January 24, 2010 - Class Supplement

I wanted to briefly welcome Ted to our class. I have no idea if he is going to be coming back, but it was nice having new blood. It was also nice to see Joe teaching someone. I am a big believer in the theory that “the best way to learn is through teaching”.
We continued our work on the Pankration boxing. The Greek system is probably the oldest documentable fighting system. It involves hard blocks, bludgeoning strikes, and bad attitude!
The sad part about Pankration is that it is a dead martial art. As such silly things like rules came to be, Pankration has evolved into the mutant we now know as “Boxing”. The bastard brother of Pankration known as boxing does little to show its family ties.
However, it’s not all bad news. The Japanese as well as American and Europeans have started to bring it back. It’s not exactly perfect, and as far as I know, there are no major martial arts schools that teach it exclusively. Pankration has been left to historians and martial arts nerds to try to piece together how the art worked.
A great place to start for information is The Pankration project.

http://historical-pankration.com/
There are several groups out there (including ours) trying to bring this art back from the dead. Until one of them comes out with naked fighters covered in grease, it won’t be the same thing. HOWEVER: there are ones that are doing a good job...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47jmOxzux-8
And some not so good ones….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dDulMSsjRg



I just want to take a second and say, “WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?”
Ok, I get that your playing a silly little game with silly little rules in silly little outfits… but why further mar the name of the most manly martial arts system known to man by calling it PANKRATION?!?! That really brings my piss to a boil…
Here’s a video of some fellas out of Italy that are doing some Pankration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifn3sHvPlx0
Now, these guys seem to have a good idea about what they are doing, but they look a bit more like history students than they do martial artists. But who knows, I could be wrong.


Thanks for coming to class! Even if you are Mark and are late and just want to screw around doing ground stuff!