SAMBO aka American Sombo
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Intro:
SAMBO is an acronym of Russian words "SAMozaschita Bez Orujiya" -
"Self-Defence 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-defence 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-defence 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-defence 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.
American Sombo is the same as Sambo. If you are interested in American Sombo, and live in Pennsylvania, please give me an email, or contact via ICQ- My ICQ #20629605.
Currently
we are holding kids classes on Mondays from 530pm-7pm, and Adults from
7pm-????
There
are usually people in the academy at other times per week, mostly Sunday
and Thursdays. Fees per month are for unlimited class time. So come
by whenever you want!!!!
To get some info about me-go here-
Sombo, Sambo, Cambo,... SomboMania! | Coach Bruce Gabrielson SOMBO Site |
Sombo Canada | sombo |
"Sombo-70" internet page | American Sombo Academy - official homepage |