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Sambo

Soviet self-defence system turned sport: judo-style throws, leg locks, and a combat version with strikes.

Origin
Soviet Union (Russia)
Region
Europe
Founded
1920s–1930s; official sport in the USSR 1938
Category
Grappling
Studio photograph of George Hackenschmidt in 1906, a heavily muscled wrestler posing bare-chested.
George Hackenschmidt, the Estonian-born champion of the Russian Empire's wrestling boom, in 1906. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sambo – an acronym for the Russian “self-defence without weapons” – was developed in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. Its pioneers, among them Viktor Spiridonov, Vasili Oshchepkov (a Kōdōkan judo black belt) and Anatoly Kharlampiev, combined judo with techniques from the wrestling traditions of the Soviet republics. It became an official sport in 1938, and the International Sambo Federation (FIAS) was founded in 1984.

Character

  • Sport sambo: Throws, pins and submissions – arm and leg locks are allowed, chokes are not.
  • Combat sambo: Adds strikes, chokes and headgear; a close cousin of MMA.
  • Uniform: A jacket (kurtka), shorts and wrestling-style shoes – grips on the jacket, but freedom of movement in the legs.
  • Leg locks: A sambo specialty that influenced modern no-gi grappling.

Who is it for?

Grapplers who want throws plus submissions, MMA athletes looking for a jacket-based style with strikes, and anyone curious about a very complete system. Clubs are most common in Eastern Europe and Central Asia but exist worldwide.

Further reading: Sambo on Wikipedia

Sambo

History

Sambo

Compared with other arts