Pankration

From 1975 to 1986 I worked mainly with Asian teachers and teachers from the Asian tradition. These included R. W. Smith (U.S.), Hung I-Mien, Chen Yun-ching and his brother Yun-chao, as well as Wu Shaolin(all of these in Taiwan) and the long time student of Wang Su-chin, Marnix Wells (now in London) as well as Rose Li (who was in Manchester and London). Most of these are mentioned elsewhere in this site.

In 1986 when I met Tim Geoghegan I became more aware of the Western side of martial arts - particularly the Celtic, as well as the wrestling, or grappling aspect.

In fact it was Tim who emphasized to me that all of the ancient civilizations shared a common bond of experience and instincts. Tim had much to say about Cosmology from culture to culture and Shamanism. He introduced me to the work of Jacquetta Hawkes and Charles Muses as well as providing other conduits for me to unfold myself; mainly the work of Gurdjieff and Maurice Nicoll.

He made clear to me this “universal” aspect of the martial arts as well as yoga. “The body itself defines them rather than vice-versa... And the body is the first step to self-knowledge.” In Ancient Greece before the caves of the Sybilline Oracle were entered, above the doorway was seen, “Know thyself”. After entering from the other side, the door said, “All things in moderation”. In other words - once you find out what you are - and are not!) you then know how to temper, or train yourself!

So my search for the universal ideals on and of the human body, and how they are expressed in martial arts as well as yoga continued. The Chinese Ba Gua Zhang of Gao, systematic and tactically savvy provided a great theoretical and cosmological foundation - but Tim insisted the same principles were known in the West too.

I was curious about this, had a fondness for clear Western philosophy as well as the indirect and ornate Asian variety - and begin to gravitate towards the Ancient Greeks. I've found that the Egyptians left us a great deal of knowledge surrounding this ideal too, but that's another story!

Around 1995 - 96, I was introduced to “Alternative Education,” specifically the Montessori and Waldorf Methods, and I thusly ended up assisting a Waldorf tutorial class as a Physical Education teacher in Atlanta. I plunged into translations of Bothmer's Spatial Dynamics (he was the man who first developed the Waldorf Physical Education Approach, called “Spatial Dynamics” - (the main school of this study today is in Stuttgart, Germany).

Bothmer's work is as esoteric as any Taoist - and often reminiscent of Taoists - he points to geometry in space as a key in the moral development of the human being. So Bothmer's Spatial Dynamics has echoes of both old Taoist Yoga and Plato's love of Geometry. These ideas are not so much a blend; as points of view on the same object, that is, how the human being can be trained physically to grow as a human soul. The uniqueness of each person in both body and soul is a main point here since each person is unique...At least in Bothmer's theory.

My own view at present is the same - in that each person finds teachers to learn specific things and that no one teacher can meet all needs, nor can any one system of training. Our present age has gone beyond provinciality. It is still however beneficial to be thoroughly grounded in a specific traditional system since that gives one a sense of history, scale and order, and can also prevent one from “re-inventing the wheel.”

From this beginning in assisting physical education, I was further propelled toward the ancient Greeks by way of teaching methods; in the Fifth Grade of Waldorf Education, children are taken through the old style Greek Pentathlon that is, Wrestling, Running, Javelin, Discus and the Broad Jump. Granted, the children are taken through these in milder forms (since the average age is ten years).

Working with children I realized I needed more muscular power and endurance in my body than I had at the time. Interestingly, this realization did not come from martial arts training. I could do forms and bag work and partner work - no problem. This came from lifting, running and wrestling small children! It also came from two very specific activities connected to weaponry - throwing the discus and javelin.

These two activities test the total plyometric range on a horizontal and vertical plane. So my back and shoulder cuff were sore for some time and I realized "Hey, wake up and smell the coffee! Kids take some power to work with AND the throwing muscles of the body need to be made stronger" i.e. javelin and discus.

Moreover, I knew development of these muscles and body movement techniques would help remedy my defective knowledge of wrestling and weaponry and they would further my adequacy in Ba Gua. (By “adequacy,” I mean technical foundation training to be applied later to another subject. The term is from E.F. Shumacher who wrote A Guide for the Perplexed").

I looked at the musculature seen on Greek statues and began to understand what that was for and why. The sculptors had specific proportions based on geometric principles - and all of it coming from Platonic Philosophy... All of it had clear functionality based on how the muscles needed to be used for the ancient primary Olympic events.

Realizing this, I began to add javelin throwing and the discus toss to my training (though my javelin is better!). And I also started doing some heavy weight lifting to develop a back, which could carry kids. This training did not subtract from my Asian Martial Arts training, but rather added quite a bit to my understanding of them.

Since Bothmer hypothesized the Ancient Pentathlon as the core of physical education, I began to write an outline of what I considered to be the most panoramic view of training: going from small children of 6 to 7 years to 18-20 year-olds. At the 6-year-old level are crawl races of different kinds and various animal exercises (climbing, hopping, jumping) to fully develop the child's body.

I looked at the Dennison Brain Gym and at the work of Glen Doman, whose team has done the 'lion's share' of brain-body research around the world. I compiled everything I could on Pankration since it was, for all practical purposes, the ultimate level of unarmed physical encounters for someone of 'College age' or physically mature.

In fact, a comprehensive physical education program has to include a martial or military art, as the psychology of human mortality, that is - life and death, can only be dealt with directly. Besides this, it provides insight into history.

Technically a great deal can be deduced from the Greek Statuary on fighting technique. No one I know of who is currently talking or writing about “Pankration” seems to be using this as a basis for developing physical techniques. If any one is, please contact me as I'd like to swap notes!

The accounts of the Olympics are clear as to what techniques are used. It's fairly safe to say that Pankration, as the Ancient Greeks practiced it, was not simply Thai kick-boxing with Greco-Roman wrestling (which is actually Parisian) mixed in.

There was quite a bit of grabbing as well as open-hand techniques, allowing for grasping limbs and digits. Arm locks would be attempted often, the kicking was predominantly frontal and the main throw was the shoulder-throw, from the outside. Obviously, dislocated shoulders were common. Wrestling by submission was the rule - so 'face-clamps' and 'neck-cranks,' as well as toe-holds would have been stock-in-trade as well as what most wrestlers now would call “hooking.” Open handed spearing and slapping are shown on vases as well as the standard array of trips and sweeps.

Many people today have these skills and the hardened bodies needed to apply them. Some of the so-called “Ultimate Fighters” have the physical foundation for it...

What has not been reproduced in modern times are the strings of techniques in combination (skymacchia) which develop fluency and tempered strength-practiced with and without a partner. Savaté has the even blend of hands and feet, JuJitsu has the locks - but their range of motion is more armor-based, which creates a different set of rules (the Greeks had little or no armor, especially on the limbs), submission wrestling has the holds as well as hip and shoulder techniques. (The musculature forged by shield and spear also is missing at present.)

It may well be that Russian Sambo is the closest thing, since it seems to still be evolving to higher fluidity levels. The Russian Naruchnepashnevoi (sp?for Cossack and indigenous Russian techniques) has more of the soft elements of slapping and slipping.

It may also have been that the Greeks may not have been ignorant of Asia and it is possible they had some working knowledge of Asian techniques.

When I have time, I work on fluency drills derived from Pankration sources, but have not yet had the time for the thorough going study it deserves. I am fairly certain the Greeks would have organized it in the same way they organized their philosophy and other elements of culture. They did indeed have parallels to Ch'i i.e. Pnuema and an accompanying moral and behavioral code linking the practitioner to the higher virtues and the cosmos. The Hindus still show this 'Wrestling as Yoga,' or self-development mentality, and Joseph Alter in his text The Wrestlers Body" has done an excellent service in documenting it. Both the relationship to the community and transcendental powers is emphasized along with health and strength.

Naturally, the research into education and Pankration overlapped when I worked on the Hoplite Dance. The amount of time required to drill men in formation and even get basic techniques in array is longer than many (except those in the military) would expect. And the intense heat - with a steel helmet & face covered - the bare feet in the dirt - dehydrate one at an amazing speed. During the rehearsals, Khilton Nongmaithem, a shield-and-spear fighter from India (see his link in Links), came down and helped us choreograph some of the movements. Khilton is one of the best all-round weapons experts in N. America and I encourage anyone with a genuine interest to visit him in Maryland, where he now lives - and study as much as they can.

During the training for the Hoplite Dance, I quickly understood why the Ancient Greeks waited til they got to the battlefield and then had their armor brought to them! Our spears were Ash but I reckon at 1" diameter too thick, heavy and unwieldy for true Hoplite Spears. But they were stout and with a 6 inch steel head on them we could easily dimple the steel shields we used.

The next time around I hope to build the larger and historically accurate Hoplite Shield of wood and leather. As for the spears - from what most of the reputable researchers (Hanson, Miller, Poliakoff, Snodgrass) indicate, I suspect a 3/4 or even 1/2 inch spear, much like the African Masai Warriors still use - would be more efficient. Finding a spear-head of that diameter is not easy and I'm still looking. The Greeks speak of their spears splintering at first impact - when ranks collided - and that simply will not happen with a 1" ash spear, unless your men go into the height of 6 feet & 6 inches---and even then it would be mighty tough.

The efficiency of the butt-spike or "lizard sticker" is extremely important in battlefield-fighting, as it allowed quick dispatch of anyone going to the ground. [I discovered at one point Chen Pan-ling's Ba gua Single Palm-Change with a spear works as both a disarm and a butt-spiking technique.] Illegal in the Society for Creative Anachronism-but not to the ancient Greeks and Chinese.

I've also seen some reference to spears with a seven inch blade on each end which is similar to Chinese spears and would allow a large variety of draw cuts helpful in shield to shield encounters.

I did a brief return to the Greek Studies last year (2001) when the artist Alan Campbell came through researching a portrait of the Hoplites. He brought some stout young men and we geared up and clashed and I showed them some basic parries, lunges and positions with spear and shield. Some pics are in the Hoplology section.