Pankration is an ancient martial art that was used by Greeks, the Spartans made many contributions to it's application. It is a great resource for unarmed historical combat that is very effective. It is quite similar to what we think of as MMA, including stand up, clench and ground techniques. The TV show "Human Weapon" did a great episode on it. I have it TiVo'd if anyone wants to watch it. I've done a few matches with friends using the current pankration rule set, pretty fun.

Here are a few sites I found on it.
Def worth a look. I'll see if I can find someone to do a seminar during the off season sometime.

http://www.pankration.gr/history.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pankration

Found a preview of the Human Weapon episode.


http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/categ ... 95qTqfqW8H

Very interesting. A cool name too.