Hi All, I have the opportunity to start doing SAMBO in the near future or continuing with Judo (I have only been doing Judo for about 3 months). My sole motivation is civilian self defence (I am not in security or law enforcement) rather than sport or fitness. Can anyone tell me the main differences between Judo and SAMBO and which may be better for self-defence? I understand SAMBO involves striking (boxing and some kicks) as well as throwing and ground work and that the grappling techniques may be different to Judo. Also I guess the SAMBO kuzushi may be different as you may be unbalancing someone with a punch rather than using their gi. Can anyone give aquick overview and say whether this is a fair description?
Depends a lot on the school as to whether you're going to get striking or what sort. Some schools focus on MMA, combat sambo, sport sambo, or no-gi grappling and that will color the striking quite a bit. Generally you'll get a solid blend of judo, wrestling and takedowns into submissions with sambo and there's more of an emphasis on remaining standing during the takedown. You'll find less emphasis on gi grips and pinning and more on wrestling style ties and the top position in general in sambo as compared to judo. Sambo involves a lot of leglocks where judo involves more choking techniques but while judoka generally don't practice the leglocks banned in their competition, sambists usually are competent if not dangerous chokers thanks to the emphasis on NHB fighting and combat sambo, where chokkes are allowed. Generally the kuzushi for techniques you find in judo are the same in sambo. You've just got a lot more common or accepted techniques to choose from. The striking does affect kuzushi but more thanks to the way it affects clinching rather than striking directly into the throw. For fighting, I'd choose sambo. The sambo you're likely to find is a lot more rounded than the judo you're likely to find, and it's usually got stronger ties to the fight culture so it tends to attract a different sort too. Through the late cold war, sambists primarily geared their training towards international judo competition. As a result you find lots of crossover and many high level people who say that judo and sambo are essentially the same. While this may be true in one of the former soviet sambo and judo schools, I think you rmay find that it's fairly distinct from judo found outside of eastern europe. This 'russian judo' came on the scene in a big way back in the 70s and was known for flying and rolling juji gatame, scissors, leg entangling throws and big pickups rather than the hipthrows, chokes and osaekomi judo was and is primarily known for. In short, if you take dirty old school judo standup and newaza, add dirty wrestling and leglocks, you've got the base to work with. Emphasize remaining standing after the throw, takedowns to locks and the top position rather than a particular pin, and you've got sport sambo. With combat sambo you can expect some scrappy-to-technical eastern european style boxing as well.
Thanks for the fast responses! Sounds like there may not be as much punching as I had thought. I do boxing however, is SAMBO likely to complement that fairly well for self defence or would it be hard to integrate them?
Not really. Good boxing is pretty much the key to getting to the clinch to throw or wrestle when striking is permitted. Sambo specific boxing is a little different from boxing specific boxing. The only issues I could see is that you want to square up a bit more so you have a sprawl when boxing in a situation where a takedown is a possibility. That and maybe not pressing the opponent as hard since when you're travelling forwards punching you're inviting a really open level change into a shot. Other than considering the possibility of the shot, boxing will only make your sambo better and vice versa.
original kodokan judo has atemi-waza or striking. sambo has striking. not as much as boxing but it does have striking as well. sambo is a great compliment to boxing.
One of my guys has cross trained Chinese wrestling, Sambo, and Judo. From his Sambo instructor's opinion, Sambo had influenced from the Mongolian wrestling (a brench of Chinese wrestling). The Sambo "grip fight" skill is much more similiar to the Chinese wrestling "grip fight" skill than those used in Judo or western wrestling. IMO, Sambo is more "combat" oriented than "sport" oriented. For example, if your opponent gives you a "bear hug" from your front, A Sambo guy (or Chinese wrestler) will counter with a "head multiplication" which is not commonly allowed in sport rules.
Head Multiplication? Hi YouKnowWho, Thanks for that. What is a "head multiplication"? Thanks to you others as well. Good feedback!
- 摘(Zai) - helmet removing - 摀(Wu) - face covering - 抹(Mo) - eyebrow wiping - 托(Tuo) - chin pushing - 封(Feng) - throat blocking - 環(Huan) - neck surrounding - ... When your opponent applies a "bear hug" on you, most of the time your arms are free and to be outside of his arms (similiar to double legs). Instead of working on his strong hugging arms, it's better to work on his weak neck.
one the scariest feelings is to be fighting a Sambo artist and they are eyeing your legs. sign up for the class. its good stuff.
