Many grappling techniques used today date back not hundreds of years but thousands.The Greek style of fighting ‘Pankration’ was one of the first systems of truly no holds barred fighting. It would make sense that it was Pankration what first brought martial arts to the east. We know much of Chinese martial arts has its roots in India and Alexander the Great did reach India, so his elite army would have been skilled in these fighting methods.

True Pankration is hard to find. Many just mix boxing and basic grappling.But Pankration was much more that that. I believe that Catch Wrestling is the nearest fighting art you will find to the original Pankration. All you need is the real old school Bare Knuckle skills and you have it.

‘‘A hooker in Catch Wrestling is a person with the wrestling and hooking skills to control and submit an opponent quickly and effectively. A hooker could be described accurately as more crippling than a practitioner of other grappling arts. His moves are controlled and designed to inflict quick permanent damage. He is a traditional wrestler with a near limitless knowledge of body mechanics, joint and body manipulation, positioning and control. Just imagine an Olympic level wrestler with an arsenal of submissions and you should start to get the picture’’. Tony Cecchine

My main goal has been to research the applications and methods of Catch Wrestling from all the known teachers of Catch. Number one in my mind was to avoid All Politics and Infighting within the art. This way I was able to train and cross check all the concepts within the art with different teachers. My own grappling teacher Sensei Eddy Millis is skilled beyond most in many grappling arts such as BJJ, Japanese Shoot, Greco Roman, Freestyle and has an array of Catch techniques within this endless knowledge We must keep the art of Catch Wrestling alive, but more importantly we must help it grow!

Information on Tony Cecchine

Information on Matt Furey

Information on www.scientificwrestling.com

Information on Sensei Eddy Millis

Read more on the general history of grappling arts at:

www.kobukaijujitsu.com/grapplingstyles.html

This site contains a list of Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling Clubs:

www.catchwrestling.net