Team Leg Lock returns from the USA Open Sambo championship

On May 2nd the team Leg Lock has competed in the XVII USA Open Sambo Championship in Rahway NJ. Every year this tournament attracts grapplers from around the world.  This time teams from seven countries attended.  Some of the best Sambo fighters from USA, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Kazakhstan represented their countries in this international event. It was Leg Lock’s first appearance on this championship and the club was represented by 5 fighters: Nicholas Sirota, Roman Ganchin, Ari Shteynberg, Brett Mullen and Ruslan Pavlov, ages 6 - 33. The results were extraordinary.  Our boys, having trained in submission grappling between only 5 months and a year have demonstrated exceptional skill. The team brought back two silver and one bronze medal, and two fifth-place finishes.  This success is attributed to the brilliant instruction by Ruslan Pavlov and dedication, skills and fighting spirit of the boys. Attending championships like this one provides priceless experience for boys in building strong character, team spirit, confidence and respect for all other martial arts practitioners.

Not everyone on this hemisphere knows about Russian Sambo.  Some confuse it with the Brazilian dance, the Samba, but the two have nothing in common. Sambo is an acronym that in Russian stands for Self Defense Without a Weapon. This form of martial art was developed in the first half of the 20th century, primarily by Ojepkov, who was the first ever European to receive a black belt from the Kodokan Judo school in Japan.  The other major contributor to this sport was Spiridonov, and his form of Sambo was primarily used by special forces and is known as the Combat Sambo.  Russian Sambo today comprises techniques found in Judo and Jiu-Jitsu, as well as in various martial arts of the vast former Soviet territories. With USSR being behind the iron curtains for so long, Sambo had a late start in developing worldwide recognition. But in recent years the awareness of this sport has been growing around the world primarily due to MMA fighters such as Fedor Emelianenko. Russian Sambo is a very versatile martial art that requires lots of skill and intelligence. It develops agility, coordination, concentration, fast thinking, confidence and strong spirit.  It helps boys grow up into confident and strong men, and adults learning the grappling skills that they always wanted, and consequently become stronger, better physically fit and confident.

The club Leg Lock welcomes all boys and men to experience and learn the wonderful martial art of Russian Sambo.

The excerpts from the championship can be viewed on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omZZfEogRlU


In the local news: The Swampscott Reporter 5/13/2010