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Combat Sports
1–2 players
outdoor
shoes
7 essential rules
Beach Sambo is the outdoor sand-court variant of Sport Sambo developed and governed by FIAS. Designed to extend Sambo's competitive footprint into beach-sport and multi-sport festival programming (e.g., ANOC World Beach Games), Beach Sambo adapts the Sport Sambo ruleset for sand-surface competiti...
Sambo jacket + shorts (red/blue per competitor) — same as Sport Sambo; Barefoot (no Sambovki required on sand); Mouthguard recommended; protective cup permitted (men)
Sand court: 10m × 10m FIAS-spec compacted-but-soft sand area; Minimum sand depth: ~30 cm; Marked boundary tape or cord
Two competitors per match; Beach Sambo weight classes typically consolidated to 3-4 categories per gender (vs. 7 indoor); Officials: 1 mat referee + 1 corner judge + scoring official + timekeeper
Match length: 3 minutes (single period; vs 4-min indoor Sport Sambo); Throws scored as in Sport Sambo (1, 2, or 4 points based on landing position); Groundwork: pin-time reduced to account for sand difficulty (3-second pin = 1 pt; 6-second = 2 pts)
Decision priority: total victory > technical superiority > points > last-scoring competitor; Tournament: single-elimination + repechage; Gold/Silver/two Bronze per weight + gender
Standard Sport Sambo foul taxonomy (passivity, illegal techniques, fleeing, etc.); Sand-specific: eye-poke with sand → DQ if intentional; Equipment violation: warning + correction
Sand surface reduces blunt-impact injury risk vs indoor mat (softer landing), but increases ankle/knee instability injuries from uneven footing during throws. Mandatory pre-event medical screening.
Release submissions the instant the opponent taps or referee intervenes
Continuing to crank a painful lock or choke after the tap or stoppage signal is one of the gravest breaches of conduct in any Sambo discipline. Beach Sambo practitioners are expected to disengage immediately — hesitation is treated as intentional harm, not a reaction-time lapse.
Reinforced in FIAS coaching materials and universally observed across Sambo competition at all levels.
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