Martial Arts around the World: Russia (Sambo)
Sambo is a martial art that is the official combat sport of Russia. It is a relatively modern sport that was developed by the Soviet military, and its name in Russian (“Samozaschita Bez Oruzhiya”) literally translates to “Self Defense Without Weapons.” Pioneered by Vasili Oschepkov and Viktor Spiridonov in the 1920s, the goal of Sambo was to fuse the best parts of various martial arts techniques including Judo, Wrestling and Karate and come up with the ultimate martial art. Today Sambo is used by the Russian police, military and a side variation is also widely practiced for sport.
Sambo Gear
Traditionally, Sambists wear a Gi, or a Kurtka (also called Sambovka). As with most standard competitive gear, these are usually in either blue or red for competition. There is also no belt ranking system in Sambo, unlike Judo and Jujitsu/BJJ. In Sambo, ranks are awarded after completing key competitive milestones.
Technique
Sambo in essence is differentiated from other grappling arts like Judo and Jujitsu by a few core elements, namely:
- It’s high impact nature (slams, throws, learning how to fall, striking, etc)
- It’s submissions, most notably its leg locks
- The aspects of Combat Sambo that focus on real life situations (weapons disarmament, weapons training, etc)
- Ground control skills (close tie in with Judo, Jujitsu/BJJ and Wrestling)
The below video from Russia’s Combat Sambo Nationals (2016) gives a good illustration of the points above.
It is important to remember that Sambo from its inception was an experiment, an initiative to create the ultimate martial art by incorporating the best from the most respected disciplines. This mission statement adopted by its founders meant that Sambo in essence would always be an evolving art, and its practitioners would be able to seamlessly transition between styles. To illustrate this point, even though Sambo and BJJ have roots in traditional Judo, Sambo is the only one out of the three that allows striking. Another difference in training approaches for many academies/clubs (not all!) is how leg-locks/submissions are taught. Judo, which primarily focuses on throws generally does not allow for leg locks in competition, and the same generally applies to BJJ as well. In Sambo it is the complete opposite. A Sambist generally learns leg locks right from day one. When I trained in Sambo a few years ago, leg locks were by far my favorite training sessions! But there are two sides to that argument. Many teachers in the BJJ world refrain from teaching novice students leg locks as leg locks in the wrong hands can lead to serious injury. Check out the below video of my friend and former coach Steve Koepfer from New York Combat Sambo giving a high level overview on leg lock offense and defense (focusing on the ankle/heel).
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