Coach and others- Sambo?

[MMArtist84]

Hello everyone,
I have been involved in BJJ and JKDconcepts for about 6 months now and have really taken a liking to the ground game. I have heard alot of good things about Sambo and have been trying to find instructors and/or schools in the Chicagoland area, but have so far been unsuccessful. My only find was at SIU. I would greatly appreciate any advice or recomendations anyone may have.
Thanks all,
Tim

[Scott Sonnon]

Tim,

'Hook' up with Tony Cecchine at www.catchwrestle.com.

[MMArtist84]

Thanks Coach,

I emailed him a while back and he said that he only trains experienced wrestlers. I never wrestled in high school so I have started training with the coach and some guys on the team at my college and will get back to him in a few months or so. Should I still ask him about sambo though?

Thanks for the amazingly fast reply,
Tim

[Scott Sonnon]

Tim,

If Tony won't accept you at your current skill level, and you're interested in authentic Russian approaches instead anyway, then contact Arkadiy Stepankovskiy at http://system-chicago.com/

[MMArtist84]

Thanks Coach,

Appreciate your help!

[JasonE]

Is Tony Cecchine more than another strong guy who wrestles? I've heard some dodgy stuff about him, and the local guys who swear by him are sods who sorta know how to grapple.

I know Tony is strong, but his whole Catch-Wrestling revival has always sounded like it ran on 3 points:

1. Get big and strong.

2. Learn some basic wrestling & submissions and throw in some gouges and rips.

3. Go hard and fast and induce lots of pain in smaller, weaker opponents to demonstrate your proficiency.

Tony's refusal to take on anyone who hasn't already got a strong wrestling background kind of makes him useless to the majority of seekers even if there is more to him than the above 3 points.

Am I wrong? Can someone give me reasons to take the guy seriously? I was pretty darn surprised to see Coach Sonnon refer anyone to Tony, and I'm curious to learn why he would.

Thanks!

[Scott Sonnon]

I must ask, if you've never trained with Tony, how could you come to such strong, negative conclusions about him?

Tony's a solid grappler, with an extensive knowledge base historically and technically. Although we disagree on different issues, we hold mutual respect for each other.

If you'd like to take him seriously, go train with him personally.

Your post walks the line of flaming. I won't have it here.

[JasonE]

Don't get me wrong; I am not a flamer by desire or intent.

I was judging the man based on my negative interactions with a number of people that claim to be his disciples. The three points I stated are their basic explanations of how his program works.

I generally believe that a leader is reflected to some extent in his followers. If something stinks, the source of the stink usually lies somewhere closer to the top.

You are correct, though... I have not met the man nor watched him in action. I was unfairly judging him by association, which is not the most accurate way to get the measure of someone, and I apologize for any possible disruption of the board.

[Scott Sonnon]

Jason,

I've had some highly harmful, unwanted and unsolicited spokespeople on the internet... (including people that have trained with me at one point in time.) Sometimes I wish I had the time to correct all of the misinformation sometimes malignly, sometimes innocently published throughout the internet by people "in my name."

If you'd check with Tony yourself, you would be pleasantly surprised by him, I'm sure... even if only be email.

[Vbrown]

I've had a brief bit of training with Tony and am a member of the ICWA.

Tony certainly emphasises that one should take your training seriously and from his perspective, that is hard consistant weight training as well catch wrestling.

Tony is an intense personality to be sure, but he is also one hell of a guy. He works himself very hard and wants to surround himself with like minded people.

His position on who he takes as a student is not useless. He has goals for his organization and part of that is making a cadre of good quality catch wrestlers to pass on the knowledge. It is more efficient to take people who have the basic understanding of wrestling principles.

If those are the 3 points of Catch you were described either they do not truly understand what Tony is trying to teach or you are misinterpreting what they tried to tell you.

I mean, did anyone specifically tell you:

"Go hard and fast and induce lots of pain in smaller, weaker opponents to demonstrate your proficiency"?????

If so, you owe it to yourself to do a bit more research on the man himself and avoid wierdos!

Regards,
Vince

[Scott Sonnon]

I have to agree with Vince's assessment. Also, this can be found on my bio page: In October 2002, Coach Sonnon was appointed as an advisor to the International Catch Wrestling Association (http://www.catchwrestle.com) - the international governing body for Catch-as-Catch Can Wrestling

[Makena White]

Assuming that the criticism is made in good faith, I can say this. His [Tony C's] video material is unique and excellent. His attitude on conditioning and its necessity as a combat attribute is correct. He has always taken the time to respond to my questions, and the forum he runs is full of helpful people. He even invited me to come and train, although he has never met me, with the proviso that the training was intense and for serious wrestlers only.

I see this as reasonable. The world is full of people who can teach you a granby, a single leg, a high crotch, a slide by, a shuck--but only one Tony C. All he is asking is that people take the time to acheive (i before e?) fundamental proficiency in wrestling before demanding that he teach them the advanced practice. Isn't that fair? A step-over toe-hold is like a loaded gun, and shouldn't just be handed out to every clumsy ape. If you've met Tony's students, you should know that you don't have to be a god to learn from him...just a regular dedicated guy.

Aloha!

Aloha!

[anthonyantosh]

One would be surprised at the number on Coach Cecchine's students that belong to this forum. JasonE please email me when you get a chance.

[Coach Jones]

I've never had the pleasure of training with Coach Cecchine, but he has always been more than helpful in the past when i've emailed him with questions. After seeing one of his videos a while back, I was so impressed, I bought virtually everything he had...and I was not dissapointed.

As far as those three points go...

1. Get big and strong: I've never thought, " if only I was smaller and weaker, I would've done so much better"

2. Learn some basic wrestling...: I've never seen a toehold of any kind in a College wrestling tournament, nor have I seen any submissions.\

3. Going hard...small opponents: In almost all of Tony's materials he performs the moves on someone that outweighs him. That aside...when u weigh 220 and hold world strength records...exactly who do you find to train with that ISN'T weaker than u? Not a big pool to draw from.

I have the utmost respect for him, and would consider it an honor to train with Coach Cecchine.

-Brandon Jones, CST

[Barry Crain]

I've also had a wee bit of training with Tony (one seminar last summer, and one "regular" class) and I can only gush with praise about the man. Tony is an amazingly efficient & technical fighter (in spite of my own complete lack of mat experience, that much was screamingly obvious); more importantly, he's a genuinely gifted teacher, a quality that is scarce in ANY field of endeavor. It's most definitely an honor to know the guy.

[grundy]

Check out Igor Yakimov's tapes. I can only say they are outstanding. You will still need someone to practice with though.

[MMArtist84]

thanks grundy, I'll give them a look.