u/Beni_Gaucho

Hello All,

I am u/Beni_Gaucho moderator of the the CACC subreddit r/Lugabo (changes pending), when I first made the jump from my role as practitioner to somewhat leader. In the Army they taught me to "know my history" to know the history of the unit because from then it was my duty to add to it and honor those who came before me, and if I don't know my history I am doomed to have another man dictate it and shape it against my will. In my search for better understanding of CACC Wrestling and just martial arts as a whole, I have been coming across more and more misinformation and misunderstanding concerning the subject of martial arts, not just CACC Wrestling, which has motivated me to make a post to enforce the idea that you shouldn't buy an idea wholesale because a handsome "respectable" presenting person tells you to, and to double check and save your sources wherever possible. It is heartbreaking to see so many pages on wikipedia haphazardly done and rife with vandalism concerning rivalries, like for example there should be no reason for most of Luta Livres page be dedicated to a martial art that isn't Luta Livre.

I will touch upon some common myths and legends, and streamline the truth in this post and sometime later I will make another post to go further in depth with the subject.

myth: "Wikipedia is a great resource for Martial Arts knowledge"

Truth:

Wikipedia is a great resource for many things but Martial Arts is not one, in my pursuit to better understand CACC Wrestling and it's roots I have found many typos and mismatching information such as having a redundant two pages for "Catch Wrestling", with redundant and wrong information on both it's modern iteration and it's predecessor "Predecessor" "Lancashire Wrestling", but the Lancashire one is fundamentally wrong, Lancashire Wrestling was not only "one style and two modes", there were many styles throughout the ages that called Lancashire home, only one gave birth to CACC, "Up and Down Fighting".

Myth: "CACC wrestling was an amalgamation of different styles of wrestling"

Truth:

No and yes, CACC wrestling was created to keep the Lancashire fighting spirit alive after Up and Down fighting was banned in the early 1800's. They did that by isolating the wrestling portion of Up and Down Fighting and presenting it as a new "Game Of Wrestling", in which they openly invited wrestlers of all backgrounds to participate and many did. Just like in Judo where many Athletes train their own Folkstyles and bring those habits to the Tatami, doesnt change Judos roots only it's influences. Same thing, they influenced CACC they didn't create CACC. CACC is one of the few Martial Arts that only has one direct root.

Myth: "CACC was born in 1820's"

Truth:

The earliest time "Catch" was used in relation to Wrestling was in 1727, and although it wasn't exclusive, it was popularly used to describe the type of Wrestling found in Up and Down Fighting. Up and Down Fighting however, was created in the 1300's. The commonly used years being 1325 or 1350, whether you go by the decree that called for Germanic textile workers to bring their labor and by extension their Freehold wrestling traditions with them, or whether you go by the immigration numbers where one might feel comfortable to start practicing homeland traditions in a new land. (The three largest influences that converged to create Up and Down Fighting were Stoeijen, Lutte Provencales, and Ringen)

Myth: " 'Jujutsu' is the Japanese umbrella term for their grappling arts."

Truth:

The term you are looking for is "kumiuchi", The term "Jujutsu" is just a marketing term and has no strict definition as to what it can entail. the root "Ju" in "Jujutsu" originates from an old poem that philosophised about redirecting an enemies force against them, depending on how you read the actual Chinese character you can also come to the conclusion of using the word "Yawara", if you look at the Koryu Jujutsu schools you will start seeing a pattern of naming that alludes to that very poem due to that philosophy being engrained in the Samurai Zeitgeist at the time.

Serge Mol, Author of the book where you can find this information in the first two Chapters, suggested that a better all encompassing definition for JuJutsu would be ,paraphrasing, "a fighting system that incorporates striking, grappling, and minor weapons".

I however understand the confusion, it doesn't help that modern JuJutsu schools take after Judo not Koryu Jujutsu, see "Bugei Juhappan" (the divergence in purpose and philosophy starts there)

Myth: "Judo originated the belt system"

Truth: It's not really a myth, it is very well known that the belt system all martial arts today use took their cue from Judo, however, judo got that idea of using belts from the Sujutsu schools (Samurai Combat Swimming Schools) who utilized special belts for their students. If you look deep enough you will notice that the original Judoka tied their belts weird, that is how the Sujutsu guys tied their belts. Obviously Shihan Kano found his own way in tying belts but it's a nice little nugget of info to chance upon, since you can rarely find even a picture of Sujutsu guys.

Myth: "Puerto Rico Doesn't have martial Arts"

Truth:

As a Puerto Rican, I heard this one a lot, I recently came upon a book from the early 1900's that went into detail into two martial arts from Puerto Rico, one being "Juego De Palos" a stick fighting game, and "Lucha Libre de Paja" a martial art that was practiced by Wrestling and punching until the straw or leaf was knocked out of the opponents ear. Regardless of the word "Lucha Libre" (spanish for Freestyle) it most likely has roots in old-school Greco-Roman which did at times allow strikes. There was also a sword culture in Puerto Rico until rather recently (historywise) so that suggests a fencing style, not to mention the police combatives program and the regular Spanish garrison Combatives.

In recent times there have been a resurgence in Puerto Rican made martial arts such as Kokobale, Guazabara, and Lugama, one with roots in Afro-Puerto Rican tradition and another created by a retired Police Commander who pooled his vast knowledge of martial arts to create a weapons system to pay homage to his Puerto Rican heritage, and the last one created by a former Soldier who fell in love with CACC Wrestling and decided to combine his Combatives/ grappling experience to create a new system.

I have more, but it'll have to wait for another time, let me know what other myths and legends that get under your skin.