Catch Wrestling is a grappling style which was developed in Great Britain in the 1900’s by J. G. Chambers. Many of today’s submission grapplers, pro wrestlers and MMA fighters come from catch wrestling.
Nowadays the most famous catch wrestlers are UFC fighter Josh Barnett, Erik Paulson and Neil Melanson.
At Metamoris 4, Josh Barnett did the unthinkable, he submitted BJJ black belt and 3x ADCC champion Dean Lister with a choke from scarf hold. Lister hadn’t been submitted in the past 17 years. It was a big victory for Catch Wrestling over BJJ.
Erik Paulson here shows some nasty submissions when you have the back control and the opponent defends:
If you are interested in learning more about Catch Wrestling, specifically as it pertains to competition grappling, you should check out Neil Melanson. If you haven’t heard of Neil Melanson you’ve probably heard of the various champions he’s coached (Blackzilians team and Extreme Couture)
Neil learned his skills from the Hayastan Grappling system, developed by Gokor Chivechyan and Gene LeBell. He is considered one of the foremost experts on Catch Wrestling. For more information about Neil’s impressive grappling style, pick up his DVD set in which he covers some of his coveted techniques.
