"-I've been looking at the Lucky 13 video on the website and it sounds interesting, but it shows two people in all the pictures. Is this a workout I can do alone, or do I need a partner? I've come to realize the need for cardio in groundwork, unfortunately running doesn't help a whole lot. Is this something you do, have you found it useful."
You can do this workout alone. The reason he has two people in the workout is to show different intensities of working out. One guy does the entire workout non stop while the other guy takes rests throughout. I have this video and find it to be the best cardio routine ever produced. I have had the video for many months but still cannot complete the whole thing yet. It will take your cardio and respiratory conditioning to new heights.
"-Do you guys work takedowns at all? A lot of the takedowns I've seen in BJJ are sport specific and leave you open to punches and strikes of all kinds. Are there any Catchwrestling specific guidelines for taking an opponent down? Is this taught in your classes? Since I don't live near chicago it would be pretty hard for me to seek personal instruction, is there a video available on the subject of takedowns?"
Takedowns are an essential part of our training! Everything we do starts with the takedown. I know BJJ guys like to say "90% of all fights end up on the ground" but think about this...100% of fights start from standing. If you can effectively takedown your opponent and control him from there than you have pretty much taken the fight right off the bat. Another thing about Catch is that we always take into consideration that the opponent can strike.
Whereabouts do you live? Perhaps I know of some Catch guys in your area. I live and run a Catch club in Massachusetts and visit at least every other month to train with Tony. Tony is also coming out with a standup wrestling video in a few weeks that is geared towards people looking to improve their basic standup skills which in turn will improve your takedown ability. Aside from that the USA wrestling syllabus (
http://www.usawrestlingproducts.com...d=0&sid=0&mid=0&sort=0&s=0&f=0&sf=&d=0&pid=52) video series is a great place to start when it comes to learning the basics of standing wrestling. If I can be of any more assistance please feel free to ask!