True Leadership
I tend to stay behind the scenes a bit but for those who don't know, I attended the University of Colorado at Boulder on a pretty prestigious leadership scholarship program. Because of what I learned there, I carried a certain philosophy into my Scientific Wrestling project. Scientific Wrestling was the first to create CACC tournaments with our King of Catch Wrestling tournament in 2007. That same year we also were the first to bring the Macebell to market too. We've done the seminal, original research, published books & DVDs from once obscure masters of this sport, and provided training opportunities with primary sources and we've brought respect back to the sport of competitive Catch-As-Catch-Can. Of course, our flagship Certified Catch Wrestling training camp program is about legit CACC but it is also a leadership program. We were the first to start a quality control program back in 2006 with our highly acclaimed Certified Catch Wrestler Training Camps. Now with all this innovation that we've been a part of, I've had people repeatedly ask if I am upset with all the people that have "ripping off your ideas" or that are otherwise now making a living/money/notoriety off of ideas that we originally implemented. Here is my answer: Leaders don't create followers, they create new leaders. Anyone that knows the history of this company knows that we have a strong "anti-guru" bias built-in to the fabric of our operation. We are thrilled with the success of others, especially if they are sincere in their efforts to bring back catch-as-catch-can in a professional and respectable manner. The only ones that deserve our ire are those that are bring disrespect, lies, trolling, etc. A shining example of the new crop of strong catch-as-catch-can leaders are the gentlemen (and our friends) over at Snakepit U.S.A. They have taken initiative and are growing CACC competition and education, and they deserve our support. Also, Dan Kanagie over at the North American Catch Wrestling Association, of course the efforts of the great Roy Wood and his daughter Andrea over at the Wigan Snakepit. And now with Billy Scott, Josh Barnett, Billy Wick's guys (John Strickland, Johnny Huskey, Chris Rogers, etc), Erik Paulson, and many many more. Also, check out our longtime friend C. Nathan Hatton discussing his new book "Rugged Game: Community, Culture and Wrestling at the Lakehead to 1933" (GET A COPY) on Eddie Goldman's No Hold Barred podcast. Our longtime head coach Billy Robinson insists that we are in the business of helping people "Learn how to learn". As followers of this blog know, athletes affiliated with our catch-as-catch-can program are racking up competition wins but it is not only are our athletes racking up the tournament wins but our coach's athletes are coming back with gold! For example, Bryan McDowell is a new comer to the sport being coached by Brandon McCleese, a Level3 Certified Catch Wrestler at the Kentucky Toe-Hold Club (watch Bryan finish his fight with a toe-hold at this link). Congrats! And big congrats to Gillian Silver for her recent win at the PGL, becoming the first PGL Women's Champion, she is tearing up the grappling seen on the East Coast and doing it as a catch wrestler. Here is a sceren grab of her cinching the title with a toe-hold:
