Back To Article Brief
Back To Article List
THE GROUND GAME
Author: Nick Hines
The term “mixed martial arts” refers to the modern concept of combining stand-up skills and ground fighting. Being a total fighter is now the rule rather than the exception. While integrating strikes, takedowns and submissions is a relatively novel idea to some, those who train in the Greek art of pankration know it’s far from new. In fact, it dates back some 3,000 years.
The ancient Hellenic combat sport actually has two components. Ano pankration (see the August 2001 Black Belt) is essentially the upright half. It uses punches, kicks, elbows and knees as striking tools, but it also includes takedowns, throws and chokes. Kato pankration refers to fighting on the ground and is the subject of this article.
Olympic Pankration of Antiquity
Classical pankration was essentially an all-out battle between two highly conditioned athletes. It featured bareknuckle fisticuffs, kicking and submission wrestling. Only biting, gouging and stalling on the ground were prohibited.
There were no time limits or weight divisions, and the participants, as was customary in Greek athletics, competed naked. Victory was declared when a beaten fighter could not continue or raised his index finger to submit.
Pankration differed from wrestling in that it permitted striking and kicking, and matches did not cease once a man was thrown or taken down. It employed an extensive set of striking techniques for standing combat, some of which were delivered with the open hand. The prevalent blow of this almost anything-goes contest was a lunging straight punch aimed at the head.
While tight hooks and uppercuts were favored by Greek pugilists and those who engaged in ano pankration competitions, the strategy of kato pankration practitioners was to strike from a distance but grapple once inside. This is evidenced in classic artwork which depicts boxers going toe-to-toe, while pankration stylists are shown lunging.
In the open style of pankration that was featured in the Olympics, much of the activity took place on the ground.
Clinching occurred often, as did takedowns and throws. Once the fight went to the ground, the nature of the contest changed dramatically. Grappling became the focus of the action, with each man seeking the most advantageous position to control his opponent and execute his attack.
The ground arsenal included limb twisting, head locks and chokes. Striking also played a major role in the assault —which further differentiated pankration from another specialized method of grappling called kato pale, or ground wrestling. Evidence of the importance of striking while on the ground comes from two vase paintings: One depicts an athlete who is punching at his opponent’s face to effect his release from a head lock, and the other shows a top-mounted fighter clutching his rival’s throat while pummeling him with his free hand.
The hammerfist was an important striking weapon, especially when a fighter was mounted on his opponent’s back. Scissoring the waist was also popular, especially when used with a rear strangle. History records how this very technique cost a two-time champion named Arrichion his life during the 54th Olympiad.
Although the rules against biting and gouging were strictly enforced, they were nonetheless broken, especially during heated ground conflicts.
In fact, the militaristic Spartans, who did not compete in the Pan Hellenic games, encouraged those tactics in their local contests. One of Plutarch’s narratives reminds us of the tough nature of their unique brand of pankration through an incident involving a man named Alkibiades, who had trained in Sparta. While competing in an Athenian gymnasium, he bit his opponent.
The opponent became furious and screamed, “You bite just like a woman!” Alkibiades responded: “No! Just like a lion!”
The Rebirth
By 393 Olympic pankration had disappeared from the Hellenic sports scene. There is no documented evidence of Greece’s legacy actively being practiced until its rebirth in 1969 by Greek-American Jim Arvanitis. He was the first to pioneer a modernized system that paralleled the achievement of his ancestors. This revolutionary style, called mu tau, served to update the original concepts with effective techniques for any combat situation.
Like most innovators, Arvanitis was ahead of his time. Since there was no such thing as pankration being practiced anywhere when he arrived on the scene, he took it upon himself to rebuild the sport from the ground up. One of the earliest proponents of cross-training, he studied those arts which he found most effective, carefully selecting the techniques that mirrored those utilized by the ancient Greeks. He credits combat judo and Greco-Roman wrestling as having the greatest influence on modern kato pankration.
Modern Practice
Arvanitis founded the United Pankration Alliance in 1984. Its mission was to standardize an educational blueprint for all those interested in representing the sport and to establish a set of rules that would encourage honor and spirited competition in the long tradition of the Hellenic culture. The UPA predates all other pankration groups, including the Hellenic Federation of Pankration Athlima based in Greece, which was formed in 1995. The following are the primary elements of contemporary sport pankration’s ground game: • Transitioning to the Clinch: Transitioning refers to closing the gap from long range to close-quarters grappling. It must be executed explosively and without hesitation to avoid receiving a shot to the head or face on the way in. When you move in low and focus your attack on your opponent’s legs, the transition is called a “shoot.” Transitions can be made as a direct offensive, as a follow-up to a strike or feint, or as a counter after a blow has been parried or evaded.
Once inside, you clinch with your opponent, grasping him around the torso in preparation for a takedown.
Although clinching the neck and tackling the legs are common, the Greeks are especially known for the waist lock, a type of clinch in which your fingers are interlocked and your arms are wrapped around the belt line. It can be utilized from the front or the back.
• The Fall: Once you secure the clinch, the ensuing technique is a hard takedown or throw, also known as the “fall.” Among the most popular throwing skills are the shoulder throw and the suplex. Other methods include the foot sweep, which is especially effective after you have seized a kicking leg, and tripping, which is often executed by using a leg hook from the waist-lock position. Tackling the legs, popular in Greco-Roman wrestling, is also important in kato pankration. Single- and double-leg takedowns are excellent for scoring a fall—although your opponent, if he reacts quickly enough, can sprawl his weight on top of you or counter with a front guillotine choke.
• Tactical Positioning: Completing the fall, you will find yourself either on top of your adversary or under him. You must then neutralize and control his movements by obtaining a top- or sidemounted position from which a wide variety of attacks can be executed. If you are taken down, especially by the legs or waist, and are on the bottom, you should immediately go into a defensive posture by scissoring your opponent’s waist with your legs in what has become known as the guard. As most grapplers know, this position offers many opportunities to submit a top-mounted aggressor.
Whether you are employing an open guard (your feet are not crossed but are being used to hook your opponent’s lower legs) or closed guard (your feet are locked at the ankles), your goal is to trap and immobilize him while going on the offensive.
• Submission Tools: Pankration teaches numerous techniques to force your foe to quit. Armbars, leg locks and chokes are effective whether you are attacking from the top or defending from the bottom. The use of strikes is also encouraged—not so much to knock the other combatant senseless but to weaken him and set up a finishing hold.
In pankration’s modern sport derivative, powerful body punches and knee blows are employed for this purpose.
The ground-and-pound tactic seen in today’s NHB events has long been a part of pankration.
The side armbar, hammerlock, key lock and inverted armbar are among the most effective arm-locking techniques.
For the lower extremities, there are knee bars, heel hooks and toe holds.
Particularly important in many of these techniques is the use of both legs to control one of the opponent’s arms or legs. For example, in a side armbar or knee bar, you must learn to lock an elbow or knee between your thighs just above the crotch area to prevent an escape attempt.
Pankration chokes are applied with the arms or legs. They are designed to constrict the supply of blood or air through the carotid artery or windpipe, or to exert pressure on the Adam’s apple to elicit a tap out. The three primary ground strangulation techniques in mu tau pankration are the rear choke, side choke and inverted leg choke from the guard.
• Passes, Reversals and Rollouts: These defensive maneuvers are designed to alter the control factor by enabling you to escape from a takedown, mount, guard or submission attempt. To make them work, timing is paramount. You must be aware of what your opponent is planning to do and keep one step ahead of him. You must also have a keen sense of where your weight is balanced and never rely on mere strength because doing so will sap your energy.
Contests Today
Modern pankration is not a precise duplication of its predecessor. In addition to not fighting in the nude, there are many regulations and safeguards to protect practitioners from injury. The following are guidelines established by the UPA: • Open pankration is a contest that commences from the upright ready position following the “warrior salute” and can terminate either standing or on the ground.
• Legal stand-up techniques include punches to the head and body; kicks to the legs, body and head; knee thrusts to the head and body; clinching; throws; sweeps; takedowns; and submission holds.
• Legal ground techniques include punches, knee thrusts and kicks to the body; arm and leg submissions; and chokes.
• Among the illegal techniques are gouging; biting; groin strikes; head butts; hair pulling; elbowing; scratching; ear pulling; stomping on the feet, face or body; and fish-hooking.
• Victory is attained by knockout, technical knockout, default, submission or judge’s decision. A KO is called if a competitor is knocked down by a punch, kick or knee thrust and cannot make it to his feet before a 10 count is finished. A TKO is called if the referee deems a fighter unfit to continue, if the second throws in the towel, or if a fighter is downed three times by a punch, kick or knee strike. A default is called when one is disqualified or quits.
A submission is called when a competitor taps out while standing or on the ground. A judge’s decision will be rendered according to the accumulation of points based on various criteria.
• If a competitor is determined to be stalling on the ground, he and his opponent will be ordered to restart from a standing posture after 60 seconds.
History Repeats Itself
The 1990s have been described as the decade of mixed martial arts. Practitioners around the world now recognize the value of being multi-dimensional because fights often include a stand-up element and a ground element.
By reading articles like this one, martial artists are rediscovering an art that has been inspired by the oldest of mixed-style combat in the world—one that teaches its students to punch, kick, throw and clinch while they are on their feet and to choke, lock joints and strike while on the ground.
Modern pankration is riding the wave of the mixed-martial arts explosion —just as Jim Arvanitis predicted some 30 years ago. With its diverse technical skills, realistic approach to combat and specialized groundwork, it is to today’s athletes as it was to the Greek Olympians of old: the key to victory in any arena. ...