Why aren't there wrestling gyms?

Submissions are the payoff that makes grappling fun. Wrestling just isn't as fun of a sport to participate in day in and day out for hobbyists.
 
platfox said:
Submissions are the payoff that makes grappling fun. Wrestling just isn't as fun of a sport to participate in day in and day out for hobbyists.
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This is just wrong, in my humble opinion. Hitting a good throw is every bit as cool as nailing a slick sub.
 
Most decent mma schools offer wrestling classes 2-3 times a week.
 
MuayThai95632 said:
I feel like wrestlers are so successful in MMA is because they have experience that can only be acquired through high school wrestling, after high school you can't really find any where to get wrestling experience unless you go completely out of your way.


Why can't their be casual wrestling gyms like there are for other combat sports such as boxing, taekwando, muay thai, jiu jitsu, judo, etc??

It's easy for high school/college wrestlers to get striking experience, all they have to do it locate a striking art gym near by.

I think if wrestling was more open to the public it wouldn't be the key to winning MMA fights anymore and people with wrestling bases wouldn't be so hard to defeat.

It's not really fair to be honest, every other art is open to the public but if you want to know wrestling you had to do it in high school/college.

They should open up wrestling gyms around the globe to see what happens to MMA.

Anybody else agree with me?
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Because wrestling is not something that people take up recreationally or for self defense like all those other things you mentioned. It's practiced entirely as a competitive sport aside from those who train wrestling for MMA (which generally are not enough to sustain an independent wrestling gym). And the only competitions for beginners are basically in middle school. There aren't any adult wrestling competitions for guys that aren't seasoned wrestlers.
 
Folk style wrestling takes a lot of time doing things people don't associate with mma. A lot of mma people I talk to think wrestling = takedowns. Referees position is like some strange foreign dance. That dance looks really ...........strange.
 
I'm starting to notice at least in my area, stand alone BJJ gyms have to offer other classes such as cardio kickboxing, Muay Thai, and some fitness classes just to stay afloat.

I feel that BJJ, Judo, Wrestling, etc might be just to niche for the general public.
 
Star has a successful wrestling program. Mainly high school kids attend but there are adults also. They have created some state high school champs out of this program.

http://www.starbjj.com/
 
I haven't taken any MMA classes, but I was under the impression that most MMA classes spent a lot of time on wrestling-for-MMA.
 
Ts you sound kind of whiney. Would having a wrestling base be awesome? Of coarse it would but you don't have one so suck it up and hit the mats, preferably at a gym that regularly techniques mma oriented wrestling.

There are plenty of successful fighters that did not have a wrestling background before they started training. One thing that will help is adjusting your attitude and committing to playing a non defensive game while rolling. That means no more butt scuting, no more jumping to guard, and no more trying to recover guard as your first defense against being put on your back. Always work for the takedown, and always work to be in top control and you will see your "wrestling" improve, just don't cop an attitude and revert back to pulling guard if you're getting your ass kicked. The guard in a fight should be a last line of defense after you have exhausted all other reversals and stand ups.

Last thing is just because you're trying to improve your wrestling doesn't mean you should forget about ju-jitsu, it has hundreds of great sweeps, reversals, rides, controls and submissions that can be used to counter a strong wrestler.
 
Not as sexy or marketable as BJJ.

when someone says martial arts, for most people, wrestling does not come to mind.
 
Sorry for the necro but I'm interested in the subject. You don't have freestyle/Greco wrestling gyms that are open to the public in the US ? Here in Europe that's how wrestling is learned, like any other martial art.
 
There is a wrestling gym local to me, run by the Simmsons brothers, i.e., Nick and Andy Simmons. They were featured in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd because they both went unbeaten during their high school careers, though neither won senior nationals. The gym's name is SAW. I also used to teach grappling at a wrestling gym called Camp Tisdale. They're out there. Just not all that well known.

If you guys know who Khaos Williams or Dequan Townsend are (they both have fought in the UFC), I believe they train out of SAW. I know the team they are associated with, Murcielago, does.

Nick Simmons' greatest accomplishment is perhaps being the man to defeat Henry Cejudo in the Olympic trials, after which Cejudo retired from wrestling.
 
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Iron Monger said:
Sorry for the necro but I'm interested in the subject. You don't have freestyle/Greco wrestling gyms that are open to the public in the US ? Here in Europe that's how wrestling is learned, like any other martial art.
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They exist but they aren't all that common. I'd say they are increasingly more common though. For one thing, parents paying for wrestling instruction has become more and more popular. I believe for example, that's how Kenny Monday makes his money.
 
PointyShinyBurn said:
This is just wrong, in my humble opinion. Hitting a good throw is every bit as cool as nailing a slick sub.
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I love submissions, especially leglocks, but I can think of tons of guys, especially MMA guys but not only, who would much rather wrestle than do anything involving submissions. Some people seem to think of submissions as something sort of weird, esoteric or even nerdy, whereas wrestling is, to them perhaps, more visceral and intuitive.

It could also just be that they never got a proper introduction to submission grappling. We have some local coaches around here more interesting in tapping people out and holding onto a vestige of superiority than helping people learn and improve.
 
It depends on where you are in the country. Even if there is a club the quality of the coach can vary wildly.

In the US it is mostly done through the scholastic system which while having its flaws also makes it more readily available to average kids who don’t have a Rich parent to pay for a club
 
From what I've seen, there's limited adult interest in the U.S. for folkstyle and GR relative to BJJ and particularly if you didn't come up doing scholastic (folkstyle) wrestling. Every hobbyist adult program I've seen was either associated with a college or BJJ/MMA gym and even then, most only wanted to cross-train TDs.

Gym I train at (BJJ/MMA) had a young NAIA national champ who taught a freestyle class that was well attended by BJJ and MMA guys. But after about 6 months, he aggravated an old injury, took some time off and then moved away to take a college assistant coaching job.

About 5 years ago when I lived in Houston, the local Gracie Barra offered an adult freestyle class taught by an Iranian guy who had a bronze medal at Worlds. On a good day, the class had 2-3 students: a 14 yo HS wrestler, his dad and sometimes my 30 yo work colleague with no wrestling background who just wanted a workout. My work buddy went 1-2 times/week and said they didn't even charge him because they needed someone for the HS kid to go live with besides his dad.
 
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seatea said:
That's by choice though. You could run a wrestling class with a more laid back pace, just like you could run a BJJ class like a traditional wrestling practice.
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Isn't wrestling inherently more physical?
In bjj you can do fairly well while being a bitch and even compete against actually athletes with variety of ways to stall or score points in lame ways (like 50/50 sweeps).
In wrestling you kind of get bulldozed by someone going hard.
 
The best way to open a wrestling gym is to advertise your opening up some other martial arts gym, and include a conspicuously large 'wrestling module'.

Do the strip mall SEO thing and have a bunch a taglines for different 'products' even.
 
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