Sambo (martial art)

Sambo's early development stemmed from the independent efforts of Vasili Oshchepkov and Viktor Spiridonov to integrate the techniques of Catch wrestling, Judo, Jujutsu, and other foreign martial arts into native Turkic wrestling styles, Armenian kokh, Romanian trîntǎ, Mongolian khapsagay and Georgian chidaoba (ru:Чидаоба, ka:ქართული ჭიდაობა). Oschepkov taught judo to elite Red Army forces at the Central Red Army House. Vasili Oschepkov was one of the first foreigners to learn Judo in Japan and had earned his nidan (second degree black belt, out of then five) from judo's founder, Kano Jigoro. Spiridonov's background involved indigenous martial arts from various Soviet regions as well as an interest in Japanese jujutsu (though he never formally trained it). His reliance on movement over strength was in part because during World War I he received a bayonet wound which left his left arm lame. Both Oschepkov and Spiridonov independently hoped that Soviet military hand-to-hand combat techniques could be improved with an infusion of the techniques distilled from other foreign martial arts. Contrary to common lore, Oschepkov and Spiridonov did not cooperate on the development of their hand-to-hand systems.[13] Rather, their independent notions of hand-to-hand combat merged through cross-training between students and formulative efforts by their students and military staff. While Oschepkov and Spiridonov did have occasion to collaborate, their efforts were not completely united.

Each technique was carefully dissected and considered for its merits, and if found acceptable in unarmed combat, refined to reach sambo's ultimate goal: to stop an armed or unarmed adversary in the least time possible.[14] Thus, many techniques from jujutsu, judo, and other martial systems joined with the indigenous fighting styles to form the sambo repertoire.[15] When the techniques were perfected, they were woven into sambo applications for personal self-defense, police, crowd control, border guards, secret police, dignitary protection, psychiatric hospital staff, military, and commandos.[16]

In 1918, Lenin created Vsevobuch (General Military Training) under the leadership of N. I. Podvoyskiy to train the Red Army. The task of developing and organizing Red Army military hand-to-hand combat training fell to K. Voroshilov, who in turn, created the NKVD physical training center, Dynamo Sports Society.

Spiridonov was a combat veteran of World War I and one of the first wrestling and self-defense instructors hired for Dynamo. His background included Free wrestling (i.e. Catch wrestling), Greco-Roman wrestling, many Turkic folk wrestling styles, and Japanese jujutsu. As a combatives investigator for Dynamo, he travelled to Mongolia and China to observe their native fighting styles.

In 1923, Oschepkov and Spiridinov collaborated (independently) with a team of other experts on a grant from the Soviet government to improve the Red Army's hand-to-hand combat system. Spiridonov had envisioned integrating the most practical aspects of the world's fighting systems into one comprehensive style that could adapt to any threat. Oschepkov had observed Kano Jigoro's distillation of Tenjin Shinyo Ryu, Kito Ryu and Fusen-ryū jujutsu into judo, and he had developed the insight required to evaluate and integrate combative techniques into a new system. Their developments were supplemented by Anatoly Kharlampiyev and I. V. Vasiliev who also travelled the globe to study the native fighting arts of the world. Ten years in the making, their catalogue of techniques was instrumental in formulating the early framework of the art to be eventually referred to as sambo.

Kharlampiyev is often called the "father of sambo". This may be largely semantics, since only he had the longevity and political connections to remain with the art while the new system was named "sambo". However, Kharlampiyev's political manoeuvring is single-handedly responsible for the USSR Committee of Sport's accepting sambo as the official combat sport of the Soviet Union in 1938 – decidedly the "birth" of sambo.[17] So, more accurately, Kharlampiyev could be considered the father of "sport" sambo.

Spiridonov was the first to begin referring to the new system with a name similar to 'sambo'. He eventually developed a softer style called Samoz that could be used by smaller, weaker practitioners or even wounded soldiers and secret agents. Spiridonov's inspiration to develop 'Samoz' stemmed from his World War I bayonet injury, which greatly restricted his left arm and thus his ability to practice wrestling. Refined versions of sambo are still used today or fused with specific sambo applications to meet the needs of Russian commandos.

After being recognized by FILA in 1968, by the U.S. National Amateur Athletic Union in 1972, and after being included to the programme of the 1973 World Wrestling Championships along with Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling (which are indeed Olympic sports,) Sambo was rapidly making its way to become an Olympic sport.[18]

The first World Cup was contested in 1969. Don Curtis, a member of the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Committee, had predicted in 1975, that the Russians will introduce the Sambo wrestling in the 1980 Olympics programme in Moscow.[19] In 1975 the first United States National Sambo Championships were held in Mesa, Arizona, in 1977 it was contested along with GR and freestyle at the first Pan American Wrestling Championships in Mexico City, and included in the schedule of the upcoming 1983 U.S. Olympic Festival[20][21] and the 1983 Pan American Games (the 1983 Pan American event in Caracas became the first and subsequently the last edition of Sambo at the Pan Am Games.) In 1979 the National AAU Sambo Committee established several annual awards to honor outstanding persons in the sport of Sambo wrestling.[22] By the 1980s it has been included to Pan American Games, National Sports Festival and AAU Junior Olympics program.[23]

But as a result of political complications of the 1980 Olympic boycott which arouse after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Sambo was at first reduced to a demonstration sport at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR. But later, because of the sport's strong association with the Soviet Union, it was relinquished of the demonstration sport status. It is true that youth sambo was demonstrated in the Games' opening ceremonies; however, sambo was never formally recognised as a demonstration sport. This common error in history books is noted in several sources including From SAMOZ to SAMBO by Anatoly Makovetskii and Lukashev's History of Hand-to-Hand Combat in the First Half of the 20th Century: Founders and Authors.[24] Furthermore, the official documents of the 1980 Olympic Organizing Committee do not mention sambo as a participating sport in the Games.[25] Nevertheless, Jerry Matsumoto, Head of the U.S. Sambo Association, saw in 1990 Sambo becoming an Olympic sport, at least at the demonstration level, within the next eight years.[26]

As a side note, demonstration sports were suspended after the 1992 Summer Olympics. With the changes in Olympics Judo in for 2013 and the proposed removal of Freestyle Wrestling from the Olympics, there has been a great migration of wrestlers to SAMBO because of its all-encompassing techniques and dynamic yet consistent rules.

In 1968, the FILA accepted sambo as the third style of international wrestling. In 1985, the sambo community formed its own organization, Federation International Amateur Sambo (FIAS). In 1993, FIAS split into two organizations, both of which used the same name and logo and the two groups were often referred to as FIAS "East" (under Russian control) and FIAS "West" (under US and Western European control). This split mirrored the last days of Cold War politics of the time as well as the recent break-up of the Soviet Union. In the U.S., disagreements between the sport's organizers and the rise of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the 1990s slowed down the growth of sambo before the success of several sambo fighters increased its popularity a decade later.[27] In 2005, FILA reached an agreement with FIAS "West" and re-assumed sanctioning over sport sambo.[28] However, in 2008, FILA again discontinued sanctioning sambo and sambo is now notably missing from the FILA website.[29] At present, only FIAS sanctions international competition in sport sambo. In 2014 FIAS and FILA signed a cooperative agreement.[30] While this does not place sambo back on FILA's recognized list, it does move towards unity and prevents future 'turf wars' regarding the sport's promotion. A similar agreement was signed by FIAS and the International Judo Federation in 2014 as well.[31] Both FIAS and the World Combat Sambo Federation host international combat sambo competition. The American Sambo Association has continued to host freestyle sambo tournaments in the US and Canada since 2004. These events are unrecognized by FILA. Rumours rising in 2012 stating that sambo will be included as a demonstration sport in the 2016 Olympics are therefore not supported by any facts, and thus sambo is still a very long way from maturing into an Olympic sport, notwithstanding the effort that is being put into the matter. Indeed, given the intention of the Olympic Committee to remove classic wrestling from the Olympic roster, there are rumours that sambo is highly unlikely to ever make it to the Olympics. However, sambo has been included in the 27th Annual Summer Universiade for the first time in history.[32] FIAS submitted an application to the International Olympic Committee IOC to consider sambo for the 2020 Games and has devoted 2010–2013 to creating a sambo commission in the International Sports Press Association (AIPS). As of 30 November 2018, sambo has indeed received temporary recognition by the IOC.[33] This close relationship is reestablishing the global popularity and media emphasis on sambo.

Sambo World Cup and Supercup have been contested since 1969, initially held by FILA, and since 1985 by FIAS.

Sambo World Cup editions

Year	Dates	Location
1969		Riga, Soviet Union
1970		Sochi, Soviet Union
1975		Moscow, Soviet Union
1976		Tokyo, Japan
1977	9–12 June	Oviedo, Spain[37]
1980		Madrid, Spain
1981	18–20 September	Pontevedra, Spain
1982	11 June	Bilbao, Spain
1983		Lyon, France
1984	12–14 October	Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela
1985	22 September	San Sebastián, Spain
1986		Tokyo, Japan
1987	4–5 April	Casablanca, Morocco
1988	June	Moscow, Soviet Union
1990		Caracas, Venezuela
1992		Spain
1993		Nizhni Novgorod, Russia
1994	May	Kstovo, Russia
1999	28 November	Nice, France
2000	27–29 November	Nice, France
2001		Moscow, Russia
2006	26 November	Nice, France
2012		Kazan, Russia

United States National Sambo Championships known initially as the National AAU Sambo Wrestling Championships are the annual championships held in the United States. American enthusiasts of martial arts took up Sambo shortly before it was contested at the 1973 World Wrestling Championships and was rapidly making its way to become an Olympic sport in 1980.[18]

Note: (t) stands for team events.

The national Sambo competition also was held along with Greco-Roman and freestyle events at the 1987 and 1988 AAU/USA Grand National Wrestling Championships on July 1, 1987, and July 6, 1988, respectively, both held at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana.[40] Next year it was contested at the 1989 AAU/Carrier Grand National Wrestling Championships on July 5 at Metra in Billings, Montana.[41] 1990 AAU Grand National Wrestling Championships also hosted a national Sambo competition at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 10.[42] 1992 AAU Grand National edition hosted a national Sambo competition in July in Amarillo, Texas. 1994 AAU Grand National Wrestling Championships also hosted a national Sambo competition at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek, Michigan on July 13.[43] 1995 AAU Grand National edition hosted a national Sambo competition in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The 1999 AAU Grand National Wrestling Championships also offered Sambo to competitors on June 30 at Metra in Billings, Montana.[44] The 2002 AAU Grand National Wrestling Championships saw Sambo competition on June 19 at Hirsch Coliseum in Shreveport, Louisiana.[45]

USA Wrestling has added Sambo as a style since the 2007 U.S. National Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada.[46]

• International SAMBO Federation
• Asian SAMBO Federation

(Wayback Machine copy)

• European Sambo Federation
• USA Sambo
• Commonwealth Sambo Association

• Listing on US and international sambo schools, practitioners, and organizations

(Wayback Machine copy)

• RMAX Sambo Video Clips, Articles and Technique Tutorials
• Photoalbum (SAMBO, information database) | ru
• Made in Russia: Sambo
• Nepobedimyy (1983) on IMDb