Thursday, June 04, 2015
Want to be a Champion
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| 1974 IBF Multi Nation |
When I was training and competing at a reasonable level in the 1970, 1980 and 1990 the training was very hard but I had plenty of sparing partners which were available in Judo and Wrestling. At that time all there was in the grappling disciplines were Judo and Wrestling, many of these would also compete in Sambo/Sombo competitions. Judo was at its peak in those days with nearly every town and Village having a Judo club in fact in my town of Sittingbourne there was about 8 clubs the smallest would have about 40 members and the largest my own Young Judo Club had several hundred now we have just the YJC and one other.
As the years went by more
people wanted to get involved in other forms of grappling but did not like the
heavy throwing of Judo and Sambo. So to fill this gap Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
appeared which mainly deals with ground play. This style became very popular
throughout the World and when something becomes popular and other Jiu Jitsu
organisations brought in their own forms of grappling, then we got the
meaningless MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) this was all things to all men it had no
structure and no rules anyone could claim to be a MMA coach and clubs appeared
every where in Gyms, Barns, Garages etc. Out of this MMA swamp some
organisations did appear with some creditability and they would preface their
name followed by the Tag MMA. Recently a group have come with what some would
claim is what original MMA was and that is Submission Wrestling. SW is least
tells “what it says on the tin” is what it is and I am sure those who had the
original ideal of MMA will turn to this revived Wrestling discipline
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| Posing 2005 |
Now the reason I have made
these comments is that some of my Samboists and Judoka have whined there is not
enough training places anymore and as I mentioned compared to my day that may
be true if you want to stick only to your own discipline. Yet if they stopped
whining and took a side ways look they will realise that they can train at
other grappling disciplines to improve their own specific style. Taking part in
other disciplines competition keeps you match fit, it also does not put
pressure on you to win as participating is a training exercise, by visiting
other club sessions can open your eyes to other means of improving your own
skills. Obviously if you are a Samboist you should train in as much as possible
and please do not say competing in other styles is confusing because of the
different rules. I competed in Judo, Sambo, Wrestling, Lucha Canarias and never
once got confused. Would a Rugby player playing football be confused NO and
what about a 11 side football player playing 5 side would they be confused NO
With regard to the British
Sambo Team they should be trying high standard competitions in Judo and
Wrestling and not restricting themselves to this country only. If you want to
be a top competitor you have to put work into it, you have be single minded, if
you are a coach and that interferes with your training stop coaching. Some may
say that is selfish and that is true but to be a World Class athlete you have
to be focused on yourself. A World Class athlete can achieve a lot of accolades
when they are successful but the have to give up a lot as well, yet not all
those Players who train just as hard but will not succeed, their sacrifice is
even the harder
Martin Clarke
FIAS Sambo Grandmaster
Judo 8th Dan
Jiu Jitsu 6th Dan
# posted by IBFBCSA @ 4:18 AM 
