Catch Wrestling - Techniques

Techniques

The Lancashire phrase "catch as catch can" is generally understood to mean "catch (a hold) anywhere you can". As this implies, the rules of catch wrestling were more open than its Greco-Roman counterpart which did not allow holds below the waist. Catch wrestlers can win a match by either submission or pin, and most matches are contested as the best two of three falls. Often, but not always, the chokehold was barred. Just as today "tapping out" signifies a concession, back in the heyday of catch wrestling rolling to one's back could also signify defeat. Frank Gotch won many matches by forcing his opponent to roll over onto their back with the threat of his toe-hold.

However, in traditional Catch Wrestling, hooks are used rather than submissions. Hooks are a form of submission where the submission may be executed so fast that the loser has no time to tap out. Therefore, another name for a catch wrestler is a "hooker." A "hook" can be defined as an undefined move that stretches, spreads or compresses any joint or limb. Catch wrestling techniques may include,but are not limited to: the Arm Bar, Japanese Arm Bar, Hammerlock, Bar Hammerlock, Straight Arm Bar, Wrist Lock, Double Wrist Lock (this move is also known as the Kimura,or the reverse Ude-Garami in Judo), Head Scissors, Chest Lock, Abdominal Lock, Body Scissors, Achilles Tendon Hold, Knee Bar, Leg Lock, Ankle Twist (or Ankle hold/lock), Abdominal Stretch, Toe Hold, Shin Lock, Key Lock (or Arm Scissors), Half Nelson, Full Nelson and others. Almost all moves have their own variations and different predicaments they can be pulled off in.

Many of such novel techniques arose out of cross cultural exchanges with Japanese Jiu Jitsu proponents.

The rules of catch wrestling would change from venue to venue. Matches contested with side-bets at the coal mines or logging camps favored submission wins (where there was absolutely no doubt as to who the winner was) while professionally booked matches and amateur contests favored pins (catering to the broader and more genteel paying fan-base).

The impact of catch wrestling on modern day amateur wrestling is also well established. In the film Catch: The Hold Not Taken, US Olympic Gold Medallist Dan Gable talks of how when he learned to wrestle as an amateur the style was known locally, in Waterloo Iowa, as catch-as-catch-can. The wrestling tradition of Iowa is rooted in catch wrestling as Farmer Burns and his student Frank Gotch are known as the grandfathers of wrestling in Iowa. Catch wrestling evolved into American folkstyle and international freestyle wrestling.