Study and Training Methodology for the Reconstruction of Pankration by Mike Cartier (Dec 2004) Historical Martial Arts Reconstruction requires a methodology to be successful , a basic outline of steps to be taken to achieve better historical accuracy and also practicality which should be a natural by product of proper historical accuracy. For if what you reconstruct is not martially practical and effective then you have failed. - Goals Use of Primary and Secondary Sources to build a historically verifiable list of striking, wrestling and training methods so that Pankration can be practiced and tested in a combat sporting environment to help examine the effectiveness and historical accuracy of the reconstruction. Starting with the premise that Historically Accurate equates to being Combatively Effective. - STUDY METHODOLOGY Primary Sources - Use relevant archaeological images (proper historical age and place of origin) and literary descriptions as your primary sources. As the closest connection to the art we have its importance in the scope of the study approach cannot be overlooked or understated. The sources can be vase art, wall reliefs or mosaics , iconography, descriptions from literary sources by contemporaries. Any form of written word related to Pankration, Boxing or Wrestling and its sport, training or techniques is invaluable -The age and place is quite important, Pankration can be broken into 2 historical categories Greek and Roman. Greek heroic to classical age Greece is our best connection to the art whilst the later Roman Pankratium saw a degrading of the techniques with the introduction of the Cestus and the over attention to gore and blood so prevalent in the Roman entertainment. The primary value of the Roman sources is their close proximity in time and place to the original Greek Pankration and the competetive environment it existed in between the Greek city states. Secondary Sources -Western Grappling has many existing styles which, while not giving us an actual link to Pankration can give us a good basis in Western Style grappling physics. These arts include, Greco-Roman & Free Style Wrestling, German Ringen, Norman Wrestling, Catch as Catch Can Wrestling, Sambo, Swiss Wrestling and Lutte Parisian . We cannot glean actual techniques from these arts and call them Pankration however, this is why they are not considered primary sources. We can however use the physical concepts involved in these arts and their associated techniques to help us understand the mechanics of techniques we find in our historical sources. We can also use these secondary sources to fill, out the missing areas in our knowledge of Pankration. -Cross reference your interpretations with other like minded martial artists and reconstructors. Only through shared information can we build a solid bedrock of historical referenced and evidenced information regarding the actual techniques and training methods used in the Sport of Pankration. TRAINING METHODOLOGY - How we train is as important as what we train, Pankration is not so much a martial art but a Sport where many different techniques were used in the bouts. The sport defines the art, so the rules need to reflect the reality of Pankration when they are tested. This is not to say we should smash each other in the face repeatedly ith maximum force, its simply an acknowledgement of the role that the rules of Pankration played in its existence. It is probably better to pad oneself and the opponent more rather than to limit certain strikes, its better to fight on a padded mat than to limit the throws etc. In this way we can safely use the techniques of Pankration without perverting it with too many modern rules. -Why a training methodology? because reconstruction of a long dead combat sport requires its implementation and application testing to come from within the combat sport environment. Realtime resisting opponents where you can test the concepts of the art for practicality and effetiveness. The closest sport to Ancient Pankration is modern No Holds Barred or Mixed Martial Art fighting. While still bound by many more rules than Pankration was NHB/MMA has some great lessons to teach us in reconstruction of Pankration. Some of these lessons are how to train for realistic fighting safely and effectivley in such a way that develops actual fighting skills or the proper mechanics to use in the execution of techniques displayed in the historical sources. -Trust in the sources, Pankration was a very brutal and effective art, practicality is a test all Pankration techniques should be held accountable to. If your reconstruction or interpretation of the technique is not working go back to secondary sources for knowledge on the mechanics and physics involved and go back over the interpretation. If it still doesn't work and if others try it and it doesn't work, question your interpretation. Never doubt the effectiveness of Pankration as a martial art, The crucible of combat sport develops an array of skills and attributes directly beneficial to personal unarmed combat. Rules are what define the combat sport, the more rules the further away from the reality of open freestyle combat the sport becomes. Keep your sport as close to the rules of Pankration as possible. The rules define the Sport and therefore the Art. So with that in mind lets create a few base rules to define our outlook on Pankration. These rules serve to define the meaning behind reconstructing Pankration Historically. 1. Techniques or training methods without historical sources or at least theories with some sort of corroborating historical evidence is pure guess work and is not a historical reconstruction no matter how effective or practical these arts may seem in modern sport combat or self defense. 2. Existing arts cannot offer historical revelations into Pankration as anything other than secondary sources. Greco-Roman or freestyle wrestling is not Pankration and is only barely related to it. Using Greco-Roman as your only source for Pankration is inaccurate and misleading. Greco-Roman wrestling is removed from Pankration and its related boxing (pugme) and Wrestling (pale) arts by at least half a millenia and may in fact have more in common with Norman styles of wrestling than true Greek wrestling which is an art very closely related to battlefield martial concepts contained in the related Greek Martial Art Pammachon. According to Kostas Dervenis a prominent Pankration historian who has been working on reconstructing Pankration since the 80's. Pammachon and Pankration are not the same thing. The Greek word "kratos'" means "control" in essence, and has come to mean "government", "state", "nation". Ares was followed into battle by Kratos and Bia (violence). Pammachon refers to battle arts and close quarter combat; Machi (battle), and machaira (bladed weapon) have the same root Mach-. Hence pankration is in essence submission fighting, a sport with established rules and regulations where the purpose is to force the opponent to submit or establish control over him, while pammachon is how to fight and kill. Kostas Dervenis will have a book out sometime in 2005 on Pankration 3.Practicality of use. Techniques developed in a vaccum of theory are untested and cannot give practical feedback, as such all theories must withstand the scrutiny and stress test of being used in realtime against resisting opponents. The reconstruction of Pankration should take place in an environment of sporting self defense wherein either sporting Pankration rules or ancient No Holds Bared rules can be used. 4. Each and every technique, strike, submission, training method and philosphy should have historical references and sources or at the very least have a theory built upon evidence to legitimize the theory based upon some sort of historically verifiable source. 5. Modern martial arts and combat sporting events have alot of evident truths that help iluminate the fog of time for the reconstruction of Pankration and so are not to be dismissed out of hand. These are secondary sources though and should not be used as primary evidence of theories because no modern arts can trace themselves to Pankration with any reliable evidence. In fact the modern NHB/MMA has many more rules than Pankration. 6. All historical martial arts reconstruction should be sure to clearly differentiate the historical elements from the modern elements. Implied meanings to interpretations not backed up by evidence other than one persons experiences is perfectly legitimate but it needs to be clearly marked as such and seperated from the historically based elements which should serve as the core of Historical Art. In this way a truly historically accurate Pankration matial art can practiced and this accuracy in techniques and concepts can be supplemented by modern knowledge but not at the expense of the historical Interpretation. 7. Why is it important to be historically accurate? Why not simply lump together Boxing/kickboxing and Wrestling and call it Pankration? Because that would obscure the truth of Pankration which is quite distinct in history apart from other martial arts. Only two times in human history has the truly open rule set been applied and setup as a sport to nourish a truly free and open rules martial art. Classical Pankration and modern NHB/MMA. These two instances in time share very many details due to the simlarity of the rules and its effects. The most important effects of the open rule set is a chance for multiple theories of unarmed combat to openly test each other to expose weaknesses and strengths. What should the end result be? A historically accurate and combatively effective martial art that needs to be tested in as live an combat environment as you care to create. Obviously the more closely your testing rules mirror those of actual Pankration the better. Does that mean to do this you need to bash each others brains out? Only if you want to, but the concepts can still be tested with a safe environment of modern padding, and minimal rules that still allow for as real a test as possible within the confines of your level of control.

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