Teacher

I’ve been teaching martial arts, specifically Combat Sambo, Submission Wrestling and Kickboxing for over 18 years. Looking at it now, it’s been a long time. Someone asked me once: “Over the years of teaching, has there been a change in the people that train in your dojo?” Ever since MMA has become more mainstream and […]

PEDs in MMA

  We have heard over the years of pro MMA fighters accused of using or being caught using PEDs. As with all sports that start having higher and higher pay incomes, the usage of performance enhancing drugs (PED) become increasingly common. In MMA they have become more and more predominant, and some pro fighters have […]

Weight cutting wackiness

  There have been reported deaths of athletes dying from extreme weight cutting in MMA recently. Not just deaths, but also athletes in dire condition at the weight-ins. This has happened in other combat sports, even at the amateur level. Wrestling(real wrestling folks), has been a major victim of this, with even reported deaths of […]

June 20, 2017, Osaka, Japan Knife defense seminar re-cap

During my stay in Japan, I had the grand opportunity to teach a Combat Sambo seminar at my friend, Katsuomi Inagaki’s dojo: Pancrase Osaka. The seminar covered knife defense. Due to the fact that it was not a very long (less than 2 hrs), I was not able to teach several techniques, rather a few, […]

My interview with Katsuomi Inagaki

Katsuomi Inagaki was with Pancrase from the start.He participated in Pancrase’s first event in 1993. He is owner and head instructor of Inagaki-gumi P’s Lab Osaka. This past summer, during my stay in Japan, I had the opportunity to meet up with Inagaki-san. I’ve been to the P’s Lab Osaka twice in the past two […]

The Story of Sambo

Sambo is an acronym for the Russian phrase “Self-Defence Without Weapons” (SAMozashchita Bez Oruzhiya).Doing the research to write about the history about Sambo was not an easy task.Going thru several different text, it seemed they all had different versions of dates and lack of information. Some dates did not make sense. Finally comparing these texts […]

FIASco

Why did I quit FIAS? (Federation International Amateur de Sambo) This a question I get from several people in the Sambo world. I was the Canadian representative for FIAS from 2000-2005, by being the president of the National Sambo Association of Canada. Before creating this association I asked other Sambo gyms in Canada ( at […]

What is the difference between Combat Sambo and Judo?

                                 This is a less complicated search to see the difference between these two styles. The major and biggest difference is Judo has become purely a combat sport, whereas Combat Sambo has both sportive and personal self-defense training. Combat Sambo has deep […]

Training in Japan 2012

I had a great opportunity to be able to train with the pro-fighters of the Pancrase affiliated fighters. These fighters are under the group the name Pancrasism. Their training started at 12 noon. It started off with light warm up, the 2-3 rounds 3 min shadow boxing. From there, we did takedown entries, back and […]

Supplement schlock

“Do you recommend any supplements Coach to help me in my training?” I get this question from my Combat Sambo/MMA students and fitness clients several times a year. I think its time to express my opinion on them. Supplements, like religion, is a very personal thing. We all have different views and beliefs  . Some […]