History
We would like to thank Viktor Konev the main chronicler of Sverdlovsk sambo, the coach of the highest category, for creating the "History" section
Sambo in the Sverdlovsk region, as well as in the USSR at large, owes its appearance to the Dynamo sports society. Sergei Klyuchnikov (1918-1991) first introduced a new kind of wrestling to local youth in the late 1940s. He opened a sambo club in the Sverdlovsk regional council of “Dynamo”. Gennady Netstvetayev continued coaching here after him in 1952-1962.
The Sverdlovsk Region Sambo Federation was established in 1956, seven years after the first Sambo section was opened. The first president of the Federation was the coach of the sports club “Burevestnik”, one of the first Masters of Sports in sambo in the Urals, Viktor Avdeyev. Initially, the Federation united representatives of only two sports club “Dynamo” and “Burevestnik”.
It did not take long for the first big wins to come. Golden pages in the history of Sverdlovsk sambo were inscribed with the brilliant victories of our athletes. There were Anatoly Stolbov and Valentin Savchenko, the USSR multiple champions of the 1960s. In 1973, the Middle Urals revealed to everyone the first World Champion, legendary Alexander Fyodorov.
In 2011, All-Russian Team Tournament in memory of this outstanding master was established. It is regularly held in Verkhnyaya Pyshma. 
Alexander Fyodorov also won the first European Championship in Riga in 1972. Another "Uralmash" athlete, Sergei Vorobyov, also became European champion in 1987. The World Cup was won by their teammates Nikolay Zuyev in 1984 and Sergey Danilik in 1996.
“The dashing nineties”, as for the whole of our country, appeared to be challenging for Sverdlovsk sambo. Given the lack of funding, the collapse of all the administrative and economic ties, the only hope was on the two pillars - “Uralmash” and “Dynamo”. In these challenging times, they managed to further develop sambo and help talented athletes from all over the region.
In 1995, Dynamo trainee Konstantin Makhnev achieved the highest results in Sverdlovsk history of the club. He became the FMS World Champion, as well as the winner of the Russian Cup and the national champion. Also, among the medalists of the Asian Championship was Bakhretdin Dzhamolov, while judo wrestler Oleg Shabashov became a medalist of the European Championship and in 1996 took part in the Paralympic Games in Atlanta.
In the mid-1990s, five Dynamo athletes performed a high-class title International Master of Sports: Vasil Miftakhov, Danil Sayfutdinov, Alexey Utkin, Konstantin Makhnev, Bakhretdin Dzhamolov.
Legendary “Uralmash” sambo school that raised the first World and European Champion Alexander Fyodorov in 1990-2000s was memorable first and foremost for performances of Alexey Yegorov, Aidos Yusupov, Marat Agzamov and Andrey Slobodchikov. Currently, these glorious victorious traditions continue under the patronage of Sambo and Judo Olympic Reserve School and SC “Rodina”.
In the beginning of the 21st century Sverdlovsk sambo received a new boost, primarily due to Verkhnyaya Pyshma, its new center of gravity and development.
Public-private partnership mechanism allowed the city to create an effective model of training athletes, ranging from children's sections and ending with the professional sports organizations. The solid material and infrastructural base was built, the best coaching staff was invited, due to talent search program many young athletes were found far beyond the region as well as in Sverdlovsk. As a result, Sverdlovsk sambo school made a qualitative leap forward over the past 20 years so that it gained a firm foothold in the elite of Russian and world sambo.
Let's quote just a few figures. Over the years, the sambists of the Urals won the title of World Champions 19 times, the title of European Champions 13 times and the title of National Champions more than 40 times. Moreover, since 2006 the Sverdlovsk athletes have constantly won team competitions at All-Russian Championship among the subjects of the Russian Federation, only once yielding the palm.
At the All-Russian and international level Verkhnyaya Pyshma is represented today by eight Honored Masters of Sports and more than 10 International Masters of Sports. The most titled sambist in the Urals today is six-time World Champion Alsim Chernoskulov from Verkhnyaya Pyshma, and his teammate, Ilya Khlybov, the current Deputy Head Coach of Verkhnyaya Pyshma Club, has five highest world titles.
Behind these impressive successes stands some systematic and coherent work aimed at developing sambo in the region, which starts from children's classes, secondary schools and even pre-school institutions.
Nowadays, under protection of Sambo Federation headed by Shukhrat Makhmudov, there are about 50 teams developing sambo in almost 30 municipal entities of the Middle Urals. Nearly 8,000 athletes train in them.
The multilevel sambo training system starts with children's classes. In Verkhnyaya Pyshma alone, nearly 500 children and adults are training at five sites. Sambo wrestling is cultivated in several general education schools of the city, a cadet boarding school and a school for children with various visual disabilities. In addition, the gate to the regional School of the Olympic reserve is open for the most gifted and talented young athletes, where today almost 20 people from various cities of the Sverdlovsk region and neighboring regions go in for sambo.
Sverdlovsk region became one of the most active participants of the All-Russian projects “Sambo to Schools”, “Sambo to Universities” and “Sambo to physical fitness program GTO”. In 2017-2018 alone, with the assistance of our leading coaches and athletes, almost 400 teachers from more than 30 municipalities enhanced their qualifications. They studied techniques of practicing sambo elements to be taught at PE classes in schools and universities, as well as for GTO tests (physical fitness program). These efforts continue to this day.
Besides, a program supporting sambo among children has been developed and has been successfully implemented since 2017.
Over this period, the region has purchased equipment and facilities for two schools with sambo classes and for one local Children and Youth Sports School at Verkhnyaya Pyshma. Two sambo halls were opened at two schools in Kirovgrad and at two schools in Sukholozhsky District. There was a new sambo section opened in Nevyansk, new sambo halls at two schools and at the Sports House in Serov, a sambo section at the Revda school, and a new equipped sambo hall in Sysert.
In 2018 the program stepped beyond the Urals. Sambo halls were opened and equipped in Mednogorsk (Orenburg Region), Shadrinsk (Kurgan Region) and Vladikavkaz (Alania).
Currently, the program covers four regions and ten cities. The total number of sections has reached nearly 20, and the number of involved athletes has reached 1,600.
Verkhnyaya Pyshma concentrates all the key infrastructure facilities. They are the basis for a full training process, as well as holding competitions at various levels, from regional tournaments to the Championships of Russia. Primarily, it is about the UMMC Sports Palace, as well as a specialized sambo complex in Baltym village, which holds a record number of tournaments hosted. There are about 20 tournaments held in Baltym sambo complex every year. Verkhnyaya Pyshma will soon have the Palace of Sambo and Martial Arts.
Along with Verkhnyaya Pyshma, sambo schools from Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil, Sukhoi Log, Arti, Irbit, etc. keep the bar high for many years so that their trainees regularly join junior, youth and adult regional teams.
Competition often produces better performance and continuous growth and improvement of sportsmanship. Each year in the region more than 30 different tournaments are held under the support of the federation. The goal is to involve people of all ages, from young boys to students and accomplished athletes. The Federation is not afraid of experimenting with competition formats either. The already well-established team competitions, open-air tournaments were extended by tournaments for boys such as “King of Ground Fighting” and “King of Stand-up Fighting”, when fights are held by the rules allowing certain types of techniques. This "highly tailored" approach gave the competitions an additional "zest" in terms of their visual perception as well as added a zest to the competitions in terms of their visual perception and offered an opportunity to focus on practicing the most important elements of wrestling.
The Sverdlovsk Region Sambo Federation is seriously trying to integrate more actively into the school system. So, for many years in cooperation with the Verkhnyaya Pyshma Sambo Club, every first grader is presented with “The Young Sambist Diary”, some kind of guide to the world of sambo. These diaries, apart from the usual timetable of the lessons, contain entertaining stories about sambo, tips from famous sambo wrestlers and etc. These diaries also provide children with the main rules and techniques which are explained in a friendly and accessible form. These diaries are handed out exclusively by the high-profile and the most glorified and titled athletes, initiating the youngest to sambo by their own example.
Master classes with the participation of our most famous sambo wrestlers have also proven their efficiency.
For those who are already taking their first steps in sambo or are about to learn the sport a whole series of their open training and demonstration performances is held. They are held in Children's and Youth Sports School and summer children's health camps in more than 10 cities of the Sverdlovsk region.
Everyone can not only watch the champion's techniques, but also come out on the mat, try themselves as a sparring partner, ask the champion any question and get an autograph.
As a result, the project raised a record audience of almost 1,500 boys and girls as a consequence.
Another step towards involving secondary schools into sambo development was taken by the federation a few years ago. The “know-how” idea was to hold a tournament applications for participation in which would come directly from schools, orphanages, boarding schools, and so on, rather than from clubs and sports classes. Thus appeared the traditional individual-team championship among students of secondary schools, orphanages, boarding schools and cadet corps. It is one of the few tournaments in the region held under the patronage of two ministries, Ministry of Physical Education and Sports and Ministry of Education. Young athletes win their first victories in full view of their classmates, teachers and school directors. Hence, the main goal of these competitions is being successfully achieved to make the national sport sambo even more understandable, closer and popular among school-age children, so that over time teaching the basics of self-defense becomes part of the school program, or additional educational modules as part of physical education.
Being one of the leading sambo centers in the region Sukhoi Log has moved slightly further, experimentally introducing sambo elements in daycares and kindergartens.
In addition to sports, moral and patriotic education has a powerful motivating potential. Back in the autumn of 2015, the Sverdlovsk region for the first time joined the experiment on implementing sambo techniques as part of the GTO testing system. More than 200 schoolchildren from Verkhnyaya Pyshma and more than 100 students from Yekaterinburg tested their skills in basic self-defense. It is important that our most titled sambists, in particular five-time World Champion Ilya Khlybov, administered "the exam". The participation of world-famous stars in such projects is an additional motivating and popularizing factor in the process of mass involvement of schoolchildren and youth in sambo classes.