This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff
I wasn’t excluding myself. Abuse tends to beget abuse. People often trust individuals they shouldn’t and end up paying a hefty price after allowing predators access to them or their children. Not that bad people aren’t everywhere, it’s just that the martial arts provide an effective cover for many forms of abuse.
Be EXTREMELY careful of walking into a local wrestling club as a stranger with no experience, an adult, and no interest in competing. There is a very good chance they will see you as cannon fodder and throw you around for a couple of hours for their own edification and then send you on your way. 99% of wrestling clubs exist solely as a competitive training group and are almost always focused on 7-30 year old athletes. They tend to have zero interest in spending time with folks who will never compete for them and are essentially - to their eyes - "dabbling" in wrestling. Those of us who have deep wrestling training got it generally in one of two ways. Either we did it growing up as competitive practitioners and athletes, or made connections to wrestlers through our other martial training (usually BJJ or MMA). I was blessed to get phenomenally high level Greco coaching from a great wrestler because he wanted to learn submissions and striking, so we traded. Howard would not have spent any time on me if I was just some guy off the street.
Greco is a great base, but the chance that you will find a club in the USA is as good as wining the Powerball, and even if you find one, it will most likely be under the limitations I outlined above. Greco is not popular in the US in any way, and very few wrestlers here have more than a very general idea of what it entails.
If you have a college near by, you may find a Judo club there. Judo, while a competitive sport, still retains its martial antecedents and generally welcomes noobs who are not going to compete. Outside of cloth grips (which is far more useful for self-defense than most people realize). judo has many similarities to Greco.
If you are going to ECQC, talk to Craig about steps to build a training group for yourself. You don't need that many people. 3-4 like minded folks are plenty, and with having gone through ECQC, you will have a basic game plan to work on.
For info about training or to contact me:
Immediate Action Combatives
Man, reading threads like this make me appreciate my school so much more. Family oriented, a good mix of Kickboxing, BJJ, AND Wrestling. No ego's, lots of feedback and support. I'm still learning, but I can't wait to get back to sparing...damn Covid.
"Next time somebody says USPSA or IPSC is all hosing, junk punch them." - Les Pepperoni
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