Pagration - Pangration - Pankration

[Brian R. VanCise]

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[Doc_Jude]

funny, I saw a book on Pankration at B&N & I was flipping through it & realized that it's written by some guy that hates on Hatsumi all the time about how Ninjutsu is totally unverified and sketchy, while Pankration is a reconstruction from friggin' statues & grecian urns and stuff. I thought that was so laughable. Like the Pankration episode of Human Weapon, I was watching it with my friend who's a History grad student, specializing in Greek/Hellenistic period, & he was like,"Pankration? There is no pankration. What are they going to do?" & it just turned out looking like MMA. & then they said,"We did MMA first!" :bs1:

 

[Langenschwert]

There is no pankration.

I generally don't look to historians on what is and isn't legitimate in the MA field. There are still medieval historians who buy all the bunk about medieval knights using 20 lb swords and relying on "brute strength" in combat and whatnot rather than skill. Some have never even heard of the medieval fechtbuchs and the masters that wrote them.

True, there is no lineage in mondern Pankration. It is a modern reconstruction, but a well-documented one. We owe its reconstruction largely to Jim Arvantis, who's been doing this for a long time. Before you dismiss modern Pankration, take a look at his work.

Of course it's going to look like MMA or Vale Tudo. There are only so many ways to mess people up with your bare hands. Lust like German longsword (a reconstruction from period manuals) bears a striking resemblance to koryu kenjutsu, but they're not the same thing. It's an example of parallel solutions to similar problems. There are only so many ways to mess a person up with a yard of sharp steel.

Best regards,

-Mark

 

[socalpankration]

This is Pankration in the US