Section 5: Rules of Play
Beach sambo bouts are held only in the standing position. There is no groundwork phase, no hold-downs, and no points — a single successful throw ends the bout (Art. 21.1).
- Victory is awarded after a throw when the opponent, as a result of active action, falls on the sand on any part of the body except the feet (Art. 21.1)
- A throw is a technical action that causes the opponent to lose balance and fall on the contest area, touching it with any part of the body except the feet (Art. 21.2)
- A counter-throw is a throw where the defender takes the initiative against an attack, stopping it and altering the direction of the attacker's fall (Art. 21.2)
- An unsuccessful throw is one where the attacker falls into a ground position through their own failed attempt, not through the opponent's active countermove (Art. 21.3)
- An attacking athlete may perform throws with a fall (Art. 21.4)
- Gripping the edges of the opponent's shorts and the ends of the jacket sleeves is permitted in order to apply throws (Art. 21.5)
- Bout duration: 3 minutes for all age, gender and weight categories, in preliminaries and medal matches alike (Art. 23.1)
- Bout time starts on the Referee's first whistle; break time is not counted (Art. 23.2)
- If no technical actions have been applied after 2 minutes, the Referee gives an «activity» evaluation to one athlete. If the bout then ends with still no technical action, the athlete holding that evaluation automatically wins (Art. 23.3)
- The bout ends on the sound signal (gong), not on a repeat whistle (Art. 22.3)
- The break between bouts must be at least 10 minutes (Art. 24)