Scott Sonnon: Born to Fail - Made to Succeed

Russian Epic Meets American Success Story

At the beginning of the 1990s, I was the “black sheep” of the American SOMBO community, branded “heretic” because I dared to question on simple slogan,

“American SOMBO: Russian Self-Defense with American Ingenuity.”

That was the call-sign of the American SOMBO national governing body, for which I served as US Coach and President (not simultaneously.)

It bothered me because at world championships, the Americans would be destroyed by the Russians. I asked my coach, and every other significant authority on the continent, “if Americans have used their ingenuity to improve Sambo, then could someone please tell me what was actual Russian Sambo curriculum so we could evaluate it?”

I didn’t have any malice in the question, just sheer determination to help evolve our stagnant educational pool, in the hopes of truly challenging the former Soviets at their own sport, and one day even winning!

As I child, I wasn’t physically gifted; actually, due to several physical and mental “disabilities” such as osteochondrosis which shredded by connective tissue and dyslexia which wreaked havoc on my motor acquisition, I swam in the “shallow end of the gene pool.”

To do anything, I had to study it, dissect it, assess its components, practice each component until polished, and then reassemble them as complete skills; and then restart that endless process when and where I hemorrhaged power. This process proved to be my only saving grace allowing someone of my generic challenges to win international championships in 2 sports, a best-selling author, hall of fame producer, acclaimed yoga guru, and globe-trotting speaker speaking out against “sick care” and for the wellness revolution.

So, even 2 decades ago, I understood the paramount importance of the process of rigorous, controlled study. But when I asked the question, it raised the hackles of the other US Coaches and board members. “We don’t need to know exactly what they’re taught because we’ve watched them perform, and we are using our collective backgrounds to create a better way.”

Frankly this is what pisses me off about USA, and I see the tendency within myself despite my immersion and study of other cultures. Just because you can create a new way, doesn’t mean it’s better. As my Russian coaches would one day wisely advise, “until you have mastered the basics, whatever you can dream, has been weighed, tested and found wanting.”

Because of my genetic “defects” I knew that the only way to compete successfully at a world level was to study Russian Sambo in its authentic format. So, despite “excommunication” by the American SOMBO community for being “unpatriotic”, I began blanketing the former Soviet Union for permission to become the 1st American to intern in Russia.

After 2 years passed, I received two emails across my monotone monitor screen… both within days of eachother in February of 1996. They were from two different agencies in Russia:

• One came from SAMBO-70, the headquarters of Russian Sambo in Moscow to become an official intern athlete of my sport which I had invested so much of my time and energy studying: Russian Sambo wrestling.
• The other came from the Federation of Russian Martial Art in Sankt Petersburg to become the first American ambassador to study the science behind Russian combat sports, as well as their cultural heritage of indigenous martial art with the agency licensed by the Russian Olympic Committee.

The dilemma was one of dire timing. In order to accept the latter, I had to decline the former, because the latter was only an interview which would happen during the time that the internship would start in Russia (with other international athletes in their first program of its kind) when the interview would take place in USA. If I turned down interning at SAMBO-70, and I failed the interview with the Federation, then I lost both opportunities of a lifetime!

It may sound odd to say that I decided immediately, and perhaps someone else would have responded differently to such an honor that these two government agencies offered me. But for someone of my genetic challenges, understanding the underpinning science was the advantage that I needed in order to make lasting change in the terrain of American martial arts, and more importantly, myself.

I chose the Door #2.

Not knowing how to prepare for the interview, I translated, studied and practiced my normal 4-6 hour days as a collegiate athlete would awaiting that day, May 31, 1996, when I had the honor of being interviewed by General Alexander Ivanovich Retuinskih and the Alpha Unit Team Leader, Alexander Mikhailovich Kistin, and translations being conducted by Nikolay Travkin (who would later become my business partner in RMAX International).
[Photo taken on this event, pictured from left to right: Nikolay Travkin, Greg Lees (2X World Sombo Champion), Gen. Alexander Retuinskih, Scott Sonnon, Alexander Kistin.]

Among 400 other applicants, I was being interviewed for the esteemed honor of being the first Westerner to slip behind the Iron Curtain and be immersed in the former Soviet “Think-Tank” of scientists, researchers and Olympic coaches under affidavit reading “absolute secrecy.” As a “Cold War” baby, you can imagine my gut-wrenching imagination running wild at the opportunity!

I find it difficult to describe the events of that interview. It felt like sitting at a table with superheroes. Gen. Retuinskih was both a Master of Sport (USSR Champion) of Judo and Sambo as well as a boxing champion; and Alexander Kistin was well… the scariest man I’ve ever met (in 180 missions during the Soviet-Afghani war, he never lost a man on his team, earning him the nickname “The Legend” of the Spetsnaz.)

As we left our meeting table in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Alexander Ivanovich placed his hand on my shoulder and asked me through translation, “Do you know why we’ve selected you?” Speechless, I stammered, “You what? I’m selected?!”

He repeated with a smile, “Do you know why we’ve selected you to be our American?”

All I could do is shake my head an oblivious, “no.”

“We selected you because of your walk,” Gen. Retuinskih said and continued, “Somewhere there’s ‘blue blood’ in your veins. We see it in your walk. That’s why.”

And he left.

I wouldn’t see him again until I touched down in the snow of Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport that October.

I remember standing there for a long while flabbergasted. My life had taken yet another unpredictable directional change, into yet another exotic, scary-as-hell adventure. And all I could hear was the echo of his response, “because of your walk…”

If you’ve followed the stories of my past I’ve written, in particular “Know him by his walk and his talk” you’ll know how viscerally impacting this phrase was for me. It felt like a 25 year cage had been thrown open in the validation of all of the suffrage I endured in my childhood: flustered with humiliation, terror and contempt for my inadequacies.

The Russians believed that only one of royal descent could move with grace and poise… Perhaps this was a reflection of their pre-Soviet social strata. It took great effort for the common man to rise above into higher social circles. [Photo: Gen. Retuinskih, Mikhail Krivorotov (The First ever Honorable Master of Sport in Sambo) the Late Russian Prince Boris Vasilievich Golitsin, and Scott Sonnon. Saint Petersburg, Russia 1997.]

But this was America. And because of the “flat” social fabric of the United States, if you had the gumption, the heart and you steeled your nerves to all of the bruises which would surely come, you could pretty much do anything you want. And even someone like me, coming out of the trailer park of impoverished Lebanon, Pennsylvania, carrying my litany of visual problems, learning disabilities, joint issues and obesity, could simply… change the way he carried himself… and be given the greatest opportunity of a lifetime.

That’s the story of America, in my mind, and despite its frequent blind arrogance, USA holds in common with rugged entrepreneurial countries like Australia: with enough sweat, sacrifice and faith in your Purpose, you can achieve anything.

The story of those years I spent traveling to different locations throughout Russia… well, that’s another story for another time.

Flow Thyself™,