When I started ScientificWrestling.com in 2003, DVDs were the standard medium for wrestling instructionals. 15 years later, DVD players are hard to find in most homes since most people now just stream content directly to their laptop or smartphone.

It has taken substantial time, money, and effort BUT we finally transferred ALL of our highly acclaimed grappling instructionals to Video-On-Demand! This means that whenever you decide you want to learn from Scientific Wrestling legends like Karl Gotch, Billy Robinson, Wade Schalles, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Josh Barnett, etc. you can! You can purchase the instructionals permanently or rent them and no shipping expense or wait! Also, you can watch them on the Vimeo app on your phone in the gym, on the bus, at work, anywhere!

Remember, if you want our complete library (including the massive Fighting Library and the exclusive Scientific Wrestling t-shirt) remember the Complete Catch Wrestler package! You won’t find better information or coaches anywhere!

 

Celebrating Success of Unified Catch Wrestling World Championships, Co-Promoters Solidify International Catch Wrestling Federation

August 17, 2018

Few realize the origins of professional wrestling come from the very real (and not choreographed) catch-as-catch-can wrestling, a sport popular in both America and Europe nearly a hundred years ago.  With the popularity of MMA and other combat sports on the rise, modern organizations have formed to revive the sport of catch wrestling, led by Jake Shannon’s Scientific Wrestling “The Undisputed Leader in No-Hold-Barred Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling” and Joel Bane’s Snake Pit U.S.A., “The World’s Premier Catch Wrestling Organization.”

Uniting for the good of the sport, the two organizations recently co-promoted the wildly successful inaugural Unified Catch Wrestling World Championships on July 14, 2018, where good sportsmanship and collaboration were the order of the day.  To celebrate this success, and keep things moving forward, Scientific Wrestling and Snake Pit U.S.A. have founded the long-awaited catch wrestling governing body, the International Catch Wrestling Federation (ICWF), with the goal of uniting the sport’s various promotions and athletes while helping coordinate its continued growth.  The witnessed excitement surrounding this highly anticipated unification is nothing short of inspiring.

The ICWF has put out word that they are actively seeking investment partners, sponsors and high-caliber athletes, to be part of their organization and help fuel its growth to ensure a win-win for all concerned.

The first member to join the ICWF has been USA Catch Wrestling, based in the United States of America. The ICWF is currently vetting applications from the UK, Italy, Japan, Colombia, Spain, Australia, Canada and elsewhere. The ICWF plans to eventually organize, train, scout and book talent from member organizations, while providing a soon to be launched universal database/website unlike anything seen to date.

The catch wrestlers themselves are equally as excited by these new developments, as are the fans and promotions.

Another exciting announcement is the decade old “King of Catch Wrestling” has also become a unified promotion, evolving from an amateur open tournament into a professional, invitational fight promotion sanctioned by the ICWF.

Jake Shannon, President ICWF, founder ScientificWrestling.com stated:

“We are proud and thrilled to provide both the fans and athletes of catch wrestling more of what they’ve wanted from us: real, competitive, no-holds-barred, amateur and professional catch-as-catch-can, the best is yet to come!”

Joel Bane, Vice President ICWF, founder SnakePitUSA.com remarked:

“Catch Wrestling has undeniably needed structure, teamwork and ultimately leadership for quite some time. With the two largest Catch Wrestling organizational leaders in the world uniting, the time is finally here and we will ensure that this soon becomes a reality. As proud members of the grappling and martial arts community, we are excited about what the future holds for both the sport and art of catch-as-catch-can wrestling.”

About Scientific Wrestling & Snake Pit U.S.A.

Scientific Wrestling is the undisputed leader in no-holds-barred catch-as-catch-can wrestling. Having ignited the modern catch wrestling revolution, Scientific Wrestling has provided unapparelled training camps world-wide with some of the greatest catch wrestlers of all time and delivered endless historical, and technical study materiel, along with one of the very first online training databases, est. 2003. Snake Pit U.S.A. is the World’s Premier Catch Wrestling Organization with an ever-expanding fanbase of over a quarter million fans and a host of National & International training/affiliate locations, est. 2011.

For more information, be sure to visit https://scientificwrestling.com and https://snakepitusa.com

8/3 is the birthday of Karl Gotch, aka “Kamisama” (i.e., which means “God of Wrestling” in Japanese).  CatchWrestlingU (a really informative blog if you’re interested in catch, both exhibition and competition) has started celebrating Karl Gotch Day on his birthday, August 3rd. Following his lead, so have I and I sincerely hope you begin to do the same!

In the meantime, to remember Karl check out this collection of conversations I had with the legendary wrestler.

 

 

To watch video of all the bouts, scroll down.

I’ve dedicated the last twenty years of my life deliberately studying and reviving the sport of catch-as-catch-can wrestling and last weekend was a spiritual experience for me. I am so unbelievably grateful to have witnessed what I did in New Jersey on July 14th, 2018. The sheer amount of heart shown by every wrestler on the card last night was unearthly. If you love CACC like me I sincerely wish you could have been there to witness it in person. It was truly special.

Big congratulations to Curran Jacobs. He’s normally a handsome actor but this is what he looked like, after winning. His tenacity and grit was unreal. He executed the prime strategy of basic catch-as-catch-can perfectly;  i.e., “conditioning is your greatest hold”. That doesn’t mean just conditioning the heart and lungs, but inoculating the body against pain too. Jacobs withstood the onslaught of larger, very skilled, violent grapplers for a hellish 19, 5-minute rounds to execute the catch-as-catch-can equivalent of Muhammad Ali’s rope-a-dope strategy. Once his opponents tired or made a mistake he’d slide behind them for a tight sleeper hold. Here is the champ himself telling the tale:

Congratulations to every man and woman that wrestled at both the open and the invitational. Everyone was on the edge of their seat all night. I know Billy Robinson, Karl Gotch, and all the old timers that loved this sport would have been tickled to see this. Everyone had enormous heart. Beefs were squashed through the love of this sport tonight. Hats off to Joel M Bane (and his incredible wife) Anastasia for pouring their hearts into the show. I hope everyone gets to see a show like this sometime in their life. Honestly, you had to have been there. Can’t wait for everyone to see it. A sincere thank you to everyone who was there in NJ in person to support the most prestigious event in CACC in nearly a century; The 2018 Unified Catch-As-Catch-Can World Championships.  

The stars of the show shined bright; Brandon Ruiz, Kenny Faafetai Lester, Erik Arevalo, Johnny Buck, Patrick Stano, Jon Zang, & Nick Caggia really gave their all. People came from all over the world (as far as Japan) to witness the complete rebirth of this sport, plus to have MMA legend Josh Barnett in attendance supporting was incredible! Also thank you Jim McCann for being a gracious host.

After this show, I would put the sport of catch-as-catch-can wrestling (and our no-holds-barred ruleset in particular) up against UFC or WWE anytime (we are looking for investors/producers that share our passion and vision for the sport so please email any leads my way)! There is absolutely no reason CACC couldn’t be bigger than both MMA and “Sports Entertainment” combined. I mean this with all my heart. I have a renewed vigor to continue growing this sport and I am truly optimistic, maybe for the first time in 20 years, for CACC unity and the future of catch-as-catch-can wrestling.

As Billy used to say, “Do it again!”

Quarterfinals: 

NICHOLAS CAGGIA v. KENNY LESTER

 

JON ZANG v. BRANDON RUIZ

 

PAT STANO vs. ERIK HAMMER

 

JOHNNY BUCK v. CURRAN JACOBS

 

Semi-finals: 

KENNY LESTER v. BRANDON RUIZ

 

ERIK HAMMER v. CURRAN JACOBS

 

Finals:

BRANDON RUIZ vs. CURRAN JACOBS

 

Ps. Another epic tale from this event that should not go unnoticed were the efforts of Mary Almario from California (UWFxUSA). This game-as-hell athlete was the ONLY woman to enter the Billy Robinson Classic open tournament and she did an amazing job fighting all male opponents! Hope we get more tough female talent like her at the next event!

Pps. For me personally, the most amazing aspect of the evening was how our brutal sport of CACC lead to respect and love afterward (note: there was real bad blood and acrimony prior).

These two top-tier athletes at opposite ends of their wrestling careers showed the world what real guts looked like in a final that truly deserves to be in the history books.

Please read these great blog posts by Brandon “The Strangler” Ruiz after the event (not only can he strangle you silly but he can write like a freakin’ poet too:

Jake Shannon: A Praise to the Man

Curran Jacobs: 2018 Catch Wrestling World Champion

This post by Erik Hammer was great too:

Ppps. Last, but certainly not least, I want to express my gratitude to SnakePit USA Head Coach Joel Bane. I am so proud of what he has accomplished and what he had to overcome to make this show happen. I was thrilled when he asked for my help organizing and booking. After the smashing success of this event, we are committed to unifying the sport via the first joint promotions so that CACC will advance together under proven leadership. Stay tuned!

 

Here are my most recent interviews (2018), got great feedback from both! I was most recently on Ryan Ford’s Grappling Central Podcast:

“Jake Shannon is a highly respected figure in the world of Catch Wrestling. He talks about the history of the style, his time spent with the legends of the sport and Professional Wrestling. He also talks about the future of Catch Wrestling! Click “Read More” for show notes! http://grapplingcentral.com/episode-295-jake-shannon/

-Origins
-Finding Jiu-Jitsu in the early 90’s
-His experience in Professional Wrestling
-Transitioning into Catch Wrestling
-Befriending Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson
-Catch Wrestling’s close ties to Professional Wrestling
-The history of Catch Wrestling
-The Japanese approach to Pro Wrestling
-Karl Gotch’s impact on Japan
-80’s Pro Wrestling
-A stylistic breakdown of Catch Wrestling
-The value of pinning
-Mark Schultz
-Catch Wrestling’s slow growth in America
-Intensity levels in training and student retention
-Jiu-Jitsu’s success in the US
-Can Catch Wrestling implement a ranking system?
-What Catch Wrestling can do for BJJ athletes
-The grappling community
-The Pummel
-Surviving cancer
-Yoga for grapplers
-His training camps
-Sharknado 4
-The future of Catch Wrestling”

And just prior to that I was interviewed by Coach Rich Thurman for Live with Coach_RT3: to discuss the Macebell and MaceYoga:

“Jake is the creator of the first Macebell. He’s an entrepreneur, author and founder of Scientific Wrestling. This live interview took place on January 9, 2018 on Facebook.

View Original video here: https://www.facebook.com/rich.thurman…
Subscribe to Jake’s YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/scientif…

Follow Jake on Instagram:
http://www.instagram.com/maceyoga1

Jake’s Website:
http://www.scientificwrestling.com“

Our YouTube channel has over 4,000 subscribers now! Please click the link and subscribe, I am uploading tons of new content over the coming months. Here are some recent uploads:

 

As Scientific Wrestling has continued to grow I’ve gained a lot of appreciation for the way Karl Gotch told me that he approached professional coaching; he would never charge an individual athlete money to teach them wrestling. If he liked the person he would only ask that they pay him in squats, push-ups, bridges, and guts. However, despite his passion for catch-as-catch-can, he too still had a family to support so he had to make a living but he did it by only charging organizations, not individual athletes.

As such, and effective immediately, I’ve switched our PIN and SUBMIT training camp’s business model from business-to-consumer (B2C) to business-to-business (B2B). This means I will no longer allow individual enrollments for upcoming PIN and SUBMIT training camps. Instead we will make offerings exclusively to fight gyms, wrestling promotions, safety and security agencies, and martial arts schools from now on.

By making this shift, it will cutting train camp costs significantly for both for athletes (flights, hotels, car rentals, etc.) and us at Scientific Wrestling (gym rental, flights, hotels, car rentals, insurances), effectively passing the savings back to athletes via lower registration fees and better camp schwag.

I will continue to personally train select athletes, as Karl did, in exchange for nothing more than sincere effort, loyalty, and heart (of course I will not take a financial loss either, and of course gifts and donations are deeply appreciated).

NOTE: The sole program that will still remain open to individual enrollments will be the newly revised, massively updated Scientific Wrestler Coaching Program: Coaching Catch-As-Catch-Can (our first major revision to the Certified Catch Wrestler program since it’s inception back in 2007). We believe this will be the most rigorous, thorough, and comprehensive program of its kind.

Thank you so much for your continued support as we continue to grow. ❤

Ps. Fill out the form at the bottom of PINandSUBMIT.com completely to bring our team to your facility. Serious inquiries only please.