Book Description

Pankration was the mixed martial arts of antiquity and the most spectacular event of the PanHellenic festivals. There were two distinct forms: ano pankration which was standup fighting that featured striking with the closed fist and open hand, kicking, elbows, knees, clinching, takedowns, throws, trips, and submission holds. The other was kato pankration which Plato tells us was more favored in the Olympic Games and emphasized grappling techniques and groundwork. Ano pankration was preferred in training or served as preliminary matches to the rougher and longer kato contests that were held later in the day. Pankration vanished in 393 A.D. but would be reconstructed in the Twentieth Century (circa 1969) by Greek-American combat athlete Jim Arvanitis. It was his vision that history would repeat itself and the essence of pankration - integrating various martial arts techniques for fierce combat competition - would come full circle and become as popular as it was in ancient Greece some 2500 years before. In 1973 he was featured on the cover of Black Belt magazine, which was the first exposure to pankration's history and its modern derivative to the global martial arts community. This book, Arvanitis' thirteenth, focuses on the ano pankration skill-set. It covers Jim's development of the tools and their tactical applications for the modern world from his continued research and analysis of ancient remnants combined with his formal studies of both Western and Asian combat systems. Numerous photographs and ancient Greek renderings supplement the informative text throughout.