Does anyone practice the retrotraditional grecoroman art of pankraton. If anyone does, let me know, I am interested in the art and how it is organized.
Not many people (that I know of) do the pure forms. Usually they're wrestlers and/or kickboxer's in Oz who just add that title to get themselves away from the traditional set of 'oh, you're a boxer' or 'oh, you're a wrestler'. I have a fair bit of Pankration blended into our system but, like I said, not many people do the style straight as a MA.
Go to www.tibetankungfu.com and, from there, email the webmaster Sifu Steve Richards about it. He was (is?) trying to get a renaissance of pankration going. Rgds, David
Adam, actually, pankraton is a revival of an ancient art of fighting, the one used by gladiators, romans, and I believe the greeks used it in their olympiads (the grecoroman wrestling we know today is not complete today, as it was then). It resembles an MMA, but it just happens to have all those elements in its origin. It is for survival and winning when loss means death or dishonor. Man, I love my ancestors... haha.
Read the Book 'Combat Sports in the Ancient World' by Michal B. Poliakoff (Yale Uni Press). That details all the Greek 'Heavy Sports': Wrestling, Boxing and Pankration, as well as other wrestling, Egyptian Stickfighting etc. A review is in here: http://www.martialartsadvice.com/cat.php?cat=4 Modern day Pancrase is an attempt at 're-creating' the sport (Roughly), also in the Usa there is 'authentic Pankration: Jim Arvanitis, Ma Tau Pankration, Boston, Massachussets.
Poliakoff's book is fantastic. Anyone interested in ancient MA should definitely check it out. As for the Greco-Romaness of Pankration......most definitely done by both greeks and Romans and just about everybody inbetween Some of the most detailed artwork of Pankration or as the Romans called it pancratium comes from the early pancratium of the Romans before they changed the event into a more violent one. A note on greco-Roman wrestling.....it is neither Greek or Roman but French. One of the early names for this style was Old Norman Wrestling so perhaps it originated with the Normans in Normandy perhaps? Anyhow some time int he 1800's when things ancient were much loved a Frenchman made the connection on how much the French style resembled those described by Homer and in Greek and Roman art....thus the name chage...greco-roman.
O wow, thanks, kenpfrenger, I didn't know that about "greco-roman" wrestling. Tha is cool. Also, thanks for the info about the books. Has anyone read the book "Pankration"? It is on Amazon, I believe. I want to purchase it, it seems interesting, but if anyone has read it, a review woud be appreciated.
what exactly is it that you need to know? i have our old rulebook and competition manual for asian pankration (soft copy) but i believe it's been modified.
