A Wrestler is Never Done Learning
Sep 21, 2020
I feel like many folks are some what brainwashed by TV. Either the UFC fights themselves or their drama reality series that feeds on drama to exist. They are trained by a Jiu Jitsu strategy in grappling. They fear giving up their back, or should say, exposing their back. As a wrestler I don't give it a second thought. This is merely an example.
It's troublesome to see wrestlers leave wrestling for Jiu Jitsu because they lack the education on legit catch wrestling. Well....I hit one the main problems. Catch has been hurt with false claims of catch knowledge which in turns hurts legit catch. When a wrestler says,"I've learned all I can as a wrestler and need to work on my JJ." I can only shake my head at such ignorance. Now if that person just has a desire to do JJ then best wishes hope you the best.
Even after my years under Billy Wicks, I continued to learn from other sources. I continued to improve on what he taught me. Sadly I've seen many catch guys regress and not advance. I watched a student of mine (maybe two years experience in wrestling) give a decade or more experience catch guy all kinds of problems in my gym. Simply put, the experienced wrestler hasn't improved his game in years.
Why any high level folk style wrestler would jump to JJ rather than catch is certainly his choice. However, I hope he or she does so based on facts and not simply opinion. I hope it's an educated decision. It's like putting down a book half way through and starting over with a new book. As one guy said to me,"it's impossible to wrestle for a long time like you can in JJ." I disagree. This is where the pro part of CACC starts and you shed the amateur philosophy of urgency and panic. I've been around people from the Fujiwara family, trained for nearly 17 years under Billy Wicks, been advised by Dick Cardinal for seven years now, and I still seek to learn more about my art.
Why learn another art when I haven't finished with the one I'm in? Now I don't believe CACC is the end to all means, but I will say I think it has its advantages over JJ and certainly disadvantages too. I view the disadvantages as a sign to improve not a sign to give up. So it's up to the person to decide what's best for himself. That said, I just hope it's based on research and education and not marketing or misinformed opinion.
Jon Strickland
