridinov collaborated 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 all of the world's fighting systems into one comprehensive style that could adapt to any threat. Oshchepkov had observed Kano's distillation of
Tenjin Shin'yo Ryu jujitsu and
Kito Ryu jujitsu into judo, and he had developed the insight required to evaluate and integrate combative techniques into a new system. Their development team was 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. Here, Oshchepkov and Spiridonov's improvements in Russian wrestling slipped into the military's hand-to-hand-combat system.
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 called "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 an injury that he suffered that greatly restricted his ability to practice Sambo or wrestling. Refined versions of Sambo are still used today or fused with specific Sambo applications to meet the needs of Russian
commandos today.
Each technique for Sambo was carefully dissected and considered for its merits, and if found acceptable in unarmed combat, refined to reach Sambo's ultimate goal: stop an armed or unarmed adversary in the least time possible. Thus, the best techniques of jujitsu and its softer cousin, Judo, entered 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.
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Fedor Emelianenko is a World Combat Sambo Champion and Russian Combat Sambo Champion. He is also a
mixed martial arts fighter and is the current heavyweight champion in
PRIDE Fighting Championships in
Japan.
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Aleksander Emelianenko, Fedor's brother, is a two-time Russian national
Sambo champion, and two time world
Sambo champion in the absolute divisions.
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Oleg Taktarov UFC 6 Champion and UFC '95 Ultimate Ultimate Tournament finalist
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Andrei Arlovski was the
UFC heavyweight champion. He was also the Junior World Sambo Champion.
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Scott Sonnon is a 1993 World University Games silver medalist, 1994 Pan-American Games gold medalist and 1995 US Grand National SOMBO Championships gold medalist. He was also a member of the 1993-95 and 1999 USA National Sambo team coaching staff
[http://www.usadojo.com/biographies/scott-sonnon.htm]. Today he is a performance enhancement coach for RMAX International
[http://www.rmaxinternational.com].
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Vladimir PutinFictional practitioners
* The fictional character
Blue Mary of the
King of Fighters video game series uses a stylized version of Sambo.
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Sergei Dragunov of
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection uses the military version of Sambo.
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Bayman and
Leon of the
Dead or Alive game series both use Combat Sambo.
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Cyrax uses Sambo in
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.
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Zangief uses a variation of Sambo and integrates it into Pro Wrestling.
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FIAS website*
Classical SAMBO - With many examples and pictures.
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Creation of sambo - By M.Lukashev, first published in "Physical culture and sport" magazine N9-10/91.
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AnyMartialArt.org - Sambo over view
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Combat Sambo*
Combat Sambo in Canada (Toronto) *
Sambo*
SAMBO competition rules. Includes rules for combat sambo.
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CST Mag Interviews American Sambo Association's Steve Koepfer. Information about combat and freestyle sambo.
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International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles, Hall of Fame*
Interviews, reviews and articles
