Ancient Greek Fighting Techniques
When most people think of martial arts, the first region that comes to mind is Asia. This is totally understandable; that continent is after all where many of the world’s most popular fighting arts originated.
Karate, Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Taekwondothe list of fighting styles and hand-to-hand combat disciplines that originated from Asia is seemingly endless.
But did you know that it is possibly Greece and not Asia that created one of the oldest martial arts in the world? This fighting style is known as Pankration. Not only did it influence many fighting styles around the world, it is still being used by fighting enthusiast to this day.
The best fighting and hand-to-hand combative styles closely resemble Greek fighting techniques. If anything, the Greek techniques often rival many of the other styles.
Pankration uses a combination of many different techniques that are also commonly used in other fighting styles, such as boxing, wrestling, striking and kicking. It is also here where techniques such as joint locking and the use of pressure points first came into widespread use.
The use of physical strength when fighting an opponent is often not the focus in many martial arts styles. In some cases, strength is disregarded completely.
On the other hand, strength is important in many Greek fighting techniques. Good examples including striking and grappling techniques.
In fact, the very name Pankration means all strength. It is comprised of two Greek words that respectively mean “all” (pan) and “strength” or “force” (kratos).
Although Pankration still exists today, it has been greatly modified. In some cases, Pankration is less like the fighting art practiced in ancient Greece and more like a hybrid form of kickboxing.
There is also some degree of blurring with the highly popular competitive sporting event that is known as mixed martial arts. Many mixed martial arts techniques actually stem from the Greek fighting techniques of the earliest days of Pankration.
In any case, the Greek martial art still exists at least partly through the techniques used in these newer martial arts, and efforts are being made to get it accepted into the Olympic games once again in the future.
Tags: Exercise
