Zhekpe-zhek

A modern combat sport based on the Kazakh tradition of single combat.

About

Jekpe-jek is the national martial art of the Kazakhs: a system that continues the traditions of the Kazakh batyrs and serves as a means of self-defence. It is governed by the Jekpe-jek National Sport Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan; its president is Yerzhan Baizhumanov.

The federation holds the national championship and cup, the Open Cup of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, the Open Cup of the Caspian countries and the Asian championship. Since 2025 the status of national sports in Kazakhstan has been made equal by law to that of Olympic sports.

History

Zhekpe-zhek means "one against one": that was the name once given to the single combat of the batyrs. By the account of Kazakhstan's Centre of National and Equestrian Sports, the first international tournament, dedicated to the World Kurultai of Kazakhs, was held in Almaty in 1992. In 2001 the first republican federation was founded under Sabyrzhan Makhmet, and on 9 May 2005 the first republican championship took place.

In 2012 the republican national sports federation was reorganised, and in 2013 zhekpe-zhek was recognised as a sport and entered in the register of sports.

The Kazakh Encyclopaedia gives the origin of the sport somewhat differently. It says that in the 1980s specialists of a republican voluntary sports society selected techniques from Kazakh wrestling, sambo, judo, karate and boxing, worked out a new sport and named it jekpe-jek. In 1984 it was tried out among law-enforcement staff. In 1997 R. Abdalimov and a group of coaches wrote the rules; in the same year the Republican Jekpe-jek Association was founded, with Major-General of the Internal Service B. Sarsekov as its first chairman.

Rules in brief

By the federation's rules the bout is held on a level, soft square or round area up to six metres across; at the organiser's choice it may also be held in an eight-sided cage or on a wrestling mat. The athletes wear red and blue; a mouthguard, special gloves 25–30 millimetres thick, a groin guard, foot protectors and shorts are compulsory.

Among adults the men compete in nine weight classes (from 53 kilograms to over 93) and the women in five (from 52 kilograms to over 67). A bout consists of two rounds of three minutes with a one-minute break; if the score is level, a third round is given only in a semi-final or a final.

Strikes with the hands and the feet are allowed. A punch and a kick to the body score one point each, a kick to the head two; throwing the opponent with a lift from below the belt scores one point, with a lift from above the belt two. A painful hold or a strangle, and likewise a knockout, is a clear win.

It is forbidden to strike the throat, the back of the neck, the back or the groin, to butt with the head, to kick the head of an opponent who is on the ground, to seize the hair or the ears, to apply painful holds to the spine, to lift the opponent and throw him on his head, to gouge the eyes, to scratch or to bite. An athlete who receives three warnings loses. The competition is run on the knockout system — out after one defeat.

Federations and competitions

The first federation was founded in 2001; an official national sport since 2015. In Kazakhstan's national sports register.

Peoples

Kazakhs

Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept