Sambo explained: how it differs from judo and wrestling

If you watch MMA, you have heard a commentator say a fighter "comes from sambo" and probably wondered whether that means wrestling in a jacket, a Russian take on judo, or something else entirely. Sambo borrows from both, and then a handful of rules send it off in its own direction.

Where sambo comes from

Sambo was assembled in the Soviet Union during the 1920s and 1930s as a self-defence system for police and military use. The name is a contraction of the Russian phrase for self-defence without weapons.

Three names keep coming up. Vasili Oshchepkov studied judo in Japan at the Kodokan and brought it back with him. Viktor Spiridonov came from a jujutsu and applied self-defence background. Anatoly Kharlampiev organised the material and travelled the Soviet republics collecting folk wrestling styles: Georgian chidaoba, Azerbaijani gulesh, Tatar köräş, Armenian kokh. In 1938 sambo was recognised as an official Soviet sport.

Two branches exist today. Sport sambo is pure grappling with submissions; combat sambo adds strikes. The international federation is FIAS, and the International Olympic Committee granted sambo full recognition in 2021, which is not the same thing as being on the Olympic programme.

What separates it from judo

Start with the kit, because everything else follows from it. A sambo player wears a kurtka, a short jacket with loops at the shoulders that opponents grip, plus a belt, shorts and wrestling boots. There are no gi trousers, so the legs are bare.

That is why grabbing your opponent's leg with your hands is ordinary sambo. Judo removed grips below the belt from its competition rules, so single and double leg attacks disappeared from the sport.

The second big difference is leg locks. Sambo allows ankle locks and knee bars, and they are one of the signatures of the sport. Judo does not allow them at all; only the elbow may be attacked.

The third runs the other way. Sport sambo has no chokes. Judo does, and a choke is a perfectly normal way to finish a contest there. Combat sambo does allow chokes.

Fourth is scoring. A total victory in sambo requires throwing your opponent onto their back while you stay on your feet. If you go down with them, the throw is still worth plenty, but the match continues. A judo ippon carries no such standing requirement.

Finally, the hold-down. In sambo a pin scores points, more for longer, but it does not end the contest. Groundwork is deliberately short: as soon as nothing is progressing, the referee stands both players back up.

What separates it from wrestling

Freestyle and Greco-Roman have no clothing to grip. Singlets are tight and slippery, so everything runs off body and limb control. In sambo the jacket and belt open up a whole branch of technique that wrestling simply does not contain.

Then there is how you win. In wrestling a fall, both shoulders on the mat, ends the bout instantly. In sambo holding someone on their back is worth points rather than the win, and contests tend to end with a clean throw or a submission instead.

Third, submissions do not exist as a route to victory in wrestling, whereas in sambo they are one of the two main ones. Greco-Roman also bans every attack on the legs, while sambo permits leg attacks with both hands and feet.

You can see the consequences whenever someone crosses over. A wrestler usually takes people down immediately but loses matches to leg locks and to the way a jacket grip stalls their shots. A judoka throws quickly but gets caught out by leg grabs and knee bars.

What a match actually looks like

Contests are held on a round mat, in a red or blue kurtka. A senior bout runs five minutes of working time. Points depend on how the opponent lands and whether you stayed upright: most for a throw onto the back from standing, less for a throw onto the side or the front, least when you land alongside them.

A match can finish early three ways: a total victory from a throw, a submission, or a decisive points gap. Passivity is punished with warnings, so stalling is not a plan.

Combat sambo looks different again. Open-finger gloves, headgear, shin and groin protection, and strikes allowed with hands, feet, knees and elbows, standing and on the ground. That is why it resembles MMA in a jacket, and why fighters such as Fedor Emelianenko and Khabib Nurmagomedov, both combat sambo world champions before their MMA careers, came out of it.

How it is trained

A sambo session is recognisable by four things.

• Breakfalls. Expect 10 to 15 minutes of falling practice every session for the first few weeks. Nobody learns to throw until their partner knows how to land.
• Entry repetitions. The standard is 5 sets of 20 to 30 entries per side, no finish, until the entry stops needing thought.
• Grip fighting. Rounds of 2 to 3 minutes where the only aim is to take your grip on the sleeve, shoulder loop or belt while denying theirs.
• Throw into submission. Sambo is taught as a chain: land the throw, go straight to the ankle or knee, because the clock on the ground is short.

Sparring is usually 4 to 6 rounds of 3 to 5 minutes. Strength work twice a week sits alongside it: squats and deadlifts around 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps, chin-ups and rows for the back and grip, plus consistent neck training, which in a sport full of throws is not cosmetic.

If you train combat sambo, the striking half arrives too. Pad work builds the timing and accuracy, and the clinch matters most, because the handover from strike to throw is where most bouts are decided.

For a child starting out, sambo is a sound choice for the same reason judo is: they learn to control a fall early. Everything else, from age to picking a club to what to watch for, follows the same rules as any other combat sport.

Common misconceptions

"Sambo is just Russian judo." They share ancestry and a lot of throws, but different rules on legs, submissions, chokes and scoring produce a different fighting style.

"No chokes means weak groundwork." Not in the sport version, no, which is precisely why sambo developed leg attacks further than most grappling codes.

"Combat sambo is the same as MMA." It is not. The jacket, the shorter rounds, the scoring and the limited time on the ground make it a different game.

"Leg locks are dirty." A submission is dangerous when it is held past the tap or applied with a jerk. Applied under control, a knee bar is no different from an armbar.

"It is not Olympic, so it is not serious." The standard of competition and the training load do not depend on Olympic status.

When to see a doctor

A knee that swells, catches or locks after a submission is not a rest-it problem; get it looked at. The same goes for an ankle that will not take weight 24 hours later.

After a knock to the head or a hard landing on the back, any nausea, double vision or missing seconds means the session is over and you need assessment. Pins and needles or weakness in an arm after neck work also belongs with a doctor, not in the next round.

The short version

• Sambo is a Soviet system from the 1920s and 1930s, built from judo, jujutsu and regional folk wrestling.
• Against judo: jacket and shorts, legal leg grabs, leg locks allowed, no chokes in the sport version.
• Against wrestling: grips on clothing, submissions as a way to win, and pins that score points rather than end the bout.
• A total victory needs a throw onto the back with the thrower left standing.
• Combat sambo adds strikes and chokes and is the closest relative of MMA.