I am the first to admit that I sometimes bite off a bit more than I can chew, and with my experiment last time, I did just that. With so much going around about the fixed forms of wrestling, then separating the truth from the fiction would have taken me a long time to do and be too long to hold anyone’s attention. So, in the tradition of interest, I am going to focus on the question I was asked the most, what exactly is the Modern British style?
As I mentioned in my last tenet, I was loosely naming styles to encompass some very general views on wrestling styles, but a lot of people picked up on my naming a Modern component.
There is the argument that the Modern British Style (I’m gonna call it MBS from now on) is basically Modern American Style, as every British wrestler has to take the influence from America. I do disagree with this, there is a lot of American influence in MBS, but most gym trainers tend to be British veterans and Pros who are passing their trade to younger students. It is usually the students who are influenced by what they see on the WWE and ask the trainers to teach them or work the moves out for themselves.
I believe that MBS is in fact a “bolt on” style, where the learners are taught the basics, the locks, the holds, the breakfalls and their furthering of their personality and style as a wrestler is down to that particular wrestler’s influences and interests.
If you read through Scott Future’s articles, you will see that he is on a journey of discovering the Scott Future style, this has been influenced by his basic training, his work in America and more recently his training in combat wrestling and martial arts.
Love him or hate him, Steve Logan’s style of wrestling is part of anyone who has been taught at K-Star, albeit through trainers who learnt from him, adding their own uniqueness to the mix, but the basics are there, no doubt whoever taught Steve Logan to wrestle is somewhere in my style as well.
So is a wrestling style more evolutionary than a fixed way of learning? I have a suspicion that it is the case. The human race continues its chain by passing a part of itself to its offspring, leaving a genetic trace of themselves within the people left behind. The same can be said with wrestling styles.
It would be interesting to see the family tree of a wrestler’s style, I’d love to see who had influenced my training and my style over the Centuries, how it came to be that I hold an arm in a certain way.
Of course what I also look forward to is carving out my own style from the influences I have met and will meet. I have already learned a great deal from my trainers at KSW, as well as people I have worked with, including the introduction I had to showmanship from Blondie Barratt and Johnny Kidd’s RPW.
So how would I describe MBS?
Modern British style is an evolutionary mix of traditional locks, holds and submissions with the interests, influences and individual learning of the wrestler.
Thank you to everyone who took part in the discussion on the forum and the people who took the time to email me, I appreciated it.
If you wish to mail me then please feel free to at: [saracen@wrestling101.com].
Have fun and be safe.
Saracen