Wednesday, September 30, 2015
NO STRANGLES IN SPORT SAMBO?
NO STRANGLES IN SPORT SAMBO?
Sambo and Judo may look
similar which they are, Sambo’s origins came from Judo. In fact at the 2014
World Sambo Championships the Japanese felt that Sambo was coming home. Yet the
thing that separated the two in the beginning was the Philosophy.
Kano saw “Judo is more than just a sport or Martial Art,
it is a means of Physical and Cultural Attainment” in other words “it is a way
of producing better human beings” While Oschepkov one of the founders of Sambo
and student of Kano envisaged this style of grappling as a way to train Soviet
Troops to fight. He and others wanted a system that could keep the troops
fighting fit without inflicting serious injury on themselves
So
everything was revolved around a battlefield hand-to-hand combat scenario. So
even when they invented a sporting element i.e. competition the emphasis was
still on the battlefield. That is why you get a Total Victory for throwing
someone on their back and remaining standing. In the World Championships in
Italy in the 1990’s one of my fighters fought an Italian and made a dummy attack
and his opponent literally fell over his own feet, the referee gave a Total.
The audience booed him, he looked up pointed his finger at the man on the ground
and went bang bang. He was saying in a Battlefield situation he would be dead.
Now some have said why no strangles in Sport Sambo once again you go back to
the Battlefield where a broken arm or leg does not kill a person but takes him
out of the battle and most probably takes a comrade out because he will need
medical attention. When I first started Sambo in the 1970’s hold downs were not
allowed once again in Battle you did not have the time to roll around the
ground, the same goes for strangles.
Now
whether this all-true or just some old soldiers giving me a yarn I do not know
but it does make sense. Now a days Sport Sambo is what it says it is a dynamic
sport and the recently introduced Combat Sambo is an extra arm of Sambo to take
in account the modern phenomenon of Strike and Grapple
Martin
Clarke
FIAS Grandmaster