Judo/Sambo: History of SAMBO

History of SAMBO

ORIGINS OF SAMBO

In 1920’s, a special system of self-defense was created in the USSR to train the Army and police officers. A group of enthusiasts from different sports societies started dealing with this problem. Developers paid a special attention to studying the holds of national single combat events: Uzbek Kurash, Georgian Chidaoba, Armenian Kokh, Russian Fist Fighting. Japanese Jujitsu, Mongolian Bukh Barilda, Chinese Shuai Jiao, French Wrestling, Judo and French Boxing Savate had a significant effect on the formation of SAMBO.

In 1923, a SAMBO section was established in Dynamo Sports Society, as a new martial art. SAMBO obtained its official recognition as “self-defense without weapons” on November 16, 1938. Thanks to its origin, SAMBO possessed, from the very beginning, a rich arsenal of painful holds, advanced fighting techniques in standing and ground positions and combinational tactics in holding the bouts.

SAMBO techniques advantage was proved already in the first years of this sport appearance. SAMBO fighters practically won all the bouts competing with the representatives of other Single Combat sports. At present SAMBO is a dynamically developing sport that keeps on perfecting.

SAMBO FOUNDERS

Three people are considered to be the founders of SAMBO in Russia: Victor Spiridonov, Vasiliy Oschepkov and Anatoly Kharlampiev.

Victor Spiridonov is a Russian army officer who created in 1923 his own system of defense against attacks. The name of his system was later adopted as the official SAMBO title. Promoting the new style of single combat sports, he delivered many lectures and held demonstration performances. Spiridonov’s books have become the first methodical aids for SAMBO beginners.

Vasiliy Oschepkov, a holder of the second Dan in Judo (at that time, this achievement was really unique for a European), is an outstanding coach and founder of the complex program for hand-to-hand fight training. He devoted all of his life to the selection and research of holds and maneuvers of martial arts. One of the most famous Oschepkov’s trainees was Anatoly Kharlampiev.

Anatoly Kharlampiev inherited the helm of his teachers and made a great contribution to the development of SAMBO. He succeeded in systemization of Oschepkov’s and Spiridonov’s training methodologies and enrichment of SAMBO by fighting holds of peoples of Siberia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Anatoly Kharlampiev was a coach of the first SAMBO training camp in 1938.

CRADLES OF SAMBO

SAMBO assimilated holds and maneuvers from many national single combat events and became a truly international sport event. A scrupulous selection work by a series of enthusiasts over decades allowed to create the unique system of self-defense.

SAMBO is a philosophy of openness to all the best and progressive. From the very beginning the pedagogical elaborations of Russian coaches were aimed not only at the teaching of athletes to perfectly master the rich arsenal of SAMBO techniques, but also formation of skills of a positive tactical thinking on the mat.