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Before the advent of firearms,
soldiers in the Balkans used martial arts to assist them in fighting their
enemies. Svebor is based on these martial arts used by Serbian knights in
medieval times. The ancient battlefield techniques of Svebor were passed
down from one generation to the next in Serbian village culture where it was
irrevocably linked to the Serbian Orthodox religion and its monasteries.
The leading authority on Svebor is Predrag 'Bata' Milošević, a professor
from Belgrade University who has devoted most of his life to researching
martial arts.
Svebor is a highly adaptive form of hand-to-hand combat which also includes
weapons such as knives and axes. It is best described as a "rough and ready,
no-nonsense" martial art intended to be used on the battlefield, with none
of the artificiality of many martial arts in which attacks and defences are
so stylised as to be worthless in a real fight. The emphasis is on
effectiveness, not on looking pretty. Its footwork includes leaps, falls,
and rolls, and takes into account that real fighting can happen while the
combatants may be running, possibly on an uneven surface. Svebor includes
low kicks, punches, strikes, head-butts, throws, wrestling, and even stone
throwing.
Some basic strikes with Svebor:
Danga - a direct strike forward with the palm
Dandara - slap with fist
Žandarska šljaga - a slap with thumb tip supported at the root of the pinky
finger, executed with a thumb-knuckle
Čuburski udarac glavom - head-butt
Dvoručni udarac - holding one hand in other and swinging from hip up and
across the opponent (could be used to knock a horseman down) |
