The oldest depiction of games and pagration scenes dates back to 1600 BC and was discovered in Agia Triada, in Crete. Pagration is considered to be THE OLDEST SPORT IN THE WORLD as it is mentioned in ORFIKA, “Argonautica” line 586.
It was officially included in the 33 Olympic Games in 648 B.C. Theseus was the first to use pagration in his fight against the Minotaur, according to Plutarch, while Pausanias claims that Hercules was the first. The term comes from the Greek ΠΑΓΚΡΑΤΙΟΝ literally meaning “all power-knowledge” from ΠΑΝ (pan-) “all” + ΚΡΑΤΟΣ (kratos) "strength, power".
In one of the oldest dictionaries, the Souida Dictionary, we read: PAGRATION, BOXING, WRESTLING, PHYSICAL EXERCISE. Also, THE PAGRATION ATHLETE USING HANDS AND FEET. According to Phylostratos WRESTLING, BOXING and PAGRATION were included in the Olympic Games as well as the Isthmian, Nemean, Pythian and other games, while it had already been used as part of military training of the Greeks in the battles of Marathon, Platees and Thermopylae.
ΚΠΑ was founded in January 1995, in Thessaloniki in my attempt to familiarize the public with the Martial Arts using modern teaching methods. Here are the reasons for this:
Parents, nowadays, need to act even more responsibly when it comes to their children’s safety and well-being, so they need to be aware of how to protect them from dangers.
Violence is part of our everyday life, in the form of rape, drugs, robberies, abuse etc. The word of advice our parents give us has to be combined with some sort of self-defense.
Hoping that I could provide my fellow citizens -especially the young ones- with this kind of self-esteem and self-defense techniques so that they would stand on their own two feet and face all challenges life could bring their way, I founded ΚΠΑ and started teaching there.
My teaching career started in 1995, at the gym Rythmos, in Kifissia, Thessaloniki. In 1998 I obtained my Degree in Physical Education and Sports from the Aristoteleio University of Thessaloniki. After that I served in the Greek Army as a Reserve Sub Lieutenant of the Armored Corps until 2000. I have been teaching in Molos Sports Club since March 2001 and in Leonidas Sports Club, in Lamia, since September 2003.
Dimitris Maroulis –who is like a brother to me- has backed my efforts, especially at hard times, and has been teaching at the Club in Lamia since 2004 after his return from Germany. In 2007 he added Makrakomi Sports Club to our list of Martial Arts Centers.
Our students are taught PAGRATION, OKINAWA KARATE, JUDO, TKD and BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU.
The people who have actually helped me develop my talents are my Master Panayiotis Koutroumbas and my trainer in Thessaloniki who has helped me become a complete athlete, Stavros Orfanidis.
In 2011 all the Clubs running under my name, along with all my associates and all my students have united and are now operating under the name MYRMIDONES. Due to our co-operation with the BJJ Checkmat team with Chico Mendez as the head coach under Leo Vieira, the name of our team is now Myrmidones CheckMat Hellas!
Team Myrmidones:
Pagratio - Dimitris Maroulis
Bjj - Vasilis Kapirelis
Active Members - Aristotelis Seitaridis, Dimitris Kontos, Kostas Tsoufteris, Nick Kiriazis, Savas Mosxos, Chris Stergiatos, Nikolas Raptis
Coordinator - Evagelos Koutras
Bjj Leading Coach - Chico Mendez
That's is our leading family.