Vol. 1 No . 3

Jake

========================================================================

THE SCIENTIFIC WRESTLING TIMES No hype, no snake-oil, just the facts about real submission grappling. Vol. 1 No . 3

========================================================================

In This Issue:

* COMMENT: Why Western Combatives?

* ONLINE RESOURCES AND LINKS

* ARTICLE: Excerpt from the introduction to The Authoritative Encyclopedia of Scientific Wrestling, conclusion!

========================================================================

Learn the REAL DEAL about the Old-Timers (when men pickled their fists to make them tougher and fights were known to leave one opponent missing an eye!) in the brand new CLASSICAL PUGILISM AND BARE-KNUCKLE BOXING COMPANION, Volume 1...

Uncover the powerful techniques (like "The Chopper") and the rich history of the "Sweet Science" with this book.

Included in this first volume are Professor of the Sport Owen Swift's BOXING WITHOUT A MASTER, the elaborately detailed BOXING (with eye-opening sections on Savate and Dirty Tactics) by R.G. Allanson Winn, and also the EXCEPTIONALLY RARE 1909 book, THE LIFE AND BATTLES OF JACK JOHNSON!

The introduction also presents a comprehensive and concise history of the Western tradition of pugilism.

Keep your hands up, your chin down, and enjoy!!

LINK: http://www.lulu.com/content/101063 [http://www.lulu.com/content/101063]

========================================================================

COMMENT: Why Western Combatives?

Dear Scientifc Wrestling Times Reader:

Why care about the tradition of Western Combatives? The study of the field of Western Combatives yields some of the most effective methods of self-defense and offense ever developed, not to mention some great stories about the most colorful men of their times. Grappling techniques like the double wrist-lock, the full nelson, the inside toe-hold, etc. Bare-knuckle boxing maneuvers like the chopper or the cross-buttock. Men like Jack Johnson, the first African-American Heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Men like The Great Gama and Farmer Burns, both feared champions from opposite sides of the globe. Men of a thousand submissions like Karl Gotch and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Brutal bare-knuckle boxers like Daniel Mendoza and James Figg... Buckle in, you are in for a hell of a ride!

With liberty and justice, Jake Shannon, Editor

PS: Be sure to check the News section of the Scientific Wrestling website for new releases and breaking developments:

LINK: //www.scientificwrestling.com/news.htm [LINK: //www.scientificwrestling.com/news.htm]

========================================================================

COMMENT LINKS:

* Great article on bare-knuckle boxing great James Figg LINK: http://www.iainabernethy.com/articles/article_6.htm http://www.iainabernethy.com/articles/article_6.htm]

* A modern bare-knuckle match between "pikeys" in Ireland. LINK: http://www.peforum.net/links/pikeys.wmv [http://www.peforum.net/links/pikeys.wmv]

========================================================================

* ARTICLE: Excerpt from the introduction to The Authoritative Encyclopedia of Scientific Wrestling, part 3:

There is a violent and dark side to American wrestling as well. Historian Elliot J. Gorn has made note of a particularly brutal form of early American wrestling and fighting called Gouging or Rough and Tumble. As he writes in The American Historical Review (volume 90, February to December 1985, pages 18-43):

The emphasis on maximum disfigurement, on severing bodily parts, made this fighting style unique. Amid the general mayhem, however, gouging out an opponents eye became the sine qua non of rough-and-tumble fighting, much like the knockout punch in modern boxing. The best gougers, of course, were adept at other fighting skills. Some allegedly filed their teeth to bite off an enemys appendages more efficiently. Still, liberating an eyeball quickly became a fighters surest route to victory and his most prestigious accomplishment. To this end, celebrated heroes fired their fingernails hard, honed them sharp, and oiled them slick.

The English and American styles naturally evolved from other styles practiced centuries ago. Upon the walls of the temple tombs of Beni Hasan, near the Nile, are carved hundreds of scenes from wrestling matches, illustrating a great number of the holds and falls known today.

Wrestling was a very important branch of athletics in the Greek games. It formed the chief event of the pentathlon. No holds were barred. There were two basic types of Greek wrestling; standing wrestling, which was most common, and the lucta volutatoria or squirming contest that took place after the take down and continued until one of the contestants conceded to the other.

It was the latter variety that was employed in the pankration, a brutal combination of boxing and wrestling not unlike our Mixed Martial Arts contests today. The upright wrestling was very similar to the modern catch-as-catch-can style. In this three falls out of five decided a match.

"Some perhaps may object, that Wrestling is no use, but apt to make a Man more Contentious and Quarrelsome, and fit only to break Men's Bones; to which I answer, that you seldom find a Gamester indeed, but is superlatively passive, and will put up with what another shall call and resent as an affront; neither do find that a true Gamester does, or receives any Harm, but when highly provoked. Instead of a true Gamester being Contentious and Quarrelsome, he'll laugh at small Indignities, and as with the Mastiff Dog, rather than bite, lift up his Leg and only piss upon the little wafling yelping Curs in Contempt." -Sir Thomas Parkyns, The Inn-Play or Cornish Hugg Wrestler. 1727

The purpose of the Authoritative Encyclopedia of Scientific Wrestling is to pass along the torch of wrestling science and history from one generation of competitors to todays wrestlers. Enjoy and see you on the mat!

========================================================================

THE SCIENTIFIC WRESTLING TIMES. * Jake Shannon, Editor * SUBSCRIBE to The Scientific Wrestling Times FREE or send to a friend at LINK: //www.scientificwrestling.com/ [//www.scientificwrestling.com/] Please DO NOT respond directly to THE TIMES. Send E-mail to: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]

=======================================================================

* The Scientific Wrestling Times provides accurate information on the subject matter covered and advertisements displayed, so far as we can ascertain. We cannot certify the absolute accuracy of referenced articles nor do we necessarily endorse products advertised herein. All LINKS are operative at time of publication.