Combat Sambo for Self Defense

Techniques Adapted from Martial Arts Once Taught to Russian Military, Commandos and Law Enforcement and Still Used By Many Today

Sambo is a Russian martial art and combat sport. “Combat sambo” is a highly effective, yet “simple” system for beating an attacker, or even multiple attackers. Combat sambo has been taught and practiced by Russian secret service and law enforcement, including the KGB and special army officers (commandos). By looking at tactics adapted from combat sambo, and being taught by instructors today in Russia, here’s a new way for Americans to look at self-defense (includes tactics, photos, video explanations of specific moves).

by Mikhail Didenko, author of Physical and Mental Aspects of Street Self-Defense.
Copyright © SecretsofSurvival.com. All rights reserved.

Mikhail Didenko was born in Russia and lives in Moscow today. His training in martial arts began in 1991: He has trained in the Russian Style of hand-to-hand combat, taekwondo, sambo, boxing, kudo, sturm fighting, plus one of the variants of combat sambo used by special forces. He’s coached hand-to-hand combat and his own self-defense system called Vozmezdiye (Nemesis) which is an adapted variant of combat sambo for civilians for the last 9 years. Also he is an author of Physical and Mental Aspects of Street Self-Defense, available through Russian book stores.

Sambo (Russian: са́мбо; IPA: [ˈsambə]; САМооборона Без Оружия) is a Russian martial art and combat sport. The word “SAMBO” is an acronym for SAMooborona Bez Oruzhiya, which literally translates as “self-defense without weapons”

Though much of our lives revolve around computers and television nowadays, still self-defense is not an obsolete word. Sometimes we need to protect ourselves just as our far ancestors did thousands of years ago. Sooner or later we realize the necessity of having fighting skills.

But what martial art is the best one to know? And if we are going to protect our life out on the street, not in a ring, would a sport martial art hit the target? Do we need sparring? Do we need mental training?

These and other ‘spicy’ questions are answered by the famous Russian combat sambo master and coach — Valery Volostnykh, a teacher of the MMA fighter Alexei Oleinik. This combat sambo is closely connected to the mysterious Russian Martial Art, it was developed by the Soviet secret services, and it gave the world the Emelianenko brothers.

Valery Volostnykh has a lot to say on the subject of fighting:

Beware: A Street Fight Can End Up on the Ground

Q. Nowadays a lot of martial artists, especially punchers, have ‘wrestlerphobia’ — they are cautious towards wrestlers concerning a street fight, because a wrestler can do a double-leg takedown for example. If we take a person who is interested in self-defense only, not in sports, should he learn some throws, just to know what wrestling is?

Wrestling Throws – ‘Wrestling throws are the application of techniques that involve lifting the opponent up and throwing or slamming him down’. See: Sambo Throws and Takedowns.

A. You have to attend a wrestling group for some period of time where you’ll feel a real resistance of your sparring-partner in a bout to understand what it is.

Q. So is a puncher better attending a wrestling group for some period of time?

A. In combat sambo we have wrestling already so we don’t have to go to other groups. Also you need to experience sparrings.

Sparring: – Sparring is a “mild” fight, sometimes using protective head gear; when sparring, the goal isn’t to injure or knock the other person out; it’s to develop experience with hand to hand combat; it moves at a easier pace than a fight, giving trainees the opportunity to practice the techniques and footwork they are learning.)
 

Get Some Practical Knowledge of Wrestling

Q. What if a person is a puncher only? And he is not a combat sambo fighter. What recommendations could you give him?

Anyway it’s advisable to get some practical knowledge of wrestling. Just to know what to do when a wrestler ducks and grasps your legs — and that’s it, you can do nothing. And a puncher wouldn’t even know what to do. He learned to hit a ‘target’ that is his sparring-partner’s chin. And what about a partner’s face as a target when it’s close to your solar plexus? You can see all that in the cage fights. Although there are a lot of universal fighters now. And back in the days a puncher did not know what to do when he didn’t succeed in hitting his opponent. It’s not easy because in striking martial arts a referee always breaks opponents thus giving them an opportunity to ‘reload’ and ‘shoot’ again. So they are jumping in to a ring and finding the target all the time. Then such a fighter who got used to that targeting comes into the cage and there’s no such a possibility at all there. If you didn’t strike down your opponent in the very beginning, then he wouldn’t give you a second chance.

MORE HERE

Reposted with permission.