Does Sambo have a ranked belt system? What are the grades of each Sambo belt?
Sambo is a Russian martial art that dates back to the 1930’s and is stylistically similar to Judo. What makes Sambo fairly unique in the world of martial arts however, is that up until 2020, it didn’t have a recognized belt system. Generally speaking, this is fairly rare in martial arts and particularly most grappling arts have colored belts. So, why did Sambo and what did it use instead? Not only this, but why did Sambo introduce a ranked belt system in the first place? We will be answering these questions and more as well as the possible implications that a belt system brings to the world of Sambo and whether this is a good or a bad thing.
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Pre 2020, what did Sambo look like with belts?
Prior to 2020, Sambo didn’t have a belt system in place. Sambists of all skills would wear a kurtka (gi) which would be blue or red – and a matching belt to accompany the colored kurta. For instance, if you wore a blue kurtka then you would wear a blue belt. With this said, there were only two belts that you could achieve in the art, no matter your level of skill.
In some rare cases, you could find a sambist who wore a different colored belt. Although this wasn’t really a thing, there are stories and unusual occasions where people may turn up with a black belt or one with a different color. An explanation for this may be that their gym had its own set of belt rankings.
Whilst this is far from the norm, as with any form of martial arts you will always find particular gym owners doing things there own way. However, on an international level, these different belts would hold no greater ranking than a red or blue belt. With this said, the black belt in Sambo didn’t mean anything, whereas in other arts it often held high prestige.
Instead, Sambo had its own unique set of titles that one could hold, dependent on their success on a sporting level. As Sambo is heavily tied with a culture of competition, this makes sense. For example, often in Sambo you would have regular Sambo focused on points around takedowns and submissions and with combat Sambo you would have again have a ruleset that also involved strikes. For example, Sambo legend Fedor Emelianenko holds the rank of 1st Razyrad Grand Master in Sambo which is based upon his achievements on a sporting level. Similarly, other successful competitors within the field could get titles based on prestige and high status.
The Sambo belt system based upon the International Sambo Federation (FIAS)
Like many martial arts practices, Sambo has a governing body that oversees certain rules and regulations. With Sambo, this group is called the International Sambo Federation (FIAS). This group is responsible for helping establish and overseeing how Sambo is controlled on an international stage. Because of the status of this organization, it can be argued that they set the rules for how the martial art is run – especially on a sporting level.
In 2020, the FIAS decided to bring in a ranked belt system for Sambo which was the first time in over 80 years. We will discuss the positives and negatives of this later. To begin with, the belt system still has the red and blue belts. However, now there are 7 new colors to be earned on the tip of each belt as well as names behind some of the belts. The first belt is called rookie which is the white belt. After this, the belts go from yellow, orange, green, and blue in that order.
These belts are referred to as student ranks. The penultimate color is brown, which is labeled the master candidate, and then the final belt color is black, which is also called the master belt. As well, there are three coaching symbols to earn as a master. This goes from square to hexagon, to circle and all of these show your level of experience as a coach.
To summarise, there are 7 colors in the Sambo ranking system and each belt should be held for roughly one year. This means as a beginner, it should take 7 years to go from white to black belt and from the status of rookie to master. Looking at it from this angle, Sambo has adopted a similar system found in other grappling martial arts such as Judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, where people go from white to black belt over the course of several years.
The pros and cons of a belt system in Sambo
As with all forms of change, some people will welcome it whereas others will see it as a bad thing. Perhaps the most common critique of belts being introduced into Sambo is a loss of identity. In many martial arts, belts are a common thing whereas Sambo was fairly unique without them. Like boxing, you couldn’t tell a person’s skill unless you sparred with them. This provided sambists with their own identity and an air of mystique surrounding the quality of their technique. However, with a belt system this is gone, and Sambo is similar to most other forms of martial arts because of this.
Not only this, but the biggest critique lies in the implications of what the belts will bring to the martial art. In some martial arts, there are definitely people who train to get a belt, just for the status that it brings. For example, some will gain a black belt quickly just to brag to others about their skills. This often leads to a watering down of the martial art as it can attract posers who train for the wrong reasons and bring down the overall skill level of said art. Without belts, this isn’t an issue.
However, there are definite positives that belts bring too. Firstly, the graded system means more organization. One example of this could be a newcomer posing as an expert. Now, they would have to wear a black belt to claim their expertise. If the charlatan cannot prove their lineage then this is one way of proving them wrong. As Sambo has grown globally over the years, this may have been a problem before the graded system.
Similarly, it also changes the dynamic of sports Sambo. As said, Sambo has a close relationship with competition. In some cases, you could easily have sandbaggers turn up and claim to be less experienced to get placed in easier brackets. Sadly this does go on but is more regulated with the introduction of belt colors.
Lastly, it acts as a form of recognition for those who have trained and put the work in. For instance, it is nice to be validated for hours of work in the gym. Whilst critics may argue this isn’t needed in Sambo, it’s also true that Sambo will probably never get watered down. As Sambo is a fairly brutal and aggressive martial art, there’s no real way that posers will come simply to obtain the status of belts. So long as Sambo maintains its approach of heavy sparring, this should not be a problem.
Fedor Emelianenko on the belt system
Fedor Emelianenko is what Rickson Gracie was to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He represented his country and martial art on the world stage and thrust it into the spotlight. Speaking on the introduction of new Sambo belts, he said “We have had and still have a system of grades since the times of the USSR, but for young people and for people who want to practice sambo for health, without participating in competitions, the new certification system is perfect.”
He also went on to say “A person loves sambo, he wants to study technique, and the classification system gives such an opportunity. At the same time, it is better to preserve our traditional sambo uniform and add stripes to the belts that will show the level of the athlete’s skill.” With this in mind, it’s clear that Fedor is a fan of the introduction of belts and can’t speak highly enough of them. As he is a man of integrity, it also speaks volumes that he is complimentary of the belts which bodes well for the future of the sport.
Final Thoughts
For years, Sambo went without the need for a graded belt system. You could argue that if it survived that long then it possibly didn’t need new belt colors anyway. Nonetheless, 2020 saw Sambo change forever as new belts got bought into the art. With this move, it created some controversy among those who saw it as a potential decline in the art, whereas others welcomed it and saw it as Sambo moving with the times.
Regardless of these opinions, this article should help clear up any misconceptions about the status of belts within Sambo. To conclude, up until 2020 Sambo did not have graded belts, instead it only had the blue and red belt which sambists could choose to wear. However, 2020 saw the introduction of a 7 belt system that starts at white and ends at black.
