Doing an Open Hand Strike in Sambo Martial Arts

Series Summary

Sambo, sometimes called cambo or sombo is a Russian martial art that draws from Japanese judo and eastern European martial arts. The word cambo is actually an acronym in Russian which means "self-defense without a weapon". Unlike other martial arts, Sambo does not usually use the belt ranking system to distinguish athletes, but prefers to use titles, the highest of which is called a distinguished master of sport. Sambo has five distinct styles including sport, self-defense, combat, special, and freestyle.

In this free video series, our expert Stephen R. Koepfer will teach you how to do various sambo techniques. He will teach you how to do an open hand strike, wrap around strike, scissor take down, knee strike, knee crush, knee bar, foot sweep, front trip, leg kick, and a distance take down. Stephen will also teach you other Sambo techniques like defensive combinations, various throws, strike throws, Georgia combos, arm bars, and submissions. Stephen will even teach you how to let the techniques flow in Sambo so you can be the best Sambo martial artist you can be.

Video Transcript

"STEPHEN KOEPFER: On behalf on Expert Village, my name is Stephen Koepfer of New York Combat Sambo in New York City, and today we're going to show you Sambo combinations. Okay, this Sambo combination is going to be a striking combination, a strike throw combination, and we're going to start with an open-hand strike to the face into a kick-up throw or a "podhvat." Basically, to off a grip, what you're going to do is use your open-hand strike and it's always important to open-hand in a real fight so you don't break your knuckles on somebody's bones, okay? So, when you step in for the throw, you're going to open-hand strike to the face, continue your motion through, wrap the arm, go into your throw. So, we'll do it one time slow so you can see. You enter, strike, throw, come down for a followup strike afterwards. Always remember to keep a grip of your opponent's arm. We'll do it one time fast now."