2023, Volume 19, Issue 1
Antique wrestling is the prototype of a relatively gentle and honourable self-defence
Artur Kruszewski1
1Department of Individual Sports, Jozef Pilsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Author for correspondence: Artur Kruszewski; Department of Individual Sports, Jozef Pilsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland; email: artur.kruszewski@awf.edu.pl
Full text
Abstract
There is no evidence of self-defence schools in ancient Greece, but there are many historical accounts indicating the military references of the wrestling tradition. The primary place for wrestling training in the Greek system was the Palaestras. Nowadays, however, numerous methods of self-defence derived from martial arts of various cultures are promoted, and a significant increase in interest in this type of physical activity has to do with the emergence of so-called action cinema.
Wrestling combat techniques (especially throws, i.e. those used in a vertical posture) qualify as relatively benign forms of self-defence if they are used precisely in circumstances of necessary defence (abstracting from the use of wrestling as a means of aggression). Wrestling fighting techniques used in a horizontal posture are definitely safer. A denial of the ancient form of wrestling and the continuation of this tradition especially by the Greco-Roman style (also as an alternative self-defence option) is professional American pro-wrestling. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the show was advertised as an essential service alongside hospitals, law enforcement and grocery shops (State of Florida, April 2020). One of the first public presentations took place in May 2021 (Stadium Stampede) as a combination of film footage and live wrestling.
In extreme circumstances, the inadequate motor response of the attacked subject (or those standing in defence of him or her) to an attack by the aggressor ends either in the loss of life of those who have the right to defend themselves or of the aggressor. In the second case, there are two possible interpretations: it is the defending party who either exceeded the legal criteria of necessary defence (the counteraction was inadequate to the threat), or who was competent and determined enough to thwart an unauthorised direct attack, the evident purpose of which was to deprive the life of the attacked subject. Therefore, the simplest method of preparing a person from an early age for relatively gentle and honourable self-defence is for physical education teachers to use, among other things, fun forms of wrestling. The methodological template is the offer of innovative agonology based on the fun forms of fighting in the vertical posture and fun forms of fighting in the horizontal posture.
Key words: innovative agonology, horizontal fun forms of INOAGON, neo gladiatorship, palaestra, vertical fun forms of INOAGON
