Wrestling for MMA. Thoughts??

[VJ Bella]

Hey all...I was wanted to see if i could your thoughts on how important you think wrestling is for MMA. I have heard Joe Rogan say that he thinks wrestling is the most important sport you can do if you want to have a career in MMA. Is it because wrestling teaches a more aggressive style of grappling (vs. BJJ which can be somewhat methodical and slow at times). Is it because wrestling teaches you to never be on your back?? Is it the takedowns?? Does wrestling make your Jiu-Jitsu better?? Is it a better sport to train in than BJJ if you want to have an MMA career???

Thoughts....

[Tommy Capello]

Yes, Yes, Yes, No, NO!!!!!!!!!

[karim]

Yeh i agree that wrestling is very important , i think if people from a wrestling background work more on their very few subbmission which are very difficult to pull off get a little bit more submission deffense from jui jitsu i thinks thats all wrestlers really need jui jitsu defense!!

[keith stewart]

the way i see it.....you get striking from the feet,jui-jitsu from the ground and wrestling neatly fills the gap inbetween.all the beautiful peices of the mma puzzle,all as important as one another. :-)

[Josh Passini]

Wrestling is a must. period

[Chris Herzog]

I think its more about control. A good wrestler can dictate where the fight actually takes place. If a decent wrestlers want to take the fight to the ground he can do so. If he wants to keep it standing he can use his wrestling to keep it there. Its a very valuable and versatile set of skills to have, not to mention it teaches great work ethic even at a young age. I agree with Joe defiantly the best base for MMA

[stlnl]

Take downs are much more important than overall wrestling. Good wrestlers tend to be very tough mentally, but the ones who do well in MMA are the guys who had an aggressive take down attack in college/international comp. The guys who were leg riders or more methodical dont tend to have the same success.

As stated Takedowns are very important because you can dictate where the fight takes place. Also as mentioned, it gives people good kinestetic awareness and great hips, and training is free in schools in the US.

I think however, something that gets left out of this topic, is its not like simply wanting to be good at wrestling is the reason we see the former wrestlers in MMA. Most of them were Division 1 wrestlers, alot of them conference champs and several all americans or D1 champs. There is alot more to just wanting to be good at wrestling to being in a top D1 program. I think the fact guys who are at that level are also fantastic athletes, because you simply wont get to that level without being one, and that gets left out of the debate a whole lot.

Its not as if guys who wrestled all through grade school and HS go into top level MMA and dominate with their wrestling. I also feel, if BJJ and submission grappling had the same talent pool to draw from (regarding wrestling is very common, and widely available, and in some state a religion) and the same amount of time to train people (from age 4 in many states) and to focus from an early age with takedowns, the wrestling pedigrees might not mean as much.

[Kevin Green]

I think its more about control. A good wrestler can dictate where the fight actually takes place. If a decent wrestlers want to take the fight to the ground he can do so. If he wants to keep it standing he can use his wrestling to keep it there. Its a very valuable and versatile set of skills to have, not to mention it teaches great work ethic even at a young age. I agree with Joe defiantly the best base for MMA

Exactly...

Good wrestling will let you dictate where the fight goes.....if you suck at subs, you can keep it on the feet if you suck on the feet, you can take the guy down, control position and beat him up, if you suck at subs and striking, you prob shouldnt be fighting mma, or you could always do the take down and run, take down and run to score points w the judges

[VJ Bella]

I was not a big believer at first...but after watching a couple of practices I am really starting to see how it can be used effectively in MMA (mostly for the reasons that you guys are mentioning). My daughter joined the wrestling team at school. She has never wrestled before and i was pretty torn on her doing this (maybe im just old fashioned). Her ultimate goal is to fight MMA and so she decided to give it a shot (she was getting recruited pretty hard and could use the help on her feet...plus its 5 months of free training for her). I give her credit for not giving a shit what anyone else at her school says...but i wasnt exactly sure how it would help her in MMA considering she already trains in submission wrestling.
I'm definately starting to see how it can help now. It instills a great work ethic (shes in incredible shape right now) and these guys are going full speed the entire match...really helps you maintain control of the opponent...and the takedowns are huge as well...just wanted to get the thoughts of the group...and I think we agree.

[VJ Bella]

There is alot more to just wanting to be good at wrestling to being in a top D1 program. I think the fact guys who are at that level are also fantastic athletes, because you simply wont get to that level without being one, and that gets left out of the debate a whole lot.

Funny...when i went to school the wrestling team was all the meatheads who weren't athletic enough to make the basketball team...lmao.