SAMBO – IRON FIST FROM THE EAST

Sep 01, 2010

MARTIAL ARTS

Have you ever wondered why anything that comes from Russia and the former Eastern bloc is often associated with ultimate power and destruction? From tAK-47 – to people – WBA champion ‘The ‘Russian Giant’ Nikolai Valuyev, WBC champions Klitschko brothers, WAMMA Pride champion Feodor Emelianenko – just to name a few...

It is no wonder that even the Russian government is headed by a black belt master of judo (Vladimir Putin). Throughout the history many outsiders tried to take a shot at the ‘big bear’ – Genghis Khan’s Mongolian Horde, Napoleon’s France, Hitler’s Nazis etc. Centuries of warfare made fighting the way of life and to this day boxing and various martial arts remain the most popular sports among the Russian people.

Although, it is a general tradition among Russians to keep their secrets to themselves there is one particular Russian martial art that has spread across the borders and received worldwide acclamation. It is the martial art of Sambo – (Самбо – САМозащита Без Оружия) – literally meaning ‘self-defence without weapons’. The main purpose is to completely neutralise your opponent unarmed in the shortest period of time, whether he is armed with a gun, a knife or something bigger.

Sambo is a fusion of various eastern fighting styles – Russian, Mongolian, Persian and Uzbek – with the most efficient techniques from Japanese jiu-jitsu and judo. The most deadly out of these was the Russian fist-fight, which had been a traditional type of entertainment for many centuries. Two groups of ‘hunters’ would come out on the ice bare-chested and bare-footed, pound on their tambourines and by the signal with excruciating grows they would run towards each other (‘wall-to-wall’ as they called it) and clash into a brutal fight, which would leave many injured for life or even dead. In the early 20^th century, this tradition and all of the above were combined into a new highly efficient system that was used to train the Red Army and secret police units (that later on would evolve into the KGB), and in the 1990s it was widely used by Russian mafia henchmen and bodyguards. As the time went on Sambo went on to become the most popular Russian sport that gradually spilled over into Europe before taking the US by storm. The biggest clubs in the UK are in Manchester, Glasgow and Swansea.

Sambo is an extremely brutal martial art and rare training days would go by without blood. Nevertheless, it is a highly-effecient and a rapid system that is known to some of the world’s renowned fighters, including the Mixed Martial Arts and Pride champion Feodor Emelianenko and Russian Prime-Minister Vladimir Putin, both of whom began their fighting careers in Sambo.

Any fool can use a gun or a knife, but only a real man can use his body as a weapon, the deadliest of them all.