On Saturday, October 12th, 2019, I attended a Catch Wrestling (Catch-As-Catch-Can) seminar with John Potenza of the Old School Grappling Catch Wrestling Association (LINK), which was hosted by Ed Morales of NAK Martial Arts in Gilbert, AZ (LINK). For those who are unfamiliar with Catch Wrestling/Catch-As-Catch-Can (LINK), it is a no-gi folkstyle submission grappling art that was founded in England in the late 1800s, as a blend of a number of regional grappling arts, as well as Pehlwani wrestling from India (LINK). Shortly after it’s creation, it became popular in carnivals across the United States, blending with the American “rough and tumble” or “gouging” approach to fighting (LINK), resulting in a very mean grappling art, which served as the starting point for what would become professional wrestling, and had a strong influence on the amateur wrestling we see in high schools across the country, today. Modern Catch Wrestling tends to be most notable for its use of neck cranks, leg locks, and methods often considered to be “dirty tricks” in other grappling arts.
Karate, of course, has it’s own “dirty tricks,” but there are both practical and historical reasons for a karateka to get some experience with something like Catch Wrestling. From a practical perspective, Catch Wrestling, and other grappling arts, provide a very valuable experience for developing a well-rounded skill-set as a martial artist. While old-style karate certainly includes a good amount of grappling, it is mostly standing grappling, and done from the focus of a person either acting in self defense, or in a law enforcement or security context. Cross-training in a grappling art allows one to explore groundwork in much greater detail, and also provides focused pressure testing against similarly-trained opponents which, while it is certainly different from self defense against untrained opponents, is a time-tested and proven method of building skill in applying techniques against resistance. For a karateka to train with someone who specifically studies a grappling art, they will get the chance to train against a higher level of skill in that particular area of combat, which is a great learning and skill-building opportunity.
Historically, we know that cross-training in grappling arts is a long-standing tradition in karate (which was touched on in a previous article: LINK). In more modern times, many karateka cross-train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Japanese jujutsu, or Judo–not to mention those who have experience with amateur wrestling in school. In Okinawa, as well, we see that karate masters have often trained in Judo or Sumo to supplement their skills, along with Shima, also known as “Okinawan Sumo” (LINK). Prior to that, however, it was common for karateka on Okinawa to be involved in something called Tegumi, or Muto, which is quite hard to find on Okinawa, these days, with the popularity of Judo, Sumo, and Shima. Tegumi/Muto was described by people like Nagamine Shoshin (founder of Matsubayashi-Ryu), Funakoshi Gichin (founder of Shotokan), Motobu Choki (founder of Motobu-Ryu Kenpo), and others. What these masters described amounts to no-gi folkstyle submission grappling, where participants attempted to throw each other to the ground, pin their backs to the dirt, “twist the joints” (joint locks), and “seal the breath” (chokes/strangles), in an attempt to get their opponent to “signal their submission.” Based on these descriptions, we can deduce that karateka have a longstanding tradition of engaging in their own form of Catch Wrestling.
The seminar began with fairly typical “wrestling-style” warm-ups; jogging, side-shuffling, running in place and dropping to a sprawl, neck bridges, sit-outs, etc. From there we got into a platform drill, where one partner pushed on the other’s chest, and the one being pushed used an outward chudan-uke (middle receiver) to scoop a hand off the chest and pass it to the other hand, which pulled to the hip as in the “stacked hands” posture seen in many kata. Of course, that is simply the karate explanation for what a common wrestling “arm drag” is. We then added to this drill by using it as the launching point for getting to a head-inside single-leg takedown, which could be seen as a variation of the ude-wa (arm ring) takedown found in Passai. The takedown that Coach Potenza taught had a feature that was particularly interesting for karateka; once the opponent’s leg is picked up, you step forward into Sanchin-dachi (three battles stance) to pinch the leg between your thighs, before spinning 90 degrees and applying downward pressure with your head to their body. Only one other takedown was covered during the seminar, which they called a “schoolboy takedown.” This would be the Catch Wrestling version of Funakoshi Gichin’s byobu-daoshi (topple a folding screen) throw, and is similar to Judo’s osoto-gari (major outer reap). That throw was practiced from a clinched position, rather than the arm drag platform drill.
The rest of the seminar covered groundwork–primarily the leg locks and neck cranks that Catch Wrestling tends to be known for. Coach Potenza introduced the leg locks with a lock flow drill following a takedown, where you turn into a kneebar, then use your head and hands to twist the ankle for what he called a “power heel hook,” then a “toehold” where you grab the instep with one hand and wrap the ankle with your other arm to create a figure-4 lock, twisting their ankle, pulling the foot down, and folding their leg. We worked a couple entries into the kneebar, as well as a couple “calf crushers” as counters for them trying to escape. One simple leg lock that I was fond of was from an opponent who had gotten to all fours, and you hook their near leg with one of yours, then grab their other leg with both hands, pulling it out from under them and rolling them to their side, where you pin that leg to the floor and twist the foot to lock the ankle.
The neck cranks were mostly pretty simple, just using your wrist bone to grind against the opponent’s face in various painful places, which is already in the wheelhouse of karate. There were a few others that were done from the “crucifix” position, including a simple “head scissor” that could be a choke or a neck crank, and one where you do a forearm plank and use your body to force the opponent’s head down into their chest. Some cranks were used mostly for moving the opponent (such as rolling them, or opening their neck for a hadaka-jime), while others were used to actually get them to tap, and both were quite uncomfortable. One of the more complex and painful neck cranks we worked was one that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners would call the “Twister,” although it is called something else in Catch Wrestling.
As for other miscellaneous techniques, we covered a couple chokes and locks. One was the “big mans’ triangle,” which was essentially a normal triangle choke, but where you hook your ankles together to do more of a scissor motion. Another was a more common inverted triangle choke, although I believe the Catch Wrestling term for it is a “figure-4 head scissors.” We worked a simple armbar, as well, but mostly as a setup for practicing a “bicep slicer” as a way to counter the opponent locking their hands together to prevent the armbar. That was also how we got into some of the crucifix techniques mentioned previously. An unusual one that Coach Potenza covered was something he called “barbed wire,” where you pin the opponent on their back, pull their head down, and twist their arms together on their chest. The interesting thing about it is that it mostly hurt across the back of the shoulders, as the arms and head were all pulled tight in front of the body, stretching those muscles to the point of pain, at least for myself. I couldn’t really consider any individual part of the technique to be an “armlock” or a “neck crank,” by definition, but it was still quite effective.
Overall, the seminar was very fun, and covered a lot of material which–even if I don’t remember it all–served to inform my overall understanding of grappling. While some of it was familiar to me, there were a number of things I had never done, or which had details I was unfamiliar with. While everyone worked hard in the seminar, everyone had a good attitude, and the atmosphere was fun. If you are a karateka with an interest in exploring grappling and groundwork in greater detail, I can highly recommend checking out Catch Wrestling, and seminars with Coach John Potenza of Old School Grappling, in particular!