tratto da: www.fila-wrestling.com

La lutte féminine est semblable à la lutte libre, mais interdit les clefs doubles (double Nelson) qui sont dangereuses pour les femmes. La lutte féminine amateur fit ses premiers pas dans les pays scandinaves et en France dans les années 80. Au début, les deux styles connurent une certaine évolution, mais finalement la lutte féminine se calqua sur la lutte libre. Elle fut d’abord dirigée par un comité spécial de la FILA placé sous la direction de Michel Dusson (1984). Le premier Championnat du Monde de lutte féminine fut organisé à Lorenskog (Norvège) en 1987. La lutte féminine fut admise pour la première fois au programme olympique à l’occasion des Jeux d’Athènes en 2004. Actuellement, la lutte libre compte sept catégories de poids : 48 kg, 51 kg, 55 kg, 59 kg, 63 kg, 67kg et 72 kg. Seules quatre catégories figurent au programme olympique : 48kg, 55kg, 63 kg et 72kg.

tratto da: www.shoubo-international.com

tratto da: www.pankrationproject.com

According to Bacchylides (13.44-66), pankration was founded to commemorate Herakles' struggle against the lion on Nemea, whose hide, impenetrable by weapons, forced Herakles to strangle the animal to death (Apollodorus Library 2.5.1). Others claim the Theseus invented pankration "when ke was in the labyrint matching strenght with the Minotaur, since he did not have a knife" (Scholiast on Pindar Nemean Ode 5.89, in Drachmann, 3:98). Aristotle attributed its discovery to Leukaro of Akarnania (Scholiast on Pindar Nemean Ode 3.27, in Drachmann 3:46). Quintus Smyrnaeus portrays Ajax as a pankratiast in his desire to contend "with hands and feet" (Fall of Troy 4.479-480), anachronistically, since Homer does not include pankration among the competitions held during Patroclus' funeral. It is a relatively late event, added to the Olympic program in the thirty-third Olympiad (648) where it was won by Lygdamis of Syracuse, a big man, reputedly the size of Herakles (Pausanias 5.8.8.). The Eleans did non sanction boys' pankration until the 145th Olympiad (200) (Philostratos Gymnastic 13, in Kayser, 268). Pankration, "all-power" or "all-victory" , unites the striking of boxing and the locks, throws, take downs, and escapes of wrestling with its own particula features, kicking and falling to the ground. Pankration is as Plutarch says, "a mixture of boxing and wrestling" (Moralia 638d), and Philostratos says, "a concoction from imperfect wrestling and imperfect boxing" (Gymnastic 11, in Kayse,266), and then some. "Perfect competitors for the pankration are those who are more suitable for wrestling than boxers and more suitable for boxing than wrestlers" (Philostratos Gymnastic 36, in Kayser, 281). On the other hand, pankratiasts did non need the size of the wrestler or boxer to be successful. One athlete, for example, whose father called him Halter or jumping Weight, because he was small, used the tactic of seizing his opponent's heel and not letting go until he submitted (Philostratos Heroic 52-54 in Kayser,146). The jumping weight, a stone that jumpers held in propelling themselves through the air, suggests that Halter was compact, strong, and lively. Ambrose (ca. 339-397 c.e.), bishop of Milan, describes pankration as a free-for-all: "Other athletes mix murder and throwing of dust with entwining the limbs and every kind of hitting. These are pankratiasts, because they are permitted all struggles and fights against one another" ( Commentary to Psalm 36.55). Ambrose exaggerates, but barely. Strangling was allowed in pankration as it was in wrestling. Excluded specifically at Olympia were biting and gouging of eyes, mouth , and other tender spots (Philostratos Pictures in a Gallery 2.6, in Kayser,348; Aristophanes Birds 438-443). Among the Lacedaemonians who were always in training for war, both tactics were permitted (Pictures in a Gallery 2.6, in Kayser, 348). A red-figure cup (circa 490) confirms not only the illegality of gouging but also pankratiasts' disregard of the rules at the cost of a good caning. Foul play was such a part of the pankration that it nicknamed practitioners of the event: "When Demonax say mani athletes fighting dirty and biting against the rules instead of engaging in the pankration, he said: " With reason, the fans of today's athletes call them "lion"" (Lucian Life of Demonax 49). The stoic philosopher Epictetus (ca. 55-135 c.e.) warned those wanting to compete in pankration at Olympia about the treatment they could expect in the contest: "You must match gouging with your opponent; sometimes dislocate your hand ,sprain your ankle, eat a lot of dust, and be caned. After all this, you can lose"(Discourses 3.15.4-5). A match began with both competitors on their feet.Their fingers were slightly bent and their hands outstretched (Galen On the Movements of the Muscles, in Kuhn, 4:395), ready to be clenched in a fist or widened for an open-handed blow leading to a snatch. They focuses with an intensity that inspired Aulus Gellius (ca. 130-180 c.e.) to recommend similar concentration to men of public affairs: "The life of men who spend their time in the midst of affairs and who want to be of use to themselves and thei people brings problems and dangers suddenly, continually, and nearly every day. to be on guard against them and to evade them, such men must always be alert and focused like those athletes called pankratiasts. just as these athletes, when summonded to the match, take up a position with their arms held high and stretch forth and protect their head and face by presenting their hands to their opponent like a rampart, and all their limbs, before the battle has begun, are on guard to avoid blows, the spirit and mind of the prudent man ought to be focused" (Attic Nights 13.28). The athletes needed also to guard against their fingers' being seized and dislocated, a tactic perfected by pankration's Sostratos of Sykyon, who acquired the appellation Akrochersites or Fingers, because he "would seize his opponent 's fingers and, bending them, not let go until he say his man acknowledging defeat" (Pausanias 6.4.1). The contenders could expect to fight from the ground .The fall, dreaded by the wrestler, did not concern the pankratiast, since he did not lose by getting sand on his back. He could attack his opponent's legs without hesitation over suffering the reprisal unleasched on Tydeus or choose to fight from the ground, deliberately falling because the move opende other ways of fighting. "Pankratiasts have the technique of falling on their backs, which in not safe for the wrestler, and moves by which a man may win by fallilng" (Philostratos Pictures in a Gallery 2.6, in Kayser,348). Pindar praises Melissos, victorious at the Isthmus, for his cunning in fighting from his back: "he is the fox that falls onto her back and awaits the swoop of the eagle" (Isthmian Ode 4.65-66). Ground fighting at some point lost favor in competitions, if an inscription setting the rules for an athletic festival in the Greek city of Misthia in Pisidia in southern Asia Minor is indicative of more than local preference: "pankratiasts are not to use dust for sprinkling or wrestling falls but are to compete upright" (Gardiner 1929, 210). Pankratiasts were free to strike with their hands and feet (Quintilian Education of an Orator 2.8.13). Kicking distinguishes theirs from the other heavy events, and consequently, winning athletes were praised for their big feet: "Glukon, renown of Asian Pergamum, thunderbolt of the pankration, he of the broad foot, the new Atlas, and those unconquered hands of his are gone " (Greek Anthology 7.692 in Paton, 2: 367). Reliance on kicking, however, exposed pankratiasts to effortless ridicule: "Should you tell me, I kick a great Kick, I will say to you, You boast of an accomplishment that belongs to a jackass" (Epictetus Discourses 3.14.14). Hitting with fists separated the pankratiast from the wrestler both in competition and in vase painting. A father lectures his son on the value of a good punch: "Now listen to me. When I was a spectator at Olympia, Ephoudion fought with Askondas nobly, although he was an old man. Then the older guy popped the younger one with his fist and knocked him down. And so watch it, buster, that you don't get a black eye" (Aristophanes Wasps 1381-1386). Occasionally, a competitor wore boxing strips, support for his wrist and fingers that curtailed flexibility in grabbing an opponent. For such an athlete, the advantage gained by hitting an opponent outweighed that of the wrestler's skill (Poliakoff 1987, 56). The match continued until one athlete was incapable of continuing or signaled submission by raising his index finger. As in wrestling, the Lacedaemonians refused to compete in pankration at the Panhellenic festivals to save themselves the shame of announcing their own defeat and exposing themselves to slanders of cowardice (Philostratos Gymnastic 9, in Kayser, 265). Pankratiasts "who strike, choke, break, and sometimes kill," Dio Chrysostomos expounds, are like boys who "play with trying to put out a fire with their tongues...If you really attack a fire, you put it out. But if you attack it cautiously and fearfully, you get really burned" (Eighth Discourse 19). Boys who play with fire get hurt as do pankratiasts who play with death. The most famous death - and the sole recorded death- in pankration is that of Arrachion or Arrichion of Phigalia. Both Pausanias and Philostratos give an account of his final match: "Arrachion won two Olympic victories before the fifty-fourth Olympiad (564), and another came his way in the fifty-fourth because of the fairness of the Hellanodikai and Arrachion's own courage. When he was fighting for the wild olive against the last remaining competitor, whoever that was, his opponent gripped Arrachion first and held him in a scissors hold with his legs. At the same time, he was pressing on Arrachion's throat with his hands. Arrachion dislocated his opponent's toe but expired from the choking. The one choking him at that moment acknowledged defeat because of the pain from his toe. The Eleans proclaimed and crowned Arrachion's corpse as the victor"(Pausanias 8.40.1-2). Philostratos' account is a description of a painting that he sees while touring a picture gallery with a young friends. Acting as the wise instructor, he explicates the portrait for his companion: "You have arrived at the Olympic Games themselves and the noblest of the events in Olympia, men's pankration. Arrichion is being crowned, although he died in victory, and the hellanodikes here is crowning him...For now, let us look at Arrichion's deed before it is over, for he seems to have conquered not only his opponenent but the Greeks in the audience. In any case, they are leaping up from their seats and shouting.some are waving their hands or cloaks, and others are jumping into the air. Others are pounding their neighbors on the back in joy. The spectators are seeing something so amazing that they cannot contain themselves. Who is so unfeeling that he doesn't cry out at the athlete? This accomplishment of his is greater even than his great deed of winning twice before at Olympia, for this victory came at the price of his live, and he is being escorted to the Land of the Blessed with the dust still on him. Do not think that victory happened by accident. No, he figured out very cleverly the move leading to victory...Arrichion's opponent, having already grasped him around the waist, has decided to kill him. He inserted his forearm on Arrichion's throat, blocking his breathing.he then fit his legs around (Arrichion's legs) and pressed one against the bend of each knee.Because of the stranglehold, Arrichion's opponent got ahead of him as the drowsiness of death was creeping over his senses from this point.But his opponent, in relaxing the pressure of his legs, did not get ahead of Arrichion's stratagem. Arrichion kicked back the sole of his (right) foot. His right side was threatened as his bent leg was left dangling. Arrichion gripped his opponent with his groin so that he no longer resisted. Then throwing his weight to his left, he locked the end of his opponent's foot in the bend of his knee and, with a violent wrenching outward, he did not allow the anklebone to remain with the ankle. His spirit, departing his body, acted listlessly but gave him the strenght for what he aimed to do. The strangler is painted in the picture to look like a corpse. He is acknowledging defeat by his hand. Arrichion is painted in the way victors always are. His blood is in flower, and his sweat is still fresh. He is smiling just as the living when they have become aware of victory" (Pictures in a Gallery 2.6 in Kayser, 347-349). Arrichion's anonymous opponent in the finals of the fifty-fourth Olympiad seized control of him and the match by executing a Klimakismos or ladder grip. In terms of the name, he makes a Klimax or ladder out of Arrichion by climbing up his back. Anacharsis describes the maneuver in a sarcasm about the enemy's fear of the Greeks' wrestling moves: "The enemy runs away in fear that you (Greeks) will leap around their stomachs and, slipping an arm beneath their helmets, throttle them" (Lucian Anacharsis 31). Arrichion's opponent somehow gets behind him or spins him around and jumps up on his back. He winds his legs around Arrichion's groin, inserting his feet between Arrichion's legs and hooking his toes in the bend of Arrichion's knees. "The pressure that this grip causes on the mid-section of the opponent (that is Arrichion) is quite painful; the pressure on his knees forces him to sink down" (Brophy, 378). Simultaneously, Arrichion's opponent cuts off his breathing by an arm pushed against his throat. At this point the opponent is in the command, but, apparently losing concentration or wearying himself, he relaxes his legs. Arrichion, feeling the easing of tension, snaps his legs together, gripping his opponent's legs and geet and neutralizing his resistance. He then shifts his weight to his left foot and starts to fall sideways, his nearly unconscious body adding dead weight. At the same time, he kicks violently backward with his right leg. Arrichion's opponent's foot is still locked behind the knee, and when Arrichion's knee moves back and up against his thigh, the opponent's foot is pulled apart so ankle bone and foot do not reamin together. That is, Arrichion dislocates his opponent's ankle as he dies (Harris 1964, 108; Brophy,379). In agony, his opponent signals his submission, and Olympic officials confer the crown upon Arrichion's corpse. The Greeks believed that Arrichion was on the verge of expiring from suffocation when he snatched victory with alert thingking. Philostratos emphasizes how Arrichion's opponent beat him out in the matter of the grip but failed to do so in strategy. Brophy, however, points out that suffocation causes the loss of consciousness before death (380). With a clue in Eusebius' notation for the fifty-fourth Olympiad- "Arelion of Phigalia, winning in his second pankration, died after suffering decapitation (his skull having been broken)" (Chronicles, in Schoene, 1:201)- that hints at "the true medical reason for his death," Brophy concludes that Arrichion probably broke his own neck: Anatomically, Arrichion's head should have led or accompanied the leftward thrust of his body as he kicked up and back with his right foot, but his opponent was holding it immobilized. The snap of his fall or leap sideways, while his opponent still retained his strangle hold, caused the same effect as death by hanging: the fracture of the dens of the axis bone, severing the vertebrae from there down (381). When Arrichion moved to his left, his head, held tight by his opponent's arms, could not follow. In the heat of competition, with his focus on victory, Arrichion killed himself. Philostratos sets forth the meaning that Arrichion had for later generations of Greek: "This accomplishment of his is greater even than his great deed of winning twice before at Olympia, for this victory came at the price of his life, and he is being escorted to the Land of the Blessed with the dus still on him" (Pictures in a Gallery 2.6, in Kayser, 348). Arrichion died the death that the Greeks most admired, for his was ho kalos thanatos, the beautiful death met at the peak of his fighting skills and in the flower of his youth (Vernant, 1991).

Wm. Blake Tyrrell

tratto da: www.shootoitaly.com

Lo SHOOTO è uno sport da combattimento la cui gestione a livello mondiale è affidata alla Shooto Association e all’International Shooto Commission.La parola SHOOTO è una trasposizione in inglese dell’ideogramma giapponese (pronunciato shu-to) derivante dal termine inglese shoot e che può essere tradotto dal termine giapponese come “studio del combattimento”. Nella filosofia dello SHOOTO il termine combattimento non viene considerato solo nel significato di confronto fisico ma anche nel senso di percorso di crescita personale, di lotta e perseveranza nel corso della propria vita aspirando alla crescita e al miglioramento.

Il termine SHOOTO connota sia la disciplina da combattimento che il circuito mondiale di MMA omonimo. Lo SHOOTO come disciplina da combattimento fu sviluppato in Giappone agli inizi degli anni '80 da Sensei SATORU SAYAMA (il noto wrestler “Tiger Mask”), popolare lottatore professionista giapponese formatosi nella disciplina dello Shoot Wrestling e allievo del leggendario Karl Gotch nonché praticante di Judo, Karate, Sambo e Muay Thai. Tecnicamente lo SHOOTO è una sintesi delle tecniche più efficaci e reali studiate da Sensei SAYAMA nella sua lunga carriera.L’obiettivo di Sensei SAYAMA, fin dall’inizio, fu quello di creare uno sport basato su un’idea di combattimento reale ed efficace e che, a differenza di altri circuiti giapponesi (New Japan Pro Wrestling e Universal Wrestling Federation), non si basasse su combattimenti finti o falsati da risultati predeterminati. Sua intenzione era combinare la spettacolarità del wrestling professionistico con la reale intensità e durezza agonistica degli sport da combattimento: nella sua futuristica e moderna visione del combattimento sportivo, solo l’atleta migliore e più completo doveva avere la meglio! Nel 1985 Sensei SAYAMA fonda il circuito dello SHOOTO.La genesi e la crescita del circuito SHOOTO in quegli anni è significativa e concretizza l’evoluzione sportiva delle MMA come idealizzata da Sensei SAYAMA: il primo evento amatoriale SHOOTO risale al 1986 cui ne seguirono molti altri fino al 1989, quando nel mese di Maggio fu organizzato il primo evento professionistico di SHOOTO nella Korakuen Hall di Tokyo. I quattro anni trascorsi permisero alla disciplina di maturare con i suoi agonisti, il cui livello tecnico crebbe progressivamente e concretamente: una tangibile evoluzione verso il professionismo di tutto il movimento sportivo, degli atleti e dei promoter! L’attività era ed è limitata solo agli atleti facenti parte del circuito SHOOTO e delle palestre affiliate, per garantire e tutelare il livello tecnico e non confondersi con altri circuiti, improvvisati o caratterizzati da risultati falsati e concordati. Negli anni gli eventi professionistici sono sempre stati affiancati dal circuito amatoriale, che continua a forgiare e sfornare nuovi atleti preparati e agguerriti…Nel Novembre 1990 Sensei YORINAGA NAKAMURA, uno degli allievi più anziani di Sensei SAYAMA, fonda a Los Angeles (dove insegna la disciplina presso l’Inosanto Academy) la Shooto USA Association dando inizio alla globalizzazione del circuito SHOOTO; negli USA nascono i primi professionisti non giapponesi e si inizia a diffondere la nuova disciplina agonistica. Al circuito SHOOTO si deve l’organizzazione dei notissimi Open Vale Tudo Japan tra il 1994 e il 1999 che, tra gli altri, hanno lanciato sulla ribalta mondiale nel Vale Tudo il mitico Rickson Gracie.Prima dello svolgersi di tali eventi lo Shooto non comprendeva ancora l’uso dei colpi al viso nella fase a terra ma, vista l’efficacia sul campo di questa tattica durante i primi UFC e gli Open Vale Tudo Japan, Sensei SAYAMA li aggiunse all’arsenale tecnico della disciplina nonché ai colpi ammessi nel circuito agonistico professionistico.Nel 1996 Sensei SAYAMA lascia la guida ad alcuni suoi stretti collaboratori e allievi, nascevano la Shooto Association e l’International Shooto Commission, organi direttivi del circuito internazionale. Nel 1999 il primo evento SHOOTO al di fuori del Giappone fu organizzato alle Hawaii tramite la promozione dell’evento Superbrawl. Nello stesso anno lo SHOOTO sbarca anche in Australia. Nel 2000 invece, tramite la promozione dell’Hook N Shoot, il primo evento agonistico negli USA.Nel Dicembre 2000 il fighter olandese Martijn De Jong, attuale presidente SHOOTO EUROPE, fonda lo SHOOTO Holland e inizia la diffusione del circuito e della disciplina in Europa dove, per merito della diffusa cultura amatoriale della Kickboxing e della arti marziali, si diffondono a macchia d’olio gli eventi di Amateur SHOOTO che avvicinano progressivamente alla filosofia delle MMA atleti provenienti dalle più svariate discipline rendendo più graduale il passaggio al Professional SHOOTO.La crescita e lo sviluppo dello SHOOTO in Europa ricalca l’embrionale sviluppo nella terra d’origine, il Giappone: vengono organizzati Open internazionali per atleti europei delle varie nazioni e nel 2000 viene anche organizzato il 1° Campionato Europeo di SHOOTO amatori. Questa attività apre anche le porte ai primi eventi professionistici europei con un susseguirsi di organizzazioni in Finlandia, Lettonia, Lituania, Danimarca, Svizzera, Svezia, Polonia, Estonia, Russia, Irlanda, Belgio. Una costante crescita che porta alla necessaria creazione della SHOOTO EUROPE COMMISSION, che regola l’attività amatoriale e professionistica nonché la coordinazione di eventi e la formazione degli arbitri e giudici.Negli anni, fino ad oggi, la professionalità e l’attenzione posta alla tutela degli atleti con rigidi regolamenti e chiare divisioni degli atleti in base alle classi di esperienza, hanno permesso una capillare diffusione del circuito dello SHOOTO che ormai ha eventi e campionati in tutto il mondo: quasi tutti gli stati degli USA, Hawaii, Canada, Messico, Brasile, Ecuador, Argentina, Sud Africa, Europa (con attività presente in 15 Stati condotta in stretta collaborazione con il circuito ADCC Europe), Giappone, Australia, Filippine. Tra i grandi campioni che hanno calcato con successo i ring dello Shooto ricordiamo: Rumina Sato, Yuki Nakai, Noboru Asashi, Erik Paulson, Enson Inoue, Hayato Sakurai, Anderson Silva, Takanori Gomi, Caol Uno, Alexandere Franca Nogueira, Joachim Hansen, Vitor Shaolin Ribeiro, Robson Moura e tanti altri affermati Vale Tudo fighters.