GentlemanJohn

This a fellow Catch Wrestler and BJJ fanatic out of Virginia. William Calvani has made a version of the Old Indian Strength training implements from India. This particular style is called a Gada. What a great innovation of how to make the antiquated fashionable again. These are great training tools to have for building strength in the shoulder girdle and rotator cuffs. Thank you for sharing your innovations and knowledge with us William. We give you a Salute!

When someone goes for an outside single and you turn to secure a double wrist lock the BJJ guys say isn’t that a “Kimura”. No it is a double wrist lock!

Amazing work in process here. (at WTF MMA)

at WTF MMA

Everyday we choose what battles to fight. The only way we become better is if we choose to become better. Help the WTF brand in our Anti Bullying Campaign. Please Like, Share, and Comment.

Well, Well, Well we have  a single leg you say. Once you have single leg if you back step right after you seize it you will pull him to the ground. I choose to fall on his leg and knee to gain the full takedown.

Parents, do you know what apps or social media sites your children use? If the answer is yes, how much time are you able to devote to monitoring their accounts? If you're like most parents you probably try your best but if your kids are like most kids they still find time to use to the sites during times when a parent is unable to supervise. This doesn't make you a less than stellar parent. Kids are programmed biologically to start pulling away from parents as early as 10 years of age. As the physical changes that come with puberty start to manifest so do many unseen changes such as shifts in loyalty from parents to peer groups, a greater awareness of social status and often a fear of being seen as “different”. Your tween/teen may confide more in their peers than they do with their parents. In an attempt to achieve an identity apart from the parents kids may start dressing or acting differently. They may start using teen lingo, which may seem, with good reason, like words only they and their peers will understand. At this time teens may start to use technology to further develop their new, independent identity. With the increased use of technology comes increase use of popular social media sites. Think of these as virtual clubs, a place to gather with their friends in an often unsupervised environment. Even if you monitor your children's usage, not all parents can or will do likewise which then leaves your child open to bullying. Social media sites are one of the leading places that children experience bullying. Apps like Facebook,  Instagram, Snapchat and Ask.fm are some of the apps children can experience bullying or in some cases use as a tool to bully. Depending on how old your children are will depend on what app they are statistically more likely to use. Ask.fm is popular with the under 19 crowd with a minimum age requirement of 13 years old. Ask.fm allows users to ask questions to their friends using anonymity or not. They can follow friends to see all the questions that a particular friend has answered. Users can instantly add a photo or animated GIF to any of their answers. There is also a feature of photo polling. When looking at the features of these apps try to recognize features that are more likely to lead to bullying. Anonymity makes it easier to ask ALL questions including potentially offensive ones. While the app has some criteria for removing or preventing offensive content it still has a potential to create an environment that fosters bullying. You can block an offensive user however, that person will still be able to follow the user and still be able to see answers to questions that are published. Instagram and snap chat are popular with the mid teen to young adult crowds. They both can be a fun way to share multiple photos and or videos and both have a disappearing feature. This means that content that is published will “disappear” after a certain amount of time. This can definitely be a vulnerability. We all know that children especially tweens and teens are notoriously prone to impulsiveness. Many do not understand that all published media leaves a cyber footprint somewhere. Its the old out of sight out of mind thought process. Read the fine print of what you are agreeing to when a child downloads an app. Many of these sites actually do not permanently delete the pictures and will legally own your childs photos with the permission that the parent has given them via the fine print. Some users may feel more bold about making a harassing or off-colored comment or posting a questionable picture or video if they feel there will be no “evidence” of it later on. Probably most familiar to children and parents alike is facebook, where users of all ages share the stories of their lives. Facebook allows users to post videos, photos and updates on their “wall”. This in turn solicits responses from a users followers. The potential for bullying here lies in the sheer volume of users. Most of us, parents and children alike, cn think of a time when a facebook post created a hostile environment for a user or even for a commenter. Users can block offensive users but its impossible to monitor all the ways a bully can find a loophole or crack in the armor. For instance it is estimated that facebook has 83 million fake profiles, so it is impossible to verify whom you are talking to. The take away from this article is for us as parents to start looking at the content our children post on social media, as well as familiarize ourselves with the apps that they are using. We need to look at the content our children share with an objective eye rather than a subjective one. For example lets say your daughter posts a picture of her holding the family cat. Cute right? Not so fast! Make sure you're scanning the picture objectively. Has her shirt slipped off the shoulder and her bra strap may be showing?  Is there anything potentially embarrassing or compromising in the background? Remember kids notice everything and can be quite mean if they feel something is outside of the “norm”. Aim to think like a bully! Get acclimated with the newest teen phrases and shorthands. It is forever changing and gets increasingly hard to decipher. As parents begin to “catch on” the children change the terms to try to stay one step ahead. Get on the internet and do your research. Learn the terms and their meaning. Lastly, keep the lines of communication open with your kids. Talk to them every day about their lives, stay on top of their social media usage, know what apps they use and what content they are sharing with these apps. Being a parent in this day and age of technology poses many new challenges and unchartered territory, don’t be afraid to set limits with your children. You have the right to keep your children safe, no matter what.

Here is a video on Ssierum we will post some other videos on how to tie the belt and get started on running matches. This is a fun game to add to your kids program.  

So over the last couple of years struggling to teach wrestling I have had my struggles. These struggles deal with running a school that can compete with other kids programs and martial arts studios. Until I meet Ron Beer that is. Ron has been absolutely instrumental in helping us grow a kids program that is making leaps and bounds in the training of our youth. I have been working on Ron’s instructor program for “Games Based Learning” when it comes to children learning skills for submission wrestling go no further. Ron’s courses will add a value to your schools because the call to action is for training age 4-7 and the second tier covers ages 7-12. The material is engaging and has drawn a hardnosed veteran like myself to look at what Ron is doing with his “Games Based Learning” and allowed me to see how the spirit of our sport will not grow unless we start these children before they lose all of their work ethic or worse not build any work ethic at all. I suggest you take a look at www.shootwrestlingcanada.com and buy this program. I haven’t even launched this program and the reception has been outstanding in our community. The best thing about Ron’s Programs are that everyone can afford them. Ron also has been a wealth of knowledge on how to grow as a small business. You owe it to yourself to check out Ron’s work.

KPC- Keeping Parents Clueless P911 -Parent Emergency PAW- Parents are Watching 9-       Parents are Watching 99-     Parents are Gone PIR – Parent in Room POS-  Parent over Shoulder/ Piece of Sh@t PRW- Parents are Watching ASL (R P) Age Sex Location (Race/Pictures) BF/ GF – Boyfriend and Girlfriend BRB- Be Right Back CD9- Code 9 is a verbal warning parents are around but made its way to text GNOC- Get Naked On Camera GTG- Got To Go IDK- I Don't Know (L)MIRL- (LETS) Meet In Real Life MorF- Male or Female MOS- Mom Over Shoulder NIFOC- Naked in Front of Computer Noob- Slang for “Dumb person” NMU – Not Much, You? PRON- Porn S2R- Send to Receive (Nudes) TDTM- Talk Dirty To Me WAREZ-Pirated Software W/E-  Whatever IWSN- I Want Sex Now CU46- See You For Sex 53X-    Sex   1173'- Party Meeting Place   THOT- That Hoe Over There CID- Acid (LSD) Broken- Hung over 420, MJ, Wd- Marijuana SUGARPIC- Nude Photos KOTL- Kiss On The Lips 8- Oral Sex IPN- I'm Posting Naked LH6- Let's Have Sex WTTP- Want To Trade Pictures DOC- Drug of Choice TWD- Texting While Driving GYPO- Get Your Pants Off

We will discuss this in more detail in future blog posts.

We are in a time of change in Catch Wrestling. What do you feel is the biggest change and why is it so? Where have you found most of your truths in this rebirth of Catch Wrestling? Where do you feel competition in Catch will be in the next few years, will we unify under on rule set or will be like the old timers and bicker before the match and bicker after? What do you see is the biggest challenge for teaching Catch Wrestling verses other systems?

The biggest challenge we face is the popularity of BJJ and people thinking that Catch Wrestling is Pro wrestling (fake). People need to understand that Catch Wrestling is very real and it is extremely effective. I believe it is BJJ's kryptonite. People also need to understand that CACC is a clean sport and cheating  (doping, steroids, etc.) will NOT be tolerated. I believe that the CWA will take Catch Wrestling to the next level. It's already happening.

Yes, Catch is trying to “find itself” in the marketplace. Without striking it doesn’t have the pizzazz the UFC has but there still is a market out there either as a youthful warm-up for those who want to end up in the Octagon or as an alternative to collegiate wrestling who has its share of problems attracting crowds. Catch certainly has a greater upside to wrestling given the submission alternative and Scientific Wrestling has made some inroads a long those line I believe.   In the next five years rules will change with the number of groups who want to be “the group” in charge. That is a two sided sword. The down side are the various groups trying to kill the others which can be counterproductive. The up side is eventually the strongest will survive and the sport will take off as a result. I think the best way and quickest is to become a bedfellow with the UFC as a youthful extension to what they do. Say 12 years old through the teenage years all athletes if they’re serious about becoming a big boy has to do Catch and then like the pros in football or baseball, be drafted into the big leagues. Prior to 12 years of age, and in my opinion, Catch is too dangerous given submissions. Young kids don’t know when to say uncle before little elbow joints pop as an example.     Biggest challenge . . . probably finding a way to reward time served versus championships won. There should be a way like Judo to maybe consider offering belt levels that will keep kids interested and adults doing it. Until the older set has ways of feeling good about themselves and winning events is one way but so few win given there is only one per weight class with possibly 25 losers, the belt system makes a whole lot of sense. Most want bragging rights with male and female friends and an award system that everyone knows and understands seems like a winner to me. Hope I helped some.