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This style is also known as "51 Hands"
Every summer, hundreds of Turkish men wearing only long leather shorts pour olive oil over each other's backs, arms and legs. Then they wrestle for 40 minutes, plus a 10-minute extra session if necessary, often in 100-degree heat.
It's sumo wrestling mixed with salad dressing.
To win, a wrestler must bring his competitor's shoulders to the ground or pick him up and take three steps. Sort of like sacking an NFL quarterback, except for the part about clothes.
"The sport is not without controversy," says James Helicke of the Associated Press. "Turkish pro-Islamic circles say the sport violates Islamic principles and that one move -- in which a wrestler puts his hand down the other's pants in an effort to flip him over -- is obscene."
the three main styles of Sevillian knife fighting: Baratero, the basic style; Gitano, named for the gypsies that originated the style; and Sevillano, refined from fencing and considered the "cardinal art" of Sevillian Steel.
I'd have to say that a number of items on this list are not really "Western" in any geographical, or even cultural sense.angrywhitepajamas said:Don't forget Shastar Vidyaa, The Sikh martial art from the punjab province (may be the same as gatka and kalaripayat but I don't know).
Also have you guys heard anything about the old swedish, norwegian, and icelandic style's. I had read something about the old sword and sheild styles being similar in application to aikijusu, but I can't find the site.
Right... Stav is pretty sad. Like some bizzare cross of I-Ching and Viking runes. For a good laugh though, there's always Hank Reinhardt's Viking video.Gilbey said:I'd have to say that a number of items on this list are not really "Western" in any geographical, or even cultural sense.
There is at least one modern art that claims to represent Viking fighting styles; it's called Stav, and I'm afraid that it is not very highly respected in HEMA/WMA circles.
The real problem is that, apart from mentions of fighting in the Icelandic sagas of the 1200s and 1300s, there are no clear records of exactly how the Vikings fought - no detailed instructional manuals, etc. People can make pretty good guesses based on later historical material and by training with close reconstructions of the weapons and armor, but no-one knows for sure.
Gilbey