SAMBO

[redmund2905]

I wouldn't mind practicing choking out my wife a couple of times a day.....

If Jennifer sees this, my money's on her

[The_Tao]

jjy5016,

Its cool that you don't remenber me. we only meet once and that was five to six years ago (probably more). Sambo has punches and kicks in it as well, thats called combat sambo. Yes because of its heavy grappling base you do need a partner to practice some of the moves like in BJJ, judo to get the moves, however you can practice the throws alone ie work on the foot work or grip placement. Remix dojo merged with NY Combat sambo, So Reily is teaching there. I was with Remix in brooklyn before the merge.

I love sambo because it has punches, kicks, throws, locks and chokes. I also like it because of its mind set, lots of things we do in regards to leg locks in sambo is illegal in a BJJ tournament ie reaping the leg, Reilly and Coach Kopher often say "why are you going to pass guard, get side control or mount when that man just put his ankles in you hands"... and every punch should lead to a throw and every throw should lead into a lock of some sort when done right.

I would have continue practicing Chen Panling Taji but my teacher left to go back to England and I really don't like the flavor of the other Taiji styles that are promient in NYC, nor do I like the lack of Focus on the martial of taiji in NYC, So many teachers go to a seminar and teach wavy hand taichee its retarded. In my opinion Taiji is a martial art and in order to practice it correctly you have to do Pile standing, Form(s), Push Hands, Single Movement and Sparring, other people have their own ideas hence I am not a part of their schools. Many people assume if you just do push hands and form(s) then you can fight.

Sambo is a great art JJY5016 you should check it out.

[jjy5016]

I'm going to drop in the class tonight. (After feeding the wife and dog and walking the latter)

[Areios]

how did it workout for you?

[jjy5016]

Unfortunately the class schedule changed but no one bothered to update the website.

The class I watched was kickboxing. I liked the drills. For about 1/2 hour they did punching and kicking combination drills and I left after talking to master Koulikov with the intent to go back next week to view the SAMBO class.

Not much different than other mma / kickboxing classes I've watched. I must say that even though I'm not the biggest fan of grappling / mma there seems to be a much better sense of camaraderie than I've seen and experienced in more traditional CMA schools. Everyone seems to want to help each other out and work together.

No cut throat bullshit, jealousy or negativity.

Maybe there's something to beating the hell out of each other on a regular basis.

Will report on the class next week in case anyone is still interested.

small John

[The_Tao]

There are definitely politics and issues in Sambo/BJJ organizations. I think the great attitude is a product of a good teacher, as well as the fact the only way to really learn how to grapple is to have a give and get relationship with your teammates. Also if you are assshole there are always ways to get you to stop acting like an asshole or you will get hurt or leave. Remenber from day one you are rolling and sparring with each other so JJY5016 you are correct Beating the hell out of each makes people nicer....its that if I hit you really hard you are going to hit me even harder scenario so lets play nice.

[kreese]

This is because everything is out in the open and like you said, respect comes from everyone being able to test each other. There is something potentially unhealthy about the whole ancient Chinese secret aspect of CMA.

Not much different than other mma / kickboxing classes I've watched. I must say that even though I'm not the biggest fan of grappling / mma there seems to be a much better sense of camaraderie than I've seen and experienced in more traditional CMA schools. Everyone seems to want to help each other out and work together.

No cut throat bullshit, jealousy or negativity.

Maybe there's something to beating the hell out of each other on a regular basis.

Will report on the class next week in case anyone is still interested.

small John

[fuga]

Not to mention that fact that even the best in BJJ don't claim to be invincible. Everybody gets beat - whether in training or in competition. True investment in loss.

[The_Tao]

Fuga,

That may be the case when BJJ practices and competes amongst themselves, however initial to the public the Garcies pushed their art as the ultimate in Martial arts, hence The Ultimate Fighter Championship (initially was propaganda for BJJ, and they position Royce as the smaller Invincible warrior against the bigger (kung fu, karate, Etc, etc) Man)

[Dmitri]

propaganda for BJJ, and they position Royce as...

I hate to contribute to derailment, but you're making it sound like Royce hadn't actually EARNED that position for BJJ in the first UFCs with his blood and skill...

Maybe there's something to beating the hell out of each other on a regular basis.

Good on ya, John. I hear you re. camaraderie, although I have to say our TJQ school has the exact same thing going as I've seen in other MA... I guess that sort of thing maybe isn't determined as much by how much hell people beat out of each other in class , but by how honest the training is (and the instructors are).

[jjy5016]

I'd say that the instructor plays a big part in it. Also as Dimitri just said about how honest the training is.

More than 20 years ago I was in a hung ga class where the si hings all thought that they shit Chanel no. 5. They would yell at you if you looked at them doing their forms as if you were going to steal something from them. My first yiquan classmates were all afraid that I would steal something from them as well. One of them lives only a few miles from me and after six years of being in the same town we have yet to practice together. I gave up asking after a few attempts. I don't think that it's our teacher's fault though. Some people just think if they have something special that they need to keep it to themselves for fear that someone might get better than them.

I can say that I learned a lot more than my other classmates because I was with sifu much longer and practiced a lot harder than most of them. I withold nothing from my classmates that I feel they are ready for. The only purpose being selfish in this context could serve is to kill our yiquan line and what a waste that would be. If you can't give something away then it's not really yours.

There were times that a classmate came to me and complained about someone and I would tell them to get over it. I would say that since he is a classmate he is to be treated like a brother, no exceptions. There were never any problems between us and even though we are very spread out geographically we still keep in touch almost a year after our teacher's passing.

So now that the subject is completely derailed I will just report in what I find after attending tommorrow night's SAMBO class.

[grzegorz]

You can't go wrong with Vladislav Koulikov.

He started training at Sambo 70 back in Russia as a kid.

I imagine training with him would be the next closest thing to flying to Russian for training.

Sambo is an excellent system, in terms of grappling it's about 50% ground work and 50% throws. Then they also have strikes and self-defense stuff. I've done some and I'd like to do more but it's hard to find good sambo clubs in the States, there are a few but they're rare.

So I train in BJJ and Russian Judo and the stuff I pick up that comes from sambo is just beautiful. Whenever I use those techniques people are usually caught off guard because sambo has its own thing going on which is different from the others. In sambo competitions you usually see guys going for the throw and trying to finish on the ground, where as in BJJ and Judo usually you see more of one or the other. I like the balance sambo has because in terms of self-defense it seems the most logical to me.

I envy you that you get to train Koulikov. Makes me want to move to NY State.

Where is his school anyway? Is it still in Warwick?

[grzegorz]

Here's the man in action.



Good times,

G

[jjy5016]

Finally saw the SAMBO class last night.

It's in Florida, NY which I believe might be a hamlet of Warwick.

Koulikov was surprised that I was going to watch the class instead of joining up.

Lots of warmups, conditioning drills and the rest was ground work. Lots of carotid artery chokes with the legs. This will take some getting used to as I instinctively get very pissed off when someone goes anywhere near my neck.

I thought that there would have been more throwing but perhaps that's on a different night. I liked the way the workout looked so I'm going to attend the class tomorrow night.

$130.00 per month.

Belt test every three months at an additional $40.00

Have to buy the traditional uniform too. Not too steep by today's standards I guess. Don't know if I can make 5 classes a week without making my other practice suffer. Don't want to give up yiquan but I might have to start practice at 5:00am instead of 4 so I can get enough rest between workouts.

Before I left he said that I should wait a while before sparring / grappling. Claims that he didn't want me to get injured too soon. Probably a good idea. At 46 it takes a bit longer to heal up than it did a few years ago.

We'll see.

[fuga]

Sounds like fun, John.

In my BJJ class, we have different aspect emphasized different nights, so you just seeing that leg choke is not unusual.

I attend 3 times per week. I like to have the recovery time (just hit 42). And he's wise about the waiting to spar/grapple. Too many folks rush in too quickly and get injured then don't come back. Take your time. Have a long view of it all. The other half of making folks wait a bit before sparring is to gauge them and give them feedback before letting them spar. Part of this is to protect the other students. A lot of newer folks who step into sparring/grappling see it as a competition rather than just training. They see a simple roll as a UFC championship. My teacher wants to make sure new people understand that and that the goal is to develop not inure your training partners, so he lets people spar after he has assessed them.

And remember that the most important thing to learn in ground work is to tap early and tap often. Accept being arm barred and choked. Just tap to avoid injury. Eventually you figure out either avoiding the positions or escape strategies.

-pete