Martial arts training - SAMBO
Intro:
SAMBO is an acronym of Russian words "SAMozaschita Bez Orujiya" -
"Self-Defense Without Weapon".
Origin:
Russia
History:
SAMBO was created in the 1930's. Official recognition of new art was in
1938. At first it was named "free-style wrestling", then "free wrestling,"
and in 1946 was renamed "SAMBO." This system is compilation of techniques
from a number of martial arts including Japanese and Chinese martial arts;
national martial arts of USSR area natives (Georgians, Armenians, Mongols,
Russians etc.); French wrestling and other arts. At the time of the 2nd world
war the system was widely "tested" by the Soviet army. "Special" techniques
were added at the time, for example fighting in cells, quick-and-quiet
sentry killing, and so on. Because of the number of criminals in the Soviet
army at that time (during WWII each prisoner was "invited" to the front
with each year at the front worth two or so years of their sentence) SAMBO
experts acquired many lessons on criminal street fighting, and a number of
these techniques were included in SAMBO. SAMBO continues to accept new
techniques and modify old ones.
Description:
Today, SAMBO is built from 3 parts: the sportive part (Olympic sport), the
self-defense part, and the special or combat part.
The sportive part is similar to Judo but with some differences in allowed
techniques. SAMBO allows leg locks were Judo does not, but Judo allows
choking but SAMBO does not. There are somewhat more techniques in SAMBO
than in Judo.
The self-defense part of SAMBO is similar in form to Aikijujutsu
because it is intended to be entirely defensive. The founder of
SAMBO said this about the self-defense part:
"We give defensive weapons to citizens. Some people say that this
kind of martial art may be learned by criminals or hooligans and
used against citizens. Don't worry! This art does not include even
one attacking technique! If a hooligan will learn, he will be able
to apply it only against another hooligan who will attack him, but
never against a citizen."
There are many specific techniques for defending specific attacks, including
escaping from grips and chokes, defenses against punches and kicks, defenses
against weapons (knife, stick etc.), and floor-fighting. The self-defense
part of SAMBO is based on body movements and locks with a few punches and
kicks. The object is to allow defense but not to injure the opponent more
than necessary because this part was created for citizens. In the former
Soviet Union the law was that if you injure your opponent more than needed
in a self-defense situation you could receive a 5 year prison term. Some of
the self-defense techniques are based on sportive SAMBO.
The third part - combat SAMBO - was created for the army and police. It is
a very severe, and dangerous system. If the idea of sportive SAMBO is "Take
points and win," and the idea of the self-defense part is "Don't allow to
attacker injure you," the idea of combat SAMBO is "Survive, and if someone
hinders you - injure or kill him." Combat SAMBO includes sportive and self-defense techniques, but uses them in different ways. For example,
sportive SAMBO uses the traditional shoulder throw of Judo and Jujutsu.
In combative SAMBO the throw is done with the opponents arm rotated up and
locked at the elbow, and can be done to throw the opponent on his head. If
the opponent attempts to counter by lowering his center of gravity and pulling
backwards (as is taught in sportive SAMBO) the arm will be broken. Combative
SAMBO teaches shoulder throw counters that might be able to deal with a locked
arm like kicking out the opponents knee and pulling back by the hair or eye
sockets.
In addition to modified sportive and self-defense techniques, combat SAMBO
includes kicks, punches, "dangerous throwing" (throws that can't be include
into sportive part because they cause injury), locks on the spine, things
that are prohibited in sportive wrestling (biting, for example), many
"sadistic dirty things," working against weapons (with or without a weapon
of your own), tricks like putting your coat on your opponents head (works
nicely), floor fighting (very strong), fighting in closed space (small
room, pit, stairs), quick-and-quiet sentry killing, and so forth. Students
also learn strategy and tactics of fighting alone or in groups against
single or multiple opponents. SAMBO is less popular today in Russia because
the influx of oriental martial arts in recent years. But, the development
of SAMBO has continued and elements of it are incorporated into other
modern combat systems.
Contributor:
Alex Levitas - alevitas@iil.intel.com