Prerequisites and philosophical basis of horting
Physical education of a person existed already in the primary society in the form of organized games and entertainment, which were based on labor activity. Even in the era of Kievan Rus, children from the age of seven were taught archery, spear and lasso, horseback riding, and from the age of 12 - real military tricks, that is, the art of combat. The traditions of physical culture and psychophysical hardening were passed down from generation to generation.
From ancestors (Ants, Scythians, Rus), who were tall and extremely strong, the Cossacks led their ontogenesis. The Zaporozhian Cossacks continued the traditions of their heroic ancestors and developed heroic strength and spirit in themselves. In Sich and Cossack schools, various physical exercises were studied on the same level as educational disciplines, the skills of wielding a saber, spear, shooting a rifle, swimming, steering a boat, and hiding from the enemy under water were formed.
Times passed, events occurred, and the best examples of human existence went down in history. But traditions remained that had come down to us from previous generations. Today, in our country, on the basis of enormous economic, social, and cultural transformations, physical culture, sports, and education have become an important factor in the all-round development of the individual. The right of Ukrainian youth and all citizens to systematically engage in physical culture and sports is legally enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine and other state legislative acts.
Combat horting as a product of certain historical conditions for the development of society is a set of historically arising results of people's spiritual activity. The martial arts of Ukrainians have come a long way from the simplest physical exercises, fights and games to the modern national professional and applied sport of Ukraine, combat horting, which is developing in all regions of Ukraine. But for the sustainable development of combat horting, there were undoubtedly both historical and mental spiritual prerequisites, philosophical ways of understanding the combat culture of the nation.
The Ukrainian people had martial arts before, they exist today and, undoubtedly, will successfully develop in the future. This art of fighting, the ability to defend oneself from attackers is genetically embedded in our blood as part of the national culture, which is organically intertwined with its other elements: music, songs, dances, games, work, rituals, traditions, customs, legends and tales.
Using examples of scientific research on the phenomenon of militant groups, our contemporaries have proven that the competitive tradition for many centuries was an integral part of Ukrainian male culture and included both unarmed fistfights and stick and knife fighting. The culture of combat confrontations survived until the end of the second millennium and began to fade away only in the 1950s.
Each culture contains the knowledge and traditions of previous generations. We are not against a person studying and developing the culture of other peoples, but before learning a foreign language, one should learn to speak and write in one's native language, which means that it is necessary to know the combat customs and traditions of Ukrainians. Ukrainian combat culture, tested in real battles with the enemy, in the field of interaction with the Far Eastern tradition of martial arts demonstrates the same trends as Western culture as a whole, with an adjustment for some features of the socio-political history of Ukraine.
Ancient martial arts of Ukrainians. The system of physical and spiritual education, the martial arts of the Ukrainian people were formed under the influence of its climatic, economic and geopolitical conditions. The genotype of the nation is decisive. The genetic predisposition of the people determines its place in history, its contribution to the development of humanity. The people who forget about this quickly leave the historical arena.
The high level of training of Ukrainian warriors was ensured by the fact that from childhood, young people received the necessary training in martial arts during combat games and games. Fist hand-to-hand combat and stick-armed combat were fun, entertainment and a means of training for Ukrainian youth.
When mentioning the features of the male martial culture of ancient Ukraine, the first thing that attracts attention is, of course, the origins of combat horting as a type of martial arts. Conducting a hand-to-hand combat according to professional and applied methods of combat horting is a fight that is fought at the shortest possible distances, alone or collectively, with weapons or more often without them, with the maximum application of all forces to neutralize or destroy the enemy.
It is important to note here that martial skills are only a small part of the skills and abilities that a man had to possess. During the heyday of the slave society (around the 4th century BC), warriors were usually distinguished by their comprehensive development, both physical and spiritual.
In search of the origins of the Ukrainian national professional and applied sport of Ukraine, combat horting, let's look back in time. How deep are our traditions? Who were our ancestors? It is known that in pre-Christian times, our land was inhabited by warlike Sarmatians and Scythians. This is how ancient historians described them. The Sarmatians are still considered one of the most skilled warriors in the history of mankind that existed on the planet. We can safely assume that the traditions of the combat education of our people date back to the Sarmatians and Scythians. An interesting fact is that even on many geographical maps of the 16th–17th centuries, the territory of Ukraine was designated by the name "SARMATIA".
An integral part of martial arts in those days were various games and competitions. They arose and proved their practical significance back in the period when all human activity was determined by ensuring the immediate conditions of existence. Since then, games have been the original and main components of military physical education. They included throwing games, running, balance games, tug-of-war, traditional martial arts, as well as exercises, competitions, and tests with various cold weapons.
Moreover, it was not some set of spontaneous movements, flavored with local traditions, but a clearly developed and polished system of military physical training by time and the experience of outstanding leaders. And the proto-Ukrainian competitive and game tradition constantly supported and improved it.
The Age of Knights of the Kievan Rus' period. In Kievan Rus', physical education developed and was based on centuries-old folk traditions. Folk games, fist fights, and wrestling were the most widespread. Since our ancestors had to fight a lot, the games had the appropriate color. They provided the ancient Russian population with the restoration of physical and moral strength, active recreation, proper health and physical training.
The combat and entertainment traditional custom of conducting fist fights in Kievan Rus appeared presumably in the 9th century and developed in the form of group fights - "wall" fights "bench to bench" and "grab-and-run", which, as a rule, could end with injuries of varying severity. In essence, these were mass massacres using sticks, batons, brushes, lead stash and knives. Only in 1726 did Catherine I in her Decree try to soften the Ukrainian warlike customs of conducting hand-to-hand fights, fist fights, demanding to stop mutilation and not to beat those lying down.
Duel hand-to-hand combats, paired confrontations between men, which were held in Kievan Rus, received various names: "knightly fights", "hunting fights", "hand-to-hand combat", "cross-fighting", etc. They were characterized by certain signs of fighting, high open stances, the absence of slopes, exits and dives; kicks were either carried out or not carried out by agreement, instead, cuts and throwing the opponent to the ground were used. One of the main advantages of a fighter was considered the ability to hold blows and endure pain. In "knightly and hunting fights" punches were mainly used, for which gloves were worn, lined with metal plates, and in "hand-to-hand combat" fighting techniques were allowed, which placed participation in hand-to-hand combat at the highest level of manifestation of knightly courage. The winners of hand-to-hand combat became the leaders of the male paramilitary communities.
The decisive factor in hand-to-hand combat was physical strength and natural "fighting anger", because if the participant in the fight was weaker than the opponent, then he was beaten equally and without fail until his defeat was completely recognized by all the warriors present.
In ancient times, hand-to-hand combat was widely held, fist fighting - a pastime that is a frank hand-to-hand fight with fists, existed in Ukraine from ancient times to the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to entertainment, fist fighting was a kind of school of war, developing in freedom-loving people the fighting skills necessary to defend the Motherland, their territory. To designate competitions, in addition to the common names "hand-to-hand combat", "fist fighting", the following were used: "fists", "battlefield", "fist fight", later the names "hand-to-hand combat" and "fight" were recognized. Hand-to-hand combat, fist fighting have been known in Kievan Rus since ancient times. It is possible that initially they were held as part of special rituals in honor of the god Perun, Archangel Michael, who was considered the patron saint of warriors. After the baptism of Rus, hand-to-hand combat, in which the church saw echoes of pagan rites, turned out to be "outlawed", but among the warlike people they did not become less popular because of this.
A wonderful school of combat training was the competitive holding of Ukrainian hand-to-hand combat among the people. Hand-to-hand combat was so popular that to this day Ukraine has its own military competitive and game tradition. The Slavs, Cossacks were known throughout Europe as valiant warriors. Since wars in Kievan Rus were a frequent occurrence, every man had to possess military skills.
Starting from a very early age, children, with the help of various games such as "lord of the mountain", "on the ice hill" and "little heap", wrestling and throwing, gradually got used to the fact that one must be able to stand up for one's land, family and themselves. When children became adults, the games grew into real competitive and preparatory duels, which are known to us as men's "hand-to-hand combats".
The first mention of such hand-to-hand combats was made by the Chronicler Nestor in 1048:
"For do we not live paganly... with all kinds of flattery, enticed by God, with trumpets and buffoons, and harps, and mermaids; we see that the games are perfect, and there are many people, as if to stuff each other with shame, acting in the fury of the intended deed.".
Fist hand-to-hand combats often took place in Kyiv on Batyiv Mountain, from which the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is visible. It is difficult to argue that Ukrainian hand-to-hand combat could have had a deep philosophical development. It seems that an attempt to look for signs of conceptual intelligence in it is nothing more than the pressure of a stereotype of some other competitive culture. Ukrainian hand-to-hand combat is good in its own way.
The desire to reveal it with the help of an alien scheme will bring nothing but disappointment. However, this does not mean that the combat fistfight that existed in ancient Kievan Rus “does not reach” a serious social program that could, for example, be the subject of Ukrainian national combat culture. And, although wrestling was more fortunate in this regard, we have undeniable evidence that the use of hand-to-hand combat could be a strategic method for resolving the beginning of a ripe armed conflict with a potential enemy.
“The Novgorodians sat down with their horses, and stepped on the kulaks, and the battle was strong, and Mstislav began to overcome” (Radzivilov Chronicle, 1096).
At the end of the 11th century, the Chernihiv and Novgorod druzhinniki were excellent fist fighters, all of whom were perfectly versed in hand-to-hand combat techniques. This quote from the chronicle tells about the battle of Princes Oleg and Mstislav, which took place "in the early morning, at five o'clock after Thursday of Fedorova Nedeli", the Novgorodians, dismounting and switching to hand-to-hand combat "with fists", dispersed the squad of Prince Oleg Svyatoslavovich.
As two centuries ago, beating without the use of weapons made it possible to avoid bloodshed, but at the same time forced the enemy to abandon further resistance.
As a result of historical research, it turned out that there were leaders and teachers of martial arts - real historical figures, and their schools of hand-to-hand combat date back to the era of Yaroslav the Wise in Kievan Rus. Today it is difficult to say what kind of schools these were. It is only reliably known that the Chernihiv and Novgorod people skillfully kicked ("And another fool came in with a sock, he spit on his ear"), fought on bridges and clearings, and when striking with their hands, they actively used their forearms - "a blow in the half-arms."
It is reliably known that hand-to-hand combat in Kievan Rus was practiced in three forms. These were fights “one on one” (one on one), fights “wall on wall” – “bench on bench” and clutch fights – “clutch-dump”. Probably, the oldest type of mass hand-to-hand combat should be considered “fights on a holiday”. There are many names for this fun, mainly of a local nature: clutch fight, dumpster fight, dump fight, bare-handed (hand-to-hand) fight. Another name that survived until the end of the 20th century in a children's game is “small heap”. A comparative analysis of this type of fist hand-to-hand combat allows us to distinguish another popular variant of it, namely the “bench on bench” fight due to the fact that it represented a confrontation between two groups of fighters who fought without observing order, in a dispersed manner. The task of this type of fight was to induce the entire enemy ranks to flee.
The ancient Ukrainian hand-to-hand combat seems wild, but no less wild, no matter how much modern culture and civilization gilds them, and English and American boxing, French wrestling, Spanish bullfighting, etc. If modern culture and civilization get along with all this, if they can arrange entertainment for themselves from the blood, suffering and deaths of people, the spectacle is not culture, and it is not civilization.
Hand-to-hand combat is an independent cultural phenomenon of ancient Ukraine, which existed in Kievan Rus. It uses calendar rituals, as a custom of a sacred action, but outside of this ritual, hand-to-hand combat takes on an applied, and independent of the calendar, meaning. It is known that the Cossacks, even before the full formation of statehood, fought with their fists as a pastime in their free time, being in the army at their own request.
Hand-to-hand combat is an integral part of the folk martial culture of Ukraine, like any other. Ukrainian hand-to-hand combat (rukopash) is a reflection of Ukrainian traditional culture and living conditions of the Ukrainian people, the fighting customs of men. "The Tale of Bygone Years" tells the story of Yan Usmoshvets (Kozhumyaki), who killed a bull with his bare hands before a fight with the Pechenegs, and then defeated the Pechenegs.
Thus, earlier, due to the lack of more or less detailed scientific research works on Ukrainian hand-to-hand combat and fist fights, they were unfairly treated incorrectly as a phenomenon allegedly created by the exceptional unculturedness and ignorance of the Ukrainian village. Hand-to-hand combat, fist fights in Kievan Rus were not senseless cruelty or a barbaric rite, as they are often presented by non-professional "experts" of Ukrainian traditions.
Hand-to-hand combat was organized not only in the village. Although less common, they are still found in cities, and here a completely different population, the urban one, takes part in these fights. Hand-to-hand combat (rukopash) is the oldest Ukrainian entertainment, popular, for example, during Maslenitsa.
Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, the martial art of our ancestors was revived in new types of martial arts, among which "combat horting" should be especially noted. But the disappearance of the history of Ukrainian hand-to-hand combat is the deprivation of Ukrainian culture, its protective shell, the security of its borders. Combat horting as the art of conducting hand-to-hand and armed combat with the enemy is a shell that supports the unity of the combat culture of Ukraine.
It is known from history that for this reason such forms of military-applied art were developed, with the help of which the mental state of a person was tested. In such situations, numerous emotions were aroused, to which it was necessary to practice impartiality or use to increase psychophysiological activity in relation to the conditions of combat. For example, outwardly it was necessary to be able to demonstrate rage, fierceness, frenzy, and internally - to maintain complete calm.
Kievan Rus spent two-thirds of its existence in wars, which allowed to accumulate a huge experience of martial arts. The heroism in Kievan Rus, the valor, courage and bravery of warriors, their sacrifice for the sake of victory was based on the way of life and the upbringing of knights. In Kievan Rus, people were not afraid of death and were prepared for it from birth. They prepared for death as for another unearthly life, and to die for the Motherland and for "fellow soldiers" was considered a great honor.
The use of combat vehicles dramatically shortened the time between campaigns, changed the terms of combat training, and dramatically improved the military qualities of Ukrainian soldiers - they could fight for several days, defend themselves, and pursue the enemy, never tired, and always won, sometimes in a significant minority and often with virtually no losses.
Interestingly, in our time, some martial arts enthusiasts are trying to revive Ukrainian fistfighting, even holding fights, including "bench to bench." It is obvious that for centuries, fistfighting faithfully helped to temper our ancestors. From an early age, boys learned the art of fighting from their elders, and also exchanged experience with their comrades. Boys who were well versed in the art of fighting enjoyed respect not only from their peers, but also from their elders.
A wonderful school of combat training was Ukrainian hand-to-hand combat, with its effective self-defense techniques. Boys learned to fight, participated in a male game of any age - fist fights. Hand-to-hand fights of children preceded fights of adults.
Hand-to-hand fights were characterized by a clear succession of generations: grandfather - father - son. Grandfathers told their little grandchildren about past courageous campaigns, passed on the art of survival and conducting hand-to-hand fights in their most effective family methods, which were passed down in the family from their great-grandfather.
Through traditional festive hand-to-hand competitive fights (wrestling, hand-to-hand, fist fights), boys developed not only physical qualities, they got used to high self-discipline, responsibility, which is also noted in Ukrainian folk proverbs: "Take up the stick, don't say that you are not strong", "A fighter for a fighter to the victorious end", "I fight for the child, and for the whole family".
The youth learned to obey the elder – “The word of the chieftain is the law”, learned about the meaning of the hierarchy in the team “The truth is strong with the chieftain”, learned to understand the power of the team – “A group takes cities”, “A single person grieves, but a village fights”, “Alone in the field is not a warrior”. In addition, the young men learned to be brave, took an example from the most skilled senior warriors: “God gives to the brave”, “The father is stronger than a stone”, “The work of the master is afraid”, “For one beaten one, two unbeaten ones are given”. Hand-to-hand fist fights also educated morality, fights were called “amicably”, “for love”, “lyuboka”, in which they participated at their own will, “of their own free will”. Rules and agreements strictly regulated relations during confrontation. For example: the rule “Do not have a heart” forbade going into battle too angry, with hatred, bitterness or out of personal revenge. “Not having a heart” means that the heart (the mental state of the participant in the fight) must be in balance so that it does not flare up with angry feelings: malice, cruelty, hatred.
The rules were aimed at this: “Do not beat a lying person”, “Do not have bookmarks”, “Do not enter from the back”, etc. Dangerous techniques, “crippling blows” and methods of fighting that led to deliberate injury to the opponent were prohibited. Hand-to-hand combat, wrestling were an essential and necessary part of male education and hardening. This education took place clearly, openly, in front of everyone, which led to preparation for success - “They will not kill in battle, and they will not leave without a bride”. All the villagers came to watch the fights festively dressed, and the girls looked out and chose their grooms here. There were several types of fights.
Ancient Ukrainian martial art gained wide popularity only relatively recently, although its origins are lost in the history of ancient Kievan Rus. Some of the basic techniques of this art have been preserved, but, of course, the modern form is significantly different from ancient Ukrainian. With the development of the general culture of our nation, the art of fighting also developed.
Even if you pay attention to only some facts from the military past of Ukraine-Rus, it becomes clear how developed Ukrainian martial art was. It is known that the Rus' went to take Constantinople with a squad of 800 people and defeated the enemy, defeating the enemy, who outnumbered them several times.
Thus, combat horting is a universal phenomenon and belongs to all eras. Even in ancient Kiev, the capital of Kievan Rus, there was a custom to periodically gather residents of different city-states for holidays, fun and games, which included wrestling and fist fights. Strong men of that time thus demonstrated the advantages of champions and the perfection of the human organism in all areas in which it can be revealed.
During holidays, fun and games, the winners were awarded prizes and glorified the cities and settlements of ancient Ukraine that they represented. Rivalry during competitive confrontations served to unite the community in public life.
Ukrainian martial culture, Slavic culture had a perfect system of martial arts and military training, about which, strangely enough, we know much less than about general cultural arts, literature, artistic creativity, folk architecture, pottery (making ceramic products from clay), songs and music. Therefore, the study of this layer of national martial culture is quite relevant, because the Ukrainian people have always had a desire for physical strength, spiritual perfection.
Ukrainian peasants and peasant women were distinguished by great physical strength. Strong, brave people enjoyed the honor and respect of their fellow villagers, because chubby and weak peasants never had to count on the respect of the "rural world".
The whole way of life, the worldview of the Ukrainian people, fighting customs and traditions created a system of physical education, optimal for our anthropogenic type and climatic conditions. All without exception, rural Ukrainian children participated in games that provided good physical training, developed thinking.
A characteristic feature of ancient Ukrainian fighting styles: a fast pace of hand-to-hand combat, the absence of clear stances, the predominance of blows over grabs (and blows, including kicks, are made with a diarrhea, without fixation) and a high maneuverable stance. A favorite youth pastime was wrestling, which in the combat horting methodology is today called a "wrestling fight".
Ukrainian folk wrestling is tough, athletic. It is characterized mainly by a short distance, hard oblique snatches, kicks, foot grabs, throws across the chest, various holds. There were two types of fights, when the confrontation began with a struggle for the grip (as in modern combat horting) and each wrestler sought to take his grip, and when the wrestlers took the grip established by the rules before the fight, the most common of which was the simultaneous grab by the rivals for the belt, “cross-wrestling”.
The time of the fight was not regulated - they fought until victory. As a rule, the opponent’s throws and holding were considered a victory, depriving him of the opportunity to resist. By agreement, there could be a different definition of victory.
The vastness of Ukrainian forests and meadows, a healthy lifestyle, many hours of daily stay in the fresh air, associated with peasant labor, the traditional desire for a high-moral lifestyle, all this for centuries forged people of a particularly strong temper among Ukrainians. A person with heroic strength has long enjoyed special respect in Kievan Rus. There seemed to be no village or town in which legends about a local strongman who once performed miracles of heroism and stood out among all with extraordinary strength were not passed down from generation to generation.
Given this, it is easy to assume that in ancient and medieval Ukraine-Rus, among the fighters who perfectly mastered the effective techniques of hand-to-hand combat, there were people of exceptional strength and agility. It remains only to regret that, for objective reasons, detailed descriptions of their athletic feats could not reach us. And were there any such descriptions? The large number of strong people in Kievan Rus did not allow them to rise in the eyes of contemporary historiographers to the rank of a miracle, about which it would be worth leaving epistolary documents.
How many such oral traditions were preserved among the people, say, about brave fist fighters who regularly participated in hand-to-hand combat village to village, hut to hut, etc. Interestingly, the training of such fighters was considered very important, especially in case of military operations, and this has been the case in our land since the time of Svyatoslav the Brave (10th century).
The rule, which was included in the Steering Book (a collection of church laws), punished with excommunication from the church anyone who would be noticed in hand-to-hand combat and such entertainment. But church laws could not stifle the people's love and desire for physical tests, fistfights, military-Cossack games and other entertainments and combat management.
We have also come down to us stories about the exploits of the ancient Russian squads of Kievan Rus, which were based on well-developed systems of training professional fighters and militia. We see that ritual, ceremonial actions, starting from the 4th century, gradually develop into elements of male combat education, as well as tournament training before combat operations. In some places, ritual battles on Ukrainian lands survived until the 19th century.
When considering and studying the formation of the traditional martial art of Ukrainians, its inextricable connection with the development of the general culture of society is traced. The study of the period of formation and development of the Ukrainian martial tradition, starting from the first mentions of Kievan Rus (VI century) to the modern state of the combat horting, allows us to show the uniqueness and value for the Ukrainian culture of the combat tradition of the Ukrainian people.
So, let's summarize. The Ukrainian martial custom of conducting hand-to-hand combat in those times, as an element of traditional culture, was a component of the following relationships: a person in faith and the eternal sky - all the holidays of the agricultural cult, in which the fight and struggle symbolized the masculine, fertilizing beginning, together with the combat dance was a magical rite of Ukrainian warriors; man and earth - a ritual fist solution of territorial disputes; man and man - birth, matchmaking and wedding, family relations, preservation of traditions, the process of transferring knowledge to subsequent generations, burial (trezna), etc.
Thus, the Ukrainian national martial tradition of conducting hand-to-hand combat was first mentioned in the chronicle in 993. In the primitive communal system, a person very often had to engage in various martial arts. In such hand-to-hand combat, tactical techniques and certain skills were formed. Randomly found techniques, invented tricks became the property of people. This is how the rudiments of folk types of fighting and skills for conducting military confrontations and combat operations were created. The fates of many peoples were decided in numerous wars. And the outcome of the main decisive battles often depended on the art of warriors conducting martial arts. Ancient Ukrainian man sought and found such methods of martial arts that would ensure his victory over a dangerous attacker with minimal risk and the least expenditure of effort. Thus, along with labor skills, ancient Ukrainians also mastered hand-to-hand combat techniques, which were passed down from generation to generation.
Little is known about the development of the martial art of hand-to-hand combat in ancient Kievan Rus. The reason for this is the lack of ancient literary sources devoted to this topic. Until recently, it was believed that the first mention of the martial art of the Slavic-Ukrainian people was in the "Lay of Igor's Campaign".
Of course, not one of the ancient martial arts of Kievan Rus has survived to this day. Rather, the genetic memory of the Ukrainian people about the peculiarities of martial arts techniques, about a number of simple techniques, quite limited in all senses of the word, based on the physical data of a person, in simple terms, at first it was waving hands or feet in the hope of hitting the attacker at least somewhere, and later these skills were improved to the level of a dangerous martial art.
To be convinced that Kievan Rus had all the prerequisites for the emergence of its national traditional martial art, one only has to recall its history. Centuries-long internecine wars, constant wars with the Pechenegs, nomadic Polovtsians, Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, Germans, Lithuanians were constantly waged. It is logical to assume that in such conditions an effective traditional martial art of Ukrainians can and is capable of developing and improving, capable of competing victoriously with any other. Thus, it can be confidently asserted that Kievan Rus had its own unique system of training warrior-knights, who passed the exam not in the corridors of foreign monasteries, but on the battlefield, as befits a fighter-defender of their land. However, the Ukrainian traditional consciousness in those days did not attribute the ability to conduct hand-to-hand combat to the sphere of art. But historians are right that Ukrainians had skilled warriors – warriors who were professionals in their martial art.
Professional hand-to-hand combat is no more a game. And it was connected with church religion no more than a fist fight. Rather, on the contrary, professional hand-to-hand combat was considered a sin, but a sin forced by the need to fight for one’s life, for freedom, for one’s land, for faith, for one’s family, etc. The emphasis on finding a military path through hand-to-hand combat, especially through its professional direction, was placed not only in Kyivan Rus’, but also much later in the Cossack era, which is imprinted in the fighting customs of the Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Sich.
Cossack era. In Ukraine from the 14th to the 18th centuries, the Zaporozhian Sich was a source of spiritual inspiration. It was there, in the Sich, that our ancestors drew inspiration to fight for freedom. It was there, in the Sich, that the spirit of freedom was rampant, which each time raised the Ukrainian people to cleansing liberation wars. The Cossacks held brotherhood in great esteem.
Each Cossack was ready to give his life for freedom, for the land where the graves of his ancestors were, for relatives and brothers. As a sign of brotherhood, they exchanged body crosses, and everything else was common. They gave each other horses and weapons. In battles, they fought side by side and saved each other or protected each other with their bodies. Brotherhood gave great strength. It was one of the secret reasons for their invincibility.
It is also known that until a certain time, a domestic competitive and fighting culture was widely practiced and developed on the territory of Ukraine. In addition to Ukrainian Cossack hand-to-hand combat (rukopash), there were also stick fights, knife fights, wrestling, various types of equestrian competitions, a large number of games aimed at developing agility, ingenuity, speed, strength, mobility and endurance. And all this was really cultivated by the Cossacks in practice, and was not reduced to a cult. Ukrainian competitive tradition within the framework of youth fun developed a boy, a young man, a man physically and psychologically at different stages of age development.
A boy, barely learning to crawl, began to "fraternize" (fight). From the age of eight, boys were already going out to "bait" in front of real adult fighters, hoping for their praise. For a long time, starting to prepare for hand-to-hand combat, the boy felt like a defender of his land, a real man, then he had to go through all the stages of the "wall": "growths" (teenagers in the adult Cossack ranks), ordinary fighters, "old men" (experienced fighters), "wedges", desyatniks, fyatidesyatniks, sotniks, and maybe charakterniks and kuren atamans and, finally, "mages".
Hand-to-hand combat between men in themselves is a very exciting spectacle and a difficult physical and moral test. Here you can show your determination, strength, courage, agility, cunning, and courage. Therefore, they spontaneously arose wherever young people gathered.
In any hand-to-hand fight, general strict rules were observed - not to fight with prohibited means, and special rules called - "agreements", which established a choice in the strength of blows immediately before the hand-to-hand fight.
The fight could take place in a free manner, because the ancient Ukrainian fighting tradition of hand-to-hand combat "blow for blow" is known from history, when the blows of the opponents were inflicted on each other in turn, like shots in a duel. Grapples were practiced in wrestling fights. Kicks were used in a real open fight with a real enemy, and were not allowed in a collective fight "bench to bench" - a festive power entertainment of the Cossack tradition.
In addition, in the wall - "bench to bench" "promotions" with blows and work with your back to the opponent were not allowed. Hand-to-hand combat and fist fights began with "passion": teenagers would start a "grab" or fight, and ended with a "wall". The task of teenagers included the mental establishment of the entire mechanism of confrontation. Here, as, for example, in caroling, a special children's function is visible.
Over the Cossack greyhound (circle) - a battlefield, a square for holding fights between representatives of Cossack kurens, such a genre of children's folklore as mockery dominated. It was picked up by adult men, but already in the genre of "chats for a fight" and loud support. Finally, men in an open field stood in a wide circle (creating a greyhound for holding fights) and competitive fights began between the strongest representatives of the Cossack kurens.
Returning from the campaign, the Cossacks divided the spoils, then went for a walk. But drinking alcohol during military campaigns was prohibited. The death penalty was provided for drunkenness during hostilities, as well as for treason. No army in the world had such requirements. After a few days of walking, the Cossacks returned to everyday life.
They got up before sunrise, trained in martial arts, went to the river to swim, ate rye flour with water and fried oil. Everyone carried their own spoon in the boot boot. Then everyone set about their work: some mended, some ironed their clothes, repaired tools or mended weapons, others worked at the boats and horses, and did the household chores.
Young men competed in horseback riding, shooting, threw themselves at each other, and fought, but, of course, in the Cossack environment, everyone from young to old constantly and persistently learned the basic skills and abilities – the techniques of hand-to-hand combat.
Expelling the enemy from their native land, the Cossacks took many young boys with them to the Sich, and gave them to the kuren for military training. When the boy turned 14, the Cossack who brought him took his pupil to clean his weapons, train his horse, and help him in every way on campaigns, that is, to raise a future skilled warrior from the young man. At noon, a cannon was fired from the tower. This shot was used to call for lunch. In the evening, dinner was served. After a good meal, the Cossacks gathered on the square or above the Dnieper for fraternal hand-to-hand combat, fun, songs, jokes, and dances.
When necessary, they began to prepare for a new campaign, and this preparation included training in the ability to conduct combat operations in various tactical situations. But for crimes against the Cossack army, various punishments and executions were prescribed.
In the form of fines, punishments, executions for crimes and violations, the following were used: tying to a cannon for contempt of the authorities, for a monetary debt; flogging with a whip for theft and looting among the Cossack community. The most popular execution of a traitor was beating with beech sticks and stones. Gallows were also used. The most terrible was burying the criminal alive in the ground.
It did not matter who was in front of the Cossack - an old beggar or an old chieftain, respect for the life lived remained equally high. Understanding that age takes its toll, and a person is no longer objectively able to perform this or that work, the younger Cossacks always helped their older fellow villagers in everything. In their presence, they became more reserved, more careful. If an old Cossack warrior entered the house or at a meeting, the Cossacks stood up, and when meeting an old warrior on the street - they bowed.
In addition, young people were not allowed to sit, smoke a pipe, or talk without permission in the presence of older Cossacks. Cursing and contradicting an elder was an unheard of crime in those years. It was impolite to overtake an elder in age - you had to ask permission to pass by him. The elders were allowed to enter the hut first, and then the young people entered.
It is also worth noting that in the Cossack environment, older people had great authority: their one word was enough to resolve any conflict between young men, be it a fight or an argument. The Cossacks did not just hate, but frankly did not tolerate cowards, regardless of their clan. A coward-enemy could not count on an easy death. The Cossacks were men of action, and they often said: "Excessive words weaken hands."
History knows practically no examples of traitorous Cossacks. Having fallen into captivity, they, without revealing secrets, died the death of martyrs. The Cossacks believed that if they broke their promise, they would certainly pay with their souls after death. Cossack games were invented to temper the most diverse qualities of a Cossack, including games for physical strength, speed of reaction, and unconventional thinking.
The soldiers of the Cossack units of the Zaporozhian Sich were not simply not afraid of death or despised it, but in combat they rejoiced in it, as according to the law of Cossack character - death for the good, dying for freedom and faith with joy and a smile on their faces.
In their free time, the Cossacks often gathered in a group, stood in a circle, and constantly fought hand-to-hand combat with each other, but a frequent entertainment for them was also the “bench to bench” competition: two groups of Cossacks gathered and lined up against each other. The Cossacks held their hands clasped at the elbows in the form of chain links. At the signal of the old Cossack judge, the two teams attacked each other. The purpose of the confrontation is to push back the opponent's "bench", topple or tear it apart.
Hand-to-hand combat, in turn, was a fairly common pastime throughout the world, especially in the military environment. The Ukrainian Cossacks were no exception, and even more so, they gained great experience in conducting hand-to-hand combat. The higher chances of victory were not for the stronger, but for the more experienced Cossack, who "had repeatedly poked the muzzle of death and knew the capabilities of his body."
Such hand-to-hand combat already gained better self-control and partial psychological readiness for a real combat clash with the enemy. In ancient times, similar hand-to-hand competitions were also held in the lands of the Dnieper, Zaporozhye, and Tavria in the Cossack circle.
History has known constant competitive confrontations among the Cossacks on the square of the Zaporozhian Sich, where hand-to-hand combats between representatives of the Cossack kurens were conducted openly and solemnly, in the presence of the entire Cossack community. All this contributed to the much faster training of a skilled warrior, since a boy joining the units of the people's insurgents in the Zaporozhian Sich did not have to be trained from scratch.
At that time, in the Cossack environment, the corresponding skills and abilities were accumulated and acquired the features of a kind of martial art, which had a military-applied direction. All of the above fully applied to other units of the Cossack army, which also firmly preserved and developed the Ukrainian military-Cossack heritage, including martial arts, which provided a system of skills for unarmed combat, possession of cold weapons, because the skills of possession of firearms were too unified and correlated more with knowledge and skills of tactics.
It is known from history that the Polish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian nobility, and later the Moscow nobility, often gave their sons for upbringing to the Zaporozhian Sich: it was believed that only there, among brave warriors, could one receive special physical training and temper the spirit.
It was the Zaporozhian Sich that was the birthplace of Cossack valor and the military spirit of that time, the stronghold of a multi-thousand-strong army of warriors, who established for themselves the rules of the highest discipline in the breaks between campaigns and self-sacrifice during the campaign. Khortytsia was a refuge for warriors, where martial arts were constantly improved both for the purposes of conquest and for the purpose of protecting their native land.
Tournaments between the strongest warriors, representatives of Cossack kurens and hand-to-hand combats were held almost constantly and for various reasons: to determine the leaders of kurens and hundreds, at festivities and holidays, in order to reconcile quarreling Cossacks or even groups of Cossacks, fights in a live circle of Cossacks - "horti" were held not only on the central square of the Sich, but also in any other place, both during campaigns and during rest in order not to lose and maintain real combat skills in the event of a deadly fight.
In the Cossack horti (an open circle of Cossacks), participants in hand-to-hand combat went out without weapons, taking them off in advance and giving them to their comrades in the kuren. If a Cossack went out in a horti for a competitive fight to defend the honor of the kuren, then the entire hundred cheered for him.
In such fights, it was allowed to wrap hands in rags, but the supervisor (the name of the aged Cossack who watched the hand-to-hand fight inside the circle) made sure that no stones were wrapped in the rag, that there were no hidden weapons in the pants, and that the participants in the fight were always sober, otherwise the punishment was the removal of the right to vote at Cossack meetings. Going out to the hort (Cossack circle) in a drunken state to conduct a hand-to-hand fight was considered unworthy of the honor of a Cossack, because his comrades and commanders of the formations cheered for him. It is known that among the free Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Sich, who endured the hardships of military life and participated in campaigns together, there were representatives of about 40 different nationalities. Among such a large international community in the Zaporozhian Sich, the main groups were represented by Slavs, as well as representatives of the Tatars, the Romance group, Austro-Hungarians, Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Turks, the Asian group, Jews, Gypsies and even some Arabs and Africans. The law was the same for everyone - to respect the general laws and rules of the Cossack brotherhood, to live honorably, to take care of one's health and to adhere to military tradition.
Representatives of any nationalities could also participate in games and hand-to-hand combat, the main thing - to follow simple rules: not to bite, not to climb into pants (this means not to grab the groin), not to gouge out eyes, not to break fingers, not to wrap stones in rags wrapped around fists, and not to hit an opponent's head on the ground. Everything else was permitted by those original rules.
Hort (Cossack circle) - the place of a hand-to-hand fight was marked on the ground by drawing an approximately regular circle with a stick, or the territory of the hort was marked on the grass by driving small stakes or tree branches into the ground. Fights were held without taking into account time, until one participant in the confrontation sat on top of the injured opponent, practically until one of the opponents lost consciousness.
At the moment of an apparent victory of one Cossack over the other, the supervisor gave the command to stop the fight, separated the fighters by pulling the upper participant in the fight away from the lower one, so that the latter would not have the opportunity to maim or mortally wound the opponent.
These old rules of Cossack hand-to-hand combat of the Zaporozhian Sich, after its disbandment by Catherine the Second, later passed to the Don and Kuban Cossacks, in particular the Slavic military art of the Kuban Cossacks "Buza", which is successfully developing in the south of Russia, has direct roots from these cruel ancient rules of conducting hand-to-hand combat between Cossacks.
The ancient cruel life forced the Cossack leadership to discipline the Cossacks in this way, to ensure collective survival, maintaining the combat capability of their warriors. Even modern fights without rules would not be comparable in cruelty and reality to those hand-to-hand fights that the Kosh chieftains conducted between the kuren in the Cossack hort on the square of the Zaporozhian Sich.
In addition to hand-to-hand fights, constant training was carried out with various cold weapons, the main of which were: the Cossack saber, knife and stick (straight staff, approximately 150 cm). But it is known from various historical sources that in Khortytsia the Cossacks also constantly improved their skills in using a short and long axe, maces of various sizes, spears and steel rods. Pistol shooting was also an important element of training for the Cossacks.
In the period between the campaigns, competitions in self-defense skills were held in the Sich, which gave the Cossacks the opportunity to improve their practical skills. The upbringing of physically and morally perfect men was largely ensured by a fairly effective system of physical training, which included: initial selection of young people; their physical education in Sich schools and dzhur schools.
During the Cossack era, young boys (wrestlers) traveled through Ukrainian lands and competed in strength with village boys. Victory in such fights was very highly valued by the peasants, and the winner became a hero of the boyar community for a long time.
Analyzing scientific literature, historical documents, folklore and ethnographic materials, it can be stated that in the Zaporozhian Sich there was a strict and progressive cult of physical perfection of a person for that time.
This was due to the fact that: the Zaporozhian Cossacks never elected physically imperfect people as foremen; practically all Cossacks devoted their free time to physical exercises and personal combat training; one of the main criteria for a young man to become a "true" Cossack was his physical fitness; in Sich schools and jur schools, enhanced physical education of children was introduced; there were a large number of legends and tales about the supernatural abilities of the Cossacks.
The combination of the cult of physical perfection and high morality and spirituality created true knights, the elite and pride of the Ukrainian people. Its physical culture, developing on its own national basis, did not have a closed and limited character. At the same time, absorbing the best examples of European culture, the physical culture of Ukrainians in its social meaning and orientation was based primarily on the customs and traditions of their people.
During the recovery period between military campaigns in the Zaporozhian Sich, there were methods of herbal treatment, folk methods of wound healing, methods of health-improving physical exertion were used for recovery and for preventive purposes, means of health-improving breathing and performing health-improving physical exercises to maintain proper health, competitions in self-defense skills were held, which allowed the Cossacks to improve practical skills.
In the second half of the 18th century, a Ukrainian national school of military physical training actually emerged. Its founders were Ukrainian military commanders and unit commanders. The main provisions of the training of a Ukrainian soldier were set out in the first methodological recommendations and military books (1750–1800). These recommendations attached exceptional importance to the mastery of bayonet possession in hand-to-hand combat, which at that time was effectively accompanied by armed confrontation.
Thus, the idea of reviving the combat, cultural, and health-improving traditions of the Zaporozhian Sich in the form of modern combat horting, as a comprehensive system of personal self-improvement based on physical, moral, ethical, and spiritual education, is associated with the revival of ancient folk traditions of all ethnic groups and nationalities that inhabited the lands of Ukraine.
Pre-revolutionary era. The methods of conducting hand-to-hand combat in the pre-revolutionary army were not systematically taught - even in "special units" (although fighters who had already mastered some of the basics of conducting combat "privately" were recruited there). In Soviet times, mass training of soldiers of Ukrainian origin also mostly remained on paper, but this methodology changed somewhat during its development. In addition to various schools of early applied single combat, the Red Army also had applied hand-to-hand combat, elements of which were sometimes combined with confrontation with an armed enemy.
Over time, the intensity and density of fire became the most important part in open armed clashes. Hand-to-hand combat became episodic and, it would seem, began to lose its significance, but in reality this was not the case.
In the complex and rapidly changing environment of a brutal military battle, anything is possible. And a sudden clash with the enemy in the forest, settlements, as well as at night is quite real. In addition, the skills of using techniques in hand-to-hand combat for reconnaissance and special forces units are simply necessary for unexpected clashes with the enemy, taking prisoners, removing guards, escaping from captivity and many other specific tasks and situations of military life.
The mandatory program of the then predecessors of the commandos included the so-called "free combat" (aka "unarmed combat"), hand-to-hand combat with the use of short weapons (with knives and an unarmed soldier against an armed one with a knife), bayonet fencing and skills of confronting a bayonet fighter without weapons.
Countermeasures against weapons with a long blade (sabres, checkers) and revolvers were not studied enough. Not because it was a rarity - techniques against the archaic knife in the 30s had to be known. It was simply believed that "superficial" training in defense against these types of weapons would still not ensure complete neutralization of the opponent. The 1920s were marked by a surge of interest in complex martial arts.
But, although not all of them were under the full control of the special services of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD), complete lack of control was no longer characteristic of that period: combat training instructors were usually employees of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, and not everyone who wanted to could learn hand-to-hand training from them.
Gradually, the most effective hand-to-hand combat systems were classified. Just at that time, legal practice began to actively prosecute citizens for "exceeding the limits of self-defense." Combat techniques could now be mastered only "for official use."
In the conditions of the ancient Ukrainian way of life, the main forms of physical culture and the main means of physical education remained the methodology of studying hand-to-hand combat techniques, wrestling, fights, equestrian sports and games, and among children - outdoor games, reflecting in their content the regional way of life of a certain region, a certain part of the territory of Ukraine.
An important event of all-Ukrainian, and in particular Ukrainian purely sporting significance, was the holding of the All-Ukrainian Olympiads - which historically was a kind of resonance for the Games of the first modern Olympiads. The first such Olympiad was held in Kyiv in 1913, where by that time the first stadium in Ukraine had already been built. The Kyiv Olympic Committee was created to organize and hold the All-Ukrainian Olympiad.
Soviet period. Ancient Ukrainian psychotechnics, supplemented by the best Indian, Tibetan and Chinese teachings about unusual physical and mental phenomena of human physiology, top-secret psychophysiological research work on the study of the theory and practice of activating and using hidden human capabilities began to be carried out in Soviet closed military research institutes.
There were closed programs of the third department of the NKVD to study human superpowers, when trained employees selected children gifted in extrasensory terms and trained them in intelligence schools.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, all types of martial arts in Ukraine ceased to be closed in on themselves and began to form alloys with each other and with international systems of fencing, wrestling, boxing, and foreign systems of combat training. Sometimes one of the international schools was preserved in its pure form for a long time, for example, Greco-Roman wrestling. It enjoyed incredible popularity in Ukraine. Boxing as a "pure" martial art, and not as a component of hand-to-hand combat, appeared in Ukraine in the 1890s.
In addition to various early-style schools, when Ukraine was part of the USSR, there was also applied hand-to-hand combat, and martial arts training in the Red Army with the use of weapons was sometimes combined with the study of methods of confrontation of a soldier against an armed enemy. The mandatory training of "commandos" included "free combat", hand-to-hand combat with the use of short cold weapons, bayonet fencing.
Later, the "special methods" were tested at special military intelligence facilities of the special forces of the airborne troops, whose units were located on the territory of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR).
A special forces soldier of the airborne forces of Ukrainian origin - a superfighter - could go without water and food for a long time, including superpowers, carry out long militarized marches through ordinary terrain, show immunity to pain, self-recover after injuries and conduct combat operations using extrasensory abilities, psychic attacks, and perfect hand-to-hand combat skills in emergency situations.
Now all these techniques have been finally formalized into a fundamentally new type of auto-training of the combat horting system, aimed at revealing and using the reserves of the human body in extreme situations. This psychophysical training allows you to attract the resources of the subconscious through working with images using the method of entering a combat trance, both in the professional and applied direction of combat horting and in general health care.
Formation of interethnic relations. From history we can say that in the international community the old local and national isolation is being replaced by a comprehensive connection and comprehensive dependence of nations on each other. This applies equally to both material production and spiritual life. The fruits of the activities of individual nations become common property.
In Cossack Ukraine, all physical culture, all means of physical education were used by the people on an amateur basis, since there were no bodies managing these processes. Therefore, the original folk practice of education could not take shape into a developed system.
Before the beginning of the First World War in Ukraine, there were 8 thousand active sports enthusiasts united in various sports teams or clubs. There were about two hundred such clubs. In the difficult 20-30s of the twentieth century, during the period of "Ukrainization", an active scope of physical culture and sports work in the Dnieper Ukraine was again observed.
Starting from 1921, the All-Ukrainian Olympiads were held, later called the Spartakiads. If 300 athletes took part in the All-Ukrainian Spartakiad of 1923, then in 1927, more than 20 thousand participants took part in the IV Spartakiad. Representatives of some other countries, Germans, Czechs, etc., were invited to the final starts. The sportsmanship of Ukrainians also grew, as evidenced by the first places taken by the Ukrainian national team at the All-Union Spartakiad in Moscow in 1928.
Martial arts at that time developed exclusively as an applied art. Of great importance for the personnel provision of the sphere of physical culture was the establishment in Ukraine of institutions of physical education and science: the State Institute of Physical Culture in Kharkiv (1931) and technical schools of physical culture in Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk and Artemivsk. Since 1931, the Ukrainian Research Institute of Physical Culture has successfully begun to function.
A specialized sports press appears, the rules of sports competitions are printed in Ukrainian. National cultural upsurge is usually accompanied by the rise of a physical culture and sports character. A vivid demonstration of this thesis are the events in western Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century, when world sport has already emerged as an independent sports phenomenon.
It is during this period that the beginning of the organized Ukrainian physical culture and sports movement in Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia falls. The activities of Ukrainian sports societies and clubs of Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia cannot be considered in isolation from the general cultural and educational movement of Ukraine.
Historically, various forms of organization have been formed for the effective development of the sphere of physical culture and sports. In Ukraine, as in most foreign countries, in addition to widely branched amateur sports associations, state, regional, municipal bodies of coordination and management of the sphere of physical culture and sports have successfully functioned. State management was carried out mostly in the form of specially created ministries, committees, departments or administrations, which are entrusted with the responsibilities of coordinating and managing sports and health work.
The organization of physical culture and sports, as well as professional physical training in departments, is carried out by committees, sports societies and clubs specially created for this purpose.
In 1988, by decision of the All-Union Central Committee of the USSR and the Council of Trade Unions of Ukraine, all trade union sports societies were united into one “Voluntary Physical Culture and Sports Society of Trade Unions “Ukraine”” (SFST “Ukraine”), which was created with the aim of organizing physical culture, health and sports work with workers in the production sector, and the cooperative-trade union physical culture and sports society “Kolos” – with workers in the agro-industrial complex and residents of rural areas. In 1995, the Spartak SV resumed its activities, leaving the structure of the SFST “Ukraine”. Until 2001, the voluntary sports society “Gart” operated, created to organize and coordinate work on physical education in educational institutions of all levels. On its basis, the current Committee on Physical Education and Sports of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine was created. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has a Sports Department, and in the regions there are Army Sports Clubs (SKA). Employees and civil servants of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine are served by the departmental sports society "Dynamo", which has its own regional divisions.
To represent railway athletes in international organizations, within the framework of the State Sports and Technical University of Ukraine "Ukraine" there is the Lokomotiv Sports Society. For the same purpose, the Ukrainian Student Sports Union (USSS) was created. In Ukraine, structures of the Paralympic movement, the Association of Veterans of Physical Culture and Sports, the Disabled Sports Federation, etc., are also created and operate.
At the regional and local levels, various amateur sports, sports and recreation, physical culture and sports clubs, sports clubs, sports clubs at the place of residence are formed. In the following years, professional sports clubs and sports leagues appear in Ukraine. All these organizations developed power sports, physical training and professional and applied sports, similar to combat horting.
According to the Law of Ukraine “On Physical Culture and Sports” (2002), state policy and legislative regulation of relations in the field of physical culture and sports, as well as control over the implementation of State Programs for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports, are carried out by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
At certain periods of time in Ukraine, the central body of state executive power in the field of physical culture and sports management was: the Union of Sports Societies of Ukraine; the State Committee on Physical Culture and Sports; the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, which ensured the implementation of state policy in the field of physical culture and were responsible for its implementation.
In 2005, the Government of Ukraine assigned responsibility for the development of the sphere of physical education and sports to the newly established Ministry of Youth and Sports, later renamed the Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sports (which was later renamed the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine). As stated in the National Doctrine for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports (2004), the state implements measures aimed at the formation and further improvement of the sphere of physical culture and sports.
In modern society, when state-wide, non-state and industrial relations have been established, such a level of development of physical culture could no longer satisfy new and much higher requirements for the improvement and education of the younger generation. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not only to which we should strive.
The Decree of the President of Ukraine “On the Development of Cossacks in Ukraine” (2001) creates a favorable atmosphere for the active spread and development of the national professional and applied sport, the foundation of which was largely influenced by the traditions of the Cossacks. Combat horting, as a national martial art and an applied system of training warriors, is currently experiencing a period of active revival and development.
The sports organization of combat horting pursues the only correct policy not for exclusively “national culture”, but for the “international culture of Ukrainians”, which includes only a part of each ethnic group of Ukrainians, a segment of national culture, namely: only the consistently democratic and combat content of each national culture.
International forms of physical culture do not pose obstacles to the development of combat horting as a national form of physical culture of Ukraine, but, on the contrary, contribute to its development and improvement. This speaks of the authority of combat horting, its high general level of development as a national form of physical culture of Ukrainians.
This process is a necessary condition for the formation of a new person, comprehensive development of the personality, improvement of lifestyle using all types of physical education. Combat horting, actively participating in this process, acts as one of the important factors of internationalization of the entire spiritual life of the Ukrainian people.
In Ukraine, all aspects of physical culture and sports are being internationalized by means of combat horting. A vivid example of this is the fact that other sports and games, various national forms and means of physical education are also being internationalized in our country. The main, leading trend in this is the emergence and development of common features in national cultures.
It is this trend that leads to progress in combat horting as a national professional and applied sport and an effective type of physical training for the people of Ukraine, opening up new prospects for it, especially since the World Federation of Combat horting has extensive experience in internationalizing the national sport of our state, holding sports competitions in combat horting in many countries of the world.
In this regard, one cannot help but see the similarities with modern sports competitions in combat horting. From the very beginning, spectators of international competitions, watching various demonstrations of strength and agility, enthusiastically greet their compatriots, to such an extent that sports competitions increase national pride or even a kind of chauvinistic Cossack swagger. Our audience loves when Ukrainians win.
Traditionally, in Ukraine, victory has always been valued higher than a record. Of course, in our time, the purely physical achievements of combat horting athletes are perceived separately from the music, singing and other stage effects accompanying the competitions, and the religious and ritual significance that the holidays and games originally had is now completely a thing of the past. However, in modern sports competitions in combat horting, despite all the changes, the symbolic meaning of ancient Ukrainian games and traditional competitions of the Cossack era is palpable.
It should be noted that the proto-Ukrainian epic regarding ancient combat, health and sports and entertainment traditions, on the historical and philosophical foundation of which combat horting is based, develops in two completely different registers, symbolizing, respectively, "combat" and "cultural" folk traditions.
No matter how far away ancient Kyivan Rus or Zaporozhian Sich are from us in time, these two historical generators of our folk traditions are still able to captivate a wide audience of coaches, athletes, scientists, historians, readers, and ordinary citizens who share the same values and unanimously admire the main heroes of these two historical eras: the Kyiv prince Volodymyr the Great, Yaroslav the Wise, the Kosh ataman Ivan Sirko, the famous Cossack leader Ivan Bohun, etc.
Both of these eras demonstrate to all humanity the strength and power of the warrior's fighting qualities, which are embedded in the Ukrainian genetic code. They are called upon to educate young people in the spirit of harmony and strength. One historical literature glorifies the military exploits of heroes, servants, who are the embodiment of exceptional strength and courage, which allowed them to despise wounds, suffering, and even death.
The second historical literature describes and depicts sea voyages, the discovery of unknown lands, the founding of new settlements and cities. In it, the main values are intelligence, ingenuity and cunning, without which the heroes could not overcome the dangers that await them and return to their homeland in Kiev and the Zaporozhian Sich.
In the history of mankind, there are examples when some other systems were formed in the same way as combat horting, in an original way, gradually, by trying out new things and rejecting everything that did not give the desired results in practical activity.
Many systems of physical education and martial arts were formed by a group of people under the requirements of certain circumstances or even by individual people (for example: the system of military-physical training of Zaporozhian Cossacks, the system of Olympic training of freestyle wrestlers, combat, sports, police, military-applied, Cossack horting and horting fencing, as well as a number of systems of Japan, Korea, China, India, etc.). We also know a number of systems that were formed by state bodies of countries (ancient Greek, German, Swedish systems).
At the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, in many countries of the former Soviet Union, as well as those that were part of the socialist commonwealth, the sphere of physical culture and sports was integrated into the global market environment. This objectively leads to the emergence of qualitatively new processes and phenomena in it. Significant changes are taking place in the system of socio-economic relations in the industry, new forms of ownership and management are being formed, which actively affects the behavior of all participants in physical culture and sports activities.
Combat horting, in turn, has gone through a certain difficult path of testing by time, effective training methods, high competitive competition, public assessment and ordinary public opinion. At the moment, by its nature, physical education by means of combat horting is a process aimed at increasing or maintaining at a certain given level the functional capabilities of the organism due to a certain system of influence, that is, it is a controlled process.
Therefore, by its essence, combat horting is a process of managing the adaptive functioning of the human body. Thanks to effective and proven methods of training athletes, physical education in combat horting can give the desired effect, because it is carried out according to a clearly defined system with an effective definition of means, methods, methodological techniques and forms of organization, and precisely corresponds to the goals and objectives of Ukrainian society in the field of physical culture and sports.
The definition of the conditions for the emergence and development of combat horting as a national professional and applied sport of Ukraine, a system of physical and moral and ethical education of the individual lies in a certain level of maturity of society, which is characterized by such features as: interest of society; the presence of a promising ideology; the presence of the necessary level of development of material support; the appearance in local communities of an appropriate critical number of combat horting specialists.
The reasons for the emergence and development of the combat horting system are divided into subjective and objective.
Subjective - the further development of the social consciousness of Ukrainians: as a result of work experience, people over a certain period of time were able to realize the effect of physical fitness, that is, to establish a causal relationship between the previously conducted training and the positive results of work.
Objective - the need to work, train, develop, make tools of labor, pass on from generation to generation accumulated sports, labor and military skills and abilities, as well as cultural and spiritual traditions.
At the same time, a range of types of training and sections of competitive martial arts have taken shape in combat horting, based on philosophical, sports and socio-psychological factors. If for an ordinary person, combat horting as a martial art has only an applied aspect, and is aimed at protecting the interests of man and society, then for a specialist and master of combat horting, the spiritual aspect acquires no less significance - martial art becomes a means of individual self-improvement, a way to include oneself in the sphere of world harmony.
For combat horting, based on a complex of moral principles, martial arts techniques are a means of psychophysical regulation of the individual and achieving a higher goal. Any throw, grab, bend or blow is not valuable in itself, it becomes another step on the path to realizing the ideal of a Ukrainian warrior who has strength and honor on a certain ideological background.
Based on history, combat systems are an integral part of the history of the Ukrainian people. They tempered the patriotic spirit, carried out physical and technical training of the population and professional soldiers who stood in defense of Ukraine. Imbued with folk culture, martial arts based on it have been the main guarantor of the self-preservation of the Ukrainian nation for more than one century.
Thus, based on the origins of combat horting, in Ukraine combat and military traditions are passed down from generation to generation, from ancestors to descendants. The practical significance of military-physical education remains relevant today. It acts as a means of not only physical, but also moral, psychological and spiritual development of a person, educating him as a conscious citizen and patriot of his state, his people.
Our ancestors went from Turkey to Austria-Hungary, were able to hold this territory, protect their independence and territorial integrity. How many times enemies, striving for world domination, stumbled upon Ukraine, were defeated by our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. Each generation in Ukraine took part in military conflicts and battles.
The revival of combat horting as a combat, cultural and health-improving tradition of the people, which has lived on the lands of Ukraine for many centuries, is logical and natural.
The system of training, character education in the most brutal hand-to-hand combat, in which all possible self-defense techniques were allowed, the improvement of skill and the acquisition of the competitive spirit of the Zaporozhian Cossacks formed the basis of combat horting as a sport and a system of combat training of a warrior.
Although several centuries have passed since the times of the knighthood of Kievan Rus, the Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Sich, private health-improving systems, folk skills and methods of treatment, sports, combat and applied martial arts are still being revived and developed on these lands. The genetic memory of the people plays a significant role in this. Unfortunately, there are practically no people left who adopted the Cossack martial art from their distant ancestors.
Therefore, today a group of honored coaches and masters of sports in contact martial arts, guided by personal sports experience of participation in competitions of the highest level, their own feelings and age-old traditions, created a new type of mixed martial arts and professional and applied training - combat horting, which is successfully developing in amateur and professional sports, recognized in Ukraine as a national professional and applied sport.
The development of combat horting aims at the sports education of a strong and healthy society based on the traditional spiritual values of the Ukrainian people.
Combat horting as a sport, or rather those types of its competitions that originate from military martial arts (hand-to-hand combat, wrestling combat, self-defense, fencing, etc.), is the environment in which, in modern conditions, the military traditions of various peoples who inhabited the Ukrainian lands continue their life.
Representatives of those nations who have, and accordingly, had previously had, a more powerful, more developed military tradition are more likely to win in competitions. That is, those nations whose athletes are winning in sports now had and still have warriors who won and are winning in hand-to-hand combat in war. On the other hand, usually, if the martial arts of countries do not have support from folk tradition, there are no victories in well-known international martial arts competitions.
Thus, being a professional and applied sport, combat horting has ancient and glorious historical and cultural roots. The idea of the emergence of combat horting as a comprehensive system of self-improvement of the individual, based on physical, moral, ethical and spiritual education, is associated with the revival of ancient folk traditions of previous generations of Ukrainians, which were passed down from ancestors to descendants from generation to generation, from family to family, from grandfather to father, from father to son.
Folk tradition, and not necessarily military, is a phenomenon that is formed not over years, but over centuries, and is distinguished by exceptional vitality. With the change in the living conditions of peoples, the tradition is somewhat transformed, but continues to live in a new form.
For many years, the Soviet authorities fought against the Cossacks - they took away horses and weapons from the Cossacks, and forbade them to lead a traditional lifestyle. This is where the strength and vitality of the tradition manifested itself. Unable to lead a traditional lifestyle, Cossack youth began to engage in sports - combat horting.
Nowadays, combat horting is associated with victory, courage, chivalry and self-sacrifice, courage and the upbringing of powerful and strong-willed men. That is why this sports and applied martial art is symbolically named after the place where all ancient Cossack battles were held, an open square, a living circle of Cossacks - "hort", in which they gathered to identify the strongest, and in honor of the largest island on the Dnieper "Khortytsia" - the sacred center and birthplace of the Cossack valor of the Zaporozhian Sich.
Modern Ukrainian combat horting is not a copy of something else, but a standard of original sports and combat techniques of ethnic Ukrainians. At the same time, combat horting became the environment in which the knightly and Cossack military tradition associated with horseback riding, the ability to conduct unarmed hand-to-hand combat, and the ability to conduct combat with cold and firearms continued its life.
The formation of domestic combat horting took place from 2008 to 2020 in isolation from the world cult of martial arts. The support for modern combat horting was the Ukrainian domestic tradition of hand-to-hand fist fights, which were extremely popular in Kievan Rus, and then, with the emergence of the Cossacks, the tradition of the Zaporozhian Army and the glorious Zaporozhian Sich.
Almost every man at that time participated in collective “bench to bench” fights and was a fist fighter – a direct participant in hand-to-hand fights. And it is precisely based on this powerful fighting tradition that the main and leading section of the modern rules of combat horting competitions is called “Hand-to-hand combat”.
In Europe, a wide folk tradition of fist fights has never existed. Only in some countries were wrestlers’ fights and fist fights popular among the people, but exclusively as a spectacle during a holiday. If somewhere fighters were trained for show and entertainment, then martial arts training always remained a matter for professionals, not the people.
Modern combat horting is divided into two varieties – amateur and professional. The successes of domestic amateur athletes are well known, but combat horting professionals are just beginning to develop their direction. These varieties have different roots, otherwise – amateur and professional combat horting are branches of two different traditions.
The most powerful Ukrainian military and Cossack tradition became the foundation for the creation of the Ukrainian school of amateur (amateur) combat horting, one of the best in the world. Professional combat horting grew out of the tradition of spectacular battles that were held by princes in ancient Kievan Rus.
It is known from history that when Ukrainians were captured by the Romans, they refused to participate in gladiatorial fights, even under the fear of death, because they had the proto-Slavic fighting tradition of Kyivan Rus. Such a philosophical and historical reliance on tradition for professional fighting horting is also present in modern Ukraine. Ancient warriors, and not only Ukrainians, always considered it shameful for themselves to participate in fights for the amusement of spectators, because one should prepare oneself not for entertainment, but to protect oneself, one's neighbors and one's land.
Summing up these thoughts, we can draw the following conclusion: Ukrainians are a peace-loving nation, but we really know how to fight, thinkers of different eras condemned wars, passionately dreamed of eternal peace and developed various aspects of the problem of universal peace. Some of them paid attention mainly to its ethical side.
They believed that aggressive war was a product of immorality, that peace could be achieved only as a result of moral re-education of people in the spirit of mutual understanding, tolerance of different religions, elimination of nationalist remnants, education of people in the spirit of the principle that all people are brothers. Others saw the main evil caused by wars in economic ruin, in disruption of the normal functioning of the entire economic structure of the country.
In this regard, they tried to persuade humanity to peace, painting pictures of general prosperity in a society without war, in which priority would be given to the development of science, technology, art, literature, and not to the improvement of the means of destroying people. There is also an opinion that peace between states can be established as a result of the reasonable policy of an educated ruler. Legal aspects of the problem of peace are being developed, which they seek to achieve through an agreement between governments, the creation of regional or world federations of states.
The problem of peace, like the problem of war, attracts the attention of political and public movements, scientists of many countries. The undoubted successes of peace-loving forces and all organizations, as well as the achievements of a number of schools and directions, scientific centers specializing in the study of the problems of peace and war. A large amount of knowledge has been accumulated about peace as a factor in the development and survival of mankind, about the complex dialectics of the relationship between war and peace and its features in the modern era, about possible ways and prerequisites for moving towards peace without weapons and wars. Ukrainians are a unique fighting nation. Our athletes are world leaders in almost all types of contact martial arts (boxing, all generally recognized types of wrestling, kickboxing, other contact types of martial arts and martial arts). Ukrainian land has given birth to the world outstanding champions of an unsurpassed level. Not all peoples have such a natural talent for fighting, and not all athletes from other countries can withstand the level of psychological competition and the hardening of the Ukrainian spirit and will to win.
Currently, the main goal of combat horting is professional and applied training of military personnel and law enforcement officers, popularization and enhancement of the role of physical culture and sports, patriotic education, involvement of children and youth in a healthy lifestyle, distraction from bad habits, education of the personality in the spirit of decency and patriotism.
In a short time of existence, combat horting has covered many settlements of Ukraine with physical culture, health and educational activities, and combat horting sports clubs operate in all regions of Ukraine. Prominent poets and musicians of Ukraine have composed poems and written songs about combat horting, it has its own distinctive attributes, emblem, flag, anthem and march, famous artists paint paintings on the theme of the national professional and applied sport of Ukraine.
One of the features of the development of martial arts is the sufficient volume of various printed and video information on martial arts of different countries practiced all over the world. The number of different directions, styles, schools and clubs of sports, martial arts and martial arts is increasing. The system of combat training also exists with weapons.
As a result of the use of any secret weapon, it quickly becomes less secret, information about it becomes known to a wide circle of people interested in training methods, amateurs and professionals. It is well known that the same or similar techniques existed among all peoples of the world (Ukraine - combat horting; Japan - judo, karate; China - wushu; Korea - taekwondo, etc.).
Ukraine, located in the center of Europe, on land routes from northern countries to the south, has acquired certain special knowledge and skills in a wide variety of methods of conducting hand-to-hand combat and using weapons. Due to this geographical location and historical development, the methods of using the hand, foot and weapon in hand-to-hand combat are marked by shades of all countries of the world, from the Vikings to the Chinese.
So, it can be recognized that combat horting is a generalization of the world experience of martial arts, self-defense and hand-to-hand combat. In addition to combat horting, in Ukraine and abroad, the directions of traditional sports horting, military-applied horting, police horting, Cossack horting, fencing horting, health horting and other varieties and directions of our national martial art are developing.
The origins of the national professional-applied sport of Ukraine, combat horting, the formation of its philosophy, the improvement of methodological techniques for training athletes must be substantiated by looking at this issue from different sides, comprehensively, since its development was formed in several ways at once.
During its centuries-old history, our country has repeatedly been subjected to raids by various aggressive neighbors, the Mongol nation, more than once repelled the Swedish, Russian and Lithuanian invaders, it was our ancestors who were able to worthily resist the German occupiers during the Second World War.
These disasters did not pass without a trace for Ukrainians, millions of our compatriots gave their lives for the good of the Motherland, for its independence and sovereignty. Therefore, in the Ukrainian tradition there is a habit of constantly remembering and paying tribute to the memory of the soldiers who are the defenders of our land, and those who, tirelessly, worked in the rear, waiting for their fathers, sons and husbands to return home.
Almost every one of us who lives in Ukraine now can say with confidence that his family was not spared by the war. These great tragedies have long remained in the hearts of all the people of Ukraine, and we must strive to ensure that such a disaster does not happen again.
Therefore, great attention in the philosophy, theory, methodology and practice of combat horting is paid to the comprehensive preparation of a soldier to defend Ukraine, the study of the general and specific causes of the emergence of each war, the development of advanced training methods and the improvement of combat training means, because the genetic code of our nation, the innate life customs and combat traditions of the Ukrainian army contain an extraordinary ability to fight, to tactically competently and effectively conduct military confrontation and, destroying the enemy, to defend one's land.
These combat traditions gave impetus to the revival in Ukraine of the complex art of self-defense - the national professional and applied sport of Ukraine - horting.
"Encyclopedia of Horting"
Eduard Yeromenko
© 2014