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I want to have a chat (well, it’s not really a chat. It’s me typing and you reading. Gods I hope people are actually reading these…) about grappling. There have been a lot of conversations on the Facebook group HEMA Grapplers about rulesets. Specifically, various people have been looking for ways to set up HEMA Ringen[1] tournaments in a way that “highlights Ringen and isn’t just dominated by modern grappling”. First I’m going to tackle this idea of Historical Grappling vs Modern Grappling then I’m going to pontificate (hey, don’t judge, you are choosing to read this) on rulesets in the context of grappling.

Historical vs Modern

Right off the bat I need to get this off my chest – the very idea of “historical grappling” and “modern grappling” being different is a false dichotomy. Honestly even saying historical or modern systems of grappling gets real sticky real fast. If I asked someone to explain the difference between medieval wrestling systems (hereafter referred to generally as abrazare[2]), judo, sumo, BJJ, Senegalese Wrestling, Freestyle/Olympic, Greco-Roman, Glima, Catch Wrestling, etc. they would immediately begin talking about what techniques are allowed and the rules. That’s right folks, just like “Who’s Line” the rules are made up and the system names don’t matter.

For instance this hypothetical person (or you, screaming at your screen right now) might say “Abrazare and BJJ have joint locks!”. So do sumo and judo, and Catch Wrestling. In Sumo and Judo you don’t use the joint locks to score points but to secure position. For example, if a sumo wrestler gets double underhooks on his opponent’s mawashi (the traditional loincloth worn by all sumo wrestlers), the other wrestler can put their arms around their opponent’s and lift, creating an elbow lock. This can be done to cause pain and make them release the mawashi. So damn I guess joint locks isn’t a reliable divider of grappling styles. Let’s try something else.

I know! Judo, Freestyle, Greco-Roman, Glima, and Sumo all use throws to win. Guess what? Throws are also prevalent in Abrazare, Catch, BJJ, etc. The throws are there but they might not be how you score points. I think I’ve made my point. Grappling/Wrestling[3] techniques are darn near universal – you hit a person with the planet and/or control their body in such a way that they give up. By the way, these also includes striking as a way to set up. Look at any grappling system around the world and you have those sets of techniques. The difference between a BJJ kimura and Fiore’s ligadura sottana is …. Trick question. There is none. So why so many different types?

Rules.

Simply put, rules (either societal or sport) determine what the win conditions are. That informs what techniques are allowed/used. Think about all the wrestling systems you know – how do the rules affect the techniques? In Sumo the win conditions are 1. Push Your opponent out of the ring & 2. Make any part of their body except the feet touch the ground. Therefore Sumo has no ground fighting or submissions as wins. As stated above, you can use joint locks to move someone but you don’t win by putting your opponent in a joint lock. In BJJ win conditions are 1. Win by points awarded for takedowns, escapes, etc. & 2. Make your opponent submit via a choke, joint lock, etc. Most HEMA tournaments that feature grappling run similar to BJJ – points and/or submissions. I could go on about the importance of society and the rules created (both explicit and implicit) and how they affect the systems used but really you’re better off reading/listening to the Hero with a Thousand Holds podcast – LINK. Seriously. Listening to Rory is what opened my eyes to this.

The point of explaining this is to punch a hole in the “historical vs modern grappling” argument. If I’ve trained abrazare I can enter a BJJ tournament if I understand and follow their rules. Someone who’s trained Judo can enter a Sumo tournament, ad nauseum. The reason so many HEMA folks get upset with “modern grappling” winning HEMA tournaments is because of training. Most HEMA schools (HDA included) don’t spend nearly enough time on grappling. Whereas in a BJJ, Judo, Catch, Freestyle, etc program you learn techniques and then you WRESTLE. It’s applied knowledge. So yeah, someone with a lot of experience in BJJ is going to enter a HEMA tournament, understand the ruleset, and dominate in the same way Olympic fencers who take up historical weapons tend to dominate[4].

So if you want to make sure you only see certain techniques in your tournament you’ve got to make sure your rules only allow for that. And that is a very tough prospect as all wrestling systems come down to one of two win conditions:

  1. Make a part of your opponent’s body that isn’t supposed to touch the ground (throws, ring outs)
  2. Make your opponent submit via dominant positioning or pain (joint locks, chokes, pins)

That’s it. Even if that’s just how you score points, that’s it. It’s not rocket science. The problem is how do I craft a HEMA tournament so no one is using “modern” grappling? Honestly, you can’t. You just can’t. A throw is a throw, a lock is a lock, a pin is a pin. 

So stop worrying about something as false as the breakdown between “modern” and “historical” grappling and just wrestle. 

Further Information

Here’s a couple videos to just help drive the point home.

  • Problem with Judo – https://youtu.be/h98ZAMUxIPM Chadi here talks about how changes in the rules have affected the techniques you see in Judo tournaments.
  • Here are two videos as a compare/contrast. First is a Judo teacher talking about setting up your style using only three throws. Second is a video of myself and HDA instructor Sean Mueller going through Wylde’s wrestling. If you look closely you will see the same 3 throws from judo in Wylde.

Footnotes

[1] “Ringen” is German for unarmed combat techniques, usually grappling, in the context of HEMA.

[2] Like the term Ringen, Abrazare comes from Fiore dei Liberi’s treatise and is his name for grappling techniques. Because I’m tired of the German names being the community standard that’s why.

[3] Another false dichotomy. Usually grappling refers to systems with submissions, wrestling to systems without. But I think that’s bollocks as you’ve read.

[4] HEMA as a whole is not ready for that conversation yet.

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