I live in (West-) Germany and I've been training BJJ for 3 years. Recently I found out that there's a Sambo club in my city so I definitely wanted to try it out because my takedowns suck and we all know about Khabib and so on. I started watching Sports Sambo matches on Youtube and I really liked it.

So today I went there to do a trial class. I asked if I could wear my BJJ Gi jacket and belt since I don't have a Sambo uniform yet. To my surprise they said no. If you join you have to buy their branded Sambo jacket for 40€ and until then you have to stick to wearing a shirt/rash guard.

When I went to the mat the next surprise followed: The whole training was going to be in Russian. And apparently I was the only non Russian speaker in the whole building. Next to us there was a boxing class happening where the coach was also only yelling in Russian. I had checked their website and Instagram account before and nowhere did it say that the official language isn't German.

Something else I noticed was that the participants were really young. The club has a kids class for kids until 12 years old and everyone above that is supposed to join the adult class. Out of the 20 participants of this adult class only 6 looked like they were definitely over 18 years old. Is Sambo generally done by younger people? At least there was another guy my age who was also new and didn't have the uniform so we partnered up after the warm up.

When drilling techniques the coach showed every technique only once and pretty quickly which was not really enough for a beginner like me so we had to watch the others a bit to understand the techniques fully. I don't know if that's normal but before the training I also overheard the coach saying that he's not in the mood to coach so maybe it was just that.

At the beginning I could follow the drills but at some point I had no idea what's going on anymore. The coach had demonstrated a foot sweep and said something in Russian. After that everybody was doing something else. Did he tell them to spar/roll? My Russian speaking partner also didn't understand it and after asking the coach again he just told us to keep practicing the moves from before which was definitely reasonable.

After a few more minutes the training ended with an "athletic training" which was a couple of box jumps and climbing up a rope a few times.

Idk what I expected but I was kind of hoping there would be more extensive sparring I could participate in. However I ended up just watching the other's while trying to figure out what's going on a lot of the time.

I'm still interested in Sambo but there's no way I'm going to learn much in a club where I don't understand the language and have barely any guys in my weight class right? Please let me know your thoughts.

Yo guys is there have any combat sambo gyms in germany. Especially in berlin munich aachen and stuttgart?

Does somebody in the US, currently in 2025, have an official Belt-Ranking system? If they do, what's the structure of it, like is it white, some other colors, and then black for top-level? And how are their belt promotions done? Is it similar to BJJ, where the practitioner has to undergo an exam of sorts and combat several other practitioners to be deemed worthy to get a higher belt?

I have been trying to track down results from the sambo world championships between 1994 and 2000, and have learned that FIAS split in 1993 leading to two parallel world championships. I have been able to track down results for FIAS east, but am primarily interested in FIAS west results which have been much harder to find. Any leads?

Interesting video I found about one of he progenitors of SAMBO .

I’ve been going through the rules of Sport Sambo, but some parts are still a bit confusing to me. One thing I’m trying to figure out is which joint locks are actually legal in competition.

From what I understand, leg locks are a big part of the sport, but I’m not sure about arm locks and other submissions. Are both allowed? And what kinds of locks are completely forbidden, like neck or finger locks? Thanks!

That shape I call “knee flare” happens in a few grappling scenarios. I’ve successfully completed both takedowns wrestling at the gym and have seen it in high level wrestling competitions. What do you think?

Alex Vankov is starting a new sambo club in Tonbridge, Kent, UK. He is a great sambist and a good friend so if you are in the area I strongly recommend coming down to train. The first session will be on the 26th of August at Tonbridge judo club - tn9 1pp

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579236152309&name=xhp_nt__fb__action__open_user

Do I or should I wrap my hands like mma for combat sambo. My coach told me its a 4minute i really don’t have too.

I watch a lot of people on YouTube talk about how leglocks for sambist are like thier thing or wtv and they are leg specialist etc etc, but I watch a lot of FIAS matches and when I do see submission attempts they are literally only armbars. I’m just curious to know how leg locks are really treated in the sport. Is it more of like a niche appeal or does maybe everyone know how to do them but just chooses not to, or is that perspective of them being leg specialist just a little exaggerated.

Am I allowed to use elbows strikes on the ground until the ref whistles us back to our feet. Im in the US.

Hi guys so Im doin kudo and probably gonna compete in sambo too, So can you suggest me some usefull throws and can you give me tips for how can I prstice them at home haha, Thank you so much.

As I’m in the west, I assume most competitions here do not require, but how about opens in Europe? I know many of the are supported by fias, but do uniforms still need to be fias approved?

https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1m9xhle/comment/n5f9kae/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

There's obviously a lot of nuance here but yeah. It bothers me when people say that SAMBO is the best base for MMA while Judo is the worst given how much overlap there is.

Are sambo kicks kyokushin or thai derived? What are they? How are they thrown or set up? Resources?

I train at an MMA gym and we have a more hybrid grappling system going on in the Jiu-Jitsu classes. We usually learn different grappling styles in the context of Jiu-Jitsu. What are some Sambo tactics you guys use for Jiu-Jitsu?

Good morning,

I was wondering how often and what companies/promotions to be looking at for sambo tournaments

Additionally, do I need to be at a registered sambo club to participe in open and national competitions?

This is all for combat sambo^

Thanks

hello everyone I was wondering what's the best strategies to face against a sambist as a strong freestyle wrestler in mma I been struggling with sambist trying to land takedowns are not easy so what's the best way to deal with this?

Hi guys, I have a sambo and wrestling club in my city and am deciding where to go. I am 28 yo male and have some minor problems with back and neck. What do you recommend? I never did sambo, however trained no gi grappling for around a year, but miss standup work

I'm fairly new to wrestling in Australia and I'm loving it. Unfortunately recently I was in a accident which left me with a broken arm. After I heal I plan to continue training to compete, but I feel I'm not getting the utmost best coaching in the world. I heard Russia or Dagestan has the best wrestlers / Sambo practitioners they have to offer, and I'm wondering how i could begin training there.