| Road to World Pankration Championships Begins on Saturday |
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| Written by Dom Velando | |||||||
| Monday, 20 April 2009 15:45 | |||||||
 This Saturday, the Lake of the Torches Casino in Lac du Flambeau, WI will host yet another high-profile combat sports event in the North American Martial Arts Challenge. The division winners of the Pankration open tournament will be seeded for the US Team Trials in June. Dave Sixel, whose team went 8-0 at KOTC: Insanity in mixed martial arts competition, is also the president of the USA Federation of Pankration Athlima, or USAFPA. According to Sixel, his organization is the only one recognized by FILA, an international organization that supervises Olympic wrestling. FILA classifies Pankration as a style of wrestling, which gives the sport leverage in one day being recognized by the International Olympic Committee. In 393 A.D., the original Olympic Games were banned and then revived in 1896, but Pankration was never reinstated. Though the winners of the team trials will not end up at the Olympics, they will go on to represent the U.S. in the World Championships in September, and it's a safe bet that Wisconsin will fight there. "We've always had people from [Wisconsin] make the world team," Sixel said. "I mean look at Jon Friedland. Jon has been a part of [Team] USA Pankration for years now. How I think I got nominated to be president of the organization [is] because we always had a strong backing in the Wisconsin area." As for the relationship between Pankration and MMA, the differences are miniscule and yet vast, not only in terms of the rules (for instance, full-contact strikes to the head are not allowed, but a strike that grazes the head is worth one point), but because Pankration tends to be identified with karate and other such "traditional martial arts (a term I use with no arrogance or disrespect)". As a sport that dates back to the 7th century B.C.E., Pankration carries with it ancient cultural customs; from the Greek terminology to the traditional uniforms to the ravdos, a stick that the referee smacked disobedient competitors in ancient competition, but is now only used to signal to the judges. Sixel has ensured that this tournament will follow the very same rules that will be used at the World Championships in Lithuania. Team USA members can rest easy because of the familiar rules, but because they won't be footing the travel bill on their own. "The USAFPA is a non-profit organization," Sixel said. "All of our tournaments that we do, every single tournament...all the proceeds from the tournaments go right back to the USAFPA and that's used for the international travel. So, say you won your kilo division and you made Team USA; the proceeds from those past tournaments and sponsorships or whatever go to help you make the trip to Lithuana." Aspiring pankrationists can register for the open tournament the day of the event at 9 a.m. Please see our events calendar for more information.
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Douglas Moore
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... Ernie Paulson and Alex Lundgren from Team Covenant BJJ both cleaned up in there divisions too! Way to go guys! I am so proud of those guys for all their hard work and dedication. I think you'll see more great things from those guys! Just curious as to why when Ernie put on a straight knee bar the fight was stopped and the ref said he couldn't perform a straight knee bar and in the rules meeting it was clear that straight knee bars were legal? |
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