An Answer To the American

Most of you know I take a very keen interest in Politics and I don’t mean the Martial Arts kind. The waiting to see what will happen with the results of the Election is frustrating to say the least so I need another outlet. Some weeks ago a friend of mine from the USA told me to have a look at a web site called World Wide Grappling; it is one of those sites where you can have your say. Several years ago I enrolled in one of these sights as they had attacked me over something I had written, what a mistake. These sights just become a vehicle to insult people most of the time what they write is not factual and some cases they just lair, lots of time they are used by people trying to promote themselves as experts sadly to say this sight seems no better. I never ever reply using these sights but occasional you have to put the record straight and I use my own Blogsite for that. The article is quite a long one but if you are like me at the moment got nothing better to do then have a read
The articles started to appear last year when Steve Koepfer told me I could not run Frees style Sambo events my reply can be seen on the Blog, since then Steve has been to England and his team participated in the British Open Sombo and done extremely well, although we never spoke on the subject of Free Style Sambo as the subject never arose.
My Camcorder Grading system and my links with my CombatSombo Group came under some rather tasteless comments yet never once has anyone of the writers contacted me direct that says a lot about them rather then me.

This was taken from the site and written by Darren Richardson it is exact copy
strange on the write up i saw written large teams from france, usa and germany!
france 4 fighters
usa 3 fighters
germany 1 fighter.
no women no kids, sounds like the movie 'leon' there is a real problem in the uk. 30 wrestlers for that a national championship 8 international and 22 from the uk?
if you say a thing about this you have the threat of being banned from events?
its very poor.have to say the sambo was first class, shame new fighters were refered to as 'cannon fodder' were not there to gain experience and pass on new skills learnt. they would deserve respect for entering after all. you have to start some where dont they?#what do you think?

No where in the article do I say there were Large team (read www.britishsombo) The kids were cancelled because of a drop in numbers and as the article states I was going to cancel the whole event but because of the Foreign entry I continued with the Senior event informing everyone that it was with a poor turnout. As for banning Darren from the event that was a liar he could not enter because of a knee injury. How many fighters did Darren put in two that 50% of his Sambo Club membership


Next is an article by Steve Koepfer
Well, as I am here in the US, I can't speak directly to how sambo is run in the UK. But, in terms of what I see on the net, there needs to be MUCH more productive marketing. What just like you do? And based on this year's event, definitly diminished interest. From the outside, it seems Martin is spread too thin with too many other non-related things like pankration, etc. 100% must be on sambo. Unless you can multi Task and have an organisation to back it up just like I have I would also update the BSF website which looks very unprofessional and amateurish.

Certainly Amateurish as I do it myself we can not afford a web master as we do not have the money that our US counterparts seem to have and where is it not up to date?


Martin's article is clearly biased towards his own guys. It is unfortunate that the "official" write up on the BSF site has to raise politics and internet squabbles...it is kind of oxymoronic (This means pointless or foolish) and not worthy of a piece about the tournament. Especially when Martin has also used the net to make very public criticisms and accusations in the past. There are venues for that, What like World Wide Grappling just not an official event result piece. Calling young, new guys "cannon fodder" seems insulting to me.but truthful After all, it is the new guys that will keep the sport going. They need to be encouraged to participate, not discouraged. It certainly was not a good "journalistic" article. (yet read by many people) It seemed self serving to me.

Of course it was self serving I am trying to promote the British Sombo federation I am criticised for making my comments public yet they have open sight condemning me “What’s good for the Goose is good for the Gander”

As far as the event goes, yes there was some real good Sambo being played even it was a small event. The folks that did come were top notch guys and very cool to hang with. But, it was a small turn out, which is unfortunate when compared to past years. We had a great time there, but were surprised at the turn out. Why you were informed by email the exact numbers Our impression was that past events had much more participation. The possible cancellation of the adults was a shocker (thanks to Martin for not cancelling). But the fact that there were no youth competitions was unfortunate.

I have to laugh at the fact that Martin has his own "Martin Clarke" Flag! That was funny to see...LOL

I was the main sponsor for the event and that was my logo

I also had to laugh at Martin's comments about Anthony's match. The ref (Robin) clearly did not allow Anthony any time to grapple anyway. To admit that there was worry because of Anthony's good grappling, and to admit that they wanted their boy to stay on his feet seems interesting...in tandem with the fact that in that match Anthony was never allowed to grapple even when obviously working on a sub. In other matches, he was given time to finish his subs (he has 3 sub wins). But, in the final, he was never given the chance. I am not saying Anthony would have won, but it would have been nice to see him given the opportunity.

Watch the video on YouTube Danny beat Anthony 12 points to Nil and when you watch it tell me how many times Robin stopped a Submission


Every event has questions and concerns. And regardless, we had a great time. But I also hope Martin could take these critiques openly and to heart to help future events.

The same goes for me but I would have rather been told direct

More from Darren Richardson
.

martin clarke realesed news that sambo uk was no longer in existance. it seems he was wishing of had his facts wrong. it is still up and running headed by mr paul sawyer. paul is a good friend and very good wrestler himself. im glad there are still level heads running part of Sambo here.

SamboUK President Steve Sweetlove resigned over a year ago and informed me that he had taken no membership in that time except for two. Darren in later comments goes on to say that Paul Sawyer runs SamboUK once again Darren gets it wrong SamboUK was started by Paul Sawyer, Tim Thomas and Steve Sweetlove, Steve has now resigned. Paul has not been involved with membership for three years There were no Senior officials from SamboUK at the British, Steve and Tim were working and Paul was at a Judo competition. Current Clubs with SamboUK are Bournemouth, Dynamo Glasgow, Somerset BJJ, Cage Gasport approx membership 20. At the British 2 SamboUK clubs Somerset BJJ and Gosport 4 fighters in all. It was the first time we had seen players from Somerset and they were most welcome hopefully we will see more of them
As for level headed coming LOL

Darren Richardson writeso we have now in the UK

combatsombo wrestleing

combat sambo(which isnt allowed)

sambo combat(which is allowed)

sombo wrestleing

sambo wrestleing

sambo freestyle (as was freestyle sambo)

no gi sombo???? or is it a kurka?

i cant keep up!

He says that he can not keep up I am not surprised! But I will try and explain
CombatSombo is a style invented by myself see www.combatsombo.co.uk in that style we have the Self Defence system, Sport CombatSombo which Grappling and Striking and the CombatSombo Wrestling which I believe the Americans copied and now call Free Style Sambo. Sambo/Sombo are the same and anyone who is also new to Sombo should go to www.britishsombo.co.uk this will explain the history of the BSF. Never heard of No Gi Sombo Grappling UK will be running a No Jacket Sombo competition later this years join and have a go. The Russian Combat Sambo and Sambo Combat are allowed but because of their rules groin strikes, head shot while on the ground etc it nearly impossible to get insurance cover. The BSF have been advised that it not the sort of thing a Government recognised Sports association should be involved in, hence the watered down version Sport CombatSombo. There is no reason why Darren Richardson or SamboUK can not run an event with the Russian Rules. But use of the word Combat Sambo is similar to my trade mark CombatSombo so I will contest any use of its name, so suggest they use Sambo Combat




When belts were first being applied to combat sambo, it was sombo, and they used the TKD belt system because someone involved in that planning was already familiar with that system. I believe that those who were 8D and higher translated that rank as grandmaster. George Nobles in the US used that title as a 10D, so following that logic, Martin Clarke was aligned with the thinking in the US with Nobles and Densberger.
__________________
Scott Anderson


Sorry Scott totally wrong I based my CombatSombo Grading System on Judo I do not even do Tae Kwon Do I started it in I believe about 1983. I have met Mark Densberger but had no dealings with him and do not know Nobles, As founder of the CombatSombo system I do not hold a grade go to www.combatsombo.co.uk for more information

Finally both Darren and Steve condemn me for not promoting Sombo/Sambo before I defend myself let me say SamboUK has not organised any event for a least two years, to my knowledge Darren has not organised any event since he has been linked with the BSF as for Steve what I read he has organised a few events in USA along side the ASA as participating in the Worlds he brought a team for the Combat Sambo in St Petersburg who were genuine US players as for the Sombo/Sambo the last time the US brought a proper US team was under Josh Henson now the US Sombo consists of ex Eastern Block players.
Every year the BSF run a British Open, Scottish Open pus squad training sessions, Annual summer camp and Instructors Courses, My own British CombatSombo Association run events in England, Scotland and N Ireland so once again people are being misled at best lied to at worst.
Let me give brief history my involvement in Sombo/Sambo I first became involved in the Mid 1970’s when the BAWA were in charge, I was there when they changed the name to Cambo because of the racial connotations of Sambo, I believe Darren was about 7 years old then not sure about Steve. The name Sombo was devised by Josh Henson USA who was one of the founders of FIAS. I returned to Sombo in 1984 when Burt Jacobs asked me to prepare a team for the 1985 World Games which I did, we won 1 Gold 1 silver and 4 bronzes. In 1985 the BAWA gave us permission to form our own organisation the BSF was constituted in 1986 and recognised by the Sports Council as the Governing body for Sombo by 1990. The BSF has sent players to nearly EVERY World championships since 1986, I personally have attended 20 World Championships. In 1989 I along with the BSF organised the First European Sambo Championships to be held in GB and the same was with World Championships I and the BSF run in 1992. I was awarded a Gold Medal from FIAS in 2008 for my services to International Sambo and on the same day I was invited into the World Sambo Elite Club this is a club of the top most influential people in World Sambo membership is just 8 people I doubt whether any honour given to me will surpass that.
So there you have it were Darren and Steve right to condemn me and suggesting I am hindering the development of Sombo I leave that up to you to decide, I have sent the two of them a copy of this before I published so they can reply.
The Worst thing of all its Sunday 9th May 2010 6.15pm and I still do not who whether my party the Conservatives have formulated a government not to worry on my political Blog I will write an article explaining PR

Martin Clarke