Martin Receives his GrandMaster Award 1991
Clarkes Sports Studio Sittingbourne
FIAS COUNCIL
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union there has been massive insurgent of Russian Martial Arts and so called Russian Experts. When you try to trace the background they always reply that there Martial Art was banned under the old communist regime and had to be done in secret or they were members of a special forces group all of which are hard to check up on. This is not always the case I have met some very good Martial Arts Master from the Eastern Block. As we live in a free society it is up to the individual to decide on the worth of the person they are taught by. What concerns me is the awards being handed out, as more and more ex soviets start International organisations and get people from different countries to head this organisations in there respective countries, awards which were hard to get are now becoming very mundane. Very much like the Red and White Belt in Japanese Martial Arts in this country, where people claim to have reached 6th Dan and above with less then 15 years training we will soon have the situation where we will have to have 20th Dans but that is another article I will write. My concern in particular is Sombo/Sambo, I am they only person in the UK to be awarded a GRANDMASTER in Sombo/Sambo I have enclosed a photograph of my presentation in January of 1992. The reason I have brought this to your attention is when in a few years time there are hundreds claiming to be GrandMaster an award they will receive from some non descript organisation because they are the head man you readers will know I earn’t mine. I recently was awarded my 8th Dan after 46 years of merit us service to Judo this has had the shine taken off it by the ammount of people claiming the same rank who have not put the work or the years in.
On another interesting point as I have mentioned before I invented the COMBATSOMBO system and registered the name in the UK, many people continue to dispute that saying that the Russian’s invented it. I recently read on an official web site that the International Body FIAS accepted CombatSambo in 1992 and a CombatSambo commission was set up and the reason it had taken so long to be accepted was that it had been taught in secret locations because of the communists (what a surprise). Again inaccurate FIAS accepted CombatSombo in 1988 and as it was my system they asked me to head the commission my deputy was a leading Russian Self Defence expert. I was teaching that so-called secret name in 1983?
Those outside of UK refer to my system as the British CombatSombo System they use the word CombatSambo. I have no quarrel with what these people teach what I object is the use of my name COMBATSOMBO being used because this system is totally different to what is being taught by other countries using my name. Russian martial Arts should be there real name and we do have an expert in that field his name is Matthew Clempner the first person in the UK to bring this style to the UK