Pankration: The Unchained Combat Sport of Ancient Greece - Paperback

by Jim Arvanitis (Author)

PANKRATION: The Unchained Combat Sport of Ancient Greece is a fully- illustrated guide to what was the cornerstone of the early Olympic Games and Panhellenic festivals. It examines the brutal blood sport based on the author's more than forty-five years of extensive research and practice. Considered the precursor of today's mixed martial arts cage competitions, many historians also contend that pankration laid the groundwork for the development of Asian karate and kung-fu, as well as other fighting styles throughout the world.The content traces pankration's historical origins in mythology and on the battlefield where it was known as pammachon, to its transformation and prominence as an Olympic spectacle. It also explores combat sports of earlier civilizations such as Egypt, Minoa, and Crete as well as the adoption of pankration by the Romans. Boxing (pyxmachia) and wrestling (pale), which formed the foundation of pankration's diverse skill-set are also detailed.Event rules, an analysis of pankration techniques, and training methods are covered along with a listing of all the Olympic pankration champions from its inception in 648 B.C. until the last documented contest on record. Emphasis is given to the role that pankration played in Hellenic culture and its religious connection to the gods themselves. The book includes numerous works of art depicted on vases, frescoes, sculptures, and coins showing pankratiasts in heated action and other combat scenes.This definitive work adds new information to the author's published books, and brings to light the importance of pankration as not only the Original MMA, but as the missing link in martial arts evolution.

Author Biography

Greek-American Jim (Demetrios) Arvanitis is internationally-renowned as Greek pankration's "Renaissance Man." For the past four decades he has devoted his life to researching and rebuilding the ancient combat arts of his ancestors which had seemingly perished and remained defunct for thousands of years. Jim has used his skills as an athlete, competitor, world record holder, author, historian, and his constant media presence to carry the torch of pankration and educate the world of its influence on today's martial arts styles. Arvanitis has written seven books and starred in over 30 instructional videos. He has been featured in hundreds of articles in the leading martial arts magazine and has graced the covers of many of them. In 2010 Jim was named Black Belt magazine's Instructor of the Year, and that same year was immortalized into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame in Southern California. An extraordinary athlete, Jim holds world records for his patented thumb pushups. In 1977 he completed 45 of them in 51 seconds, and three years later would top that mark on the internationally-televised Guinness Book of World Records Game Show with 61 in 47 seconds. Other superhuman feats include single-arm two-finger pushups, elevated pushups on his thumbs, thumb pushups with his arms extended in front of him, and his seemingly impossible one-arm thumb pushup. Arvanitis has taught professionally since 1971 at his academies and seminars in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. His students have included karate black belts, boxers, kickboxers, wrestlers, film writers, bodyguards, law enforcement and S.W.A.T. team members, and military special ops. In 1992, he personally trained the elite Army Rangers for Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf War.