All martial arts poriginate din India with the ancinet fist fighting techniques ceelbrated up until the end of Empire in the Benares fist fighting festivals.
In Ancient Greece wrestling, boxing and Pankration were practised by athletes and the military organisations of the day alongside javelin, discus, running and jumping, all key military skills. Alexander the Great in India came across the traditional Hindu fist fighting skills and the two systems were intermixed the basis of Indias modern Kalari Payat.
This went back to Greece as a changed Pankration.
Bodi Dharms picked these skills up as he travelled throuigh india so taking a more extensive repetoire into the Shaolin temples in China.
Bodi Dharma took this princely art of the Hindu warrior Brahmin caste to China where the Shaolin schools developed and in response to which in the 1500's a nun Yim Wing Tsun strated the Daoist Wing Chun system.
Sometime after Bodi Dharma took his art out of India Okinawans began to practise the system and Okinawa Te the origin of modern Karate was taken from Okinawa to Japan in 1921. In Japan Jiu Jistu had developed, a fighting system practised by the Samuri class and an adjunct to their swordsmanship, archery and battle curriculum. Origins of Jiu Jitsu are likely to have been in raids and tenproary occupations of Okinawa and the Chinese mainland.
In Europe and Russia military development of the firearm as a personal and collective weapon system disenfranchised the well deevloped mixed fighting skills practised in the 21sr Century as "Rennaissance Martial Arts" that were thoroughly developed and focused on various types of sword, kives, quarter and short staves and an unarmed combat system that used fists, feet, knees, elbows, heads, locks and throws.
The roots of these systems were preserved in 'peasant sports' including localised wrestling styles, catchj as catch can, jacklet wrsetling, cumberland and westmoorland, Cornish wrestling and western (modern) boxing).
In the 1940's Russian Sambo was started based on Jiu Jitsu brought to Russia by travelling experts who took Jiu Jitsu out of Japan after Jigoro Kano the education minister introduced Judo and effectiovely took Jiu Jitsu in this from to the masses.
Russias unarmed combat system Sambo, or Systema came about. Post WWII a spliut occured as wrestling and Judo practitioners in Russia sought to introduce Sambo as an olympic sport. This diluetd the system into a stylised Judo form including leg locks Judo had abandoned and banning strangles Judo included to make it complementary to Judo, Greco Roman and Free Style wrestling.
Today many of us teach Systema, the full syllabus and also teach Systema adapetd to MMA competitive rules.
