Pankration - a martial arts style used by the spartans back in Greece somewhat like MMA, while studying it I was so inspired and even more intrested. I've seen something on the history channel about it where they looked deeply into the techniques, but I still want to know more. This isnt a very big art, but I would like to know so much more about it. Has anyone here ever come across a School that is fimiliar with pankration or teaches this? Ive talked to my trainers and Sensei's but they hadnt even heard of it I have so many questions about this... Thanks
I only know what I learned about it in a College Western Civilization Course I took a few months back.
there is virtually no documentation on pankraton however their are modern interpretations. Whether they are like the original is anyones guess. The Bear.
I think there has been previous threads here on Pankration. It is interesting to see one of the oldest martial arts styles is very much similar to so called 'modern' martial art of MMA.
Pankration means "all powers". Pankration in modern times is practiced, but not much. a man names Jim Arvanitis researched the moves practiced in the old version and with his already expansive knowledge of other martial arts including muay thai, combat judo, boxing, wrestling, etc he developed a newer version of the ancient pankration. The style he started is called modern pankration and he is generally known as the leading pankrationist in the world today, he has his own gym which you can look up on google. There are now competitions doing "modern pankration" the rules include no face shots due to only wearing handwraps, the rest of the rules are pretty much the same as other combat sports like judo where you score points for various throws and hits. But be careful where you choose to learn because there are alot of so called "pankration schools" that only teach a watered down version of karate mixed with a bit of wrestling or sometimes no grappling at all. The ancient Pankration however was much more brutal. It started off as a simple mix between boxing and wrestling but it soon became more of a martial art. There were breathing exercises, forms of concentration to prepare for breaking things, conditioning using a variety of tools such as modern day makiwara although the ones pankrationists used were more crude to say the least. Pankration has always meant to be used as an effective way to train for hand to hand combat. There were no rules in ancient pankration except against eye gouging and biting. Although it was common knowledge that spartans didn't have any rules at all. In the Olympics there were two events for pankration, one was when it was only standing so only punching and kicking, while the other was when it could be continued on the ground and submissions and chokes were commonly used. Pankration champions were treated as heroes in their villages and were held in alot of high social esteem, therefore for many fighters losing was worse than death and many deaths occured through strangulation. As for the fact that pankration is so similar to modern MMA besides the fact of now there are rules to ensure the safety of fighters. This is a fact most obvious that the most useful things in a fight will predominate. Pankration and MMA both utilize alot more techniques than other styles and thus they were dominant styles in their respective eras. In today's time you will not find a pure pankration school such as the old times because ancient pankration was used to take out the enemy as fast as you can. It wasn't a sport and it was only in the Olympics as a form of training. The closest thing you will find to Ancient Pankration is Modern MMA, which is regrettable because unlike MMA, Pankration had the aspects of a traditional martial art which was both effective and spiritual to a degree. While MMA is very effective in 95% of situations most people may face but in the end it is still a sport with rules. But when you look more closely to the ideal pankration I see it as nothing more than putting what you find effective and sticking them together. Similar to the aspect of Jeet Kune Do, Pankration was not really a style as much as it was a way of expressing the body. That's all i have to say on the subject. By the way I studied Pankration for a while for an ancient history course and I'm greek. I started martial arts with Kyokushin and now I do boxing, Kyokushin and some mma. thanks
The Human Weapon series, on the History Channel, did an episode on pankration. A bit sensationalistic, but still worth checking out. As was already mentioned, Jim Arvinitis (a Greek American) had a crack at reinterpreting the material, with his Modern Pankration. And there's now a thriving pankration circuit in Greece itself, though I think that's also largely synthesized from other styles and interpretation of moves from historical records, artwork, etc. If you're interested in the history of the original pankration (as opposed to how to do it), I'd recommend the book "Combat Sports in the Ancient World." I ordered it from Amazon a while back. Very good read. Stuart
