Ssireum martial arts tournament this month

The Sri Lanka Federation of Ssireum is ready to expand and develop the sport of Ssireum (Korean traditional martial art) all over Sri Lanka.

A meeting was held last week with Korean representatives to discuss plans to conduct the Ssireum National Trophy 2016 and the exhibition match which is to be held this month.

Chief advisor Y.H.Kang, H.J.Park, Choi, founder of Sri Lankan Ssireum Federation Uditha Peiris and Udaya Kumara participated in the discussion.

The belt used for this sport called 'SATBA' was presented to the Sri Lanka Ssireum Federation by Y.H.Kang and a new website was created with the aim of maintaining a data base with history and other information about the martial art.

Ssireum or Korean wrestling is a folk wrestling style and traditional national sport of Korea. In the modern form each contestant wears a belt (satba) that wraps around the waist and the thigh. The competition employs a series of techniques which inflict little harm or injury on the opponent.

Opponents lock onto each others' belt and one achieves victory by bringing any part of the opponent's body above the knee to the ground.

Ssireum is conducted within a circular ring measuring approximately seven metres in diameter, which is covered with mounded sand.

The two contestants begin the match by kneeling on the sand in a grappling position (barojapki) with each grabbing the belt which is wrapped around the opponent's waist and thigh.

The wrestlers then rise while retaining their hold on the opponent's belt. The match is awarded to the wrestler who forces the other contestant to touch the ground with any part of his body at knee level or higher.

Unlike sumo, pushing the opponent outside of the ring does not warrant a win, just a restart.

Normally, professional Ssireumis are contested in a best-of-three match.

The Sri Lanka Ssireum Federation was established three years ago. Y.H.Kang is acting as chief advisor with D.N.Benaragamais as the president of the Sri Lanka Ssireum Federation.

The traditional martial art was introduced to Sri Lanka by Uditha Peiris.

They also launched their website www.ssireumsrilanka.com, emial on [email protected] and Facebook: srilankassireumfederation.