By Ruslan C. Pashayev
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The Evolution Of The Species 11
Considering all of the above said it is obvious that there can be no even in theory a unified strategy on how to actually successfully approach such hybrid sport competition between the two athletes. Other than maybe in case of a freestyler facing the BJJ sportsman and each fights striving to win own way, and the main objective would be whether one can submit the other faster than being himself pinned by his opponent. And in this case it sure is a very fair-ground type of activity, that kind of sport, not like a real sport that could ever be seriously considered by let’s say the International Olympic Committee or other similar international sports governing bodies even the UWW (former FILA). Ironically, in the late 1890s and the early 1900s, when the Japanese martial artists first tried their skill on American soil such hybrid exhibitions (type of pro wrestling shows) became quite popular in the US, in which they would challenge a local catch wrestler each fights their own way so to speak catcher tried to pin his Japanese adversary faster than the latter made him quit. Actually that is when the first Japanese submission holds were exhibited and much appreciated by the community of the local catchers who quickly learned and adapted them, and even introduced some them into catch pro wrestling vocabulary, still obviously following the general rules of catch wrestling, the pinfall victory. Those painful holds were mostly used to visually enrich the showcase by wearing the opponent out or by forcing him to turn onto his back by applying any of such locks.
The most commonly known in Western Culture “submissions” which were part of the wrestling showcases for hundreds of years in Europe were obviously the chancery holds, the strangles (arms around the neck type of holds) and the full-Nelsons of course but since neither directly lead to a pinfall they both were excluded from the pro catch wrestling vocabulary, although they were always part of the show just like I previously said to enrich the entertaining content.
So what I am trying to say here is that I would not call “modern catch” a proper discipline in a true meaning of this term, but it rather is a certain ruleset which the promoters of this particular sport use to run their competitions. That is about it. This is the only true usage of this “discipline”, and other than that it makes no sense and is absolutely pointless. And of course the sport of modern catch is not anyhow related to the historical catch wrestling or Lancashire wrestling. They have nothing in common. What is quite ironic too is that even the current freestyle wrestling despite being the direct descendant of catch, because of the eternal change of the rules completely lost its similarity with the historical catch wrestling. It produced an absolutely different look from that of the original catch wrestling of which there were enough of the footage been preserved and is currently available online. I highly recommend watching the early 1900s clips by the New York Athletic Club; those are very popular and exhibit historical catch at its very best! According to the current rules they even reward an attacking wrestler with points when he rolled himself in order to turn their opponent, which would have been a no-go strategy in catch because of the self-pin rule, again because “it is a fall every time the shoulders strike together”.
You also oftentimes hear that modern catch is reportedly a good preparation school for the future MMA competitors but that also is very far from being the truth, it’s just another myth. The MMA itself evolved a lot from what it originally was and over the decades of its existence proved to be an actual sport, first of all because it is no longer a “style v style” thing, as it originally was thirty plus years ago. And when I say an actual sport, I mean that it has a single solid very logical philosophy in which there is no confusion or contradiction of any kind; you have to finish your opponent by any means that is it. And of course the MMA athletes do not limit themselves to a certain discipline like it originally was, instead they all cross-train in all kinds of fighting disciplines and that makes MMA the actual sport too, it is called the preparation for the MMA fight. Even freestyle wrestling is not the best advice for the MMA preparation. The ultimate MMA training includes such styles as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Kick-Boxing and standing Greco, because using any of these three even separately the goal of knocking opponent off can be successfully achieved. Freestyle does not provide this…it only offers takedowns, but you already have great takedowns in BJJ all of which originated from Japanese Judo. As a matter of fact Japanese takedowns were always the best. I want to remind my readers that even in the 1880s Sorakichi easily defeated Lankies in takedown matches which prove that catch-freestyle was never designed for that! Because catch-freestyle take down lead to “basic on the all fours” position which gave the getting behind advantage the attacking wrestler…so that he could advance with his nelsons. But you don’t see nelsons submissions in MMA do you?!
Another question which oftentimes my readers ask me is what I think of the current Olympic styles of wrestling and their evolution. It is a very complex subject which demands a separate book far less an article, and yet, I will be quick on that. Since there is freestyle which allows any hold and ground wrestling and it is all about gaining control and a dominant position, I do think that it would have been a much more logical sport if the rules allowed victory on – immobilization in any position, if wrestler cannot extricate themselves from that restricting movement position, they lose; that simple! And it is pretty historical too. I write a lot about this kind of freestyle wrestling in the Story of Catch. As for the Greco-Roman…I do think that it should have never changed and remained what it originally was in France, when the French first invented it in the early 19c – a standing wrestling in which wrestling is allowed only above the waist (no tripping and grabbing legs), and there is no ground wrestling either, a person thrown onto their shoulders from their feet loses; that’s long story short!
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