THE LONGEST FIGHT - Lifetime Martial Artist.

Origins and History of the Martial ArtsShow more

The founders of the Pankration “System” are said to have been Heracles and Thesues who combined Boxing and Wrestling to be refined later from its introduction to the ancient Olympic Games in 648 BC.
Only two rules applied to Pankration in the Ancient Olympics. One prohibited biting and the other, gouging. All strikes, boxing, wrestling, and kicking were permitted.

From Greece, the martial arts were distributed to the rest of the world through Alexander the Great during his conquests from 334BC into Persia, the Middle East, Nth Africa, and India.

Across the many centuries that followed, the Greek martial arts found their way from India into China, then, Southeast Asia, and eventually Japan.

In the West, the Byzantine Christian Empire strictly banned the practice of Pankration from 300AD because of its connection to the Ancient Greek polytheistic culture. Further, the Olympic Games were entirely abolished in 393AD.

In the 1700s AD Boxing remerged as a sport in England and the USA. Wrestling also became a sport in France, Europe and the USA in the 1800s.

1503 years after its abolition, the Olympic Games were re-established in Athens in 1896AD.

Over two millennia after Alexander, from the 1970sAD onwards, exponential growth and evolution exploded from within the mystical world of the martial arts and has spread rapidly and widely across the planet.

Pankration remains excluded as a modern Olympic sport but there are current motions in progress to have it reinstated with sports modifications.
What had originally began in the West, in Ancient Greece has now returned to its origins.

Since the 1920s, Russian Special Forces developed the martial arts of “Sambo” and “Systema” emphasising more “on the feet” fighting or “Ano” combat. Similarly, “Krav Maga”, an Israeli Special Forces (SF) Close Quarter Combat (CQC) martial art developed from the 1930s.

The evolution of hand to hand combat for soldiers has accelerated since WWI.

The Western nations during and since WWII in the 1940s, lent towards traditional Japanese Jiujutsu and Karate. Later, during the Cold War and in more recent decades, the Special Forces of the Western nations evolved further with strong influences from the UFC sports ground-fighting techniques of Brazilian Jiujutsu and improvised weapons fighting from Krav Maga.

In the East, Chinese military Special Forces are now blending elements of modern grappling with ancient Kung Fu which always did include traditional weapons training.

Contrasting Pankration Orthomaxia and the ground based Brazilian Jiu Jiutsu fighting of the West, I suggest that the latter system is not suited to a street or urban environment on account of the harsh surfaces encountered outside of the Octagon or the gym. Also, the sports etiquette restraints within every System are restraining.

Most city ground surfaces are concrete.

Although the Eastern Chinese and Russian fighting is Ano (from the feet) Systems are disadvantaged for not having Western boxing as their foundation. This weakness exists in all the Systems presented to the world in the current era.

Western boxing has the finest arm strikes and defences in the world.

My evolution in the martial arts and self-defence since the 1970s was shaped across historically significant decades, and has resulted in a practical partiality towards stand-up Ano Pankration. My skills were forged from boxing, Goju Karate, kickboxing, Muay Thai, Arnis, SF Australian Commando unarmed combat (UC) and Close Quarter Combat (CQC), US Navy SEAL CQC, Greek Pankration wrestling, Japanese Judo, and ground Jiujutsu in the order in which they appear.

A harsh surface will cut and sometimes break the knees, elbows and forehead within the first few seconds of a street fight.

The modern militaries overcome harsh ground environments with knee and elbow guards, and helmets, but training for ground combat places the practitioner on the ground in his mind before the fight even begins.

Across five decades of life experience in an unprecedented era of knowledge increase and human advance I have established and refined, Pankration Orthomaxia. In its practicality, it exists among the very best of Systems in the world and it will over time, influence the future of all The Fighting Arts.