Sambo is an acronym of the Russian word SAMozaschita Bez Orujiya, which means self defense without weapon. This form of martial art was originated in Russia in the year of 1930. However, it was in late 1938 when this form of martial art got its due recognition. The name Sambo was not given to this form of martial art initially and it was known as free style wrestling at first and then it came to be known as free wrestling. Sambo has gained its popularity due to all the techniques used in this form and is in short a compilation of many other forms of martial arts such as Japanese martial art, Chinese martial art etc. Special other techniques were later on added to this form of martial art. During the time of Second World War II, Soviet Army used this form of martial art to get on the criminals especially the street criminals.
Sambo continues to accept new forms of techniques of fighting and hence is quiet flexible in its own way. It is termed as a flexible form of martial art since it also keeps on mending the old techniques included. Sambo martial art is basically comprised of 3 parts, the sportive part, the self defense part, the special combat part. The first part is very similar to the form of JUDO, however some differences are obvious as Sambo does not refer choking and it includes more techniques than JUDO. The self defense part forms the most important one and it is intended protect the player from his opponent’s attacks. And this forms the most important part of this form of martial art that it does not include much of the attacking techniques and mostly uses defensive techniques. Combat part deploys all the new techniques that have been developed by the military people and are still being developed and added to this form of martial art.
Since Sambo claims and is the only defensive martial art that does not use any weapons while fighting, it includes the moves which are mostly similar to choke and grips and use defense against kick, punches, fist wars etc. The part of self defense is completely based on the flexibility and the fast movement of the body by applying little pressure that produces huge effect. The main objective of this form of martial art is to teach defense and not to teach how to injure the opponents. Since is inception it has always included such techniques which are more stressed on the self defense part rather than attacking.
With its many years contributed with the history of Russia, it was in the year 1968 when the International Association of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) accepted Sambo as a style of wrestling in international wrestling. This gained a due recognition to his form of martial art. There have been many legends in Sambo who have successfully carried the tradition of Sambo and have contributed a lot to the martial art style of self defense.
Jason Gabrielson
Jason Gabrielson is believed to have contributed a lot to this game by making it popular worldwide. He has an impeccable record in this sport and has remained three time world champion as well as 16 times champion in the group of US by competing in all the age groups. His impeccable and applaud able career also brought his nomination to American Sambo Association's Pioneer of American Sambo award. He is still an undefeated champion in US lifetime.
Aleksander Emelianenko
Although the game teaches the art of self defense majorly, it demands an ultimate level of commitment from its learners. Aleksander Emelianenko is a Sambo fighter who has gained too much popularity through this form of martial art fighting and currently he is the most eminent and efficient Sambo fighter. He hails from Russia, and started his training in Sambo at a very early age. He had won 15 titles so far and is claimed to be one of the best Sambo fighters who has learned from his practice and continues to do so.
Eventually, there have been many additional forms in Sambo and they will continue to be many more but the root unique quality of this form of martial art lie in its unique and major concentration on self defense. Undoubtedly, Aleksander Emelianenko has contributed much to the art of wrestling but till now it has not been able to make its place into much plausible Olympic Games. However, with the growing popularity and increasing number of Sambo learners we can expect it to be there soon.