Horting is an international sport
The culture of the Ukrainian people includes the sport he created, combat horting. It is the successor to the martial arts of ancient Ukraine. For centuries, these martial arts, as a martial culture and skills, have accompanied children and adults in their daily lives, developing vital qualities in Ukrainians: endurance, strength, agility, speed, instilling honesty, justice and dignity. Many of them have a centuries-old history: they have survived to this day in the form of combat horting from ancient times, passed down from generation to generation, absorbing the best national traditions of Ukrainians. They were improved as a person’s economic activity, as his mind improved. The national sports traditions of Ukrainians depended on many factors: landscape, climate, nature, etc.
In addition to preserving folk traditions, combat horting as a national professional and applied sport has a great influence on the upbringing of character, will, and interest in folk art in young people. The data indicate that the processes of mutual cultural influence and cultural communication greatly affect the nature of the national sports themselves as one of the important means of spiritual development of people. So, combat horting has acquired the characteristic features of the Ukrainian people. Ukraine is a country of sports. In a short period of time, Ukrainians have mastered a huge number of sports. And in the world community, Ukrainians are associated with Cossack feats, victories and world fame. And now the inhabitants of modern Ukraine remember the ancient games and sports that our ancestors played for many centuries. An integral part of the culture of any people is sports competitions. They were as unique as the culture of the ethnic group itself. Therefore, the revival and preservation of a national sport is one of the forms of preserving the traditions and spiritual and moral values of Ukraine.
The national sport of Ukraine is combat horting. The task of a combat horting sport fight is not only to demonstrate throwing fighting techniques or painful techniques, in a combat horting fight it is the effectiveness of technical actions to eliminate physical aggression, counterattacking actions, the ability to maneuver and deliver appropriate blows, make throws at the right moment, continue the fight lying down and apply holds, painful and suffocating techniques that are important.
Combat horting is complex, rational and thoughtful, with its emotions, maneuvering, technical tricks and speed and reliability of tactics, trustworthiness and versatility of methods, prudence of defensive actions and absolute vulnerability and effectiveness of attacks, with its calculated strategy, therefore, combat horting is composed in the same way as the character and genetic code of every true Ukrainian. Combat horting is our system by nature, and our national sport by roots.
The result of a combat horting sport fight is practically the voluntary recognition of one of the participants as the loser, or due to his obvious inability to continue the fight. That is why in combat horting it is possible to use the technical arsenal of any type of applied contact combat action. The arsenal of permitted combat techniques includes: throws and holds using grips on the arms, legs, neck, torso, painful effects on ligaments and joints, throws using classic body grips, strangling techniques with hands and feet using grips on the neck and parts of the body, all kinds of punches and kicks. Due to the high effectiveness of the techniques, combat horting has also developed among the security forces, where the number of combat horting athletes practicing has recently increased.
From ancient history, combat horting had the names of simple fights, in which the boys found out who was stronger and more agile. Fist fights with wrestling in Ukrainian Slavic lands were often held as entertainment, representing a fight with fists and grabbing the neck and limbs. This form existed in ancient Ukraine from ancient times until the beginning of the 18th century. In addition to entertainment, fights were a kind of school of martial prowess, a school of war, which developed the skills necessary for the defense of the Motherland and their lands in the people.
Starting from a very early age, Ukrainian children, through various games, wrestling and throwing, gradually learned that they needed to be able to stand up for their family and themselves. When children became adults, the games grew into real fights, known as "fist or hand-to-hand fights." They were usually held on holidays. By the number of participants, they were divided into: “street to street”, “village to village”, and in the Cossack environment – “shack to shack”. In the summer, fights took place on squares and squares, in the winter – on glades, frozen rivers and lakes. Both ordinary people and merchants took part in the fights.
There were types of fist fights: “one on one”, but the most common type of mass fight was – “bench to bench”. The fight was divided into three stages: first, boys fought, then single boys, and at the end, adults were put in the bench. It was not allowed to beat someone lying down or crouching, grab clothes. The task of each side was to turn the enemy side into flight or at least force them to retreat. The bench that lost the “hort” (the square or territory where the fight took place) was considered defeated. Each "bench" had its own leader - a "leader", "chicken ataman", "combat elder", who determined the tactics of the fight and encouraged his comrades.
The "one-on-one" fight was the most respected type of fight among adult men of the Cossack family. "One-on-one" fights could be organized by a special person, or they could be spontaneous. In the first case, the fight was scheduled for a certain day and time, and the second type could take place in any place where people gathered: the square, fairs, holidays. Such fights also served, if necessary, to confirm the defendant's rightness in a legal case. This method of proving one's rightness was called "challenging a greyhound". The tradition of "challenging a greyhound" existed in the lands of ancient Ukraine until the end of the existence of the Zaporozhian Sich.
The technique of ancient Ukrainian combat single combat can be conditionally divided into competitive and applied. Competitive fighting was used at friendly meetings during village festivities, temple festivals, which was accompanied by wrestling, stick and fist fighting. In this technique, as in sports, technical actions that led to serious injuries were unacceptable. The rules in these competitions were a clear agreement - an agreement between the fighters on how they would conduct the fight. The terms of such an agreement between the fighters were usually discussed before each fight and strictly observed. Violators of the agreement were punished by the fighters' comrades and the fighters themselves from both sides. The agreement could prohibit, for example, hitting in the groin and the back of the head, throwing at the head, breaking fingers, hitting the head with a stick, etc.
In the combat technique of the martial arts of ancient Ukrainians, there was never any agreement, everything that brought victory was used. However, there were also some ethical restrictions, which were sometimes observed in the use of combat techniques.
Speaking about sports in Ukraine, one cannot fail to mention the records of games with fights in the chronicles of Kievan Rus, which date back to the 11th century. But the history of the development of the martial arts of the Ukrainian people has now led to combat horting. In countries where this sport is permanent and has a federation, with various associations adjacent to it, the international name of the organization is used: “World Combat Horting Federation”. The traditions of national sports were formed in Ukraine and have been developing since the times of Ancient Rus-Ukraine to the present day. Combat horting as a center of Ukrainian spirituality is aimed at the education and development of the physical and spiritual culture of the individual.
Combat horting was formed in Ukraine, and therefore actively developed in the future. It is considered to be the national sport of our state. For many centuries, these training methods have accompanied the Ukrainian person in everyday life, developed in him special traits of character and mentality, as well as important personal qualities that reflect the social structure of the people and his views on the world around him. It is worth noting that Ukrainian combat horting originates from folk combat customs that were cultivated in different corners of the Dnieper, Zaporozhye, Kiev, and Tavria lands throughout their history. The national sport in Ukraine appeared thanks to Slavic folk games. They are a conscious activity aimed at achieving certain goals established by the rules of the game.
National entertainments of Ukrainians were formed on the basis of the traditions of the Slavs-Rusichs. They take into account not only cultural and moral, but also social, as well as spiritual ideas and values of the Slavic ethnos. And the lexical unit "fun" itself did not have an entertainment meaning. The word expressed mass events, even those that were accompanied by hostilities. From which Slavic games were formed. It is noteworthy that in our ancient games both entertainment and training were combined at once. Ukrainian games have unique and very valuable properties. Our culture not only revealed, but also encouraged those who are strong in spirit and body. It was she who educated the ancient Rus' (a people who lived on the lands of Ukraine in the 15th–18th centuries) the ability to accept a challenge, stand up for the offended or weak, and also be able to overcome feelings of anxiety and weakness in themselves. The Ukrainian people, after hard working days, gladly participated in children's games. Adults taught children entertainment, recreation, and folk festivities.
However, these events were mass in nature. Everyone took part in them – from the youngest to the strongest and most experienced. People had a rest not only by participating in the games, but also by watching as spectators what was happening. The national Ukrainian sports direction, which is combat horting, must be promoted to the international sports community, to the program of the World Games, and then as an Olympic discipline. Combat horting as a sport must be made publicly available and popular. We must strive to ensure that our national sport makes it to the Olympic Games and generally becomes known in the world. And most importantly, that it is well known in Ukraine, that it develops in our country as a mass, publicly available sport that attracts wide masses of children and youth to sports halls. At the same time, it is quite popular among Ukrainian citizens. But we must strive to expand the number of participants in combat horting sports competitions.
The uniqueness of the culture of each nation is not only its distinctive sign, but also constitutes a phenomenon of the cultural diversity of human civilization as a whole. Such a phenomenon in Ukraine is combat horting. The culture of Ukraine is fully reflected in it, and is also an integral part of it. Ukraine is a country with a huge cultural heritage and centuries-old military, combat, health, medical, cultural traditions. The historical and geographical features of our country contributed to the fact that Ukraine developed as a state where many cultures lived and developed, complementing each other. It is this characteristic feature that makes the Ukrainian national sport attractive to foreigners who, for more than one century, have been trying to comprehend the mysterious Ukrainian soul, its kindness, sincerity and trustworthiness, from which our people sometimes suffer. But combat horting, along with educational technologies, is a strong applied martial art that emphasizes the courage and victory of our nation.
Ukraine's achievements in the field of sports, literature, music, ballet, theater, and fine arts are recognized worldwide. Combat horting is 11 years old and is only gaining momentum in its development in Ukraine and abroad. But the huge potential of combat horting is recognized not only by Ukrainian martial arts masters, but also by leading foreign martial arts specialists who are well known in the world.
Combat horting is permeated with the culture of Ukrainians. The living environment in modern Ukraine includes a significant number of valuable historical objects, monuments of history and culture, objects of cultural heritage, we have our own embroidery, our own sport of combat horting, our own language and culture. Based on the legislation, the definition (substantiation) of historical and cultural value is relevant for various types of objects, both material and spiritual, which have the features of a cultural heritage object. It is obvious to the naked eye that combat horting undoubtedly possesses the features of the heritage of the Ukrainian people.
In the work on identifying the value of combat horting as a Ukrainian heritage and making a decision to include it in a certain register, the issues of establishing and determining the historical and cultural value of combat horting are crucial. The role of the organizer of the work on substantiating and adopting the decision belongs to the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine. The state body has mechanisms and means to ensure the objectivity of the decisions made, which determine the fate and status of combat horting as a national sport of Ukraine, a certain object of the cultural heritage of our nation. The work of the National Federation of Combat horting of Ukraine, which plans to acquire the status of a national sports federation, is devoted to finding an answer to this question.
In scientific publications, the issues of actualizing the historical and cultural value of combat horting as an object of the historical past in the light of modern sports development of people are increasingly raised. The issues of relevance of the range of works on the identification, establishment, definition and preservation of the historical and cultural value of combat horting as an object of cultural heritage are also widely covered. Modern researchers of the historical and cultural value of the heritage of Ukraine are more focused on the study of historical and general theoretical problems, substantive methodological issues and traditions that combat horting uses in its work. The system is presented by a logical order of sequential measures - scientific research, expert and legal actions. Information about the historical and cultural value of combat horting, identified in the course of scientific research, becomes the basis for experts to determine the features of the national sport - its subject of activity.
The methodology for establishing the historical and cultural value of combat horting has the following characteristics:
combat horting meets the requirements of the legislation of Ukraine regarding cultural heritage;
combat horting reflects the modern scientific and methodological level of developments and ideas about the system of values and criteria for the historical and cultural value of the Ukrainian people;
combat horting contains criteria for assessing all the main characteristics as an educational system of a person for the full establishment of its historical and cultural value for Ukraine;
combat horting ensures the unambiguousness of the conclusion regarding the presence of historical and cultural value as a continuation of Ukrainian combat traditions and customs;
Combat horting has a form and structure that are convenient for use, allowing, in the mode of individual and collegial work of sports public organizations (local combat horting federations), expert councils (panels of experts), to substantiate and make a personal and collegial decision on establishing the historical and cultural value of combat horting as a national sport and an object of heritage of Ukrainian military, physical education, medical and sports and mass culture, useful for the population of Ukraine.
These life-affirming principles are formulated in the Declaration of the National Combat horting Federation of Ukraine.
"Horting Encyclopedia"
Eduard Yeromenko
© 2014