Human Weapon (HQ) - Sambo: Russia's Extreme Fighting Part 1/5

The Russian martial art of Sambo was developed in the first several decades of the 20th century, in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution and the fall of the czarist regime. A martial arts training program within the Bolsheviks Red Army produced a new hand-to-hand combat system derived partly from traditional Russian and other native regional wrestling or grappling styles and influenced by various foreign martial arts, notably Judo and Jujitsu, as well as the traditional Olympic sports of boxing and Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling. The new system was dubbed Sambo (sometimes written Sombo or SAMBO), which is an acronym of the Russian words Samozaschita Bez Orujiya, or self-defense without weapon.

From the beginning, Sambo has been a constantly changing system, adapting itself to fit the needs of its fighters, from soldiers on the battlefields of World War II to crime fighters on the streets of Moscow. Today, Sambo is practiced in three distinct ways: as a competitive sport, as a self-defense method and as a lethal combat system employed by police and military forces. Sometimes incorrectly referred to as Russian Judo, Sambo was recognized as an official sport in 1938. It was included in the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980 as a demonstration sport, though it failed to gain the popularity necessary to become a competitive event.

As a self-defense method, Sambo is based on body movements and joint locks, combined with punches and kicks, all aimed at defending ones self without injuring the attacker more than is necessary. Specific techniques help defend against various types of attacks, including weapons, choke holds or direct foot or hand strikes. The combat version of Sambo takes the sport and self-defense techniques to the next level, including more vicious kicks, punches, throws and spine locks and even dirtier techniques such as biting, which is outlawed in sport competition. Fighters also learn techniques that can be used to fight in small, enclosed spaces, on the floor or against more than one opponent.

A number of fighters trained in Sambo have found success in the realm of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), another no-holds-barred fighting style popularized by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competitions in the United States and the PRIDE Fighting Championships of Japan.