Wednesday 30 May 2012

Sombo News


Russell Dodds senior Coach at the Bedford Academy is certainly doing a good job of promoting Sombo and the British Sombo Federation. He has already organised a Sombo Competition early this year and has another planned for July. This course was attended by 25 of his students; a lot of them were juniors. British National Coach, John Clarke, and English National Coach, Colin Carrott, both gave the instruction. Well done Russell keep up the good work.

You cannot keep a good man down and that is certainly the case with 60-year-old British national Full Contact Sombo Coach Allen Clarkin. He has run one very successful Level 1 Full Contact Sombo Course and now has another planned for Sunday July 8th. Allen has been involved with
Martial Arts for over 40 years and has a lot of contacts which hopes to bring into Combat Sombo; he tells me he has several clubs in Wales which want to get involved, plus he wants run a Championship Belt Competition for Full Contact Sombo. Now that would be something.

Robin tells me the entries are better than expected for the British on May 5th. We were expecting an extremely low turnout of about 25 because of the cost of travelling and accommodation but the numbers have already reached 60 and the closing date is not until May 3rd so things are looking up. Robin also tells me that CLOSING Date means closing date, none of this “I am a top class Judo player and do not need to book on time.”

Commonwealth Sombo/Full Contact Sombo is on May 17th at Dumfries, this will be a good competition. It will be open to all affiliated country; with regard to UK: if you belong to a BSF recognised Sombo Association you can compete for Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, England or the Channel Islands so starting booking your accommodation now.

The proposed Commonwealth Sambo Association led by a Russian
Judo player (What’s Russia got to do with the Commonwealth?) has caused a lot of controversy on the International Scene as this new group sort to usurp the power of FIAS Commonwealth countries by placing Judo men in charge of Commonwealth Sombo. Within GB the BSF is recognised by all 5 sports Councils and is run by Sombo people for Sombo people. Most importantly it is not run for profit!

Yet out of something that had a dubious beginning some good has come -
The formation of the Commonwealth Sombo Championships, this will decide whether there is a demand for Commonwealth Sombo. It is a shame the BSF has to fund it rather than the Russian who wanted it; also Northern Ireland Sombo federation Chairman, Chris St John, has made contact with Terry Watt, an extremely good Judo man and someone who is genuinely interested in Sombo.

More and More people are approaching the BSF for courses and competitions - this year Britain will see a good contingent of Sombo Players from the Liverpool area; Sue King from Mushin Academy has been pushing Sombo in the area and her members have joined a BSF Association. Well done Sue!

Look out for our advert in Combat and some of our features.


Martin Clarke

BSF President

For more information on Sambo visit: http://www.britishsombo.co.uk/ Contact Martin Clarke at sombogb@blueyonder.co.uk


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