Wrestling vs. Striking

I have finally found my mission for the rest of my life and finalized the right title for my book/DVD (I may just come up a DVD and not the book). After my senior Shuai Chiao brother David C. K. Lin's "Combat Shuai Chiao" book came out, I just don't want to write another Chinese wrestling book and repeat the same material. Since I was a striker before I was a wrestler, I would like to be the "bridge" between the striking art and the throwing art.

The main subject of my book is "how to turn a striking game into a wrestling game ASAP". I'm using the word wrestling instead of grappling here because my book won't cover much ground game.

I will cover the following subjects in my book:

- Big fist.
- Double haymakers.
- Single wrist control.
- Double wrists control.
- Double spears.
- Foot sweep entering.
- Head lock.
- Under hook.
- Over hook.
- Bear hug.
- Waist wrap.
- Single leg,

This book will help a striker to learn some throwing skill and strategy. It can also help a wrestler to learn how to deal with a striker. Do you think book like this will have any value in today's environment?

All comments (positive or negative) are welcomed and appreciated.

 

Here's to finding one's mission in life.

 

i would very much buy this (would prefer an ebook version though, since getting stuff into argentina from abroad is a pain in the butt right now ), given my complete lack of grappling/wrestling aptitude. i can definitely see it being a useful resource for other people as well, particularly those from arts that are typically seen as striking-dominant, but that have or may be applicable for wrestling contexts that practitioners may not be aware of, or knowledgeable enough to exploit (karate is really bad in this respect, particularly with sport karate being so widespread).

so yeah, i'd be really curious as to what you come up with

 

Don't forget to add the most important chapter - Transitioning!

 

What do you mean "transitioning"?

Today when I walked with my wife and my 3 lb Yorkie around town lake, I came up 3 possible titles for my book/DVD:

- Wrestling vs. Striking
- Octopus combat strategy
- Anti-striking strategy

My wife prefers the "Wrestling vs. Striking".

 

how about combining them? "octopus compat strategy: wrestling vs striking" sounds interesting, and more likely to catch the eye than a simpler, more generic title.

 

A joke - sorry. You'd mentioned that you won't be covering much, if any, of the ground game - most focus on striking and then ground game leaving the land that lies between a ?

Wrestling is the transition. In a large sense, that's what your proposed book would be about, I'd think - but I'm not a grappler in any form.

As I said, a (bad) joke.

In fact, why don't you call it "Transitions: A Strikers Guide to Closing" or something.

Cheque in the mail ? :jester:

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Since head lock is part of the book/DVD, when you use head lock to take your opponent down to the ground, that part of the ground game will be covered. This is not a throwing skill or ground skill book but a "strategy" book instead.

 

No.

 

It seems to me that such a bridge has already been firmly established. A book about this subject might have done better a few decades ago, before BJJ took the early UFC by storm and opened people's eyes to the necessity of adding a healthy amount of wrestling/grappling to their training regimen. You'd be hard pressed to find a serious fighter today who doesn't already train like this, and the meteoric rise of MMA has meant that casual martial artists everywhere have increasing access to teachers and schools that specialize in both striking and grappling. At this point, to be perfectly honest, it feels to me a little like you're trying to reinvent the wheel with this book.

However, don't let that stop you from writing, especially if you feel that your expertise could fill a gap in existing knowledge. As a grappler, I'd personally be most interested in such a book to get the shuai chiao perspective on a lot of things. The market is saturated with BJJ books and videos, and it's not that hard to find judo or wrestling material out there either, but Chinese wrestling seems under-represented on the modern grappling scene.

Looks like a respectable list of techniques, but how are you going to differentiate yourself from the countless other books and videos that cover the exact same moves? What's going to make you stand out? Again, instructionals like the one you're planning are a dime a dozen these days, so I think that offering some new perspective or outlook would be more valuable than the actual list of techniques that you choose to cover. For example, when I search Youtube for "haymaker defense" there are more than 5000 results. How is yours going to stand out from the rest?

I'm trying to offer constructive criticism here, rather than totally shoot down your idea. In such a saturated and competitive market, I think you'll need something more than just an idea about "wrestling vs. striking", because IMHO it's been done to death already.

 

To "reduced your risk to the minimum when you enter" is the goal. In order to do so, you have to feel where your opponent's leading leg is (it's too far to feel your opponent's back leg), and where both his arms are. you then act like an octopus and wrap your opponent around and start your grappling game there.

For example, you can shoot at your opponent leading leg and hope that you can move fast enough that your opponent's kick, knee, fist, elbow won't be able to land on your head. You can also take a much safe route by

1. jam your opponent's leading leg, so both of his legs won't be a threaten to you when you enter.
2. guide both of his arms to be out of your moving path so his arms won't be a threaten to you when you enter.

As long as you try to achieve those 2 goals, your entering strategy should be a good one.

Here is a simple example.

- Both you and your opponent have right side forward (uniform stance).
- Your left leg sweep his right leading leg off the ground. This will let his leading right leg to jam his back left leg.
- You use your left arm to jam his leading right arm to his left (your right). This will use his leading right arm to jam his back left arm.

If you enter after that, his legs and arms will have no threaten to you. This way, you have "reduced your risk to the minimum when you enter".

 

I think that's a really great subject, I don't think your title choices reflect it though.

 

I have the following option in mind.

- Wrestling vs. Striking
- Octopus combat strategy
- Anti-striking

If I use

- "Anti-striking", I may offend people who trains "striking art".
- "Octopus strategy", people may think about "monkey style".
- "Wrestling vs, striking", it may be too general.

I may use "Octopus combat strategy in wrestling vs. striking". After all, you do use your arms as the octopus's arms and wrap whatever that your arms can touch. This is why I would like to collect as much opinions as possible on the internet forums.

 

How about something like "Shuai Chiao strategies for taking down a striker". Something along these lines could differentiate your book from just another wrestling/bjj book. Something in the title to let people know it is from a Chinese wrestling perspective would attract more interest I would think.

 

I think you maybe want to consider three extra aspects:-

1) Why wrestling and grappling is important - e.g. a) at close quarters you can't avoid it and b) better chance of avoiding fire-fights i.e. you control the scrap, rather than just trade blows - just my 2 cents worth.
2) Strategies to develop wrestling and grappling skills from different perspectives. You are very tall and strong as an ox - but you will have some vulnerabilities - just cant work out from your vidz what - but maybe joint attacks - see 3).
Me, I am small, wiry and mobile and I do a fair bit of grappling, but as my hip-joints are injured (but much better now) from long ago, standing/balancing-to-throw on 1 leg is something I have to work on a lot (very slowly developing.) Essentially what I am saying is tips on how to develop the basic building blocks to balance yourself, not surrender your balance, recover your balance after throwing and take away the opponent's balance -> timing, entering etc.
3) I cant say for sure on internet what takes you down, but from time to time, I do find that giants in particular do not like joint attacks, well timed locks/stuns - that jam the opponent's central nervous system.

These are just my inputs.

All in all, it sounds like a damm good book - and I believe there is a place in the market for a book and DVD from you, as your many posts/drawings/videos/photos here bear witness to your craft and analysis of grappling with SC.

I look forward to this John. I know of very, very few SC practitioners in Europe - I think there are a few in Belgium - so establishing some strong reference material would be very welcome. I am sure you will receive a lot of good feedback here from interested Mappers.

:woo::woo::woo:

 

I can see your point there but I don't like to have "style boundary" myself. In my mind, Shuai Chiao (Chinese wrestling) guys, Judo guys, wrestlers, BJJ guys, Sambo guys all belong to the same "grappling" family.

I like the "Effortless Throws" title that someone used in his book. When you see that title, it doesn't address which style that he may come from. To me, that sound like a more friendly approach.

 

I will definitely include those information. Joint attack such as "outer twist", "helmet removing", and "cracking" will be covered in detail.

 

Before I joined MAP, I never even knew Chinese wrestling existed!

 

I will not be surprised. If you go to China and ask people whether they know what "Chinese wrestling" is, 99% of the Chinese will tell you that they don't know what it is. A student of mine went to Baoding in China (the place that my style came from). He asked the local people about Baoding Shuai Chiao. They all told him that they have never heard anything about it. Chinese wrestling was trained by Chinese Muslim (I'm not muslim but my teacher was).

http://www.changshuaijiao.org/eng/chang_tung_sheng.htm

The majority Han Chinese may not even know anything about it. Some time people asked me if I could recommend a SC instructor in his US state or in his country. I told him that the number of SC instructors in the whole US might be able to be counted by fingers in both hands.

 

As an aggressive cuddler, I'm very interested in this book. Part of why I would read your book over Marcelo Garcia's is the fact that you do Shuai Jiao. I think you should own that, and make it very explicit that you have a slightly different take on grappling than a judoka, wrestler, bjj'er or affectionate psychopath. I would include Shuai Jiao in the title. The days of style v. style are past, today belongs to the folks who will mine any advantage from any source. Exciting times.