jacket wrestling

[jarrod]

thought i'd continue with another thread of lesser-known grappling styles.

jacket wrestling is pretty much what it sounds like: a style of grappling that uses a heavy jacket that can be used while wrestling. judo, sambo, & jujitsu are the most commonly known varieties. here are a few lesser known ones, some of which are struggling to survive these days.

gouren from brittany:

cornish wrestling from (you guessed it) cornwall:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JdrPOQ4L1Q&feature=related

these two are very similar, & gouren was most likely brought to the continent by british immigrants. they both use some pretty creative gripping.

kurash, from uzbekistan (sp?)

buh, mongolian wrestling:

(look at the throw at 1:00, wow!) the current buh world champion also won a gold medal in judo in the last olympics.

kurash & buh, along with judo & several other central asian styles formed the basis for sambo.

& of course for the CMAists there is shuai jiao:

& back to the UK for devonshire wrestling, the only style i'm aware of that allows you to kick your opponent in the shins:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxvo8i5khRo&feature=related

there used to be a major rivalry between cornwall & devonshire wrestlers. when they wrestled, they would often take turns competing under each others rules. the other alternative was that the devonshire wrestler would only be allowed to wear one shoe so as to reduce his kicking arsenal.

shwingen from switzerland:

technically this style isn't jacket wrestling, since the pants are used as the primary gripping target, but pants wrestling sounds somehow dirty. shwingen is one of the few styles of traditional european wrestling which may continue to grapple after the throw. the match is won by holding one hand on the opponent's pants while touching both his shoulders to the ground.

anyhow, i'm nerd for history & for martial arts, so when i can put the two together i'm in geek heaven. hope you enjoy the clips.

jf

 

[kaizasosei]

Great clips! Very educational as well as culturaly enrichening.
Thanks for sharing....

I've seen the mongolian one before....was a cool throw at the 1:00, showed it again in slow. He grabs under the cross arm and the spins under...wild and cool move. Spin moves are crazy. Sortof reminds me of when you are standing with someone in your guilotine choke and you then duck your head into the opponents armpit region(being careful and mindful not to have him clamp down on your head-also holding mirror arm like bicycle).... then you spin so that the opponents head in guilotine goes down and the arm goes up...if you've guilotining with the right, it would be clockwise...
i find it works well to push into opponents actually pushing the arm down to induce a countermovement and then absorbing the power for the spin....
trying the move at mma in japan, i once pulled it off and it worked like a charm...other times, when i think i telegraphed, the opponent was too responsive and blocked it, felt it or knew about it...
however, with a little more force, there are still more possibilities..
It truly is a wild move because when you spin the guy around, if you don't ease up on the neck, it could be really dangerous...spining through 360 can be cool too, mostly in that it does a fairly good job of disorienting the person and makes him more vulnerable to further moves.

I really loved the shin kicking...how many times have i had to ease up on the sweeps because they came too close to being kicks..this would eliminate that problem.

j
j

 

[jarrod]

Great clips! Very educational as well as culturaly enrichening.
Thanks for sharing....

I've seen the mongolian one before....was a cool throw at the 1:00, showed it again in slow. He grabs under the cross arm and the spins under...wild and cool move. Spin moves are crazy. Sortof reminds me of when you are standing with someone in your guilotine choke and you then duck your head into the opponents armpit region(being careful and mindful not to have him clamp down on your head-also holding mirror arm like bicycle).... then you spin so that the opponents head in guilotine goes down and the arm goes up...if you've guilotining with the right, it would be clockwise...
i find it works well to push into opponents actually pushing the arm down to induce a countermovement and then absorbing the power for the spin....
trying the move at mma in japan, i once pulled it off and it worked like a charm...other times, when i think i telegraphed, the opponent was too responsive and blocked it, felt it or knew about it...
however, with a little more force, there are still more possibilities..
It truly is a wild move because when you spin the guy around, if you don't ease up on the neck, it could be really dangerous...spining through 360 can be cool too, mostly in that it does a fairly good job of disorienting the person and makes him more vulnerable to further moves.

I really loved the shin kicking...how many times have i had to ease up on the sweeps because they came too close to being kicks..this would eliminate that problem.

j
j

yikes, i can see how that move could be dangerous! one i'll try sometimes is like a standing gator roll/anaconda choke. if i'm choking them with my right arm, i'll try to trap their right arm along with their neck, then spin my head under their left armpit. it gets a nifty throw & you can go straight into the choke too.

devonshire wrestling (shin kicking) is pretty crazy. i think it would be valuable for learning how to counter low kicks with sweeps, but i'm not too interested in trading booted shots to the shins like a lot of those guys were.

jf

 

[kaizasosei]

Gotta love the sound though -when the boots connect to the shins!!!

j

 

[Chris Parker]

Hi,

In Hagakure, there is a story from the 9th chapter, which includes the term "jacketed wrestling", although in some versions it is listed as "seated wrestling". From the context, it seems that one way the Samurai would test themselves involved being in a kneeling posture, and attempting to knock/throw the other person to the ground.

Within systems such as Asayama Ryu, there are seated techniques that seem to be derived from just such a practice. The paired techniques of Tengu Otoshi and Tengu Gaeshi have the two proponents seated opposite each other in jackets, and Uke either pushing Tori back and down, or pulling him forward to unseat him. Kind of a different approach, and a bit of an insight into Samurai life...

 

[Tez3]

Cornish wrestling is still going strong, the Breton wrestling is very similiar as both Cornwall and Brittany share the same Celtic heritage.

 

[jarrod]

very glad to hear that! i've tried a few times to order some materials from CWA, but they seem to have a hard time shipping outside the UK.

jf

 

[Tez3]

very glad to hear that! i've tried a few times to order some materials from CWA, but they seem to have a hard time shipping outside the UK.

jf

Seems they have a new web site coming

http://www.cornishwrestling.co.uk/

If it's any help they could send ( or I could pick up as I go to Cornwall a few times a year) stuff to me and I could send it on if you like?

 

[jarrod]

hey thanks! right now i'm scraping my pennies together since i'm moving in a few months, but if the offer is still on the table when i have a little money i'll let you know!

jf

 

[Tez3]

hey thanks! right now i'm scraping my pennies together since i'm moving in a few months, but if the offer is still on the table when i have a little money i'll let you know!

jf

No worries! Depends when they have the website up and running too. Hope you're going somewhere nice!

 

[jarrod]

denver, baby! mountains, rivers, & no more 100 degree summers!

jf

 

[David Weatherly]

Seems they have a new web site coming

http://www.cornishwrestling.co.uk/

If it's any help they could send ( or I could pick up as I go to Cornwall a few times a year) stuff to me and I could send it on if you like?

Nice clips, thanks for posting them. The new site looks good too, looking forward to seeing more developments.
With the growing interest in traditional European styles we could see some interesting growth with these styles.

 

[tellner]

Excellent material. One of the best things about the Gracie Revelation is that it's brought attention to all sorts of wrestling.

 

[jarrod]

Excellent material. One of the best things about the Gracie Revelation is that it's brought attention to all sorts of wrestling.

that's true. well before i ever heard of the gracies or bjj, i wrestled for a year in junior high. i did pretty well, but i didn't stick with it. i never once equated it with any sort of fighting ability, i just saw it as a sport. i think that part of the interest in traditional wrestling lies in the fact that they are now recognized for what they are: authentic, rare martial arts rather than quaint folk-customs.

jf